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cinemaocd · 5 years ago

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The Mirror and the Light raises more questions than it answers

Going into The Mirror and the Light, the third and necessarily final book in Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, the basic plot wasn’t much in doubt. Thomas Cromwell would rise. Thomas Cromwell would fall. In the summer of 1540 he would be executed. Along the way his son would get married, while he remained single, despite wide-spread speculation that he was angling after the King’s daughter Mary Tudor. Those who Cromwell promoted would be raised as well and some would remain loyal while others would betray him. Cromwell’s fall would come some time after Henry VIII’s unsuccessful marriage to Anne of Cleves, and his role in promoting that marriage would play some part in his downfall. Cromwell’s past interactions with his two most powerful enemies, Stephen Gardiner and the Duke of Norfolk, would also have some bearing on his downfall, since they were the main figures behind his arrest.

These are the undisputed big historical facts that Mantel had to work with, or in many cases, work around. There were many other smaller facts that she had to play with as well, some of which appear in the book as delightful asides like Cromwell putting a neighbor’s house on rollers in order to settle a boundary dispute, or Cromwell importing beavers to control the streams and rivers of England. There was also some evidence that Cromwell had an illegitimate daughter, born sometime after his wife’s death. Mantel massages the timeline to make this fit into her backstory of original characters from the first two books, and cleverly ties the daughter to the seemingly random charge in his arrest that he “sheltered Anabaptists.”

Of course Mantel created a whole plot, a series of original characters, and interpretations of historical figures and events for the first two books. They were fiction, after all. Like any good writer (and Mantel is an excellent writer, always in control of her material), she left questions unanswered to hook readers into the third book. If you were expecting these plots to be tidily resolved, you will be disappointed in The Mirror and the Light. The book fails to resolve many questions, creates more plot threads and then leaves those loose as well. Does that mean the book isn’t successful? I would argue that it is precisely because she fails to resolve these puzzles and questions, that Mantel manages to walk the knife edge between genre fiction and literature with a big “L.” She is certainly aware that these characters have all been the main actors in romance novels and murder mysteries as well as history plays. Indeed that is the subtext of almost every movement of plot within the novels.

While Wolf Hall seemed to be a conversation with playwright Robert Bolt about the veracity of A Man for All Seasons, which made Thomas More the hero and Cromwell the villain; this last installment seems to be deeply concerned with T.S. Eliot’s Murder in the Cathedral, about the murder of Thomas Becket at the hands of Henry II. Cromwell digs up Becket’s bones at their resting place in Canterbury, tears down statues of Becket and even keeps the supposed remains of the martyr in his house, in case the king changes his mind. He considers commissioning a play that shows what a terrible person Becket was for disobeying his king and bowing to Rome. Henry II was excommunicated, and Mantel dwells on the possibility that if the current Henry suffers the same fate, the whole nation could be lost to invaders given free reign by the pope to do their worst to the heretics. This is one of the reasons Cromwell is so eager to align England with Lutheran princes via the marriage with Cleves. But of course, Cromwell, as always, has half a dozen reasons for everything he does.

Eliot celebrates Becket as a champion of the separation of powers of church and state, a founding principal of modern democracies and one which was much threatened during the time Eliot wrote the play, 1935, with fascism on the rise in Europe. Of course it does not take a rocket scientist or even a political scientist to put two and two together with our own times. Cromwell would be anti-Brexit, pro NHS and anti austerity. Yet, he would also be the kind of neo-liberal who would be quietly feathering his own nest, profiting from selling off National Trust properties all the while making speeches about the enduring greatness of the British monarchy. For every eerily prescient passage about the plague and it’s random destructive path through society, there is a reminder of just how foreign a country the past is: Cromwell--a becon of rationality and enlightenment--believes the source of his fever is a snake he held in Italy. For every kindly head of an English department who is inspired by Cromwell’s leadership, there is a despicable grotesque like Steve Bannon who admires Cromwell’s ability to seize both religious and political power who sees himself, like “self made” white men everywhere, the victim of the elitism that Cromwell faced.

But these are questions for people who get their essays in front of more eyeballs than I ever will. What do I, the Cromwell fanatic think of the new book?

I think die hard fans of the first two books will be generally pleased with this installment. We get so much more Cromwell than ever before. We are moving more slowly through his life and we are, with exception of a few enlightening flashbacks, solidly in the company of the mature, sardonic, earthy man that we we got to know in Bring Up the Bodies. In short, Cromwell at fifty is a pure joy. Mantel as with the previous installments surrounds him with a crew of lively and memorable companions. From his son who has come into his own as Sassmaster of Austin Friars, to the irrepressible Christophe, who stays with Cromwell through his confinement and walks with him to his execution, cursing the king as Cromwell could not, I love everyone in this English Reformation. Even the bad guys like Norfolk and Gardiner remain fresh. Mantel uses them thriftily, lest we tire of their antics, so that when Cromwell is blindsided by an Easter dinner with Gardiner and Norfolk it is one of the highlights of the book.

As we move closer to his doom, Cromwell has flashes of his fate, but the history fan, or even just the person who has made a close reading of Cromwell’s wikipedia entry, can see it collapsing all around him. Yet, miraculously he never wears out his welcome as other iterations of the character do. As much as I enjoyed James Frain’s Cromwell early in The Tudors his characterization gets more shrill as the story moves forward to the point where his execution is almost a relief. Cromwell is a convenient villain because so many of the facts of his life actually support that conclusion. Mantel used every trick in the book from making him the victim of child abuse, to giving Cromwell a love of animals and children to humanize him in the first two books. In the third she sharpens all of these tools, even as she readies Cromwell to make that last journey from the tower.

In the first two books, there are a number of tropes that are quite worn and flimsy. For example, the idea that it was Cromwell selected the group of petty noblemen executed with Anne Boleyn because they once participated in a masquerade mocking his former master, Cardinal Wolsey. The men were guilty of something to be sure: a kind of greedy, entitled, elitist malice, but not the crimes for which they were executed. It is a weak premise really, but Mantel made it work because of the way she showed the working of Cromwell’s mind, and the way in which she brought the reader so thoroughly into his schemes. By the time you realize that you have been spending time with a mass murderer you are so under his spell that you begin to question the entire premise of narrative fiction. Can any narrator be relied upon? Is there any such thing as a villain or a hero? Are there not elements of both in every person? Can’t the guilt for all of this blood really be laid at the feet of the often childish monarch in whose name all of this happened? Where does personal responsibility begin and end in the midst of atrocity?

All of these larger questions are floating around in the background of The Mirror and the Light and as Cromwell focuses in on the grim task of disemboweling England’s religious houses for personal and political gain, you wonder what price all of this is going to have on his soul. In Wolf Hall, Cromwell fell into a fever, (probably malaria--which had a basis in historical fact) after he managed More’s execution. Though More’s death should be seen as political triumph for him, he views it as a personal failure. Cromwell does not like saints who don’t behave like rational men. He likes men like Geoffrey Pole, who he interrogates in The Mirror and the Light. Pole gives in easily to intimidation, talks a blue streak and is pardoned and released. Cromwell suffers another bout of the fever--which he believes will ultimately take his life-- after bringing down the last and largest religious house in England, the nunnery at Shaftesbury. Now it is true that Cardinal Wolsey had an illegitimate daughter who was housed there, but Mantel takes that fact and weaves into the fabric of her story. Again it is a flimsy premise and again it works because it is surrounded by unassailable bulwark that is Cromwell’s character. Cromwell arrives at Shaftesbury with the vague plan of trying to do something for the Cardinal’s daughter before he turns her out of her home. He winds up disastrously proposing marriage to her in an almost comical scene, a proposal which she rejects with such venom that he weeps for only the second time in three books. This is a man who has lost his entire family, suffered deeply all through his childhood and adolescence and yet this is only the second time he weeps? It’s not quite logical, and like the masquerade plot, it feels all a bit creaky, yet we believe it because Cromwell.

Wolsey’s daughter also accuses Cromwell of poisoning Wolsey, a rumor which has touched Cromwell’s ears earlier in the book, from the dying lips of another bastard child, this time The Duke of Richmond, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII. The injustice of the accusation drives Cromwell’s grief more than the girl’s rejection and he becomes haunted by the idea of who is spreading this rumor. While it could be any of Cromwell’s numerous enemies, it is never fully resolved. On second or third read of this or the other books, we might find the clues that Mantel hid in the story. Similarly multiple readings of the first two books reveal clues as to who terrorized Anne Boleyn by leaving her hate mail, setting her bed on fire and murdering her dog. Mantel has not exactly solved that mystery but she puts the probable solution into the mouth of one of her least trustworthy characters, Lady Jane Rochford, the wife of the late George Boleyn. If Cromwell believes her, he doesn’t say. We are left to decide for ourselves.

In the end, Cromwell’s bout of grief-driven malaria does contribute to his downfall, as he misses a crucial session of parliament, in which Stephen Gardiner forced through a series of laws meant to reverse the Reformation. Cromwell has to stand by and watch friends and fellows in the struggle to create a bible in English, burned at the stake. In Wolf Hall, Mantel says that a “blacksmith creates his own tools,” meaning that Cromwell created the very laws which he used to take down Katherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. The blacksmith imagery pays off in the final chapter of the last book, when we are reminded of Cromwell’s childhood nickname “put an edge on it” when he spies the dull instrument with which is to be executed. In The Mirror and the Light, the blacksmith is left at the mercy of his own tools. Unable to find proof of Cromwell’s heresy as a religious dissenter, Gardiner uses the law that Cromwell created to prevent any of Henry’s heirs marrying without the king’s permission. He takes idle gossip started by Cromwell’s oldest frenemy Eustace Chapuys, that Cromwell is planning to marry the Lady Mary Tudor, and uses it to fabricate the evidence used in Cromwell’s arrest. He uses the exact methods that Cromwell used to bring down Anne Boleyn: spin a rumor into fact while using the king’s momentary dissatisfaction as the window of opportunity to make ordinary ambition look treasonous.

The scenes with Mary are both heartbreaking and hilarious, as are many of the scenes with other possible, past marriage candidates such as Bess and Jane Seymour. Just as Cromwell’s relationship with frequent correspondents Stephen Vaughn flavored the earlier books, Cromwell’s relationship with Thomas Wyatt is the closest thing to a romance that Cromwell has in The Mirror and the Light. Cromwell’s seemingly irrational loyalty to Wyatt is explained away by a deathbed promise to Wyatt’s father (there is also a convenient deathbed promise to Katherine of Aragon retconned into this book to explain the lengths he goes to to save Mary Tudor from father’s wrath). Another flimsy trope that works because of the strength of Mantel’s characterization.

In prose that is frequently breathtaking and always interesting, Mantel saves some of her best stuff for describing the relationship between Cromwell and the king. If his friendship with the poet Wyatt is like that of a lover, his strange entanglement with Henry is like that of a spouse. In one scene Cromwell and Henry fall asleep together on a sofa. The intimacy is heartbreaking, partly because we know how it will end. When Cromwell is in his most pitched delirium of fever he realizes that Henry will use him up and spit him out. When he recovers himself, he writes The Book of Henry --treasonous advice to some imagined future privy councilor. Even if he does not consciously acknowledge that Henry will kill him, as he has his other spouses, his fever self, his true self, seems to realize it.

#Have this 2500 word brain dump #The Mirror and the Light #Hilary Mantel #Thomas Cromwell #This really only scratches the surface of my feelings #but I will probably need fic to go further

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jyndor · 4 years ago

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Cop-thing-anon here again (yeah I check the hashtag quite a lot..perks of covid homeschooling I guess)

Wow, I don't even know what to say

I knew what/who inspired the nations from atla but I had no idea that everything was deeper than that. I guess I thought atla's message was bad guy = ozai & sozin I guess and taking over the nations = bad. I also had no idea that azula ever said that

Makes sense the way you put it, I didn't think the creators would put in this much thought, like having the message run deeper than it usually is and taking real life events and shaping them kid friendly

You got me there.. actually convinced me. I'm still bummed, sorry

hey anon, I don’t want you to feel bad about not knowing some shit especially if you are a minor (which I am assuming because homeschooling). like I’m 29 and I didn’t know all of that when I was first watching avatar. at all. no one starts fully educated, that’s kind of the point of unlearning and growth.

also like, atla’s message is many messages - whether intended by the creators or unintended. and I don’t even agree with all of them. that’s the thing about media. there’s no such thing as ideologically pure content - there’s always going to be progress to make. and if you’re talking about atla’s creators (like bryke etc) then yeah they put a ton of thought into atla. I have issues with bryke but no one can say they didn’t do an amazing job researching for this world they wanted to build. and I just scratched the surface - there are so many other cultural influences on atla, from the sun warriors (pulling from aztec/incan/mayan cultures) to the foggy swamp tribe (probably related to people of the mississippi delta, or like the bayou) to the dai li being named for general dai li who was a top chinese government official and a fascist leader, etc. now it’s not perfect, like I said these peoples are not a 1 to 1 match for their real life influences.

I do believe that kids are smart and capable of digesting a lot. I was 14 or 15 when I first saw atla, and even though I was super anti-war (now I would categorize myself as anti-imperialism) avatar still taught me a lot. and when I rewatch the show I get so much more out of now that I understand more about these themes that they were pushing in the show.

like for instance, the episode where katara becomes the painted lady to save the fire nation town that is being poisoned. I was so mad at those townspeople for not accepting her because of her waterbending. like, how dare they? now... I still find it abhorrent but I understand why the writers made that choice. first off, those towns people were so poor and exploited I’d be shocked if they’d ever seen a waterbender before. so they probably didn’t know what waterbenders look like. and also, it’s a real thing that happens. poor communities can be bigoted and also exploited by corporations and business interests. that episode is not just about katara having empathy for poor people (even if they are people who have benefited in some small way from her people’s oppression) it is also about the toll that imperialism and the war machine have on the people who are supposed to benefit from those systems.

if you look at the united states, people like to say fuck america it should all drown etc, and yeah fuck the united states I agree, but the us is full of people who are dying from poverty and hunger and cancer from industry, and I’m not even talking about black americans who do not benefit from imperialism at all, but like... west virginia. skid row in california.

I read this un report on poverty in the us that fucked me up for a while:

“The evidence is everywhere. On Skid Row in Los Angeles, 14,000 homeless persons were arrested in 2016, including for urinating in public and other "quality of life" offenses, while overall arrests in the city were declining. For those wondering what the problem is, the answer is not hard to find. In 2016 there were only nine public toilets available for some 1,800 homeless individuals on Skid Row. The resulting ratio of one public toilet per 200 individuals would not even meet the minimum standards the UN sets for Syrian refugee camps.”

so like, not to bum you out further anon, but that is why critically engaging with media is so important. because if you just watch that episode and say “well fuck those poor fire nation people for probably being at least xenophobic if not racist” um I mean I get it I am sympathetic to that point. but it also brings up the lie of american exceptionalism that people around the world did actually believe. like that coming here would be better for people. idk maybe it is. but that episode was also saying that being a poor person, even a poor citizen who has privileges in their imperialist country, is at risk because of imperialism and capitalism lbr.

you can argue that that episode makes the case against there being a clear race factor in the show, but I’d argue that most people are willing to deal with someone’s differences until those differences are explicit. they’re totally cool with katara until they see the proof of her foreignness, and then they hate her. even when she put her neck at risk for them.

as far as the fanart goes, I’d be shocked if they were like “haha I’m fucking over indigenous people and supporting cops and police brutality” but it is a matter of not unlearning harmful things. like I know that the artist said they wanted to make sokka the cop first, but that is also a common thing in cop propaganda in shows. so like, have you ever seen the cool black cop or the gay cop or the woman cop? or the gay black cop with a cool corgi? that is making cops look progressive. that is a common ploy. it’s used by countries and companies to seem progressive (pinkwashing - israel does this, pretends to be gay friendly and woman friendly but they’re still harming palestinians so they’re not gay or woman friendly) and it works. people love brooklyn 99. but it’s still doing heavy lifting to present police departments in the united states as decent when they just are all complicit by nature.

so chances are that artist was not thinking about the messages they sent. and that art had over a thousand notes, so clearly people didn’t really think about it either. I saw a couple of comments saying it was gross but... shrug idk.

anyway, I don’t want you to be bummed out because of this. you didn’t do anything wrong, you just didn’t understand why I was mad about it. <3

#anons #asks #racism tw #fandom racism #not from anon lol #imperialism tw #atla #copaganda #always happy to throw shade at brooklyn 99

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justsomeantifas · 6 years ago

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its 11:59 its still technically tonight so

this is gonna be my reference point to questions abt venezuela, at least regarding things pre- May 19 2019. Its a bit scattered and it may get edited down along the road, but yeah.

short version that draws some similar conclusions: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/17/the-plot-to-kill-venezuela_partner/

one difference in scales that’s important to keep in mind: the lifespan of people is 2-7 decades. the lifespan of colonialism lasts centuries. the lifespan of media memory is a couple years, tops.

Most western narratives of venezuela start meaningfully at chavez, which is a mistake. The focus point in history around which the country flowed was the Caracazo. You probably already know about this, but a massive uprising took place in the heart of Caracas, against decades of dictatorship both formal and informal, after severe instability in the global oil market. The people were hungry, the riots were fiery, and the bullets bled. knows the death toll even now, but its estimated well into the thousands. This happened pre-chavez, and started a cascade of events which brought him into limelight that you can read about here. not gonna go into more venezuelan history, but i talk a bit more here

chavez was democratically elected, multiple times.

in 2002, after his first democratic election, he was kidnapped by US-backed troops and replaced by someone who threw out the 1999 constitution, which was as legitimate as any other made in venezuela’s colonial and violently capitalist history, seeing as it was the first (aka only, so far) of 26 constitutions actually approved by popular referendum. He was reinstated largely due to massive protests in support of him. Maduro however doesn’t really have as much of the charisma and support of chavez, which is creating problems - as well as exacerbating problems created by the economic crises ramping up just around chavez’s death. In 2015, there were elections to the National Assembly, which ended up with the Opposition winning a majority of the seats (which does show that there’s some degree of fairness in the elections, at least verifiably up til that point, yet that isnt rly accounted for when western media describes it as “undemocratic” - many of whom don’t apply the same scrutiny to their own country: such as this UN Human Rights councilor who also happens to be the crown prince of british-iraq, currently residing in the noted democracy of the Kingdom of Jordan, which has no vested interest or control over any particular export of Venezuela.).

This turnout showed most of all that maduro had alienated as many as 2 million of his supporters, who didnt end up voting (though many also voted against him - trying to act on their feeling that whatever they want, its “not this”). This decreasing support also accelerates whats known as “Everyday Sabotage” - people not trusting in the government, and look out for their own interests contra everyone else. This is a danger inherent to tying “Socialism” to a primarily state project.

However 1999 Constitution was never meant as an eternal document & it created mechanisms to call for new popular constitutional referendums to be held. That’s what the “Constituent Assembly” is about, which is what a lot of the western world is describing as him singlehandedly rewriting it (while also being “vague about its contents”), or “created by him”. Elections to the constituent assembly were boycotted by opposition, so that it would be government controlled & look like a sham in the eyes of the broader world. That being said, the assembly was called both as a reaction to losing election but also in response to intensifying crises - it was put forth (i don’t see any reason to believe in bad faith) as a way to come together and figure out how to address the needs that were driving people to protest - to address the desire for “not this”, but bc of the uncertainty, it was easily twistable by reactionaries by putting all emphasis on the former. Also timing corresponds with increasing fears of maduro straying from the path of chavez, the image of scrapping one of his strongest plays for smth unknown is risky - tho if there are other meaningful options given the situation im not sure. And the body’s got at least as much constitutional legitimacy as Guaido (Chapter III)

The 1999 constitution also enabled a recall election to be called against maduro in 2016, bc it was written with particular attention to holding public officials accountable - similar noble commitments helped to end the presidency of Rousseff & bring in Bolsonaro (who was also one of the people spurring on the investigations and whipping up a social base).

(speaking of guaido & bolsonaro)

on Guaido:

part of student group in 2007 protesting against non-renewal of coup-assisting network, who the CFR (one of the major think tanks of the cold war still playing a big role in foreign policy today) considered “most important network”

close friend of Leopoldo Lopez, the aforementioned coup plotter.

politician since 2010, won a couple small elections

Unknown to majority of general population until 2019, most venezuelans surveyed didnt know him

Plan Pais

plans to privatize state owned industry & allow investment from foreign oil companies

center-right neoliberal draped in platitudes of “stability”, “revitalization”, “security”, and “rescue” - a message seemingly deliberately targeted to become more and more resonant with increased sanctions.

/on Guaido

governing is about the expression of power. I wanna live in a world where that power isn’t expressed, but as long as the exploitation of the global working class continues unabated, id prefer some of that power be put towards helping the poor.

there is no such thing as a static state of affairs, there’s no “goldilocks zone” out in the political universe where we tweak things finely until we find whats best for everyone, only different rates of change in different dimensions. what we need to do is figure out how we can push that state of affairs in a direction so that everyday people have the power to take control of their lives. re

re: “constitutionality” - if the supreme court calls it constitutional then its constitutional. period. There’s no such thing as a supreme court as an “independent branch” of government, but there are different degrees of integration into the rest of it.

The Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela has 32 members, (a bit more than a dozen put in by the national assembly, while the PSUV held it), and the opposition holds abt 3 away from a supermajority. Each member of the court holds their spot for 12 years. If that’s “The Most Corrupt In The World” according to Transparency International, i wonder what world the 9-person lifetime-appointed US Supreme Court (2 of which appointed by trump, and save for pulling a Weekend At Ginsbergs, likely 3) is on. In fact, one of the tactics that the more radical circles of democrat voters are putting forward is to pack the Supreme Court. Because thats how shit actually gets done, or at the least how shit is prevented from being committed w the stamp of legality. FDR learned that lesson too, in trying to pass what is today known as “The New Deal”

My comparisons to trump are for specific end: these actions are exerted on levers of liberal democracy, and every single liberal democracy is susceptible to them in some ways.

whats a “dictator”? if hes unelected, the millions of people who participated in the elections dont seem to think so. if maduro is a dictator, then what is donald trump? the majority of ppl didnt vote for him yet hes still governing. macron’s popularity has at several points been less than 1/3, and the yellow vest protestors have been violently attacked - why is he not “a violent dictator with only the support of the military”? These terms are not neutral.

“their elections are highly flawed” So What? show me a country whose elections arent.

“opposition jailed” - ok but coup plotters don’t get off easy in any liberal democracy. If someone - say Bernie Sanders - said “enough is enough” and succeeded in overthrowing the current government with the help of a foreign government…. you think they’d let him go free? what if ten years later he was getting his supporters all riled up to do it again? how long you think he’d be in jail for (assuming he can survive well into his 100’s)? You think more than 13 years? Think he’d get house arrest? Some US states lock you up for posessing weed up to 10. If you stay long enough around this blog, youll find plenty of other examples of much more cruel and unusual punishments. Look at Chelsea Manning, look at Oscar Riviera… look at the US protestors saying Guaido is illegitimate

what we have to keep in mind most of all, is to show that the contradictions being exploited are inherent to Liberalism. Contradictions are just expressed most freely at the margins - the interstices

poor economic decisions happen everywhere - 2008/2009 still affecting the entire world there’s violence thats “natural”, and violence thats “intolerable”. The dividing line is whether we have anything to gain by changing things.

sanctions: started under obama, originally targeted specific individuals, used as precedent for more generalized. They’re indirect - they have a “squeezing effect”, takes already-existing problems & just makes them markedly worse. also doesn’t necessarily correlate with emigration, bc it takes a lot of money to start a new life somewhere else, and sanctions disproportionately affect the poor.

war wouldnt likely look like (many) US boots on the ground - we’ve got plenty of other places to be. It’d look like guns being smuggled to counter-protestors. It’d look like sending resources to neighboring countries like Colombia or Brazil who would then use their troops. Colombias ruling party is right wing populists - much of current president’s campaign was run on fearmongering abt venezuelan socialism - they’re raring to go. It’d look like drones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas_drone_attack. Also means there likely won’t be a sudden trigger, its a gradually escalating stressful gradually-more-warlike situation.

If war does break out - where would the refugees go? In reality the majority would go to Colombia, but if anything significant breaks out there will be a stream of those looking to find shelter in the US, which has advertised itself as a beacon of hope - what would happen to them? some may get taken in as a gesture of showmanship, but nowhere close to the majority.

speaking of the US - imagine if trump and bolton manage to actually plot a winning coup. Do you think that that wont be his main bullwark against ppl like Bernie? you think the media and rest of the democratic party wont jump on that narrative and “begrudgingly” support a fascist because the alternative might mean supporting single payer and not-having-good-for-ratings-climate-apocalypse?

another term thrown around without regard is “once vibrant” - for whom?

most articles ive seen just take this as an axiom, and dont find any cognitive dissonance when also saying chavez reduced poverty hugely.

The answer to that rhetorical question: Citgo is venezuelan, before chavez none of the wealth went back to venezuela - thats what “vibrancy” means.

many similarities with BP (the-artist-formerly-known-as-the-anglo-iranian-oil-company)

in age of climate change & vocal ppl about phasing out oil, the more one’s livelihood is connected to oil, the more unstable ones country will be - either that, or the more instability ones country will cause.

“Oil exports fell by $2,200 per capita from 2012 to 2016, of which $1,500 was due to the decline in oil prices.”

The drop in price that affected the venezuelan economy so much in 2014 was largely by US shale fracking

in 1970’s Chile, copper was the main product of Chile - allende nationalized the mines, and in return wall street dropped the

(also worth noting that venezuela’s got non-insignificant untapped shale basins)

At least venezuela used the oil money to fund social programs instead of like, pad the pockets of Raytheon.

also oil price wars in africa highly correlated w oil (whose annual production doesn’t even combined total venezuelas)

a couple ppl have raised concerns abt my strong stance on equivocal dismissal - if there’s a difference, if there’s some way of reading your statement that says “X country that the State Dept wants to invade is an anomoly in the otherwise free world”, then that’s acting to push the discourse towards normalization & invasion. It’s not “whataboutism”, just basic consistency.

now more than ever, narratives are affected by people. They may not be ones we had a hand in forging, but the way that we propagate them actually does have measurable effects on the larger-scale political outcomes. Always look for the base assumptions, as well as the direction

sure denounce Chavez. sure denounce Maduro. denounce Kim, Xi, Castro, anyone. But if there’s no equally or proportionally loud denunciations of the horrors perpetrated by allies - the “assumed”, “natural” violence, then you’re acting to reinforce the narrative of exceptionalism.

Just make sure after you take a breath, you denounce Saudi Arabia & Yemen, Israel for Palestine, the conditions which brought Argentinian/Brazillian, Brazilian coup, the US for Puerto Rico, the conditions which have murdered dozens of journalists in Mexico per year…

what people want most of all is stability. “A debate over whether it is mismanagement and corruption by the Maduro government or the sanctions that are the author of the crisis is largely irrelevant. The point is that a combination of the reliance on oil revenues and the sanctions policy has crushed the policy space for any stability in the country.”

government’s errors and tensions

fixed exchange rate -> black market

took 5 years to address changing relation between dollar & BsF, all the room between those two curves left a huge room for intensifying crises, though since it also corresponds with the death of chavez, it sorta makes sense.

antidemocratic actions and remarks by maduro

scattered responses filled w half-solutions

diversification needed, but how do you diversify an economy filled with rampant poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy…

(nominally begrudging) support for mineral extraction 12.4% of territory opened to extraction - “Special Economic Zone” as a method of managing decay

this is also what much of the reality of “economic diversification” looks like

not enough socialism. (even fox agrees!) Venezuela shows the limits of Social Democracy in countries living outside of the Imperial Core - esp the dangers if you’re in the crosshairs already bc of oil

started out as populism, gradually grew as confronted more. shows shaping influence on political organs from actions of foreign actors - if you’ve survived a coup before, you’re gonna become paranoid about any more of them - especially when the coup plotters say “hey lets do more coups”

also shows the weakness of only having a small number of charasmatic faces representing the movement - if one dies and theres no clear and popular replacement, then you’ll lose ppl who were largely brought in by the charisma, weakening your political project, and creating cracks for reactionary forces to take advantage of - especially in times of transition.

bourgeoisie still control a majority of the economy. Capitalist businesses are internally unaccountable, and in this age of intensified global trade, one can punish countries for straying from the pack by moving business & focus away. If you’re looking for dictatorships, look at the thousands of private companies run as dictatorships daily

capital flight is a real effect, precisely because socialism is fundamentally and irreconcilably against the self-interest of the bourgeoisie. not necessarily against the interest of the humans-who-are-also-bourgeois, but of the impersonal self-sustaining force of capital.

Have you ever pulled something out of an electrical socket, and seen a quick spark? The reason that occurs is bc of what’s called an induction current, which is a fancy physics word for flowing electricity not liking to suddenly change its flow. If you accidentally touch that spark, you might feel it, but youll live to tell the tale. But if you only take the plug out halfway & touch it, that’s a different story. Capital flows similarly.

my country (lithuania) has been facing sky-high emigration since the collapse of the USSR (with an added boost after 08-09), we have also consistently had one of the highest suicide rates in the world (#7), a minimum wage of about 3 Euros an hour (after a recent increase), as well as one of the highest prison populations in Europe (discounting Russia & Belarus… which like….)

when are we gonna be invaded? when will the US media talk about our pain?

oh wait, they did. We cried all pretty for the TV cameras, then they got a bozo nobody really knew of to denounce the government, who they called dictatorial (though it was far from ideal, massive bureaucracies dont tend to mix well with single-person-decision-making). And to be fair, the fact that the government was unpopular wasnt entirely undeserved. But what was promised to us was the idea of “Freedom”, “Free Enterprise”; to “Get Rid of Corruption” and institute “Real” Democracy". They said we’d be integrated into the glorious capitalist west, and we understood that to mean that we’d be in the position of a Germany, or at least an Austria or smth. But they never meant to integrate us into the imperial Core, we have always been seen as part of the Periphery - the “assumed” violence that “naturally” happens.

Then we got to where we our today. Some of the stuffs more available, but expensive. Most of the bureaucracy’s still around, it just helps fewer people. We stand as an example of what to expect, in one of the best case scenarios, you would join our emigrees now making up a significant percentage of underpaid house-servants aka maids across the EU.

if we want the people of Venezuela to be healthy, safe, and fulfilled, then:

speak out and pointing to the effects of US sanctions is incredibly important. They’ve already killed 40,000 people in the last year, and 300,000 more are in extreme danger (and millions more in long-term risk).

what does it mean when you simultaneously sanction trade with a place but also demand they let you give them humanitarian aid?

if there is to be action taken by the international community, then the US has forfeited its right to speak. They threw it away once in 2002, and obama rhetorically picked it up and dusted it off so that trump could throw it in a bigger dumpster, thats also on fire. However we also still live in a world deeply shaped by US Hegemony, so the opinions of its close trade partners & closest-knit media buds should be seen as influenced as such. Doesn’t mean that theyre wrong on everything too, but they still feel the magnetic pull of the US economy and ecosystem (as well as their own potentially imperial interests) and the effect of that force cannot be discounted.

transitioning our economies away from oil & away from globalized neoliberalism which only values peripheral states by their exports - dissolves tensions of how to produce in unproductive terrain

socialize medicine in the US, so that drug companies run by dictatorships can’t control their lives & ours. healthcare is especially reliant on imports, sanctions affect especially strongly.

normalize the ideas of Socialism, without taking the easy way out of “oh no dont think of Venezuela, think of sweden or denmark”. None of them are Socialist, but to avoid the complexities of Venezuela is to imagine that US attempts at socialism wouldn’t involve significant capital flight. If we don’t consider that, if we don’t have solid actionable plans to deal with that, while also facing the inherent complexity of changing material conditions, then we’re gonna waste whatever shot we get.

redirect conversation normally centered around government towards support of the tens of thousands of small business co-operatives, where people live their daily lives in a democratic manner.

on The Communes:

“delegating responsibility throughout all members, and bringing important decisions to the whole to work through and find the best possible solution… They create “collective criteria” together; agreements stipulating whether individuals have power over certain decisions or whether it is up to the whole group. However, he assures that these “are not rigid, they can change at any moment.” The cooperative I lived with in Venezuela had regular organizational meetings where they informally came to agreement and were even able to come back to re-evaluate decisions that didn´t seem to be satisfactory for the whole group in this same way. Decisions and decision making, in this way, are viewed as a process not contained by meetings and discussions in board rooms, but are always being analyzed and made better by the process of putting them into action, and not only by thinking them out and writing them down.”

- the “Self Government of the Producers” - aka what it looks like for cooks to govern.

they have communal councils as well - neighborhood councils in the same vein that so many (rightfully) find inspiring in Kurdistan . They preexisted chavez, but they were able to proliferate and be given legal recognition through him. I understand that legal recognition can act to ‘name’ a body & pin it to smth that doesn’t match its requisite variety - how dynamic it is, but imo as its currently legislated it recognizes a good amount of the autonomy that they had already been excersizing. - liable to change government recognition of co-ops has drawbacks too, and correlates negatively with that coop’s success

"A good example of this intention is the de-emphasis that cooperatives in Venezuela put on advertising or “marketing” products, and instead push to find more people to become part of the cooperative, and choose the services or products they provide based on community decisions about what is needed. A cooperative I worked in […] was originally a family owned and operated theater group that traveled around the country performing theater pieces that highlighted social and environmental issues. When they joined the […] cooperative, the larger co-op did an analysis and decided they wanted a natural fruit juice concentrate producer and gave the group a loan to acquire capital and start producing. They have been doing this for only a couple of years now but have already paid back the loan to the larger cooperative and are bringing extra money in to support themselves, better their services, and supply extra funds to the larger cooperative for community projects such as the recently [2012] built community health center…

The cooperative services I experienced and learned about in Venezuela were health, dental, food, and a separate example of trash services. A dental cooperative […] provides quality dental services (I know because I used them) almost every day for affordable prices. You don´t have to be a member of the cooperative, and you don´t have to make an appointment. It takes only a couple of hours, and emergency situations are treated with urgency. The health center, built with funds provided by all the associated cooperatives[…], works the same way. Anyone can go there, the services are subsidized by the cooperative so they are affordable, the clinic and workspaces are clean and well taken care of, and the quality of the service is great. Worker-members of the cooperative receive health care at the facility without charge except for the massage and acupuncture services that they also provide at a really low price.

[…] food services are priced to provide more access to food for the community in which it exists. The original and persistent intention is to make the best situation for people on all ends of the process. The producers are part of the cooperative and are part of the group that decides the prices that growers get, as well as the prices that the food is sold for. This means that both farmers and workers at the market decide what to charge a person, which ultimately affects how much money the growers receive, as well as if the food is affordable for the people who need to eat who live in the city. In a normal capitalist market system these parties are separated and put up against each other, raising prices for consumers and lowering them for small producers, excluding those people from getting enough money to afford all the necessities that are typically only provided at a high price.

One communal council, a parallel governing organization of community members linked to investment funds from the national government, in the city of Merida, Venezuela organized themselves to get funds to buy a trash collection truck. The truck at the time was used for a specific waste removal project that removed waste from their community regularly but was not a traditional collection service. However, they did have plans to expand the project to start their own collection service, and this would be provided by the commal council, an anti-capitalist organization which does not require people to pay for the service. Although this is not a “co-operative” as some hardliner co-operative enthusiasts might point out, it is a horizontal anti-capitalist organization widening access of necessary services to the larger community run by community members; following cooperative values of equity, inclusion, and solidarity I believe this to be an example of cooperative economics and action. It appears to me that economic inclusion is much more likely to widen only when those who are being excluded are included in the process of organizing the services and are in control of the economy.“

until the communes, workers cooperatives, and the like are strong enough to rule themselves, having Maduro in power is the only option given to us which doesn’t trigger the control of reactionaries. People make their own history, but not in situations of their choosing - the exact outcome isn’t predetermined, but there’s only a limited number of poles - gravitational attractors - towards which that trajectory is heading at any particular time.

if maduro acts to squash the power of the communes, then thats a different situation. but until that point, we outside of the country must work to center any discussion on these bodies - they are the heart of the country and of whatever social revolution has occurred/is further possible. They are filled with lessons for us to learn from, and show how rich and dynamic the organized populace can be if they are allowed to control their communities. (ex of dealing with gang violence from @ 22:50)

This is all said with recognition that many chavistas have acted against communes, the bureaucratic machine acts to co-opt much of their energy, its linguistically obscured the concept of "ownership” with that of “control”, and that the state has changed its messages over time. But the heart of the communes is what’s a priority, and they have acted against the government overstepping its bounds & mis-identifying them. But whats important is that there’s a feedback process in the gvt to actually allow them to assert their autonomy. Liberals will do their utmost to close those channels.

If Guaido and the Popular Will take control of power, be assured that whatever gains made in organizing the everyday people of Venezuela will be at the top of the chopping block. How effective that suppression turns out to be is undetermined - it might turn out to strengthen the communes, but that outcome would be damage control, not something to try and bullseye.

Effective Propaganda knows that its more effective to control what’s left out than control what’s put in. Keep that in mind, and study trajectories and forces.

other links:

https://next.podbay.fm/podcast/1363342644/e/1551711604

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voc08vh9cJY

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/21/a-cowboy-in-caracas/

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/the-tragedy-of-venezuela/

https://www.multpl.com/venezuela-gdp

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/04/fivethirtyeights-venezuela-problem

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-venezeulas-middle-class-is-taking-to-the-streets/

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjkmq8/fiery-protest-leader-leopoldo-lopez-faces-13-year-sentence-in-venezuela

https://potent.media/minimum-sentencing-for-marijuana-possession

https://www.thoughtco.com/core-and-periphery-1435410

https://popularresistance.org/building-the-commune-radical-democracy-in-venezuela/

http://www.antiwar.com/regions/regions.php?c=Venezuela

#venezuela #reference #imperialism #chavez #maduro #socialism #capitalism #extraction #oil #war #emigrant #communes #cooperatives

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wheremytwinwatches · 5 years ago

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[Where My Twin Watches]: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood Episode 31

Last time: Roy gave Riza his number, war was hell, and there could only be one Doc. Onwards!

Envy is not happy to change jobs from Doc Marcoh’s waiter to Scar’s maid, cleaning up his latest mess of brain matter. And so much for the guard dog. Or dogs? There’s an empty collar… Riza’s seeing Ed out after tea, when Ed worries about her new job as a hostage she waves it off as a better chance to kill him in his sleep. That’s one way to look at it, I suppose. One message to pass on about Scar being back, and thanks for talking about Ishval, and Ed’s off. Quick, go save your brother from his new admirer! Episode 31 - “The 520 Cens Promise“ Cens? Is that like an Amestris version of a penny, or what? Ed catches up with Al at a clock-fountain, you can tell how much hearing about Ishval got to him when he calls himself “practically a kid”. And it definitely casts a light on Roy’s drive to become the Fuhrer, if it’s really just setting himself up for Mob Justice. Speaking of the future, they talk about their plans after they regain their bodies. Food for Al, of course, he should still be carrying around that “Stuff to Eat” book. Ed claims that he’s been so busy just trying to get his limbs back he hasn’t thought about what comes next. Maybe some courtesy calls NO NO NO NO Leto-damn it, boys! “Let Granny and Teacher know we’re all right”? “They’ve both helped us out so much”? “They’ll be smiling when they see us”?!?! Stop it, you’re signing their death warrants! Oh my Leto stop with the optimism, you are painting great big targets on yourselves for the Irony Gods. Moving on, moving on! Ed talks about his plan to get around Uncle’s Anti-Alchemy Field with Alkahestry, I’m a little concerned about that seeing as Uncle changed his method to counter Scar’s mixed style, but it’s still a starting point. Time to get lessons from a little girl! A little girl who has skipped town, apparently! Doc says she left his house/hospital that morning. Wow, I get that you’re upset Ed, but there’s no need to just hang up on the Doc like that. And people wonder why he’s snippy all the time. Now, how to track down the little princess? It’s not like she has a unique identifier like a foreign animal companion OH WAIT Elsewhere in Central, Havoc gets visited by Breda and a gift of dumbbells, a farewell gift before he gets shipped off to the West. Fuery and Falman catch up as well as the latter goes to drop off a chess board, Falman griping about the cold of the north. I feel ya buddy. Up in Roy’s office Riza stops by as well, to get a few things she forgot but also to tell him about Scar being back and tell him to take care of himself. Then it’s just Roy, on his own in a big empty room. No pawn (what, just because Fuery’s short he gets the pawn?), no bishop (always serious Falman), no rook (stocky Breda), no knight (poor Havoc), and no queen (CAN’T STOP THE SHIP). But don’t count out the wannabe-king just yet! He’s still in play. And so is the Conspiracy, hidden message in the king! Go Falman!

Hey, Ed? You might wanna work on your drawing skills, or at least don’t inflict your own Angry Gremlin art style on a poor panda. At least Al’s there to show people what it actually looks like, but the day goes by and they haven’t gotten anything. Suddenly the Colonel drives by and offers them a ride, as well as any leads on May he finds. Anyways, about that- Leto, watch where you’re driving man! Anyways, about that money that Ed borrowed to panic-call Winry? [Ed]: “You remembered?! C’mon, how much did I borrow, 500 cens?” [Irate!Roy]: “It was 520 cens!” Titledrop! Ha, nice. “I’ll pay you back when you become Fuhrer.” Now he has even more reason to wait why is the music menacing? Seriously, Roy? You’re asking how Ed learned of your ambition to become Fuhrer? It’s not like you’ve kept it a secret. A bit of snarking about paying back pocket change after each time Roy improves the country, seriously though the music is making what I would normally be chuckling at depressing as heck. Stop it. Alright, back to their ro- Person in the room, look out! Wait, who. Oh jeez, it’s Ling’s other bodyguard, uh… *rifles through past posts*. Fu, right! Last we saw he was escorting Ross to Xing. Yeah, so while you were gone a couple of things happened… Really, Roy? One day without your Conspiracy, and you go drinking. I am- [Roy]: “Hey.” [Bar full of ladies]: *turns* [Who dis?]: “It’s Roy! Well I’ll be damned. Long time!” What. Who are you and why are you hugging Roy. What is going on. Riza, Riza I need you to get over here now. Uh anyway, we have a new character in the owner of this ‘establishment’, Madame Christmas. *Sigh* Come on Roy, I know that you and Riza aren’t official, but you just called her your queen! Show some- Oh. OH! The epic plotting music has started up, Roy’s passed a note to the Madame asking for something special. Secret informant group, go! One that has a direct line to General Grumman, no less!

Mid-episode pictures of Roy scowling at his King, and That Ass Kimblee strutting around in his white suit from the intro. Uh oh. Fu is not happy with the bodyguard he left to watch his liege. Lost her arm, Ling got Goth’d, and now moping in a dingy basement. Look dude, with all the foes WHOA nope! No hitting the lady! I get that you’re upset, but she did the best she could! Then it finally sinks in that Lan Fan lost her arm. Wait, what? [Lan Fan]: “Please forgive me, Grandfather.” He’s your grandpa? I thought it was just a teacher/student job, but they’re family? Ouch. Still very upset with you for hitting your granddaughter, dude, not letting you off the hook. But yikes, this has got to cut deep. You leave for half a season, and come back to this. Alright, time for a roadtrip! Lan Fan needs to meet up with Winry in Rush Valley to get her new arm. Or not? Come on gramps, this it not the time for foolish national pride, you can’t just- Oh. Ok yeah, the Goths have seen Lan Fan’s face now and have already threatened harm to Winry unless Ed toes the line. If she patches up one of their foes? It sucks, but they have to find another way. Fu thanks Doc for saving Lan Fan’s life, and I’m sorry this is a touching scene and all but I can’t get over the magically floating cigarette whenever Doc talks. Sweet scene of him blustering and trying to act grumpy and all, but really. That cigarette. Later, ninjas. Gather your strength, save your young lord, and give that old fart back in Xing immortality (again, ruining any chance of Ling advancing, but whatever). Greed? You just take care of Ling’s body until we can kick you out. The Doc’s resting on his couch, now that he can actually use it, thinking about… um. Thinking about a basement operating table with corpses strewn around the room. Um. Whatever THAT was, it’s compared to May and Lan Fan thanking him for his treatment, which he scoffs at. Yikes. His grumpy attitude and self-dismissal make a lot more sense now. Knock at the door, Doc goes to answer- “Uh, g-good evening Dad. Good to see you.” “It’s been awhile, how are you?” This is his family? His ex and son who were in the area and decided to stop by? And for the son to say he plans to become a doctor? To the tune of tinkly music? Yeah, no. I call bullshit. This is some Goth nonsense right here, I’d say a trick of Envy except there are two people so I don’t know how. But no way this is happening, especially after the giant middle finger to the Irony Gods earlier in the episode. Bracing for awfulness! Dude is crying as he gets some cups for coffee, asking God for a break. Just asking to enjoy some time with his family.

Next day in Central, looks like a cell with OH FOR LETO’S SAKE NO. How does Kimblee have that Stone? Wow, really officers? You gave this Blood Knight the most powerful MacGuffin in your setting, and after he did your dirty work you expected him to just hand it over and file a report on the power he once wielded? How have you survived this long? So it seems Kimblee got arrested for their murders, but no one else knew he swallowed the stone so he’s had it since. But if that’s true, why the heck has he just been sitting around in a cell all these years, not even escaping when Mr. Freeze tried to recruit him? He’s being released? Wrath, what are you up to? I can only assume that you knew he at least had a Stone because the Goths spearheaded the whole process, so why keep Kimblee locked up all this time only to release him now? How does this help you? Could be a distraction for the Protagonists, I suppose. Oh! I see it now, it’s for Scar! Throw the murderer of his people and family at him so he stays away from you. Kimblee’s walked out by a grumpy Warden who might as well be talking about his retirement party in three days. Death flags everywhere for this fool. Kimblee’s outside at an open gate, turns around to shake the man’s hand- and Transmute a bomb to his wrist. Leto, that’s- a baby chick? Wow, ok. Strapping a fake bomb to the man, just to see his freakout? You’re an ass. So now that the jerk’s free, he gets waved into a car by a MP who yup is Envy in disguise, here to give Kimblee a job. Marcoh’s gone. Or maybe not? Oh yeah, that missing guard chimera. If Marcoh could transmute living tissue to make a fake body, ala the Ross Deception, then he could have escaped with Scar. So the job’s to kill Scar and retrieve Marcoh, and then wipe a- A town?! Holy Leto, they’re gonna target Resembool! Scar, kill this ass! Ugh, and then in addition to his hidden Stone Kimblee gets a fresh one from Father, made from the assistants of Marcoh that first time. Makes sense in a jerk way, I guess. If you have to kill off the witnesses, why not grab those souls they aren’t using any more? Scar and Marcoh are hiding out in an alley, Scar explaining that Marcoh’s more useful alive to provide info on Kimblee and info about his brother’s research. Right, there’s that whole thing about Amestris’ alchemy being strange, and not just in that it’s different from alkahestry. Oh, and May’s caught up! She’s curious about their new companion, Scar’s quick to shut that idea down. He’s just the guy who made the Philosopher’s Stones-

Bleh. May hears “immortality” and jumps on it, she’s tugging on Marcoh’s sleeve and begging him to teach her how to make a Stone. Little one, stop. You have no idea what the true cost of a Philosopher’s Stone is. You can’t- Ah. I can see Scar’s logic here: better to remove the temptation now. I guess Marcoh is… still alive after that HoD? Oh yeah, the doctor is kinda recognizable, needs a new face. But wow dude, dick move to just grab him without any warning. Now, time to go and get his brother’s notes… In the north. Looks like everyone’s going to Drachma! Time to break out the winter outfits!

#wmtw #where my twin watches #full metal alchemist #full metal alchemist brotherhood #fmab #fmab 31

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newstfionline · 5 years ago

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Headlines

World refugee numbers rise (Foreign Policy) A new report by the United Nations refugee agency found that the number of refugees worldwide increased by 9 million in 2019, adding to a total of roughly 80 million people. Only 107,000 refugees were resettled in third countries, with Canada receiving the most with 31,100. The United States received the second highest number with 27,500 resettled in 2019.

Migrant farmworkers die in Canada, and Mexico wants answers (Washington Post) Each summer for the past five years, Aaron has traveled from his home in Mexico to Canada as one of the tens of thousands of temporary foreign workers who seed, tend and harvest the crops that keep the country fed. This year’s journey was unique. Flights were limited. There were temperature screenings and questionnaires before he took off and after he landed. On arriving in British Columbia this month, he was checked into a hotel for a 14-day quarantine. But in this year of the coronavirus, the precautions have not kept all of Canada’s migrant farmworkers safe. At least 600 have contracted covid-19, and at least two, both Mexicans, have died. Mexico, which provides nearly half of Canada’s migrant farmworkers, has become so concerned that officials said this week they’re hitting the “pause button” on plans to send up to 5,000 more to Canada until they’re satisfied the conditions that led to the deaths will be rectified—threatening a labor crunch for Canada’s already squeezed agricultural sector. The pandemic has highlighted Canada’s dependence on the 60,000 temporary foreign workers who arrive each year from countries such as Mexico and Jamaica as part of a federal government program, and without whom hundreds of thousands of tons of blueberries, asparagus stalks and grapes would wither on the vine.

DACA lives on (NYT) When this country started hearing a decade ago about Dreamers—people who came to the United States as small children without legal permission—many of them were in their teens or early 20s. These Dreamers are now full adults, with careers and families, and many have spent years anxiously wondering whether they would be thrown out of the only country they’ve really known. Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which barred President Trump from deporting the Dreamers anytime soon, came as a tremendous relief to them. “It feels amazing,” Vanessa Pumar, 31, an immigration lawyer who came from Venezuela at age 11, said. “I have been holding my breath. It feels like I can finally breathe.” Roberto G. Gonzales, a Harvard professor who has been studying DACA since it went into effect in 2012, calls it “the most successful immigration policy in recent decades.” Gonzales explains: “Within a year, DACA beneficiaries were already taking giant steps. They found new jobs. They increased their earnings. They acquired driver’s licenses. And they began to build credit through opening bank accounts and obtaining credit cards.”

AP-NORC poll: Majority of Americans support police protests (AP) Ahead of the Juneteenth holiday weekend’s demonstrations against systemic racism and police brutality, a majority of Americans say they approve of recent protests around the country. Many think they’ll bring positive change. And despite the headline-making standoffs between law enforcement and protesters in cities nationwide, the poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds a majority of Americans think law enforcement officers have generally responded to the protests appropriately. Somewhat fewer say the officers used excessive force. The findings follow weeks of peaceful protests and unrest in response to the death of George Floyd, a black man who died pleading for air on May 25 after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes. A dramatic change in public opinion on race and policing has followed, with more Americans today than five years ago calling police violence a very serious problem that unequally targets black Americans.

Atlanta police call out sick over charges in fatal shooting (AP) Atlanta police officers called out sick to protest the filing of murder charges against an officer who shot a man in the back, while the interim chief acknowledged members of the force feel abandoned amid protests demanding massive changes to policing. Interim Chief Rodney Bryant told The Associated Press in an interview that the sick calls began Wednesday night and continued Thursday, but said the department had sufficient staff to protect the city. It’s not clear how many officers called out. “Some are angry. Some are fearful. Some are confused on what we do in this space. Some may feel abandoned,” Bryant said of the officers. “But we are there to assure them that we will continue to move forward and get through this.”

Beware the trampoline (NYT) Sales of outdoor equipment has surged as families try to keep their children entertained while on lockdown. But that has led to a spike in injuries from bikes, scooters, and especially trampolines. Some E.R. doctors have begun referring to trampolines as “orthopedic fracture machines.” Many injuries occur when multiple children, especially a mix of older and younger ones, are jumping on a trampoline at the same time. That’s what happened to the daughter of our colleague Adam Pasick, who broke her tibia on a trampoline on Wednesday. Stay safe out there, kids!

Missing in Mexico (Foreign Policy) Families of people thought to have gone missing amid Mexico’s drug war surrounded a motorcade carrying President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the state of Veracruz on Monday demanding he do more to bring their loved ones home. Some 61,000 people are estimated to be missing in the country, and relatives fear that austerity measures, which could see a 75 percent budget cut to a government agency that provides funding and support to families of the disappeared, will only make matters worse. While coronavirus-related lockdowns have stalled search efforts, gang violence and disappearances have continued.

France and Turkey spar over ship incident (Foreign Policy) Tensions between France and Turkey rose after French Defense Minister Florence Parly said a Turkish ship refused to identify itself and its mission after an approach by a French vessel on a NATO mission to check on suspected weapons smuggling to Libya. Turkish sailors donned bulletproof vests and took up positions behind light weaponry during the incident, according to Parly. “This act was extremely aggressive and cannot be one of an ally facing another ally who is doing its work under NATO command,” Parly said. Turkey called France’s claims “baseless.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters that NATO is investigating the incident “to bring full clarity into what happened.”

Anger Surges in India Over Deadly Border Brawl With China (NYT) An Indian government minister has called for Chinese restaurants to be closed. Other Indian officials have suddenly put contracts to Chinese companies under review. And crowds of men are now smashing Chinese-made televisions in the street. A wave of anti-Chinese anger is cresting across India as the nation struggles to absorb the loss of 20 Indian soldiers beaten to death this week by Chinese troops in a high-altitude brawl along India’s disputed border with China. And the tensions are hardly easing. Sonam Joldan, a teacher in the Ladakh region near the India-China border, reported on Thursday seeing a line of 100 Indian Army trucks heading toward the front line, wending its way up the Himalayan mountains “like a caravan of ants.”

China charges Canadians with espionage (Foreign Policy) Chinese prosecutors announced today that they have charged two Canadians in Chinese detention with espionage. Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor have been held by Chinese authorities since 2018 in what is seen as a reciprocal move by Beijing after the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei, by Canadian police. Meng is currently under house arrest in Vancouver while fighting a Canadian court battle to halt her extradition to the United States.

Singapore opens gyms, dining out as China outbreak steadies (AP) Singaporeans can wine and dine at restaurants, work out at the gym and socialize with no more than five people at a time as of Friday, when the city-state removed most of its pandemic lockdown restrictions. Getting back to business in Singapore came as China declared a fresh outbreak in Beijing under control after confirming 25 new cases among some 360,000 people tested. That was up by just four from a day earlier. Singapore’s malls, gyms, massage parlors, parks and other public facilities reopened their doors with strict social distancing and other precautions.

Palestinians fear displacement from an annexed Jordan Valley (AP) For generations, the people of Fasayil herded animals on the desert bluffs and palm-shaded lowlands of the Jordan Valley. Today, nearly every man in the Palestinian village works for Jewish settlers in the sprawling modern farms to the north and south. The grazing lands to the west and east, leading down to the banks of the biblical Jordan River, have been swallowed up by the settlements or fenced off by the Israeli military. So instead of leading sheep out to pasture, the men rise before dawn to work in the settlements for around $3 an hour—or they move away. “Everyone here works in the settlements, there’s nothing else,” said Iyad Taamra, a member of the village council who runs a small grocery store. “If you have some money you go somewhere else where there is a future.” Palestinians fear communities across the Jordan Valley will meet a similar fate if Israel proceeds with its plans to annex the territory, which accounts for around a quarter of the occupied West Bank and was once seen as the breadbasket of a future Palestinian state. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annex the valley and all of Israel’s far-flung West Bank settlements, in line with President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan, which overwhelmingly favors Israel and has been rejected by the Palestinians. The process could begin as soon as July 1.

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince uses travel restrictions to consolidate power (Washington Post) The formal term in Arabic is mana’a al-safar, or “travel bans.” But the practical effect of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s policy of restricting journeys abroad by what appear to be thousands of Saudis is to intimidate those he regards as political threats. “This is hostage-taking as a tool of governing,” argued Khalid Aljabri, a Saudi cardiologist who lives in Toronto. Two of his younger siblings, Omar and Sarah, now both in their early 20s, were banned from travel in June 2017 shortly after MBS, as he’s known, became crown prince. MBS wanted leverage against their father, a former Saudi intelligence official named Saad Aljabri, hoping to force him home to face corruption allegations that Khalid says are false. An investigation shows that this practice of restricting foreign travel is much broader than generally recognized and is part of a larger system of organized repression in the kingdom. MBS has used these tools to consolidate power as he moves toward what some U.S. officials believe may be an attempt, perhaps this year, to seize the full powers of government from his ailing father, King Salman. The total number of Saudis who are subject to travel restrictions, according to Saudi and U.S. analysts, probably runs into the thousands. Those who are banned don’t usually know about their status until they go to the airport or try to cross a border post, where they’re stopped and told that exit is forbidden on order of the state security organization, which operates through the royal court. No formal, written explanation is typically given.

Zimbabwe on the brink (Foreign Policy) Three female opposition activists in Zimbabwe have been forced to remain in prison following a bail hearing on Monday as they face charges of fabricating allegations of being abducted, tortured, and humiliated by police. The charges against the women are widely thought to be politically motivated, while the U.N. called on the authorities to “urgently prosecute and punish the perpetrators of this outrageous crime.” The case against the women, one of whom, Joana Mamombe, is a member of Parliament, comes at a tense time in the country as inflation has risen to 785 percent. The price of bread and sugar has surged by 30 percent over the past week, evoking memories of the hyperinflation seen in 2008 that rendered the country’s currency worthless. Economic crisis and rising public anger have led to mounting speculation that a coup could be in the works. The national security council of Zimbabwe dismissed the rumors in a press conference last week, saying they were being fueled by allies of the late Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe.

#headlines #news

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fortheheavenssake · 5 years ago

Text

PG MM Anon Interpretation Collection- 9

59: Sept. 14

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜 sorry it’s so late l really am l just am struggling with a flu bug on top of everything else lots of 💜💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜t

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … From rush- her with love … five ways from SUNday… Britain will Trump Canada … Es-Pee-anarge … under-COVER… 2 many Players… that’s a very deep rabid hole…Em eye six…… “ follow the money “ …… The Queens signature was unconstitutional …… The PM is f#@%d. …… any of them…… ⚖️🇬🇧🇨🇦♟😱😱😱……… game ,set and hatch.

From rush- her with love

From Russia With Love, old Bond film, l prefer the old ones. Remember Kazan anyone?? The lookalike of mm has her photo taken by a chap just out taking photos? He remarked she looked exactly like mm with the exception of a mole being on the opposite side of her face. TP1 mentioned Kazan. Was that our girl in there with a billionaire oligarch yachting? I have seen the photo, she does resemble mm greatly. Or just exactly who is mm? Does Russia possess secret knowledge/videos of our girl that they have been holding over her? Have they been releasing information into the media? Sure fact none of this has anything to do with love.

five ways from SUNday

She is “screwed” in very which way possible, literally and metaphorically. The capitalization of SUN leads one to believe The Sun newspaper has a big story going to break. I think many others are in the same boat in our Ortis, the Intelligence Head who arrested.

Britain will Trump Canada

All the spies who loved me.“ Britain with Russian murdering people on their soil and attempting to, the who Trump issue that’s been going on for years, just who was spying on whom? Now Canada has this tremendous international five eyes security nightmare , where the Head of the Intelligence unit at the RCMP office in Ottawa charged by his own force with violating national security by allegedly leaking government secrets. What was a citizen, non-military of law enforcement doing in that position? What has he all stolen and given to heaven knows who. It was a tip from Trump’s government to Canada that led to this arrest. Thank you Mr. Trump!

So if l read this clue correctly, the word trump means to one up, so it is sounding like Britain is having its own internal governmental issues that will surpass what is happening in our country, Canada.🇨🇦

Es-Pee-anarge

Espionage, it’s suddenly here, there and everywhere. If you recall several years ago, there was a request made, of a former agent who now works privately, to do a dossier on Mr.Trump. This has since infamously been called the Steele Dossier, the gentleman’s name is Christopher Steele. Amongst a myriad of information in that file, you can read it online, l,believe it’s still publicly available, just google it. In part of that dossier it alleges that when Mr. Trump was in Moscow for the beauty contest he owned, Putin offered him the best prostitutes in the world, he, confirmed by his own prime security man whose name escapes me just now, both denied he used any such services. However in the dossier, there are references, especially seedy one to the U.S. public was the fact he enjoyed prostitutes, sorry for this, it them peeing on each other etc etc. So that is part of the clue, l felt the need to share that. I truly apologize if anyone was offended.

under-COVER

Undercover means subterfuge, pretending to be part of something to gather information or evidence. This is most used with police or investigation contexts although since we are talking spied, that as well

Here we have under -COVER. Cover all caps, what’s the meaning? Cover of the newspaper or magazine, a cover story? All are possibles.

2 many Players

2, does that mean only two players are most important? Or does this simply mean too many are involved . I highly doubt with MM ANON that the use of 2 doesn’t have a deeper meaning and that Players is capitalized. Players is a cigarette in Canada. This is definitely such a complex international web l cannot keep my head straight, kudos to those doing the leg work and the mental work to put this all together and bring those to justice who need being arrested.

… that’s a very deep rabid hole

This hole keeps getting mentioned, now it’s not rabbit but rabid, can be the obvious an animal or person for that matter, afflicted with hydrophobia in humans or rabies as it’s more commonly known in animals. It can also mean having or proceeding from an extreme or fanatical thoughts, supports, belief in something. Sugars anyone?? The level on international investigations seem to coincide with madam, but l have a strong hunch things were ongoing prior but she brought with her a lot of similar circles that she yachted in. The hole is indeed deep, one wonders how on earth this all will end.

Em eye six

MI6. Hello chums! The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence service of the government of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligence (HUMINT) in support of the UK’s national security. SIS is a member of the country’s intelligence community and its Chief is accountable to the country’s Foreign Secretary. The mere mention of this, is overtly telling us that MI6 is and has been involved and we should rest assured that they are doing the hard, dangerous work needing doing. Thank you for all the work that you do to keep the rest of us safe!

“ follow the money “

As l, and many many others have said, and indeed the mantra of law enforcement, money laundering etc etc follow the money trail. There is always a record kept and, in the U.S. for example if you withdraw or move around over a certain amount without proper explanation, the financial institution fills out a form, l just can’t recall the name, l am sorry, but it triggers a reaction in the system to check into it. In our case, follow the money, who are the backers, where did her money come from. I am quite certain they have that well in hand.

The Queens signature was unconstitutional

As a law-abiding citizen Boris Johnson must sign and send the letter requesting a further extension to the Brexit deadline. However, he is perfectly entitled to send a covering letter that makes it clear that it was written, not by him, but by a member or members of the opposition parties in the House of Commons; that he signed it under duress; that it represents neither his views nor those of the Cabinet; and that the next Conservative government would be committed to leaving the European Union.The Queen’s signature on the signing of the Royal assent on the Benn Act was about making ‘no deal’ not a possibility, pushed through in haste before Parliament was prorogued, later that very evening. When Article 50 was invoked, ‘no deal’ was part of that invocation and passed as law.

On 29 March 2017, the UK invoked Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU). On March 16,2017 HMTQ signed Article 50 into law which cleared the way that formally started talks to leave the EU.which began the withdrawal, commonly known as BREXIT, by the way see the film Brexit with Benedict Cumberbatch, it’s great, l believe l have recommended that before! In compliance with the TEU, the UK gave formal notice to the European Council of its intention to withdraw, from the EU to allow withdrawal negotiations to begin.

The PM is f#@%d.

Refer the above, by proroguing parliament, No deal was signed into law. UNCONSTITUTIONAL per the BREXIT REFERENDUM!

any of them

Any or all of them. Who are all suspect, who will be the next. Any of the ‘five eyes’ countries may have arrests to be made.

⚖️🇬🇧🇨🇦♟😱😱😱

The justice systems of the U.K. and Canada are each dealing with security/national/international issues. Why the chess piece? It’s a game of cat and mouse literally. And once the legal dust settle people will be both shock and horrified by what is made public. The information sealed would be too much for people to handle l believe. I would not want to be making those decisions. Security services of the U.K,, Canada, U.S., Australia and New Zealand are collectively known as ‘the five eyes’. They are all interactive, information sharing to keep us all safe as possible on an international level. You must read about these things and educate yourself.

game ,set and hatch.

Game, set, match is the usual phrase. The spy game, trap is set and 🐣 hatch, something is born of the trap. Now we’re not talking babies here, although there was a fascinating case in the U.S. back 20 years a pair of Russian agents lived covertly as a married couple in America. They even went so far as having two children. When they were finally arrested the children were traumatized they had no idea. They tried to seek refuge in Canada, the children, but if my memory serves, they were extradited to Russia. THATS how far these things go folks, please be aware of what’s happening in our world, l beg you.!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

So sorry you are feeling poorly once again! We so appreciate you doing the riddle, as we know you struggle! Prayers for you dear PG! Wow! This is fascinating stuff….we are learning so much! Thank you🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜🙏🏻💜

Ask Skippy submission

53 notes

Sep 14th, 2019

———————

60: Sept. 16

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

I am sorry it’s sooooo late, l had checked earlier and there was no riddle. PLEASE this is far from my best work, l apologize in advance

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜 I had checked with Skippy late afternoon and there was no riddle, now, so late l came on and saw the riddle. Folks, l am tired and this will be far from my best work, l apologize.

MM Anon

MM ANON, ………”fi fi faux fum”…… happy birthday …… 🎼 “The baby ‘as gouuun daun the plugole ‘again “🎼 …… sticks and stones …… “ honestly Mater it had nothing to do with me”…… amazingly illiterate …… Ahhhh !!!!! , no longer hidden…… 🎼 the wonderful wizard of Oz 🎼…… leave this one to William …… “ that sir is your prerogative “

”fi fi faux fum”

Fe fi faux gum, l smell the blood of an Englishman. Might this be BOJO. Running from country to country seeking help to cover up his blunder at misleading HMTQ? Court rules Tuesday, but it may be a political decision not a legal one, what a quandary. His blood pressure must be sky high. HMTQ, this is the very last thing she needs now!!

happy birthday

HAPPY 35TH BIRTHDAY HARRY! I remember clearly waiting for your arrival. How beautiful your mum looked leaving the Linda Wing in red and white, precious memories. I hope you had a blessed wonderful day!

🎼 “The baby ‘as gouuun daun the plugole ‘again “🎼

The song is a traditional Mother’s Lament. Having too many children, they’re all skeletal thin. She was bathing one and turned round for the soap and the babe slipped away down the drain, gone forever but not lost. Who’s is the mother who has too many and loses one? I wonder if this is a lament for Prince Harry not having his mother here for his birthday. I wonder also if this is meaning something quite literal, l , no offence to anyone, wonder if this is referencing voluntary termination of a pregnancy by madam. Just pure speculation on my part.

Sticks and stones.

Sticks and stones, may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. So deflect away, all the negative press doesn’t matter.

Madam just carries on with everything, water off a ducks back$$$££££€€ keeps rolling in.

“ honestly Mater it had nothing to do with me”

Mater is old English for mother but l am positive l have seen or heard that term used elsewhere, l just am drawing a blank. Who is the Mater of England and the U.K., and Commonwealth? HMTQ. Who is telling her he didn’t do it? Is this referencing BOJO again L trying to earnestly say he didn’t intentionally mislead her??

amazingly illiterate

Word salad again by madam on the birthday Instagram for HRH Prince Harry. Nothing eve changes or improves. Read one of her twitter feeds, yikes , now those are a lesson in not how to use the English language!

Ahhhh !!!!! , no longer hidden

What’s no longer hidden?? Clear face of baby Archie in newly released photo today on the Sussex Instagram, with a collage of photos of Prince Harry. There do appear to be some ‘oddities’ in this yet again black and white photo.

🎼 the wonderful wizard of Oz 🎼

Prince Edward has completed his tour of Malaysia and is headed to Australia. The song is from the film with Judy Garland, one of my faves, about a young girl and friends she meets along the way to see the great and powerful wizard in the land of Oz.Oz is a nickname for Australia.

leave this one to William

William is sound, and l have a very strong hunch working very closely with LG. William is the one who will be King.

“ that sir is your prerogative “

Prerogative means a right or privilege exclusive to a particular individual or class, or in British Law, arising from the prerogative of the Crown (usually delegated to the government or the judiciary) and based in common law rather than statutory law. So if this referencing the prorogued parliament and the PM’s choices?

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you dear PG….it looks wonderful! Amazing once again. We so appreciate you doing this for us. Prayers and hugs to you!😊💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

31 notes

Sep 16th, 2019

———————

61: Sept. 16

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON …… “What!!! , cook him bloody breakfast “… Another Firm message …… the African question … … “ he’s hiding behind your skirts “ …… an oz apology … a noticeable habit …… “ They have all gone quiet”…… VB’” “piss off David, she’s the kiss of death” …… “Do it on the QT”. …… it’s a palace directive …… “ Have you read the comments on SM” …… he’s putting on a brave face.

“What!!! , cook him bloody breakfast “

This morning, on her twitter , one of a few, she posted the bespoke breakfast she cooked for her husband including blood sausage and she said she had a bowl of fruit😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. I won’t give the two accounts l know of , because l don’t want trouble.

Another Firm message

The palace is know as the Firm, those who run the show, poor choice of word l know, but it’s the truth. The disaster that is BOJO running now to various EU countries to get them to vote no, so he doesn’t have to make a request of them for a Brexit extension. The Queen is Firm, the will of the people should be heeded. The issue will be brought to court today, but in the end it may not be a legal issue that they can deal with, it may come down to a political one. Then, this constitutional crisis becomes a disaster. With all HMTQ is dealing, for him to put her in this position at this point in Her reign is unconscionable!!!

the African question

The trip to Africa will she go?? Thus far the itinerary l have read refers specifically to PH. The bigger and more important relationship building question is will Angola join the Commonwealth. They made verbal comments last year that they wanted to. Whilst there PH will have private meetings with various leaders and work towards that goal. It would be a great thing for him to achieve as diplomatic duty has not really been in his wheelhouse. He has been great at relating to people and developing charities such as the Invictus Games, and Sentebale in Botswana with Prince Seeiso which was founded in 2006.

“ he’s hiding behind your skirts “

Is this reference to PA, spending time at Balmoral and was seen Sunday going to Craithie Kirk with HMTQ? Hiding from questions, demands, and interviews from law enforcement all potentially waiting in the wings.

an oz apology

Strong rumours whilst PH and mm were on their tour she was VERY rude to staff and , l believe the High Commissioners wife was told to f*** off. PA, since then made a pit stop there for apologies. I do believe on PE current visit further apologies perhaps even written one from HMTQ were extended to ensure relationships stay strong. Just imagine spewing foul language could potentially destroy years of harmony.

a noticeable habit

We have, most of us here, notice when PH is with her or on her outings he wears grey suit, old shoes. When he has been on his own representing HMTQ he is so well dressed and appears so much more contented.

“ They have all gone quiet”

The Markle’s have all gone quiet again. Papa popped up as a distract awhile ago. But since then, crickets 🦗, nothing, except her nephew becoming a millionaire selling pot he gave his family name to.

VB’” “piss off David, she’s the kiss of death”

VB, has now started a cosmetics line. As a professional collector of high end cosmetics, l can say my reaction and online is very lack lustre. David has had to spend millions and what l have read tens of millions bailing out her fashion line. Let me step back, sorry, VB Victoria Beckham, former Spice Girl posh, is married to footballer David Beckham. I am wondering if he suggested having madam model clothes and cosmetics, as you can see she didn’t like the idea.🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂

“Do it on the QT”.

QT means quiet, unobtrusively, so something is to be done in that manner. It is surveillance of madam? Since returning from ‘fauxmegnancy�� leave she has been out and about more, and we love it! The more pressing issue which l am not certain is the security threat assessment in Afghanistan which is ongoing ahead of their tentative tour there. This is a non Commonwealth country but relationship building is important but security and safety must be paramount. Those are my two thoughts possible.

it’s a palace directive

Buckingham Palace staff have been instructed to alert guests who have audiences with HMTQ NOT to bring up PH or mm. Very firm directive to ‘Talk about anything except one subject.’ Brexit? ‘No. The Sussexes.“ Rumours are Queen is growing tired of Meghan’s snubbing of Royal Family occasions.

The Mail on Sunday understands the Queen was 'hurt and disappointed’ when Meghan made a last-minute dash to New York to watch Serena Williams in the tennis instead of joining the Royals in Balmoral as planned. The annual Highland holiday is the Queen’s favourite time of the year and she was, according to a source, looking forward to 'a few days of merry chaos’ with the great-grandchildren, including Archie.

Have you read the comments on SM”

The vast , Major, huge, majority on social media worldwide are just loathing, mistrust, disbelief, disgust, and on and on about madam, the way she conducts herself. Now this Smart Set, using the name of a Canadian company, Reitmans, she worked with in Toronto. This capsule collection, contains limited sizes, dresses were old stock from 2018 that never sold, the white blouse l believe from a 2015 collection that didn’t sell. The bag ridiculously expensive with a backstory that can be found online, l won’t put it here, but pure vindictiveness.

he’s putting on a brave face.

This is PH. He is doing his duty, and doing it well. He has been at it for quite some time. I have no doubt he has very healthy distractions, supportive loving family and lots of us here supporting him and believing in him!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much PG! This is sounding great…always the best from you we get my dear PG! God Bless you!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

27 notes

Sep 16th, 2019

—————————

62. Sept. 18

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON AND PRAYER REQUEST 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻As l was working on this, l got a call regarding a friends mother, l am desperately asking for prayers. She is 55, teacher planning to retire at Christmas l she had the flu, went tomER last night, the queue was hours so they went home. Today she had a massive heart attack, air ambulance flew out, she was too unstable for a flight journey but was driven to a bigger hospital. She is in I.C.U. Likely brain damage. Please pray for her adult children madly trying to fly in from across North America. She has two step children here. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

skippyv20

MM ANON …”I have a nose for these problems … M Andealerson… seek Professional assistance …… Anonymously helped … EXAMINE THE WEDDING GUESTS!!!……… One family member of dubious provenance …… A disgusted dignity … “Look closer old thing”…Harried into it… “ both well hidden”. … A homing instinct

”I have a nose for these problems

Interesting, the usage of the word has the obvious meaning of the part of the face but it can also mean someone can use their instinct or ‘spidery sense’ to detect something. In this clue, MM ANON 💜💜💜💜💜💜YOU, This is so cleverly telling us what we have been speculating and down right knowing, given her behaviour, her nose appearance etc that substance , sniff sniff, is a massive problem. Probably has been for years we are just getting official confirmation now that this is correct. Thank you for that MM ANON, because we no longer have to assume, we now know it to be fact!

M Andealerson

Well,well, well, looks whose name, sort of, has popped up after being MIN for months now. So the insertion of the letters eal in his name combined with the letter d in his name spells deal which has long been my, and many others, suspicion that this vile disgusting man has flipped and made a deal. Just imagine this stuff he has on his ‘guests’, the wealthy, the Hollywood elite, who was his backer? My heavens , l feel confident now this is why he has been off the radar. He is in custody, protective or otherwise.

The other thing that jumps out is dealer, likely not dealing cards at a casino🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. He very likely has supplied madam and a whole slew of other a variety of candy.

seek Professional assistance

Obviously there has been some detox or intervention in the past year, because she has been out of the public and the clues we have been given here told us where she was receiving medical treatment likely for substances. She needs a team, medical, psychiatrist, legal, etc etc etc.

Anonymously helped

Again, anonymous is mentioned, this was mention a few days ago ? Days or week, l have lost track of time with the flu bug and resulting exhaustion l anyhow, this again l believe refers to our beloved 🐼 her blog, and her almost three year fight to be a truth seeker in this unholy alliance. Folks, just so you know, l NEVER EVER use the word Holy, lightly! Lots of information here has shown up in the papers so interesting. Just imagine who must read here!

Or is someone anonymously filling her bank account to keep her afloat? We know out popped HRC in an instagram, why? Why? Why is she wading into these deep dark waters??????

EXAMINE THE WEDDING GUESTS!!!

Well, we have, everyone, spoke how odd it was that she had no long term friends at her wedding and no family except DR. Where is DR? We are still trying to figure out who she really is, that fake photo of her supposedly holding baby madam , her head is photoshopped on there so crookedly it looks so bizarre. But l digress again. Those at the wedding made no sense she, like, OW , GC AC, et al. A line up of backers right across from the Queen smugly gloating over their victory in HMTQ church. Disgusting l GC has had his own problems for years now, why do you think he lives in Italy and a beard marriage. Look up that term, educate yourself please on what is really going on! The rumour are swirling and becoming more widely known! Imagine the unmitigated gall! The entire guest list on her side is suspect, we have LR , and the other lady whose name l forget sorry easily googleable for you. They were with her at Wimbledon when she was so ‘stoned/high/ill’ l think she’s got some serious issues! They had to be on either side propping her up, telling her to put her hat on and smile. Anyhow, for me, the uppercase use in this clue affirms for us that we have been and are on the right track in our discussions about what is really going on.

One family member of dubious provenance

Well well again, we have all discussed this a million ways. Who is mm? Who is DR? Are they real who they say they are? Why TM hiding oops living in Mexico? Where is DR? As l mentioned above the baby photo is so suspect. As with baby amw, her past ‘family’ photos are fuzzy, bizarre. Who is she really? She was raised by TM after a certain age, l can’t recall. Where was DR? We have no confirmed information on that. Is she really her mother? Are any of these people really in the role they say they are?sister or mother, mother or grandmother, or not related at all. With the exception, especially at TTC madam resembled DR tremendously, so there is definitely some DNA shared. It’s all such a sham of grifters and liars. The only way you know they’re lying is when they talk or write. At this point, actually a long time ago, we all have expressed our doubts.Thank you MM ANON for again confirming our ideas and thoughts about her provenance are correct and we shall continue our digging into the past.

A disgusted dignity

HMTQ, greatest respect and honour , as She does, has quietly gone about doing her duty, getting up every day, carrying on. This Brexit stress on top on madam, l pray for HMTQ. Dignity is the perfect word to describe HMTQ. But bear in mind, we were told in the media and many posting here, HMTQ suffers no fools lightly, and Her royal command is NO MENTION OF THOSE TWO when you speak with her, should you be so fortunate.

.“Look closer old thing”

This confuses me, l cannot imagine even PP calling HMTQ ‘old thing’. Does this mean look closer at something old. Look closer at photos? Seeing the photoshop? Look closer at facts? Putting information together, seeing things in a different light??

Harried into it… “

Let’s review the definition of harried. Harried means feeling strained as a result of having demands persistently made on one or harassed. It does not take much imagination to think of the level of harassment PH has suffered from she who shall not be named and the media. Is this the wedding or having to continue this charade?

“ both well hidden”.

I am hesitant to give words to this out of respect to a certain prince we know and love.

A homing instinct.

A homing instinct is an instinct that enables an animal to return home after travelling great distances. Like our great Canadian geese migrating, man that is something to see, flock after flock, millions of them filling the sky, you can hear them too, it’s one of God’s miracles. People have a homing instinct as well, nesting is common for women who are pregnant and nearing delivery. There is also something called a homing device which is a mechanism incorporated into a guided missile, airplane, etc., that aims it toward its objective.

So this clue, who has the homing instinct, is it PH who is giving all for HMTQ?

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

First….Prayers indeed for your friend’s mother. How very sad!

Great job once again PG! Love what you do….learn so much from you, you are loved and appreciated!😊💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

41 notes

Sep 18th, 2019

————————

63: Sept. 18

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG thanking you for all your prayers and sympathy for the family. It’s greatly appreciated 🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

Thank you MM ANON💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … Pakistan ‘ Mmmm!!………🎼”coca cola , ginger beer and Canada Dry”🎼…… “put on the hat ‘ hug the orphan and SMILE!!”…… “try not to swear at the Diplomats wives”…… “if you wear those to the reception ………O’f*** “……… diamond deal…… “It started at SH. it’ll end in Malibu “… “ She’s going to what?, a f#@ing politician”…… number 4 Kate??( another little girl). 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Pakistan ‘ Mmmm!!

This is the planned trip for William and Catherine to visit Pakistan.Very few details have been released, the security issue is massive. The British foreign office is still recommending that its citizens avoid travel to that part of the world. I know relationship building is important, but the security risks makes me pray they reconsider this.

🎼”coca cola , ginger beer and Canada Dry”🎼

MM ANON what you do to me! I find nowhere these song lyrics, you have them in quotation marks so they must stay together. For lack of that, l will say this, coca-cola is the all American soda, ginger beer is classic in Jamaica, where TI wedding was, that she crashed and Canada Dry is our national drink other than beer😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. Each beverage is reflective of a portion of her life, America, Toronto, and Jamaica. Please tell me what song this is!!! Driving me batty(or battier, at this point🤣🤣🤣).

“put on the hat ‘ hug the orphan and SMILE!!”

This is a similar incident at Wimbledon, surrounded by two ‘friends’ who had to tell her to put on her hat and to smile. How will she manage her hobbies in Africa? How will she manage anything official? Will she have friends accompanying her?? Interesting times. We love seeing her because we get more information, SpongeMeg gets more material 🤣🤣🤣😂😂 and we further our work here of truth-seeking and telling.

“try not to swear at the Diplomats wives”

During their first tour in Australia and that part of the world, there were multitude of reports of her foul language and disrespect of staff. I mentioned the other day she told the High Commissioner’s, l believe it was her, told her to f*** off. Both PA and now PE on his tour now have being making amends for her abhorrent behaviour. So hopefully she will take this piece of advice and apply it on the Africa tour.

“if you wear those to the reception

Usually she looks horrendous, no matter the designer or cost of the clothes. They are likely working on her wardrobe for the tour. This is shock at what she wants to wear. Again this is an exact repeat of the Australian tour, then she wanted to wear a tuxedo, pants to an official reception dinner. That time PH said absolutely not, no way, she did not wear a tuxedo. Goodness only knows what she is conjuring up for this tour!

O’f*** “

There is an apostrophe, so O’hara for example, but this is an apostrophed vulgar word, never ever used in civil conversation, ever! So is this an expletive or something with an apostrophe?

diamond deal

This girl has so many different engagement rings and wedding rings it’s hilarious, all fakes, butterfly earrings fake, bangle bracelet fake. She is marching these things we know she would merch her exhaling if she could. So she has likely made yet another merching deal. Africa is known for many precious gems especially diamonds and the worst are blood diamonds. Oh goodness, if she is involved with those, l can honestly say l would not be surprised but ever so disgusted. Wonder if she’s dealing down there and somehow gets in trouble with the law, might this FINALLY BRING her under legal control. Since it’s Africa, she could never scream the race card!

“It started at SH. it’ll end in Malibu “

Soho is where mm began her journey that has led her to where she is now, along with the connections she made there. Rumours are rampant that they are looking for a mansion in Malibu versus another location for its privacy and younger set that lives there. Does ANYBODY believe this PR? I am waiting……crickets ��, yep just as l thought, NOBODY believes this.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂

“ She’s going to what?, a f#@ing politician”

Rumours have been around awhile now oh her going into politics and l have even read, 🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣 hold on, l can’t say it without side splitting laughter…..rumours of her running for president. Bloody delusional eh? HRH PP. This is hilarious to me!

number 4 Kate??( another little girl). 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Speculation has been rampant that Catherine is expecting based on her hairstyle change, gossip supposedly from little Lottie. I hope she is and let’s pray with all we have that it’s a girl.🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻 l am taking this to mean she is indeed expecting!🥳🥳🥳🥳🥰🥰🥰🥰

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Fantastic PG…..looks like interesting times ahead! Great job. Thank you dear PG😄💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

22 notes

Sep 18th, 2019

———————-/

64: Sept. 19

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … a no no in the via xx settembre … silent flight …… “Harry’s gone rogue”? …… a lying express-ion… disaster aPRon disaster …… “we’re gonna need a smaller pub” …… W&K, higher and higher …… 🎼” ba ba Iran”🎼……” ones sick and tired of being sick and tired “…… “ Tower Bridge is in negotiations” …… the long con…… Plod-ing along …… tying up loose ends.

a no no in the via xx settembre

Settembre is September in Italian. A bestie Misha NoNoo, is getting married in Italy this weekend. EA printed that the Sussexes had reportedly arrived there. This is telling me that they are NOT attending, because the play on words of Misha’s last name two no’s via XX, l am taking this to mean two people.

silent flight

Flight to Africa will be absolutely silent, l have no doubt there will be absolutely not a civil word spoken!

“Harry’s gone rogue”?

The media has gone rogue more like. They are printing such awful things, his mental health Apple TV focus with the big O. The media and lots of the public are voicing their disgust at their perception of PH giving in to everything she wants. He is at the receiving end of unprecedented bad press.

a lying express-ion

The Express has doubled Dow, tripled down or more on their foul media regarding the Cambridge’s. The article about Catherine spending an unbelievable amount of money on clothes more than madam, which is documented to be untrue. SS 🐍 lying, vile, vipers. It’s going to get worse NOT better. Please let’s remember to pray for them. The business paper is increasing their criticism too, paper/media once thought respectable, money buys anything l guess!

disaster aPRon disaster

A PRathon is right MM ANON! Item after item, but by bit, the public is slowly getting information about what’s really going on, and what has been going on, what led to this charade and sham. Her twitters are BEYOND PATGETIC🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂🤣. Bit by bit, madam, drip, drip, tick tick, time is getting closer. You should read The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe!

“we’re gonna need a smaller pub”

Fake fake fakity fake empty pub photos, no baby cot, but the “sussexes’ and amw went to their local. Now this was ‘reported’ over a week ago if not longer. The owners of the pub deny this. TMZ has fuzzy photos look like taken from my Kodak instamatics with the row of flashbulbs🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂. Remember those anybody? The meta data, again showed lies, dates September 17,2019. Yes madam you’re really getting your moneys worth with SS.🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂😂

W&K, higher and higher

The Cambridges💜💜💜💜💜! Their Instagram passed 10,000,000! This week! TEN MILLION PEOPLE,🥰🥰🥰🥰🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳💜💜💜💜💜AWESOME,,

🎼” ba ba Iran”🎼…

Barbra Ann , Beach Boys! Oh MM ANON you’re so clever, THIS SONG l knew right away😁😁😁😁💜💜💜😁😁😁. So Iran, given what’s been happening, l will not type it all, if you so choose, educate yourself please oh what is happening in that part of the world. Is this going to affect the trip to Pakistan???

” ones sick and tired of being sick and tired “

Indeed, speaking in first person format is always, only the Crown. HMTQ is feeling as described above. Please, let us pray for her, strength, health, discernment. Thank God LG is with her. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦.

“ Tower Bridge is in negotiations”

BRF have code names, l believe PP is Tower Bridge, so this is telling us that he is involved, he is smart as a whip, has a lifetime of experience dealing with very sort of problem, he has certainly been ever present here in riddle clues. I imagine his wisdom has been indispensable!

the long con

This has been and remains a long term game. The planning of this con started years ago. The backers got together and came up with this plane. Our madam went rogue and changed the plot. Continues to con, grift her way through Europe and Africa. The more she does, the more we see her, more evidence. These types of international investigations take a very very long time and we want it done 100% right , so justice will be served!

Plod-ing along

Plod, horses plod in their gait, both HMTQ and PP love to ride, he loves his buggy, pardon if that’s not the right word! To see them on those massive horses is tremendous, there is a real love of animals and the outdoors and must be especially therapeutic in these times.

tying up loose ends.

Details, always details, is the inferring the end is near?? On the humourous side, will there finally be a hairstylist on the African tour that can tie up those horrible extensions and make madams hair at least presentable.😂😂😂😂😂

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much PG….looks amazing! You are the best!😊💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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comicgirl08 · 6 years ago

Text

Supergirl recap: Kara and Lena try to Eve-n the score

Three separate stories this week track our favorites and our least favorites (hey, Bennie boy) as we race toward the season finale.

First to Alex, who experienced every human emotion tonight. The vicissitudes of aging. The shock of getting a call that a 17-year-old is about to give birth and chose her to be the adoptive mother. The frustration of not being able to reach Kara to talk it out. The terror about what kind of mother she’ll be. The heartbreak of learning that the birth mother changed her mind. The devastation of suffering an emotional wound that may never heal.

By her side for all of it is the kind, patient Kelly, who stands in for Kara, waits with Alex during the labor, assures her that she’ll be a wonderful mother, and comforts her when it falls to pieces. She shares her own heartbreak when her engagement to her sergeant had to remain a secret while they were serving abroad, and how she wasn’t able to mourn her publicly when she died on patrol.

“What’s a deep wound today will be a faded scar someday,” she says, assuring Alex that she will find another person someday who’ll make her smile.

On the human/alien front, Lockwood storms out of his wife’s funeral while George is giving the eulogy, too worked up to focus on anything but putting the full might of the DEO behind capturing the Brevakk who killed his wife and the one who commandeered the airwaves to call for an uprising against the government.

Brainy tries to stop him from invading Lena’s lab, but Lockwood shoots his way in and finds raw, undiluted vials of experimental Harun-El, which gave James his superpowers. Brainy warns him that James’ dosage was carefully calibrated, and what Lockwood’s holding could kill him. “You’re grieving,” Brainy says. “Your son needs you now.”

But Lockwood ignores this advice and grabs the case of Harun-El to join the DEO strike team moving on the building where the Brevakk is hiding. They arrest her, and he orders the other aliens sheltering there to be renditioned for enhanced interrogation for the crime of harboring a murderer.

Brainy is super not cool with any of this, and he’s joined by Dreamer and a mask-less Guardian (I mean, why bother, right?) Lockwood shouts at the DEO to arrest “the hero and the blood traitor.” But Brainy reminds the DEO that they swore an oath to defend the country and the constitution, both of which are being subverted by Lockwood’s orders.

When the agents stand down, a furious Lockwood injects himself with the Harun-El, and I must say, he adapts to it much better than James did, not that it’s a competition. His broken arm is immediately healed, and he and James start throwing trucks at each other, which is awesome.

Martian Manhunter swoops in next and tries to talk Lockwood down, warning that the last man who stood against him suffered a terrible fate of his own making. (Still miss your joie de vivre, Manchester!) At James’s suggestion, he tosses Lockwood into a tanker, which explodes. But that just shreds Lockwood’s shirt and makes him mad. Still, it gives the good guys time to free the detained aliens.

Lockwood cleans himself up and finds George sitting alone in the church, simmering with rage at his father, whom he blames for his mother’s death. “You did this for yourself,” he says. “I hate you.” Lockwood’s left sitting alone, gazing at his wife’s framed photo and cradling a glowing vial of Harun-El as his eyes flip black.

Finally, to Kara and Lena, who are off to Kaznia. Although Kara says it’ll be faster if she flies alone—commercial, she adds—Lena won’t hear of her not riding along on the pilot-less plane she designed herself. But when it’s hit with decidedly unnatural purple lightning (which is never explained, actually), Lena races to the cockpit to take control, shouting at Kara to strap in and put on her oxygen mask.

Nuh uh. Kara zips outside and lifts the plane’s nose away from danger, helping Lena with the manual landing and then racing back to her seat to pretend to have passed out. “God, I hate flying,” she says. I stan one amazing super-lady team!

They find the Kaznian base deserted, with Amertek-branded equipment that was used to torture aliens from the DEO’s desert facility, according to the paper files they find. (Remember, paper is un-hackable.) One of them is Copy, who cloned himself curing the carnival attack.

Then a noise startles them, and a door swings open to reveal Eve. But, like, a weird Eve. She’s bizarrely glad to see Kara and Lena, saying she loves them but she loves Lex more.

Lena orders their very own Eva Braun to talk, and when she does, she spaces out and greets Kara all over again. She claims someone inside the DEO helped them acquire the aliens but won’t say what they want with them. Then the good guys notice claw marks heading to a lab, where they find Harun-El and Kryptonite.

They also find plans indicating that Lex is helping the Kaznians invade America, which Lena compares to a child throwing rocks at a tank. Then Kara notices a sigil, familiar but different, and presses it to fire up Red Daughter’s training footage.

Lena quickly realizes that, just like the Harun-El split Sam and Reign, Supergirl must’ve come in contact with it, too. She’s horrified at the thought of this blank slate being tested, trained, and indoctrinated by Lex in a prison in one of the most repressive regimes in the world. She’s concerned about what kind of damage it could do.

‘She is not an it,” Kara says, insisting there has to be some part of Supergirl in her. Then these two amazing, capable women are taken by surprise when Eve, who’s been acting verrrrry strangely, turns out to have duplicated herself using the Copy powers they were just discussing. C’mon, they’re both smarter than that.

Anyway, Eve sets off a timer that gives them ten minutes until the building self-destructs, and Lena and Kara split up to find the exit, which allows Kara to find Red Daughter’s cell. It’s filled with pictures of Kara and Supergirl both, so now Kara knows that Lex knows!

She also finds a journal, her journal, with a photo of her and Alex. Then Lena calls for her, and she scrambles to keep her friend from discovering all the incriminating evidence on the walls.

She suggests climbing up and out through the air vents, then claims she forgot her tape recorder and runs back to eye-laser all the evidence. Does she not have super-speed? Why did she not do this when Lena approached? Let’s chalk it up to the shock of her discovery and move on.

With four minutes to detonation, they find a file indicating that President Baker’s chief of staff, Sarah Walker, is the mole working with Lex. Kara stays to gather evidence, while Lena chases Eve out the door.

On the plane, Lena—who is the coolest human being in the galaxy and if you don’t agree, you can meet me outside—reaches down to her boot and pulls the chunky heel off to reveal an extendable baton. Then she and Eve fight, with Lena trying to convince her that Lex only loves himself.

Inside, Kara fights off several copies of Eve, cutely quipping, “ Thank you, next,” before she’s hit with the next wave. And look, I’m just gonna say it, she had way more trouble with these copies than she should have. It’s one of those situations where she’s as strong as the plot needs her to be, and in this case, the plot needed her to be inside the building when it exploded so Lena would think she was dead.

That momentary distraction is what Eve needed to stab Lena with her weapon, but oh ho ho, Kara’s recorder was in her pocket, and it deflected the blade. She knocks Eve out, getting her own quip about a snake on a plane. But this was a copy Eve, and she disappears.

Regardless, she’s overjoyed to discover that Kara’s safe but still blames herself for putting her friend in a situation that could’ve killed her.

“It wouldn’t have,” Kara says. While Lena’s back is turned to fuss with champagne, Kara stands and takes off her glasses. IS IT HAPPENING? IS IT???

But no. Lena talks about how hard Eve’s betrayal was, having been lied to every day for a year. “I don’t know if I’ll ever recover from it,” Lena says. In fact, it’s only Kara’s friendship keeping her trust alive.

In the background, Kara slowly puts her glasses back on as all of us weep for the close call. “I’m always going to be here for you,” Kara promises.

Back in National City, Kara tells James all about Red Daughter, pointing out that it easily could’ve been her raised as a weapon. Also, she swears that as soon as Lex is behind bars, she’ll tell Lena the truth, even if she hates her. “It’s the right thing to do.”

Then she’s doing her duty as any American citizen should do when she discovers that a government official is working with a foreign entity determined to hurt the country: She reports it. She’s escorted into the Oval Office, where she notices Kryptonite sitting around as a Supergirl deterrent, and warns Baker that his chief of staff is complicit in working with Lex and the Kaznians.

He sends everyone out of the room, puts the file in a drawer, and confirms that she hasn’t told anyone about the information. Then he activates a button under his desk, and Kara finds a black bag slipped over her head.

Snaps of the cape

Daaang, we knew the president was a no-goodnik, but I was thinking he was more a useful-fool kind of evil and not an active collaborator.

Think the Children of Liberty will react well to Lockwood’s new superpowers? Or will he use his rhetorical gifts to spin it in his favor?

Fun exchange between Dreamer, sporting a cool new braid hairstyle and a huge alien-powered hammer, and the newly fire-proof James: “Now, I’m gonna hit you with this, and we’re gonna see what happens.” “Not in the face.” That’s no doubt when he suggested introducing Lockwood to the tanker truck: Flames would slow him down but not kill him.

#Supergirl #KaraDanvers #Dreamer #NiaNal #LenaLuthor #LexLuthor #JamesOlsen #AlexDanvers #KellyOlsen #CatCo #Kaznia #RedDaughter #NationalCity #TheCW

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overthinkinbrain · 4 years ago

Text

WHOA!

Hi again :D I never thought that writing that first letter will be this relief. You know me, I wont say anything to anyone unless I cant handle it anymore. Its just too much emotion living inside me that wants to be release. Anyway, can I continue telling you something that you missed out to me? Well, you dont have any choice coz I will say it anyway :

I really wanted to tell you what happened coz I know you’ll relate to this. Also I consider you as my bestest friend that I can tell you anything without sugarcoating or whatever. That for the past years, I havent been able to open up to anybody how I feel and and how I felt on thing thats why you need to catch up to me HAHAHA again, you have no choice.

SEA GAMES. It was a nightmare. How come that our coaches are really coaches without a training program? that they come to training empty handed and just tell us what they feel like doing??? Did you know that eventhough I attend tryouts ( you know our team, each year they wanted new players thinking they will get someone who will play like a superstar) they didnt include me on the national team list of players. ME! They have a lot of bullshit excuse about that but I know whats really the reason. That I was short. They wanted to create a tall team and that ruin my comnfidence. That up to now that Im not on the team anymore(that I will tell you the story next time), I carry that insecurity that Im not tall. Insecurity that I thought I never had. Since I was not part of the first list, I was left out when they had their training in SG. I was so angry that I really wanted to quit. But I focused on my work, I mute all my teammates story for me to be able to focus and not think that I was left behind. *COMMERCIAL BREAK* If you will ask why am I writing this in english is because It will feel like MMK if I will write it in tagalog HAHAHA *END COMMERCIAL* Fast forward after their SG traning, I still trained. I fuckin’ trained hard. I run like hell so no can can catch up on me. Until the last day before announcing the final line up, I wasnt sure If I will go in. Thats how fucked up my confidence. Even if I know deep down that I am one of the players who the team looked up. And the, I GOT IN! But I was not that confident athlete, I always have a doubt in me, because these coaches always makes us feel that we’re not enough. That my height is not enough. But God will always save us. We were able to train by our foreign coach. We flew in SG to get ready with Seagames for 2 weeks straight. Training and games all day. And for the first time, I wanted to go home. It was tiring physically and mentally. But I pushed thru. Got back home and we only have 5 days to prepare for the next training which will be a house arrest in Sta. Rosa. It feels like that your body is not yours anymore. It was torture. We are not allowed to access our phone. We are not allowed to get our happy food. It feels like you are not allowaed to be you. You are just an athlete that needs to train and be prepared to fight. It was tiring. You know me, my mental health is not as strong as I act. Imagine how mnany time I cried myself to sleep.

Im sorry! Haha. I never thought it will take this long. This is what I felt during this time. And you’re the only one whom I am comfortable to be vulnerable. During these days, I wonder what you would say to me. What would you do to make me feel better. But only I can wonder :( I was trying to survive each day. And no one knows I am trying super hard.

Fast forward to the games... I am really proud and happy that never quit. Playing for the country in front of our countryman is another level of pride. I am so happy that I get to feel the chills while playing. The hype I felt was undescribable. We lost to Brunei for the bronze medal. But we definitely give a damn fight. It was so heartbreaking and up to now, I feel the pain of losing that day. But you know what, I gave eveything that I have. I run until that final buzzer and for that I am proud. And in my head, I hope you can watch me, I prayed many time that atleast youre watching in distance (Ii dont know why am I crying while typing this HAHA I just really hope that you are proud of me. You are there when no one believed in me, You pushed me to be a better version of myself. And I know that I wont be able to do these things without you guiding me since day 1. Thank youuu! I am forever greatful for your love.

and thats my SEA Games story, Universe.

0 notes

themyskira · 7 years ago

Text

Amazons Attack! - part 8

Continuity is breaking apart.

Time means nothing any more.

And, one third of the way into the miniseries, Will Pfeifer has decided to turn the Amazon invasion into an al-Qaeda/War on Terror analogy.

oh god oh god why did I decide to this.

Part 8: Amazons Attack! #3 — Will Pfeiffer (writer) and Pete Woods (artist)

We open on another Lex News report, which tells us that the Amazon invasion began “days ago”. This directly contradicts

the sequence of events in Wonder Woman, which have taken place over 24 hours at most, and

the very next issue of Amazons Attack! (#4), which opens on “day three”; as AA #3 occurs over two days, this would mean that the issue opens on the day after the invasion

It’s safe to say that, at this point, not only is each book operating on a completely different timeline, every issue is in a universe all of its own.

The important thing to remember is, the invasion has just happened and this entire issue takes place over a single day. This will be relevant going forward.

Also, the Washington Monument (which, if you’ll remember, has already been destroyed twice) got better.

And just in case you though it was hyperbole — yes, the entire state of Kansas really is on fire.

Superman puts out the fires in Kansas, while throughout America the entire fabric of society breaks down.

“Traffic pouring out of Manhattan at a standstill— as thousands abandon their cars, leaving massive traffic jams… all flights cancelled nationwide. Riots at O’Hare, L.A.X., Sea-Tac. A woman’s shelter firebombed— after rumours of a connection of the Amazons are heard. And every hour, news reports of murders, suicides, assaults…”

And then Hippolyta—

No.

No, you know what, this is getting ridiculous. I refuse to keep on calling this outrageously offensive caricature of an Amazon Hippolyta.

And then Queen Cuckoo Banana Crackers cuts into the news broadcast to take credit for the attacks across America and to deliver her list of demands.

“The attacks outside the main theatre of battle… the military base. Kansas. And the ones that haven’t happened yet. I’m responsible. And I have no intention of stopping until I achieve my goal. Once, that goal was my daughter’s freedom from your government’s unjust incarceration. But I’m afraid that time has passed. The stakes have risen. Now I desire something else. There is but one thing that will save your country— and your lives. Complete and unconditional surrender. You have one day to decide.”

Jesus. What is it you want out of this invasion, lady? Diana’s safety? Death to America? The eradication of all humanity? Conquest of the continental United States? Every issue it’s something different. Make up your mind already.

Mad-as-a-Meat-Axe then ends the broadcast by drawing her sword and beheading the hostage news cameraman who’s been forced to film her.

Fucking what the flippity fuck.

Aside from the decision to portray Wonder Woman’s mother as a bloodthirsty, man-hating feminazi boogeymonster, there are two things I find particularly distasteful about this.

As will become increasingly apparent over the course of this issue, the creators of this crossover are using the Amazon invasion of America as a heavy-handed analogy for the US-led War on Terror. And the stand-in for al-Qaeda and related extremist terrorist groups in this story? It’s a peaceful, egalitarian nation of queer women.

Fuck’s sake, at this stage the Amazons have been repeatedly depicted murdering American civilians beneath war banners topped with the female symbol. This comic is implicitly equating feminism with radical Islamist terrorism.

And the Amazons’ beheading of a hostage reporter? That’s a thing that was happening in Iraq around the time that this comic was published. For readers in 2007, the 2004 spate of filmed beheadings of foreign hostages by Islamist terrorists would have still been fresh in the collective memory. To draw on those very real and horrifying murders for shock value is revoltingly insensitive and trivialising.

Anyway, Artemis and Philippus watch all this happen in stunned silence, certain now that their queen has lost her mind. Their exchange goes something like:

Artemis: holy shit, Phil, she’s out of control. Philippus: She’s gone mad. Artemis: Golly, whatever shall we do? Philippus: If only there was some other choice besides blindly following her orders! Artemis: This is such a conundrum!

Philippus, the brilliant Amazon general, Hippolyta’s closest friend and confidante (WIFE. WIIIIFE. MAKE IT CANON, YOU COWARDS.), and elected leader of Themyscira. And Artemis, one-time Wonder Woman who clawed her way back from death, Shim’tar and war-leader who is never shy about calling bullshit or leaping into action. Cannot think of any way to deal with a deranged, bloodthirsty queen except to hug themselves and look vaguely sad.

Cut to Air Force One, and some thinly-veiled criticism of the Bush presidency.

After casually plugging an upcoming miniseries (Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters), the President expresses his frustration at being stuck up in the air in the midst of an invasion. His aide tells him, “Your country needs you to be up here. Safe.” Which… okay? But is Air Force One really the safest place for the President of the United States when the Amazons have soldiers in the air who are apparently capable of destroying top-of-the-line fighter jets with primitive arrows? In what way is the President safer here than he would be in a bunker? Or, I dunno, the JLA Watchtower?

Then the President announces he’s implementing the Patriot Act, I’m sorry, the McCarran Act.

“A relic of the Cold War. Allows arrest of suspicious individuals. Provides for deportation. Imprisonment. Camps. It was created back in 1950 to fight the Communist menace that was supposedly poised at our doorstep. I’d say things are considerably more dire now. […] The country is ripping itself to pieces. The people need to know that they’re safe. Secure. They need to know that someone strong and capable is looking out for them. […] Implement the order. Now. There’s no other way to save the country.”

hoooo boy.

Leave aside the misogyny and the insensitivity and the flat-out bad writing for a moment. Here is the reason that the War on Terror analogy almost immediately falls apart in this comic: Amazons Attack! is fundamentally not a story about terrorism, despite Will Pfeifer’s attempts to retrofit it into one. It’s a story about two nations being manipulated into war. It’s about a sovereign nation invading the United States, overpowering the US armed forces and taking over the capital city.

We’ve seen no threat of Amazon ‘extremists’ infiltrating American society, or American citizens being ‘radicalised’ by Amazons, or Americans conspiring with Amazons to engage in acts of espionage and sabotage, or Amazon ‘terrorist’ attacks on American soil prior to the invasion. The McCarran Act isn’t relevant to this conflict — they’re fighting a hot war, not the Cold War.

The government and armed forces can’t be complacent about the possibility of American citizens aiding the enemy, it’s true — but when DC and Kansas are being bombed to shit and civilians are dying in the hundreds and the entire country is in a panic, an unsubstantiated fear of radical Amazon sympathisers is hardly the greatest concern. The President ought to be, I dunno, meeting with the Joint Chiefs and keeping on top of the literal war unfolding on American soil, not drafting plans to round up feminists in concentration camps.

But, dang it, Will Pfeifer has already decided that this is going to be a War on Terror story, so instead President not-Bush orders his aide to implement the not-Patriot Act.

(Also: “Implement the order. Now.” What order?! You never gave one! You just threw around a bunch of buzz words!)

Now for this issue’s obligatory dose of patriotic imagery, we cut to the eeeeeevil Amazons lurking among the Korean War Veterans Memorial’s statues of American soldiers, before Batman and Superman take them out.

Batman observes that Superman is using nonlethal tactics and chides him, “This is war.” Superman points out that Batman was fighting the Amazons with nonlethal tranq darts. Batman immediately about-faces and agrees that they are of one mind on this issue. So... why are we having this conversation, then?

Will Pfeifer continues to try to reframe the Amazons’ full-scale military invasion as a series of terrorist attacks, to better fit his War on Terror narrative.

Superman: But what [Queen Ragebiscuit] said? What she claims to have done? The military base? Kansas? It doesn’t make any sense. Batman: No. It makes perfect sense… if your goal is fear and uncertainty. Attacking the base shows they’re not confined to Washington. Attacking Kansas shows they know how to cripple our food supply. Terrorist strikes aren’t a typical Amazon tactic, but you have to admit, it is effective.

Except, up until this panel, spreading terror has not been the Amazons’ stated goal. I mean, granted, the goalposts seem to move every issue, but of the various goals they’ve had until now (freeing Diana, killing all the humans, possibly world domination), propagating fear and uncertainty through terrorism has not been one of them.

And at least one of those attacks (the Air Force base, where dozens of planes bound for DC were refuelling) was a tactical strike.

But it doesn’t matter, because the Amazons are al-Qaeda now, so they’re terrorists.

Just outside of DC, a support group is meeting at the Athenian Women’s Shelter. They’re discussing their admiration for Wonder Woman and their concern about the invasion when an agent from the Justice Department arrives to arrest them. All of them.

Because in a world of gods and supervillains, the most likely collaborators with a murderous, human-hating invading force is a group of domestic violence survivors who have embraced Wonder Woman as a symbol of hope and empowerment.

The next day’s news is filled with reports of “waves of arrests” that took place overnight. Again, in the main Wonder Woman book, the war has been underway for less than a day.

Batman stands over the fallen Tom Tresser expositions about the murderbee attack that just happened in Wonder Woman, and an editor’s note reminds us to buy WW #10. Then he adds regretfully that he would send Supergirl and Wonder Girl to get the antidote Tom needs, but they’re MIA along with the rest of the Teen Titans. A second editor’s note exhorts us to buy Teen Titans #48.

I swear to god, like 60% of this miniseries is just promos for other comics.

This is also where we get the infamous “Bees. My god.” panel.

“Of course, you’ve got bigger problems right now. An Amazon attack, a deadly bee weapon… Bees. My god.”

It’s even funnier because he’s not even talking to anybody here. He’s just monologuing at Tom’s unconscious body.

Oh, and while all this is happening?

AN EPIC SUPERHERO FIGHT AGAINST THE LERNAEAN HYDRA IS TAKING PLACE. IN THE BACKGROUND.

Power Girl, Big Barda, two Green Lanterns, Vixen, Hawkman, Hourman, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Black Lightning and Starman, all battling to subdue one of the most fearsome monsters of Greek myth—

--but nah, sorry, no time to linger on that, there are more important things happening. So after this one panel, we cut away and return to the excitement of Batman plugging tie-in comics.

Queen Wackadoodle stalks around the Chamber of Burning Books, monologuing about how last issue’s story thread with Donna Troy has gone nowhere. A soldier announces that two visitors have arrived — Wonder Girl and Supergirl — and then we abruptly cut away. Haha! Tricked you! If you want to know how that conversation goes, you’re going to have to read the Teen Titans tie-in story!

Wonder Woman joins Batman, and pauses to marvel over how strong Tom is.

“I can’t believe how strong he is. I’ve seen Stygian killer hornets tear an Amazon apart — or leave her begging to be killed. The fact that Tom still lives — even barely — says much about him.”

OOOOOH HE’S SO SPECIAL, HIS MANLY MAN STAMINA EXCEEDS EVEN THE MIGHT OF THE AMAZONS! THEIR FRAGILE LADY NERVES WOULD HAVE BEEN SHATTERED BY SO MANY BEE STINGS, AND YET HE ENDURES! ALL HAIL TOM TRESSER AND HIS RUGGED MASCULINE RESOLVE!

But then Diana continues, ‘welp, wish I could help him or something, but I can’t waste time going to Themyscira for the antidote — I’ve got a mother to kill. Only way to win the war; that’s what Circe told me, and I can’t imagine she’d have an ulterior motive.’

While I’m all for Diana leaving Tom to die in a ditch — this is yet another scene that’s completely incompatible with the events of the Wonder Woman comic.

Here’s the sequence of events in WW #10:

Tom collapses in Diana’s arms

A devastated Diana immediately whirls on Queen Loony Tunes and engages her in combat

They fight

Diana gets Bugfuck Magoo at her mercy, then turns the tables, surrenders her weapon and challenges her mother to go ahead and kill her

There is no room in the timeline for Diana to share this exchange with Batman.

Nor is it necessary. Because none of the things referenced in this conversation — the murderbees, Tom’s brush with death, the search for the antidote, or even Diana’s fight with Baroness Hissyfit — have any bearing on this issue’s story at all. They don’t feature again. They don’t serve to progress the plot. Everything in these two pages boils down to COMPLETELY WASTED SPACE.

News breaks of another attack, this time on a nuclear reactor in Star City. Artemis and Philippus discuss the developments. I’ll paraphrase again.

Philippus: Did you hear? There was another attack. Artemis: This is not the Amazon way, Philippus. This is TERRORISM. We’re acting like TERRORISTS. We shouldn’t be murdering innocent civilians. Philippus: I agree. Artemis: We should be murdering their leaders. Philippus: Exactly. That’s why I’ve sent a detachment to Virginia to kill the remnants of the American government. Artemis: Yeah… it’s just too bad we can’t do anything about our government. Philippus: I know. I simply can’t think what more we could possibly do to stop our Queen. Artemis: Guess we’ll just have to go back to folding our arms and sighing meaningfully at her.

Meanwhile, Green Arrow goes to investigate the nuclear reactor. The disaster has been contained, but it was a near thing — Oliver finds an incredibly high-tech bomb on the site, one powerful enough to have destroyed all of Star City had it not malfunctioned.

And I’m reading this thinking, Okay, well… it’s evil and horrible, but at least the Amazons’ advanced technology is finally getting a fair showing?

So of course the very next panel is ‘Well, obviously the Amazons couldn’t have done this! They’re total primitives!’

Green Arrow: This bomb is a pretty amazing piece of machinery, one-in-a million malfunction aside. I didn’t know the Amazons could build something like this. Batman: They can’t. Swords, shields and magic? Amazons. Microchips, computers and high-tech weapons? Someone else. Green Arrow: Someone else? Who? Batman: Same people who destroyed Vandenberg Air Force Base. And burned Kansas. And no doubt have other catastrophes planned. The game has changed, Oliver… A new opponent has taken the field.

NOW HANG ON.

Fake Steel: My boss down at the White House wants some details about Amazon technology. In particular… the unfortunately named “Purple Death Ray”. Diana: I won’t give you that! the destructive power—

Queen Bazonkerface: Those “innocent people” [humans] want our weapons technology!

This ENTIRE WAR was partially predicated on an apparent attempt by the US government to force Wonder Woman to hand over advanced Amazon weapons technology, so do not come to me with this shit about Amazons being primitive savages.

Back on Air Force One, President not-Bush is still frustrated about being stuck up in the air while his country burns. I would be, too, because the air? Not the safest place to be right now. There are flying horses out there, and supernaturally deadly arrows, and whatever the hell it was that set an entire state on fire, and—

Wonder Girl: EITHER YOU BRING THIS PLANE DOWN NOW… OR WE’LL BRING IT DOWN FOR YOU!

—and… that.

Fuck.

But to find out how the hell Cassie and Kara got to the point of threatening to murder the President of the United States, we have to go over to our first tie-in comic, Teen Titans #48, by Adam Beechen and Al Barrionuevo.

I’ll run through this one pretty quickly.

It’s been somewhere between 24 hours and three days since the Amazons invaded, and already the US government has established full-scale internment camps. Helena Sandsmark is arrested and writes to Cassie to beg her not to do anything stupid like try to break everybody out.

So Cassie teams up with Supergirl to try to break everybody out.

They get into a stoush with the military, and the Teen Titans arrive to stop them, but Cassie is irrational and female and preoccupied by some romantic drama with Tim, so she refuses to leave and everybody fights. The camp ends up half-destroyed and Cassie’s mother is injured.

A guilty Cassie cradles her mother, who again urges her not to do anything stupid.

So Cassie and Kara fly off to do something stupid, leaving the Teen Titans to be arrested for “associating with known threats to the United States” (i.e. trying to stop them???).

Cassie and Kara go to Queen Murderpants and ask her to please make peace, pretty please? Lady MacBatshit explains that she can’t, because the President refuses to come and speak to her.

Well, hey, if that’s the only problem, maybe you could, I don’t know, offer a temporary ceasefire, some show of good faith, indicate that you’re willing to negotiate a withdrawal—

‘LET’S KIDNAP HIM!’ says Cassie.

Cassie: Well… Well, what if we brought him to you? Would you speak to him then? Countess Wackadoo: If you think it possible, then I would… Kara: What’s possible? What are we doing? Cassie: Pulling the President out of Air Force One. I’ll explain on the way.

As they leave, Queen Kelloggs-Crunchy-Nutbar gloats that no negotiation will be necessary once she has the US President as her hostage.

#when shamazons attack #comics talk

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wyldwon · 4 years ago

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A friend sent this to me and said to share it...

“Ok we had another Zoom call last night with retired Generals, Colonels and also Lin Wood. Here's what they covered: (don't be alarmed this one is pretty heavy but ends well)

Everyone is upset and impatient that no trigger has been pulled yet. But make no mistake, the President will do what is necessary to defend the constitution. Much is being done out of public view...

- 25,000 troops are now in DC, under the guise of riot control for the inauguration.

- More troops across the country - all major Democrat cities - are on standby which is 1hr recall.

- POTUS just designated Cuba as a terrorist state (relating to election interference)

- POTUS just delisted a number of Chinese companies from having business being done with them.

- The recent blackouts in Italy (Vatican), Pakistan & Iran were from our Space Force - they temporarily took out parts of their power grid from up there. This was in preparation for war with China and Iran. Don't panic! This isn't conventional war with tanks and bombs and bullets - it's cyber warfare including satellites that can knock out communications and data centers. If you ever wondered why the Space Force was instituted by POTUS a while back, it wasn't just about going to Mars. It was for this. Other countries have satellites up there that can do stuff to us - we have them now too and they work.

- There are now 250,000 Chinese troops surrounding us, 75,000 in Canada and the rest in Mexico. The generals said if they set foot in this country they will be wiped out swiftly as they are ready. (I know, this is scary but hang on everything will be fine)

- POTUS at the Wall in Texas yesterday was a signal to let China know he means business as a sign and that he is in charge.

- POTUS will be getting in front of the people to produce evidence so the people know he is the real elected President. He may have to use the Emergency Alert System to do this in 2-3 days. When I give you a timeline or dates they can be disinformation given to us on purpose, so we will not be told the real dates as our calls are being listened into.

- The Mayor of Oklahoma City was informed by POTUS on Monday via email that the Insurrection Act has been enacted and arrests will begin in that city. This is the first of many cities this will happen in. So we now have confirmation that the Insurrection Act is in place!

- DON'T BELIEVE THE MEDIA! It's all optics. One Colonel noted that in war, it's important to draw your enemy out in the open. POTUS has been doing EXACTLY that. Look at all the rats that have been revealing their true identity. POTUS has been separating the wheat from the chaff, especially these past 2 weeks.

- This election was cyber warfare on our country. A paper was sent to the White House on the voting in 4 states that showed Chinese cyber attacks moving votes from Trump to Biden. They have proof of this now. This is a foreign country involved in our elections so this has been escalated from a domestic issue to an attack from a foreign enemy. This has moved from a constitutional voting issue to a national security issue now.

- Covid was a biological attack on our country to shut down our economy and push the Mail-in Ballots Nationwide in order to pull off the steal along with the Dominion Machines.

The virus was a man made Bio-weapon created in a Wuhan Lab to take out as many of our elderly and the weak as possible to incite more fear globally. They needed the death counts to rise to continue their plan to take over our country. This is why every death was marked as a Cov19 death regardless if they had it or not.

The Generals and Gen Flynn encouraged us all as Patriots to RESIST all across this country and yes Canada too. Take off your Mask. Go to Church and Open your businesses. They can't stop us when we all RESIST! There aren't enough jail cells to hold everyone. Those were our orders to get the message out to the masses. There is no mandate in our Constitution Law to keep people from seeing each other or close their business. - The Capitol Building attack was Antifa and BLM driven - all tactical deception as they call it in the military. It's common practice.

Ok.... no one is getting nuked and you don't need to take this at its worst. But you need to be prepared. There could be blackouts, internet down, cell phones down for short periods. Make sure you have ways to keep your food cold etc. if the power goes out, and don't panic! Democrat controlled and big cities may be hit the worst because BLM & Antifa will riot and loot when Biden isn't seated. That's why the military is on standby. I know the number of Chinese troops around us is a scary thing but they are only coming in if Biden was seated. Then they would start the move on changing our country - it's not a pretty thought. But that's not happening. I know the Joint Chiefs put out a letter they are supporting the new President Biden on the 20th - what else

#trump2020 #socialmedia #fbmessenger

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notbemoved-blog · 4 years ago

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Books, Books, Books

Lists are all the rage at the end of any year and this plague year is no exception. Since I’ve read a fair number of books by friends this past year or so, I thought I’d send out my “Goodreads” reviews of all three books that I’ve enjoyed with the hope of giving each a bit more recognition (and perhaps a bump in sales) in the New Year. The reviews are presented in the order that I reviewed them. All three books are available on Amazon or through your local independent bookstore. Also try IndieBound, the online independent bookseller.

[End of Year Note: My apologies for not being more active on social media lately. I’m working on my own follow up to “We Shall Not Be Moved” and have tried to stay away from all forms of distraction, including social media. With any luck, my next project, the story of the Tougaloo Nine Library Sit-In, will be on its way to the publisher at the end of 2021.]

And now, for our 2020 BOOKS, BOOKS, BOOKS!

Wave On: A Surfing Story by Michael E.C. Gery

(Amazon Digital Services, 2018, 432 pages, Autobiographical Fiction)

[Reviewed August 2019]

"A wonderfully adept stoner’s diary for the boomer generation."

I was thoroughly enchanted with “Wave On” from beginning to end. Even when I wasn’t sure exactly where we were going, the ride was exhilarating. Perhaps it was because I knew many of the places where the action takes place: Williamsburg, the Outer Banks, Annapolis, Ocean City, College Park, and even The Who concert back in 1971 [or was it ’70?] at Merriweather Post Pavilion, which I also happened to attend!! I read very little fiction but a fair amount of biography and memoir, and I must say that I rarely find a work of fiction that is as engaging and heart-driven as “Wave On.”

Part One is a pure, lovely, romantic love story that is contemporaneous with our early adulthood and, thus, easy for me to put myself in the shoes of Cro as he tries to navigate the strictures of young adulthood in a laissez-faire new world of the mid-1960s. The fact that he has been schooled at an Episcopalian Boys school and loves all of those old hymns and prayers makes it all the more real for me, having attended a 4-year Catholic high school seminary. Cro’s goofiness, uncertainty, and (initial) shyness around women also resonated.

What I loved about Part One is that Gery establishes a voice for Cro, the Narrator, that is immediate, engaging, alive, and consistent throughout the entire novelization of what I believe is Gery’s young adult life. (A new term I just picked up--“autofiction” i.e., autobiographical fiction--seems to apply here.) Cro is so normal in his struggles to understand how the world works, so honest in his mistakes, so in love with his environment—the ocean, the waves, the shore—that he makes us love them, too, perhaps a bit more than we already do. But it is that voice that intrigued me throughout. No matter what kind of scrape Cro and his interesting band of friends and lovers gets into, there is a confidence that they are up to the challenge. [I must admit that Cro’s drift during Part Two with regard to his professional aspirations and even his family life was a bit baffling, but I came to think that the weed had a lot to do with his lack of ambition and direction.]

Part Two, of course, gets a bit more complicated as real life intervenes and our little Love Couple begins to encounter troubles from within and without. I hated to see that and was certain that Cro was going to lose his wonderful Ella and Adam and couldn’t see my way through to how it all might resolve, particularly when Maryanne enters the picture and the Neil Young Concert kiss betrays a problematic (if not fatal) flaw in our hero. But I suffered through all of that, wanting to see how it all came out in the end. Although there was no deus ex machina, the surprising turn of events that helps resolve these dramatic arcs is shocking yet consistent. It all made narrative sense and helped explain why we were taken on so many to such a happy ending.

“Wave On” is a wonderfully adept stoner’s diary for our boomer generation. I can’t wait for Gery’s next work of autofiction to continue the journey with him.

Hard Road South by Scott Gates

(Blue Ink Press, 2020, 254 pages, Fiction)

[Reviewed, May 2020]

“A little jewel box of a novel.”

“Hard Road South” is a little jewel box of a novel set during the early days of Reconstruction Virginia. This beautifully rendered tale imagines a naïve Connecticut Yankee—a former Union soldier—who travels South to visit and potentially settle in some of the lush foothills of the Shenandoah Valley where he once engaged the Confederate “enemy”. Hoping to find peace while helping to reform a culture that wishes to be left alone, our hero, one Solomon Dykes, finds fast friends but also fast enemies amidst the verdant pastures of his would-be Old Virginny Home.

An early scene sets the tone: A down on her luck woman is stopped in the town of Middleburg—the place that would become the enclave of the likes of millionaires John and Jackie Kennedy and Jack Kemp Cooke a century later—by some Union soldiers still on the scene occupying this “foreign” land to ensure compliance with Union directives. Her transgression? Wearing the Confederate uniform jacket of her dead husband. The three Confederate buttons on the jacket must be removed or she will be arrested and charged with treason. Such is the over-reach of conquering heroes.

Our damsel in distress is aided by the swift thinking of one Jeb Mosby, a local farmer, who pulls out his knife and gently removes the buttons so as to spare his life-long neighbor the embarrassment of arrest. “Such was life now,” Mosby observes. “Filled with reminders—small as they may seem—that life would not soon be returning to how he’d left it before the war.” It is small observations such as this that gives this book its charm and its weight. Representations of what life must have been like for the conquered South are constant reminders that the likes of Solomon Dykes were not at all welcome and most likely would be rebuffed should the opportunity arise. Scott Gates is new to novel writing, but you wouldn’t know it from his sharp eye for detail and his pacing. Gates gives his story and his characters plenty of room to breathe and develop while providing the reader with glimpses of the specifics of their war-torn lives. A Southerner by birth, Gates offers a sensibility of one trying to bridge the great divide while not shying away from the difficulties building that bridge might require. This is a tale for our time, as well, as our nation is once again fraught with deep divisions perhaps not seen since the ending of that great Civil War more than 150 years ago. We are stuck and unable to move forward until some fundamental rift gets settled. “Hard Road South” is a highly readable, thoroughly enjoyable yet cautionary tale for our time. Perhaps we can learn from the past and this time get things right. Perhaps …

Small Business Big Heart: How One Family Redefined the Bottom Line by Paul Wesslund

(Highway 61 Communications, 2020, 242 pages, Nonfiction)

[Reviewed, August 2020]

“Big-hearted Book Teaches That Care for Others = Good Business”

In the midst of a global health crisis—the worst we’ve seen in generations—and while we struggle as a country, as a people, to find our footing morally and culturally during a reductio ad absurdum political creep show, Small Business BIG HEART lands as a corrective, a balm to soothe frayed nerves and intemperate minds. That is not to say that this big-hearted book is pablum. No, the stories it brings are all too real—people who often have lost their way through drugs, alcohol, and bad choices; refugees who have fled horrific circumstances and are looking only to start a new life but can’t due to the stigma of being different; and one family in particular that is faced with its own dissolution as well as the loss of its dream of a thriving family business. The high-stakes rollercoaster ride that journalist Paul Wesslund takes us on is dizzying not only for its incredible highs and sometimes tragic lows, but also because it introduces a concept too often forgotten … no, disregarded … in modern business life—what corporate governance experts would call “the duty of CARE.”

Sal and Cindy Rubino are two hard-working business owners who, through the course of their trials and tribulations, manage to hold on to the dream of a creating their own business from scratch while also enduring the inevitable personal strains that such a dream exacts. The two met and fell in love while working toward Hospitality Management business degrees in Miami, but the real story starts when they try and apply the lessons of their training in the difficult day-to-day drudgery of actually running their own restaurant—simply named “The Café”—in an offbeat, run-down section of Louisville, Cindy’s hometown. It is here that their skills and wills are tested to the limits and each will have to adjust their visions to fit the realities not explored in textbooks. And it is here that their hearts will be broken, and then opened to the truths that adaptability and innovation can be applied not only to recipes and business models, but to the very people you employ and the methods you use to build a team for success.

Along the way, we meet all manner of broken individuals. The restaurant business is notorious for laying waste to lives due to its thankless dawn-to-dusk hours and the constant requirement to please the customer at all costs. Wesslund has an expert’s eye for the telling detail and the wrenching story line. [I found myself tearing up at any number of stories throughout this engaging, nonfiction tale.] His twenty years as editor-in-chief of Kentucky Living, the largest circulation monthly magazine within the state, shows in the well-drawn portraits of individuals from as far away as Bhutan and as near as Pricilla’s Place, a half-way house just a few blocks from the Café, where Cindy and Sal would find some of their best employees. Perhaps Wesslund’s (not to mention the Rubinos’) refusal to judge people by the standards of upwardly mobile middle-class values but instead, with extraordinary discernment, to look deeper into their souls to spot their special sparks and unique talents is the hallmark of this extraordinary book.

It is rare outside of evangelical circles to find a book that so openly espouses Christian principles, but Sal and Cindy make no bones about the fact that their faith community helped to save their marriage as well as their business, and Wesslund recounts the strength of those relationships and the power of religious inspiration with rare delicacy. Yet the book is not all seriousness and drama. We get, of all things, recipes (!) at the start of nearly every chapter—a creative way of introducing a new topic or the next development of this constantly churning story. And we are introduced to Cindy’s creative cooking style, to Sal’s winning smile and to their gracious, open approach to hospitality.

Small Business BIG HEART runs the gamut of the small business life cycle. It is a soup-to-nuts (literally) primer on the ups and downs of small business management. As such, it is tough medicine for anyone daring to think of creating their own start-up. Given that, however, it provides a deeply affecting microcosm of how we as a society—as a culture—might live if we, indeed, saw everyone we encountered as a member of our own family. It does not skimp on the tough decisions that must be made to keep a business afloat—the “tension between compassion and the bottom line”—but it provides a template on how to “run a business with heart”—where everyone can be a winner.

Wishing you a New Year full of new books, new ideas, new opportunities, new promise.

#Michael Gery #Wave On: A Surfing Story #Scott Gates #Hard Road South #Paul Wesslund #Small Business Big Heart #Top Books of 2020

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Wednesday, March 10, 2021

Many in US still face COVID-19 financial loss (AP) Roughly 4 in 10 Americans say they’re still feeling the financial impact of the loss of a job or income within their household as the economic recovery remains uneven one year into the coronavirus pandemic. A new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research provides further evidence that the pandemic has been devastating for some Americans, while leaving others virtually unscathed or even in better shape, at least when it comes to their finances. The outcome often depended on the type of job a person had and their income level before the pandemic. The pandemic has particularly hurt Black and Latino households, as well as younger Americans, some of whom are now going through the second major economic crisis of their adult lives. The poll shows that about half of Americans say they have experienced at least one form of household income loss during the pandemic, including 25% who have experienced a household layoff and 31% who say someone in the household was scheduled for fewer hours. Overall, 44% said their household experienced income loss from the pandemic that is still having an impact on their finances. The poll’s findings reflect what some economists have called a “K-shaped recovery,” where there have been divergent fortunes among Americans. Those with office jobs were able to transition to working from home while those who worked in hard-hit industries such as entertainment, dining, travel and other industries have continued to struggle.

Los Angeles Schools Remain Closed and Families Wonder: How Much Longer? (NYT) It has been almost a year since the coronavirus pandemic virtually emptied public schools in Los Angeles and sent students home to take classes from their bedrooms. Families in the Los Angeles Unified School District are coming to terms with a bittersweet truth: With the spring term scheduled to end on June 11, only a sliver of their pandemic school year is likely to take place face-to-face. District officials say a deal with its powerful teachers’ union to resume in-person learning seems close, and might happen this week. But the superintendent, Austin Beutner, has estimated that, even with an agreement in place, it will take at least until mid-April just to welcome back elementary and special needs students. Older students would be phased in over the next couple of weeks. Of the nation’s 10 largest school systems, Los Angeles is the only one that has yet to resume in-person teaching for significant numbers of students.

US offers residency to Venezuelans and will review sanctions (AP) The Biden administration said Monday it is offering temporary legal residency to several hundred thousand Venezuelans who fled their country’s economic collapse and will review U.S. sanctions intended to isolate the South American nation. President Joe Biden’s administration announced it would grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans already in the United States, allowing an estimated 320,000 people to apply to legally live and work in the country for 18 months. Trump resisted repeated calls from Republican and Democratic lawmakers, primarily from South Florida, to grant temporary protected status to Venezuelans though he issued an order deferring deportation for a smaller number on his final day in office. The Trump administration also significantly tightened U.S. economic sanctions on Venezuela, most notably on its crucial oil sector, to try and force President Nicolas Maduro to give up power after an election in 2018 that the United States and other countries believe was fraudulent. A senior Biden administration official portrayed that as a failed strategy. “The United States is in no rush to lift sanctions,” the official said, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the policy. “But we need to recognize here that unilateral sanctions over the last four years have not succeeded in achieving an electoral outcome in the country.”

Brazil justice annuls Lula’s sentences, enabling 2022 run (AP) A Supreme Court justice on Monday annulled all convictions against former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, a ruling that potentially would allow him to run again for the presidency next year. The decision also laid bare the country’s political divisions, with leftists celebrating their 75-year-old leader’s return to the political arena as conservatives said the rulings were tantamount to impunity. Da Silva’s lawyers issued a statement welcoming the decision, saying it “is aligned with everything we have said for more than five years in these suits.” But Brazilian media reported that the country’s prosecutor-general Augusto Aras, an ally of conservative President Jair Bolsonaro, is preparing to appeal the decision.

Indian activist’s arrest spotlights crackdown on dissent (AP) To her friends, Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, was most concerned about her future in a world of rising temperatures. But her life changed last month when she became a household name in India, dominating headlines after police charged her with sedition, a colonial-era law that carries a sentence up to life in prison. Her alleged crime: sharing an online handbook meant to raise support for months-long farmer protests on Twitter. “If highlighting farmers’ protest globally is sedition, I am better (off) in jail,” she said in court two weeks ago. Going after activists isn’t new in India, but Ravi’s saga has stoked fear and anxiety. Observers say what happened to Ravi—a young, middle class, urban woman—hit home for a lot of Indians, who suddenly feared they could be jailed for sharing something on social media. The incident has raised questions over India’s democracy, with critics decrying it as the latest attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government to mute dissent and criminalize it. “They targeted someone not usually targeted by the Hindu right-wing—a young girl from South India, who doesn’t have a Muslim name and is not linked to left-wing student politics,” said prominent historian Ramachandra Guha. “The message they wanted to send is that they can go after anyone.”

Victims of Myanmar’s Army Speak (NYT) The soldiers from Myanmar’s army knocked on U Thein Aung’s door one morning last April as he was having tea with friends, and demanded that all of them accompany the platoon to another village. When they reached a dangerous stretch in the mountains of Rakhine State, the men were ordered to walk 100 feet ahead. One stepped on a land mine and was blown to pieces. Metal fragments struck Mr. Thein Aung in his arm and his left eye. “They threatened to kill us if we refused to go with them,” said Mr. Thein Aung, 65, who lost the eye. “It is very clear that they used us as human land mine detectors.” The military and its brutal practices are an omnipresent fear in Myanmar, one that has intensified since the generals seized full power in a coup last month. As security forces gun down peaceful protesters on city streets, the violence that is commonplace in the countryside serves as a grisly reminder of the military’s long legacy of atrocities. During decades of military rule, an army dominated by the Bamar majority operated with impunity against ethnic minorities, killing civilians and torching villages.

New option for quarantine in Thailand (Foreign Policy) Wealthy visitors to Thailand now have the option of spending their 14-day mandatory quarantine on a yacht as part of a new program to boost tourism to the country. Prospective seafarers will be equipped with an electronic wristband that will track the wearer’s vital signs as well as GPS coordinates—even when at sea. Thailand’s tourism minister proposed a separate plan last week to allow tourists to spend their quarantine period in the country’s beach resorts. The need for unique approaches is particularly acute in the southeast Asian nation: Only 6.7 million foreign tourists visited Thailand in 2020, following a record 39.8 million tourists in 2019.

China launches COVID-19 vaccination certificates for cross-border travel (Reuters) China has launched a digital COVID-19 vaccination certificate for its citizens planning cross-border travels, joining other countries issuing similar documents as they seek ways to reopen their economies. As vaccines are globally being rolled out, a few countries, including Bahrain, have already introduced certificates identifying vaccinated people and the European Union agreed to develop vaccine passports under pressure from tourism-dependent southern countries. The certificate issued by China would have details about the holder’s COVID-19 vaccination information and coronavirus test results, the Department of Consular Affairs under China’s foreign ministry said on its website.

Lebanon’s collapse piles strain on army, security forces (Reuters) Discontent is brewing in the ranks of Lebanon’s security forces over a currency crash wiping out most of the value of their salaries as unrest and crime surge. In unusually outspoken comments, army chief General Joseph Aoun said his warnings that the pressure on soldiers’ earnings and morale could lead to an “implosion” had fallen on deaf ears. Lebanon’s pound has crashed 85 percent since late 2019 in a financial meltdown that poses the biggest threat to stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. “Soldiers are going hungry like the people,” he said on Monday, berating politicians without naming names. The basic monthly salary of a soldier or policeman, which used to amount to around $800, is worth under $120 today. Budget cuts pushed the military to cut meat from its meals last year. In what was seen as a sign of the times, the French embassy donated food parcels last month to the Lebanese army, which has long been backed by Western nations.

Barred from marrying by the rabbis, Israelis find a pandemic workaround—in Utah (Washington Post) For generations, the iron grip of Orthodox rabbis on Israeli family law has meant that mixed couples, gay couples or even couples in which one partner is not deemed Jewish enough have been denied the right to marry within the country’s borders. To circumvent the rabbis, thousands of Israelis jetted off each year to nearby countries like Cyprus or Greece for weddings that the government later recognized as civil unions. But when the pandemic closed even that window, it also opened another: Zoom weddings, administered 7,000 miles away—in Utah. At least 150 Israeli couples have already tied the virtual knot through this technological loophole, spurring a new battle in a national culture war that has long pitted Israel’s non-Orthodox Jewish majority against the politically entrenched Orthodox Jewish minority. Aware of the threat to their outsize influence, ultra-Orthodox politicians who control the Interior Ministry have already moved to dismiss the Zoom weddings, which both sides agree have the potential to forge a legacy that would far outlive the pandemic. Under an Ottoman-era law extended by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, marriage in Israel is governed by the state’s religious authorities. For Jews, it is the chief rabbinate that is tasked with validating the bride and groom as Jewish, meaning that they must prove descent from an uninterrupted line of Jewish mothers. “This is a revolutionary and historical step,” said Uri Regev, a rabbi, lawyer and president of Hiddush, a religious equality organization based in Jerusalem. “For the first time, there will be access, for a minimal cost for Israelis, who won’t need to travel overseas, who can legally and quickly get married or at least obtain a registration of marriage through this new avenue.”

Death toll from explosions in Equatorial Guinea rises to 98 (Reuters) The death toll from a series of explosions at a military barracks in Equatorial Guinea rose by dozens to at least 98 killed after more bodies were recovered, the government said Tuesday. The blasts on Sunday in the Mondong Nkuantoma neighborhood of the coastal city of Bata also wounded at least 615 people, authorities said. The government said that 316 of the injured have been discharged and 299 remain in care in various hospitals in the city. Investigations have shown the fire may have begun when a farmer set fire to his plot to prepare it for food production and a breeze spread the flames to the nearby barracks where the high-caliber ammunition was stored.

From a prolonged pandemic, a rethink of life’s milestones? (AP) Wedding anniversaries for Elizabeth O’Connor Cole and her husband, Michael, usually involve a dinner reservation for two at a fancy restaurant. Not this time around. As the pandemic raged last May, the Chicago mom of four unearthed her boxed wedding gown, recreated their reception menu, and pulled out her wedding china and silver after enlisting another of her kids to DJ their first-dance song, “At Last,” for a romantic turn around the living room. And the priest who married them offered a special blessing on Zoom with friends and family joining in. “Spontaneous and a bit chaotic,” O’Connor Cole pronounced the celebration. “Still, it was probably the most meaningful and fun anniversary we’ve had.” When the crisis finally resolves, will our new ways of marking births and deaths, weddings and anniversaries have any lasting impact? Or will freshly felt sentiments born of pandemic invention be fleeting? Some predict their pandemic celebrations have set a new course. Others still mourn the way their traditions used to be.

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trinamcmichaels01 · 4 years ago

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Americas Blessing of Freedom & Hope

Where is your family from and also why did they pertain to America?

Have you ever before visited the communist countries of China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

I've had the honor of traveling to many parts of the globe, and also loved individuals of virtually every nation. My heart made those who were incapable to appreciate the liberties of choice and also self direction that Americans consider given each day.

What do you provide for a living? Whether you are a physician, educator, auto mechanic, IT person, or full time parent; I would imagine you selected that course for your life since you appreciated specific facets of that work, and you have the ability to be compensated for it.

What if you had no say towards your life, and also your future was exclusively dictated to you by the federal government?

I can not assume of a faster method to off the trigger of life in one's eyes than completely eliminating their own firm from their lives. Sadly, that is what happens in communist/socialist nations America National politics.

Do you want to move there completely as well as give up your American flexibilities and also opportunities?

Do you want to make America into an additional China, Russia, Cuba, North Korea, Laos, or Vietnam?

Your candidate for Head of state in America need to have 2 goals:

1) Dedication to expanding the stability and also stamina of their nation.

2) The prospect needs to dedicate to shield as well as safeguard their residents' civil liberties.

Why do people leave a country?

- Anxiety of safety and security for themselves as well as their family members from violence.

- Anxiety of oppression for their beliefs.

- Extraordinary destitution as well as no possibilities for altering it.

- Federal government corruption and overreach that stifles private options as well as development as well as forces conformity.

Are you and your household looking to import where they came from to America?

What are the differences in between their residence country as well as America?

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be committed to expanding the stability and strength of their nation.

2) The candidate should dedicate to safeguard and also protect their residents' civil liberties.

Obtain the facts, assume meticulously prior to you act as well as vote for Head of state of the USA on Nov. 3, 2020!

I have appreciated seeing, mentor, as well as carrying out on my violin as well as viola throughout the globe. This consists of communist countries. I have always mored than happy as well as delighted ahead back residence to America as well as our many true blessings and also freedoms! It is a true eye opener to see how privileged we remain in America.

We have lots of chances right here to begin a business, choose the job we wish to do, to have property, pray as we pick, protect our legal rights to totally free speech, protect ourselves and our house and property, the right to believe and also share our thoughts with others.

We have great sanitation, plumbing, drinkable running water, electrical power with washrooms that work which permit you to wash your hands with soap and also water to keep germs and sickness from running through entire cities America National politics.

After checking out these foreign locations, I was constantly so grateful for the true blessings and liberties of living and also operating in America.

" In Communism the government owns all property and pays its residents similarly. Citizens possess absolutely nothing. The government chooses your job and also tells you what to do. They have you! There is no free choice!"

Communism/Socialism is often considered in scholastic and also media circles as an "every little thing is free because it is a right". There is no liberty when you depend on the government to determine what you are worthy of.

The American Revolution has actually stood the examination of time because we are reminded that our liberties originate from God, not male.

Communism removes all your rights, your property, your chances, your options, and your flexibilities. This consists of thinking, prayer, organization.

Birds Eye View on Communism in Russia:

The flick, Moscow on the Hudson" (1984) was created and also guided by Paul Mazursky and also starred Robin Williams, as Vladimir Ivanoff, a saxophonist with the Moscow Circus who is carrying out as well as going to in New york city City. He decides to problem while shopping at Bloomingdale's in New york city City. Director Mazursky stated the concept for the film originated from his very own grandpa emigrating to the USA from Russia.

He states, "A lot of Russians, are just attempting to survive. Yet, all Russians that leave their country, leave something they prize and also love. It's a terrible dispute for them, so the act of valor is frustrating."

The movie opens up with Vladimir in Russia living "in a congested apartment with his extended family." After that "he stands in line for hrs to buy toilet paper and also shoes." It takes as long to acquire the toilet tissue and also footwear that he's late to rehearsal. Boris, the communist event participant, KGB,

" slams Vladimir for being late to practice session and also suggests Vladimir may miss the approaching journey to the USA.". Vladimir immediately hands over to Boris, the footwear from the shop that made him late. After wedding rehearsal Vladimir selects his friend to buy fuel for his car from a "black market dealership."

After Vladimir flaws he has numerous American residents that have actually promptly agreed to assist him. They give him an area to stick with their family members, help him in locating work, as well as a recent American person from Cuba who his lawyer.

True blessings of America: America is not excellent, however it is our last beacon of hope!

America was improved Judeo/Christian worths, order, sanctity, capitalism, entrepreneurship, as well as free enterprises. America is a land of possibilities. Our United States Constitution safeguards our freedoms. The of our Constitution were smart enough to understand that our unalienable legal rights did not originate from federal government or male; they originated from God. They were likewise smart adequate to develop the Constitution as well as Expense of Rights to be exclusionary (clarifying what Government can refrain from doing, rather than all things it can do).

The very liberties that a lot of us consider granted like the search of life, freedom, and the quest of joy, freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and liberty to petition the federal government to ideal wrongs are what make this nation wonderful. It is also why this excellent nation of ours is a magnet for people from throughout the globe that answer the "battle-cry of their souls to be free by looking for citizenship."

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Dedication to expanding the security and strength of their nation.

2) The prospect should commit to shield and also protect their citizens' rights.

What is Kristallnacht?

Kristallnacht, (additionally called the Evening of Broken Glass). On November 9-10, 1938, Pogroms, violent troubles, (strikes, looting, arson, mass arrests, and fatality) were performed against the Jews by SA paramilitary forces (tornado troopers) and also civilians throughout Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, and also Moravia. These rioters damaged, struck, robbed, and also knocked down Jewish organizations, homes, schools, hospitals, and Synagogues with sledgehammers. After the assaults smashed glass was left on the roads.

" British chronicler Martin Gilbert wrote that no event in the background of German Jews between 1933 and also 1945 was so widely reported as it was occurring, and also the accounts from foreign journalists working in Germany sent out shockwaves around the world."

The Times of London observed on November 11,1938: "No international propagandist curved upon blackening Germany before the globe can outshine the tale of burnings as well as poundings, of blackguardly attacks on helpless and also innocent people, which reproached that nation the other day."

Communism is total government control. Damaging down of order, robbery destruction, arson, death. Pogroms, Kristallnacht, eliminating statues (eliminating history), instilling the young, (mind washing), no responsibility, versus independent thinking, against self-sufficiency, against family members worths, versus faith, versus human spirit. Tramples on constitution. Takes all your rights and freedoms away America National politics.

Where is my family from?

My family is from Russia and Hungary where there were no civil liberties, no selections, no possibilities, no complimentary speech, no right to a fair test. You did what the federal government authorities informed them to do. There was no freedom of speech. No owning of residential or commercial property. There was no selection in anything. The government determined what your profession would certainly be. When you said to attempt as well as safeguard yourself, they would toss you behind bars as well as eliminate you.

America is the only place you can go from cloths to treasures. In other nations if you were birthed bad you remain that way permanently. Mark J. Quann, writer, claimed in 2017, "Immigrants Are 4 Times More Likely to End Up Being Millionaires in America."

The number of immigrants show up in the United States each year? "More than 1 million immigrants show up in the U.S. each year. In 2017, the leading country of origin for brand-new immigrants entering into the U.S. was India, with 126,000 individuals, followed by Mexico (124,000), China (121,000) and also Cuba (41,000)." https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/

Ages 18 or Older: Suppose what you are being informed is Not 100% real? Do you question what you are informed and seek to inspect the reality? Do you inform yourself? Are you responsible for your activities? What is your goal or dream?

Just in America will certainly you be provided the chance to pick your desire and help it!

Rebecca Walser, skilled author of "Wide range Unbroken", states, In America "you are encouraged to take control of your life, your fate, and that is something billions of individuals do not have."

Communist China in 2016 had a populace of 1.4 billion. "Their people had just an ordinary per capita disposable revenue of $3,469 in 2016." Compare this "to 320 million Americans who had $43,536 per capita non reusable yearly income that same year." (Walser, Wide Range Unbroken).

Your candidate for President in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be dedicated to growing the security and also stamina of their country.

2) The candidate ought to commit to secure as well as defend their citizens' rights.

Why have numerous people concern America? America is Not Perfect, but it has opportunities and also remarkable possibilities that communism does not have!!!!!

These immigrants from Russia, China, Laos, and other nations that have ended up being residents of America are "Not begging" to go back to the countries they have actually run away from!

These 5 plus months of the pandemic and also being homebound has actually brought tension and also anxiousness to America with civil unrest, rioting, looting, and also murder. This is a suggestion of pogroms in Russia as well as Kristallnacht, (Night of Broken Glass) in Nazi Germany, Austria, the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, Slovak, Bohemia, Poland, and also Moravia America Politics.

Assume and obtain truth realities, before you elect Head of state of the USA on Nov 3, 2020!

Your candidate for Head of state in America should have 2 objectives?

1) Be devoted to expanding the stability as well as toughness of their nation.

2) The candidate needs to commit to shield and also protect their people' civil liberties.

Remember what President Ronald Reagan claimed, "Flexibility is never ever more than one generation away from termination ... It should be fought for, secured, and handed on for them to do the exact same.".

Assume and also obtain the true truths before you vote on Nov. 3, 2020.

Do you intend to maintain your legal rights as well as privileges in America or provide up?

Background of American Ballot Rights.

Among the wonderful points concerning living in the USA of America is that we do not undergo fifty percent as several struggles to vote as newly democratic countries. Although now it might seem that voting is virtually considered approved, the history of American voting civil liberties is not so quite. This write-up will check out the development of the American voting civil liberties from the birth of the nation previously.

Initially of American background, just white males over the age of 21 might take part in the vote. In addition, the head of state and vice president were chosen separately, and legislators were not directly chosen in all. Remember the selecting university's enact concerns to the presidency, too. Nonetheless, there were a number of modifications that occurred throughout our history to place the elections much more in the hands of the people-all individuals.

After the Civil Battle finished, the newly rejoined country passed numerous amendments permitting the newly launched slaves a lot more legal rights than ever before, allegedly equal with those of white citizens. Initially, the 13th Amendment eliminated enslavement, in addition to forced servitude, and also remains to ban these techniques. Second, the 14th Modification made slaves and their descendents total citizens of the United States, and also gave them the same rights as every various other resident in America. Lastly, the 15th Amendment banned voter discrimination based on race, shade, and heritage. With each other, these were known as the Restoration Modifications.

You may have observed that although people can not lawfully stop others from electing based on color, there was absolutely nothing consisted of about gender. Even after African-American males got the right to vote, females of both shades were not able to do so. Ultimately, in 1920, the 19th Modification provided females suffrage. This wanted straight election of senators was given to the people (17th Change, 1913) America Politics.

The Vietnam Battle was a time of great civil discontent. Initially, the 26th Modification reduced the voting age to 18 due to the fact that 18-year-olds were being dispatched to battle without also obtaining the chance to choose their leader. This happened in 1971. Previously, yet also during the long period of time of the Vietnam War, the little ways people handicapped African-Americans from electing concerned national focus.

People powerless black citizens by instituting poll tax obligations, proficiency examinations, and also grandpa stipulations. Because these were unreasonable and also borderline unlawful, individuals rebelled versus these methods, which cause President Lyndon Johnson signing the National Voting Civil Liberty Act of 1965. This act made the discrimination versus black voters completely prohibited.

A Vote For Capitalism Or Corporatism.

A window of opportunity will be in the political election of 2011. This window will enable you to cast your ballot, for or against business America. While I need to confess, that the business influence is healthy on both sides of the island, it is dominate away. You absolutely do not need me to inform you which side has actually fallen totally in bed with the enemy of industrialism.

You just need to see, that is attempting to empower corporate tax obligation evasion, company authority, in taking apart lengthy established labor laws and that looks for to alter our entitlements (social safety and security, Medicare) into independently run business who's motive would be to earn money, rather than assist those that need aid. While they are pressing now, harder than they ever before have, they are still steadfast in not permitting the rich to pay at least as much taxes as the middle class.

Big corporations pay much less than 15 percent in tax obligations, some really pay none. Some pay no tax obligations and also receive cost-free money from the federal government on top of that; called aids. Warren Buffet (Billionaire) remarks that his personal assistant pays a greater tax price than he himself does. The millionaire tax obligation brace is practically 35 percent now, after the George Shrub tax cuts; yet they hardly ever pay this rate as they use funding gains technique to submit, and also this tax obligation bracket is around 15 percent. Given that Head of state Obama's political election, there has actually been a battle to raise the millionaire brace from 35 percent to the original 39 percent. This was the keystone with the brand-new republican tea party; that they were regarded to of held congress captive over not permitting that 4 percent boost. Rather, they pressed really tough to make massive cuts, every one of which will certainly come directly out of the pockets of the bad and also middle classes.

The Shrub tax obligation cuts took 2.5 trillion dollars out of the United States economic climate over one decade. Two battles an additional 2 trillion bucks. The Bush deregulation of monetary laws, permitted hoggish financial institutions and their CEO's to control negative home mortgage, which resulted in the financial collision of 2008, that we are still suffering from. All the above, were activities developed by corporate power and impact through our government, right up to the desk of the presidency its self. All of this pain to our economic situation was developed by millionaires, billionaires and also powerful companies.

With the recent debt ceiling crisis, we now find that it is NOT corporate America that will pay for these horrendous activities, however those that were the targets to begin with; the center course. Corporate wide range has raised 10 layer in 10 years, while the middle class has actually been downsized with enhancing healthcare expenses, as well as level wages. Company America has 2.5 trillion bucks saved up and stashed here in the US. The affordable collapse of 2008 taught them how to run their firms with less people, raising their earnings, as well as keeping unemployment extremely high. Business America is estimated to have 2 trillion dollars stashed in off shore accounts to avoid the little tax obligations they do pay. This cash, will never flow down to the center course - not in a million years. In addition, one tenth of one percent of the globes population possesses 55 percent of the globes wealth America National politics.

In these times, its very important to not perplex conservative national politics with business monopolies in this one regard. Traditional individuals have a legitimate disposition as do liberals. Each party is merely a preferred method of establishing the government. Actually, all nations all over the world have these 2 possibilities that are maintained in balance.

Yet the sad point here is that conservatives have actually had their party penetrated by big corporate money and control; pulling the puppet strings of congress, bombarding state legislatures with pro corporate expenses. The conservative experts (individuals who discuss national politics) are paid, and also paid well by these company teams which have attacked the conventional party as a hook worm lives below the skin. The firms have moved in under the radar with conservatists, by hiding under the umbrella of conservative concepts, yet in truth they have actually currently overtaken the conventional motion; and also to the conservatives hinderance they have really been educated to safeguard the very same oppressor through the bombardment of the media statements the experts are paid to project.

A Democratic, Market Issue That Brings completion of America As Projection by Daniel the Prophet.

Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history teacher at the College of Edinburgh, assessed the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior. He is credited with saying that a freedom is constantly momentary until citizens discover that they can elect themselves generous presents from the general public treasury. From that moment on, the bulk constantly votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the general public treasury, with the result that every freedom will lastly fall down over loosened fiscal plan, (which is) constantly complied with by a dictatorship.

The typical age of the world's greatest people has actually been about 200 years throughout which we see this series: "From bondage to spiritual belief; From spiritual confidence to great guts; From courage to freedom; From freedom to abundance; From wealth to complacency; From complacency to apathy; From lethargy to reliance; From reliance back right into chains." America's Obituary: Born 1776, Died 2012.

America, started as a republic, is currently a freedom where the bulk ballot money on their own in welfare programs. Demographics are an upcoming issue with amnesty of prohibited aliens, as recommended by Daniel's prophetic publication.

Teacher Olson includes: "In aggregate, the map of the region Romney won was primarily the land possessed by the taxpaying people of the country.

Obama territory primarily encompassed those citizens living in reduced revenue tenements and living off various kinds of federal government well-being ..." Almost fifty percent of the US is in the "governmental dependency" stage. If Congress grants amnesty as well as citizenship to twenty million criminal intruders called illegals, we can say goodbye to the UNITED STATES.

Does the Bible have any light on this subject? When inquired about completion of the globe, Christ said to understand guide of Daniel. Matthew 24:3,15. "Throughout the end" the king of the north "overflows" the king of the south, Daniel 11:40. That is the king of the north? The Scriptures is its very own expositor-it interprets itself ...

In Ezekiel 26:7, the king of the north is the king of Babylon, but we also see that in the end-time, this is not about a city in Iraq, however regarding baffled systems of federal government, health, eduction, well-being as well as religious beliefs (Babylon).

Babylon is redefined in Rev 17:5 where we see images of a church riding the beast of New Globe Order. The female (church) is entailed with national politics, It's an affluent church dressed with gold and the shade of scarlet, being in a city of 7 hills, and also drunken with the blood of saints-historically a persecuting church.

So exactly how does Babylon "overflow" the king of the south? With numerous illegal aliens overruning our southern border having their key allegiance to the pope, it's no secret just how the king of the north will certainly win in a freedom in which millions elect as informed.

A pal asked a Mexican couple that he met in Montana why they move there. They responded, The clergyman told us to relocate here.

The pope states he has no problem with a Marxist tag, (Google it) yet he would not concur with Marx that faith is "the opium of the people. The abolition of faith as the illusory happiness of the people is needed for their genuine happiness.".

However maybe Marx is right when it involves Catholicism. Numerous believe they can live as they please via the week, yet reach paradise by paying the priest on Sunday.

The pope intends to see a redistribution of riches. Why not confess the priest can not forgive sins (Mark 2:7) and repay the cash to the inadequate that, in many cases, provided the clergyman their last cow to get papa out of purgatory (a word not found in the Bible).

In contrast to every other country south of our border, America was started by Protestants taking the chance of stormy seas, bitter winters and also starvation to run away the Vintage Order injustice tht we might be inviting under New World Order, Rev 13:15 -17.

Leaders offered us a Constitution various from every various other country in its stipulations for self-government as well as splitting up of church and also state to ensure that Congress ought to make no laws favoring a spiritual facility (like they did in the institution voucher program preferring parochial institutions of which the wonderful majority are Catholic as are the Supreme Court Justices, etc

. Prior To Ballot, Consider Your VIEW Of America!

Today, we seem to be experiencing a time period, when there is more quarrel, division, and also polarization, as we have experienced, in current memory, and also, maybe, the larger quantity of people, that appear to be, reluctant, to look for any commonalities, in order to secure, a far greater opportunity at getting to, a meeting - of - the - minds, than, this country has seen, because our Civil War! No doubt, there are a number of factors for this, including, economic, racial/ ethnic, etc, but, a lot of this, might have been, brought - to - a - head, due to the unusual nature of Head of state Trump, and also, the way, he typically appears, to appeal, to disgust and also divisiveness, as opposed to bringing individuals together! Why do several, that oppose Trump, fail to be able to see, anything, positive concerning his management, while Trump advocates, stay dedicated to him, and absolutely nothing, he seems to claim, or do, adjustments that? Wouldn't it make good sense, before voting, each people, should, seriously, think about, our VIEW of what this nation represents, has represented, is today, and also what we wish for, right into the future? Keeping that in mind, this write-up will certainly try to, briefly, think about, take a look at, review, and also go over, using the mnemonic method, what this implies and stands for, and why it matters America National politics.

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anexplanationofunfortunateevents · 7 years ago

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here we go

As of Friday evening, special prosecutor Robert Mueller has officially filed the first charges in the Trump-Russia investigation.

Quick civics refresher: a prosecutor can get an indictment if a grand jury thinks it’s more likely than not that a specific individual has broken the law.

So here’s what you may be wondering about this one:

WHO: The indictment has been sealed, so we won’t know until Monday at the earliest. We don’t even know if it’s one person or several people. You can get into the parlor game of who’s been told to expect charges, who’s confessed to solicitation on Twitter, who got themselves kicked off Twitter after a yoogely entertaining meltdown, whatever. Pretty much the only person in Trump world we can rule out is Trump himself, since it’s unclear whether he can be charged while in office. We’ll know when we know.

IDGAF WHICH ONE OF THEM IT IS! LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!: I know, right?

WHAT: The indictment has been sealed, so we won’t know until Monday at the earliest. All we know for sure is the scope of Mueller’s investigation, which is crimes related to the Russian sabotage of the 2016 election or any crimes his office comes across during that investigation. It could be espionage or it could be tax evasion. The most likely prediction seems to be that it’ll be one of the more clear-cut cases against someone they think they can flip. We’ll know when we know.

WHY NOW?: It doesn’t feel this way because Trump time is like dog years, but in terms of large, complex criminal investigations, Mueller’s is moving at warp speed. For historical context, the only thing we can even remotely compare this to is the Watergate investigation, where the special prosecutor was on the job for ten months before bringing charges against anyone – and compared to this, Watergate really was just a third-rate burglary. Think of how long it would take you to work through what we know publicly about this case. The office is working as fast as they can without screwing it up and now’s the time they think they can prove at least one case beyond a reasonable doubt.

WHY IS IT SEALED?: This is one of those things that probably sounds more dramatic than it is. It’s not uncommon for defendants to get the chance to turn themselves in before the charges are announced publicly, or for law enforcement to want time to plan an arrest that won’t turn into a circus without tipping off, say, a wealthy defendant with connections abroad in time to flee the country. Most dramatically and least likely – though at this point we have to get used to thinking of this stuff as a possibility – they might need to make arrangements to put a potential informant into protective custody.

DID WE GET HIM? IS IT OVER?!: Sorry, no. This is, at best, the end of Act I. The tipping point may be coming soon, but a lot can happen between now and “soon.” You need to prepare yourself, because things can get darker fast. Someone a whole lot more even-keeled than Trump would panic with the walls closing in like this. Keep an eye on activist groups like MoveOn and Indivisible in case we need to mobilize quickly against an even more authoritarian turn. Firing Mueller, pardoning everyone around him, a show trial of Hillary Clinton, war with freaking Belgium – assume we’re going to have to put up a fight against something serious any day now.

The regime did so much desperate covfefe-flinging last week that it looks as if they had some sense this was coming soon, but even before this news dropped, there were quite a few developments that they seem to have been trying to drown out over the past few days:

The CEO of Cambridge Analytica contacted Wikileaks to try and get them to make the stolen DNC emails easier to search, months after everyone knew that Russia was behind the hacks. To be clear: the head of a Trump campaign data contractor reached out to a known agent of the hostile foreign power which was trying to undermine American democracy and said “here’s how you can sabotage our election more effectively.”

Remember Junior’s “Russia – Clinton – private and confidential” meeting we found out about over the summer? It turns out the Russian attorney who went to that meeting had talking points which were approved by the Kremlin. That means she was acting as an agent of the Russian government when she spoke to Junior, Kushner, and Manafort in Trump Tower.

The administration is nearly a month behind in implementing the sanctions we placed on Russia for interfering in the election, but Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is eliminating the committee that is supposed to be implementing those sanctions.

Right before the indictment(s) came down, Assistant US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Dana Boente announced his resignation, after apparently being asked to leave. This is probably not coincidental and feels… kind of ominous. The EDVA hears a lot of national security cases, which means that Boente is up on (for example) the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. This year, Boente has also served as Acting Attorney General and Acting Deputy Attorney General, which means he’s seen a lot of the Trump catastrophe up close.

Trump’s personal attorney apparently sold several NYC apartments for millions of dollars over market value. Cash.

Nevertheless, Republicans in Congress have gone full Inquisition along with the White House, announcing several investigations into a grandma in Westchester County. Right-wing media is, naturally, participating with their usual rabid glee.

This is 100% garbage and none of it deserves the time it took me to write out, or the time you’re going to put into reading it, but you can’t look out for the disinformation if you don’t know what buttons they’re trying to push with it. So I want to emphasize: there is no coherent thread here because they don’t need or expect you to believe any of their deflections. They just need to scream and yell and point fingers until a critical mass of people give up and say everyone’s corrupt nothing matters.

Republican and Democratic donors paid for the research behind the Steele dossier and the House intelligence committee is ON IT. The specific donors were identified earlier last week. Fusion GPS was initially hired by the conservative website Washington Free Beacon, which in turn is largely funded by Paul Singer, a wealthy Marco Rubio backer. Once Trump got the nomination, Republicans lost interest in trying to stop someone they damn well knew was a threat to the republic, so the law firm of the DNC and Clinton campaign picked up the tab. Trump is trying to make this into a thing, but this is not a thing. All campaigns pay for opposition research; the only way this was unusual was that there was so much outlandish dirt on Trump for opposition researchers to find. This did not stop the Free Beacon itself from screeching the Trump party line the day it was reported that the DNC had paid for the dossier.

There’s an investigation into the investigation of HER EMAILS. There is no similar investigation into the Trump White House’s current use of private email systems.

There’s another investigation into a conspiracy theory which was debunked years ago when it was first put out by Nazi wife-beater Steve Bannon’s propaganda machine. It is….*heavy sigh* that in return for a donation made by one Russian national to the world-class charity Clinton Foundation back in the year 2000, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton personally and unilaterally made nine different government agencies sign off on a 2010 sale of interests in a Canadian uranium company to Russia. It really is as stupid as it sounds. The point is just to shove enough crap in your face that you assume there’s something ominous you’re not seeing. The reasons they’ve brought back this specific garbage seem to be: 1) as a way to work “Clinton” and “Russia” into the same sentence (NO PUPPET! NO PUPPET! SHE’S THE PUPPET!) and 2) there appears to be some tenuous connection to Mueller, who was the FBI director at the time, and who they are now furiously attempting to discredit.

The storylines themselves are ridiculous, but the fact that they’re being spun is anything but. This week, Trump personally pushed the Department of Justice to lift a gag order on an FBI informant to testify about a case which was connected with a trucking company which was connected with the uranium sale. The White House is absolutely not supposed to pressure the DOJ in specific cases.

THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HOW YOU FEEEEEEEL ABOUT HILLARY CLINTON. Save that shit for your therapist. This is the full coordinated power of the executive and legislative branches of the federal government mobilizing against a private citizen, apparently for the sole reason that “LOCK HER UP” grievance politics are the one thing the Pepes still think Trump will deliver. THIS IS STRAIGHT AUTHORITARIANISM. WE CANNOT LET IT WORK.

Also? The Russia investigation is the existential threat to Trump and everyone who’s thrown in with him – which is why they’ve focused on it so frantically – but there’s a lot of bad news they’re drowning out. Puerto Rico is still experiencing a humanitarian disaster, and what little recovery effort is happening is being exploited by Trump cronies. Immigration agents are terrorizing kids who need to see a doctor. Republicans in Congress want to slash taxes on the wealthy and are still trying to sabotage Obamacare. And oh, a bad Republican story which (so far) doesn’t appear to be directly related to Trump: Georgia was sued over potential security failures during a special election earlier this year, and the government responded by wiping the data. As you watch this unfold, remember: Trump is the most pressing symptom of the civic rot perpetrated by Republican party and his ties to Russia are his his biggest liability, but neither they nor he is the underlying disease.

#trump russia #robert mueller #special prosecutor #donald trump

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xtruss · 4 years ago

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ARGUMENT

Pope Francis’s Silence on Xinjiang Speaks Volumes

A pope dedicated to human rights has said nothing on China, thanks to a secret deal with Beijing.

BY BENEDICT ROGERS | JULY 29, 2020 | Foreign Policy

Pope Francis leaves the window of the Apostolic Palace overlooking St. Peter's Square in Vatican City after the Sunday Angelus prayer on July 22, 2018. ANDREAS SOLARO/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

This month, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews wrote a most courageous letter to the Chinese ambassador in London.

In the letter, Marie van der Zyl took an extraordinary step for the leader of Britain’s main Jewish organization—she drew comparisons between the plight of the Uighurs in China today and the Holocaust. Nobody could see the evidence and fail to note, she wrote, “the similarities between what is alleged to be happening in the People’s Republic of China today and what happened in Nazi Germany 75 years ago: People being forcibly loaded on to trains; beards of religious men being trimmed; women being sterilised; and the grim spectre of concentration camps.”

Van der Zyl is just one of many faith leaders to speak out against the atrocities being committed in Xinjiang. But one voice has been strangely absent—that of Pope Francis, ordinarily a powerful advocate for the oppressed. His silence speaks to the dangers of the deal made with China by the Vatican—and demands that others in the church speak out.

Before van der Zyl’s letter, there was the decision by Jewish News to highlight the discovery of 13 metric tons of Uighur hair—with “Nazi resonance”—on the front page of the newspaper.

The letter was followed by a Twitter thread by the widely respected former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who wrote: “As a Jew, knowing our history, the sight of people being shaven headed, lined up, boarded onto trains, and sent to concentration camps is particularly harrowing. That people in the 21st century are being murdered, terrorised, victimised, intimidated and robbed of their liberties because of the way they worship God is a moral outrage, a political scandal and a desecration of faith itself.”

Around the same time, Maajid Nawaz, a prominent Muslim counterextremism activist, went on hunger strike for the Uighurs. Nawaz, a former radical Islamist who now devotes his time to fighting intolerance of all kinds courageously and successfully, promoted a petition for a parliamentary debate on imposing Magnitsky-style sanctions on the Chinese regime for its treatment of the Uighurs.

And last Saturday, the president of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences, the outspoken Cardinal Charles Bo of Myanmar, released a statement mostly about Turkey’s Hagia Sophia mosque—but which included: “In China, the Uyghur Muslims are facing what amounts to some of the contemporary world’s worst mass atrocities and I urge the international community to investigate.”

Yet so far, the world has heard nothing from the world’s major Muslim and Christian leadersYet so far, the world has heard nothing from the world’s major Muslim and Christian leaders. Muslim-majority countries have, mostly, sided with China—shamefully and in pursuit of narrow and elusive economic interests. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has said nothing. Neither has Francis.

“Yet so far, the world has heard nothing from the world’s major Muslim and Christian leaders.”

It is Francis’s silence that shocks me most. Almost every Sunday, as he prays the Angelus, he rightly references some injustice somewhere in the world. He has spoken often in the past not only of the persecution of Christians around the world but of the plight of the Rohingyas in Myanmar; the conflicts in Syria, Yemen, Ukraine, and Nigeria; and religious freedom for all.

One country—and one country alone—is noticeable by its absence in his prayers and statements: China.

In China today, we see one of the 21st century’s worst crimes—perhaps a genocide—being perpetrated against the Uighurs. But in addition, we see the most flagrant violation of an international agreement in China’s imposition of the new national security law on Hong Kong—a law that destroys Hong Kong’s freedoms and autonomy. We also see the worst crackdown on Christians since the Cultural Revolution, while the repression in Tibet continues.

Yet in the face of all of these crimes, Francis remains silent. He has not uttered a public prayer (I hope he has at least said a private one) for the Uighurs, Hong Kongers, Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, Tibetans, and others who are increasingly feeling the pressure of the Chinese Communist Party’s boot—at all.

Why?

Two years ago, the Vatican made a deal with Beijing that bought the pope’s silence.Two years ago, the Vatican made a deal with Beijing that bought the pope’s silence. When I say “bought,” I am not suggesting impropriety. I love this pope and his focus on mercy and forgiveness. On almost every other matter—and I write as a Catholic who converted seven years ago and came into the church in, of all places, Myanmar—I agree with Francis. So I write not as a hard-line conservative hostile to Francis but rather as someone who loves him but is perplexed by how badly wrong he has gone on China.

“Two years ago, the Vatican made a deal with Beijing that bought the pope’s silence.”

One of the most troubling aspects of the Vatican-Beijing deal is that the text remains secret. If it is such a good arrangement in the eyes of the Holy See, why can’t ordinary Catholics—and the world at large—know what it says? What we do know is that it gives the Chinese Communist Party—an avowedly atheist regime—a direct role in the appointment of Catholic bishops and that it has already led to the forced retirement of several underground bishops loyal to the Vatican in favor of state-approved bishops until recently out of communion with the church.

And it has not led to any improvement in freedoms for Catholics. If anything, the situation has worsened. No clergy imprisoned before the deal have been released, and several have been arrested, detained, and disappeared since the deal was agreed. Far from bringing the desired unity or protection for the church, it has caused greater division and more repression.

But that deal had the effect of silencing Francis, for whatever reason, and it breaks my heart. As the last British governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, wrote in the Tablet recently, it seems that the Vatican “may be cosying up to a Chinese Communist Party at the worst conceivable moment, just as it is embarking on a loutish rampage in China and beyond.”

I spoke out early on, two years before the deal with Beijing was signed, in an open letter. I tried to warn the Holy See again of the dangers it may be entering into. And while never questioning the pope’s motivations—which are noble and are about protecting people in China and renewing his fellow Jesuit Matteo Ricci’s engagement with the country—I profoundly question the judgment of those around him. Out of naivety, Francis’s Vatican has sold out to one of the world’s most repressive and aggressive regimes.

That is the story so far. But it need not be the end of the tale.

It is not inevitable that the wonderful Board of Deputies of British Jews, Britain’s former chief rabbi, Nawaz, a few of my friends, and I stand with the Uighurs in the face of one of the contemporary world’s worst atrocities and that Francis and Welby do not. Welby’s silence is difficult to explain—other than, like Francis, a naive belief that China’s is a regime with which one can still engage and reason. The reality is that the regime has moved from a pragmatic desire to exercise certain controls over religion to one driven by a repressive, ideological urge to tighten its grip. That was clearly signaled by the abolition of the State Administration for Religious Affairs in 2018, which had working relationships with most faiths. Those relationships are now handled, much more crudely and brutally, by the United Front Work Department, which is directly responsible for ideological control of non-party groups.

So it is now time that these two key Christian leaders wake up, review their position, cross the Rubicon, and say enough is enough.

They need to signal clearly that they believe in the teachings of their faith—of human dignity, freedom, and justice—which matter more than any shady deals with brutal regimes.

They need to abandon naivety. They need to say they won’t compromise when it comes to human life and dignity.

And they need to recognize that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the Protestant pastor who stood up against Adolf Hitler, was right when he said: “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. … Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

They need to respect the memory of Maximilian Kolbe, venerated as a saint for giving his life for another’s at the gas chambers of Auschwitz.

They need to say clearly: We are all Uighurs, Hong Kongers, Chinese Christians, Tibetans, and Falun Gong practitioners now.

Let Francis and Welby say so.

Or forever lose their—and our—peace.

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