#I don’t always feel that the corporation that runs Fox News is acting in good faith

[abigailspinach]

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/magazine/pete-buttigieg-interview-election-democrats.html

Tear down obstacles — I mean, the obstacle many would say was President Biden himself. A new New York Times/Siena poll shows that over 80 percent of voters are happy that Biden dropped out. Clearly voters were hungering for something different. Why did the party ignore that desire for change for so long? I think this is something the party was wrestling with for a long time. And then the president wrestled with it personally. And then he did something that is world-historically rare, for not just the leader of a country, but the most powerful person in the world to lay power aside.

CNN reported that there haven’t been any full cabinet meetings since late last year, so I don’t know how often you were meeting with President Biden himself, but as a surrogate, did you not have any questions or doubts about his abilities? The last time I was working with President Biden really closely was during a disaster a few months ago. I’m reminding myself I’m not supposed to appear in my official capacity, so I won’t delve into that. But look, nobody’s denying that he’s 10 years older than he was 10 years ago. The point is that he’s really good at being president and in my view still is.You have framed this as, he sacrificed for his country, that this was a noble act. But the reality was that he was facing sliding polling numbers and a defection of donors and members of his party. He could have made that choice weeks ago, giving Vice President Harris or any eventual nominee a much longer runway and time to defeat Donald Trump. And he didn’t do it. Did he wait too long? One of the things you sign up for when you go into politics, and certainly when you’re in high office, is everybody else telling you what you should have done. And we can all say he should have done this, or he should have done the same thing but a different time, or should have done it in a different way. But the fact stands that he did an extraordinary thing.

But it wasn’t unfair. Well, certain dimensions I think were unfair. For example, the fact that in a given day, you might have almost identical flubbing of names by the two major candidates, but only one of them would have that plastered in certain people’s commentary.

They’re calling her a D.E.I. hire. And worse stuff that I don’t want to repeat. And I just wonder, as a surrogate, how you combat that? Well, I do think that those attacks have been a bad look for Republicans. And you can tell because, when you’ve got somebody like Mike Johnson, who is a very, very conservative figure, the speaker of the House, telling his own caucus, hey, cool it, he’s basically saying that they are embarrassing the party, and I think acknowledging that they are diminishing the party’s chances by indulging in that kind of rhetoric. The fact that they can’t think of what else to do besides go right to race and gender isn’t just revealing about some of the ugliest undercurrents in today’s Republican Party. It’s also just profoundly unimaginative, because it means that they can’t speak to how any of this is going to make people’s lives better. In other words, they can’t conceive of a politics that isn’t just about the personalities. And their inability to explain how your life as an American every day will be any different, certainly any better, is revealed in the fact that they immediately reach for one of two things, saying she’s too far left, which is what literally every Republican says about literally any Democrat who is running against the Republicans. If Joe Manchin were the nominee, they’d say the same thing about him. It’s just standard and therefore boring. Or these really ugly attacks, which maybe are meant to get attention, but they are very much telling on themselves when they go there.

 I am thinking about how you see your role right now, because while Biden rarely talked to the press, you not only engage with people like me, but you also go to Fox News. And I am wondering why you do that. Because I know that there are so many people who tune in in good faith. I don’t always feel that the corporation that runs Fox News is acting in good faith, but I know that the viewers might be tuning in in good faith and getting their information from this news source. So I, as a political figure, can hardly blame a voter for not being responsive to our message if they literally have never heard it. And we’re in a very fragmented environment. Honestly, we’re lucky if we can get to somebody through TV, versus just even more fragmented internet sources. And I know that if I’m on that network, I’m one of relatively few voices with our message, and so if I didn’t go there to give that message, somebody might never hear it. I also know that you cannot assume who somebody is or how they’re going to vote just based on what network they watch. Of course, there are a lot of strong patterns, but there are a lot of people who can be moved. And sometimes the person who picked the channel is not the same as the other person who’s also in the house, listening to what’s being said. Sometimes when you explain what you believe to somebody, even if they don’t completely agree with you, they respect you more, and are inclined to maybe trust you and give you the benefit of the doubt. So that’s why I’m there.

[jdpink]

You are clearly one of the party’s best communicators. You can deliver a message. You’ve been very on message while we’ve been talking. [Laughs.] I am thinking about how you see your role right now, because while Biden rarely talked to the press, you not only engage with people like me, but you also go to Fox News. And I am wondering why you do that. Because I know that there are so many people who tune in in good faith. I don’t always feel that the corporation that runs Fox News is acting in good faith, but I know that the viewers might be tuning in in good faith and getting their information from this news source. So I, as a political figure, can hardly blame a voter for not being responsive to our message if they literally have never heard it. And we’re in a very fragmented environment. Honestly, we’re lucky if we can get to somebody through TV, versus just even more fragmented internet sources. And I know that if I’m on that network, I’m one of relatively few voices with our message, and so if I didn’t go there to give that message, somebody might never hear it. I also know that you cannot assume who somebody is or how they’re going to vote just based on what network they watch. Of course, there are a lot of strong patterns, but there are a lot of people who can be moved. And sometimes the person who picked the channel is not the same as the other person who’s also in the house, listening to what’s being said. Sometimes when you explain what you believe to somebody, even if they don’t completely agree with you, they respect you more, and are inclined to maybe trust you and give you the benefit of the doubt. So that’s why I’m there.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/magazine/pete-buttigieg-interview-election-democrats.html

[goodnightallwhites]

Snowkitty By BlackingPacking

Snowkitty 

By BlackingPacking 

Submitted: January 23, 2019 Updated: January 23, 2019 

Selina Kyle has never been a big part of the Batfamily. Nor has she ever fucked a big black cock. The two are more related than you might think. 

Contains: NTR/Cuckolding, Interracial, BBC, SPH 

Provided by Hentai Foundry. 

Chapter 1 - Selina gets Blacked 2 

Chapter 2 - Along Came a Black Spider 9 

Chapter 3 - Stephanie Brown and the Blackedcomputer 

18 

1 - Selina gets Blacked 

Selina Kyle loved Bruce Wayne. Catwoman loved Batman. 

But she also loved money- and, while she’d never manipulate Bruce into giving her access to Wayne Enterprises for a job, she had no qualms with breaking into the place- just a quick in and out really, and, just to be extra nice, she wouldn’t steal any extra goodies for herself. 

Worst case scenario, she got found and Bruce came- she’d lose the contract, but would have the fun of playing with him, and then the thrill of escape, always a plus. 

(She also wouldn’t mind getting a little closer to Bats than she usually did, but, despite all the black he wore, he was still white down there.) 

As she disabled the motion sensors on the window of an office atop Wayne Tower and climbed onto it to cut a hole to climb in, she thought about all her experiences with men- at this point, she had pretty much accepted that big dicks were a myth, and had learned to accept the ‘motion of the ocean’ guys and a good-sized dildo when she could. She was always too busy to watch porn. Maybe she’d break into a studio one day and ask what their secrets were. 

She was in, the only lighting in the office being the moonlight making everything, from the flat screen TV to the $2,000 chair to the tall, plastic plant in the corner. Artificial but comfortable- like a dildo- 

Goddammit, you have to stop getting distracted! Head in the game, Selina- you’ve got the hardrive, all you gotta do is plug it in- wow, right way on the first try- and now for the data dump. Corporate espionage and the secrets of the rich and powerful? Child’s play. 

She waited for all that lovely compromising information to upload, lounging on the chair and, when she head the light but firm steps indicative of a muscular man approaching the door, she unzipped her costume down to her crotch, exposing her stomach and all of her cleavage to the cool air. 

When the door was opened, she was unsurprised, for a second- she thought she recognized the broad shoulders, the biceps stretching the sleeves of his shirt- but then she realized he was wearing a t-shirt- Bruce never wore t-shirts- and, what she thought she should have realized first, he was black. 

“What are you doing here?” he asked glaringly, tapping something on his wristwatch. 

She kicked the desk, pushing the chair away from it, spinning around the office, her tits jiggling, “I could ask you the same question- who the hell are you supposed to be?” once she spun the chair in front of the dest, she stood up to face him. 

“I’m the guy who keeps trash like you out of this building.” 

“Trash? Puh! Is it because of how I dress? I didn’t know it became the Victorian Age when in a tower 

this tall, Mister, ah-” she pulled out a black leather wallet- “Luke Fox.” 

“Wha- how did-” 

“Oh, the CEO’s son, I see. I’ve met your father and your company’s owner, but I don’t think we’ve ever been formally introduced,” said the Cat. She leaned on him, tits rubbing against his chest. 

“You’re right, but I think, after all you’ve done with Bruce, I know you well enough.” 

Selina encircled one of his muscular legs with her lissome one, but, truth be told, she was concerned- did Luke here know that Bruce was Batman? And did he know how much they’d fucked over the years? 

She decided not to let it get to her, “Well, sorry to say, but I don’t really have time to stay and chat,” she said, slinking back, grabbing the drive, and digging her claws into the glass. She waited for the dark young man to make a move. 

“Good, because you won’t be talking to anyone except your lawyer,” he declared. Like clockwork- it surprised Selina how much he acted like Batman. His face looked even more driven than Bruce had in his early days, when he was angrier and brasher. She’d forgotten how sexy it was. 

Still, no time for reminiscing. Selina pushed into the cracked glass, totally shattering it, letting it fall like water behind her down to the street far, far, far below. She took a step back, and Luke took a step forward. He proceeded towards her, but not before she jumped out the window, totally free. 

What she sure didn’t expect was for him to jump after her. Not only did she question what the fuck she was gonna do know, but Luke’s very sanity. 

But then she saw a package rocket out of the building, making a beeline towards Luke, then attaching to and encasing him, before the sleek metal parts tightened around his form. It turned on, blue neon aesthetic lights and glowing eyes and, most importantly, a blue bat-symbol on his chest. 

So Luke was Batwing. That explained... a bit. 

Before she could think of what to think next, he shot down toward her, caught her, and flew her to the concrete top of a nearby tower, one not half the height of Wayne Tower. 

She fell on her ass- dammit, he better not have hurt her lovely ass!- while Luke stood tall above her. 

“What did you steal?” He asked, voice robotic. 

“Maybe I’ll tell you if I can talk to the real you,” she cooed, “take off the mask,” she could feel the open air on her nipples- presumably, the fall made her tits flop out. The price of mixing fun and work- but it wasn’t like the fun would be over now. She hoped she could use Luke easily. 

He gulped audibly as the mask receded from his face, exposing his head and neck. He shifted uncomfortably. 

She giggled at him, “Well, first of all, I stole this-” between two clawed fingers, the cat held a button. The kind that belonged on expensive business pants. The kind- 

“What- dammit!” Luke realized what caused the discomfort in his pants. He turned around to fix them, opening up the bottom half of his suit to adjust himself, muttering in his deep, throaty voice, “Damn new suit.. Shoulda worn the cup..” 

“Ah, the cup?” asked Selina, hoping to get him so aroused he couldn’t catch her, “Oh c’mon, you were staring at mine, why can’t I see-” 

“No, I-” he fell forward as he felt Selina push against his leg, but in doing so showed Selina what she wanted- his cock half hard, pushing out against his grey underwear in a massive bulge. 

“Oh- oh come fucking on, you’re wearing a cup now!” 

“No- no, you don’t get it,” he said. In a move clearly done by pure hormones, he pulled it out to show her- and holy hell was it a sight. 

Darker than the rest of his milk chocolate skin and, even when at best half hard, as thick as her wrist and twice the length of her hand, it protruded from his muscular pelvis, curving down until the large, deep mauve head pointed straight at the floor, nearly touching Selina's sensitive skin. 

Selina’s sultry, deep breaths stopped cold. She reached out to touch it. In her hand, which she couldn’t wrap around it, of course, she felt his blood pump, making his width tug, his head throbbing just a bit. 

It was frightening- how was he so big? Bruce's sat snug in her hand when he was rock hard, but this was barely above flaccid, and it fit in her hand, the squishy, yet strong flesh spilling out of her hand. He was like a handful of sand, something she couldn't hold, while Bruce was just one stone. Or a pebble. Eventually, she managed to get her lithe fingers to touch all the way around it, but, as her breaths turned waveringly deep, she felt them barely brush each other, and then be pulled totally apart as he rose to hardness. 

She decided that she didn’t want to run away anymore. 

“H-how big does it get?” She stared. 

“Fourteen inches,” he gulped, more confident now. 

“Christ-” she lifted it up, letting the head brush her face, “do they even make cups this big?” was all she could ask. 

“It’s.. difficult,” he chuckled, “And the suits are a whole nother thing... this is a new one, you see. I haven’t made the necessary adjustments yet... I’m sorry, lemme just-” 

Selina grabbed his plump cock, “Oh fuck no bitch! I’m gonna get this cock- Goddamn it’s big! And why the hell don’t you have your suit fitted for this? Not that I’m complaining...” 

“No- I, I make the adjustments myself. Bruce makes the suits-” 

“Say no more,” smiled Selina, working her arm to pump his fat cock to hardness, “Goddamn, those rumors are true...” she felt a massive urge to lick at his black cock. 

“Rumors?” 

“Oh, you know- about black guys’ dicks- don’t tell me you’ve never been in a locker room with any of Bruce or his, heh, little Robins?” 

“I don't think you should trust me to be honest.” 

“Well, I’ll be honest, I’ve never fucked a black guy, but if I ever had, I’d be thinking about that cock all the fuckin time.” 

“Never fucked a black guy, Miss Kyle?” 

“Not even when I was a hooker- and no need to be all formal. It’s Selina, at the very least,” she smiled widely as she smacked his meat against her snow white face. 

“Alright, Selina- I think I’m there. Wanna take what you want?” 

“Don’t ask next time. It’s hotter,” she replied, and then, just slow enough to taste every inch of the massive thing, Catwoman decided she'd go all in, and inhaled his cock, its blackness more than she had ever had before. It tasted musky and strong, pulsating on and heating her little pink tongue. 

She widened her jaw to take in his girth, his dick filling both her. She was great at the blowjob face, sucking her cheeks in, but with a black cock the limber woman felt like a chipmunk. It was heavy, too, pushing down on her poor straining lower jaw. Worst of all, she was about halfway down the actual length. She pushed on, feeling her throat expand as she swallowed his length. 

She gargled it, then pulled out, coating his big black dick in saliva, more than it looked like her cute little mouth could produce. 

Her eyes, however, told a different story. One that said she needed more of this massive dick to suck on, to lick, to drool over, to fawn over, to get all up inside all her holes. With one suck, Selina Kyle became another victim to black cock lust. She totally forgot how she felt about Bruce- emotions were a thing of the heart, and right now, her dripping pussy was the captain of her actions. 

She happily slurped him down again, ropes of spit sticking to his veiny dick every time she came off it. She sucked him like a vacuum, her ruby lips stretching across his shaft as she pulled back before going all the way back down again. Lipstick smeared on him, only to be licked back up when her tongue darted all over his cock every time she went down on him. 

Slurping, sucking, kissing and licking, Selina gave Luke the best head she ever gave, and the best he’d ever gotten. 

“How.. how close are you?” she gasped, just off his hot dick, strings of spit and precum hanging from her lips, dangling onto her creamy breasts. 

“To cumming?” he asked, “Not really.” 

Well, fuck! Selina’s usual routine (both before and after she found robbing was more fun than sex) was to make him cum with a blow job, then fuck him. But it seemed this ugy had a big dick and could last twice as long as the normal guy, 

“Change of plans,” she announced, gulping as she realized her throat felt much wider, “do you wanna take your costume off?” 

“For what?” 

“To fuck me silly, silly!” She smiled, stripping, letting her leather catsuit fall onto the roof as she crawled back to his erection, licking its tip playfully. 

“I’d like to keep it on, if that’s fine with you.” 

“Oh, God yes it is,” she licked his balls and up to his very tip, then let his dick drag between her pillowy tits, “keep me naked, all submissive and helpless, you’re so fucking hot.” 

Luke didn’t see it that way- he just didn’t want to be disarmed in case he had to fight this crazy white cat burglar bitch, but every second it seemed more like that wouldn’t happen, since she wasn’t stopping. 

She gave him a short, toying titjob, rubbing her pale breasts all over his pole, and then stood further up, rubbing his precum against her firm but smooth stomach, before finally standing up straight, his cockhead poking just under her navel. 

“Oh, take me, Batwing,” she cooed, no sign of remembering all the times she’d said Batman instead. Luke kissed her, making out deeply, slimy tongues rolling over each other. He then grabbed her by her soft asscheeks, not as impressive as her tits, but still a wonderful pair. He smacked them, pushed into the soft flesh with his strong fingers, and then cupped her sexy ass in his hands to lift her up onto his cock. 

“You feel so big,” said Selina, biting her tongue as she held onto Luke, her pussy lips rubbing on his shaft. 

“You feel so wet,” responded Luke. 

“Better to guide you in with, Lukey baby,” she said, pushing her stomach against his abs, guiding his cock up to point right at her cunt. She closed her eyes, braced herself, and sat on it. 

“Ah, fuck!” she yelled, loud enough that it made Luke hope no one was on the roof, “It is really big! I haven’t felt like this since I lost my virginity! In fucking middle school! Oh yeah, fuck me hard and deep with your big- big- oh, fuck you’re so big!” Selina turned into a chatterbox by his electrifying black cock. 

“Damn you’re tight! I thought you were a whore!” He bounced her up and down his massive dong, her sweaty, sticky legs locked tight around his waist. 

“Oh, I am! I’m a whore! A dirty, slutty, whore!” 

“Then why are you as tight as a school girl?” 

“Ah, fuck! You just wanna hear me say it! I’m a- fuck I feel it all the way in I’m sooooo full!- I’ve never been a whore for black cock before!” 

“And now?” 

“Holy- holy shit! Ah, I’m getting lightheaded... I’ve never been fucked like this before. I can’t believe I’ve never gone black..” 

He pulled her short, black hair and smacked her ass, “And now?” 

“Now- I went black! And goddamn if I’m never going back! Ahh, fuck!” the usually clever cat burglar had become totally degraded, slick with sweat and eyes wild with pleasure. She held on tight to his armor, gyrating her round, obsessed, child bearing hips on his cock. 

It pushed and throbbed and strained all inside her, stretching her insides, making them even wider than her pussy, which never stretched wider than his steady base. It was his twitching head deep in his canal that made her feel like she never had before. 

“I’m a fucking slut for black cock!” she cried, mind exploding as she felt a rush of hot, syrupy liquid in her cunt spill out and run on her legs. It took her a second to realize that this was not his cum she felt, but her own. 

The BBC whore tried to see what time it was on something, but there were no clocks near. Her screams and cry were replaced with a long, humid moan, that was only interrupted when her whole body shook with one of his thrusts. They could have been fucking for ten minutes or for half an hour. Either way, the man had stamina like she had never felt. 

He pushed her up against the wall of the stairway exit, her back scraping against rough concrete, but if any of her white hide hurt, it was her rose-red asscheeks, which had been thoroughly spanked by the dominant man. 

She screamed his name as she came again. Her pussy tightened, and he kept driving. She loved the pain. She was a white woman- a snowbunny, now. A snowkitty. She loved it. She wanted him to hurt her more. 

He then held onto her back. His gloves had retracted into his armpeices- when, Selina’s dopamine-addled mind didn’t know- and his black, rough palms felt up her back. He didn’t squeeze tight, which she would have loved, but she realized how much hotter it made her felt. 

Stupid white girl! Just let the black man pleasure you, Selina. Let his black... black... 

It felt like he was dominating her, making her more whorish than Stan or Slam Bradley or Bruce had ever done, effortlessly. She was so weak compared to this adonis. 

She was never going back to white boys. 

She felt his round, fat black balls slam up against her ass. They were hanging, the size of tangerines, and as delicious as them. Selina could swear that she felt them churn with his superior african seed, what she wanted- no, no, no, NEEDED- inside of her. 

Suddenly, as she came a third time, her lover granted her wish, and came inside of her, shooting strong, round, fluid ropes of thick goop inside her already wet pussy, drenching it. The solid weight within her ravished hole doubled as his manhood came deep inside. It felt like gallons of his potent sperm was emptied right into her womb. Shame she wasn’t anywhere near ovulating. 

She went limp, falling down, having to be caught with his strong, quick hand around her back. Her head and limbs hung, supported by his one hand and his massive dong, buried deep inside her tight cunt. 

“That was.. The best... I’ve ever had,” she panted, dropping to the ground. She looked at her raw, well-fucked cunt, staring at its strained opening. Then, cum ran out- not gray, thin white cum, but thick, creamy, virile black cum, “You’re so much better than all the other Bat boys... how are you so good...” it kept spilling out, drowning her crotch, soaking the ground. 

Luke laughed, “Secret identity- I’m black.” 

“Of course.. And Bruce had to get a chinadoll to actually have a kid with.” 

“And all the boys are pretty shy in the locker rooms too...” 

“I bet.” 

“‘Cept for Duke.” 

“God, tell me more. I’m already wet...” her hand slid down her sticky creampie. It made a shlicking sound. Selina’s eyes closed as she bit her messy lip. 

“Sure,” Luke cracked his knuckles, “ready to go again?” 

2 - Along Came a Black Spider 

Selina had to wonder if Bruce understood that he was a beta white guy, with a below-average dick and no jet pack. After all, he had given Luke Fox, the guy with the gargantuan dick that made Selina into a black-only snow bunny, the super suit with a jetpack. 

He used both on the way to Selina’s apartment, where he had agreed to drop her off after she had taken a second load of his on her face, still feeling like a spa day, his thick cum masking her pale countenance with enough fluid to fill a bucket. 

She fell naked on her balcony, her ass cheeks redder than her roses from the pounding, her knees more scraped than her old metal chairs from how deep she had sucked him, and her nipples standing erect as the table’s umbrella, the tits they adorned glazed with ropey cum, more than she could swallow- and she loved swallowing his delicious cum. 

He took the flash drive and flew away, leaving Selina, naked, and without her catsuit, to go in her apartment, totally exhausted. She had barely taken a few steps in when she collapsed on the couch, lifting her legs up in the air to expose her burning cunt as she teetered at the edge of consciousness. 

“Fuck, I need a shower.....” groaned Selina as she felt a fat dollop of syrupy cum leak from her used hole, putting her fingers up to herself to feel her creampie, letting it drip on her couch, the fluid ruining it as Luke had ruined her cunt. Hell, the whole couch may have been ruined. She was sweating so much- every inch of her skin was on fire with a pleasure years of white lovers had never given her. She closed her eyes and smiled, tongue lapping at the cream on her lips. 

She began fingering herself. She loved feeling the insides of her tight little cunny, but now it felt like she was hollow, her stretched hole feeling like an abyss around her hand, wider than three fingers. Even when she pushed her whole hand in, her sex stretched easy as a shirt, looser than she’d ever been before. It felt like it would just collapse in on itself if she removed her hand. 

Reluctantly, the wet, dripping, sweaty, cum-soaked mess got up from the couch and meandered into the bathroom, tracking her mess throughout the brightly lit, angular apartment. She passed the balcony in her bedroom there, but, to her sadness, there was no Batwing flying around. The Bat-signal was lit, but she hoped Bruce wouldn’t ever expect anything from her again, because, as good a person he was, he wasn’t a real man. And Selina needed a real man. 

She turned on the steamy water as she felt guilt and pleasure keep washing over her. It wasn’t like she’d cheated on Bruce- they weren’t together right now, and it’s not like it wasn’t seen as normal for a beautiful white lady such as her to cuckold a white guy with a big, dark lover, was it? And god, Luke felt so good, deeper inside her than she’d ever thought possible. 

She played with her clit in the hot bath, finely manipulating it, thinking if she was stereotyping. After all, she’d fucked only the one black guy, what’s to say he wasn’t an outlier? What if she couldn’t, just in 

theory, get herself all tattooed up with queens of spades and ‘black owned’ and be totally satisfied with black guys twice as big as any white ‘man’? 

Well, she could always just be with Luke. He, she knew, was good enough. He was a decade and a half younger than her- did that make her a cougar? Fuck if she cared. 

She kept playing with herself under the water, pinching and pulling at her swollen clit, thinking of the wild night she’d just had. How Luke had picked her up and their bodies sunk into each other, how he’d put her on her hands and feet as he mounted her, her from behind, how he slapped her ass as he pounded her cunt, how his thick pile of meat slapped her tits and her face before cumming all over them, emptying those full, hanging balls she only got to lick a precious few times. 

Even more disappointing than how much she licked his balls was her ass- yeah, the cheeks were as red as could be, but as she moved the finger of her other hand to the pink, tight pucker of her anus, it felt very neglected compared to her gaping pussy. She wanted a big black cock in her ass. 

As she drifted into sleep, fingers holding her clit in a fist as she put another two far up her ass, she dreamed of it. 

She woke up when her head finally dipped underwater- something the expensive in-bath seat was designed to prevent. She stole hard for that, it might as well work! 

Still, she felt comfortable- the water was still somewhat warm, so the heating worked. And judging by the dim light it was dawn. If she had any idea how long it was between encountering Luke and going to sleep, that may have meant something. 

She didn’t want to get up. She kept her face barely above the water so she could keep feeling herself. Her asshole had accommodated to her middle and index finger, and so she pushed another into the snugly held hole. Her pussy, on the other hand, had tightened around her fingers, no longer gaping or full of semen. 

Of course, she’d love it to be again- stretched open and fucked, then poured into with hot, thick sperm. And even more in her ass- god, how she needed a black man to really fill that hole, how- 

She rolled her head over, and saw something in the corner of her bathroom- no, someone. Wearing a black full-bodysuit, with orange and purple highlights, a maroon spider on his face. 

“Ah, shit,” grumbled Selina, hooping out of the bath into the cold air as a throwing knife flew past her short black hair. He pounced at her, so she grabbed the bathroom door and left him to run into it. 

“Black Spider, isn’t it?” She asked, flipping into the living room, soaking the floor again. 

He didn’t respond, simply running after her and firing a line from his gauntlet, missing Selina and catching a chair, which also missed her. 

“Oh come on!” she yelled, keeping on her feet, “I’m right, right? You’re Black Spider- Eric Needlewhatever-“ she dodged more of his swipes- “Shouldn’t you be with Waller? And even then, what 

the hell are you doing in my bathroom, pervert?!” 

“You knew the deal- turn in the drive by 6 am. It’s been an hour almost, so I was sent to check on you. You clearly haven’t bothered, I searched the place, and it’s not here, so I assumed the contract is void, and you know the boss don't accept betrayal.” 

“Ah, fuck you!” She gasped as she narrowly dodged another barbed line, whipping around her bedroom, “I can still get it!” 

“Plenty of people can- and I’m sure the boss is already hiring. You’re done-“ he swung around the line like a whip yet again, “it’s just you and me now.” 

“Can you let me get dressed first then, Eric, before I kick your ass?” 

“How cliche,” chuckled the Spider, switching to wrist-mounted blades to keep Selina on her toes, “and shouldn’t you appreciate the fact that you’re naked? Isn’t sex appeal meant as a distraction?” 

“What? You buy that bullshit? No, I show my tits off because I’m a slut-“ she slid under him to kick him in the back, knocking him down onto a armoire, knocking down a jewelry chest, “be lucky I didn’t go for the dick, asshole,” She grumbled, letting the chest hit him. 

“Oh, you would have liked that, wouldn’t you, slut?” He rolled over, still mocking her. 

“That’s-“ she paused, knowing he wasn’t the one who started that, “Okay, fuck you, I am a slut, and I was having a great time before you showed- wait,” she paused, reaching for his mask, but not taking it, “you’re black, aren’t you?” 

“Yes, and I’m a spider.” 

“No, I meant-“ 

“Bitch, I know what you meant! Yes, I am,” he pushed her hand away to take off his mask, revealing a sharp, goateed black face, “why?” 

She lowered her body, exposed and naked, on top of his well armored one, until her pussy was nearly touching his large codpiece, “I mean... I just wanted to ask-“ she put her hands on his shoulders, pinning him down, “how big is your dick?” 

“...Bitch, what?” 

“I’m serious-“ she whined, “how big? Because I fucked my first black guy last night and need to know if they’re all like that!” 

They both looked at each other, Selina in what seemed to be desperation, and Eric in confusion. 

“AHAHAHAHA,” suddenly, he laughed, “So you’re just another big black cock slut, is that right?” 

“Uh- you’ll fuck me if I say yes, right?” 

“Fuck Batman’s bitch? Any day.” 

“Then yes, I’m the biggest fucking black cock whore on earth!” She exclaimed, almost shaking on him, “oh! And I’m not his bitch- not anymore,” she smiled gleefully, putting up two pinched fingers to illustrate Batman’s little white dick. 

“Hah! You are a bad bitch, aren’t you!” 

“I’ll be your bad bitch if you really do have a big black cock!” 

“Then lemme show you,” he breathed as he pushed her ass off him. She felt her pussy dampen at the feeling of him control her, picking her up with just one big, strong hand. 

He tore off his belt and peeled off his pants, pulling the codpiece down to reveal to Selina what could only be described as an anaconda- as long, if not longer than Luke, with a fatter head and thinner shaft, actually making it look bigger, harder to take, more painful. Definitely like a snake. 

“I’m already so fucking wet,” whispered Selina. 

“I can tell-” he made her moan by feeling her wetness, holding her from behind with two fingers sloshing over her pussy while his thumb pressed right above her asshole. 

“Your hands even feel big,” she lowered her shuttering head to his ear, “I want you to do whatever you want to me, baby.” 

“Good,” he slammed her ass, spanking her. His spry, sturdy hand totally covered her alabaster cheek, rubbing it like a baker kneading dough, the strength of his black hands rippling over her velvety flesh. She kissed his dark neck, tasting sweat. It clung to her lips until she licked it off. 

He began tearing off his padded suit, Selina pawing at the edges as if to help, but she was really just enamored with his black body, his ebony tufts of hair running down his broad chest and sculpted abs, the hair of a real man. His torso and cock was totally opened, and so, like a moth to a flame, Selina dropped, ass up, and face down, kissing his muscular frame. 

Preoccupied with his musculature and musk, Selina’s hand drifted down to Eric’s legs without looking, feeling around, groping at his wide, strong legs. She kissed his stomach like it was an idol until her hand felt something new- a smooth, bulbous head, a deep peach poking out from the long, curved, black shaft. It tensed as her hand felt it, as her worshipping slowed to look over at the massive tube of meat, semi-erect and pointing down at his swollen, hanging balls. 

Selina’s hand purled around his sleek cockhead and his round ballsack. He secreted precum, the perfect lubricant for Selina’s lustful hand to hold his cockhead, at least three times bigger than any white boy she’d ever been with. As she tried to wrap her fist around his round tip, his cock tightened, hefting his balls, swelling his veins all the way down his shaft. 

She planted sloppy, smacking kisses down his abs to his crotch, where she glossed the base of his cock, which, despite its curve, was still taller than her head at its vertex. She kissed and tongued and groped his cock, feeling the fat, many veins only a black cock had, tugging at the soft, loose skin around his solid shaft. 

“You’re so fucking... fucking huge... gargantuan... BBC...” she murmured in between licks, just loud enough for him to hear. Even the thought of those words made her pussy ache. 

He smiled a pearly grin as she put her silky, drooling lips parallel to his cock, then lowered them slowly onto it, right in the middle. She held it on either side of her mouth, the shaft and it’s veins filling each hand as she sucked on it’s delicious flavor. 

She slurped on it, doing her best to drench it with spit from her small mouth, his black member dwarfing her mouth. She went all the way down it and all the way back up, like she was on a harmonica. She closed her eyes and touched herself as her lips popped off his base. When they opened, they saw that her spit, which felt like enough to fill a lake, made maybe half of his godly cock slick with spit. 

Selina whimpered at the monster before her. Luke’s was in the dark, but here, in her apartment, at daybreak, she could see the whole thing, all of its features and pulsations and dark, dark blackness against the pinks, peaches, and whites of her home. Her home was a damn mess thanks to their fight- but now she was ready to be made a damn mess thanks to their fuck, thanks to his huge, strong, black dick. 

She pumped his dick to hardness, thickening it and flattening out its big, floppy curve, replacing it with a solid pipe of black cock. It’s head still pointed down, just a bit. It sat snugly in her hand, the lightest skin on his dark chocolate member, round and smooth as an apple and slick with precum. 

She lied down perpendicular to him, elbows resting on his sinewy dark skin, and let his dick shake and bounce and finally get to full mast right in front of her blue eyes. She kissed the hole at its tip top, and pushed her tongue into to sticky hole, pulling off with a string of precrum. It broke and fell down to his pelvis. She watched it as is fell, far, far below. She jumped off skyscrapers regularly, but, with his cockhead at her nose, the cock she was staring down looked frighteningly tall. 

She put her arms on either side of his base and sat up with good posture, the domineering cock running nearly from her belly button to her forehead. She laughed nervously. 

“Bitch, you ain’t being anywhere near as much as a slut as your tight ass tells me you can,” he said, slapping her ass. His dark palm renewed the light pink handprint that covered both her cheek before he took his huge middle finger, and ran it down her asscrack, pushing at her perfect pink butthole. 

“Eep!” She jumped, body tending and hair bobbing as she felt his fingertips against her sensitive pucker. She looked down, bending to show him he tits with his powerful, huge cock in her cleavage. She beamed, well kept teeth whiter than her skin, but hopefully not to be any less defiled by his blackness, by his huge black cock. 

She closed her eyes and breathed deep, “Don’t stop touching my asshole,” she gasped through th,an enraptured smile. 

He said nothing as he kept playing with her backdoor, moving his fingers in circles around its pucker, running its pad over her, dipping his fingerprints into her lusting anus. Eventually, he matched the pace of Selina’s nervous licks to the underside of his tip, the perfect spot to lap at the juices. 

Her licks were playful, as was his fingering on her behind. Him touching her dirtiest whole made her wet, and that arousal made her more desperateShe lapped at his glans, the smooth, round bulb, the color of syrup. His pace stayed the same, but her mind was running faster and faster. She began to drool on his head and kiss it sloppily as her cunt was, his precum tasting like syrup. He stayed the same. She took a hand and shoved it between her legs, fingering herself. Not long after, his bulb was in her mouth. 

“Mmmf!” she stopped herself when his head, the size of a ripe fruit, was already in her head. Sticky spit flung from her stretched lips, sinking down the long rod of his cock. Ready to gag, she chased it down his dick, careful not to hurt him with her teeth. He may have been thinner than Luke, but she still felt it against her teeth no matter how wide she opened her mouth. Like the water of a warm shower, Selina descended down her would-be assassin’s cock. 

She began to gag at halfway, more than she could take. She pushed down, feeling her wetness increase with each throb of his cock deep down her little slutty gullet. She teared up as she struggled to even take half of his incredible black cock, and almost cried when he took his hand off her hungry asshole, and her ass altogether. She felt like she was gonna collapse when he put that hand on top of her head, and forced her even further down his black rod. 

When she nearly reached the bottom, red-faced, choking, and sputtering as his fat head pushed and pulsates deep, deep in her windpipe, he took his hand off. He moved it down to her crotch, and, to her dismay, he removed her hand from gm inside her soaking wet pussy. 

“W-why?” She pleaded, after rushing up for a gulp of air. That huge cock only a black guy could have flopped on her crestfallen face. 

“Ah calm down,” he said with his well-earned confidence- after all, who could know how to please a girl better than a man with a big black cock? 

He took her waist and hips and pulled them toward him. The pussycat looked over at him, a but he simply pushed her face back into his rock hard dick. Teasing and kneading the flesh, he pulled her hips right at him, lifted them up, and laid them in his face, wet cunny dripping onto his ruggedly handsome face. 

Hugging her waist close to his chest, he slurped and smacked on her drenched puss as she did the same to his cock. Needleham had an easier time eating her out than Selina had blowing him, but both felt similar pleasure. 

Selina began to go limp as she felt an orgasm flowing through her. If it was a white boy, his dick would fall out her slack mouth, but this black snake stayed deep in her. Eric soon noticed, and put her down- practically throwing her on the bed. 

“You’re good at sucking cock, but you need to learn to last a little longer,” he chuckled. Selina moaned 

and groaned, but couldn’t verbally respond. She just sat there as he jerked off his long, black dick to her, building it up until his huge, hanging, wrecking-ball testicles clenched, and he came. He spurted cum down her throat, and her clear wet drool became a thick, sticky, and white. 

She pulled off his cock, not that you could tell, with the slimy cum sticking to his cock and her lips, making a messy curtain between them. That was nowhere near all his cum though- most of it was down her throat, a bigger load than she had ever had before. She sucked up the slimy mess, trying to hold his whole load in. 

“You’d better not spit,” he muttered. 

She gagged and gasped, eyes tearing up with desperation. She bent over and opened her mouth, vomiting potent slime onto her floor. 

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry-“ she cried, bending over to get near to the puddle of cum, “your load was just so big! I couldn’t hold it all in!” She gasped, and stuck her tongue out to lap up the puddle, working to swallow it all. 

He walked around back to her bare ass. “It’s fine- long as you lemme go all the way,” he grinned, putting his hand on her numb butt. 

She took a breath in between her eating of her own oral cream pie, “sure! Please do- I- I won’t be able to fuck as good as usual, but I just want that inside me!” 

“All you had to say,” 

“And no condoms!” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, bitch.” 

She gleefully closed her eyes as she pushed her tongue down onto the hot cum and stuck her butt up for him to use. 

“Pussy or ass?” 

“Mmgh- pussy! I’d die if your black cock went into my asshole-“ she kept talking about how white guys would make her ass stretch, and she wasn’t ready for Eric’s black mamba to get all up in her guts, but he tuned her out, just pushing his cockhead against her soaking wet lips, and shoved it inside her canal. 

She spat out more cum almost immediately, screaming as his strength overtook her tightness, and he shoved his fat head deeper inside her than any first thrust ever had, slamming into her uterus, causing her to explode in pleasure and pain. 

Her white pussy was tight, perfectly sized for the types of cocks she’d been fucking her whole life, and while she needed something more, this sure was a hell of a way to get it. It was stretched in every direction, pushing into places that had never been fucked before, that she never knew she wanted to be fucked. 

He pounded her so hard it felt like she may as well have been doing anal, slamming her whole body. He sent every inch of loose skin, of which there wasn’t much, shaking as much as her bouncy tits. And forget about her face, it was now totally slack and no longer trying to lick up his spilled cum. Instead the force of her whole body was being buckled and slammed, and her face was laying in the puddle, ground into the puddle. Her hair was a mess. Her pussy was on fire. 

He was rougher and gruffer than Luke was, probably due to age and the comfort of her well-heated apartment. Being a criminal, as she knew, certainly help. Being black compounded that. She could barely think, and soon he fucked her brains right out of her. Her arms gave out, and the front half of her body weight fell on her cum-covered face, legs behind her held up by his large hands on either hip. He kept her in place as he destroyed her pussy. She couldn’t see, but he was grinning like a madman, which made sense for any man who got to be with a woman like her, but she considered herself the far luckier one. 

The pounding felt beyond physical. Yeah, he was strong as hell and fucked her deep, slamming through her hole and poking her womb like she was a piece of meat, but she felt more than just that. She felt tingly throughout her body. Not a girlish, schoolgirly sort of sensual tingles, but shocks of pleasure like a hard drug throughout her body from his hard cock. Her pussy juices dripped like lava, her stretched canal coated in magma. Her body felt better than ever. 

That was when she realised what was happening- she was orgasming. Not just a powerful, climactic squirt from her pussy, but a continuous, flow of orgasms. She was cumming one time after another, so many, so hard, so fast, that it felt like her body was perpetually climaxing. 

His pounding had rubbed the sticky puddle of cum on the floor into her face, sending small globs flying into her hair, against her slack lips, even in her rolled-back eyes. She had gotten so used to her constant orgasm that she was barely even conscious, she just sat there, barely propped up against his pumping black hips. 

She was jolted awake when she felt his dick twitch uncontrollably inside her, pushing up against her walls. She leaned her head down, putting her hair on the floor, and looked between her legs. She saw his gargantuan black meat entering her and how her pussy was raining juices from the dozens of orgasms she must have had. She also saw his massive, loosely hanging balls swing less and less and begin to tighten up against the underside of his cock. 

Why his cock was twitching was finally clear- he was going to cum! His grunts became louder and his thrusts became faster. She threw her head back and moaned as she prepared for what was coming. 

He shot his load in her, just as big and thick as before, if not more so. The sheer force of his cum in her womb made her tremble, and as he pulled out, her clit went off as it felt gallons of black cum pouring out of her, enough to make another puddle on the floor and still fill her up. 

She had her biggest orgasm yet. It made her jump, pull away from Eric as she fell on the floor, rolling around in a mess of cum as she moaned- no, screamed. Her hips shook and she tried to cover her pussy with her hand, but it was buckled off, and she squirted everywhere, lifting her ass off the ground. 

“I love black cock!” Catwoman screamed as she fell onto the floor like a starfish. 

“Sure did,” muttered Eric, getting dressed again, having trouble fitting his black manhood in his pants again, “I’ll tell the boss you’re the least of our problems now that the Bat’s onto us. Good luck, you crazy little whore.” And with that, he walked out to the balcony, and left. 

Selina was left scoop up the pools of black cum, playing with the precious substance like, well, a kitten. She coated her hand in it, rubbed it all on her worn-out pussy. She massaged her belly with a glob of it, soothing her stretched insides. She made her milky white tits even whiter, lubing them up with his copious baby batter. Most of all, she filled her hands with it, and poured it down her hungry, slutty little throat. 

“I love black dick,” she breathed, not even thinking. It just came naturally. “I love black cum. I’m a blacked little slut.” 

She passed out, soon dreaming of getting stuffed by big, black cock. 

3 - Stephanie Brown and the Blackedcomputer 

Selina was in trouble honestly. It was the first time in years she’d failed a job (granted, she never took up contracts, but still!), and surely Black Spider wouldn’t be the last assassin to be sent after her. While that turned out well, she didn’t wanna gamble her life with the next one. 

Especially if the next wasn’t black. 

That’s why she was here now, at the residence of Carlton Duquesne, a generally well-liked and well-respected mob boss. The kind who would provide her the protection she needed. In more ways than one, of course, but only Selina would think of an innuendo like that when her life was on the line. 

Then again, considering Duquesne’s mob was owned and operated by the black families of Gotham’s underworld, not to mention the luxurious overworld old Carlton himself lived in, maybe plenty of women would accept protection. Those of the underworld would prefer to stay clean with the hung black thugs they fucked, while the wealthier women would use it to make sure they didn’t end up pregnant with a black guy’s baby. 

Either way, Selina would probably still use it. She wasn’t that addicted to her newfound love. Not yet, anyways. She still knew what she was doing though. Every mob in Gotham had it’s big, strong black enforcers. But she picked the one she knew had the most. And the one that was run by one. 

Selina was neither greedy nor generous, stealing more than she could possibly need, but still gave tons to charity. Mostly for animals, but still, it was charity. Mr. Duquesne, however, was not a charity case, and she didn’t intend to spend a dime on protection money to stay at his big, extravagant, and a tad tacky hotel. She did, however offer another payment that was worth more to her than it was to him. Not that she’d ever tell that. 

When she first came to him, she pleaded for protection from the newly made enemies. He initially refused- Catwoman was a big name, and a big target. Her reputation couldn’t buy her protection, but it seemed money would. Selina had a better idea. 

“Tell me, Mr. Duquesne,” she’d said. She still remembered exactly how the exchange went, that night in his penthouse office, him in a suit and turtleneck, her in her catsuit, “How much do you pay the girls who I saw running around your office earlier?” 

“My ladies ain’t a concern, kitty,” the mob boss replied, “you’re not negotiating with them.” 

“Oh, of courrrrse I’m not negotiating with them,” she purred, “I’m Catwoman, they’re just... girls, really. How could they compare?” she rubbed a gloved hand up her torso. Her palm grazed against her D-cup. 

Carlton looked her up and down. She invited him by sliding her zipper all the way down, so that the tiniest flecks of her well-trimmed womanly hair poked above the catsuit. “I just wanna place to stay, baby. To lay low.” She made a kissy face. 

“There a catch, kitty?” The black boss leaned down to look at her. She got on the floor in response, 

“Not at all. I’ll do this every week if it you’d rather that then rent. More than every week....” 

“I’ll be the judge of what’s worth it,” he said, deep gravelly voice doing things to her pussy. He lifted himself up, undoing his belt and pulling down his pants, then his underwear, down his ashy black legs, revealing his cock. 

He was enormous. The thickest cock she’s ever seen, almost as long as her arm and bulbous. He could tell by the look in her eyes that she was in love. 

“So it’s gonna be like that, huh?” 

She nodded. “I’ll be your slut once a week. More, if this thing feels as good as it looks.” 

“Good.” He wasn’t surprised by women wanting his dick at all. 

“Any limits, sir?” She asked, uncharacteristically submissive. She pulled down the top of her suit, letting her braless tits shine with all their glory. 

“Just don’t call me daddy. Shit’s weird.” 

She was a little disappointed. She loved the fantasy of a black daddy ramming her ass as she cried his title. Still, it wasn’t worth giving up an inch of this monster cock. Selina nodded yes right into his eyes as she kissed the sliding foreskin of his cock. She got it hard just with sluttly little licks and pokes of her tongue. Just like a Cat. And that was what he wanted, right? Catwoman, the dangerous, uncontrollable expert thief and outlaw, totally submitting to his massive, alpha, dominant, mob boss black cock. 

“I... don’t know if I can suck it all,” she worried, looking up at him as he unbuttoned his shirt with massive, strong arms, showing a slightly bulging belly and powerful chest. 

“I’ve had white girls take it before. Penguin’s bitches, Lark and Jay? They’ve sucked it down to the base. Do you really think you’re worse than some sluts who suck Cobblepot’s ugly cock?” 

That got to her head. Selina always had a bit of a complex, and this played right to it. She hadn’t stood down from sucking a dick since middle school, and she didn’t want to start now. Although, if there was one sort of dick she couldn’t overcome, it was the massive kind black men possessed. 

“Yes sir. Your dirty whore, at your service,” she smiled at him. 

She licked from his huge, loose balls, her tongue drawing them up until his sack was stiff and wrinkled. Her tastebuds didn’t experience any worse taste though. She put her hands on his comparatively huge ones (and she had big hands for a woman). She felt him relax, loosen up for her. Even if she wanted to hurt him, he’d overpower her. Maybe she’d try to, just to feel him rough her up. 

She kept peeling off her spandex down to the last inch, tossing it to the side. He was dressed in classy, 

expensive armani wool, unbuttoned to show his impressive physique. Selina, meanwhile, was totally naked, silky ass and tits all out for anyone to walk in to see. If they did she’d keep going. She loved being a black cock slut. 

Positioned in front of his bulbous cock, she looked up at him. He didn’t look down. It was like she didn’t even matter. It was a little upsetting, after all, Catwoman deserved more respect. But god it was hot. This monster black cock was probably so popular that the Catwoman worshipping it wasn’t any big deal to Carlton. 

Kiss after kiss, she made out with the tip of his dick, not letting an ounce of precum escape from her greedy lips. She was ready to steal all his cum, like the good little slutty thief she was. She went down on him, struggling to swallow all of the huge black rod. She choked, but knew this was where she belonged. 

Sucking his cock. 

Outside, another sight was happening. Red Robin, Tim Drake, was assigned to watch Catwoman. Her alleged dealings with Tobias Whale’s mob was cause for concern, and as such, he was tasked with the field monitoring, while Stephanie Brown was on the other end of the line. 

“She- she’s getting on her knees,” he said, watching the beginning of the scene, peering over the stone lip of the building across the way from Selina and Duquesne. 

“What?” came Stephanie, the muffled sounds of movement, “So she’s not just making a deal with Duquesne?” 

“I- um, I think she is,” her boyfriend replied. 

“Aww, I can hear you blushing. What’s wrong? You watch porn all the time, don’t you?” 

“And do stuff with you, but it’s weird to watch.” 

“Don’t kid yourself, babe. You know I don’t wanna do stuff with the little thing you’re packing. And you watch me all the time while you’re sitting in a corner or behind a screen, jerking off. Are they still talking?” She slurped down chinese takeout. Not the healthiest, but it was her cheat day. Besides, she knew black guys liked girls a little plumper than she was. 

“She’s- um- pulling his pants down. And her top off. Jesus..” 

“What? Is he huge, or are her tits that great. It’s both, isn’t it?” 

“It... it’s both.” 

“D’aww,” she mocked, “Is your little thing hard?” 

“Do you have to make fun of it all the time?” 

“Oh come on, look, I’m sorry, but it’s just too hilarious! I’m not even horny right now-” she heard Tim grumble something on the other end of the line. “What was that? Is it about me being horny? Because if I was you’d be hearing me watching those VIP Blacked.com videos you paid for me. Now look, I’ll be nicer about it, but we have to get this work done! Either keep talking or turn on the camera!” 

“Right,” Tim mumbled, pulling out the portable tripod-mounted camera and hooked it up to the Batcomputer, streaming the scene right into Stephanie’s monitor. The blonde focused it, getting the best shot possible. Tim went off to ‘monitor the perimeter’, but she barely even heard him. The pretty white girl was, as any pretty white girl, mesmerized by the fat cock of a powerful black man. 

Shouldn’t have thought about my blacked membership, thought Stephanie, only somewhat reluctantly sliding her hand down to the crotch of her purple tracksuit. Wet, she thought. She could feel it even before her fingertips touched the dampness right above her pussy. Of course I’m wet- god I’m such a slut. Not that she wanted to change that, of course. She put her feet up on the Batcomputer and spread her legs. She focused intently on the image on her screen. 

Selina Kyle- Catwoman, a villainess she’d had to put in cuffs at least once before, was looking like a fucking supermodel but with bigger tits, bobbing her face on Boss Duquesne’s massive cock. Her skin was almost as pale as Batwoman’s, and the roundness of her muscular arm and silky tits shone in the moonlight. The drops of spit flying onto them only made them shine more. 

As Catwoman drooled sloppy spittle all over this old man’s huge dick, Steph just had to zoom in the camera. Thank god for the 4k quality, she thought, dipping her shakily desperate hand under her waistband. She sunk two fingers into her pussy as she watched how Catwoman’s spit flew everywhere everytime her lips reached the base of his cock. His beefy fingers ran through her short black hair. Both women wished it was longer. Carlton was perfectly happy the way it is. All three of them could see that big hands did indeed mean big dick. 

Selina was beginning to feel something was off. She had a sort of cat sense, and right now, it told her that she was being watched. That was usually a bad thing, but right now, with her throat all stuffed with dick and lips dripping with molasses-like spit, she hoped she was being watched. 

She was proud of this. She hoped whoever was watching her get blacked the third day in a row was feeling as good as she was. Besides, if she did anything about it, that’d just mean she’d have to wait longer to cum on a big black cock. Or feel it shoot all over her tits. Or cum in her ass. Or just keep having this black monster force her tongue down and her uvula up. Any of those would make it worth it. 

So Catwoman and Spoiler, neither in their costumes or even knowing the other was aware of their presence, reached a mutual understanding. Selina would enjoy all the pleasures of sucking, fucking, cumming, and squirting on Carlton Duquesne’s deep black manhood. And Stephanie would get to spend her work time fingering her cunt to a live, real interracial scene. No actors. Every drop of hot cum and warm spit was as real as the juice on Steph’s own fingers. 

Speaking of cum, Carlton’s balls tightened further and his rod came to full attention, making Selina gag and choke. She felt like he was going to rip her throat open and her lily white jawbone apart as his whole penis swelled, charging up for a massive blast of cum. 

He shot his load down her throat. It was a massive load, fitting for a foot-long monster on one of the most powerful bosses in the city. It felt like a gallon of thick, gloopy cum forcing itself down her throat. Her eyes bugged out with tears. She had always loved that, when guys choked her, but she never knew she could really choke on a fat fucking cock until she downed this one. It felt like some shots blasted his creamy seed right into her stomach. She quickly gulped down whatever didn’t, until her stomach was churning with a massive meal. She hadn’t eaten since yesterday, as she was on the run. She was hornier than she was hungry, though. She never expected both to be satisfied at once. 

Her eyes widened again as she realized what was happening. She was cumming! 

She came right as he did. And without it even going near her favorite holes. 

That never happened. Well, it might have with the two black guys before, but she couldn’t remember those well, after they had fucked her silly. Still, it was an overwhelming orgasm, hot pussy juice squirting all over the floor, making Selina try and yell with his huge cock still jammed insider her mouth, “MM!! MMM!!!! FCKKKK!! FFFFKKKK!!!” 

This was all a very different experience. It wasn’t random, like the other two fucks she had with Batwing and Black Spider. Those were random. She didn’t expect those. This was planned, she came in here with a plan to get a big black cock fucking her, when she was safe and sober. She didn’t even talk to the guy. She’d bantered with every guy she fucked since she first became a hooker almost twenty years ago. Well, except Batman, but she tried to have him let up his ‘strong silent type’ thing. 

The point was, this was when things changed. Selina knew what she would never stop being a horny little slut for black cock. This was the next chapter of her life- the street rat Selina, the prostitute Selina, the famous criminal Selina, and now, the Blacked Selina. The wet, hot, dripping whore couldn’t be happier. 

She collapsed from her kneeling position Her bare thighs slid on the tile floor that she covered with her wet cum and she landed on her ass. His scarily big black cock emerged from her mouth still hard and ready for more. The dark brown skin of his body was pitch black on his spit-soaked dick, strands of the mess sticking to Selina’s limp, addicted lips. They curled into a smile. 

“What the fuck?!” Yelled Stephanie, kicking her legs down onto the floor. Her bottoms were only a tiny bit down, so the soft skin of her thighs muffined over the band and her blonde pubes, soaked with pussy juice, were barely visible, “You fucking suck his dick once and when he shoots his load in you, you squirt like a fucking fifteen your old all over the floor and pass out like some coke addict whore? All from a fucking BJ?! What lame shit is this? I can’t cum to this!” 

She paused her complaining to hear Tim mumble on the other end of the line, “I can hear you.” 

She sighed. “Do you want me to just mute you, or keep going? I’m trying to enjoy myself here, and I promise I’ll make it up to you when you come home. Okay?” 

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t mute, I might need your help if I find something.” 

“Yeah, I know babe. Now lemme keep watching- and save the footage, you should watch it later.” He 

didn’t respond. That was why she loved him so much. 

She stripped off her bottoms, the top of it all soaked anyways from sweat and her syrupy cunt juices. The purple leggings tossed to the side, she was free to spread her legs as far as she liked while leaning back in the chair that was far bigger than her. 

Carlton had been speaking to Selina. Before Steph started watching, he’d asked, “Did you really just cum that hard?” 

“F..fuck yeah d- uh, Carlton. I swear I don’t normally cum when just giving head.” 

“I hoped not. I thought Catwoman would be a better bed than some virgin schoolgirl.” 

“Have you- fucked virgin schoolgirls before?” Asked Selina. By pure coincidence, she thought of Stephanie Brown, miss 15 and pregnant. 

“Can’t confirm or deny,” Carl smiled, showing off one gold tooth. 

Selina got up, rubbing her smooth, shaky legs, covered in cum and gross juices that she absolutely loved, all over his expensive suit. He didn’t care. He’d just have his maids wash them. If they asked what happened, he’d fuck them too. Hell, he’d fuck them either way. Carlton Duquesne did whatever he wanted. 

She ran her hand up his sweaty, hair, bulky body. The idea of him fucking some slutty highschooler, because of some mob debt or some deal or just because she knew a good fuck when she saw one, was impossibly hot to her. By the time her long, curvy body stood all the way up, a drop of horny, hot pussy juice fell to the floor from her dripping cunt. 

“You want more?” 

“Fuck yeah. Make me your whore.” 

“I’ll make sure to get you a luxury suite if you make me cum real good.” 

“Mmmm,” she rubbed her plump white ass over the base of his cock, slinging the huge rod all around her sexy butt. Its length dwarfed her behind, its fat head easily sitting on the small of her back. “Fuck my pussy and my ass. I’ll make you cum twice- in each.” 

Carlton slapped her ass and grinned ear to ear. 

By the time it was over, his cum was all over his desk, her juice was all over his suit, and Stephanie’s squirting was all over the batcomputer. Between the three of them, Carlton’s big black cock had caused at least a dozen orgasms. And Tim hadn’t even watched the video yet. 

[pretoriuspictures]

Interview w/ Ben Hozie and Jesse Locke for Aquarium Drunkard:

Aquarium Drunkard: I know you primarily as a musician, so can you tell me a bit about your background as a filmmaker?

Ben Hozie: I’ve been making DIY films for almost as long as I’ve been writing songs in rock groups. So far the music has connected with more people but I intend to do both for as long as I can. I shot my first feature Annunciation when I was 22 on 16mm w/ experimental filmmaker Simon Liu. At that time I thought we made this really significant work that would skyrocket us into international film notoriety so it was quite humbling when we got rejected from almost every film festival in the world.

I love personal cinema too much to be discouraged so I put my head down and made a few shorts and another feature called The Lion’s Den a few years later on DV cam for about ten thousand dollars. That one was also rejected from all the film festivals so here I am again with another new film. PVT Chat was shot and edited around the last seven or eight BODEGA tours. I’m hoping that one day I will make a film that people really respond to which will dignify and force people to revisit the rest of my movies.

AD: What are your first two films Annunciation and The Lion’s Den about?

Ben Hozie: Annunciation is a modern ‘adaptation’ of the Mérode Altarpiece Triptych (the early northern Renaissance painting) that is composed of three narratives (one for each panel of the painting) : a director of advertisements who falls for his intern, a young tourist struggling to overcome impotence, and an actress portraying the Virgin Mary who decides to become a surrogate mother. The filming coincided with Occupy Wall Street so we filmed scenes at Zuccotti Park and allowed Occupy to shape the timbre of the film.

The Lion’s Den is a comedy of errors farce about a group of radicals in a commune in Staten Island who attempt to kidnap the CEO of a giant corporation but instead get the wrong guy. While the group is figuring out what to do with their captive businessman, members of the commune attempt to ‘revolution the bedroom’ by exchanging sexual partners. The Den was an attempt at theatrical cinema : my two models were the essayistic political films of Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin and The Rules of the Game.

Both of those films were aggressively anti-naturalistic (in different ways) and at the time I thought of them as conscious rebukes to the mumblecore film movement. In 2017 something happened and I fell in love with a number of mumble and mumble-adjacent films. I was particularly impressed with how said films were able to achieve abstraction via documentary (that combination is perhaps the essence of cinema) so I decided to make a film of my own leaning slightly towards that world (PVT Chat).

AD: What inspired you to write the story of PVT Chat? Do you know people who have turned online gambling and online sex work into main sources of income?

Ben Hozie: I’ve known a few sex workers (as well as online gamblers) but I was initially drawn to that world because it seemed to really crystallize something essential about this historical moment where most emotion is processed through computer screens. I don’t see the cam or online gambling worlds as that different from social media: they are just different forms of stimulation addiction. This is the same theme that the BODEGA LP Endless Scroll was about.

AD: How do you feels about these kinds of relationships formed through screens now that we’re forced to do them in a pandemic?

Ben Hozie: I don’t think all relationships formed through screens are superficial or harmful. In the movie Jack (Peter Vack) and Scarlet (Julia Fox) become quite close through their cam chats — they become closer than any of the other characters in the film are to each other. Internet culture has its pluses and minuses.

AD: How were you able to cast Peter Vack, Buddy Durress, and Julia Fox? I understand this was her acting first role before making Uncut Gems.

Ben Hozie: I met Peter on a short that I was AD-ing a few years ago (directed by PVT Chat’s producer Oliver David). We’ve since become very close friends. I loved Peter’s performance in his movie Assholes — it was full of this naive boyish enthusiasm that made me realize he could be Jack. Peter is very handsome and charming too. It was important to me that Jack not become an incel-type character. He is obsessed with cam girls for other reasons than social inadequacy.

I was a big fan of Buddy’s from his Safdies movies and later met him through his old agent and was able to track him down in Queens at his mom’s place. I met Julia because I heard she was getting into acting and had also spent some time as a dominatrix when she was younger. She got cast in Uncut Gems shortly after we started shooting PVT. We started before their production but finished way after (I was shooting scenes almost a year after our initial shoot).

AD: Do you have any funny on set stories about Buddy?

Ben Hozie: Me, Peter, Buddy, and Kevin Moccia (who plays Will) got quite into blackjack during the production. We would always play hands online at my apartment in between set-ups. We had some good runs not unlike those in the movie (which were all improvised and real). A few weeks later Buddy called me and asked me if he could stake me some cash to double for him playing cards (which is literally the plot of the movie). I told him I didn’t feel confident enough to pull that off! Buddy is a great talker (one of the many reasons he is a great actor). He’s very fun to talk on the phone to. Unfortunately he went back to jail during the filming of PVT. I’m not sure if he’s out yet or not…I hope so.

Me and Peter shot some incognito b-roll at a real casino (which was later cut from the film) but he won us 3.6k off one hand (red 21) at roulette (which we were hoping would be a scene in which he lost….)!!!  You can see the footage here.  

AD: One thing I really like about this story is that Scarlet is portrayed as enjoying her work and having full agency instead of the movie shaming her. In fact, everyone else comes across worse. Was that an important part of it for you?

Ben Hozie: Yes. It was important for me that the movie did not depict cam girls as victims (certainly many are but not all of them). I also wanted to bring film eroticism into the 21st century which is why it was important to include scenes of a woman achieving pleasure just for the sake of her own pleasure. People seem reluctant to admit that some sex workers chose their line of work because they enjoy and excel at it.

I also wanted to film masturbation and fantasy in a way I’ve never seen at the cinema: raw, honest, and un-glamorous. Sex in cinema is often just cheap titillation or a quick stopgap in between plot. I wanted to film sexuality in a way that reveals something about its everyday-ness. That couldn’t have been achieved without Julia or Peter’s cinematic courage. It was also extremely important for me to film erect full frontal male nudity as that’s something rarely ever depicted in cinema.

AD: Can you tell me about Austin Brown from Parquet Courts’ score? Did he have a specific vision for how the film should sound?

Ben Hozie: I like to think of music in my films as samples. I like films that are relatively score-less (except diegetic music) but which include quick bursts of musical punctuation. I already was using quite a bit of Beethoven in the movie but wanted something contemporary to play against this. Austin has played a not insignificant role in my recent musical life (he produced my band’s Endless Scroll LP) so he was a natural choice to do the score.

After some initial experimentation before the tone of the film was discovered I remember telling Austin I mostly wanted two things : 1) some pieces in the world of the Parquet Courts EP Monastic Living: guitar feedback and contemplative harmonics and 2) something yearning and romantic similar to his song “Steady on my Mind” from their Human Performance LP. He’s a great guitar player and arranger and was able to come up with some excellent material (he also makes a cameo in the movie playing guitar as a street busker). He also composed some of the diegetic pieces in the movie and surprised me with a great little John Carpenter-esque synth piece which is now also in the trailer.

AD: What are your upcoming plans to get the movie out there?

Ben Hozie: It’s hard to say since it seems most film festivals are cancelled for the remainder of the year. I’m eager for audiences to see it. We will have to wait and see.

https://aquariumdrunkard.com/2020/03/31/stimulation-addiction-an-interview-with-bodegas-ben-hozie-about-his-new-film-pvt-chat/

[mbtiwebcomic]

The Artisan:

"For the Artisans, life's cup is to run over, people are to be enjoyed, games are to be played, resources are to be expended. To be human is to be generous, to spend and sow freely, impetuously, spreading bounty like scattering seed."

"Just as foxes are one of the cleverest and nimblest of the canines, so the Artisans are the cleverest of the humans — clever tactically, that is, clever at getting what they want and remaining one step ahead of those who would restrain them."

"Artisans want to be where the action is; they seek out adventure and show a constant hunger for pleasure and stimulation. They believe that variety is the spice of life and that doing things that aren't fun or exciting is a waste of time. Artisans are impulsive, adaptable, competitive, and believe the next throw of the dice will be the lucky one. They can also be generous to a fault, always ready to share with their friends from the bounty of life. Above all, Artisans need to be free to do what they wish, when they wish. They resist being tied or bound or confined or obligated; they would rather not wait, or save, or store, or live for tomorrow. In the Artisan view, today must be enjoyed, for tomorrow never comes."

"In implementing their goals, Artisans are primarily interested in what works, what fits, and only secondarily in what meets with social approval."

"a thing must be useful to interest an Artisan, immediately useful, concretely useful, otherwise who needs it?"

"In a sense Artisans are born to be practical, to get what they want by any means necessary, and if necessity requires a measure of rudeness, or flaunting convention, or being wasteful of effort, well, so be it. Their question is always, "What's it good for?" "What do you get out of this?" "What's in it for me?" "Where's the payoff?" "Why bother?" "Where's the fun?" — or just plain "So what?"

"Artisans view life as chancy, risky, a leap in the dark, a crap-shoot — and they would have it no other way. When luck smiles on them they ride the streak, and when their luck turns sour they simply shrug their shoulders, sloughing off adversity with an attitude of "that's life," "that's the breaks," or "that's the way the ball bounces."

"The action that gets the most result for the least effort is efficient, and Rationals take pride in their efficiency.  In contrast, graceful action boosts the Artisans' self-esteem regardless of the effort they put into the performance. Artisans will expend whatever effort is required to adorn an activity, styling and restyling their performance, pushing their artistry to its limits, failing again and again until fluency has been reached."

"And, indeed, of all the styles Artisans are best able to respond quickly and flexibly to a changing environment.

This is why Artisans work so well in a crisis; new situations demand new actions, and earlier commitments often have to be abandoned — with regret, perhaps, but still abandoned. Today is today, and yesterday's arrangements must give way in the face of more urgent demands. Artisans hate to be bound by rigid, pre-established laws — by the SJ's rules and regulations, by the NF's ethical concerns, or by the NT's laws of logic. Artisans will go along with such conventions for a time, lying low and not rocking the boat, but only until a crisis occurs, and then they spring into action."

"Artisans are impulsive. They like being that way. To be impulsive, spontaneous, is to be really alive. Artisans trust their impulses without reserve, enjoy feeling them well up within; and they love discharging them, like setting off an explosion. They even feel uneasy if they don't have impulses. At one time or another all the types feel these sudden urges to act, but the others try to control them, looking ahead to what they think of as more valuable goals. Guardians, Idealists, and Rationals discipline their impulses in the name of duty, ethics, or reason, behavior which would only make the Artisan feel bound and confined."

"Social impact is vital for Artisans, even for those who appear to shrug their shoulders and turn away from society. Artisans need to be potent, to be felt as a strong presence, and they want to affect the course of events, if only by defying, shocking, or mocking the establishment. For an Artisan, to be without impact, to make no difference in human affairs, is like being deprived of oxygen. Artisans hunger to have a piece of the action, to make a splash, to make something happen, to hit the big time, whether in the world of art or corporate business, on the battlefield or ball field, on stage or in the political arena."

"Artisans believe that variety is the spice of life, and they want their lives to be filled with new sensations and experiences. In family life, Artisans are eager to try different vacation spots, to buy new cars, new clothes, to change houses, to try out new foods, new places to eat, or even to vary the dinner hour, wanting to eat whenever the impulse strikes."

All quotes from Please Understand Me II.

Note: First time coloring with Photoshop, I really like the result!

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior for January 10, 2020 – 1917, Like A Boss, Just Mercy, Underwater

Well, it looks like we’re back to the usual business now that it’s 2020 with the first weekend with four wide releases – two new movies and two expanding after opening in limited release over Christmas. I’m running a little behind on this so I’ll work on finishing a few reviews before Friday but for now, you can just get a general idea of what’s coming out so you can make some moviegoing plans.

The big movie that I’m most excited for people to see is Sam Mendes’ WWI epic 1917 (Universal), starring George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman as two soldiers sent on an urgent but dangerous mission to the frontlines to prevent an invasion that could leave thousands of British soldiers dead. It’s one of the most exciting movies I saw last year, which is why it ended up on my Top 25 at #2. I already reviewed the movie for ComingSoon.net and did some interviews for VitalThrills.com, so I probably don’t have a ton more to say about it, but it is the one movie I can recommend whole-heartedly this weekend. It is easily one of the best movies I saw last year (twice!)

This weekend also brings the high-concept R-rated comedy LIKE A BOSS (Paramount), which pairs Rose Byrne with Tiffany Haddish and Salma Hayek, three very funny women and great actors in a movie directed by Miguel Arteta (The Good Girl). Essentially, Byrne and Haddish play long-time besties who have been building a small grassroots make-up company and then Hayek comes along as a huge corporate mogul who wants to buy them out who makes a deal that will allow her to get a larger percentage if the two friends break up. You can probably guess the rest. (My review will be posted later tonight since it’s under embargo.)

Mini-Review: It was almost immediately apparent as Like a Boss began that this movie wasn’t going to be for me. It wasn’t the premise or the characters as much as it was the fact that it expects the viewer to be somewhat savvy about the make-up business, something I know (and care) little about.

Byrne and Haddish play best friends Mel and Mia, who have turned their shared love of make-up into a thriving local business that gets the attention of Salma Hayek’s Claire Luna, a big-shot exec at a corporation who wants to buy a stake in their business but with a catch. If for some reason the friends break-up, Luna gets the majority share of the company. This is literally the difference between a 51% and a 49% stake… so not really that big a deal.

I’m not even sure where to begin with this because there’s so much talent involved that generally deserves better, but Haddish has yet to deliver anything on par with her Girls Trip role, and that doesn’t change here. Mind you, I’ve been a big Rose Byrne fan for quite some time, and she’s really been great in movies that allow her to go between humor and drama, but it feels as if she’s trying way too hard to keep up with Haddish, who has actually toned back her character to be more of a 4 or 5 on the Haddish scale.

Jennifer Coolidge seems to be doing the exact same thing she’s done in everything from Legally Blonde to Two Broke Girls, basically acting like a dimwit, and it’s a shame because it’s not really a good part. There’s also Mel and Mia’s three best friends who are so useless at bringing anything to the story that it’s unclear why they’re in the movie at all except to act as a Greek Chorus.  This leaves it up to Billy Porter to steal the movie with but just one scene, and pretty much the only one that delivers a laugh.

I’m not sure if the makers of this movie thought that it would be seen as another pro-feminist movie that women flock to, but the problem might be the simple fact that it’s written and directed by men. That certainly couldn’t have helped, especially since this movie is clearly trying to be another Bridesmaids by pushing the R-rated envelope.

The thing is that if you’re going to make a comedy, you should at least try to make some effort for it to be funny, and the fact that Jennifer Lopez’s Second Act takes place in a similar environment but finds a way to be funnier is telling that Like a Boss just isn’t up to snuff.

It’s doubtful Like A Boss will be anyone’s worst movie of the year, but that’s because it isn’t particularly memorable and will likely be forgotten by February.

Rating: 5/10

Another movie expanding nationwide after a platform release is Dustin Daniel Cretton’s prison drama JUST MERCY (Warner Bros.), which stars Michael B. Jordan as young defense attorney Bryan Stevenson, who finds himself trying to get prisoners on Death Row exonerated. The movie also stars Jamie Foxx as Walter McMillian, a man falsely accused of murder who becomes Bryan’s biggest case to date while Brie Larson plays Eva Ansley, who works with Bryan. I was kind of bored by the movie the first time I saw it, but I gave it another chance recently and generally liked it more, especially towards the last act. I may write a review before Friday if I can find any time but I’m pretty slammed this week.

The last movie of the weekend is actually one I’ve been looking forward to, since the sci-fi thriller UNDERWATER (20th Century Fox) is my kind of movie. It stars Kristen Stewart, Jessica Hardwick (from the Netflix series Iron First), TJ Miller, Vincent Cassell and John Gallagher, Jr. as a team of scientists who are trapped 6 miles below sea level when their station is hit by a catastrophe and they learn that they’re not alone down there. It’s the new movie from William Eubank, a talented filmmaker who I interviewed years agofor his movie The Signal. I’m also still working on my review for this so please check back tonight/tomorrow for it.

Mini-Review:

It’s a bit of a bummer this new undersea horror-thriller probably won’t get a fair shake from critics, because it’s being released in January. Far too many film critics just love their clichés, and when it comes to January movies (other than the ones premiering at Sundance), they expect everything to be horrible. They go in with that thought in mind and then nitpick to make sure they’re theory is right. Maybe it’s true, but it’s also not particularly fair when you have a movie like Underwater that delivers exactly what’s being sold.

The underwater drilling station Kelper rests on the outskirts of the Mariana Trench, and no sooner then we meet Kristen Stewart’s electric engineer Norah, Kepler is hit by a powerful earthquake that tears the station apart, as she and a few of her colleagues do what they can to survive. They soon learn that they’re not down there alone.

Yes, the premise is a bit of a horror cliché we’ve seen many times before, mostly in space thrillers like the classic Alien, but director William Eubank (The Signal) clearly has chops to direct a much bigger-scale movie like this that involves a lot of underwater FX-work.

While the dialogue isn’t always great, and the attempt to make TJ Miller the film’s comic relief doesn’t always work, you generally like the characters played by Stewart, Hardwick, Cassell and Gallagher, which tends to be half the battle when it comes to horror films.  You actually care about them as they face bigger and bigger jeopardy.

I’m sure some women will take issue with Stewart spending a good portion of the movie in a skimpy bathing suit, as soon as she’s out of the bulky deepsea suit she wears for the rest of the movie, but you won’t hear any complaints from me about that.

Like I said, the movie gives you exactly what is being advertised and Eubank has created a movie that’s suitably claustrophobic and at times, legitimately terrifying.

Rating: 7/10

LIMITED RELEASES

The movie opening in limited release that I can recommend highly is Ladj Li’s police thriller LES MISERABLES (Amazon Studios), an amazing police thriller about a group of French detectives trying to deal with issues taking place at the local projects. I thought this French film (France’s shortlisted selection for the Oscar “International Film” category) was fantastic and shows a promising new talent in Li, who wrote and directed the film. If it’s playing in your area, I recommend checking it out, although I’m guessing it will be on Amazon Prime sometime soon as well.

I haven’t seen Jon Avnet’s THREE CHRISTS (IFC FIlms), which has Richard Gere playing Dr. Alan Stone, a psychiatrist in charge of dealing with three schizophrenic patients who all believe they’re Jesus Christ, as played by Peter Dinklage, Walton Goggins and Bradley Whitford. It will open in select cities and On Demand shortly after.

Opening Friday in the States roughly eight months after it opened in the United Kingdom is Ron Scalpello’s crime-thriller THE CORRUPTED (Saban Films), starring Sam Claflin as Liam, an ex-con trying to win back the love of his family, while trying to get out of the tangled web of corruption surrounding him. The movie also stars Timothy Spall, Hugh Bonneville and Charlie Murphy.

Josh Hartnett and Margarita Levieva star in Anthony Jerjen’s Inherit the Viper (Lionsgate), playing siblings Kip and Josie, who are dealing in opioids as their only means of survival.  Kip’s attempts to get out of the family business put him and his sister and younger brother (Owen Teague) in danger. it will open in select cities and On Demand.

Ofra Bloch’s documentary Afterward (1091) debuted at DOC-NYC last year with its look at the issues between Israel and Palestine that came out of the Jews being driven out of Germany during World War II and settling in Israel where they were seen as an enemy by the Palestinians, while trying to give and receive forgiveness. This is a fantastic doc that will open on Friday and then be on VOD January 28.

Alison Reid’s doc The Woman Who Loves Giraffes (Zeitgeist/Kino Lorber) is a little more obvious what it’s about, as it follows Anne Innis Dagg’s solo journey to South Africa in 1956 to study giraffes, featuring voicework by Tatiana Maslany, Victor Garber and more. It opens at New York’s Quad Cinema on Friday and at the Laemmle in Los Angeles on February 21.

Opening today at the Film Forumin New York is Renaud Barret’s doc System K (Artification Release), which looks at the city of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the street artist performance scene that criticizes government corruption and the poverty that has struck the area.

The Sonata (Screen Media) stars Freya Tingley as a virtuoso violinist who inherits the mansion of her composer father (the late Rutger Hauer) after his sudden death, where she discovers a mysterious score with strange symbols that she tries to decipher with her agent and manager (Simon Abkarian).

This week’s Bollywood offering is Meghna Gulzar’s Chaapaak (FIP), starring Deepika Padukone as a woman attacked with acid in New Delhi in 2005 and how she survived it.

REPERTORY

It’s a new year so we’re back with more cool repertory stuff!

METROGRAPH (NYC):

My favorite local rep theater is beginning with two movies by Your Name and Weathering with You director Makoto Shinkai: 2007’s 5 Centimeters per Second and 2011’s Children Who Chase Lost Voices. On Saturday night, the Academy is back at the Metrograph screening Lina Wermüller’s 1976 movie Seven Beauties. Also on Thursday, you can see two “Metrograph Standards,” Jack Hazan’s A Bigger Splash (1974) and Edo Bertoglio’s Downtown 81. Welcome To Metrograph: Reduxwill screen Richard Quine’s 1958 film Bell, Book and Candle, Late Nites at Metrograph will screen Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low  (1963) while the Playtime: Family Matinees  selection is Danny Devito’s Matilda from 1996.

FILM AT LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

Folllowing up FilmLinc’s amazing Korean cinema series from last year, this week, they’re doing a special “The Bong Show” retrospective, highlighting the work of soon-to-be Oscar nominee Bong Joon-Ho, as well as other related films with Director Bong in person for some of them. It runs through January 14 and besides all of his feature films, there will be a showing of all his shorts on Friday night, January 10, as well as Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Cure  (1997), Deliverance (1972), Intentions of Murder (1964), John Frankenheimer’s Seconds (1966), John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and more.

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE BROOKLYN (NYC)

Tonight’s “Weird Wednesday “is the 1984 Supergirl movie, starring Helen Slater, which is almost sold out. Thursday’s “Cherry Bomb” pick is the 1988 film Shy People. Next week’s “Terror Tuesday” is the horror classic Ghoulies (1984) and “Weird Wednesday” is Tarsem’s The Fall, the latter hosted by Vaiance Films founder Dylan Marchetti.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Today’s “Afternoon Classics” matinee is Norman Jewison’s 1967 film In the Heat of the Night, while the Weds./Thurs night double feature is Secret Ceremony and Boom!, both from 1968, both starring Elizabeth Taylor. Friday’s “Freaky Friday” is the 1985 film Re-Animator, while Tarantino’s own Django Unchained is the Friday midnight movie. This weekend’s Kiddee Matinee is the Studio Ghibli film Ponyo, while the “Cartoon Club” is also running this weekend. The Saturday midnight movie is Martin Scorsese’s classic Taxi Driver  (1976). Monday’s “Monday Matinees” is the Stephen King adaptation Misery (1990), while the double feature running from Monday through Thursday are newer films, Greta Gerwig’s Little Women and Sofia Coppola’s The Beguilded from 2017, both in 35mm.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

On Wednesday, Film Forum will begin screening a 4k restoration of Russian filmmaker István Szabó’s Mephisto (1981) along with screenings of his other movies, Confidence (1980) and Colonel Redl (1985).  This weekend’s “Film Forum Jr.” is one of my all-time favorite comedies, Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot(1959), starring Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Apparently, the Egyptian now has two theaters? Sweet! As part of the theater’s “New Year’s Resolutions” its screening the 1993 horror anthology, Necronomicon: The Book of the Dead on Friday in the Spielberg Theater, followed at 10pm by Roar (1981). The Egyptian’s usual theater will screen a double feature of Airplane! (1980) and Stripes  (1981) on Friday. On Saturday, you can see Pacino in Scarface (1983), the sci-fi classic The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957) and Terrence Young’s Valley of the Eagles (1951) with an introduction by Joe Dante (schedule-permitting).  Also on Saturday night is a double feature of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Other (1972). Sunday’s “New Year’s Resolution” is “Get More Sleep!” in the form of Akira Kurosawa’s later film Dreams (1990), plus you can also see a 35mm print of The Blue Angel (1930), starring Marlene Dietrich as part of the theater’s “Sunday Print Edition.” Sunday’s New Year’s Resolution is Deliverance (1971)andWake in Fright (1972).

AERO  (LA):

As part of the series “The Films of Marty and Bob, the Aero will screen a matinee of Taxi Driver (1976) on Thursday – two days before the Alamo. (Oops!) Thursday night is a double feature of Douglas Sirk’s 1955 film All That Heaven Allows and Fassbinder’s 1974 film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Friday begins an “All About Almodóvar” series with a double feature of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown  (1988) and All About My Mother (1999), Saturday is Bad Education (2004) and Talk to Her (2002) then Sunday is some of the filmmaker’s earlier work, The Law of Desire (1987) and Matador (1986).

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

This weekend, the Quad will screen four movies by Bernard-Henri Lévy: 2012’s The Oath of Tobruk, a double feature of Peshmerga and The Battle of Mosul, and Bosna! With an introduction by Lévy. Sorry, but I’m not really familiar with his work enough to elaborate. 

MOMA  (NYC):

The Museum of Modern Art has started a new series called “Show Me Love: International Teen Cinema” running through January 19 with some interesting selections including Diane Kurys’ 1977 film Peppermint Soda, Greg Araki’s 1993 filmTotally Fucked Up, Satyajit Ray’s Teen Kanya (Two Daughters) (1961) and more.  Another series that will run through February is Modern Matinees: Jack Lemmon, which will show some of the comedic actor’s best movies, including 1963’s Irma La Douce on Wednesday, Blake Edwards’ Days of Wine and Roses (1962) on Thursday, George Cuckor’s It Should Happen to You from 1954) this Friday. (Most of the movies will be repeated later in the series.) Tuesday’s matinee returns to “The Films of Marty and Bob” with New York, New York(1977).

IFC CENTER (NYC)

The IFC Center is in the middle of a comprehensive “Films of Studio Ghibli” series with a bunch of Studio Ghibli animated films, which will run through next week, as will the 75thanniversary digital restoration of the cinema classic Casablanca. This week’s Late Night Favorite selections are David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive and Eraserhead, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995).

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

MOMI is in the midst of a “Curators’ Choice 2019” made up mostly of new movies vs. repertory stuff. Saturday will be a tribute to the late Carol Spinney with a screening of the 2014 doc I Am Big Bird.

ROXY CINEMA (NYC)

The Nicolas Cage love continues with the 1997 action movie Con Air.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Friday’s midnight movie is Rene Laloux’s 1973 animated familyFantastic Planet.

Next week, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are reunited for Bad Boys for Life, taking on Robert Downey Jr. as (Doctor) Dolittle.

[go-redgirl]

Herman Cain: The Fed needs to be more aggressive

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INDIVIDUALS/COMMENTS/POSTS:

Black Dove's Youtube Channel The fed needs to be abolished.

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AndTheCorrectAnswerIs The Fed needs to be ended. It is a private banking cabal, and has nothing to do with the Federal Government.

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Dawud Muhammad I like hearing from Herman Cain...!!

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Downright Dutch No, we need to be more agressive to arrogant 🤪🤢dRATS who do not trust the Best President Ever!🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Potus has it all totally in control, and Cain and the Deep State is PANICKING hahaha HAHA Fed is soon finito! 💸💸💸

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Hunter Volcan The federal reserve is owned by private bankers (stated by section 7A of federal reserve act) and they have a monopoly on creating the world’s reserve currency. We are all financially enslaved to them with debt that is mathematically impossible to pay off. End the Fed!!!

REPLY

D Storm Trump was correct and, sadly, the Fed was wrong.

REPLY Harold Cale As for me I will never go to another NFL GAME AGAIN / I am a proud Marine that served in the Vietnam war and I will never support another NFL game and you can take this to the bank.. !!

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gerry etheridge Mr Cain, please run for office again in 2024. The timing is Right.

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Margret Situ So, the economy is not doing well? Not doing that well huh. Otherwise why would we need to lowering interest rate?

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sam M China should be stopped, then Japan and south Korea. America first.

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Gary McAleer This brother's been around. He knows the game in maintaining the strength of morality against those who would tear it down in a heartbeat, who think to themselves: Hey, I won't be around when my greed leaves its wake behind.

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derek starkjr Mr. Trump is doing a great job . If any human that has a chance in solving Homeless suffering in America it would be now.

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Joyce Castellanos

Harmon is correct

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Starlet Satore Cut the rates!!  Stay the course Mr President 🇱🇷

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Boo Ya Jay Zee WHO?? OHHHHH, the Jay Zee who thought he had enough weight to help Clinton win ?  Silly me, how could I forget that?

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Virginia Campodonico BUSINESS people keep investing Americans MONEY FROM the stock market, KEEP GETTING breaks in TAXES FROM our government, their CEOS get enormous SALARIES and the inventors GET Bread CRUMBS

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JOSEPH WILLIAMS TRUMP IN 2020 ,THE MAN WITH A PLAN.

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Bluesdawg If markets don't go up and down you can't call it a market.  You have to pay attention by getting in and getting out.  There has to be losers to create winners.   Once again,  IT'S A MARKET

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Yo Man The best thing about taxing china is we will eventually start building more goods here, it will take time to get geared  up but most manufacturing can return.👍

REPLY Zachary Mullins It will collapse no getting around it. The fed was set up in this way. What Trump is doing is creating a economy that runs along side the fed economy. That's why he brought the economy up so fast and got people off gov assistance. That's why he's renegotiating the bad trade deals. That's why he's calling out the fed everyday. It's to bring them into the spotlight where they don't want to be. The system was always suppose to collapse. Dems helped it along the way. Trump will be going back to the gold standard and our debt economy will be done. Trump is brilliant folks and only he could have pulled this off. Those out there complaining about the fed needs to be more aggressive are the bad guys. Remember who brought the fed into the U.S. Woodrow Wilson dem. Also remember that the fed not only has America deep in debt but the whole world as well.

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sick of liberals

Herman is right , cut rates

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Super Cajun Who are the members of the Federal Reserve? Are they all American citizens?

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Luis Rosales Hong Kong's freedom is essential! China is destabilizing itself while blaming the west.

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The Dude I'm voting for Trump especially if there's a recession!

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the great dirtbag The feds need to be abolished or at least replaced with people who are going to be pro-american

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dm 34280 How healthy is the U.S. economy?   

The overwhelming consensus among experts is that the U.S. economy is slowing after a pretty hot 2018. But there’s heated debate over how fast it’s cooling. 

Some argue that by the end of this year the U.S. economy is likely to look and feel a lot as it did in 2016: decent but not great. Others say the nation is likely to slip into a moderate downturn akin to those in 1990 or 2001. (The White House is adamant that there’s no slowing).  

The big risk is if corporate anxiety over the trade war, weak growth abroad and the slowing manufacturing sector causes businesses to halt hiring in the United States in coming months, a shift that would probably spook Main Street and cause the almighty American consumer to pull back on spending.  1. Manufacturing (red flag)

There has been a sharp deceleration in manufacturing in 2019. Hiring has flatlined after having one of its best years last year since the late 1990s. Output is slowing, and, especially alarming, manufacturing sentiment has tumbled to levels that almost signal a recession. 

 2. Trucking (yellow to red flag) — Nearly every good sold in the United States touches a truck at some point, which is why trucking shipment data can be revealing. After a stellar 2018, shipments have plunged during the past six months, according to the Cass Freight Index.  

3. Business spending (yellow flag) — Business leaders are nervous, according to most metrics of sentiment in the corporate sector. But the question is how is that translating into decision-making? This year evidence is growing that companies are pulling back on investment spending.  The Fed can not help bad policies. Read more

REPLY Mile High I love Fox Business channel. I'm a business man so very informative.

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Lone Star Patriot The fed needs to be in history books.

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Marek Kolenda Fredo new GOP Republicans candidate for 2020 election

REPLY Damien Wright What a load of nonsense  . FED should raise rates  start building the economey on savings not inflation .

[blueraith]

Trying something new

Typically I don’t outline a single damn thing with my writing. I write by the seat of my pants, the story goes where my fancy takes them. Which is super unorganized, hectic as all hell, and doesn’t really point to anywhere when one has writers block.

So, I’ve decided to kick that plan with my original stuff. Mostly because I already know I have a ton of worldbuilding done and characters created. All that’s holding me back is the actual plot. I have specific scenes I know I want to get to, and a few of them already written or at least planned out. All that’s left is the rest of the story. So, outline time. Not sure if I’ll be any good at the outline. I’ll just ramble my three acts out however it comes to me and reorganize from there.

Started on Act 1. Writing out even the synopsis makes me feel a little better at what I had thought was a lack of progress. I’ve been focusing a lot on the details of what a society of superpowered humans living among us would look like.

Such as, what happens when superheroes and supervillains cause untold amounts of property destruction? Who’s gonna pay for that? Why don’t superheroes have insurance?

Guys... why don’t superheroes have insurance? I mean, I definitely don’t plan to actually write a plot point around fucking superhero insurance, because that would be boring as all fucking hell, but it always bothers me in movies and comics, and TV shows, and cartoons that none of the gratuitous destruction is addressed or lampshaded at the very least. Beyond, you know, “people are ANGRY.” And then skipping over the rest.

And if your superhuman/human intermingled society is based on a premise that actual, real life superheroes and villains have been around for at least three generations, why wouldn’t those problems be addressed? And with those problems getting addressed, namely through regulation and government control, what happens when enough time passes that bureaucracy and corruption sets in? Political overreach and consolidation of power? In short, what happens when the ‘good guys’ get so used to the way things are, they start freaking out at all the ‘unregistered’ superhumans suddenly fighting them during what had been a run of the mill gas station robbery into something much more dangerous? What happens when moral panic, an overdeveloped sense of ‘us vs them’ sets in and what had once seemed reasonable, turns into people getting their basic rights stepped all over and trampled in the name of ‘safety.’

I’ve had a lot of time to try and figure out how the world I wanted to set my characters in would work. Largely based on my own life. The MC and her family are based on my family in the sense of structure. Three girls with parents. But, I decided for my own mental well being not to base her parents on my own too closely. God, that would be a little too much for me to deal with. I might make the love interest deal with my familial issues, I’m thinking on it. At any rate, I do want to base MC’s family issues on something I do, even still, have to deal with. And that’s namely an issue with radicalization, ‘us vs them,’ and an echo chamber affect. The point of the story is not to point out that ‘all regulation is bad and should be avoided.’ This aint no Ann Rand bullshit.

No, I’ve wanted to write a story for the longest time about a few things. One: a lesbian teenager that isn’t a story based entirely on romance, period pieces, the supernatural, or urban fantasy. Not to say that those genres are lesser or bad, they aren’t, but they’re a bit of a dime a dozen now, aren’t they? I know from trying to find shit to read myself that you get a little tired of the same damn thing. And if you can’t find something you want to read, why not write it yourself?

Two: I wanted to write a story about a healthy family dynamic. Mostly because I had a very unhealthy home life. Writing this is cathartic, and reveling in my own personal issues in the guise of ‘inspiration’ just kind of makes me ill thinking about it. More recently, I’ve been pushed to focus on this even more from hanging out in a variety of fandoms. Jesus, dude, there are a ton of LGBT kids with problematic home lives, which I suppose isn’t a surprise, but where I see an issue is that many of these kids end up glorifying the abuse in their own writing. Parents have no nuance to them in their stories, they’re either saints or horrific people who should get taken out and shot behind a shed. There is no in between, and it makes me wonder if the kids in our community knows what it looks like for their families to be human. To be good people, who make mistakes, but ultimately rise above them to create mature, lifelong relationships with one another. I don’t know what it’s like personally, but I sure will hell attempt to write it. If only to hope that such normalcy is actually out there for those of us unlucky enough not to grow up with it. We can rise above it, though. Hope that we don’t make the same mistakes our families made.

Three: We live in a world that’s far too swept up in being ‘right’ that we don’t make the time to figure out if what we are trying to do, on whatever side of the fence we live on, isn’t hurting someone else. And, if by some miracle some are aware of what they are doing, it’s become evident that they don’t care. No one wants to listen to one another anymore. I experience this in my own family. My mom’s convinced that I’m brainwashed by the liberal media. And this attitude is evident all over the place. Fox refers to the ‘liberal media’ like it’s a disease. And that polarizing idea is spread to people like my grandparents who refer to it in the same way. And I’m certain this is happening on the other side. How do we fix problems, or make progress, if we’re too caught up in trying to lambast the other side as ‘evil assholes intent on destroying EVERYTHING.’

That is to say that it’s not as if there aren’t people who are flat out right about certain issues. Such as basic civil rights for everyone. I’m not trying to paint the entire world in shades of gray. What I’d like to get at in this story is that certain topics, like superhuman regulation (you know... some of these folks are capable of mass destruction and murder), can be polarized from paranoia and fear. Suddenly, it isn’t just a matter of keeping these folks on a list and learning what powers they have and what they are capable of. Getting them on insurance to cover property destruction, or healthcare so that some of them don’t completely snap under mental illness if they so happen to develop it, and go on a rampage across their cities. It’s now trying to figure out what they can do for everyone else. ‘Hey, this guy has the strength of ten men. Why isn’t he doing more to help us all out?’ And now regulation has turned into conscription.

Basically, superpowers are a giant metaphor for gun control and how dumb everyone is getting about. Over regulation, under regulation. ‘Muh 2nd Amendment.’ ‘Protect the children.’ Sanity and compromise is no longer a part of the argument in many circles.

Superheroes in ‘The Guild’ are akin to the over-militarization of the police.

Unregistered superhumans are resented about as much as illegal immigrants and feared as much as terrorists.

And the entire concept of registering as a superhuman is turning into an increasingly gigantic privacy issue

Different ways corporate interests could help or hinder different superhuman issues. Like I said, this isn’t Ann Rand. Private Sector vs Government Programs are something I see argued about all the time in my family. They like to pretend the private sector has the answer for everything. ‘Unregulate everything and leave it to the free market!’ But that leads to just as many issues as government overreach, doesn’t it? It’s a problem we’ve seen play out during the Industrial Revolution, wasn’t it?

And you wouldn’t be able to control a bunch of superhuman people like you would ordinary folks. Beyond hiding that they have superpowers, what’s to stop them from grouping up, forming insular societies, and just taking over entire neighborhoods or districts? They have superpowers, the Guild has superpowers, but there isn’t a massive arms difference between the two like in real life, modern times we see between regular people and our military. What would be the pros and cons to an anarchist society of people who would be able to defend themselves from virtually anything in enough numbers?

Well, this is getting really long. Also, writing this out tells me I have a lot more worked out than I thought I did. I’ve got more stuff that I’ve thought about. Society wise as well as character arcs. Can’t change all this polarization without doing it on a personal level, right?

[ninety9percent]

Comments on Joe Biden’s Ad soliciting donations

Joe Biden sponsored this ad on FB. There were interesting comments. Sharing some. Not surprisingly only “Vote Blue No Matter Who” people support him. Comments are being presented as is - no editing. First his ad:

As a top Democrat, you’ve been selected by the Biden for President campaign to share your top priorities with Joe! We need your answers by midnight tonight, so don’t delay. Click below to begin the survey:

MaryBeth Sjostrom Pasmore 

✅Opposes Medicare For All ✅Opposes legalizing marijuana ✅Supports the death penalty ✅Wrote the 1994 crime bill ✅Voted for DOMA ✅Voted for NAFTA ✅Voted for Iraq War ✅Voted for PATRIOT Act. Takes money from health insurance, corporations. ... no, I won't vote Joe.

Jenny Miles 

Sorry Joe, you are exactly the opposite of what's needed. Too many reasons: 1. “The younger generation now tells me how tough things are—give me a break... No, no, I have no empathy for it, give me a break.” 2. “Trump is not a bad man” 3. Biden praises former Republican Senator who was forced to resign after 19 sexual harassment complaints. 4. Referred to immoral moneylenders as Shylocks - insulting and offending Jews 5. Supported attacks on Anita Hill (who had accused Clarence Thomas of “ inappropriate sexual behavior“) and refused to call witnesses who could testify in support of her claim. 6. Wrote 1994 Crime Bill heralding “the era of mass incarceration“ 7. Wrote 1995 Omnibus Counter Terrorism Bill “ allowing the Government to use evidence from secret sources in deportation proceedings “ (despite claiming to oppose that section he introduced the bill), and included 1st Amendment violating “anti freedom of association” provisions (became Patriot Act) 8. Opposed marriage equality; “ No. Barack Obama nor I support redefining from a civil side what constitutes marriage” (has since changed) 9. Voted in 1999 to repeal Glass Steagall - leading to (as expected) the financial crisis 10. In 2001 voted for Patriot Act, emphasizing that it was essentially a copy of his 1995 Omnibus Counter Terrorism Act 11. In 2002 Voted for “illegal” Iraq War 12. In 2005 Voted to end bankruptcy protection for students [ Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) ] 13. In 2018 Presented George Bush with Liberty Medal “presented to individuals for their commitments to veterans “ 14. “I am not Bernie Sanders. I don't think 500 billionaires are the reason we're in trouble. The folks at the top aren't bad guys”. 15. Supported Civil Asset forfeiture, even without an arrest or conviction 16. Pushed for “Cabinet Level Drug Czar” to punish “drug crime” 17. “The punishment should fit the crime. But I think [marijuana] legalization is a mistake. I still believe [marijuana] is a gateway drug.” 18. Opposed spending money on drug research (including medical) on any Schedule 1 drug 19. Supported and introduced mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses that saw “the average federal drug sentence for African Americans was 11% higher than for whites. Four years later, the average federal drug sentence for African Americans was 49% higher”. 20. Despite the strong anti drug stance, his daughter was arrested for drugs (and a decade later caught on video allegedly snorting cocaine), but there is no evidence of a conviction or asset seizure. 21. Again, despite the above, when his son tested positive for cocaine, there was no conviction and no asset seizure. 22. Supported Militarization of the Police - that had no effect on reducing crime, but is correlated with higher rates of police discrimination against minorities (blacks) 23. Unable to “think of any reason not to run for President” 24. MBNA Credit Card Company in his home state was his biggest donor between 1989 amnd 2000. Biden voted against a measure requiring credit card companies to warn consumers of the consequences of making only minimum payments (and others). MBNA hired Biden’s son, Hunter, as a lobbyist straight out of law school, and later hired him as a consultant from 2001 to 2005 — the same years Biden was helping to pass the bill 25. Ukraine’s biggest private gas producer (whilst under investigation for corruption) hired his son to serve on its board while Biden was acting as the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine policy. 26. A mid-sized construction firm Hill International won a $1.5 billion contract to build 100,000 homes in Iraq had Biden’s brother, James, as its executive vice president, despite lacking any experience in residential construction prior to joining the firm. 27. One of the Senate’s top twenty-five earners of outside income — and, along with twenty-two others on that list (of top earners), voted against a bill to limit such earnings. 28. In 1979, after receiving donations from Coca-Cola, Biden cosponsored and voted for legislation that let the soft-drink industry get around antitrust laws. 29. The same year, he voted against a measure before the Judiciary Committee to expand consumers’ rights to sue over price-fixing — one of only two Democrats to do so. 30. Has a very close “revolving door” relationship with lobbyists 31. Vehement opponent of school busing implemented to tackle racial segregation 32. Opposed a deficit reduction military spending freeze, and supported an increase in the retirement age 33. “I have the most progressive record of anybody running" 34. Has NOT signed pledge not to accept money from fossil fuels industry 35. “rejection of the whole movement of black pride.” 36. After being accused by seven women of “inappropriate touching” , hugs kids, and makes jokes about it. 37. Offered Ukraine $1Bn to sack their prosecutor 38. Supports a number of anti abortion measures 39. Proud of his support for the death penalty for a wide range of offenses 40. No statement on pledge rejecting corporate money 41. No statement on GND (Green new Deal) 42. No statement on fossil fuel money pledge 43. No statement on support for universal healthcare 44. No statement on "free" college education 45. No statement on abolishing Electoral College 46. No statement on supporting whistelblowers exposing government criminality 47. No published tax returns for 10 years 48. No declared statement opposing Israel genocides in gaza 

- via Dennis Freeland

Lindsay Shugerman 

Don't run. Please don't run. We don't need another corporate paid shill. Medicare for ALL, no fracking, free public college, livable wages (for real), end to Citizens United and lobbyists buying power. Renewable energy, not oil. In other words, NOTHING you support.

Matthew Pace

There is only one priority. Get the Orange Menace evicted from squatting in the WH; stabilize the government and pass it off to peaceful elections in 2024. The insanity in the WH has to end.

Josh Ruppert - Matthew Biden is just as bought why don't you research before running your mouth. Biden is put as a candidate because the DNC wants to loose. If Bernie wins their slush money goes bye bye.

Hugh Stearns  - This anti-intellectual trope is brought to you by the DNC. How, before the primary, does it make any sense to interject anyone but Trump? Of course, we want anyone but Trump. This is an attempt to suggest that we must suffer another centrist candidate or risk losing to Trump. This is the same argument that was used against the more progressive candidate last time. If we want to beat Trump and future Trumps we better think critically about the elitist element of the Democratic Party and question their authority.

Allen Heinzer 

My top priority is for Biden to withdraw and support Bernie

Allen Heinzer - Biden is a republican lite there is no establishment democrats they all just democrats in name only Fdr was a democrat Look up his record If democrats would run on that they’d never lose

Allen Heinzer - Ask yourself if he is a democrat why didn’t him and Obama give us universal healthcare when they had super majority in all 3 branches

Nancy Hollister Kozlenko -  Allen Heinzer I hope you support who ever represents the Democratic Party and not go off in a huff if your guy or gal doesn’t win. That’s how Trump got in!

Lin Bower - Martha Korte Get real,Bernie is a back stabber.He was such a good friend to Hillary until she beat him .Then he wasn’t.A person like that is not Presidential material.

D Kim Sayre-Arnold  - Gary Bailey And Bernie WAS THE SPLITTER IN 2016!!! HE NEEDS TO STICK TO HIS OWN PARTY, and please, stay out of mine.!

Pamela Jarvis - Allen, that about sums it up. Biden announced his run at $2,000 a plate fund raiser with corporate CEO's. I am voting Bernie. I may be old but I am hanging with the young progressive's choice..feel the Bern

Tammy Fox Sorry 

my top priority is getting Bernie Elected.

Charlotte Arnold - Bernie cost us the last election. Republicans have a lot of crap on Bernie they are going to release if he wins the primary. Bernie will not win.

Lezli Magnani - Charlotte Arnold Bernie did not cause that loss!! The DNC shoving Hillary down people’s throats caused that loss. Again, the clearest candidate that can beat Trump is being ignored by the corporate democratic party. Joe will not be shoved down our throats either. Please just follow the money-look where Joe is getting his money from-always follow the money

Rebecca Sake - D Kim Sayre-Arnold once you take your corporate owned Republicans out of our Democratic Party then you’ll see Bernie is in the right place. And Bernie didn’t split anything, your candidate was too weak to win. #BernieWouldHaveWon

Rebecca Sake - Me too, #HealthCareForAll will only be attainable with #Bernie2020 Biden is backed by big pharma & Comcast. He's not a man of the people and he's out to make his corporate donors happy.

Rebecca Sake - Kim Crane they weren’t her votes to begin with. And every chance she had to earn those votes were blown by her own decisions, remember she said she didn’t need the progressive dems. You can think he took away millions of votes all you want, doesn’t make it true. The truth is, she never earned the votes she needed to win. End of story. Stop blaming everyone but the one who lost the easiest victory ever.

Rebecca Sake - Kim Crane actually it was Hillary supporters who, in larger numbers refused to vote for Obama. In 2016, Hillary failed to even try to court progressive votes. Most of us had very specific reasons to not vote for her, and her cheating her way into the nomination made it very easy to vote third party. A very small percent voted Trump but the majority voted third party. Btw you earn votes, they aren’t given because of the fear of the other candidate. It might also surprise you to know Hillary helped trump in the early primaries because she felt he’d be the easiest to beat. You guys forget that a lot while you’re trying to shame people for not voting for the most owned candidate in history. Your lack of insight and foresight is more to blame for a trump presidency than our educated choice of voting.

Anita Concilio 

Health care Joe - and parity for women in the workplace and as citizens of the world. Child care, education, and for goodness sake, job training for the families in the midwest who have lost manufacturing and farming. Oh, and also, immigration reform, like amnesty maybe? Middle class needs some significant help. And campaign financing reform, oh, the list is so long. But I have faith that a Biden administration would focus on the things that will make America respected again.

Nicole F Sharpe 

Joe, your time has come and gone by. You've made too many "bi-partisan" compromises that have hurt too many people, especially women, in your need to be liked. We can't trust you to do the right things in office because we know you'll cave to political expediency at the people's expense. You may get the DNC nod but you won't be elected, and we need a candidate that can be elected. Please bow out of the race now and put your support where it will do some good instead of sapping the strength of more viable candidates

Ashley Smuts Pizzuti 

Joe - what are you going to do about your history with student loans? I know you love those lenders. We know your history. But you are very out of touch with a problem you helped create.

Mary Nikas 

We have predators on our streets that society has in fact, in part because of its neglect, created," said Biden, then a fourth-term senator from Delaware so committed to the bill that he has referred to it over the years as "the Biden bill." "They are beyond the pale many of those people, beyond the pale," Biden continued. "And it's a sad commentary on society. We have no choice but to take them out of society." In the speech, Biden described a "cadre of young people, tens of thousands of them, born out of wedlock, without parents, without supervision, without any structure, without any conscience developing because they literally ... because they literally have not been socialized, they literally have not had an opportunity." He said, "we should focus on them now" because "if we don't, they will, or a portion of them, will become the predators 15 years from now." Biden added that he didn't care "why someone is a malefactor in society" and that criminals needed to be "away from my mother, your husband, our families."” https://www.google.com/.../biden-1993-speech.../index.html

Laurence Bridge 

Medicare & the cost of long term care is the most important concern for those of us who having worked and saved all our working life,can end up in a facility that was once called the workhouse.Untrained staff, disgusting food,left to lie in our own waste ,to the tune of thousands of dollars from our life time savings,for these disgraceful places called LONG TERM CARE, perhaps our politicians should be forced to take a long look at the Chinese system,who treat the elderly with dignity in the twilight of their lives.

Cathy Sullivan

i'm going with .. go away Joe Biden .. we can't afford to lose to trumpy again. Make sure Hillary leaves with you

Deborah Birdsong

#NoJoe No more corporate democrats who run their campaigns using special interest monies!  #OverturnCitizensUnited#Bernie2020

Mary Nikas 

“Biden, by contrast, has been a bag man for big corporations for his entire career. Delaware is like the Luxembourg of U.S. states — a tiny tax haven and flag of convenience for corporations who own the local political system outright, and Biden is no exception. His economic policy career has been one disgrace after the next — sponsoring or voting for multiple rounds of financial deregulation, trade deals that savaged the American manufacturing base, and bankruptcy "reform" that made it much harder to discharge consumer debt (and nearly impossible to get rid of student debt). It's no surprise at all that on the same day he launched his campaign, Biden held a fundraiser including several corporate lobbyists and Republican donors at the home of a Comcast executive.”

Jeffery Ansani

Perfect example of his stupidity. Did he send this to all the "disaffected" white working class males who voted for trump in 2016 whose votes he needs to capture to beat trump? He's so arrogant he thinks his mere presence in the race is enough. And secondly, if I'm a Right Wing Fuckhead I use this to Demonstrate that he doesn't give a FUCK about ALL Americans' concerns. Like taking candy from a baby dinosaur. It's a transparent attempt to bolster small donor roles, nothing more. Seriously! All he has to do is look at the polls. We overwhelmingly FAVOR a Green New Deal, money OUT of politics, Medicaid for ALL, sensible gun laws, reasonable and humane immigration reform, free college, and just about every other Progressive proposals. WAKE THE FUCK UP DEMOCRATS! And when you do, smarten up too. These people have failed you for thirty years while Bernie has been FIGHTING for you. He's the only choice. For Robert Paul PaulKarla Jen Lynn Jannon and any others who may be thinking Joe is a good option. He's not. Look at the polls. Not the candidate polls but the issues ones. You'll see very clearly, he's out of touch. Don't argue with me, he's not the one.

[thirdpartytribune]

Interview: Nick Hensley, Reform Party Secretary

1. What is the Reform Party, for the uninformed?

The Reform Party is a moderate, centrist and populist party founded in 1995 by followers of Ross Perot. We take a moderate stance on fiscal issues and no stances on social issues.

Social issues, in modern politics are wedge issues. The Democrats and Republicans bring these issues up year after year, but do not follow through on promises. Parties use these issues only to motivate voting blocs, so they never pass legislation at the federal level to further these issues. When social issues are resolved, such as gay marriage, it is usually done by the nonpartisan courts. We wish to move American politics away from these tactics. Candidates however can pick where they stand on these issues, and we have both socially conservative and socially liberal members.

In addition to our economic platform, we call for the end of unrestricted free trade and opt for a balanced approach to foreign trade. We support American manufacturing. American workers have seen their jobs, communities, pensions and benefits packed into cargo containers and shipped overseas. As this has happened, top level corporate officers have seen their wages increase as the wages of working class Americans declined.

We want to keep Medicare and Social security solvent for future generations by making long term changes, and rooting out fraud in the system.

We advocate for outlawing gerrymandering, opening the ballots to all parties and candidates, and the public financing of all elections. With those platform issues, we hope to break the establishment's hold on political elections and open the door to electing real representation in Washington.

Lastly we wish to balance the budget by ending special interest tax loopholes to raise revenue, ending welfare for large corporations, and restructuring government entities and programs to streamline costs. At the same time we want to create a blueprint to restore the Federal government's financial state in the decades to come, and pass a balanced budget amendment.

2. The party gained 0.2% of the popular vote in last year's election. How does the party plan on capitalizing on this?

For a decade the Reform Party was seen to be on its death bed. Recent reforms in the Reform Party are slowly bringing it back to life. Over the past few years, we've regained our ballot access in several states, and tripled the number of officeholders we have nationwide. While doing so, we have seen an uptick in fundraising and exponentially increased the number of active organizers we have across the country. Last year, we received about 40,000 votes for our nominal presidential candidate, up from less than 1,000 in 2012.

Communications and outreach are always areas we are improving. Most of our growth has come from improvements in our internal and external communications. A few years ago, we invested in social media for the first time, and began issuing periodic press releases. We also have started reaching out to do more interviews. During this process, we've garnered attention and new supporters.




We are also looking to run candidates in more elections. Right now Paul Bachmann is running in Florida State House District 66, Rick Kasa is looking into a run for Franklin County Soil and Water Board, and we are eyeing several more races around the country.

3. What do you feel is holding third parties back, and how can we fix it?

The Democrats and Republicans stacked ballot access and redistricting laws in their favor. Independent and third party candidates have a higher degree of difficulty in obtaining a spot on the ballot. By changing our ballot access laws, on a state level, third party candidates would spend fewer resources on ballot access - like establishment candidates.

Gerrymandering is also a hindrance. Democrats and Republicans draw districts to favor their candidates. Having independent redistricting boards in every state would open elections to independent and third party candidates.

Campaign finance laws are written to favor large party candidates. Most candidates do not qualify for matching funds - like those of the Democratic and Republican Party. If there was a pool of public money for each election, that was split evenly between all ballot qualifying candidates, it would remove special interest money from elections and even the playing field for all candidates.

4. What makes the Reform Party stand out compared to the Democrats, Republicans, or other third parties?

The Reform Party is different from other third parties, because it proposes mainstream solutions. Many third parties are fringe alternatives, as the Reform Party was built to be a vehicle for moderates, which compose the the majority of American voters.

We differ from the Republicans and Democrats, because we are not beholden to special interest donors. The political establishment in the country has taken donations from corporate donors and PACs, and thus legislates to the benefit of a few monied power brokers.

5. What candidates should people be keeping an eye on in the various elections across the nation?



Right now Paul Bachmann is running in Florida State House District 66. He was a political activist for sometime before announcing for office. He has a good political network, raised all of his funds from small donors and will be facing a single opponent without a Democrat in the race. Paul Bachmann may be the non establishment candidate to watch in 2018.



It is rumored that Darcy Richardson of Florida is eyeing a race. I am not in a place to confirm or deny that rumor as I stay away from those things until they are set in stone. I will say that if he did run, he has years of political campaigning under his belt and could self finance to a point. He also has numerous allies that can help him across the political spectrum. He is a friend to great many Libertarians, Greens, Reformers, Democrats and Republicans. He is in a position to turn heads.

6. In a recent Reform Party tweet, the party wrote "#GopInCrisis". Do you feel that the current two party system is starting to crumble?



As far as the long term prospects of the Democrats and Republicans, I don't know what the future holds. In the present however, we have a Democratic Party without a message. The Democratic Party says "Don't support Trump" and that is not platform. They have no solid stances on any issue, and their masters advocate for many things that do not resonate with the American people. They seem out of touch to most.

The Republicans in recent months have shown they are no better for winning the 2018 elections. The White House has created numerous controversies, and President Trump is unpopular through large areas of the country. Meanwhile the Republican legislators are fighting amongst themselves, and have nothing to show for their electoral victories.

That is why America is stagnant.

7. What does the Reform Party think Congress should do about Obamacare?



Once you give voters a benefit, it is hard to take away. If a party was to dismantle Obamacare in its entirety, it would doom that party to the wilderness for a foreseeable future. There are numerous flaws with Obamacare. The main issue is that the cost of healthcare is still rising, and not falling. While looking at the issue of amending Obamacare, we need to stop looking at the cost of health insurance and instead look at the cost of healthcare services. There is a lot of administrative cost that can be cut through regulatory reform - that does not affect the quality of service. A good example of which is the cost of processing medicare, health insurance and other plans. A second example would be tort reform.

8. What about threats such as ISIS and North Korea?



Until recently North Korea was viewed as a joke. Even I thought that North Korea was a clown that talked a good game, and was unable to act. Sadly we were wrong. North Korea's ICBM tests were a wakeup call. However North Korea is protected by China. Diplomatically there is little we can do to with North Korea that doesn't include negotiations with China. It will take the strength of the world to persuade China to rein in its puppet. At this time however it is doable through diplomatic actions.



The United States has been at war in the Middle East for over 20 years. ISIS is a continuous of our military actions in Iraq and Afghanistan. ISIS was created partly by mismanaging our past operations. Luckily recent gains on the battlefield have favored US backed forces. It looks like there may be a rise of an independent Kurdish state. If that is true, the Kurds have been a close ally to the US, and we should continue giving them military support and supplies.

9. Do you feel the mainstream media (FOX, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc.) does not pay enough attention to third parties?



No. Many media outlaws lean towards either the Democratic or the Republican Party, and profit off their actions. Right now the Democrats and Republicans are controlled by the far left and the far right, and media outlets profit off of supporting those groups. Sadly we live in an age where media outlets present opinions and not facts.

10. In 2000, Donald Trump temporarily vied for the Reform presidential candidate nomination. Is it weird to think about that now?



Yes and no. Donald Trump was a friend of Jesse Ventura and was supported by Jack Gargan's faction. Jack Gargan was an authoritative figure within the Reform Party, and was recalled during an emergency meeting in 2000. That meeting was in Nashville, and Jack Gargan supporters created a situation, and police were called to maintain order. Many of the people involved in this situation supported Trump during his campaign. This should have served as a warning to the Republican Party. They did not heed it, and now they have to deal with these people. We spent years marginalizing these people, and forcing them out of the Reform Party. I guess they found a new home.

11. What issue do you think is being ignored too much in politics?





All of them. During the 2016 elections, the current majority and President Trump made numerous promises to the American people. There were several great proposals that have been sidelined, because controversies have taken attention off of them. The American People were promised infrastructure reform. To date neither the Democrats nor Republicans have moved on the issue.

There has been little talk on budget reduction. Leaving positions unfilled does not significantly reduce the cost of operation for an organization the size of the United States. These unfilled positions have reduced America's spending by tens of millions of dollars when we have a budget deficit measured in the hundreds of billions.

Special interest control of the American political process is another issue that no one is talking about. Political Action Committees, lobbyists and corporate donors spend billions of dollars to influence lawmakers. As lawmakers are serving the wants of special interests, they are ignoring the needs of The People.

12. Anything you'd like to say?




I would like to thank the Third Party Tribune for allowing me to do this interview. Minor parties find themselves ignored by many media outlets, and the Third Party Tribune has given me a great opportunity.

Going forth into the future, the United States faces many challenges. We have a growing debt of nearly 20 trillion dollars. Our economy and worker wages have been stagnant for a decade. Americans' savings are lower compared to other nations. We have been in constant military conflict in the Middle East for two decades, and there is no end in sight. Meanwhile we look towards the political establishment, composed of Democrats and Republicans, to fix these issues. Issues they created.

In order to solve these issues, we must look elsewhere.

 The Reform Party wants to bring honest leadership and real solutions to American government. As we rebuild, we are looking for new members. We need volunteers and activists, like you, from across the center left and center right to accomplish our goals. Without an active membership, the Reform Party will not be able to break the political establishment. If you can't volunteer, donate and/or vote for our candidates on election day.

Thank you for reading this interview, and allowing me a few minutes of your time.

The Third Party Tribune would like to thank Mr. Hensley for his time.

[tinseltine]

Look Back at the Movies of 2018

Tinsel & Tine's

Look Back at the Movies of 2018

By Le Anne Lindsay, Editor

This year feels like the fastest movie season to date. I still feel like we just stopped talking about the movies up for awards last year, like The Shape of Water, Call Me By Your Name, 3 Billboards, Lady Bird, Phantom Thread etc.. Now we already have 2019 Golden Globe Awards nominations, and Oscar noms just a month away on Jan 22, 2019. This years’ crop of movies being talked about for awards are a bit more main stream than some of those films that I just mentioned from last year, which were not your average movie-goers cup of tea. Whereas this year: A Star is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, Vice, Black Panther, The Favourite, these movies have more universal appeal. They’re important, but contain more humor. Even If Beale Street Could Talk with all its social implications, on the surface is a romance. Then we have a couple of family dramas like Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased & Ben is Back which no one is going to be able to keep straight, as Lucas Hedges is in two of them and two are about drug addiction, but they’re not artsy films. I'd like to thank God and the Universe for continually orchestrating my life so that every year I get to see and enjoy an abundant number of movies. Between film festivals and often going to the theater 3-4x a week. I feel I can formulate a pretty darn good end of the year list. Much of which does coincide with the movies being bandied about as noteworthy, but I threw in a couple of surprises. I’m gonna start with my least favorite movies of 2018, because it's a short list. It's always difficult for me to say I hate a movie because of the work and number of people involved in getting even a short film to the screen. But there's always a few that should have gone through a lot of reworking before being released. Then I move on to my Top 10 Favorites. This was particularly difficult to pair down this year, I had 26 movies that I really, really liked. So I have a Just Missed the Top 10 category and an Honorable Mention category. Note: Links go to my full review of the movie Hope you enjoy and hit me up on Facebook or Twitter to discuss your favorites!

Worst Movies of 2018

In order of most disliked

RED SPARROW (20th Century Fox) dir Francis Lawrence, starring Jennifer Lawrence & Joel Edgerton. Lawrence plays a Russian ex-ballet dancer turned reluctant sex spy in a poorly executed thriller set in Russia. Everything about it felt phony and forced, except for one small scene where Mary Louise Parker steals the show. SECOND ACT (STX Films)– dir Peter Segal, starring Jennifer Lopez, Leah Remini, Vanessa Hudgens, Milo Ventimiglia. A movie about a woman without a college degree lying her way up the corporate latter in a cosmetic company. Parts of it remind me of a cheap imitation of Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty, but Shumer had a handle on her plot devices and comedic timing. I think if they kept the main plot of Second Act on the relationship of the mother and daughter discovering each other, that could have helped a lot, but really this movie is short on charm and big on makeup caked on like colorful spackle. A WRINKLE IN TIME (Disney) dir Ava Duvernay, starring Storm Reid, Chris Pine, Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon & Mindy Kaling. This much anticipated film based on a beloved children’s novel did not translate well to film - story-wise, visually it had some good moments, but Jennifer Lee, Jeff Stockwell’s screenplay needed punching up and smoothing out all over the place. And I can’t let DuVernay entirely off the hook as the pacing of the film is way off too, but mostly, it was a waste of Oprah. LIFE OF THE PARTY (Warner Bros) dir Ben Falcone, starring Melissa McCarthy, who I love (I’ve become addicted to reruns of Mike & Molly) but this movie about a 40 something year-old woman returning to finish her degree at the same time as her daughter, went nowhere. It wasn’t at all funny, it wasn’t heartfelt, it wasn’t mother/daughter bonding, it wasn’t McCarthy run amok, it was just boring. ADRIFT (STX Films) dir Baltasar Kormákur, starring Shailene Woodley & Sam Claflin. Based on the true story of Tami Oldham’s 42-day ordeal lost at sea, but told through a cheesy story device that’s a cheat for the movie and completely unnecessary to hold the attention of the audience.

My TOP 10 Favorites Movies from 2018

1. BLACK PANTHER (Marvel Studios) dir Ryan Coogler, starring Chadwick Boseman. The movie hit theaters last February and broke all kinds of box office records, heavily featured women (Lupita Nyong'o, Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright) in key roles. Once and for all it broke down the myth that movies with a black cast don’t make money overseas. But best of all, it’s a good movie. When I saw it a 2nd time I knew it wasn’t just about the social implications. It was about enjoying something that was cinematically pleasing. 2. CRAZY RICH ASIANS (Warner Bros.) dir. Jon M. Chu, starring Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Awkwafina, Michelle Yeoh. Same goes for this movie, which I also saw in the theater twice. The ensemble works very well together, the movie has great energy, Singapore is gorgeous and it was so nice to bring a quality rom/com back to the screen. 3. GREEN BOOK (Universal Pics) dir Peter Farrelley, starring Viggo Mortensen, Mahershala Ali as Tony Vallelonga an Italian-American bouncer & African-American classical and jazz pianist Don Shirley embarking on a road trip down to the segregated south- this is the new odd couple. As much as I love a good romance, I think friendships and bromances are more interesting to watch unfold on screen. Also saw this twice and loved it even more the second go round. 4. PUZZLE (Sony Pictures Classic) dir Marc Turtletaub, starring Kelly Macdonald & Irrfan Khan a remake of an Argentina film (2010). I know most people did not get a chance to see this movie, it played at Ritz 5 for probably only a week, but it’s a quiet gem about a current day housewife living in a New York suburb who discovers she has a knack for quickly putting together jigsaw puzzles and unexpectedly finds more than just a fitting puzzle partner after answering an ad to join a competition. 5. MR SOUL! (BlackStar Film Festival) dir. Sam Pollard and Melissa Haizlip. SOUL! was a nationally televised weekly variety show that aired from 1968-1973 on PBS featuring prominent and emerging Black artists including poets, classical, pop and jazz musicians, dancers and political figures. The documentary is not only an amazing look back on seeing early performances of people who became household names, but it's also an interesting biopic on the creative host and producer Ellis Haizlip, who had his finger on the pulse of an early post-Civil Rights Movement America. 6. A STAR IS BORN (Warner Bros) dir Bradley Cooper made this classic his own and made a fantastic decision to make his partner in this endeavor Lady Gaga. Not only does their chemistry and music make this a more than engaging film. But Cooper captures up-close the backstage feeling of the entertainment industry in so many ways. 7. SORRY TO BOTHER YOU (Annapurna Pictures) dir Boots Riley, starring Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick a lot of buzz was generated for this first time filmmaker and rightly so as Riley's style is to keep dialing up the crazy, notch by notch until you're at a full rolling boil of absurdist, off-beat, comedic Sci-fi soup with a social message. Not easy to do in one movie, but I feel he really pulled it off. 8. HOTEL ARTEMIS (Global Road) writer/dir Drew Pearce, starring Jodie Foster, Sterling K. Brown, Sofia Boutella, Jeff Goldblum, Brian Tyree Henry, Jenny Slate, Dave Bautista, and Zachary Quinto. I know I’m alone having this one on my top 10 list, but I truly enjoyed this strange action thriller. From the production design to the pre-apocalyptic setting, to the idea of taking place inside a secret high-tech hospital and supposed safe space for criminals to get patched up by an agoraphobic nurse. 9. RBG doc (Magnolia Pictures) dirs Betsy West & Julie Cohen. I saw On The Basis of Sex too and Felicity Jones is good casting as a early pioneering Ruth Bader Ginsberg, but the documentary is so much more encompassing of this remarkable woman’s life and journey. Before seeing this doc what I basically knew about this female chief Justice of the Supreme Court, I got from SNL skits and seeing some “The Notorious RBG” T-shirts. So glad to now be aware of her huge contribution to our freedoms and civil liberties. 10. LOVE, SIMON (20th Century Fox) dir Greg Berlanti, starring Nick Robinson, Katherine Langford, Jennifer Garner, Josh Duhamel - In this post "Glee", legalized Gay marriage, "Moonlight" Oscar winning, Caitlyn Jenner accepting society we live in - it's hard to figure that a movie about a young boy feeling extreme anxiety about admitting he's gay would be anything worth discussing. Yet, that's part of the value and charm of this movie along with a likeable young cast.

Just Missed the Top 10

SPIDERMAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE (Sony Pictures Releasing) dir Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman. Since Columbia still owns the rights to the Spiderman character, they like to get good mileage out of the web slinger, hence the terrible Andrew Garfield Spiderman reboot thrust on us while we were still in the throes of the Toby Maguire, Kirsten Dunst upside down kiss. Thankfully, something was worked out between Marvel and Sony so that we have the Tom Holland Spiderman of the MCU. So when I first heard about this animated Spider-verse, I was like, why? Is this necessary? Probably not. But it’s so well done I don’t question it anymore! Love the mixed media graphics and the fantastic sci-fi premise of having multiple spider people from different dimensions come together and initiate a new black/latino Spiderman into the realm. A SIMPLE FAVOR (Lionsgate) dir Paul Feig, starring Anna Kendrick, Blake Lively, Henry Golding a good campy script, some excellent costuming and unexpected humor turned this quasi-thriller into an early fall sleeper hit. A QUIET PLACE (Paramount Pictures) dir John Krasinski, starring Krasinski and Emily Blunt. A tight, emotional ride containing horror tropes, yet written for someone like me who likes to be thrilled with fear at the movies, but not up for anything too sinister that stays with me as I try to sleep. WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR (Focus Features) dir Morgan Neville. This doc on Fred Rogers, the well-liked host of the popular children's television program "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood", is an honest look at this man of principals who truly believed in the transformative power of love - love for others, but most importantly, for yourself. MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT (Paramount Pictures) dir Christopher McQuarrie, starring Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg this 6th installment in the Mission: Impossible film series shows there’s still A LOT of juice left in the franchise. So many amazing stunts, fun and thrills.

Honorable Mentions

(alpha order) ANT-MAN AND THE WASP (Marvel) dir Peyton Reed, starring Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas and Michelle Pfeiffer – kept pace with the original in terms of style and storytelling, while adding in more shrinking, enlarging sight gags in all the right places. BLINDSPOTTING (Lionsgate) dir Carlos López Estrada, starring Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs – A good first effort by these screenwriters/actors, but it’s the final scene which makes the movie above average. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (20th Century Fox) dir Bryan Singer finished by Dexter Fletcher, starring Rami Malek, Lucy Boynton, Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, Joe Mazzello – seemingly Epic music biopic, not truly as good as it seems, but a fun ride. FIRST MAN - (Universal Pictures) dir Damien Chazelle, starring Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Corey Stoll - Not as well loved as La La Land, but as far as commitment to filmmaking and vision this movie is stellar. GRINGO (Amazon Studios) dir Nash Edgerton, starring David Oyelowo, Charlize Theron, Joel Edgerton – Wish this movie had gotten more attention. It takes you on a nutty adventure showcasing Oyelowo's comedic chops. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Annapurna Pictures) dir Barry Jenkins, starring KiKi Layne, Stephan James, Regina King – Beautifully directed, strong cast, wonderfully adapted from a James Baldwin novel. Didn’t make my top 10 because sometimes it’s hard to watch movies based on the themes of systemic racism.(click link for Q&A with Barry Jenkins) PETER RABBIT (Sony Pictures Releasing) dir Will Gluck, starring Rose Byrne, Domhnall Gleeson – Not just adorable, but truly entertaining. THE FAVOURITE (Fox Searchlight Pictures) dir Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Olivia Colman, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Joe Alwyn - Stylized, female-centric period piece, balancing a delightful tone of zany ridiculousness and historical accuracy. THE HATE U GIVE (20th Century Fox) dir George Tillman Jr., starring Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, KJ Apa, Common, Anthony Mackie – I really fell in love with this family unit and the messages ring clear, but not too loud. TULLY (Focus Features) dir Jason Reitman, starring Charlize Theron & Mackenzie Davis – Oddly, I condemned “Adrift” for using a similar storytelling device as “Tully”, but here it works. Besides, the meat of the story is about roads and paths started down, but not followed and wondering how you ended up being in your current life; which, I truly related too, despite not being a wife or mother. WIDOWS (20th Century) dir Steve McQueen, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, Cynthia Erivo – After “Hunger” “Shame” and “12 Years A Slave” it was a great idea for McQueen to bring his extraordinary filmmaking skills to a heist film with a touch of Lifetime movie. The climax had our audience talking back to the screen, and the actresses are all on point. I had “Widows” in my Top 10 at first, then relegated it to those that just missed the top 10, and then honorable mention. I think it kept getting pushed down just because I don’t really like the final scene. Share :)

Tinsel & Tine

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[thisisnotreallife]

Lately Reading, Update :: Ice Storm Edition

An ice storm hit eastern Oregon yesterday evening, and the two-hour weather delay announced last night has turned into a full day off today, on what was supposed to be the first day of winter term. This is the dream of all students and teachers alike, and I’m pretty sure it has something to do with getting the coffee bean in my slice of the galette des rois I made this weekend.

In honor of our extra day off (see, I told you we’d #make2017greatanyway), here are some of the writings occupying my time recently: 

1. An obituary of the New York Times, by Johannes Wahlstrom. Given that the New York Times was previously my main source for news and my Google Chrome homepage for many years prior to this election cycle, I was relieved that I wasn’t the only one who had noticed a decided down-turn in the quality of the NYT’s coverage over the years. I was, however, shocked to read of the serious misapplications of journalistic ethics detailed in this satirical-but-deadly-serious obituary. I shouldn’t have been, though--has anyone else given side-eye to the “Got a confidential news tip?” button on the NYT’s homepage recently? RIP to what was once a great newspaper, but now feels more and more like a tabloid every day. 

2. My little brother sent me this article from a sociologist named Lisa Wade, writing about the way that animals--strays and pets, in particular--can foster community among people. Obviously the answer to the question in her article title is “yes.” It takes a village, amiright? [For a bonus animal-related read, check out “Untamed,” by David Sedaris, which I read thanks to N last month. I’m waiting for a fox to come over the pasture to be my friend now, please.]

3. Another one from my brother, but with a little heavier subject matter: evidently, employers and corporations are screwing their employees out of billions of dollars a year. I have twice experienced issues with wage theft with past employers, but I was unaware of how widespread the problem is--both in terms of how many workers are affected, and in terms of how much money is lost each year by folks who are statistically more likely to be making minimum wage, anyway. No wonder the gap in income inequality continues to widen. [Another bonus (also from N!) on a related note, since issues of wage theft affect folks of marginalized identities disproportionately: “Identity Issues are Economic Issues”. While I don’t agree fully with what the author is arguing at all points, I do think that it is inarguably true that identity issues are, in fact, economic issues. But I do think that language matters, and I also think that we need to work on inclusion rather than alienation, even when that inclusion is hard because those we need to include have very, very different ideas than us. So, yes: identity issues are economic issues. But what can we do to unite with the folks who think the primary issues are economic and not identity-based? Because, frankly, unite we must.] 

4. A meditation on time, which feels, ahem, timely for the New Year. I have been thinking more and more about time over the past year or so, as I consider what it means to age and as I make an effort to be more mindful not just in my daily life but from moment to moment. The funny thing about time, really, is that it doesn’t exist, but it preoccupies so very much of our, well, time. Preoccupation doesn’t feel good, though, but Burdick--and the idea of mindfulness, of course--has a solution: "The present isn’t something we stumble through; it’s something we create for ourselves over and over, moment by moment." Isn’t that nice? 

5. A look into Julian Assange’s morality and philosophy on information, governance, and resistance. I stumbled across this essay, published and posted to the Wikileaks site at its founding in 2006, via the NYT (which I obviously still do read from time to time, though with a skeptical eye), but I had to go read it for myself. I find it illuminating in the face of “fake news” and the alleged and decidedly doubtful claims that “Russian agents” were behind the hacking of the DNC (hey, politicians? We don’t want a mothereffing war with Russia. Stop gunning for one!), particularly. First, Assange establishes an interest in “good governance” and justice, and then he frames the current political system as one not just of corruption but of conspiracy-- conspiracy to maintain rule and retain power. Here Assange uses a government intelligence analogy of “connected graphs” to describe how conspiracies promulgate, which essentially boils down to communication channels: conspiracy--and remember that he has characterized our current political system as a conspiracy--works when conspirators are able to exchange information. 

In “pre-literate” societies, as Assange describes them, to remove power from corrupt forces, regime changes were precipitated by assassination or other violent acts, like the Bolshevik revolution, for example. But the age of information and technological advances have fundamentally shifted the ability of a corrupt political system to further their conspiracy to retain power: private communications channels through email and other digital services, closed-door donor parties, a revolving door of lobbyists-policymakers-financial industry execs, you name it--the vast and largely private network of connections, both virtual and physical, is what helps keep politics running the way it does. Assange writes that severing, or possibly exposing, these communications channels removes the power of the conspirators to further their conspiracy--it prevents the conspiracy, as it were, from “thinking.” 

The NYT article I linked to above focused more on Assange’s hypothetical of what would happen if either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party (both of which he describes as “closely balanced and broadly conspiratorial power groupings”) “gave up” their means of communication; the result, he surmised, would be not just organizational failure, but failure to the other party. Of course, this is what we have seen this election cycle--once the DNC’s communications channels were breached and the information it used to further its “conspiracy of power” were exposed, the Party’s nominee had no chance. 

But, I find Julian Assange’s final subtitle heading far more telling and important for the future of our country in this information and technologic age: “An authoritarian conspiracy that cannot think is powerless to preserve itself against the opponents it induces.” 

Think about that for a minute. 

These breaches and exposures have given over enormous power not to Trump and the Republican Party, or to Russia for that matter, but to the American people. Now that we have the ability to see the inner workings of the political machine, we have the power to tell our elected representatives how we want our country to be run. Remember that an elected official’s foremost thought is always reelection. Now that we have the ability to expose and sever those private communications channels, we have the ability to prevent the “authoritarian conspiracy” that is our governing system from thinking, and from preserving and retaining its power in the face of our discontent. 

At least, that’s what Julian Assange thinks. Interesting, huh?

[day0one]

The Trump-Twitter fight ropes in the rest of Silicon Valley 5 hrs ago POLITICO logoThe Trump-Twitter fight ropes in the rest of Silicon Valley

Twitter's decision to fact-check President Donald Trump's tweets has vaulted Silicon Valley's biggest players into a political fight with Washington when they least wanted it.

The deepening feud between the president and his go-to social media platform is forcing companies like Facebook and Google to gird for a lobbying battle to defend the legal protections that underpin their lucrative business models, sooner and much more publicly than they had originally expected. Those preparations accelerated this week, even as Facebook made it clear to Trump that it doesn't share Twitter's view of how online platforms should handle political speech.

Now the industry has no choice but to wade into an increasingly partisan debate over free expression, in a preelection season already torn by tensions surrounding the pandemic, mass unemployment and racial unrest.

“This is a debate that had been inside the Beltway that’s now gone national, and that means that advocates of online free speech need to prepare a national response,” said Carl Szabo, the vice president and general counsel at NetChoice, one of many tech industry trade groups responding to the Trump-Twitter showdown this week.

“What’s the opposite of ‘A rising tide lifts all boats?’ That’s this,” said one tech company policy official, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivities of the situation.

As Trump and Twitter sparred this week, NetChoice — whose members include Facebook, Twitter, Google and scores of other big-name online companies — rushed into an effort to convince the American public that Trump is wrong about an obscure provision of a quarter-century-old communications law.

The move, relying on Facebook posts, tweets and explainer videos, is a shift from the group's more typically insidery strategy of lobbying Hill staffers or members of Congress. And it suggests a more expansive approach to how Silicon Valley plans to engage in the messaging battle over the laws governing social media.

The rest of Silicon Valley’s robust lobbying presence has kicked into higher gear as well.

The Internet Association, which represents Twitter, Google and Facebook, among others, speedily released a video arguing that the internet depends on the liability protections at the center of the fight. The Computer and Communications Industry Association deliberated the impact of Trump’s actions with its member companies. And the Consumer Tech Association says it is expecting to make a big push to the Senate’s Judiciary and Commerce committees, as well as tech and business-focused caucuses among both parties — including some lawmakers they don’t typically target.

Facebook, meanwhile, made a more public show of trying to stay out of this week's content moderation clash: CEO Mark Zuckerberg popped up on Fox News in mid-week to say he has a much different view from Twitter on how social media platforms should handle controversial political speech. Companies like his, Zuckerberg said, should not act as “the arbiter of truth.”

Trump seized the opportunity to emphasize the divide. “@Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is today criticizing Twitter,” the president tweeted Friday.

But whatever public friction may exist between Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, the fight that Twitter set off by stamping fact-check labels on two of Trump's tweets about mail-in voting has implications for the entire online industry.

Trump, Szabo said, is “using government to attack the free speech rights of internet companies.” (Trump has made the opposite argument, saying Washington must protect free expression from political censorship by liberal Silicon Valley).

Trump responded to Twitter's rulings by signing an executive order Thursday that targets a law at the heart of the internet industry: Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. The 1996 statute offers online platforms broad immunity from lawsuits over the messages, photos, videos and other content their users post — a protection that has helped companies like Facebook and Google amass some of the world's biggest corporate fortunes. It also gives sites leeway to remove content they deem objectionable, a power Trump accuses the companies of abusing for partisan ends.

In the order, Trump asks government agencies to reinterpret the law in a way that would allow them to penalize companies for content decisions they deem politically biased. He has also threatened to push Congress to pass legislation to amend or revoke Section 230, a potentially existential threat to the companies' business models.

Notably, the industry's efforts are focused mainly on the threat of legislation — and not so much on the executive order, which many legal experts say lacks authority and conflicts with the Constitution.

"If there were to be changes to Section 230, it would be coming out of Congress, not the White House,” said Michael Petricone, the senior vice president of government affairs for the Consumer Tech Association. “You'll be seeing increased attention there.”

Tech companies’ reactions to previous government threats haven’t always been industry-wide. The rest of Silicon Valley was more than happy to let Facebook bear the brunt of criticisms over data privacy and Google endure the hottest antitrust spotlight. With Twitter taking the punches, the rest of the tech world could have viewed it as a chance to breathe easy for a while. Instead, they’re feeling roped into a battle triggered by Twitter.

Twitter, meanwhile, escalated its crackdown on Trump early Friday, labeling a Trump tweet containing the phrase “when the looting starts, the shooting starts” in response to protests in Minneapolis as “glorifying violence.” The White House then tweeted Trump's words verbatim, prompting Twitter to append the same warning label onto the official White House account. Facebook, in contrast, announced it would take no action against a Trump post containing the identical wording.

In another test for Twitter's policies, Trump tweeted Saturday morning that the protesters who had massed outside the White House the previous night would "have been greeted with the most vicious dogs, and most ominous weapons, I have ever seen" had they breached the grounds.

While Twitter has its own policy priorities in Washington, Section 230 and other content regulations chief among them, it has fewer entanglements in the nation’s capital than its Silicon Valley counterparts. It has recently been more willing to antagonize the Trump administration than some other tech companies, and has previously said that its generally hands-off approach to world leaders doesn’t mean Trump’s tweets can’t be pulled from the platform. Twitter declined to comment for this story.

Twitter is a far smaller company than Facebook and Google, making it less of a target for federal antitrust authorities. It is largely a public platform, which leaves it out of the debate with law enforcement over encryption. And it was never the high-dollar platform for political advertising that Facebook, and as of last year it no longer accepts political ads at all.

“Twitter is acting now because they can,” said Nu Wexler, a former spokesperson for Google, Facebook and Twitter. “They're not an antitrust target. They're not in China, so they don't have to worry about angering the government. And these two cases that they've chosen, voting misinformation and a direct violent threat, are good ones for them."

It’s no real surprise that Trump would go after Silicon Valley as he did. The White House has for many months been mulling an executive order attempting to rein in social media that it ended up issuing this week. In mid-May, the president tweeted that the "Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google," urging his 80 million followers to "stay tuned."

But where some in the industry had thought Trump was likely to roll out some such order in the chaotic run-up to the November election, as part of a targeted anti-social-media appeal to his base, having this tit-for-tat escalation break out in May means the fight could suck up much more oxygen and burn longer.

“Everybody expected this fight," Wexler said. "They just thought that it would happen in September or October as part of a get-out-the-vote push."

[deniscollins]

Playing on Kansas City Radio: Russian Propaganda

What would you do if you owned Alpine Broadcasting Corporation of Liberty, Missouri, and Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government, offered to pay $324,000 for three years, or $49.27 per hour, of which you would earn $27.50 an hour, to broadcast Russian propaganda in Kansas City: (1) accept the offer based on freedom of speech or (2) reject the offer based on misuse of freedom of speech? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision? 

When commuters spin the radio dial as they drive through Kansas City, Mo., these days, between the strains of classic rock and country hits they can tune in to something unexpected: Russian agitprop.

In January, Radio Sputnik, a propaganda arm of the Russian government, started broadcasting on three Kansas City-area radio stations during prime drive times, even sharing one frequency with a station rooted in the city’s historic jazz district.

“Who needs a ridiculous Red Dawn invasion,” a participant in one online forum wrote about the new broadcasts. “Your overlord, Mr. Putin, will be addressing you soon, so it’s best to prepare now,” another commenter wrote, referring to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In the United States, talk radio on Sputnik covers the political spectrum from right to left, but the constant backbeat is that America is damaged goods.

Sputnik’s American hosts follow a standard talk radio format, riffing on the day’s headlines and bantering with guests and callers. They find much to dislike in America, from the reporting on the coronavirus epidemic to the impeachment of President Trump, and they play on internal divisions as well.

On a recent show, one host started by saying he was broadcasting “live from Washington, D.C., capital of the divided states of America.”

Critics in Kansas City called Radio Sputnik’s arrival an unabashed exploitation of American values and openness. Those behind the deal defended it as a matter of free speech, as well as a simple business transaction.

Peter Schartel, the owner of Alpine Broadcasting Corporation of Liberty, Mo., the company airing Sputnik in Kansas City, said that he started the broadcasts on Jan. 1 both because he liked what he heard during a trial run last fall and because he was getting paid.

The deal was brokered by RM Broadcasting, a Florida firm that hunts for airtime to sell to Rossiya Segodnya, the Russian state media organization behind Sputnik.

Last year a federal judge in Florida ruled against RM Broadcasting’s owner, Arnold Ferolito, after he sued to prevent the Justice Department from forcing him to register as a foreign government agent. (Various news media organizations linked to Russia had already been ordered to register.)

The ruling outraged Mr. Ferolito, who said he made his first deal to get Russian state radio on the air in the United States in 2009. “They are paying for airtime and I make a percentage,” he said in an interview. “I am not being paid to represent the Russian government.”

Anyone tuned to Sputnik on 104.7 FM while driving across the historic 18th & Vine district in Kansas City, Mo., will find that it fades for a few minutes of music from KOJH — the call letters refer to Kansas City’s oldest jazz house — before Sputnik takes back over.

For years, Anita J. Dixon, a community organizer, dreamed of creating a radio station built around the music of such legendary Kansas City musicians as Count Basie and Charlie Parker. Ms. Dixon said having Sputnik dominate the same frequency was jarring.

“What was supposed to be a historic jazz station in a historic jazz community is now broadcasting Alex Jones and Sputnik,” Ms. Dixon said. “Ever heard the expression of being sold up the river? That is how it felt.”

Mr. Schartel disputed the notion that Kansas City is getting Sputnik instead of jazz. Radio Sputnik does beam its signal on the same frequency as KOJH, he said, but outside the limited geographic area awarded to the Mutual Musicians Foundation for the nonprofit, low-power jazz station.

Ms. Dixon still found it galling that Russia had gained space on the radio dial on the same frequency she had envisioned as a beacon for a black community that, among other things, had sent soldiers to die defending American values like free speech.

People ask how Russia managed to interfere in U.S. elections, Ms. Dixon said. “Because they get free airwaves,” she said. “It is called propaganda.”

Before Kansas City, Washington had been the only American city with Sputnik broadcasts — round the clock on one AM station and one FM station. Public disclosure forms show that the Russian government is paying more than $2 million over three years, starting in December 2017, for the Washington broadcasts.

In Kansas City, the fee is $324,000 for three years, or $49.27 per hour, according to RM Broadcasting’s Foreign Agents Registration Act filing. Mr. Schartel said he gets $27.50 of that hourly rate.

When it began in January, the Sputnik broadcast on KCXL was met with strong condemnation from locals. The station received a lot of hate calls, including a threat to burn it down, Mr. Schartel said.

An editorial in The Kansas City Star noted that the free press was a prime target of Mr. Putin’s attempts to weaken public trust in American institutions. “It’s sad, but not astonishing, that an American entrepreneur would put business above patriotism,” the paper wrote. “Listener, beware.”

Those involved in putting Sputnik on the air defended it as free speech. “I am not a bumpkin that fell off a wagon; I encourage people to listen for themselves,” Mr. Schartel said.

What was once Radio Moscow was reborn as Radio Sputnik in 2014. Mr. Putin backed the effort to create a central, state-run news organization — called Rossiya Segodnya, or Russia Today in English — designed to challenge the West’s global dominance on reporting news.

In a modern spin on propaganda, it focuses on sowing doubt about Western governments and institutions rather than the old Soviet model of selling Russia as paradise lost.

American intelligence agencies have concluded that Sputnik; its television sibling, RT; and other Russian-controlled media outlets were part of the Kremlin’s efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election in the United States, and could star in a repeat performance this year.

In Russia, the government controls the main television stations and an ever-growing list of news agencies.

Anna Starkova, the head of Rossiya Segodnya’s press service, said by email from Moscow that broadcasting in Kansas City would “not only broaden our audience but also give us valuable new experience locally.”

Sputnik now broadcasts in 90 cities worldwide, she said, dismissing as “absurd” the idea that listeners are the target of Russian election meddling.

Working through the news headlines on recent Sputnik broadcasts, the hosts found much to fault.

The impeachment of Mr. Trump is bad.

“The entire impeachment is a lie,” said Lee Stranahan, a former Breitbart reporter and the right-wing co-host of Sputnik’s morning show.

The American political system is bad.

Politics here is meant “to make sure that the masses of poor and working people don’t have access to even the most essential things,” said Sean Blackmon, a host of an evening program.

The American military presence in Iraq is bad.

United States forces should withdraw to allow Russia and China to rebuild Iraq and Syria, an Iraqi guest suggested.

Above all, the American press is beyond redemption.

“The wheels are coming off the establishment media,” Mr. Stranahan said. That is the Greek chorus across Sputnik.

Sputnik argues that the station is not trying to sow distrust or to undermine public confidence, but rather is seeking to express opinions that cannot be heard in other venues. “They know perfectly well that they are not going to be allowed to say that on CNN or Fox or MSNBC,” said Mindia Gavasheli, a veteran Russian television journalist who runs Sputnik’s Washington bureau.

Sputnik produces eight hours of daily material in Washington, filling the rest with feeds from its bureau in Edinburgh, from RT broadcasts and from shows that highlight aspects of Russia, like traveling to the Caspian Sea. In Kansas City, Sputnik airs six hours every day, during commuting times in the morning and evening as well as on weekends.

There are no immediate plans to expand elsewhere, Mr. Gavasheli said, although what he described as the “brouhaha” over Kansas City had prompted inquiries from other markets in the United States.

The Sputnik hosts seemed to revel in having a new audience. The morning show did a couple of segments on Kansas City barbecue and tried to make light of Russian influence by joking that Mr. Putin had ordered that the Kansas City Chiefs win the Super Bowl. (That was before the game, which the Chiefs won.)

Sputnik shares its Kansas City stations with a cast of far-right conspiracy theorists, evangelical pastors and anti-Semites. The host of one program, TruNews, recently described the impeachment of Mr. Trump as a “Jew coup.”

“He calls things the way that he sees them,” Mr. Schartel said of Rick Wiles, who made the remark. “I feel that he has got a right to say what he is saying.”

“We’ve always put on voices and people that wouldn’t be able to get on anyplace else,” said Mr. Schartel, who has owned the station for 26 years.

A mission statement on KCXL’s website says the United States has become a different country that now looks down on traditional values. “We tell you the things that the liberal media” will not, it said.

[wanderingaunt]

The Future of Not Knowing

Today is my Nomadiversary.

It’s one year from the day that I gave up my security, predictable lifestyle, and chose to make the world my home. And what’s wild is that I’m back in the city where I left. Only this time, I have no car or home of my own, and I’m not here for good.

If you could see the future, would you still go after what you want?

If you had told me a year ago that I would be in Dallas on the anniversary of my adventures into nomadic life, I probably would not have believed you. And if I could’ve seen that a year of gallivanting across the world would put me back where I started, I likely would’ve resisted it. I would’ve tried to alter my future so I could say that I was somewhere more exotic or doing some great adventure on my Nomadiversary.

Taking a leap of faith involves stepping both feet in without the guarantee of knowing where you’ll end up.

So often in life we wish we could see the future. We wish we could know where we’re headed and what it’s going to look like. Even if we could see where we’d be, without context, we’d overlook the missing pieces and possibly stay stuck where we are. While being back in Dallas and sleeping on a mattress on the floor in my sister’s house isn’t where I thought I’d be a year later, I wouldn’t change any of it. Because each step of my journey lead me to this point. Had I known the future, I would not have fully understood why I was back here. I would’ve thought that I had failed in some way. And that is quite the opposite of what is really happening.

Without context and seeing the full picture, we are left to wonder, assume, or make up a story about what we think is going on.

This is why it’s not good to form assumptions about people. With social media, it’s so easy to think that someone has their whole life together and living it perfectly. We see a brief glimpse and think we know the whole picture. Or we see someone not working in the traditional sense and think they’re not trying or doing anything of value. It’s possible even you have been watching my story unfold and think that I’m just being lackadaisical or completely lost and have no clue what I’m doing with my life—and that would be a wrong assumption.

If I had seen the future, I would have missed the in-between. All of the moments, experiences (both good and bad) that brought me to this place. I look back at my journey and it seems so unreal to me at times. Like, WOW, I actually did it. I really quit my corporate job, sold my furniture, car, and set off to travel the world on a solo journey! I really went on amazing experiences, started a photoshoot movement, and met so many beautiful souls. But it’s real—all of it.

Every moment throughout my journey and every choice I made (whether good or bad) was meant to happen to bring me to where I am today.

One of the biggest lessons I learned last year was to not be attached to plans or people. In fact, that’s how my journey started. I left Dallas anxious and excited for this new chapter in my life, and it started with a halt. Due to weather, delays, and circumstances beyond my control, I missed my flight to Sydney by 2 minutes and was left stranded in Houston for 24 hours.

I was devastated at first. My first step into this new life, and it was a mess, until I found the value in it. I learned to let go of control and attachment to how I thought something should go. And from there, I continued to be pulled more and more from my want to control and shown what it was to surrender, let go, and trust what was to come.

If you saw all of the challenges and obstacles you’d face when following your heart and dream, would you still go?

We want life to be so easy and without pain, heartache, or discomfort. We want to play it safe. I played life so safe before. In fact, safety was my theme. I stayed in the same job for over a decade because I was afraid of committing to something else; I kept myself free from dating or relationships, because I didn’t want to get hurt; I lived for experience and in the moment, because I didn’t trust what would happen if I lived in the present and away from avoidance and distraction, and so on.

Looking back on my journey over the past year, I can see the beauty in every obstacle, hurdle, or disappointment that happened.

Each moment and experience broke the chains from my past and set me free.

Here are just a few examples of some of the obstacles I faced:

Missing my flight to Sydney on the first day of my journey

Getting sick in Thailand for nearly 2 weeks; weak and bed-ridden and not knowing when I would get better

Running around like a crazy person when I returned to the states only 7 weeks after being away. Trying to keep myself busy and distracted to avoid having to talk about what I was doing with my life

Meeting someone I really cared about and having to go through immense heartbreak when it didn’t go as I anticipated

More episodes of salmonella and sickness

Getting lost numerous times and not knowing the language to ask for directions or help

Ignoring my wants and desires out of fear of what other people would think

Nearly running out of money and not being clear on what I wanted to do to sustain this lifestyle and pay bills

Being back in the United States and grounded in the place I once lived

Feeling the weight of my Sly Fox persona and how it has ruled my life

I am glad in many ways that I didn’t know the future. If I had seen all of this beforehand, I would have asked - “Why the hell would I want to go through all of that? Why put myself through such heartache and discomfort?” I would’ve focused on the obstacle rather than the beautiful lessons that would be learned.

Traveling solo for 8 months completely changed my life.

It took great courage to step into the unknown and keep going when hard times surfaced. I gained so much confidence in who I am and learned to believe in myself and more importantly, OWN it. I deepened my spiritual relationship and learned what it is to embody faith and trust. I made so many beautiful connections all over the world; some for a day, some for life. I learned to let my guard down and enjoy the moment rather than focus on the “what ifs”. I took a chance on myself and stepped away from my culture, upbringing, and ways that society says to live. I found so much Bold Freedom and learned what it is to let go of plans and take everything one step at a time. And none of this would’ve happened had I stayed where I was.

One of my themes last year was “If you don’t go. You don’t know.” And that is so true. If I didn’t go, I would’ve never known or experienced all that I know now.

If you don’t take a chance on yourself or go after something you want, you’ll never know.

Coming back to where I started is me taking a chance on myself. I could’ve continued to run and explore, but in reality, I needed this time to be grounded. I’ve learned that having a routine and a little bit of structure actually moves me forward rather than constricts me. It’s allowed me time to reconnect with my community and support and has shown me that it feels good to receive. I am so grateful to my friends and family here who have supported me unconditionally. I’ve continued to take risks and step into the unknown by enrolling in coaching programs to propel me forward, take on freelance and job opportunities to support me financially, and start my own business to own my gifts and talents.

Now that there’s context, I can see why I am where I am on my Nomadiversary.

And I have nothing but gratitude for my journey and how far I’ve come. I am so proud of myself on so many levels. I 100% own who I am and all I am creating, and I fully believe I am capable of doing what my heart desires.

Wherever you are in life, and whatever it is you’re creating or going after, do it. Trust yourself to know the right next steps to take and honor wherever you are. When setbacks occur, know that they are there to remind you of why you’re doing this. They’re strengthening who you are as a human being, and showing you that you really are capable of living a bigger, bolder life.

I am excited about the journey I’m on and all that I am creating. I cannot wait to meet the women who will trust me to guide them on their own journeys of Courage, Confidence, and Connection. Women who are looking to shake up their life and take a chance on themselves and their dreams, and need support in getting there.

I can’t see the future, nor do I know where I will be a year from now. And that’s okay. I don’t want to know. Knowing wouldn’t serve me the same as stepping into blind faith and asking for guidance to lead me each step of the way.

All I know right now is that I am continuing this nomadic journey, launching my business and creative projects, and jumping in with both feet excited to see where I land.

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets: Whatever you can do or dream, you can begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!"  -- William Hutchison Murray, The Scottish Himalayan Expedition

[citizentruth-blog]

Undermining Democracy, GOP-Style

Brian Kemp is a disgrace. (Photo Credit: Office of U.S. Senator David Perdue/Flickr) When it comes to the present-day incarnation of the Republican Party, always beware the shell game.  Per Dictionary.com, shell game is defined as "a sleight-of-hand swindling game resembling thimblerig but employing walnut shells or the like instead of thimblelike cups." If you're familiar with the setup of three-card Monte, the logistics are essentially the same, only with cards instead of shells. Find the pea (or the Queen of Hearts) under the shell. Double-down on your ability to find it again. If you're successful, you win big. If you're not, the opposite happens. With Donald Trump, Con-Man-in-Chief, working in cahoots with a party whose agenda seems increasingly predicated on deception—so that you don't discover how bad their policies actually are for you or the country at large—this diversionary tactic is alive and well. Before your eyes, numerous issues await your attention, but energy/money/time being limited, you can only pick one on which to act at the risk of having all three suffer. Concerning the events of the last week and change, three "shells" jump to mind being of national import, especially fresh after Election Day. All merit scrutiny as threats to democracy, and yet, there aren't enough hours in the day. That press conference President Trump has had some stupendously bad press conferences during his tenure, but his post-election presser, if not the outright worst, ranks right up there. There's a lot to unpack here, so let's get to the nitty-gritty, shall we? The great and powerful Republican Party: First things first, Trump started by lionizing the GOP's "achievements." Apparently, not losing control of the Senate and ceding control of the House qualify. At any rate, they were achievements because the Democrats had an unfair advantage in fundraising from special interests and wealthy donors and because the media is so gosh-darned mean to Republican candidates. Also, we had a bunch of retirements. But we had big rallies! And we did better than Obama! The country is booming! If the Democrats don't screw everything up, we'll all be united and thriving together! On bipartisanship: With the whining about the Republicans' handicap thus dispensed with, it was time for questions. First up, about that spirit of bipartisanship he and Nancy Pelosi talked about. Like, that's not really going to happen, right? Especially with all the investigations expected to be going on and unless y'all compromise? Trump demurred on the issue. No, we're totally going to be able to work together with the Democrats. Of course, if we can't, they're the ones in control of the House, so you know—their fault. Oh, that border wall... We're gonna build the wall. We've already started building it, in fact. Just try and stop it. The American people want it. The Democrats want it—they just don't want to admit it. Fine by me. I'll take the political capital and run with it. But the caravan is coming, ladies and gents. I can't say for sure that I'd advocate shutting down the government for it. But come on—I totally would. On the ever-tumultuous Cabinet: Trump is totally happy with his Cabinet. Good Cabinet. Great Cabinet. As long as no one suddenly displeases him, he has love for all. At this point, in a completely unrelated move, the President pushed a button revealing a pool of sharks underneath the floor and lowering a human-sized cage suspended above it from the ceiling. The Jim Acosta portion of the program: If there's one moment of the press conference you heard about, it was likely this. CNN's Jim Acosta, established persona non grata among Trump's base, pressed Trump on referring to the migrant caravan in Central America as an "invasion." Trump was all, like, well, I consider it an invasion. Acosta was all, like, but that caravan is hundreds and hundreds of miles away and you're demonizing immigrants by showing them climbing over walls, which they're not going to do. And that's when things got really interesting. As Trump settled into Attack Mode, Acosta tried to ask a follow-up question. Trump was all, like, you've had enough, pal. Nevertheless, he persisted, trying to ask about the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, a female aide tried to grab the mic away from Acosta, which he stifled with a "Pardon me, ma'am" and a hand on her arm. Before Acosta relented, Trump called the investigation a "hoax" and called Acosta a "rude, terrible person." Fun times. More about the Jim Acosta portion of the program: NBC News's Peter Alexander came to Acosta's defense as next reporter up—only to get harangued by the President in his own right—but the implications of this kerfuffle and the subsequent revocation of Acosta's press privileges in covering the White House are serious. I don't care what you think about Acosta personally, even if you feel he's a self-aggrandizing hack. Judging by the smarmy attitude of other CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Chris Cuomo, elevated self-appraisals seem to be a fairly common occurrence there. I also don't care what you think about Barack Obama's frosty relationship with FOX News and the questionable treatment its reporters received at the hands of the Obama White House. On the latter count, two wrongs don't make a right, and if Trump and Co. want to distinguish themselves, they should do it by being better and less petty—not the other way around. To that effect, squelching Acosta's voice in a dictatorial way should be concerning no matter where you stand politically in the name of journalistic integrity and a free press. And let's not start with the whole "Acosta assaulted that young woman" narrative. If you're relying on a doctored InfoWars clip to make your argument, you already should take the hint you're probably on some bullshit. More on bipartisanship: After Jim Acosta was given the ol' Vaudeville Hook, Alexander questioned Trump on why he was pitting Americans against one another. To which Trump asked back—and I am not making this up—"What are you—trying to be him?" He was referring to Acosta, of course. Even after what just happened, it was stunning. For the record, Pres. Trump gave a dodgy "they're soft on crime" answer and suggested the results of the election would have a "very positive impact." So, um, yay togetherness! If the Mueller investigation is unfair to the country and it's costing millions of dollars, why doesn't Trump just end it? I'm posting the whole question here, because the President sure didn't answer it convincingly. On voter suppression: "I'll give you 'voter suppression': Take a look at the CNN polls, how inaccurate they were. That's called 'voter suppression'." Um, what? On the individual mandate: You know, I could tell you what he said, but do you have any confidence that, regardless of how people feel about the individual mandate, Republicans have a plan in mind which will allow them to keep premiums down and cover preexisting conditions? Neither do I. When all questions by women of color are "stupid" or "racist": Speaking of three-card Monte, here's a shell game within the shell game in which you get to pick which one is the most flagrantly dog-whistle-y. PBS NewsHour's Yamiche Alcindor asked Trump about whether his claim to be a "nationalist" has emboldened "white nationalists" here and abroad. Trump said it's a "racist" question. Putting aside the notion held by many that racism implies power and Trump therefore has no idea what he's talking about in this regard, it's a legitimate question. Trump pivoted to his overwhelming support from African-American voters—a fabrication, at any rate—but his lack of an appropriate response betrays his complicity on this issue. More on denigrating black female reporters: While the dialog with Alcindor was the only such interaction with an African-American female reporter during the press conference, it's not his only recent unflattering characterization herein. In response to a question by CNN's Abby Phillip about whether he appointed Matthew Whitaker as acting Attorney General, he called her query "stupid" and opined that she asks "a lot of stupid questions." As for April Ryan, Trump recently referred to her as a "loser" and someone "who doesn't know what she's doing." If these comments were isolated incidents, one might be able to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. In such close proximity to one another and based on his track record, though, Trump deserves no such consideration. He's attacking these women of color because he has a problem with being challenged by strong females and because it's red meat to throw at his base. Other odds and ends: Trump evidently can't turn over his tax returns because he is under audit. This is complete and unmitigated bullshit. Trump likes Oprah. Even if she, too, is a loser. If anything is going to be done with DACA, it will apparently have to be dealt with in court. Whose fault is that? You guessed it: the Democrats. Trump claimed to have a lot of trouble understanding people from foreign news outlets. If there were anything to make him seem like more of the "ugly American," well, this would be it. What did Trump learn from the midterm results? Seeing as he learned that "people like him" and that "people like the job he's doing," he obviously didn't learn a damn thing. Will Mike Pence be Trump's running mate in 2020? Yes. Glad that's settled. Nice hardball question there. How will Trump push a pro-life agenda with a divided Congress? Like a mother trying to give birth, he's just going to keep pushing—don't you worry, evangelicals. Did China or Russia interfere in the election? The official report's, as they say, in the mail. How can we enact a middle-class tax cut alongside the existing corporate/high-earner tax cut? With an "adjustment." What kind of adjustment? Trump's "not telling." YOU HAVE NO IDEA. JUST SAY IT. Per "Two Corinthians" Trump, God plays a very big role in his life. He's also a "great moral leader," and he loves our country. On an unrelated note, a lightning bolt ripped through the ceiling during the press conference, narrowly missing Trump as he delivered his remarks. Au revoir, Monsieur Sessions Politics makes strange bedfellows. If you're thinking how strange it is to be protesting the firing of Jeff bleeping Sessions, you're not alone. Sessions' aforementioned removal as AG in favor of Trump loyalist Matthew Whitaker—assuming he actually was fired and didn't resign, though how would we know?—is not something that anyone feels bad about for Sessions's sake. You make a deal with the Devil, and eventually, you expect to get burned, no? Given his profile as a notorious anti-drug dinosaur who infamously once professed that good people don't use marijuana, some drug reform activism groups are even happy he's gone. Outside of this context, though, the larger partisan hostility toward Robert Mueller and his investigation matters. I'm not going to even get into whether Trump has the right to remove Sessions and replace him with someone like Whitaker who wasn't confirmed by the Senate, or whether it matters if he was fired or if he quit. Honestly, these questions are above my ken as a citizen journalist. If past statements are any indication, however, putting Whitaker in charge of the DOJ is suspect. The man didn't exactly write the book on how to limit the scope of the Mueller investigation, but he did pen an opinion piece for Trump's favorite news outlet on how it should be done. As with invalidating Jim Acosta's White House press privileges (a move which has prompted another lawsuit against the Trump administration, mind you), such is a line the president should not cross, no matter what side of the aisle you're on. As Americans, we should all be worried about the fate of the Mueller investigation as it comes to a head, and should implore our elected officials to safeguard the inquiry's results. The ghost of the 2000 election Oh, those hanging chads. It's somehow comforting—and yet actually deeply, deeply disturbing—that not much has changed since the fracas surrounding the 2000 recount that captivated a nation and prompted cries of a "stolen" victory for George W. Bush. Then again, that Al Gore didn't win his own state and that thousands of Florida Democrats voted for Bush puts a bit of a damper on pointing to these shenanigans and Ralph Nader as the only reasons why Gore lost. As with Hillary Clinton losing in 2016, alongside legitimate concerns about Russian meddling and James Comey's untimely letter to Congress, it's not as if strategic miscues or lack of enthusiasm about the Democratic candidate in question didn't play a role. Now that I've set the scene, let's talk about 2018. There were a number of close races across the country this Election Day—some so close they still haven't been certified or conceded. Depending on your views, some were either disappointments or godsends. If you were pulling for Beto O'Rourke in Texas, while you still should be encouraged, you were nonetheless dismayed to find that enough voters willingly re-elected Ted Cruz, famed annoyance and rumored Zodiac Killer. If you were pulling for Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona, meanwhile, you likely were over the moon once the race was finally called. Of the key races not yet called at this writing, those in Florida and Georgia loom particularly large. In the Sunshine State, the candidates of both the race for U.S. Senate between Rick Scott (R) and Bill Nelson (D) and the race for governor between Ron DeSantis (R) and Andrew Gillum (D) are separated by less than half of 1%. Meanwhile, in the Peach State gubernatorial race, there are enough outstanding votes that Stacey Abrams (D) and her campaign are convinced they can force a runoff election based on the margin. In all three cases, despite the razor-thin vote disparities, Republicans have been quick to cry fraud or try to expedite certifying the results. Scott, with Trump throwing his own claim around wildly in support, has made accusations of electoral malfeasance without the evidence to back it up. And this is just speaking about what has happened after the election. Leading up to the election, DeSantis caught flak for telling voters not to "monkey this up" by voting for Gillum, dog-whistling loud enough for racists across the Southeast to hear. Brian Kemp (R), meanwhile as Georgia Secretary of State, oversaw the purging of voters from rolls, the failure to process voter applications, and keeping voting machines locked up—all primarily at the expense of voters of color, a key Democratic constituency. Depending on how far back you wish to go, the antics of DeSantis, Kemp, and Scott are only the latest turn in a long-standing American tradition of voter suppression aimed at blacks. Carol Anderson, professor of African-American studies at Emory University, provides a concise but effective history of keeping blacks from the polls—by hook or by crook. We may no longer be threatening prospective voters of color with tar and feathers, but voter purges, closure of polling locations, and disenfranchisement of felons from being able to vote aren't much of an improvement. This is 2018, after all. As Van Jones and others might insist, Kemp et al. can only win one way: by stealing. To put it another way, if these Republicans were convinced they had won legitimately, they wouldn't need all the chicanery, subterfuge, and insinuations of impropriety. Even if they do prove to have the votes necessary to win, their conduct is a stain on the offices they have served or will serve. Like it is with the White House's revocation of Jim Acosta's privileges following Trump's press conference or the suspicious installation of Matthew Whitaker as head of the Department of Justice, the injustice here is such that it should, ahem, trump partisanship. Instead, our "winning is the only thing" mentality and emphasis on results over process all but ensures bipartisan inaction. Assuming a shell game is run fairly, the customer playing need only follow the correct shell amid all the movement. This itself might be a chore depending on how much and how fast the shells move. Going back to the Wikipedia entry on the shell game, though, there's an important note about how, frequently, games of these sort are not on the up-and-up: In practice, however, the shell game is notorious for its use by confidence tricksters who will typically rig the game using sleight of hand to move or hide the ball during play and replace it as required. Fraudulent shell games are also known for the use of psychological tricks to convince potential players of the legitimacy of the game – for example, by using shills or by allowing a player to win a few times before beginning the scam. In other words, it's a con. You've been following the wrong shell all along because the eyes deceive. In the context of President Donald Trump's unbecoming behavior, his DOJ shakeup of questionable legitimacy, and the Republican Party's stacking of the electoral deck, while all of these matters merit your justifiable outrage, they are yet a distraction from something else not even on the table. For one, shortly after the press conference, Trump issued a directive designed to halt asylum-seeking at our southern border. It's a particularly problematic order, in that it appears to fundamentally misunderstand asylum law and makes it yet harder to apply for asylum than it already is. It's also reactionary policy that overstates the dangers of the migrant caravan and illegal immigration in general, and further puts us out of step with international standards on safeguarding refugees/asylees. This executive order comes on the heels of Trump's stated desire to end birthright citizenship, another move which would be of dubious constitutional validity and subject to challenge in court by civil rights advocacy groups, not to mention having U.S. troops stationed at the border with Mexico. It's easy to dismiss these as political stunts designed to fire up his base when you have no skin in the game, so to speak. For immigrants and would-be applicants for asylum/visas, this rhetoric is more worrisome. Owing to our country's poor track record of acting on behalf of vulnerable populations—I'll bring our sordid history of intimidating voters of color and otherwise acting in official capacities to deny them their rights back up, in case you need reminding—this is more than simple hand-wringing based on the theoretical. In the miasma and noise of a Republican agenda fueled by the views of FOX News talking heads, Koch-Brothers-funded legislative influence, obeisance to moneyed interests and religious conservatives, Tea Party railing against deficits, and Trump's own prejudicial outlook, it's legitimately hard to cut through all the bullshit and focus on what we can do as possible influencers. By now, the sense of fatigue is real, especially because when we act to counteract said agenda, there's also half-hearted Democratic Party policies and media clickbait designed to offend around which to work. So, what's the answer? Assuming my words are even that useful in this regard, I'm not sure. As noted, all of the above merits scrutiny, but we have our limitations. It may be useful to zero in on one or a handful of issues that arouse your personal political passions. Plus, if you can afford it, so many causes spearheaded by organizations devoted to the betterment of society deserve your donations, though throwing money at these problems does not automatically equate to solving them. At the end of the day, though, what is abundantly clear after decades of failed policy initiatives is that tuning out is not a viable option if we want meaningful change. Indeed, people-powered solutions will be necessary if we are to fix our broken democracy—and there's a lot to fix, at that. Recognize the shell game for what it is, but don't refuse to play. Instead, change the game.   Read the full article