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themattress · 4 years

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Evil Team Plots in the Manga

The same as this post, but with the Pokemon Adventures manga.

Gen 1 - Team Rocket:

In the original Red/Blue/Green Chapter, Kusaka very impressively created a very different, more in-depth Team Rocket arc than the one in the games but still managed to retain all of the major setpieces. The first battle with Team Rocket being in Mt. Moon, Team Rocket creating trouble for Lavender Town and making a secret base at the top of Pokemon Tower, a criminal operation being run by Team Rocket beneath the Celadon Game Corner that they own (complete with the secret switch behind the poster), Team Rocket taking over Silph Co. and holding Saffron City hostage, and facing Giovanni in battle at the Viridian City Gym. And just like the anime, the manga was well ahead of the games in tying Mewtwo to Giovanni’s master plan. The chief differences are that the manga had distinct characters as sub-leaders in Team Rocket (Lt. Surge, Sabrina, Koga, and their personal assistants Ken, Al and Harry) rather than there only being generic grunts and, like in the anime, Giovanni sought to conquer the world with an army of powerful Pokemon rather than by a corporate takeover / monopoly.

Gen 2 - Team Rocket:

Once again, all of the major setpieces are kept: Team Rocket cutting off Slowpoke tails at Slowpoke Well in Azalea Town, a special broadcast forcibly evolving Magikarp in the Lake of Rage into Red Gyarados, a secret base of operations in the basement of the Mahogany City gift store, and the climax involving Team Rocket invading Goldenrod City and taking over a broadcast room. But because this plot was even more bare-bones than the previous one in the games, Kusaka creates an even more different and in-depth one where the two Rocket Executives in charge are actually disciples of the mysterious Mask of Ice and all of the grunts are being forcibly brainwashed to do his bidding and work toward his horrifying objective.

Gen 3 - Team Aqua & Team Magma:

Much of the Aqua/Magma plot in the manga was both very similar and very different from the games. There’s an initial confrontation with Team Aqua in Petalburg Woods, but it’s against the Admins rather than random grunts. Team Magma attacks Slateport City, but it’s at the Shipyard rather than the Oceanic Museum and once again it’s the Admins rather than the grunts. Team Aqua initiates the Mt. Chimney event, but only Tabitha teams up with the heroes to stop them rather than the entirety of Team Magma. The face-off in Rusturf Tunnel happens way later than it does in the game and it’s against Courtney of Team Magma rather than a grunt. Blaise of Team Magma takes both Orbs from Mt. Pyre rather than Archie and/or Maxie taking one or the other. The attack on the Space Center is largely off-screen and done by just Courtney for her own personal reasons rather than by Maxie, Tabitha and a bunch of grunts for Team Magma purposes. Archie and Maxie both end up in possession of the Orbs at the Seafloor Cavern, but they get the correct Orbs here (Red for Maxie, Blue for Archie). Finally, Groudon and Kyogre end up clashing and Rayquaza is called upon to stop them, but unlike in the games Norman is required to control Rayquaza in a special way that ends up killing him.

Gen 4 - Team Galactic:

Like Team Aqua & Team Magma, Team Galactic’s arc from the games is adapted but there are notable differences. It’s just Mars at the Valley Windworks in the manga; neither a group of grunts nor Charon are present alongside her. Rather than holding Rick Radshaw in the Eterna Galactic Building as a distraction while other grunts investigate the town’s statues, he is held there to be interrogated for information on the statues, and Jupiter is not present. Cyrus making a creepy spiritual pilgrimage to Mt. Coronet is maintained, but here he tries to kill the protagonists for “desecrating” the site. Team Galactic taking the heroine’s Pokedex in Veilstone City is a more major event that introduces the Elite Grunt. Cyrus visits the cave painting at Celestic Town and fights the heroes, but he makes no attempt to destroy the painting. The Galactic Bomb blows up Lake Valor so that the Lake Trio can be captured, but here there is one hero fighting one Galactic Commander at each of the lakes. Cyrus’ speech to his followers at Galactic HQ, the extraction of the Red Chain from the Lake Trio, and the ritual to summon and control Dialga and Palkia at the Spear Pillar are all directly adapted, but rather than any of the heroes facing Cyrus at Galactic HQ it’s Cynthia who does so. Giratina pulling Cyrus into the Distortion World happens after he’s already defeated and unconscious. Charon attempts to take control of Heatran at Stark Mountain, but unlike in the game he is successful at this and has bigger plans for it than just using it for extortion. Finally, there is a battle with Giratina in the Distortion World, but it is moved to being the final battle of the whole saga rather than an earlier confrontation before Charon took control of Team Galactic.

Gen 5 - Team Plasma:

For the first third of the Black/White Chapter, events from the Team Plasma plot of the games are lifted almost verbatim: N undergoes the crowning ceremony, Ghetsis makes a public Pokemon Liberation speech in Accumula Town which is followed by the hero facing N in battle, Plasma grunts abuse a Munna at the Dreamyard, Sage Gorm and several grunts steal the dragon fossil from Nacrene Museum and the heroes team up with Burgh to go into Pinwheel Forest to retrieve it, Bianca’s Pokemon is stolen in Castelia City and the heroes have to find where the Plasma operatives who took it are hiding, Team Plasma tries to capture Victini on Liberty Island, and N reveals his true status and objectives while riding a Ferris Wheel with a protagonist in Nimbasa City. And for every improvement made (Ghetsis’ presentation, the grunts’ demeanor and lack of Ghetsis illusion at the Dreamyard, and more distinctive character vibes from the other Sages) there are some major steps down (N’s presentation, the lack of Ghetsis in the Castelia City event, and the more out-there designs for some of the grunts that neuter any credibility that they should have as opponents).

Afterwards, the adaptations made are a lot more different. Sage Zinzolin is still encountered by the hero and Cheren at Cold Storage but here he escapes and begins to draw Cheren toward the dark side. N summons Zekrom from the Dark Stone at Dragonspiral Tower, but he does so without the hero being there as the result of an entirely new big event that transpired at Nacrene Museum. The Relic Castle operations Team Plasma initiated in the games (Sage Ryoku and his forces testing the hero and a grunt trying to claim Volcarona) are combined: with Ryoku and his forces now searching for Volcarona. Both the confrontation with N at Chargestone Cave and N defeating Alder are combined into the same event, which happens much later than when the Chargestone Cave one did in the games but much earlier than when him defeating Alder did (also, it’s outside the cave rather than inside and Fennel is the one who accompanies Professor Juniper rather than Bianca). And then there’s the climax.

The climax is essentially the games’ one on steroids. Ghetsis is present with the other Sages and the Gym Leaders don’t get to fight them until after they are rescued from captivity (and crucifixion!) by a band of ordinary trainers. While one of the heroes uses Reshiram to fight N and Zekrom, the other hero receives details about N’s past by Anthea and Concordia while inside his room in the castle. Ghetsis comes in after N is defeated, reveals his true agenda and attempts to eliminate the hero in battle. And after fully realizing the error of his ways, N bids a solemn farewell to the hero; flying off into the sunset on Zekrom to parts unknown. Oh, and then Ghetsis suddenly seals the hero into the Light Stone out of spite. Fuck Ghetsis.

The Black 2/White 2 Chapter is much less faithful to the games, being a more straightforward continuation from its predecessor and being a hodgepodge of B2/W2 elements and the B/W postgame scenario of Looker hunting down the Sages, but that works to its advantage and causes it to easily surpass the games’ plot. The plot elements maintained are Colress as the new leader of Team Plasma who has developed a device that mind-controls Pokemon, a confrontation with Team Plasma in the Castelia Sewers (although in the games it was some grunts and Colress, here it’s some grunts and Sages Bronius and Ryoku while Colress is facing Zinzolin at Cold Storage), Hugh’s rabid hatred for Team Plasma and the backstory behind it, Ex-Plasma led by Sage Rood standing against the new Team Plasma over their differing ideals, the Plasma Frigate being launched skyward and using the Kyurem Cannon to freeze a city (actually, multiple cities in the manga!), Professor Juniper being behind the movement against Team Plasma’s schemes via agents like Cheren, Drayden, and her father Cedric, the climax transpiring at the Giant Chasm, Black Kyurem and White Kyurem being involved thanks to the power of the DNA Splicers, and Ghetsis losing his composure in a hate-filled rage after N, his “inhuman” son, reaches out to him and offers him compassion.

Gen 6 - Team Flare:

As in the games, Team Flare secures hold over the stone-filled Route 10 and uses those stones to absorb life energy from Pokemon, but in the manga this event is shown fully on-screen and the Pokemon in question are kidnapped ones from Pokemon Village. The event at the PokeBall Factory, conversely, is on-screen in the games but off-screen in the manga. Lysandre makes his broadcast to Kalos telling everyone that those not “chosen” will perish once the Ultimate Weapon fires, although in the manga it happens toward the very end of the climax rather than kicking it off. AZ is held captive at Flare HQ and implores the heroes to retrieve the key to the Ultimate Weapon, Xerneas is used to power the Ultimate Weapon, Lysandre wears special gear to absorb energy from Xerneas and while fighting the heroes, the Ultimate Weapon fires but fails to achieve its actual purpose, and AZ narrates his own backstory. Essentia controlled by Xerosic is involved in the storyline, whereas in the games she was only in the postgame episode. Other than all of this, the Team Flare arc in the manga is wildly different from the one in the games, being much darker and grittier with a heightened sense of stakes. So much like with the anime, not being too faithful paid off here.

As for the Team Skull / Aether Foundation arc from Gen 7, I’m not getting into that because it is almost entirely dissimilar from the games’ version. Even some basic surface elements here and there (Gladion as Team Skull’s enforcer, facing Guzma at Po Town, rescuing a girl trapped at Aether Paradise, “Mother Beast” Lusamine, and everything centered around Necrozma from US/UM) are so widly different in context and execution that they hardly count.

Overall, this manga is excellent at villain arcs. While the latter stages of the Aqua & Magma arc and early stages of the initial Plasma arc have notable problems, and the Skull / Aether arc isn’t as satisfying as either the S/M or US/UM versions it derives from, on the whole Kusaka’s skill at writing great Pokemon villains extends to the arcs that they are a part of.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Adventures #Villains #Evil #Analysis #Comparison #Team Rocket #Team Aqua #Team Magma #Team Galactic #Team Plasma #Team Flare #Team Skull

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slowpokesami · 5 years

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My opinion about pokémon games 1- Kanto (Red and Blue)

Hello darlings!

In these reviews I will write about what I think is good and bad about different Pokémon videogames. I will talk (at least by the moment) about the principal games and I will go generation through generation. So yes, Kanto will be the first. Oh, and even I say bad things about some generation, I still LOVE all the games :)

Red and Blue were the first Pokémon games, created by Game Freak, and that’s why I think this was the scheme for all the games that came later. It was simple and well planned, and it introduced the first generation of pokefans to the game. There wasn’t much to do apart of completing your pokedex and fighting the gym leaders, team rocket and the league, and that’s why I think it gets kind of boring when you have played all the games. But I think it was a good plan to begin with. All the ideas of what the game consists on are there, easily explained and without much details.

About the world: I think the villages are quite boring in general, as they get kind of repetitive. I know they couldn’t do much more with it as the first game boy wasn’t prepared for details but anyways there’s something I like, and it’s that they, intentionally or not, added some background that made them more interesting. Apart from the dark touch we all know they added in Lavender Town, there are some things… how could I explain it? Really, really dark about these games. I mean, for example, have you thought about all the stuff about safari zone in Fuchsia City? It’s not just the fact that you go in a wild zone with rare and very dangerous Pokémon on it, meaning that there is people using it to attract people and make money from them, which is kind of cruel but also happens in other games; it’s also the way they are exposed in this city, just in front of the Safari, there are Pokémon exposed to the public kept in small spaces like: see this!! We’ve got weird Pokémon here!! Come on catch them all!! This gives me some cringe honestly.

About the villains: Team rocket is an interesting team, as they are inspired in a mafia, which makes a lot of sense to me. A mafia would be really interested in such powerful and dangerous creatures if they were real, and of course using them for their own benefit is something they would totally do. I really think they already have control over Kanto. It makes sense if we link it to the dark vibes I was talking about before. For example with the casino, I think it is clear that it is no coincidence their secret base is located in there; they own the casino. Why? Because in real life there’s a lot of casinos ruled by the mafia. They already own Silph S.A. (I mean that they invaded it, not that Giovanni is the director of it, I remember the man who gives us the master ball) and the Pokémon lab in Cinnabar Island. They own everything that gives them enough power or money to rule the region, and don’t forget two of the gym leaders are or have been part of team rocket too (Giovanni and Blaine); in the manga even Sabrina is part of Team Rocket!

That makes me think the real game was really criticizing how the ones who really rule the world are evil; the world is ruled by the mafias and some powerful people after all, using capitalism (casinos, companies, etc) and all tools they can to oppress the others and make them do everything they want in their own favor. So the real plot of the games would be about a guy fighting against the system to make Kanto a better place for both humans and Pokémon, being the main character more or less aware of it.

Other stuff I personally see dark about these games are all the glitches and the fact that’s it’s an old game per se. I sometimes doubt that those glitches were all errors and not something Game Freak added on purpose to make the games more interesting. For example, I think the Mew glitch is kind of weird. I have no idea on how programming or videogames work, honestly, but I think it wouldn’t be strange that the glitch was only a way to hide mew, making him a really weird pokemon that only could be owned by those who discovered the glitch by error (or of course the official events were they were distributed), but that are only conjectures. All the Missigno stuff also gave the gamers a lot to talk about. I’m not saying it was like that for sure, but I have reasons to believe it could be more planned than it seems. Anyways, being it planned or not, in the end these are facts that give the original games all the mysterious and punk feels they have.

The Pokemon designs: These are the original designs that made the game famous so, how could I hate them? I love 90’s manga and anime style, so old-school and not that much digitalized as nowadays. I have not much to say, they are cute. Maybe they are not as original and extravagant as in the second generation (Gold and Sylver), which are my favorites, but they have that wild touch that matched the game feels so much. There’s a great variety of designs too, so I think everyone can have some favorites there (I love slowpoke, for example); from the classical “cool shonen” Pokémon like Charizard and Dragonite, going through cuties like cleffairy or meowth, beauties like Ninetails and Lapras to freak dangerous monsters like muk or magneton. The legendaries all look stunning and intimidating so I think they are very good too. In fact, they are all very different, and I think the game freak team worked hard on it because they knew they would be the key to Pokémon’s fame; and they were.

The character’s design: They also have this old school touch, which I like, but I think that other generations have more diversity. I mean, a thing I love about Pokémon is that everyone can feel minimally represented by some of their characters; Let’s be clear about it, while in the other games some characters look androgynous or simply not white, this first games still didn’t include these marginalized social groups (well, I suppose that they were all japanase, but that doesn’t look that inclusive thinking that the game comes from japan). But that doesn’t mean the characters were bad, just that the game lacked representation for those who don’t have that much of it, thing that is sadly normal, as it’s an old game… Apart of this, I think they are all worked too. Their designs are original; there’s a character I personally hate, and that’s why I think it’s good. Lt. Surge. Yes, this fucking war soldier; this guy gets on my nerves BUT that is cool, because people like that exists too, and Pokémon don’t represent him neither as good or bad; you just can judge by yourself liking it or not. In the other hand I love Erika and Sabrina, for example. Another thing I love about Pokémon is that the characters are so worked they let you think about what kind of people they are, why are them like that, how do they live… For example, why Erika just allows women in their gym? Is it because she was a victim of sexism? Is she a lesbian forming her harem? Ha, ha! you know, it’s not just like in most of Hollywood films or commercial manga where they only represent very beautiful people without defects and looking all the same. No; all Pokémon characters are individuals with their own personality, not demonized nor glorified, and I love it.

A thing I hate about Kanto is all the remakes and glorification there is about it. I understand it, because it’s the first game and it brings nostalgia to most of the older players, but I don’t share it. For me, Kanto was just the first Game Freak experiment and the introduction for us in the Pokémon game, and there are more complete and interesting games that came after it. Also, in my opinion, making remakes doesn’t make much sense because the funny thing about Blue and Red is how they get older, and as they get older they get darker, don’t ask me why because that is some personal feelings about it. That doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the remakes, they sure are funny and enjoyable too, as they give a new point of view to the old region, but I think Game Freak could spend their time in making their new games more complete, remaking other games (like Diamond and Pearl; what happened with them? Ha, ha!)

Let’s be honest, to me these games are boring compared to others, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good games and all the dark feels are what I love about them. And... I also think I might have just got bored of them because I played them too many times! ha, ha!

Sami Luu~

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lolli4587 · 5 years

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Blown Away

So reading for me in general is usually difficult for me to get into. I tend to lose interest so fast. Also I don’t read a lot of fan fiction, I never got into the majority with shipping stories which I tend to find a lot bias. I always liked out of the box, unique type stories. And today I wanted to share something for anyone is a huge Pokemon Adventures Special fan or just in love with Ash in general.

Last month during my Christmas break I stumbled into this story called “Off The Path”, and I started to read it. In the story, takes place in AU where Ash never meets Misty or Brock, and travels with gym leaders that worked for Team Rocket but hides it. So Ash travels with Sabrina, Lt. Surge, Koga, and Blaine. Anyone who read Pokemon Adventures this is true, they were with Team Rocket who basically gave hell, I loved the series. At the time I began reading it, I didn’t know it was sequel. (I found it odd that he barely introduces to anyone) so I had to read the first story called “Changing the Plan.”

Changing the Plan: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12920734/1/Changing-the-Plan

Sequel

Off the Path: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13089490/1/Off-the-Path

So Changing in the Plan, this where the AU starts out with Ash on his journey just like an anime excepts he stumbles into Giovanni first. Giovanni takes in Ash personally due to Ash’s natural aura of possibly attracting legendary Pokemon. Ash seeing and talking about Ho-oh. Giovanni wanting to make sure this was true takes to Sabrina who is psychic. Sabrina had to bond with Ash in order to able get a reading which she does and confirms that there is something special with Ash, and goes from there.

What I really liked about both stories, Ash acts like a 10 year old kid. He have his personality quirks where he gets excited and cares for his Pokemon needs. His Pokemon team is the same from 1st season of the anime. He has Pikachu, Butterfree, Pidgeotto, Squirtle, Bulbasaur, and Charizard (started as Charmander). He does get stubborn and very competitive. He has a very trusting nature which all took notice. Due to Ash’s pure nature, no one wanted to corrupt him, and he was key getting the legendaries to notice. (#angel) He actually learns how to bond with his Pokemon thanks to Lt. Surge and Koga who are the mentors to Ash. Giovanni does initially teaches Ash in the beginning mostly basics and battling. Do not want to give out much, Giovanni true intentions shine after his main Mewtwo project was finished.

Out of the characters, Giovanni was Giovanni from what I got out of it. He only cares about power and money which true in all versions. He does hide that he works for Team Rocket, Ash doesn’t know the truth until Off the Path comes along. Due to Giovanni’s investment into Ash, Giovanni’s top personal agents, Sabrina, Lt. Surge, and Koga all thought it was weird. One out of the 3 GL actually screwed up badly with Giovanni as Silver mentioned and is on thin ice... (As of now, the author still didn’t reveal the story yet)

Now comes the 3 MVPs in the story shines...

Sabrina in this story is different from the manga and anime. Her interpretation was more taken from the games but also the author took liberties on his own characterization. She mainly can sees visions in the future and sense auras from others she is close too. Due to being sensitive to other auras, she easily can get overwhelmed. Out of the 3, she interacts with Ash the least, and often would follow her companions and knows how to deal with Giovanni. She really shines when she with Surge and Koga. It was implied that they known each other for at least 15 years + (which put everyone possibly 30+ yrs old or older).

Although she tend to be on quiet side, she enjoys their company and implied they worked great together. There were some hints from the anime which the author took a liberty which I thought it was great when talking in her past. Also there was moments due to sensitive to other feelings, she would lose it, and would be vulnerable.

Then we have Lt. Surge. Omg, I am in love with his character, and I want to say the author as well since his character gets fleshed out the most of the 3. He was introduced due to Pikachu causing blackouts and needed someone who can help control its power. His personality I want to say taken some liberties on the author’s part, but there is a mix of anime, manga, and game counterpart. He is the most outgoing out of the 3. He loves to goof off and play pranks on his friends and annoy them. Surge actually bonds with Ash the most. (I found it adorable. WHY THERE IS NO FANART WITH ASH AND LT. SURGE TOGETHER!!)

Ash took a huge liking to Surge since he shares many of traits that he believes in, except for evolving his Pokemon too quickly which at times would clash. It was implied Ash looks up to him in Off the Path. But despite the fun and games, Surge is also the most complicated out of the 3. He has a dark secret which traumatizes him and begins to have a 180 degree personality shift in Off the Path. The most recent chapters I read, I hoping he is ok...

And now Koga, Koga was introduced fairly late into the story. He was introduced due to Ash not able to control Charmeleon and Bulbasaur in a fight which Surge haven’t an idea to do so. Koga has a daughter in this story Janine, and due of him being a father, he was the one who worried most of Ash’s safety and Giovanni’s true intentions with him. Koga’s personality also taken the author’s own liberties, but he does have also little bit of everything from anime, manga, and games.

Koga helps with Ash a lot with his training with all his Pokemon and also puts his ninja skills in use to watch over Ash. Koga isn’t too shy to use violence whenever Surge decides to provoke him which I found their interactions hilarious. There was some parts in the story that made me laugh and also references the anime. Koga does take a backseat after an incident happened towards end of Changing the Plan. The most recent chapters I read of Off the Path, he was able to play a role between Blaine and Ash, and able to mentor Ash again on his training.

Then we have a former Rocket member, Blaine.

Blaine was introduced very late in Changing the Path in Cinnabar Island after Ash was alone. Blaine is taken largely from the manga for anyone read the manga (he created Mewtwo). The author also took his own liberties with him, and Blaine is the most cautious of the bunch. He is very friendly with Ash, but not so friendly with the other 3 which they all travel together in Off the Path. This rubs Lt. Surge the wrong way, which Off the Path goes on of the two fighting most of the time. (It does escalate)

Blaine took a liking to Ash, but due to his paranoid nature, he had Ash try not to reveal anything about their true mission which the conflicts begins as well in Off the Path. Right now, I am happy that he and Ash made up as the recent chapter.

Phew, ok so the author does a great job drawing in these characters, and it is easy to visualize. I love how fluid the interactions he writes with Sabrina, Surge, and Koga, and it was fun reading some things they used to do which tied in from the manga. I never read a story of 4 gym leaders traveling with Ash over legendary Pokemon, and it is very unique. Also almost all the characters are complicated and complexed which makes it very interesting as they tie in real life scenarios. This story is still ongoing on fanfiction.net, which I have linked on top. Changing the Plan is currently completed while Off the Path is ongoing. The author mentioned he might have another sequel after Off the Path.

So if your into Pokemon Adventures or loves Ash in general, I do recommend to give a read. Its one the best Poke fanfics I ever read after Triumvirate and Another Road (I don’t read too many Poke pics) and I would bug my friends so much about it. Thanks barely with me <3

PS: If anyone knows the author on fanfic or your the author reading this! I really love it and please keep writing ^^

#review #Changing the Plan #Off the path #Ash Ketchum #team rocket #giovanni #trainer sabrina #Lt. Surge #trainer koga #trainer blaine #pokemon

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patriotsnet · 3 years

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How Did Republicans Gain Control Of Southern Governments

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-did-republicans-gain-control-of-southern-governments/

How Did Republicans Gain Control Of Southern Governments

The Return Of Conservative Control

Shortly after the election, the North Carolina House of Representatives brought charges against Holden, which alleged that he acted illegally in declaring martial law and arresting individuals; in refusing to obey the writs of habeas corpus; and in raising state troops and paying them. After a seven week trial, the Senate convicted Holden and voted to remove him from office. He became the first state governor in the country to be impeached and removed from office. Lt. Gov. Tod R. Caldwell replaced him as governor.

For the most part, after the 1870 election and the return of the Conservatives to power, Klan activity ceased in many areas. The group remained active in the western counties, resulting in federal intervention and trials for Klan leaders. By 1872, the Klan became more focused on race rather than politics and ceased to play a major role in North Carolina’s political circles until the next century.

Back in legislative power, the Conservatives set about changing much of what the Republicans had accomplished. They amended the constitution in 1873 and again in 1875, concentrating power in Raleigh and ensuring that only white Conservatives would hold local offices through legislative control of county governments. Other amendments, like those that outlawed interracial marriage and prohibited integrated public schools, served to relegate African Americans to a lower level of society and politics: the status quo antebellum.

Politics Of The Southern United States

United States Census Bureau

The politics of the Southern United States generally refers to the political landscape of the Southern United States. The institution of had a profound impact on the politics of the Southern United States, causing the American Civil War and continued subjugation of African-Americans from the Reconstruction era to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Scholars have linked slavery to contemporary political attitudes, including racial resentment. From the Reconstruction era to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, pockets of the Southern United States were characterized as being “authoritarian enclaves”.

The region was once referred to as the Solid South, due to its large consistent support for Democrats in all elective offices from 1877 to 1964. As a result, its Congressmen gained seniority across many terms, thus enabling them to control many Congressional committees. Following the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965, Southern states became more reliably Republican in presidential politics, while Northeastern states became more reliably Democratic. Studies show that some Southern whites during the 1960s shifted to the Republican Party, in part due to racial conservatism. Majority support for the Democratic Party amongst Southern whites first fell away at the presidential level, and several decades later at the state and local levels. Both parties are competitive in a handful of Southern states, known as swing states.

New Census Numbers Shift Political Power South To Republican Strongholds

Political power in the United States will continue to shift south this decade, as historically Democratic states that border the Great Lakes give up congressional seats and electoral votes to regions where Republicans currently enjoy a political advantage, according to new data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Texas, Florida and North Carolina, three states that voted twice for President Donald Trump, are set to gain a combined four seats in Congress in 2023 because of population growth, granting them collectively as many new votes in the electoral college for the next presidential election as Democratic-leaning Hawaii has in total.

At the same time, four northern states with Democratic governors that President Biden won in 2020 Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania and New York will each lose a single congressional seat. Ohio, a nearby Republican-leaning state, will also lose a seat in Congress.

The data released Monday was better for Democrats than expected, as earlier Census Bureau estimates had suggested the congressional gains in Florida and Texas would be even bigger. The margins in certain states that determined the final congressional counts were razor thin, with New York losing a seat because of a shortfall of only 89 people.

Your questions about the census, answered

In other parts of the country, the shifts in population will have a less obvious effect on partisan power.

Ted Mellnik contributed to this report.

The Radical Republicans Take Control

Northern voters spoke clearly in the Congressional election of 1866. Radical Republicans won over two-thirds of the seats in the House of Representatives and the Senate. They now had the power to override Johnson’s vetoes and pass the Civil Rights Act and the bill to extend the Freedmen’s Bureau, and they did so immediately. Congress had now taken charge of the South’s reconstruction.

Republican America: How Georgia Went ‘red’

July 15, 2004

Relaxing in front of his small ranch house, watching the birds flit around his feeder, Ronnie Pilcher looks out over the changing face of the place he calls home.

In the four decades he and his wife have lived here on 10 verdant acres, Mr. Pilcher has seen an explosion in population and wealth that’s transformed this old orchard crossroads into a booming Atlanta exurb. Where once he knew almost everyone driving by on the old Birmingham Highway – and many of them stopped to chat – now an unfamiliar flow of Beemers and Hummers weave among the dented Fords and Chevys on the traffic-choked road. Nondenominational megachurches are replacing small country chapels, gated communities are spreading rapidly, and big chain restaurants compete with old-time establishments like Shelia’s BBQ, where the sign says proudly: “Parking for Rednecks Only.”

Pilcher, a Baptist deacon and retired data cruncher for SunTrust Bank, says he’s an independent. But as a self-described conservative, he identifies with the GOP far more than with the Democrats. Like many in Crabapple, he admits his vote for President Bush this fall is pretty much assured.

It’s not just because he sees Bush as standing up for “traditional” morals – though he is firmly against gay marriage, and on abortion says: “Only the good Lord has the right to choose life and death.”

Georgia’s swift transformationFrom farms to a surge of new wealthOzzie, Harriet, and a white picket fenceFrom the wallet to the pews

The South Becomes Majority Republican

For nearly a century after , the majority of the white South identified with the Democratic Party. Republicans during this time would only control parts of the mountains districts in southern Appalachia and competed for statewide office in the former border states. Before 1948, Southern Democrats believed that their stance on states’ rights and appreciation of traditional southern values, was the defender of the southern way of life. Southern Democrats warned against designs on the part of northern liberals, Republicans , and civil rights activists, whom they denounced as “outside agitators”.

After the Civil Rights act of 1964 and The Voting Rights Act of 1965 were passed in Congress, only a small element resisted, led by Democratic governors Lester Maddox of Georgia, and especially George Wallace of Alabama. These governors appealed to a less-educated, working-class electorate, that favored the Democratic Party, but also supported segregation. After the Brown v. Board of EducationSupreme Court case that outlawed segregation in schools in 1954, integration caused enormous controversy in the white South. For this reason, compliance was very slow and was the subject of violent resistance in some areas.

White Terrorists Resist The Changes

Even before the end of the Civil War, white Southerners had begun to resist the changes occurring in the societyand culture they cherished. The familiar world they had known, in which black people existed as inferior beings fit only to serve whites, was falling down around them, and they fought back. They did so through violent attacks that included arson, beatings, rape, and murder. These attacks were focused not only on the former slaves but on anyone who tried to help them or seemed sympathetic to the idea of freedom, civil rights, and equality, including teachers, soldiers, and white Unionists.

During the period of President Johnson’s Reconstruction program, race riots had occurred in two major Southern citiesMemphis, Tennessee, where forty-six blacks were killed, and New Orleans, Louisiana, where thirty-four blacks and three whites died. These riots had underscored the link between white resentment and violence. With the triumph of the Radical Republicans’ plan for Reconstruction, the violence increased. Secret terrorist societies, most of whose members covered their identities with masks and long robes, began a widespread campaign to try to control through fear what they had not been able to control any other way. They wanted to prevent blacks from exercising their new rights, and they also wanted to ensure that plantation owners had the same kind of disciplined labor force they had enjoyed during the days of slavery.

Reconstruction Comes To An End

After 1867, an increasing number of southern whites turned to violence in response to the revolutionary changes of Radical Reconstruction. The Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist organizations targeted local Republican leaders, white and Black, and other African Americans who challenged white authority. Though federal legislation passed during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant in 1871 took aim at the Klan and others who attempted to interfere with Black suffrage and other political rights, white supremacy gradually reasserted its hold on the South after the early 1870s as support for Reconstruction waned.

Racism was still a potent force in both South and North, and Republicans became more conservative and less egalitarian as the decade continued. In 1874after an economic depression plunged much of the South into povertythe Democratic Party won control of the House of Representatives for the first time since the Civil War.

READ MORE: How the 1876 Election Effectively Ended Reconstruction

The Compromise of 1876 marked the end of Reconstruction as a distinct period, but the struggle to deal with the revolution ushered in by slaverys eradication would continue in the South and elsewhere long after that date. A century later, the legacy of Reconstruction would be revived during the civil rights movement of the 1960s, as African Americans fought for the political, economic and social equality that had long been denied them.

For Discussion And Writing

What legal devices did Southern states use to exclude most of their black citizens from voting? What other methods were used to stop blacks from voting?

What was unfair about the way literacy tests were used for voter registration in the South from 1890 to 1965?

What were the consequences to African Americans of being excluded from voting in the segregated South?

Reaction To The Freedmens Bureau

In North Carolina, as well as elsewhere in the South, questions existed as to how to assimilate 350,000 freed slaves into the economy, society and political system of the state. These questions arose before the war was over, at such places as Roanoke Island and James City, but were now being addressed across the state in emancipation communities such as Freedom Hill. While whites accepted the abolishment of slavery, most did not agree that the freedmen and women were equal to them. They found the Freedmens Bureau to be meddlesome and believed everyone would find his or her natural place in society if left alone.

In the minds of most white people, the natural place for former slaves was still at the bottom of the social order. Early in 1866, the North Carolina legislature enacted the Black Code, a series of laws that regulated control of the African American population. Although North Carolinas code was less rigid than those of other southern states with larger black populations, it nevertheless denied the rights of citizenship to free blacks and the recently emancipated. The code also placed restrictions on free movement within and outside the state, made it difficult for blacks to purchase and carry firearms, and prohibited interracial marriages. This denial of rights created strong opposition by northerners and blacks within and outside the state.

How Did Southern Whites Regain Political Power During Reconstruction

MICHELLE LEE

At the conclusion of the Civil War, the 13th Amendment was passed and slaves in all areas of the U.S. were emancipated. Reconstruction was implemented in 1866 to integrate the southern states back into the Union and provide resources for newly freed slaves. Reconstruction continued until 1877 when President Rutherford Hayes was elected. His presidency allowed the South to regain political power and indirectly facilitated practices that prevented African-Americans and other minorities from enjoying the rights granted by the 13th Amendment.

Explore this article

Threats and Intimidation

Who Should Not Vote

All states have some voting restrictions. Are they necessary? Below are five traditional restrictions on the right to vote. Form small groups to decide whether your state should retain each of these restrictions. Before making a decision on each restriction, the group should discuss and write answers to these two questions:

What are some reasons favoring the restriction?

What are some reasons against the restriction?

After the groups have finished their work, each restriction should be discussed and voted on by the entire class.

Impact Of The War On North Carolina

North Carolina suffered terrible human losses from the Civil War. More than 30,000 troops died, almost half from battle deaths and the rest from disease. Untold numbers were wounded or disabled by injury. There were human costs at home as well. With the majority of white men off fighting the war, the women struggled to maintain farms and families. The results often included impaired health and even death of the elderly and weak.

Economic costs were also staggering. These included millions of dollars of property destroyed or looted across the South; millions spent by the Confederate government to wage the war; and the abolition of slavery, which cost slaveholders nearly $200 million in capital investment. Worthless currency, repudiated war debts, and few avenues for credit caused many individuals, institutions, and businesses to declare bankruptcy. During the war many colleges closed, factories shut down, and banks collapsed. Almost none were in any condition to re-open after the war.

Developments In The North And The West

Events and trends occurring across the rest of the United States during the Reconstruction era both paralleled and, in some ways, influenced what was happening in the troubled Southern part of the country. In the North, the span of years from 1865 to 1877 was marked by economic growth and political and social reforms, but there were also periods of economic depression, episodes of political corruption, and clashes between the expanding class of wealthy people and professionals and the small farmers and workers who stillmade up the bulk of the population. Northern state governments, like those in the South, were raising taxes and expanding their budgets in order to pay for new social services and public schools. But the North had not experienced the devastation of the Civil War in the same dramatic way as the South, and its stronger economy meant that it could better afford to finance the changes.

Between 1865 and 1873, industrial production increased by 75 percent. The population was expandingincluding the addition of three million immigrantsbut migration to the open spaces of the West had been eased by the construction of 35,000 miles of railroad routes. In the West were plenty of opportunities for farming as well as lumber harvesting, mining, and ranching.

The Obama Years And The Rise Of The Tea Party: 20082016

John BoehnerHouse SpeakerBarack Obama

Following the 2008 elections, the Republican Party, reeling from the loss of the presidency, Congress and key state governorships, was fractured and leaderless.Michael Steele became the first black chairman of the Republican National Committee, but was a poor fundraiser and was replaced after numerous gaffes and missteps. Republicans suffered an additional loss in the Senate in April 2009, when Arlen Specter switched to the Democratic Party, depriving the GOP of a critical 41st vote to block legislation in the Senate. The seating of Al Franken several months later effectively handed the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority, but it was short-lived as the GOP took back its 41st vote when Scott Brown won a special election in Massachusetts in early 2010.

Republicans won back control of the House of Representatives in the November general election, with a net gain of 63 seats, the largest gain for either party since . The GOP also picked up six seats in the Senate, falling short of retaking control in that chamber, and posted additional gains in state governor and legislative races. Boehner became Speaker of the House while McConnell remained as the Senate Minority Leader. In an interview with National Journal magazine about congressional Republican priorities, McConnell explained that “the single most important thing we want to achieve is for Obama to be a one-term president”.

Mitt Romney

Republican Goals And Achievements

Among the Republicans who were now in charge of the South’s new state governments, many differences of background and opinion existed. There was tension between the native Southerners and the Northerners, between blacks and whites, and between free blacks and former slaves. There were different views on how much power should be given to blacks, on whether or not the government should confiscate and redistribute land, and on whether or not former Confederates should be allowed to vote.

On certain points, however, most Republicans were in agreement. They wanted to guarantee civil and political rights for African Americans, modify the Southern economy to benefitpeople at all income levels, and provide expanded public services. The idea that the state had a responsibility to offer such benefits to its citizens was somewhat revolutionary; indeed, before the war the Southern states had offered very few services. Describing prewar conditions in South Carolina, twentieth-century African American leader W. E. B. Du Bois , quoted in Reconstruction and Reaction: The Emancipation of Slaves, 18611913, wrote: “It is said that the ante-bellum state was ruled by 180 great landlords. They made the functions of the state just as few as possible, and did by private law on plantations most of the things which in other states were carried on by the local and state governments.”

Who Were The Redeemers And Why Did They Change Society And Politics In The New South

Who were the Redeemers and how did they change society and politics in the New South. The Redeemers were a coalition of merchants, planters, and business entrepreneurs who dominated Southern politics after reconstruction. The goal of the Redeemers was to undo as much of reconstruction as they could.

READ: What is ethics in communication competence model?

World War Ii And Its Aftermath: 19391952

From 1939 through 1941, there was a sharp debate within the GOP about support for Great Britain as it led the fight against a much stronger Nazi Germany. Internationalists, such as Henry Stimson and Frank Knox, wanted to support Britain and isolationists, such as Robert A. Taft and Arthur Vandenberg, strongly opposed these moves as unwise for risking a war with Germany. The America First movement was a bipartisan coalition of isolationists. In , a dark horse Wendell Willkie at the last minute won over the party, the delegates and was nominated. He crusaded against the inefficiencies of the New Deal and Roosevelt’s break with the strong tradition against a third term, but was ambiguous on foreign policy.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 ended the isolationist-internationalist debate, as all factions strongly supported the war effort against Japan and Germany. The Republicans further cut the Democratic majority in the 1942 midterm elections in a very low turnout episode. With wartime production creating prosperity, the conservative coalition terminated nearly all New Deal relief programs as unnecessary.

In , a clearly frail Roosevelt defeated Dewey for his fourth consecutive term, but Dewey made a good showing that would lead to his selection as the candidate in .

Southern strategy

V Racial Violence In Reconstruction

Violence shattered the dream of biracial democracy. Still steeped in the violence of slavery, white southerners could scarcely imagine Black free labor. Congressional investigator Carl Schurz reported that in the summer of 1865, southerners shared a near unanimous sentiment that You cannot make the negro work, without physical compulsion. Violence had been used in the antebellum period to enforce slave labor and to define racial difference. In the post-emancipation period it was used to stifle Black advancement and return to the old order.

Much of life in the antebellum South had been premised on slavery. The social order rested on a subjugated underclass, and the labor system required unfree laborers. A notion of white supremacy and Black inferiority undergirded it all. White people were understood as fit for freedom and citizenship, Black people for chattel slave labor. The Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House and the subsequent adoption by the U.S. Congress of the Thirteenth Amendment destroyed the institution of American slavery and threw southern society into disarray. The foundation of southern society had been shaken, but southern whites used Black Codes and racial terrorism to reassert control over formerly enslaved people.

The Radical Republicans After The Death Of Thaddeus Stevens

Thaddeus Stevens died on August 11, 1868. After lying in the state in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol, he was buried in a cemetery in Pennsylvania he had chosen as it allowed burials of both White and Black people.

The faction of Congress he had led continued, though without his fiery temperament much of the fury of the Radical Republicans subsided. Plus, they tended to support the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, who took office in March 1869.

The Voting Rights Act Of 1965

As a result of intimidation, violence, and racial discrimination in state voting laws, a mere 3 percent of voting-age black men and women in the South were registered to vote in 1940. In Mississippi, under 1 percent were registered. Most blacks who did vote lived in the larger cities of the South.

Attempts to change this situation were met with animosity and outright violence. But in the 1950s, the civil rights movement developed. Facing enormous hostility, black people in the South organized to demand their rights guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. They launched voter registration drives in many Southern communities.

In the early 1960s, black and white protesters, called Freedom Riders, came from the North to join in demonstrations throughout the South. In some places, crowds attacked them while white police officers looked on.

Medgar Evers, the black veteran stopped by a white mob from voting, became a civil rights leader in his native Mississippi. Because of his civil rights activities, he was shot and killed in front of his home by a white segregationist in 1963.

But through the efforts of local civil rights leaders like Medgar Evers and other Americans, about 43 percent of adult black men and women were registered to vote in the South by 1964. That same year, the 24th Amendment was ratified. It outlawed poll taxes in federal elections.

Iii The Meaning Of Black Freedom

Land was one of the major desires of the freed people. Frustrated by responsibility for the growing numbers of freed people following his troops, General William T. Sherman issued Special Field Order No. 15, in which land in Georgia and South Carolina was to be set aside as a homestead for the freedpeople. Sherman lacked the authority to confiscate and distribute land, so this plan never fully took effect. One of the main purposes of the Freedmens Bureau, however, was to redistribute lands to formerly enslaved people that had been abandoned and confiscated by the federal government. Even these land grants were short-lived. In 1866, land that ex-Confederates had left behind was reinstated to them.

In working to ensure that crops would be harvested, agents sometimes coerced formerly enslaved people into signing contracts with their former enslavers. However, the bureau also instituted courts where African Americans could seek redress if their employers were abusing them or not paying them. The last ember of hope for land redistribution was extinguished when Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumners proposed land reform bills were tabled in Congress. Radicalism had its limits, and the Republican Partys commitment to economic stability eclipsed their interest in racial justice.

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newstfionline · 3 years

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Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Nearly a third of U.S. workers under 40 considered changing careers during the pandemic (Washington Post) When Orlando Saenz was laid off at the end of January, he was devastated. For nearly a decade, he had worked as an executive assistant at an Austin law firm, and it was hard to envision his next steps. But then it dawned on him: This setback could be the kick he needed to finally finish his associate’s degree and seek a better career. A few days later, Saenz, 40, enrolled in community college. He plans to get a paralegal license. The enhanced unemployment aid gave him the financial cushion to “treat school as my job,” he said, for a few months. “If you come out of the pandemic the same as you were, you’ve missed an opportunity to evolve and grow as a person,” Saenz said. “I just realized I needed to do better.” Saenz is not alone. Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. workers under 40 have thought about changing their occupation or field of work since the pandemic began, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll, conducted July 6 to 21. About 1 in 5 workers overall have considered a professional shift, a signal that the pandemic has been a turning point for many. Many people told The Post that the pandemic altered how they think about what is important in life and their careers. It has given them a heightened understanding that life is short and that now is the time to make the changes they have long dreamed of. The result is a great reassessment of work, as Americans fundamentally reimagine their relationships to their jobs.

Food stamp benefits to permanently expand by over 25% in October, USDA announces (USA Today) Needy families will get a permanent boost to their food stamps benefits in October under an expansion of the program announced Monday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will increase benefits for about 42 million program participants by more than 25% after finishing a review that determined existing benefits are too low to pay for a healthy diet. The increase kicks in on Oct. 1, when beneficiaries in what is officially known as the SNAP program will receive an average bump of about $36.24 per month, the agency announced Monday. While benefits have increased along with inflation, the USDA said this adjustment represents the first expansion of its purchasing power since it was first introduced in 1975.

First-ever water shortage declared on the Colorado River, triggering water cuts for some states in the West (Reuters) For the first time, federal officials declared a water shortage at the Lake Mead reservoir, a status that causes a slash to the annual apportionment of water to several states in the Southwest. In the year beginning in October, Arizona will lose 18 percent of its annual water apportionment, Nevada will lose 7 percent, and the apportionments to Mexico will decrease by 5 percent. Right now, 59.2 million Americans live in a place with drought, which encompasses 99 percent of the Western United States. Total water storage in the Colorado River system is at 40 percent capacity, down from 49 percent in 2020.

T-Mobile hacked (Motherboard) T-Mobile confirmed that hackers accessed the telecom’s systems on Monday. One hacker claimed that 100 million people had compromised data in the breach, and in a forum post offered 30 million people’s data for 6 bitcoin (about $270,000). Samples of the data contained “social security numbers, phone numbers, names, physical addresses, unique IMEI numbers, and driver license information.”

Tropical storm drenching earthquake-stricken Haiti (AP) Tropical Storm Grace swept over Haiti with drenching rains just two days after a powerful earthquake battered the impoverished Caribbean nation, adding to the misery of thousands who lost loved ones, suffered injuries or found themselves homeless and forcing overwhelmed hospitals and rescuers to act quickly. After nightfall, heavy rain and strong winds whipped at the country’s southwestern area, hit hardest by Saturday’s quake, and officials warned that rainfall could reach 15 inches (38 centimeters) in some areas before the storm moved on.

Japan to extend COVID-19 emergency lockdown as cases surge (Reuters) Japan was set on Tuesday to extend its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions to Sept. 12 and widen curbs to seven more prefectures, as COVID-19 cases spike in the capital and nationwide, burdening the medical system. The state of emergency will cover slightly less than 60% of the population after the government adds the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka.

American diplomats reckon with Afghanistan’s collapse (Foreign Policy) Current and former U.S. diplomats who served in Afghanistan have watched the events of the past week with horror as the Taliban stormed through the country and ultimately seized control of the capital, Kabul, on Sunday, undoing two decades of hard-won progress in the country. For many American officials, the collapse of the Afghan government and the hasty evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul are deeply personal. Around one-quarter of the U.S. diplomatic corps has served in Afghanistan or Iraq over the past 20 years. In interviews with a dozen people who held posts in Afghanistan, current and former diplomats conveyed feelings of deep anger, shock, and bitterness about the collapse of the government they spent decades trying to build. Several currently serving officials, who spoke to Foreign Policy on condition of anonymity, said the events had prompted thoughts about resigning from the foreign service. But mostly the diplomats said they felt an overwhelming sense of guilt and fear for the lives of the former Afghan colleagues and local staff whom the American government left behind. “We did such a disservice to the local staff who worked for us,” said Shaila Manyam, a former career foreign service officer who had served as spokesperson for the president’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2015. “They take on incredible risks working for us and we’ve screwed them too,” she said. Ryan Crocker, who served as U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012, said the fate of Afghan women weighed heavily on him. “We encouraged them to step forward, and they did. In politics, the economy, the military,” he said. “The implicit part of that deal was, ‘You step forward, and we’ve got your backs.’ And now we don’t.”

Biden’s Betrayal of Afghans (The Atlantic) There’s plenty of blame to go around for the 20-year debacle in Afghanistan—enough to fill a library of books. Perhaps the effort to rebuild the country was doomed from the start. But our abandonment of the Afghans who helped us, counted on us, staked their lives on us, is a final, gratuitous shame that we could have avoided. The Biden administration failed to heed the warnings on Afghanistan, failed to act with urgency—and its failure has left tens of thousands of Afghans to a terrible fate. This betrayal will live in infamy. The burden of shame falls on President Joe Biden. For months, members of Congress and advocates in refugee, veteran, and human-rights organizations have been urging the Biden administration to evacuate America’s Afghan allies on an emergency basis. For months, dire warnings have appeared in the press. The administration’s answers were never adequate: We’re waiting for Congress to streamline the application process. Half the interpreters we’ve given visas don’t want to leave. We don’t want to panic the Afghan people and cause the government in Kabul to collapse. Evacuation to a U.S. territory like Guam could lead to legal problems, so we’re looking for third-country hosts in the region. Most of the interpreters are in Kabul, and Kabul won’t fall for at least six months. Some of these answers might have been sincere. All of them were irrelevant, self-deceiving, or flat-out false.

A war’s secret history (Washington Post) In the summer of 2011, Army Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV made a round of public appearances to boast that he had finally solved a problem that had kept U.S. troops bogged down in Afghanistan for a decade. “They’re probably the best-trained, the best-equipped and the best-led of any forces we’ve developed yet inside of Afghanistan,” he said. But according to documents obtained by the Washington Post, U.S. military officials privately harbored fundamental doubts for the duration of the war that the Afghan security forces could ever become competent or shed their dependency on U.S. money and firepower. “Thinking we could build the military that fast and that well was insane,” an unnamed former U.S. official told government interviewers in 2016. Over two decades, the U.S. government invested over $85 billion to train and equip the Afghans and pay their salaries. Today, all that’s left is arsenals of weapons, ammunition and supplies that have fallen into the hands of the enemy. Though it was obvious from the beginning that the Afghans were struggling to make the U.S.-designed system work, the Pentagon kept throwing money at the problem and assigning new generals to find a solution. Recruiting was hard enough, but was compounded by startling rates of desertion and attrition. Another biggest hardship was having to teach virtually every recruit how to read. Making everything harder was the Obama administration’s decision to rapidly expand the size of the Afghan security forces from 200,000 soldiers and police officers to 350,000. With recruits at a premium, Afghans were rushed through boot camp, even if they couldn’t shoot or perform other basic tasks. As the years passed, it became apparent that the strategy was failing. Yet U.S. military commanders kept insisting in public that everything was going according to plan.

Blaming Afghans? (The New Yorker) The Afghans now have suffered generation after generation of not just continuous warfare but humanitarian crises, one after the other, and Americans have to remember that this wasn’t a civil war that the Afghans started among themselves that the rest of the world got sucked into. This situation was triggered by an outside invasion, initially by the Soviet Union, during the Cold War, and since then the country has been a battleground for regional and global powers seeking their own security by trying to militarily intervene in Afghanistan, whether it be the United States after 2001, the C.I.A. in the nineteen-eighties, Pakistan through its support first for the mujahideen and later the Taliban, or Iran and its clients. To blame Afghans for not getting their act together in light of that history is just wrong.

Taliban allowing ‘safe passage’ from Kabul in US airlift (AP) The Taliban have agreed to allow “safe passage” from Afghanistan for civilians struggling to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden’s national security adviser said Tuesday, although a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and others has yet to be worked out with the country’s new rulers. Jake Sullivan acknowledged reports that some civilians were encountering resistance—“being turned away or pushed back or even beaten”—as they tried to reach the Kabul international airport. But he said “very large numbers” were reaching the airport and the problem of the others was being taken up with the Taliban, whose stunningly swift takeover of the country on Sunday plunged the U.S. evacuation effort into chaos, confusion and violence. Pentagon officials said that after interruptions on Monday, the airlift was back on track and being accelerated despite weather problems, amid regular communication with Taliban leaders. Additional U.S. troops arrived and more were on the way, with a total of more than 6,000 expected to be involved in securing the airport in coming days.

#headlines #news

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pokemon-cards-hourly · 10 months

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#pokemon #pokemon cards #tcg #ken sugimori #lt. surge's secret plan #gym challenge #gym

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imantana · 6 years

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I’ve been reading a lot by the fanfic authur “digital-skitty” and I want to write my own story that’s dark and brooding and real places in the Pokémon universe. So here are a few ideas and let me know what you would be interested in reading and which ones I should start first!

1- A Hoenn boy starts his journey as a Pokémon trainer several years after the happenings of ORAS. Growing up “ruffing it” in Fortree City, and studying under his two scientist parents, he believes he has the skill and knowledge to be an elite Pokémon trainer.

Uuuntil most of his team and a friend are murdered or captured by a gang of black market traders.

The boy vows to get revenge on the traders who killed his friend and his Pokémon. The story is his decent into darkness and the true horrors that arise when children are given superpowers beasts.

2- Once a bounty hunter, this International Police Agent is looking into what could be the next big threat. She travels from region to region, collecting further clues and making deeper connections. This problem is much bigger than she could have expected with the possibility that the Pokémon world as we know it would be wiped out.

She encounters on this adventure scientists, performers, convicts, gang leaders, politicians, gym leaders, and several high class trainers throughout the story.

Really, it would be my way of getting into a more ominous and detective-like tale. Something with more secrets and grander scales alongside what Cyrus had originally planned (i mean the dude wanted to create a new universe and become a god wtf).

3- Ancient War. We are told so much about how Pokémon were used in wars in the past. Lt. Surge in the what we assumed to be recent war involving Kanto, the war 3000 years ago between Kalos and another region, and in the movie “Lucario and the Mystery of Mew” we see masses of Pokémon wearing friggin armour fight each other on a wasteland of a battlefield. Why are we not getting more tales about THAT? Ancient Wars or Modern Day wars. It would be chaotic and interesting in the Pokémon world. The ancient wars in this case would be fun to write about because it all determines how the rest of the Pokémon world had developed from that point.

4- Modern Day Civil War between Kanto and Johto.

It never quite made sense to me why the two regions shared the Indigo league. What reason would a second region with its own gyms and culture need to share an elite four and champion with another region? My idea is that the two regions signed a treaty during the recent war to be allies. Ties grew post war with the inclusion of a shared league to unite the two regions. The train from Goldenrod City to Saffron was for tourism and bonds to be shared with Johto and Kanto.

Then Johto takes the development too far and dismantles Lavender Town’s Pokémon Tower in order to erect the new Radio Station. This was not the first match on the fire. Johtonians quietly blamed Kantonians for the Team Rocket epidemic in their region.

Indifference builds between the neighbouring regions and quickly gets out of hand when handfuls of trainers begin to take matters into their own hands.

So yeah! Those are my ideas. Tell me what you’d want to read and let me know which one I should write first.

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samwinchestersleftshoe · 3 years

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things other than covid-19

Jan-Dec in chronological order

Jan: Australian wildfires. Qassem Suleimani, leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force is killed in a US airstrike. Prince Harry & Meghan Markle step back from royal duties. The US house of representatives vote to sent articles of impeachment(abuse of power and obstruction of Congress) against Trump to the US Senate. Kobe Bryant and his 13 yr old daughter Gianna as well as 7 others perish in a helicopter crash. the UK withdraws from the European Union, making Brexit official(actual separation will occur Dec 31st).

citations

Feb: Impeachment shadows Trump’s State of the Union address; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tears up a copy of his speech. The Senate acquits Trump of abuse the power of his office+obstructing Congress’ investigation into his conduct. Actor Kirk Douglass dies at age 103. Trump Fires EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland and National Security Council advisor LT. Col. Alexander Vindman, both whom testified against trump during the impeachment trial. Boy Scouts of America seeks bankruptcy protection under wave of child abuse claims. Ahmaud Arbery was shot and killed by a white father and son while jogging in Georgia; the two men are arrested 2 1/2 months later and charged with felony murder+assault. Bob Iger steps down at Walt Disney Co. after 15 yrs on the job; Bob Capek is named new CEO. Former VP Joe Biden wins the South Carolina Democratic primary, reigniting his presidential campaign.

citations

March: Pete Buttigieg drops out of the US presidential race. Joe Biden leads the primary with victories in 10 states on Super Tuesday. Former NY mayor Michael Bloomberg drops out of US pres race. MA Sen. Elizabeth Warren drops out of US pres race. Harvey Weinstein is sentenced to 23 yrs in prison for r*pe and sexual assault. Breonna Taylor is shot and killed in her home in Louisville, KY by police serving a narcotics warrant in search of suspected drug dealer. The Dow Jones industrial average falls by 2,997.10, the largest single-day drop ever. PG&E pleads guilty to 84 counts counts of involuntary manslaughter over the 2018 Camp Fire.

citations

April: Bernie Sanders drops out of US pres race, paving the way for Joe Biden to win Democratic nomination.

citation

May: The US faces invasion of murder hornets which threaten domestic bees. The US Justice Department drops charges against former national security advisor Michael Flynn. Gregory and Travis McMichael are charged with murder in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in GA. William Bryan, the man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery’s death is charged with murder as well. Minneapolis police officer is filmed while pressing his knee on the neck of George Floyd for 8 minutes, killing him, as three other officers stand by. Video of Floyd’s death go viral; 4 officers are fired the next day. Minneapolis-St. Paul protests over death of George Floyd and racial injustice spread nationwide. Fired Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is charged with third degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd; the Minnesota attorney general increases the charge to second degree murder on June 3. Charges against the 3 other officers are filed. A state of emergency is declared in Los Angeles County and city of Los Angeles because of protests over the death of George Floyd and racial injustice. Curfews are declared in Philadelphia and Atlanta.

June: Trump threatens to deploy US troops to quell protests across the country and subsequently stages a photo-op at St John’s Episcopal Church after federal officers and other lay enforcement personnel forcefully clear peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square in front of the White House. Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser designated a section of 16th street NW as a Black Lives Matter Plaza. Protesters in Seattle declare an “autonomous zone” in the city’s Capitol Hill area. Protests in Atlanta start after the killing of Rayshard Brooks by a police officer in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant. The US Supreme Court rules that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person’s sex, also covers sexual orientation. The Trump administration asks a federal judge to block publication of former national security adviser John Bolton’s memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.” The effort fails. Trump holds his first 2020 campaign rally in months in Tulsa, OK. A lower than expected attendance makes headlines. Following a vote by the state legislature, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signs a bill that retires the official state, flag - the last state flag incorporating the Confederate battle flag in its design.

July: The FBI arrests Ghislaine Maxwell on charges she helped lure at least three girls to be sexually abused by the late financier Jeffrey Epstien. The Supreme Court rejects claims of presidential immunity and rules Trump must release his financial records to prosecutors in NY. CA officials announce that as many as 8k prisoners could be released ahead of schedule in an unprecedented attempt to stop the spread of Covid-19 inside state prisons. Trump commutes the 40-month sentence of his political advisor Roger Stone. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper issues a memorandum to the military on the appropriate display of flags - excluding the Confederate battle flag and essentially banning it. Oregon Atty. Gen. Ellen Rosenblum files suit against the federal government, accusing it of unlawfully detaining protesters in Portland. Trump announces a “surge” of federal officers into Democratic-run cities, following a crackdown on protests in Portland OR. TV personality Regis Philbin dies at 88. Trump suggests the 2020 presidential election be delayed, saying increased voting by mail could lead to fraud.

Aug: Firefighters continue to battle the Apple fire that burned 20,000 acres in Cherry Valley and surrounding areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, destroying one home and prompting evacuations of thousands of others. Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar pleads not guilty to bribery, money laundering and an array f other charges, his first public response to the allegations in the corruption inquiry since prosecutors began, securing guilty pleas from others in the case. As California grapples with a barrage of requests for unemployment benefits amid the pandemic, some state workers processing claims say they are hampered by outdated technology, bureaucratic red tape and a shortage of trained, experienced staff. More than 400,000 people, most without face masks and who don’t follow social distancing guidelines, participate in activities related to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. Joe Biden announces Sen. Kamala Harries of California as his VP running mate, the first WOC to appear on a major party’s presidential ticket. Plans are announced by the US Postal Service(USPS) to remove hundreds of high-volume mail-processing machines from postal facilities across the country. Thunderstorms trigger hundreds of wildfires in California, prompting evacs as a record-breaking heat wave taxes the state’s powergrid. The SCU Lighting Complex fires start, affecting several Bay Area counties. Almost 400, 000 acres are burned, making it the third largest wildfire in Cali history. The August Complex fire starts in Northern Cali; by Sept 9 it becomes the largest fire in Cali history, burning more than 1 million acres. Death Valley hits 130 degrees, thought to be the highest temperature on Earth in nearly a century. Spurred by concerns that Trump is trying to get rid of the USPS to help him win the re-election, Speaker Nancy Pelosi summons House members back to Washington to pass a bill aimed at rolling back admin cutbacks that could cripple widespread mail-in-voting. The LNU Lightning Complex fires start and last for several weeks, scorching more than 350,000 acres in several wince country counties, including Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Lake and Yolo. NBCUniversal ousts longtime Universal studio executive Ron Meyer after learning he made hush-money payments to a woman to cover up an old affair - a secret that Meyer said snowballed into an extortion plot. Apple becomes first US company to be valued at more than $2 trillion. Former trump advisor Stephen K Bannon is arrested and charged with fraud over a private fundraising campaign to build a border wall. Wildfires ringing the Bay Area and other parts of the state kill at least five people, destroy more than 500 structures and scorch hundreds of square miles as evacs expand. A Sacramento County judge sentences the Golden State Killer, 74-yr-old Joseph James DeAngelo Jr to life without parole for killing 13 people and r*ping 50 in a series of break-ins that terrorized the state for decades. Protests break out in Kenosha, WI after the shooting of 29-yr-old Jacob Blake by a police officer. The RNC is held in Charlotte NC, and Wash. Trump and VP Mike Pence are formally nominated as the GOP’s 2020 pres ticket. Two people are shot and killed during unrest in Kenosha, I; a suspect is arrested. Soon after, prof. athletes start to boycott their sports to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake. Actor Chadwick Boseman dies at age 43 at previously undisclosed battle with colon cancer.

Sept: Famiy members+activists demand that the LA County Sheriff’s Department release the names of the deputies who shot and killed Dijon Kizzee, a black man, in the South LA neighborhood of Westmont on Aug 31. The El Dorado fire erupts in San Bernardino Country, sparked by pyrotechnics that were part of a gender reveal party. CA sets new record for destruction by wildfires, with 2.1 million acres burning. The temp in Woodland Hills soars to 121 degrees, an all-time high in LA County. Ore. wildfires start amid severe drought and severe winds; by the end of Oct, more than 1 million acres will burn, more than 4,000 homes will be destroyed, and at least 10 people will be killed. More than .5 million people in Ore., more than 10% of the state’s population, are reported to be fleeing wildfires. 2 LA County sheriff’s deputies are shot and critically injured while sitting in their patrol car near the Compton Metro station; the agency’s response to the attack raises alarm among some activists, lawmakers and Sheriff’s Department watchdogs. The confirmed death toll from Cali’s unprecedented wildfires rises to 25 as crews work to stop two dozen major blazes still burning statewide. Long-serving Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies at 87. Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the Nov. election. A Kentucky grand jury brings no charges against Louisville police in the killing of Breonna Taylor during a drug raid gone wrong. Trump chooses Judge Amy Coney Barrett of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to fill Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. Several attendees at the nomination ceremony at the White House Rose Garden will later test positive for COVID-19. The New York Times reports on more than 20 yrs worth of Trump’s personal and tax returns; among the revelations: He paid $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and again in 2017. The Glass fire in Northern CA ignites just before 4 a.m. and quickly balloons to 40,000 acres in two days. It burns in Napa and Sonoma counties and is the fourth major fire to hit the region since the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa in 2017. Deadly clashes break out in Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenian and Azerbaijani forces. Shouting, insults and misinformation, mostly by Trump, dominate the first presidential debate.

Oct: The Cali Department of Forestry and Fire Protection reports that state wildfires burned nearly 4 million acres, killed 31 people and destroyed more than 8,200 structures. For the first time in Cali history, a ballot will make its way in the mail this week to every registered Cali voter. Eddie Van Halen dies at age 65 after a long battle with cancer. FBI announces that 13 men have been charged in a plot to kidnap Mich Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Armenia and Azerbaijan agree on a cease-fire in the ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Rick Jacobs, a top political advisor to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, says he will “take a leave” from his work with Garcetti amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Less than seven months after Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman launched Quibi to remake the business of short-form video, the nascent streaming service announces it is shutting down.The Senate confirms Amy Coney Barrett as a Supreme Court associate justice on a party-line vote, 52 to 48.

Nov: California largely breezes through election day; nationwide, it’s a different story. After midnight, Trump announces he has won the election and demands that all vote counting stop, alleging voter fraud, but with millions of votes still to be counted, no news organizations declare a presidential winner. Trump continues his attack on the voting system as he joins several lawsuits aiming at stopping vote counts in Pa, Ga and Mich. Cali ballot measure campaign season ends with voters granting companies such as Uber and Lyft the right to keep their drivers as independent contractors but rejecting a plan to expand rent control to more homes and communities. LA voters upend the political status quo by backing a slate of progressive candidates and measures in the Nov. 3 election. Among the victors is George Gascón, former San Fran district attorney, who defeated L.A. County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey. After days of waiting, major news organizations declare that Joe Biden has secured enough electoral college votes to win the presidency. “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek, 80, dies following a battle with pancreatic cancer. President Trump uses Twitter to announce that Secretary of Defense Mark Esper has been fired. Hurricane Lota makes landfall in Nicaragua as a Category 4 storm, just two weeks after Hurricane Eta hit, devastating the same areas. Trump escalates his attempts to overturn Biden’s election victory, pushing for judges and Republican state lawmakers and local officials in several battleground states to ignore voters’ verdicts and award him the electoral votes he needs for a second term. Ga Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger certifies President-elect Biden’s win and the results of all the other races in the state. After 2-week standoff, Emily Murphy, General Services Admin head, reverses course and allows President-elect Biden’s team access to required federal resources to start the formal transition process. Trump pardons Michael Flynn, his first national security advisor. Trump says he will leave the White House once Biden is officially declared the winner of the electoral college. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi, Iran’s top nuclear scientist assassinated near Tehran. Raymond Chan, a former senior aide to LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, has been charged with conspiracy, bribery, fraud and lying to FBI agents in the ongoing federal probe into corruption at City Hall, according to court records made public. The pro bono law firm Public Counsel files a lawsuit against the state of Cali, saying it has failed during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide a free and equal education to all students, violating the state Constitution and discriminating against Black, Latino and low-income families.

Dec: Atty. Gen. William Barr says the U.S. Justice Department has uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election. The captain of the Conception, the dive boat that caught fire last year off the coast of Santa Barbara, is indicted by a federal grand jury on 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter. Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson, who helped bring the Summer Games to Los Angeles, dies at 86. Universal Music Publishing Group announces it is acquiring Bob Dylan’s entire catalog of songs, which spans 60 years. The Supreme Court rejects a highly unusual lawsuit filed by Tex. that urged the justices to overturn the election result by nullifying President-elect Biden’s victory in four key states: Penn, Mich, Wis and Ga. John le Carre, the author of many bestselling Cold War thrillers, dies at 89. The electoral college confirms Biden’s victory over Trump. The availability of intensive care unit beds throughout Southern Cali hits 0%.

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asfeedin · 4 years

Text

U.S. adds cameras at Mexico border despite drop in crossings

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The Trump administration has been quietly adding military surveillance cameras at the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the coronavirus pandemic, though fewer people appear to be crossing illegally. It’s the latest move as operations at the U.S.-Mexico border have become increasingly militarized and secretive.

Documents obtained by The Associated Press show the Department of Defense, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, sent 60 mobile surveillance cameras and 540 additional troops to the southwest border this month. The documents are unclassified but for official use only and were part of PowerPoint slides created last week to brief Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Army North, the primary unit overseeing military operations at the border.

The cameras are manned by the military and will be removed after the pandemic has ended, said Matthew Dyman, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, which is under the Department of Homeland Security.

The request for cameras was not “based on border flow numbers” but on rising coronavirus cases in Mexico, he said.

“Each person that avoids arrest and makes further entry into the United States has the potential to be carrying the COVID-19 virus and puts American lives at risk,” Dyman said in a email.

Apprehensions of people crossing illegally have declined by 77% since a peak in May, according to Customs and Border Protection. April figures have not been released yet but are expected to be even lower.

The cameras were set up days before President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday placing a 60-day pause on issuing green cards in an effort to limit competition for jobs in a U.S. economy wrecked by the coronavirus.

Trump has used emergency powers during the pandemic to implement an aggressive border crackdown that has included turning away or immediately deporting asylum-seekers, including minors.

The military help means more Border Patrol agents can focus on apprehending people who cross illegally or expelling foreigners under a rarely used public health law that the Trump administration tapped amid the pandemic, Dyman said.

The addition of the mobile cameras, which are are mounted in the back of trucks, bring the total to 192, according to the documents.

Southern border expert David Shirk sees no justification for adding cameras and troops. He pointed out that Mexico so far has a fraction of the number of COVID-19 cases that have been confirmed in the United States, while deportees flown back from the U.S. have introduced cases in their home countries.

“There is no evidence that suggests there are hordes of COVID-19 patients lined up along the border,” said Shirk, an associate political science professor at University of San Diego. “And there is no evidence that COVID-19 is even contributing to a surge in people trying to cross the border.”

The government’s own numbers show the opposite. Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have been declining for nine straight months.

As of Sunday, the 60 added mobile surveillance cameras planned to be manned and operational, according to the documents. That day, the six Mexican states bordering the U.S. reported a total of about 125 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Mexico’s health secretary. By comparison, the four U.S. states that border Mexico—California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas—recorded about 55,000 infections Sunday.

Pentagon officials as recently as August were considering a request from the Department of Homeland Security to send reconnaissance planes and military drones designed for battlegrounds in Afghanistan and Iraq to the border.

Administration officials have declined to say whether that plan, first reported by Newsweek on Aug. 9, is still in the works. In December, Richardson, the U.S. Army North commander, ordered historically unclassified documents and daily briefings on the U.S.-Mexico border to be moved to a classified system to prevent further leaks.

With the additional troops, about 3,000 active-duty service members are on the border along with 2,500 National Guard troops. Barred from law enforcement duties, they have kept a low profile and are largely doing on-the-ground surveillance.

The border mission—marking one of the longest deployments of active-duty troops to the border in U.S. history—has cost more than $500 million since October 2017. The Defense Department also has reallocated nearly $10 billion to building Trump’s border wall.

“The U.S. border is the most militarized peacetime border in the world, and the border is more militarized today than it ever was in the entire history of our two countries,” said Shirk, the professor. “I think the administration is clearly exploiting a crisis to try to advance its ulterior domestic policy objective of restricting immigration.”

Trump uses the monthly border tallies on apprehensions as a benchmark to determine how his policies are working, and that’s become particularly important in an election year. The number of people crossing the border traditionally declines when it’s hot outside, and the winter months often see increases.

However, as COVID-19 cases in the United States jumped dramatically in March, apprehensions at the border dipped further, to 29,953 from 30,074 in February and a peak of 132,856 in May.

That coincided with the U.S. expelling more than 10,000 Mexican and Central American asylum-seekers under public health rules that the administration quietly began using March 20 — the same day Trump announced the southern border was closed to nonessential travel.

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, on Monday extended the rules largely shutting down the asylum system until May 20. His order described a “serious danger” of COVID-19 being introduced at Border Patrol stations and ports of entry as well as further into the country.

At least 272 Customs and Border Protection employees have tested positive for the virus, including 62 in states bordering Mexico.

Redfield also noted that many places on the U.S. side of the border have not yet experienced widespread community transmission of the virus and therefore the pandemic in Canada and Mexico remain “a serious danger to such locations.” That’s despite the U.S. having the most cases in the world by far.

The Department of Homeland Security requested the cameras under the Economy Act, which allows federal agencies to order goods and services from other federal agencies.

Congress passed the law in 1932 to eliminate overlapping activities of the federal government. It has been abused, so conditions have been added, including a requirement that the requesting agency demonstrate that its request meets a bona fide need that either exists or is arising within the fiscal year.

More politics coverage from Fortune:

—How Fortune 500 companies are utilizing their resources and expertise during the pandemic —Why charging members of Congress with insider trading is so fraught —To fight tomorrow’s pandemic, we need to think like the military today —If you’ve been a little busy lately, here’s what’s going on with the 2020 election —Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO —WATCH: As unemployment skyrockets, the labor market’s future looks grim

Get up to speed on each morning with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.

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itsfinancethings · 4 years

Link

(SAN DIEGO) — The Trump administration has been quietly adding military surveillance cameras at the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the coronavirus pandemic, though fewer people appear to be crossing illegally. It’s the latest move as operations at the U.S.-Mexico border have become increasingly militarized and secretive.

The request for cameras was not “based on border flow numbers” but on rising coronavirus cases in Mexico, he said.

“Each person that avoids arrest and makes further entry into the United States has the potential to be carrying the COVID-19 virus and puts American lives at risk,” Dyman said in a email.

Trump has used emergency powers during the pandemic to implement an aggressive border crackdown that has included turning away or immediately deporting asylum-seekers, including minors.

The addition of the mobile cameras, which are are mounted in the back of trucks, bring the total to 192, according to the documents.

The government’s own numbers show the opposite. Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have been declining for nine straight months.

As of Sunday, the 60 added mobile surveillance cameras planned to be manned and operational, according to the documents. That day, the six Mexican states bordering the U.S. reported a total of about 125 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Mexico’s health secretary. By comparison, the four U.S. states that border Mexico �� California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — recorded about 55,000 infections Sunday.

The border mission — marking one of the longest deployments of active-duty troops to the border in U.S. history — has cost more than $500 million since October 2017. The Defense Department also has reallocated nearly $10 billion to building Trump’s border wall.

However, as COVID-19 cases in the United States jumped dramatically in March, apprehensions at the border dipped further, to 29,953 from 30,074 in February and a peak of 132,856 in May.

At least 272 Customs and Border Protection employees have tested positive for the virus, including 62 in states bordering Mexico.

The Department of Homeland Security requested the cameras under the Economy Act, which allows federal agencies to order goods and services from other federal agencies.

#IFTTT #Blogger

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newstechreviews · 4 years

Link

The request for cameras was not “based on border flow numbers” but on rising coronavirus cases in Mexico, he said.

“Each person that avoids arrest and makes further entry into the United States has the potential to be carrying the COVID-19 virus and puts American lives at risk,” Dyman said in a email.

Trump has used emergency powers during the pandemic to implement an aggressive border crackdown that has included turning away or immediately deporting asylum-seekers, including minors.

The addition of the mobile cameras, which are are mounted in the back of trucks, bring the total to 192, according to the documents.

The government’s own numbers show the opposite. Apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have been declining for nine straight months.

As of Sunday, the 60 added mobile surveillance cameras planned to be manned and operational, according to the documents. That day, the six Mexican states bordering the U.S. reported a total of about 125 confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Mexico’s health secretary. By comparison, the four U.S. states that border Mexico — California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas — recorded about 55,000 infections Sunday.

The border mission — marking one of the longest deployments of active-duty troops to the border in U.S. history — has cost more than $500 million since October 2017. The Defense Department also has reallocated nearly $10 billion to building Trump’s border wall.

However, as COVID-19 cases in the United States jumped dramatically in March, apprehensions at the border dipped further, to 29,953 from 30,074 in February and a peak of 132,856 in May.

At least 272 Customs and Border Protection employees have tested positive for the virus, including 62 in states bordering Mexico.

The Department of Homeland Security requested the cameras under the Economy Act, which allows federal agencies to order goods and services from other federal agencies.

#Blogger

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bountyofbeads · 4 years

Text

https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say

NEW: Devin Nunes aide Derek Harvey is spreading information -- and misinformation -- about the Ukraine whistleblower to GOP lawmakers and conservative journalists.

If that sounds familiar, you're paying attention. As @NatashaBertrand reported, former Nunes aide Kash Patel is caught up in the Ukraine mess. And as @woodruffbets reported, Nunes himself has been using the impeachment inquiry to bring up ... the Steele Dossier, instead.

Nunes Aide Is Leaking the Ukraine Whistleblower’s Name, Sources Say

By Spencer Ackerman, Sam Brodey and Adam Rawnsley | Updated 10.29.19 3:43 AM ET, Published 10.28.19 8:01 PM ET | Daily Beast | Posted October 29, 2019 |

A top aide to Rep. Devin Nunes has been providing conservative politicians and journalists with information—and misinformation—about the anonymous whistleblower who triggered the biggest crisis of Donald Trump’s presidency, two knowledgeable sources tell The Daily Beast.

Derek Harvey, who works for Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House intelligence committee, has provided notes for House Republicans identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of the high-profile depositions of Trump administration appointees and civil servants in the impeachment inquiry. The purpose of the notes, one source said, is to get the whistleblower’s name into the record of the proceedings, which committee chairman Adam Schiff has pledged to eventually release. In other words: it’s an attempt to out the anonymous official who helped trigger the impeachment inquiry.

On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that GOP lawmakers and staffers have “repeatedly” used a name purporting to be that of the whistleblower during the depositions. The paper named Harvey as driving lines of questioning Democrats saw as attempting to determine the political loyalties of witnesses before the inquiry. A former official told the Post that Harvey “was passing notes [to GOP lawmakers] the entire time” ex-NSC Russia staffer Fiona Hill was testifying.

“Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” said Mark Zaid, one of the whistleblower’s attorneys. “What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.” Zaid has represented The Daily Beast in freedom-of-information lawsuits against the federal government.

The whistleblower is not Harvey’s only target. Another is a staffer for the House intelligence committee Democrats whom The Daily Beast has agreed not to name due to concerns about reprisals against the staffer. Harvey, both sources said, has spread a false story alleging that the whistleblower contacted the staffer ahead of raising internal alarm about President Trump’s July 25 phone call attempting to get a “favor” from Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky to damage Trump’s rival Joe Biden. In right-wing circles, contact with Schiff is meant to discredit the whistleblower as partisan.

The eagerness of Republicans to go after the intelligence committee staffer so alarmed Democrats that they raised the issue with GOP leadership, according to a senior official on the intelligence committee.

“We are aware of these unsupported and false attacks on a respected member of our staff,” the official told The Daily Beast. “It is completely inappropriate, and we have previously urged the Republican leadership to address this situation.”

The official would not comment on any aspect of the depositions’ proceedings.

Trump, who has called the whistleblower treasonous, has speculated baselessly that Schiff is the source of the whistleblower’s account of the Zelensky call, even though Schiff was not on the call and Trump’s own summary of the call corroborated the whistleblower’s second-hand account.

Derek Harvey’s career has been extraordinary. As a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst, he played an important role in the 2007-8 troop surge in Iraq. David Petraeus kept Harvey aboard for an intelligence billet at U.S. Central Command. Harvey aligned with another member of the counterinsurgency coterie, DIA Director Mike Flynn, and followed Flynn onto Trump’s White NSC. From there, Harvey became a crucial aide to Nunes, a pivotal Flynn and Trump ally. There is no reasonable definition of Deep State that excludes Derek Harvey from elite membership.

Harvey did not respond to a request for comment. The staffer declined to comment. A spokesperson for Nunes did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite hearing of the Trump-Zelensky call secondhand, the whistleblower’s account of Trump’s pressure campaign against Ukraine has been corroborated by numerous witnesses before the impeachment inquiry, as well as Trump’s own of the July 25 call. Sources believe the persistent conservative focus on the whistleblower is both an attempt at deterring other would-be whistleblowers and discrediting the impeachment as politically motivated, though it is unclear what misconduct the whistleblower is alleged to have engaged in.

Influential conservatives have claimed that the whistleblower’s identity is no secret at all. On Oct. 24, Fred Fleitz, formerly chief of staff of the NSC under John Bolton and a CIA official before that, claimed on CNN that OANN, Breitbart, the House Intelligence Committee, CNN and the White House “has the name.” Fleitz asserted as well that “the president knows who he is.” Fleitz cited no source for his information.

Harvey has a history of passing on information to damage colleagues. As The Daily Beast reported in March, an April 2017 email that senior State Department official Brian Hook sent to himself, titled “Derek notes,” contained descriptions of State Department officials suspected of disloyalty or troublesomeness. Examples of such disloyalty included “butter[ing] up to Clinton people,” Hook wrote. The email is currently being examined by a State Department inspector general investigation into department politicization.

Harvey is not the only Nunes ally involved in the Ukraine story. A former Nunes staffer who now works on the NSC, Kash Patel, gave Trump damaging information about Ukraine, Politico recently reported. Patel was a driving force behind Nunes’ efforts in 2017 and 2018 to discredit the origins of the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s connections with Russian election interference.

Far-right news groups like the Gateway Pundit blog and the OANN TV network have run pieces naming their guess at the whistleblower’s identity. The official identified by OANN and Gateway Pundit has been a target for fringe conservative media figures even before the whistleblower filed his complaint to the DNI Inspector General’s office.

GOP criticism of the whistleblower has focused on their contact with Democratic investigators as people like Harvey spread the idea that they were in cahoots. That line of attack went into overdrive on Oct. 2, when Schiff’s camp confirmed that the whistleblower reached out to the Intelligence Committee before filing a formal complaint in order to get “guidance on how to report possible wrongdoing within the intelligence community.” But the whistleblower, per a spokesman for Schiff, did not tell the chairman the content of the complaint nor the identity of the whistleblower.

Still, that seemed to contradict Schiff’s statement in late September that Democrats had “not spoken directly” with the whistleblower, a remark the congressman later told The Daily Beast he regretted he did not make “much more clear.”

Those statements have provided fuel for allegations from Trump and his allies that the whistleblower and Democrats were engaged in some unseemly coordination before the fact, or that they did not follow the proper whistleblower laws.

Zaid, meanwhile, has stressed that the whistleblower acted properly and without any kind of coordination or interference. “The whistleblower drafted the Complaint entirely on their own. Legal counsel Andrew Bakaj provided guidance on process but was not involved in the drafting of the document and did not review it in advance,” Zaid told ABC News on Oct. 2.

“In fact, none of the legal team saw the Complaint until it was publicly released by Congress,” Zaid said. “To be unequivocally clear, no Member or congressional staff had any input into or reviewed the Complaint before it was submitted to the Intelligence Community Inspector General.”

That inspector general, Michael Atkinson, has said in letters to top lawmakers that the whistleblower’s complaint was credible and urgent. Though Joseph Maguire, the acting director of national intelligence, did not believe he had to notify the Intelligence committees of the complaint as required by law, he nevertheless testified before lawmakers on Sept. 26 that the whistleblower “followed the steps every step of the way.”

*********

White House official to tell impeachment investigators he feared Trump’s demands of Ukraine would undermine national security

By Greg Jaffe | Published October 29 at 12:11 AM ET | Washington Post | Posted October 28, 2019 |

An Army officer assigned to the White House plans to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he was disturbed by President Trump’s demand that Ukraine investigate one of his political rivals and feared it would undermine U.S. national security.

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman, a top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, was part of a small group of White House officials assigned to listen in on Trump’s July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. His testimony returns repeatedly to his fears that Trump’s manipulation of Ukraine policy to discredit his political rival, former vice president Joe Biden, is unethical and damaging to U.S. national security.

Vindman is the first White House official to testify who listened to Trump’s controversial call, which was exposed by a government whistleblower and triggered a historic impeachment inquiry. His prepared statement, first reported by the New York Times, bolsters previous testimony by Fiona Hill, his former boss at the National Security Council, and William B. Taylor Jr., the acting ambassador to Ukraine.

Vindman’s testimony follows House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) call for a vote later this week authorizing the impeachment inquiry. Pelosi’s move came in response to Republican criticism that the Democrats’ activities to date amount to a partisan hit job and have denied the president due process.

In his statement Vindman repeatedly insists he has no partisan bias and asserts that he is motivated by loyalty to the Constitution and the country. Vindman and his family fled the Soviet Union when he was 3, and he describes himself as both an immigrant and a patriot.

“It is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend OUR country, irrespective of party or politics,” his prepared statement reads.

Vindman was assigned to the White House in July 2018 after a tour in the Pentagon, where he writes that he authored the U.S. military’s principal strategy for managing competition with Russia.

In his statement Vindman states that he has never had direct contact or communication with the president. He also notes that he is not the whistleblower whose complaint helped spark the impeachment inquiry .

“I do not know who the whistleblower is and I would not feel comfortable to speculate,” his statement reads.

Despite his remove from the White House, Vindman became deeply concerned about the way the president and some of his top advisers were manipulating Ukraine policy to discredit Biden, a possible challenger in the 2020 election.

Vindman states that Trump’s initial call with the new Ukrainian president, made after Zelensky’s April election, was positive.

“President Trump expressed his desire to work with President Zelensky and extended an invitation to the White House,” the statement reads. Vindman notes that the Ukrainians saw the meeting with Trump as “critical” to solidifying American support in the face of Russian aggression.

But within weeks of that initial promise, he grew worried that the policy was being hijacked by partisan politics.

“In the Spring of 2019, I became aware of outside influencers promoting a false narrative of Ukraine,” his statement reads. “This alternative narrative undermined U.S. efforts to expand cooperation with Ukraine.”

Vindman cites a July 10 meeting in which Gordon Sondland, a major Trump donor and ambassador to the European Union, emphasized that to secure a meeting with Trump, the Ukrainians would have to “deliver investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens and Burisma,” a Ukrainian natural gas company that had controversially tapped Biden’s son to serve on its board.

“I stated to Amb. Sondland that his statements were inappropriate, that the request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the National Security Council was going to get involved with or push,” his statements reads.

Following the briefing, Vindman reported his concerns to the National Security Council’s top lawyer. Vindman’s statement notes that an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma would likely inject Ukraine’s new president into U.S. politics and cause the struggling democracy to lose bipartisan support in Congress.

“This would undermine U.S. national security,” Vindman writes.

Vindman’s most direct contact with Trump came in the form of preparing documents for the president to sign regarding Ukraine.

At the direction of his superiors at the NSC, including John Bolton, then the national security adviser, Vindman drafted a memorandum in mid-August that sought to restart $391 million in security aid that was being withheld from Ukraine, according to the Times report. But Trump refused to sign it. He also drafted a letter in May congratulating Zelensky on his inauguration that Trump declined to sign, according to the Times.

In his testimony Vindman, like others who have preceded him in the impeachment hearings, emphasizes the importance of Ukraine to the security of the United States. “A strong and independent Ukraine is critical to U.S. national security interests because Ukraine is a front-line state and bulwark against Russian aggression,” he writes.

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Army Officer Who Heard Trump’s Ukraine Call Reported Concerns

The top Ukraine expert at the White House will tell impeachment investigators he twice reported concerns about President Trump’s pressure tactics on Ukraine, acting out of a “sense of duty.”

WASHINGTON — A White House national security official who is a decorated Iraq war veteran plans to tell House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that he heard President Trump appeal to Ukraine’s president to investigate one of his leading political rivals, a request the aide considered so damaging to American interests that he reported it to a superior.

Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman of the Army, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, twice registered internal objections about how Mr. Trump and his inner circle were treating Ukraine, out of what he called a “sense of duty,” he plans to tell the inquiry, according to a draft of his opening statement obtained by The New York Times.

He will be the first White House official to testify who listened in on the July 25 telephone call between Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine that is at the center of the impeachment inquiry, in which Mr. Trump asked Mr. Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.

“I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” Colonel Vindman said in his statement. “I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained.”

Burisma Holdings is an energy company on whose board Mr. Biden’s son served while his father was vice president.

“This would all undermine U.S. national security,” Colonel Vindman added, referring to Mr. Trump’s comments in the call.

The colonel, a Ukrainian-American immigrant who received a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq by a roadside bomb and whose statement is full of references to duty and patriotism, could be a more difficult witness to dismiss than his civilian counterparts.

“I am a patriot,” Colonel Vindman plans to tell the investigators, “and it is my sacred duty and honor to advance and defend our country irrespective of party or politics.”

He was to be interviewed privately on Tuesday by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight and Reform Committees, in defiance of a White House edict not to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry.

The colonel, who is represented by Michael Volkov, a former federal prosecutor, declined to comment for this article.

In his testimony, Colonel Vindman plans to say that he is not the whistle-blower who initially reported Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign on Ukraine. But he will provide an account that corroborates and fleshes out crucial elements in that complaint, which prompted Democrats to open their impeachment investigation.

“I did convey certain concerns internally to national security officials in accordance with my decades of experience and training, sense of duty, and obligation to operate within the chain of command,” he plans to say.

He will testify that he watched with alarm as “outside influencers” began pushing a “false narrative” about Ukraine that was counter to the consensus view of American national security officials, and harmful to United States interests. According to documents reviewed by The Times on the eve of his congressional testimony, Colonel Vindman was concerned as he discovered that Rudolph W. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, was leading an effort to prod Kiev to investigate Mr. Biden’s son, and to discredit efforts to investigate Mr. Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his business dealings in Ukraine.

His account strongly suggests that he may have been among the aides the whistle-blower referred to in his complaint when he wrote that White House officials had recounted the conversation between Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky to him, and “were deeply disturbed by what had transpired in the phone call.”

Colonel Vindman did not interact directly with the president, but was present for a series of conversations that shed light on his pressure campaign on Ukraine.

He will also testify that he confronted Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union, the day the envoy spoke in a White House meeting with Ukrainian officials about “Ukraine delivering specific investigations in order to secure the meeting with the president.”

Even as he expressed alarm about the pressure campaign, the colonel and other officials worked to keep the United States relationship with Ukraine on track. At the direction of his superiors at the National Security Council, including John R. Bolton, then the national security adviser, Colonel Vindman drafted a memorandum in mid-August that sought to restart security aid that was being withheld from Ukraine, but Mr. Trump refused to sign it, according to documents reviewed by the Times. And he drafted a letter in May congratulating Mr. Zelensky on his inauguration, but Mr. Trump did not sign that either, according to the documents.

Colonel Vindman was concerned after he learned that the White House budget office had taken the unusual step of withholding the $391 million package of security assistance for Ukraine that had been approved by Congress. At least one previous witness has testified that Mr. Trump directed that the aid be frozen until he could secure a commitment from Mr. Zelensky to announce an investigation of the Bidens.

While Colonel Vindman’s concerns were shared by a number of other officials, some of whom have already testified, he was in a unique position. Because he emigrated from Ukraine along with his family when he was a child and is fluent in Ukrainian and Russian, Ukrainian officials sought advice from him about how to deal with Mr. Giuliani, though they typically communicated in English.

On two occasions, the colonel brought his concerns to John A. Eisenberg, the top lawyer at the National Security Council. The first came on July 10. That day, senior American officials met with senior Ukrainian officials at the White House, in a stormy meeting in which Mr. Bolton is said to have had a tense exchange with Mr. Sondland after the ambassador raised the matter of investigations he wanted Ukraine to undertake. That meeting has been described in previous testimony in the impeachment inquiry.

At a debriefing later that day attended by the colonel, Mr. Sondland again urged Ukrainian officials to help with investigations into Mr. Trump’s political rivals.

“Ambassador Sondland emphasized the importance that Ukraine deliver the investigations into the 2016 election, the Bidens and Burisma,” Colonel Vindman said in his draft statement.

“I stated to Ambassador Sondland that his statements were inappropriate” and that the “request to investigate Biden and his son had nothing to do with national security, and that such investigations were not something the N.S.C. was going to get involved in or push,” he added.

The colonel’s account echoed the testimony of Fiona Hill, one of his superiors, who has previously testified behind closed doors that she and Mr. Bolton were angered by efforts to politicize the interactions with Ukraine.

The colonel said that after his confrontation with Mr. Sondland, “Dr. Hill then entered the room and asserted to Ambassador Sondland that his statements were inappropriate.”

Ms. Hill, the former senior director for European and Russian affairs, also reported the incident to Mr. Eisenberg.

The colonel went to Mr. Eisenberg a couple of weeks later, after the president’s call with Mr. Zelensky. This time, the colonel was accompanied by his identical twin brother, Yevgeny, who is a lawyer on the National Security Council.

The picture painted by Colonel Vindman’s testimony has been echoed by several other senior officials, including William B. Taylor Jr., the top American diplomat in Ukraine, who testified last week that multiple senior administration officials had told him that the president blocked security aid to Ukraine and would not meet with Mr. Zelensky until he publicly pledged to investigate Mr. Trump’s political rivals.

While the White House has urged witnesses subpoenaed by Congress not to participate in the impeachment inquiry, failing to comply with a congressional subpoena would be a risky career move for an active-duty military officer.

As tensions grew over Ukraine policy, the White House appears to have frozen out Colonel Vindman. Since early August, he has been excluded from a number of relevant meetings and events, including a diplomatic trip to three countries under his purview: Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus.

Colonel Vindman said he had reported concerns up his chain of command because he believed he was obligated to do so.

“On many occasions I have been told I should express my views and share my concerns with my chain of command and proper authorities,” he said. “I believe that any good military officer should and would do the same, thus providing his or her best advice to leadership.”

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rxbodybuilding · 5 years

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Androgen use, hipogonadism, IGF-1, tamoxifen and tendons As some of you might know, I have been having tendon issues since beggining AAS use that have affected my life seriously. Doctor's diagnose have been tendinitis, which never convinced me since my symptoms have always been a lot closer to tendinosis (see:http://www.cuttingedgemuscle.com/Fo...ight=tendinosis ). For those that might not know, tendinosis is a pathological condition characterised by an abnormaly high ratio of type III collagen (the weaker less abundant one in healthy connective tissue) to type I (the stronger and normally more abundant one). There's sometimes a bit of inflamation on the surrounding tissues. A tendon affected by tendinosis may not get beyond the initial stage of healing (in which is supposed to be a higher than normal ratio of the mentioned types of collagen) after normal damage induced by everyday activities or exercise and thus will lose it's strength and may eventually rupture. An ecography made after a recent relapse showed no inflamation in the tendons in the painfull area, and all the doctor could say was that there may be a muscular rupture in that area, but he couldn't really tell, and it would be needed a magnetic ressonance exam to be sure. I am planning on doing this soon. I am more and more convinced that my AAS use has something to do with this, and I'm trying to put together a theory based on the various arguments I have found untill now. Number one would be the direct impact AAS have on type III collagen synthesis, collagen fibrils dysplasia, and the consequent reduction on tendon tensile strength, rupture strength and the normal biomechanics of the extremities (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8). In a nutshell, the use of AAS in order to heal tendon injuries or to simulate collagen synthesis and therefore building stronger tendons seems to a load of crap. That famous post on AAS and collagen synthesis which throws a bunch of percentage on collagen synthesis with no references whatsoever is at best extremely doubtfull. This alterations in the type of collagen III to type I ratio could in itself lead to the development of what is known as tendinosis (see link posted above). Number two would be the reduction in growth factors shown to stimulate the synthesis of type I collagen on connective tissue, such as GH (9), IGF-1 (10,11,12,13,14) and TGF-beta1 (15,16), all of which could potencialy help reversing this altered ratio of collagen types due to heavy androgen use. This reduction could happen by various motives. One would be the androgen induced hipogonadism in the PCT period. Testosterone levels have been shown to directly correlate with GH and other growth factors release (17,18,19,20,21,22) so the low testosterone could have a negative impact on some of the growth factors that could potencially reverse the damage done by androgens. Another motive would be the use of tamoxifen during and after a steroid cycle. tamoxifen has been linked to reduction in IGF-1 levels that range from 19% to 47%(23,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34), and in GH response to GHRH (24,25,27). Since GH seems to be not only regulating both IGF-1 but also TGF levels, tamoxifen may also be contributing to the aggravation of the tendon issues initiated by AAS. In my case, all the episodes of tendinosis happened either when using tamoxifen during PCT teraphy (so while hipogonadal), after usage of androgens that stimulate collagen type III production, or during tamoxifen use with AAS in order to combat gynecomasty. If anyone wants to discuss this and try to debunk my theory or my interpretation of the research, please go ahead. There's txt file attached with most abstracts from studies referenced here References: 1-Stimulation of collagen synthesis by the anabolic steroid Stanozolol. Falanga V, Greenberg AS, Zhou L, Ochoa SM, Roberts AB, Falabella A, Yamaguchi Y. University of Miami School of Medicine, Department of Dermatology, Miami Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Florida, USA. 2-Collagen synthesis in postmenopausal women during therapy with anabolic steroid or female sex hormones. Hassager C, Jensen LT, Podenphant J, Riis BJ, Christiansen C. Department of Clinical Chemistry, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. 3-The effects of anabolic steroids on rat tendon. An ultrastructural, biomechanical, and biochemical analysis. Inhofe PD, Grana WA, Egle D, Min KW, Tomasek J. Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, Oklahoma City, USA. 4-The effect of anabolic steroids on the biomechanical and histological properties of rat tendon.Miles JW, Grana WA, Egle D, Min KW, Chitwood J. University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City. 5-Anabolic steroid-induced tendon pathology: a review of the literature.Laseter JT, Russell JA. Joe W. King Orthopedic Institute, Houston, TX 77030. 6-The effect of exercise and anabolic steroids on the mechanical properties and crimp morphology of the rat tendon. Wood TO, Cooke PH, Goodship AE. Comparative Orthopaedic Research Group, University of Bristol, England. 7-Tendon injuries induced by exercise and anabolic steroids in experimental mice. Michna H. 8-Organisation of collagen fibrils in tendon: changes induced by an anabolic steroid. I. Functional and ultrastructural studies. Michna H. 9-Growth hormone influences the content and composition of collagen in the aorta from old rats. Bruel A, Oxlund H. Department of Connective Tissue Biology, Institute of Anatomy, University of Aarhus, DK-8000, Aarhus, Denmark. [email protected] 10-Allampallam K, Chakraborty J, Robinson J. Effect of ascorbic acid and growth factors on collagen metabolism of flexor retinaculum cells from individuals with and without carpal tunnel syndrome. J Occup Environ Med 42(3):251-9, 2000. 11-Conti N A, Dahners L E. The effect of exogenous growth factors on the healing of ligaments. Trans Orthop Res Soc 18:60, 1993. 12-Letson A K, Dahners L E. The effect of combinations of growth factors on ligament healing. Clin Orthop 308;207-212, 1994. 13-Kurtz C A, Loebig T G, Anderson D D, DeMeo P J, Campbell P G. Insulin-like growth factor I accelerates functional recovery from Achilles tendon injury in a rat model. Am J Sports Med May-Jun;27(3):363-69, 1999. 14-Abrahamsson S O. Similar effects of recombinant human insulin-like growth factor I and II on cellular activities in flexor tendons of young rabbits: experimental studies in vitro. J Orthop Res Mar;15(2):256-62, 1997 15-Chang J, Thunder R, Most D, Longaker M T, Lineaweaver W C. Studies in flexor tendon wound healing: neutralizing antibody to TGF-beta1 increases postoperative range of motion. Plast Reconstr Surg Jan;105(1):148-55, 2000. 16-Chang J, Most D, Stelnicki E, Siebert J W, Longaker M T, Hui K, Lineweaver W C. Gene expression of transforming growth factor beta-1 in rabbit zone II flexor tendon wound healing: evidence for dual mechanisms of repair. Plast Reconstr Surg Sep;100(4):937-44, 1997. 17-Activation of the somatotropic axis by testosterone in adult men: evidence for a role of hypothalamic growth hormone-releasing hormone.Bondanelli M, Ambrosio MR, Margutti A, Franceschetti P, Zatelli MC, degli Uberti EC.Department of Biomedical Sciences and Advanced Therapies, Section of Endocrinology, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy. 18-Serum levels of insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor-binding protein 1 correlate with serum free testosterone and sex hormone binding globulin levels in healthy young and middle-aged men. Erfurth EM, Hagmar LE, Saaf M, Hall K. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Lund, Sweden. 19-Low circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors and testosterone in chronically institutionalized elderly men. Abbasi AA, Drinka PJ, Mattson DE, Rudman D. Department of Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. 20-Testosterone increases serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D and insulin-like growth factor-I in hypogonadal men. Hagenfeldt Y, Linde K, Sjoberg HE, Zumkeller W, Arver S. Department of Clinical Chemistry I, Huddinge University Hospital, Sweden. 21-Chronic sex steroid exposure increases mean plasma growth hormone concentration and pulse amplitude in men with isolated hypogonadotropic hypogonadism.Liu L, Merriam GR, Sherins RJ. 22-Serum insulin-like growth factor-I and serum testosterone status of elderly men in an inpatient rehabilitation unit. Kosasih JB, Abbasi AA, Rudman D. Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, USA. 23-Effect of low dose tamoxifen on the insulin-like growth factor system in healthy women.Bonanni B, Johansson H, Gandini S, Guerrieri-Gonzaga A, Torrisi R, Sandri MT, Cazzaniga M, Mora S, Robertson C, Lien EA, Decensi A. 24-Effect of tamoxifen on GH and IGF-1 serum level in stage I-II breast cancer patients.Mandala M, Moro C, Ferretti G, Calabro MG, Nole F, Rocca A, Munzone E, Castro A, Curigliano G.Division of Medical Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, Via Ripamonti 435, 20141-Milan, Italy. [email protected] 25-Inhibitory action on GHRH-induced GH secretion of chronic tamoxifen treatment in breast cancer.De Marinis L, Mancini A, Izzi D, Bianchi A, Giampietro A, Fusco A, Liberale I, Rossi S, Valle D. Institute of Endocrinology, Catholic University School of Medicine, Rome, Italy. [email protected] 26-Effect of tamoxifen on lipoprotein(a) and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in healthy women. Decensi A, Robertson C, Ballardini B, Paggi D, Guerrieri-Gonzaga A, Bonanni B, Manetti L, Johansson H, Barreca A, Bettega D, Costa A. FIRC Chemoprevention Unit, European Institute of Oncology, Milan, Italy. [email protected] 27-Effect of acute and chronic administration of tamoxifen on GH response to GHRH and on IGF-I serum levels in women with breast cancer.Corsello SM, Rota CA, Putignano P, Della Casa S, Barnabei A, Migneco MG, Vangeli V, Barini A, Mandala M, Barone C, Barbarino A.Institute of Endocrinology, Catholic University School of Medicine, Rome, Italy. 28-Enhancement of tamoxifen-induced suppression of insulin-like growth factor I gene expression and serum level by a somatostatin analogue.Huynh H, Pollak M.Department of Medicine, Lady Davis Research Institute, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, 29-In vivo inhibition of insulin-like growth factor I gene expression by tamoxifen.Huynh HT, Tetenes E, Wallace L, Pollak M.Department of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada 30-Suppression of serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels in breast cancer patients during adjuvant tamoxifen therapy.Friedl A, Jordan VC, Pollak M.Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Wisconsin, Madison 53792. 31-Influence of tamoxifen on plasma levels of insulin-like growth factor I and insulin-like growth factor binding protein I in breast cancer patients.Lonning PE, Hall K, Aakvaag A, Lien EA. Department of Oncology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway. 32-tamoxifen reduces serum insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I). Pollak MN, Huynh HT, Lefebvre SP.McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 33-ffect of tamoxifen on serum insulinlike growth factor I levels in stage I breast cancer patients.Pollak M, Costantino J, Polychronakos C, Blauer SA, Guyda H, Redmond C, Fisher B, Margolese R. Department of Oncology, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal, Canada. 34-Effect of tamoxifen on plasma insulin-like growth factor I in patients with breast cancer.Colletti RB, Roberts JD, Devlin JT, Copeland KC.Department of Pediatrics, University of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington 05405.

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