#I love that Max has become Charles’ biggest supporter

[vroom-vrooms]

I just cannot get over how fucking nice Max is to Charles

Cause Max is nice, but he’s so gentle and sweet to Charles, he always has something good to say about him, it’s so different to how he is with Daniel or Lando, cause he’s nice with them but he’s so much more intense, the jokes, the hugs and pushes and comments and all that, they’re different, he’s careful with Charles

And I think that’s the sweetest thing ever, cause Charles is different than Daniel and Lando, they’re not exactly friends, and they have like 10 years of rivalry under their belt, so having such a gentle and nice approach to their new dynamic is so adorable

[acesofspadess]

Meet AG5

a/n: i got a request that I keep up with Ace as a driver so here is a little background:

How Ace is with the other drivers (including, Franco, Ollie, and Liam, Fred, Christian, and ToTo)

Charles: Ace and Charles are the closest on the grid by far. They grew up together -more like Ace following Charles and then Max around- and will forever be each others biggest supporters. Not even Max has anything on the Charles and Ace relationship.

Carlos: Ace and Carlos actually didn’t get along at first. Carlos and Ace almost took each other out in her first races and along with Lando falling for her while getting over Carlos moving to Ferrari he went into protective mode. It wasn’t until Ace and Lando joined him on the Singapore podium and Ace praised Carlos for his drive that they spoke in a less threatening manner. They quickly turned the best of friends and the trio is always seen with each other. He was also the first one to know about Ace and Lando.

Fred: They’re relationship is very much drunk uncle coded. It’s no surprise Fred wants Ace to join Ferrari. Every podium and/or win Fred is there spraying champagne on her. He sends her Ferrari merch every new collection they have as an on going joke.

Checo: Ace and Checo get along quite well. She was a RedBull Test and Reserve driver before she signed with McLaren. She drove Checo’s car more than she did Max’s so they bonded over how the car performed. They don’t talk much outside of the track, but his kids love her.

Max: Max and Ace are best friends, if you see them together, they’re most likely laughing or telling someone off. These two in a conference together??? Pray for the interviewer because if Ace learned anything from her time at RedBull it was Max’s attitude. This season has definitely strained their relationship. Despite Lando and Max fighting for the championship, Max has admitted that Ace is his biggest threat. 

“Question for Max and Lando,” someone asked in the Singapore post-race conference. “With Ace coming off a win, and in 3rd place for the Drivers Championships, are either of you worried that she is also in the fight?”

“...I agree with Lando.” Max said, “I think Ace is a fabulous driver, and yes, the points between her and Lando are closer than me and Lando, and while it would be very hard for her to join the fight, it’s racing, and if she keeps winning when we cannot, then yeah it’s nerve-wracking. She becomes a big threat to not just Lando but to me as well. You can’t tell who your fighting when points are this close.”

Christian: This was one is tough. They used to get on great, but There were some comments made when Ace went to Mclaren that rubbed her the wrong way. ‘She should have stayed here as a Reserve driver with the way their season is going compared to ours but… she made her decisions and she’s got a seat, not much can be said after that.”

Lewis: Ace and Lewis bonded instantaneously. Everything came easy to their friendship, whether it was fashion, racing, lifestyle, or flying together everything was fun with them. But on the not so ponies and rainbows side of life, Lewis was the only person she could talk to about the racist comments. He walked her through it all, even representing her on his own helmet at one point in her first season. Lewis was as much her big brother as Charles. They definitely had many laughs when Lewis announced he was going to Ferrari. “Fred couldn’t have you so he signed me.” He would tell her.

George: Ace and George don’t talk as much as you would think. Yes they talk because of Lando and Lewis, and they are friends, but they realy just haven’t had the ‘out-of-track’ friendship that was as strong as the others. When things get controversial on track between one of them, the other is backing them up in their own interviews, by coincidence or not.

Toto: Toto is like a much calmer Fred. He see’s her alot because of Lewis and is genuinely just proud to see a woman on the grid. Susie is definitely behind alot of their interactions, not that Toto knows Ace knows that.

Daniel: Daniel and Ace are never up to any good, EVER. Those two in the same room?? Everyone is laughing and crying. They simply bring out the laughter and sunshine out of each other with no care for anything else in the world. There was never any bad blood from them even if Ace had essentially stollen his seat. Ace made an entire post for him when it was announced Singapore was his last race. Her and Lando sat with him for around an hour after that race. They also did a helmet swap and Ace has it displayed with her and Landos in their Monaco apartment.

Pierre: Pierre, Ace, and Charles. That’s it. That sums up their friendship. These two are the first to share gossip with each other, which ends up with them screaming at each other in French (excitedly)… everytime. Much to the dismay of the FIA.

In relation to everyone else on the grid, it’s more of a work friendship. She gets on well with everyone and everyone seems to love her.

Extras:

Ollie, Kimi, Franco, and Liam: Her friendship with Ollie was almost like having a son. Him and Kimi would always come find her when F2 was racing with them. Ace and Lando were the first ones to reach out to Franco when his seat was announced. He has openly said that they were his favourite drivers and it just made her feel nice that someone came in after her, and looked up to her. She doesn’t have much of a connection with Liam yet, as he’s only been in one official race weekend so far, but she definitely keeps an eye out for him whether he knows it or not.

if you want to be tagged/ keep up with Ace comment to join the Ace specific taglist!

[earl-grey-teacake]

hi!! i hope you're doing well!! i saw your baby!loscar au post where you answered an ask about how logan and oscar react to the other drivers on the grid, and the bit on max showing up to their karting events when they're older is SO on brand fr!! especially after canada, i just want to give logan the biggest hug ever and (if you want to) would love to hear more of your thoughts about max cheering on/advising logan during karting races. ofc no pressure!!

Hello! Yes, I am doing much better!

Canada made me so sad but I am hopeful and whatever happens, I will follow Logan to whatever sport he moves to.

I can absolutely expand on that.

When Oscar and Logan first started karting, some of the drivers would come out to support them. They were disguised as to not take attention away from the kids but Logan and Oscar knew who they were. Max was one of the ones who would go out consistently to cheer them on and provide that positive validation he never got as a kid.

He gets more involved when Alex and George have to fly back to England but Logan has school, practices, and a race to attend. Oscar, Lando, and Carlos are sick so Max jumps in and offers to watch Logan for them. His flat is just him, Charles, and their pets and Logan is quite comfortable with animals.

So Logan stays with Max for 2 weeks as Charles has media duties in Maranello. Logan is surprisingly good with the pets and they seem to like him enough to sleep on him- they are not allowed in at night out fear they will suffocate him and Max cannot have that on his soul.

Is Logan old enough to shove them off?

Yes. Does Max have anxiety? Yeah.

Max drives him to school and then to the track for practice sessions. He’s instructing him where to brake, what he did wrong on a turn, why he spun out and what to look out for. Max is free to maxplain and Logan soaks it up like a sponge.

Before the race, he’s checking the helmet, the kart, making sure Logan remember his lessons and then send him off. He’s cheering on the sidelines, anxious when a kid in a similar white helmet spins out, angry and calling for a black flag on another kid’s reckless maneuver.

******

“You got everything? Your helmet is in tight?” Max checked just in case. “Do you remember everything I taught you?”

Logan nodded. “Go wide on turn 1 and brake later on turn 3. Be careful of exiting turn 5.”

“Good job! You’ll do great!” Max gave a high-five.

—-

Max’s heart sinks when he sees a blue kart and a white helmet spin off the track and his the wall. He watches as a red flag is called and breathes a sigh of relief when he seen a white helmet and blue kart come into pit.

—-

Max was going to march down there and yell at an organizer as some kid tried to run Logan off the track. There should’ve been a black flag two laps ago.

“That’s a black flag. Are you blind? He’s shoved two kids into the gravel already!”

When they’re driving back home, Max says, “Logan, next time someone does that. You run him off the track you hear me. It might ruin your race but it’ll teach him a lesson.”

******

Logan places 1st and Max is ecstatic and sending photos to the official GPDA group chat.

After those two weeks and Logan placing 1st in both races, Max, unofficially, has taken him under his wing. Charles comes back, competitive and unhappy that Max has become a favorite, take Oscar under his tutelage.

Alex finds Logan’s admiration of Max adorable but is a little jealous. George is very jealous since he’s also won a WDC but Logan doesn’t listen to him.

Lewis is a bit concerned that Max and Charles mentoring Logan and Oscar might lead to some unhealthy competition like from when they were children.

Thank you for the ask! I hope you enjoyed it! ❤️

[ladysomething]

I know that writing is not a simple matter, but I didn't expect to consider so much. Thank you and SaiyanWitcher for creating such a wonderful fic.

I think this has gone beyond the ordinary fic, since you have created a character like wygig Charles. This is more like a serious thing.

I really hope Charles can win WDC.

I'm still a little worried about whether the contract will strike out in the follow-up content.

God, I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be for Charles to reauction. And what Max would definitely do to protect his beloved Omega.

thank you for your kind words. there is an extensive amount of work that goes into a fic like wygig, and both @saiyanwitcher and I really appreciate it whenever people mention it. it makes us feel warm and gooey haha.

also because you have specifically mentioned Charles, I do feel like I want to ramble about him a little bit, particularly in light of the US election yesterday.

I always knew that wygig, and Charles in particular, were a vehicle for telling a deep and complex story about gender, a woman's place in the world, and the complexity of being in love with somebody who fits into all the traditional moulds of upholding societal values.

partly this is because of my own interest in gender and gender politics - as I mentioned a few days ago, I've studied it in the past.

partly this is because when SaiyanWitcher told me that she would like for me to write an omegaverse fic, I knew the only way I would want to do it was if I had something to say. reading essays on omegaverse and whether they are subversive or uphold traditional gender dynamics was how I realised that I wanted to fit into a bit of both: be subversive by making commentary on our system through omegaverse.

however, the longer I've been writing this (January will mark a year since I wrote the first chapter), it's become more and more a Point for me. wygig is not just a romance with a side of commentary, the entire point of it is to critique gender roles and gender politics.

the biggest and most obvious example on this is obviously Charles avoiding all of the things that mark a traditional omega (nesting, scenting, even having heats), but also in his journey with wanting kids.

obviously he rejected everything in the past, but that's not really a way for him to live. he was effectively denying himself his wants and needs, just because he hated his second gender and what it meant for him.

ultimately his journey is about reconciling the two halves of himself: his hopes and dreams, with his wants and needs.

max, of course, makes up a huge part of that. Max has, for the majority of the story so far, been a huge obstacle in Charles' path of self realisation and acceptance, because he has been the picture of a traditional alpha, and of somebody trying to oppress Charles (yes, of course that wasn't his intention, but he still did it - also its own point).

But Max's part in Charles' journey is to uplift him. To give a voice to him, and his needs, and to make him feel safe. His role in Charles' gender journey is protect him by allowing him the space to be who he is. His role is to do for Charles the things he simply can't for himself because of his gender: to be publicly equal to Charles, to give him the tools he needs to amplify his voice, and to meet Charles half way with love and support and zero self interest.

anyway. I know that probably makes wygig a little too real for people, and I have been told multiple times in the past that it's difficult to read/triggering, because of how deeply it explores these topics. of course I understand that - it was designed to be difficult to read.

but I'm so happy that so many of you are along for the journey, and love and appreciate what I'm trying to do with this beast.

[laura1633]

Laura feel like you always choose the drivers that deserve love mostly to become your favorites , I don’t understand how to explain this but you always choose drivers who suffered in the past or now or drivers that are misunderstood by people, like Oscar makes my heart break sometimes he seems cold but I feel like he’s just a baby who needs love and a deserves it , I remember Lando once said that Oscar is Soulless as a joke but I feel that’s what he seems but inside he’s sooo soft and sensitive and emotional I love him so much, and I don’t even have to explain why Max deserves a lot of love he’s the strongest since childhood till now he always endures a lot emotionally and physically and some people still boo him or misunderstand him like how can’t you see he’s literally a little babygirl with the biggest heart he’s like an omega mommy , and Charles also suffered a lot and lost people he loves and still so strong and keeps going and caring for people he loves, I just feel so happy when I see how you give them the love and affection they deserve in your fics I wish they know how strong and pretty they’re

Oh this is so interesting anon 🥰

One of the things I absolutely love is how the public opinion of Oscar seems to have changed since he first came on to the grid. I think he's getting more confident and people are starting to notice his humour and what a genuine person he is. I think he shows that you don't need to be the loudest or most outlandish to be the most interesting or fun. It's wonderful to see.

And Max, well I will always have a huge soft spot for him being treated kindly and softly and getting all the love and praise he deserves. I hate so much about the way he has been treated by so many groups of people over the years. He has not received the respect he deserves. Even now when he gets up on that podium he has to deal with people booing or chanting someone else's name. I know this type of thing sometimes comes along with winning so much but it shouldn't. He is an absolute sweetheart who deserves nothing but good things. I at least feel like over the last year or so he seems happier and settled in himself. I honestly could sing his praises for days on end. Max being described as an omega mommy makes so much sense to me, he gives the support to younger drivers that he should have received.

Charles too has had a lot to deal with so far in his life and I think he is a lot stronger than people sometimes give him credit for. Yes he looks like a complete babygirl but he is absolutely no victim. He is determined and smart and will stick up for himself when he needs to. I so hope that he becomes world champion one day, he deserves it.

I am so glad that you have noticed how I like to give them lots of love and softness in my fics. I know I write quite a lot of smut but I still want those boys to get all the affection they deserve.

Thank you so much for your ask anon, it was really interesting to think about <3

[f1]

'Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari with a yellow helmet would slap': Fans let their imaginations run wild

‘Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari with a yellow helmet would slap’: Fans let their imaginations run wild after the seven-time champion was spotted talking to rival team principal Frederic Vasseur Fans have reacted to pictures of Lewis Hamilton talking to Ferrari in Azerbaijan Hamilton needs one more world title to eclipse Michael Schumacher's record The seven-time champion was seen talking to Ferrari principal Frederic Vasseur  By Samuel Draper For Mailonline Published: 08:32 EDT, 29 April 2023 | Updated: 08:32 EDT, 29 April 2023 Fans have reacted with wild imaginations to pictures of Lewis Hamilton talking to the Ferrari boss at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. Hamilton, 38, races for Mercedes, but has been spotted in conversation with Ferrari's team principal Frederic Vasseur. The 54-year-old Vasseur took up the role at Ferrari this year after moving across from Alfa Romeo. For this F1 season, the Frenchman is overseeing Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz as the drivers of the iconic red cars.  Hamilton is out of contract at the end of the current campaign, which may offer an opportunity to Ferrari, or any other constructor looking for a new - albeit very experienced - driver.  Lewis Hamilton was spotted speaking to Ferrari Team Principal Frederic Vasseur in Azerbaijan 'I can already hear the Lewis Hamilton to Ferrari rumors', one fan mused, while sharing pictures of the meeting. Another said they 'would love it' if Hamilton jumped ship to the famous Italian constructor, and someone else said: 'Lewis in a Ferrari with a yellow helmet would slap'. Twitter users were excited about the potential of Hamilton joining up with Ferrari next year Following the success of Netflix's hit documentary showing the behind-the-scenes world of F1, someone quipped: 'The next series of Drive to Survive gets tasty...', while another said: 'Man is dragging lewis to ferrari'.  Ferrari have not had a Formula One World Champion since 2007, when Kimi Raikkonen pipped Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to the title by just one point. Now supporters believe it could be time to rewrite history, with one tweeting: 'imagine he goes to ferrari and becomes their first champion since kimi'.  Others commented on the drama surrounding a possible move for one of racing's biggest stars One even felt that it might be a move in the opposite direction with Vasseur replacing Hamilton's current boss Toto Wolff. They wrote: 'Or Toto’s successor at Mercedes.' That being said, fans may be premature in their assumptions that it will lead to a change of team for either. Vasseur and Hamilton have history together in Formula 3 and GP2, before the British racer became a phenomenon in Formula One.  One fan noted this, stating: 'These two go way back don't they? Lewis raced for ART (Fred's junior team)'. One fan highlighted that the pair's joint history goes back to Hamilton's junior racing days Hamilton and Vasseur have worked together in the past, but fans are excited by the possibility Hamilton has not won an F1 race in 17 months, and will desperately want a quick return to form if he is to contend for a possible eighth world title, which would take him out on his own for the record, ahead of Michael Schumacher's seven championships, which the Stevenage-born racer tied in 2020.  Hamilton finished sixth in the qualifying for the Sprint race at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, with Frenchman Leclerc on pole position despite a late crash.  Meanwhile in standard qualifying for Sunday's full-length race, Hamilton finished fifth, with Leclerc's Ferrari 0.188 seconds faster than the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.   Share or comment on this article: 'Lewis Hamilton in a Ferrari with a yellow helmet would slap': Fans let their imaginations run wild via Formula One | Mail Online https://www.dailymail.co.uk?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490

[angryhausfrau-writes]

I Travel Troubled Oceans: Chapter 17 - In Which Max Embarks On Her London Real Estate Empire

“This house is fucked,” Anne says, appearing from the dank of the basement to stand next to Max.

The Hennessy house is, in fact, fucked. Cuz Anne may not be the licensed home inspector – he's coming in the week – but she's been in enough dilapidated, crumbling flops to recognize the stain of mildew growing up the cellar walls. Enough to recognize the scent of mold as it seeps from the dripping stones.

“Surprised this shit's still standing, to be honest.”

Max makes an elegant shrug.

And Anne's never known anyone who could make a shrug look fucking elegant. But she supposes that's the thing about high-class Johns. They want their prostitutes to be elegant in every fucking thing. Pretty little pieces to look at and fuck and pretend are the rich, glamorous sort of women they've been told they deserve – but ones who love them, ones who want them. Before remembering that they're just street trash corner girls and throwing them away.

The ones that don't want a bit of rough, anyway.

And Max is a master of the kind of effortless grace that half the fuckin rich bastards can't come close to matching. Anne admires it. Though it ain't really effortless, is it? Max being Max took as much work as Anne being Anne ever did. Maybe more – Max couldn't just murder her way out of a sticky situation, she had to learn finesse.

But they're all just managing outside perception, ain't they? Just like the Hennessy's with this fucking house.

“Too busy keeping up appearances to fix the rot in their own fucking foundations. Idiots.”

Max laughs. “If this was a book, I'd say the symbolism was a little too obvious.”

She and Jack have taken to viciously dissecting the latest in pop literature as part of something that could maybe eventually be called a book club. If they can ever bear to admit they're more friends now than just business partners.

Speaking of business. “The house is gonna be a bitch and a half to fucking fix. Wonder how the fuck they missed it.”

“I'm certain the previous owners never ventured below the ground floor,” Max says thoughtfully. The cavernous downstairs kitchen is dusty enough to support that particular theory. “And even if they had, I doubt they had the money to do anything about it.”

“What, so now we gotta pay for their mistakes?” Anne snarls. “Shoulda got a better deal on the house if that's the case.”

Max hushes her gently. “Mr. Scott has done admirably in that regard. Even if we demolished the entire house and built a new one in its place, we'd come out comfortably ahead. Besides, it's not as if we bought the place with the intent of flipping it. Or, God forbid, actually living in such a home.”

Cuz that ain't where the real money in London real estate is, Anne has learned. Apparently, a lot of these buildings are worth as much as they are cuz of the land they're on. Just the physical area they take up, nothing to do with the rotting abandoned husks sitting on top of it.

Even more fucked up is the fact that the fucking air above them is worth money.

So there's plenty of rick fucks who buy up London property just cuz the valuation keeps going up as more and more of them buy property. Let it sit empty so fuck all can get built in one of the biggest cities in the word and the valuation on your investment just keeps fucking rising. “A most elegant con,” Jack'd called it.

At least until the house of cards it's all built on topples. And then they're fucked. Which is why Max isn't planning on them getting into the actual real estate business. The actual buying and selling of physical properties. That, they'll leave to much stupider marks.

“C'mon, let's get out of the cellar before we get fucking mold in our lungs or whatever's supposed to happen.”

Max finishes up the notes she's taking in an expensive notebook with an even more expensive fountain pen, her neat cursive stark on the page. Only Max could make a to do list look that intimidating.

But she smiles at Anne. “I suppose I can be finished with my evil plotting. For now.” And she leads Anne up into the better kept parts of the house to collect Mary, whose been taking photographs of the now empty rooms.

Cuz what Max is selling ain't real estate. It's potential.

They're brokers of a shiny golden dream, ephemeral and fleeting – so you'd better sign up quick. Cuz the place might look like a wrecked hulk now. But just imagine what it could become.

Not that there ain't work to be done to set the stage. As part of selling that dream, Anne and Charles have spent most of a week moving abandoned furniture out of the derelict rooms and into their own house – the pieces Jack likes, anyway. And there's a particularly decadent credenza ended up in the esteemed councilor's luxurious rowhouse, courtesy of Jack. And Max. And Mr. Scott.

A little grease to get wheels in motion on planning permission for the upscale boutique hotel spa Max wants their marks to replace the former Hennessy house with. The dream they're selling for this particular property. Like a bed and breakfast, but no poor people (non-millionaires) allowed.

And a few of the more valuable but less tasteful items end up in various high-end antique shops. Essentially, Anne and Charles have been delegated to movers and then builders. Cuz they spent the next week stripping the wallpaper and throwing out heavy, motheaten brocade curtains and other assorted shit. And then they'd painted all the newly revealed plasterwork off white – but the kind where it looks worn out already, not fresh and new. Distressed, Mary'd called it.

And Anne don't exactly understand how making the place look shittier makes it more valuable. Especially when it's just gonna get torn down anyway. But Anne does have to admit that the house is something like hauntingly elegant this way, with Mary's staging and the surprisingly bright sunlight streaming through sheer white curtains. There may or may not be light rigs outside helping the notoriously weak English sun along.

And when they get to the ballroom, Max's painting – the one she got from Jack – hanging above the fireplace, catching the eye even from across the room. It's fucking breathtaking. They're gonna sucker some stupid rich fucks for sure.

[vincentsymons]

Something is wrong: hidden in the undergrowth is a small rake used to sweep over footprints in the sand, a tool cherished by its owner, Davidson.

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[shirlleycoyle]

The Movie Theater as We Know It Is Dying. We Can Make Something Better

One of the things this pandemic has taken from us is the summer blockbuster. The summer months came and went, and throughout that time movie-goers largely stayed home. For people like director Christopher Nolan, whose movie Tenet released in theaters after a delayed launch and performed below expectations, this is a sign of the end of cinema. Outside of the strict confines of Hollywood, though, small theaters and distributors are seeing new ways to show movies and create community. Along the way, they're redefining what it means to be movie theaters.

The blockbuster is a relatively new invention. Although the early days of cinema had movies that were huge hits—like the 1927 movie It, which turned Clara Bow into a star and smashed box office records at the time—one movie dominating theaters for an entire summer wouldn't happen for another 30 years. Steven Spielberg's Jaws and George Lucas's Star Wars ushered in the age of the blockbuster in the 70s, in a time when the landscape of cinema was moving away from the studio system and into uncharted waters.

Cinema is at another crossroads now, in the age of the pandemic. In New York and Los Angeles, two of the biggest cities for movies, theaters are not allowed to open, and haven't been since March. Rather than a Marvel movie topping the charts at the end of the year, Sonic the Hedgehog has dominated by virtue of just being able to come out. The success of Trolls World Tour had studios scared back in April; it made over one hundred million dollars premiering as a digital rental. In response, AMC threatened to stop screening movies from Trolls' studio, Universal. One movie theater chain, Regal, has closed all of its 536 theaters in the US, blaming New York's pandemic rules for the closure.

Tenet | Image Source: Warner Bros.

From the start, Nolan has made it a personal mission to continue to support movie theaters. Not only has he refused anything except a traditional, theater first release for Tenet, he has written op-eds about keeping theaters open and made a point to see movies in theaters himself. But the very real threat of COVID-19 has gotten in the way of seeing movies in theaters—by December, the movie had only grossed around $57 million domestically, though the international gross has been higher, at $300 million. The movie cost $200 million to make.

Tenet's dismal performance seems like the final nail in the coffin. Some of the movies that were supposed to open concurrently with Tenet, like the new Wonder Woman movie, have changed their strategies so that they're available to watch at home at the same time as they're available in theaters. Theater chains like AMC have struck deals to shorten the window between theatrical runs and movies becoming available on video on demand services. Even more recently, Warner Bros. has announced that their entire slate of movies for 2021 would premiere on HBO Max as well as in theaters.

The pandemic has forced movie theaters to change a system of distribution that has been in place for over half a century. This doesn't just mean figuring out how to show movies online, but how to serve the communities that rise up around theaters themselves.

When the pandemic started, Spectacle Theater was a 35-seat, volunteer-run theater in Williamsburg that showed movies from way, way off the beaten path. It immediately complied with the order to close in March, but it was difficult for the volunteers who run the theater to know what to do next. After one of the volunteers started streaming movies on their Twitch channel, the members of Spectacle decided to have Twitch streams of their own.

Spectacle Theater is a microcinema, with about 30 seats. Its space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is so small that I have walked past it every day when I used to commute to the VICE office without noticing it once. Caroline Golum, a programmer from Spectacle who said they were speaking in their capacity as a member of the non-hierarchical, volunteer-run theater and not as its leader, said that some of its screenings would have as little as five people in the audience before the pandemic.

"We like to say that if we had a dollar for every person who was like, 'I love Spectacle,' but hasn't actually shown up, we would be on fucking easy street," Golum told Motherboard.

On Twitch, it's a different story. They got viewers in much, much higher numbers than their theater would have been able to seat, as well as attracting people from all over the world who had only been to their theater once, if at all.

“Christopher Nolan is encouraging theaters to open up in the middle of the pandemic. This was the wrong thing to be crusading for right now.”

"In May or in April, we did a series of screenings with Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh who are two regional filmmakers from New Hampshire who make these shoestring budget genre films. They've been doing it for like 20 years. In an alternate universe, those guys would be famous and Kevin Smith would be a fucking nobody, and you can print that," Golum said.  "They were in the chat and people were asking them like, 'Where'd you film this? What were your favorite influences?' all this stuff. And they loved it."

"I think for filmmakers who don't have an avenue for public exhibition but make work that should be viewed collectively, it's nice for them to have an opportunity to know that their work is being seen," they continued.

Spectacle has worked with organizers and programmers from all over the world, giving them an international reputation. Programming on Twitch has allowed the people who have always wished they could have gone to Spectacle a chance to actually attend. Spectacle now has over 2,000 followers on Twitch, several hundred times more than would fit inside the theater. Spectacle is now offering a membership to their out of state and international fans so that they can support the theater monetarily from afar.

"I was just surprised by the number of people that were like, 'Oh, I've always wanted to go to Spectacle and I never got to,' or someone that lived in London was like, 'I've been following your programming and can never got to catch anything,'" Golum said.

Spectacle Theater | Image Source: Spectacle Theater

For Aliza Ma, director of programming at Metrograph, a renowned art house theater in Lower Manhattan, not being able to show movies meant a chance to reevaluate what a theater can be. For starters, opening a theater at this moment in time is not the right approach, she said.

"Christopher Nolan is encouraging theaters to open up in the middle of the pandemic. This was the wrong thing to be crusading for right now. It felt like a sort of misguided or misplaced machismo almost," Ma said. "Maybe the better thing to do would be to ask for some subsidies to get all these artistic institutions through this time of hardship instead of asking for the normalcy that we were used to, when that's just going to endanger our lives."

There are ways that a theater can serve its community without showing movies, and Metrograph has explored some of those options. Ma said that during the Black Lives Matter protests, Metrograph was able to open as a space for protesters to get water, charge their phones, and rest.

"When the protests were breaking out, we were in between having closed and trying to launch a new website," Ma said. She said that it felt wrong not to say anything about the mounting unrest in New York; protests against police brutality would march through Lower Manhattan, where Metrograph is located. Ma and the rest of the staff at Metrograph also wanted to take physical action.

"So we got together on a meeting and we said, 'We know so many people who are organizing in that neighborhood or who could be in that neighborhood, and you know, all we would need to do is get power strips for people to be able to charge their phones. We could get water bottles for people. We can just open up the bathrooms for people,'" she said.

Ma said that the approach that other theaters have taken, where they have tried to crunch the numbers on how many staff they can have on site and how little money they can charge for a ticket in order to break even, was not what Metrograph wanted to do.

"It's really sad. I mean, it's not really gonna make much of a difference at the end of the day. There's no thinking outside the box here. Movie theaters are an important social institution that could be reappropriated at this time…. I was really glad that, you know, when the protest started in April, that we were able to open our lobby to protestors. Just because we couldn't show movies doesn't mean we couldn't be another sort of support pillar for that neighborhood."

Pivoting to Twitch was an easy move for Spectacle not just because members of the organization already knew how to use it. The moviegoing experience isn't just about sitting in the dark in front of a huge screen—it's also about being with other people who love movies, and Twitch's chat function is an easy way to replicate that part of the experience. While geared towards games, at the end of the day, Twitch is a service where anyone can broadcast whatever they'd like; Spectacle is simply using the service in the same way one would use public access television.

Metrograph, for its part, built their own proprietary streaming service in order to make this work. Though there are video hosting services that they could have used, Ma said that they don't have all the features necessary to replicate the essential aspects of seeing a movie in a theater. Metrograph recently launched a new website, along with its own proprietary streaming service which functions very differently from buying a movie on demand, or watching one through a streaming service like Netflix.

Metrograph's online screenings have a pre-show that begins ten minutes before show time, as well as introductions, question and answer sessions, and sometimes a panel discussion. The actual movie starts later, and the archive of the entire screening remains as a VOD for 72 hours.

“Why are we relying on these corporate-backed streaming platforms when we are very vehemently opposed to corporate media?"

"A nice thing that I miss about showing up early to a film and is then being able to sit in the theater and just kind of watch upcoming trailers or whatever other ephemera ends up being shown in the pre-show," Ma said.

"Even though you're not in the same building, there's a collective sense that everyone's tuning in at the same time to watch something which is kind of comforting right now," she added.

Exploring these new avenues has also led to some dead ends. When I spoke with Spectacle Theater, it had just been served its first strike on its Twitch channel for nudity for showing the 1973 satirical French film Themroc. To get around this, Spectacle is now building its own streaming platform, similar to Metrograph, but with a couple of differences that would better suit its audience. For example, Spectacle's experiences with Twitch have led it to include a chat feature in its streaming platform, because it found that people watching its programming enjoyed being able to talk about the films without disturbing other people.

"I think we had a lot of reservations about the chat function because you rightly hear so many horror stories about the nature of these chats on gaming platforms. You know, obviously hashtag not all gamers, but it can be a bit of a cesspool," Golum told Motherboard. "At the end of the day, we don't really have to do much moderation because our audience is predominantly pretty chill. It's just people who like weird movies and want to hang out, it's a really good vibe in there. It's also really interesting to see how people engage with the chat when the filmmakers are in there too."

Golum also said that they would make their code open source, allowing other theaters to develop their own streaming video services with the backbone they developed.

Movie theaters are the site of a community, a place for people to not just see a movie, but engross yourself in the culture of cinema with your friends and family.

"The impulse behind that was: why are we relying on these corporate-backed streaming platforms when we are very vehemently opposed to corporate media and our whole programming ecosystem is designed to go against the grain of what you're seeing in movie theaters and festivals?" Golum said. "That was kind of the impetus was to build something that's, if you'll pardon the expression, for us by us, that will allow us to kind of control the narrative around what we stream and not have to worry about takedowns."

Across the country, some independent theaters are making some of the same pivots to online screenings as Metrograph and Spectacle.

The Roxie Theater in San Francisco is now offering an online membership similar to Metrograph, for example. Chicago's Music Box Theater started an online movie rental service called The Music Box At Home, where proceeds from the rentals go towards keeping the theater in business. Some cinemas, like Seattle's Northwest Film Forum, are screening ticketed movies through sites like Eventive, taking advantage of video hosting sites like Vimeo to give the viewer access to the film in question for a limited time. All of these are attempts to do more than just get people to watch movies, but to recreate what we like about going to the movies when we're all stuck at home.

While Twitch and bespoke streaming services are decent stopgaps, it's  clear that the technology necessary to create an industry where more kinds of movies are accessible outside of major cities has just not been invented.

Hollywood has existed in a system where a major blockbuster could buffer the loss from an arthouse indie movie that plays on only a few screens in Los Angeles and New York. It's a system that is controlled and defined by film distributors like Universal or A24, which set release dates and make the films available to theaters. As that system collapses, it's easy to see not just how it's done a disservice to those films, but also to people who would have loved them.

Brett Kashmere, executive director at Canyon Cinema, a distributor of 16mm films and experimental and avant garde cinema said that on their end, demand for work from their collection is still huge, especially from libraries, which is their primary audience. They just don't have the technology to deliver it.

"We're in the process of reviewing all of our artists contracts and figuring out if we need to put any language for licensing of work to a library for like three years," Kashmere said. "That's what libraries are increasingly interested in, is not actually purchasing a physical media copy of something, but they're also not really capable of actually dealing with digital files. So they don't want to buy a digital file and they don't want to buy a physical copy, but they want us to be able to stream."

Canyon Cinema's small size compared to much larger, more corporate distributors, is an advantage. It might not have the same capital backing, but it's able to make these pivots very quickly, allowing Canyon to catch up with the changing market during the pandemic much faster than Disney or Universal can. Similarly, both Ma and Golum said that their small sizes as organizations have allowed them to make decisions on the fly during a time when the future of the industry is uncertain.

"I think we were in a really privileged position being a small team that we could all just executively decide [open our doors to protesters], being on, you know, a similar political wavelength and having this camaraderie between coworkers," Ma said regarding Metrograph's choice to support the Black Lives Matter protesters. "I don't think this would have been possible with a bigger nonprofit institution, even if the personal political desire was there."

A scene from Made In Hong Kong, currently screening at Metrograph's wesbite | Image Source: Made In Hong Kong

In comparison, the solutions being rolled out by large movie chains like AMC and Regal seem untenably slow and ill-suited to the task. While Regal has permanently closed all its locations, AMC is now allowing potential movie goers the opportunity to rent out an entire theater to see a movie. Though new movies are coming out in a slow trickle, it's been clear that audiences do not want to go to movie theaters as the pandemic still rages, making this venture a questionable idea at best.

But going to the movies is about a lot more than just putting your butt in a seat. They are the site of a community, a place for people to not just see a movie, but engross yourself in the culture of cinema with your friends and family. As Spectacle and Metrograph demonstrate, there's still a need for that kind of community space among movie lovers.

These theaters are not just attempting to solve the problem of showing movies in a pandemic. They're trying to find a new space for the lobby where you talk about the movie with your friends, the exclusive showings with director Q&As, and the smart screening series put together by film scholars as well. Their success is an indication that the heart of cinema lies with these endeavors, and not necessarily the relatively new phenomenon of the blockbuster.

Before there's a widespread vaccine for Covid-19, movie theaters are either going to have to find ways to pivot to digital, or close their doors. Nolan tried his absolute hardest, but Tenet was not able to bring moviegoers back to theaters in a way that could stave off that reality. Nolan has said that people are "drawing the wrong conclusions" from Tenet's performance at the box office, saying that the movie has grossed a lot more money than most people thought possible during the pandemic. He went so far as to say that the decision to stream new releases on HBO Max on the same day they premiere in theatres "makes no economic sense."

Nolan isn't exactly wrong about this, but he's also not quite right. His own adventure in premiering Tenet in theaters despite the pandemic appears to prove him wrong. That big-budget studio blockbuster did not save movie theaters. If movie theaters are going to survive, they need to save themselves.

The Movie Theater as We Know It Is Dying. We Can Make Something Better syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[jonathantaylorthomas]

Diary entries, as a rule, don’t constitute art. Songs do.

That’s what drew me in to Taylor Swift and her music upon the release of her 2006 debut album, “Taylor Swift,” and that’s what has kept me closely tracking the remarkable arc of her career since then, up to and including today’s release of her sixth album, “Reputation.”

From the beginning, Swift — then a precocious, uncommonly smart, gifted and ambitious teenager — has written deeply personal songs that often sound like they’re ripped directly from the pages of a diary.

That hallmark of her songwriting has nurtured an especially close bond between Swift and her fans, along with her savvy use of social media from the outset. It’s also given her detractors no shortage of ammunition with which to attack her for everything from a new hairdo to her choices of dates to the logistics of selling tickets to her concerts.

The double-edged sword of success — and the fame and fortune that have accompanied it to stratospheric levels for her — inform many of the songs on “Reputation,” possibly the most anticipated album of the always-intensive fall season.

As one of a small handful of music writers offered an early listen to the new collection, I’ll venture to call it her most focused, most cohesive album yet.

In large part that reflects her dramatic narrowing of collaborators compared with her previous two outings: Nine of the 15 new songs written and produced for the most part by Swift with superstar producers Max Martin and Shellback, the other six in tandem with indie rock band Fun front man Jack Antonoff.

They conjure a sense of foreboding to illuminate her songs of betrayal, heartbreak and disappointment. There also are plenty of bright spots celebrating new love and new maturity in her outlook, most framed in dance-floor-conscious beats and employing inventive sonic textures that expand on or outright defy conventions of contemporary pop-R&B music production.

I’d also say that in many ways “Reputation” echoes one of Bob Dylan’s greatest lines of the last two decades: “I used to care…but things have changed.”

'Reputation' echoes one of Bob Dylan’s greatest lines of the last two decades: 'I used to care…but things have changed.' — -- Randy Lewis I say that based on many hours I’ve spent with her since first traveling to Nashville to interview her early in 2007, not long after her debut album put her on the map in country music circles.

Case in point: “Reputation” is the first album for which she’s given no interviews in advance. (I had sat down with her for extended talks about each of her previous four albums, “1989,” “Red,” “Speak Now” and “Fearless.”)

Additionally, only a small handful of music critics were invited to hear this album in advance (The Times’ pop music critic Mikael Wood was not).

She did once again hold several playback sessions for fans in recent months, as she did when “1989” was being readied for release three years ago. But no reporters were allowed to look in on those as a few did for “1989.”

Things have changed, indeed.

What struck me initially about Swift’s music was the refreshing viewpoint she brought to her songs, which sounded, for a change, like what real teenagers might think, feel and say.

That was a big part of what prompted me to single her out at the end of 2006 as one of the artists most worth watching in the year ahead, and to travel to Nashville a few months later to interview her about her ambitions.

So many other young pop and country acts spent most of their time attempting to pass themselves off as preternaturally mature, often singing of experiences well beyond their years.

That initially sparked my respect for her as a young artist—not just a pretty face and perky personality who’d been handed a batch of songs written by others and instructed by her handlers on what to say, how to dress and where to stand.

Clearly that resonated with a lot of listeners as well, and launched her on a meteoric rise: first in country music, and then to her place today as arguably the biggest pop star on the planet.

Along the way she has held tight to the innate understanding of social media platforms she expressed to me in 2008, shortly before her sophomore album, “Fearless,” was released.

“Blogging has been really fun because I like to let people into my life as much as possible,” she said back when MySpace was still the dominant social media outlet for most musicians, well before Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and, her new favorite outlet, Tumblr, took over. "I think it's important for the people who keep you going and support you and have your back out there in the world to know that you're thinking of them all the time.”

She quickly learned, however, that it’s not a big leap from having someone’s back to stabbing it, a harsh reality Swift has faced through intensely public Twitter feuds in recent years with Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, among others.

Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms magnify vulnerability and hypersensitivity with snarky comments and images, making adolescence and young adulthood seem more perilous than ever.

She acknowledged the vipers in the room directly on her third album, “Speak Now,” with “Mean,” a song in which she transformed one blogger’s nasty comments about her into a hit song. That’s one tool with which she’s avoided the “Don’t get mad; get even” path of revenge, instead drawing illumination and creative inspiration out of the many barbs tossed her way.

Yet the more famous she’s become, and the more followers she’s cultivated, the more the world at large apparently feels entitled to pass judgment not only on her art but on her life, topics she takes on in several of the new songs on “Reputation.”

That’s a fact of contemporary life Swift recognizes in “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” In fact, it may well become an anthem for the Twitter generation, for whom every fleeting thought seems worthy of sharing with the world at large: “Did you think I wouldn’t hear all the things you said about me? And here’s to you… ‘cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do/ (laughter) I can’t even say it with straight face!”

I’ll go as far as to suggest that the whole “Reputation” theme of the album isn’t solely about Taylor Swift and her place in the world, but examines the extent to which most of us now live out our lives in public thanks to the omnipresence of social media, and the multiplicity of ways that plays out.

Indeed, in each of two elaborate 72-page magazines she has created for an exclusive deluxe edition of the album (available in the U.S. at Target stores), she includes an open letter noting, “This is the first generation that will be able to look back on their entire life story documented in pictures on the internet, and together we will all discover the after-effects of that.”

Another facet of Swift’s career that’s impressed me is the way she has respected her place as a role model for young women in general, and other female musicians in particular.

Among the many ways that’s manifested are her personal donation of $500,000 to disaster relief efforts when Nashville, and much of Tennessee, was flooded in 2010 — before she reached her 21st birthday. She ponied up an additional $1 million last year for flood victims in Louisiana after launching her “1989” tour there.

She wielded her industry clout to politely but firmly chastise Apple for initially placing some of the financial burden of a free trial period for its new streaming service in 2015 on songwriters with a plan that would have withheld their royalty payments — an idea the tech giant abandoned in response to her open letter.

Even when she briefly succumbed to the temptation to respond to a perceived diss from Nicki Minaj over yet another VMA Awards show in 2015, Swift quickly apologized and held out an olive branch rather than continuing to ratchet up a war of tweets.

As recently as August, she turned the tables on a lawsuit filed against her by a Denver radio host who claimed he was unfairly dismissed from his job after she complained that he had groped her during a post-concert meet-and-greet. She filed a countersuit in which she asked for, and won, a token $1 jury award after she took to the witness stand to speak out not only in her own defense, but on behalf of other sexual harassment victims.

Yet bloggers galore still seem determined to take her down for any number of issues, lately many of them revolving around the way she has set the stage for today’s release of “Reputation.”

A plan to create an incentive that would give priority for buying concert tickets to fans who most enthusiastically click away to watch her latest videos or place advance orders for the album was blasted as exploitative.

She’s also come under fire for not being vocal enough about alt-right demonstrators who have attempted to co-opt her music into endorsements of their positions, reminiscent of Charles Manson’s bizarre misinterpretation nearly 50 years ago of the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter,” which he insisted was a coded message to him to start a race war.

Then there was the much publicized dissing of her last year from Kanye West in his song “Famous” in which he rapped that she owed him sex because he made her famous by snatching the spotlight from her at the infamous MTV Video Music Awards in 2009 — despite the fact she had scored multiple hit singles and sold millions of albums well before that incident.

She kept a relatively low profile last year when West and his wife, Kim Kardashian, spoke and tweeted ad infinitum that she had given him her consent about the way he portrayed her in “Famous,” offering only a terse denial that that had been the case.

When she released “Look What You Made Me Do” as the leadoff single from “Reputation,” she took flak in many quarters for a perceived belated response and for keeping a feud going long past its natural shelf life.

But based on how I’ve watched her process other life events, what I hear in the song is a woman who recognizes the hurt an ugly life situation has thrust upon her, and who owns the consequences of how it that has played out for her, emotionally and psychologically.

“I don’t trust nobody and nobody trusts me,” is how the sadder-but-wiser Swift portrays herself in this scenario. “Look What You Made Me Do” isn’t an exercise in the blame game; it’s an acknowledgment of loss over defenses one has been forced to erect out of self-preservation.

In a broader sense, the payoff I’m after in “Reputation” has nothing to do with any shade she’s throwing at West and Kardashian, or whether in other songs she’s leaving any clues on her breakups with Tom Hiddleston or Calvin Harris.

Many eyes, of course, also will be focused on whether “Reputation” extends her streak of albums that have sold more than 1 million copies in the first week. She’s the only artist to do so with three consecutive releases.

The only thing that matters in the long run is how she’s evolving as a songwriter, a singer and a record producer.

Will anyone care in 10, 20 or 50 years — heck, in five, even — who the “him” is in “Getaway Car,” when she confesses, “I wanted to leave him / I needed a reason”? What’s much more likely to stand the test of time is the whip-smart form the song’s expression of romantic betrayal delivers: “It was the best of times / The worst of crimes / The ties were black / the lies were white / In shades of gray and candlelight.”

Her commitment to growth as an artist is something I sensed more than a decade ago, when we first met in the bunker-like basement of her then-fledgling record company, Big Machine.

And it’s still why I fully expect to be as interested at what Swift writes at 37 and 47 as what she’s delivered at 27. In my book, that’s the only reputation that matters.

[voulezvous-rpg]

Congratulations, Dean! You’ve been accepted as The Noble — Fitzgerald Bradford, with a face claim of Max Irons!

Anyone who knows me can tell you I’m always a sucker for the rich bitch boys, which is pretty much making Fitz my personal kryptonite. The overly inflated ego is one thing, but it takes on a new life when paired with the notion that there’s very much a secret out there that could pop his bubble, again, at any moment. I’m so excited to see how that charm and entitlement help him play with others in the club! Very much ready to fall in love with you both. Welcome to the team!

OUT OF CHARACTER

Name/Alias: Dean Pronouns: She/her Age: 21 Timezone & Activity: GMT, I’m fairly active, the only times where I can get quiet is when university work is heading towards deadlines which will be over after early May! Even then, I’m still around on the dash.

IN CHARACTER

Desired Skeleton: The Noble Name: Lord Fitzgerald Charles Orson ‘Fitz’ Bradford   FC: Max Irons Pronouns: He/Him Age: March 28th, 1880. 30 years old Occupation: A Lord

Lord is used as a generic term to denote members of the British peerage. Five ranks of peer exist in the United Kingdom: in descending order these are duke, marquess, earl, viscount, and baron. The appellation “Lord” is used most often by barons, who are rarely addressed by their formal and legal title of “Baron”.

How long has your character been around the Moulin Rouge?

Although Fitz hasn’t been in Paris for long, he’s managed to spend most of his time and a lot of money within the walls of the Moulin Rouge. The club’s allure and reputation was what lead him there first, the moment he caught word of beautiful things dancing around and women that could be his for a price, he knew it would be somewhere worth dwelling.

How did the fire impact your character?

Fitz was never sad about the fire, or those who lost those lives. Instead he found himself irritated that he’d lost his favourite night spot for six months. He’d had to spend time indulging in other parts of the city, going places where they wouldn’t welcome him just as much like a king as they had in the Moulin Rouge. If anything, the vacancy of the club was a knock to his ever so precious ego.

Biography:

Fitzgerald Charles Bradford was your typical high society boy. Brought up in Kensington, he was tailor fit for the lifestyle the future would bless him with. Of course, like most, it all started with his education. After finishing at Eaton college, Fitz went on to study Politics at The University of Oxford. It was there where he’d fell into just the right group, making friends with other blue-blooded gentlemen and aristocrats that would set him apart from those that would go on to nobility and those that would remain nothing more than rich private school boys. You see, Fitz had always been good at viewing the bigger picture, he knew he had been dealt a strong hand and with his own ambition he was able to navigate the situation in his favour.

After graduation, Fitz had created quite the reputation for himself and stir in the politics world. It was a matter of time before he would join a political party which lead him to be personally nominated by the Marquess of Salisbury for his own chair in The House of Lords. As word spread of the new, young and quite attractive, Lord of Islington, fame and popularity followed in pursuit. The media was crazed by Fitzgerald’s life and the coverage seemed to stay consistent when it was his name in the headlines that was selling the papers to bored housewives and aspiring young politicians. Not only had he gained the power of a Lord, but he’d won the people’s hearts. Fitzgerald Bradford was what some might call an inspiration and a true idol.

Fitz had everyone wrapped around his little finger, he played people like pawns and was selfish with his authority. It was only a matter before he would inevitably slip from his pedestal, it couldn’t have stayed that good forever after all, not with the media watching. Once the press caught word of the scandal, London’s golden boy turned into an abomination overnight. What made it all the more bitter was that Fitz had never seen it coming, being undermined by someone so close. Truth be told, he had been involved with another Lord’s wife for months, their affair was under lock and key and that’s exactly how he thought it would stay. Nothing more than a secret hidden from the public eye. But the Lady had other plans, the second Fitz declined any possibility of supporting her in a divorce and engaging in a marriage to him instead, she’d made the decision to ruin his reputation.

And that was exactly what had happened. The weeks that followed were unbearable, for a while it seemed like the whole of Great Britain was discussing the young Lord’s fall from grace. His profession had turned into a mockery, humiliated by the widespread story and unable to be taken seriously as a politician any longer. With his name completely diminished and pride tarnished, he was not longer treated as a Lord but instead a uncivilised child. Nothing would ever be the same for Fitz again, not in London at least. But that’s where he had found a loophole and did what anyone else would have done it his situation. Fitzgerald ran, he ran to a place he was confident hadn’t caught word of the English media. He ran to Paris.

It was an easy solution, a quick fix that would put him back at the top of the food chain. Fitz had already had another circle in France he could migrate into and owned property in central Paris. That combined with his trust fund meant he was basically set for life. He could forget about London, the scandal, everything, because in Paris he was still a noble. Fitzgerald was allowed to be the man he was born to be again, carrying out his fantasy even if it was built on delusion. Perhaps it was that which lead him to the Moulin Rouge that one fateful night. It was a place that promoted the concept of the dreamer, those walls were draped with luscious lies and facades of every other human that had come into contact with the club. There was nothing you couldn’t become, nothing you couldn’t have and for a Lord that had lost everything it became like a drug to him. Being called out within crowds for his British nobility and treated by the dancers and courtesans like a celebrity. It was a momentary return of power, and he was greedy for the attention he’d persuaded himself that he deserved. Fitz was convinced he had found the antidote to all his problems under one low lit roof, a sanctuary.

But he was never truly relaxed. The moments of ecstasy couldn’t conceal the fact that the man held mystery, a riddle that most were curious to solve. Fitz could never escape the anxiety of the scandal and the pressure the secrecy would weigh upon his shoulders. He had begun building a respectable name for himself as a gentleman in Paris and no one could ever find out that he was a living a lie. No one could ever find out that he was just a disgraced Lord who had ran from his country and his high responsibilities. The things someone could do with that information, what they could make Fitz do to keep it concealed from his new circle. It was only a matter of time, of course, before another Brit came to the Moulin Rouge and spilled his little secret. Fitzgerald was no gentleman, no, he was a creature of the underworld like all the rest of them.

Potential Plot Points:

Ego boosts- With his fall from grace, Fitz has got himself quite the busted ego. Because of this, he’ll always be in search of those who would be willing to praise him. Whether that be genuine, or for a certain price, he wouldn’t care. He’s desperately clinging to the person he once was, all he wants is to be that man again.

Stuck in his old ways- For a while, Fitz will remain in his old habits. Sleeping with any woman that throws a wink his way and caring little for the consequences. Of course, as his insecurities grow and trust diminishes he’ll start to build more of a mysterious facade. He’ll only indulging in those he has the utmost confidence in, in order for the past to never repeat itself.

Secret keeper- Keeping The Double Entendres secret reassures him even more in his power. Not only that, but it’s strangely settling that someone else is also hiding a part of themselves from the crowds and their inner circle. But he won’t be making her any promises, his mind works like politics after all and he isn’t past throwing someone else under the bus, especially if it meant keeping the spotlight away from his own reality.

Fall from grace- Just when it seems like he’s back in the limelight, that he’s regained his status and privileges, it will come out. The scandal that lead him here the first place. Be it the nature of travelling word or another Brit entering the Moulin Rouge, Paris too will know of Fitzgerald’s disgrace. He will learn that he can’t just run from his problems and be forced to confront his demons.

Down to earth- With the truth being out and him not going anywhere, he’ll learn that titles and wealth are not everything that should make a man happy. Fitz will begin to notice those around him from different financial backgrounds and how they shine with fulfilment despite their lack of money or authority. He’ll learn that life is more than numbers and blue-blooded societies and he’ll want to find out what that it.  

Become a real gentleman- With his growth as a person who no longer bats an eye at his own or other’s status, his ability to be a true gentleman will also flourish. The way he treats others will develop from seeing them as below him to his piers and genuine friends. He’ll stop feeling so threatened that everyone must treat him as royalty and start seeing relationships from a new perspective.

Possible infatuation or sibling bond- To start caring about someone else more than he cares about himself would be his biggest accomplishment. Be it platonic or romantic, finding someone that he can put their needs before his own and help them in achieving their own goals and dreams will give him a new sense of a pride. Because he’ll have more than just himself to be proud of.

FREESTYLE

Myer-Briggs personality types: ENTP

The ENTP personality type is the ultimate devil’s advocate, thriving on the process of shredding arguments and beliefs and letting the ribbons drift in the wind for all to see. Unlike their more determined Judging (J) counterparts, ENTPs don’t do this because they are trying to achieve some deeper purpose or strategic goal, but for the simple reason that it’s fun. No one loves the process of mental sparring more than ENTPs, as it gives them a chance to exercise their effortlessly quick wit, broad accumulated knowledge base, and capacity for connecting disparate ideas to prove their points.

The Alignment System: Chaotic Neutral

A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn’t strive to protect others’ freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organisations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behaviour is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it.

Star sign: Aries

Strengths: Courageous, determined, confident, enthusiastic, optimistic, honest, passionate

Weaknesses: Impatient, moody, short-tempered, impulsive, aggressive

Aries likes: Comfortable clothes, taking on leadership roles, physical challenges, individual sports

Aries dislikes: Inactivity, delays, work that does not use one’s talents

As the first sign in the zodiac, the presence of Aries always marks the beginning of something energetic and turbulent. They are continuously looking for dynamic, speed and competition, always being the first in everything - from work to social gatherings. Thanks to its ruling planet Mars and the fact it belongs to the element of Fire, Aries is one of the most active zodiac signs. It is in their nature to take action, sometimes before they think about it well.

Archetypes:

48% Royal

When the Royal walks into a room, they command attention. They are the one in charge, and they enjoy reaping the rewards of their hard work.

26% Rebel

The Rebel is comfortable throwing caution to the wind—and bucking the system—if that means getting their point across

26% Performer

Taking center stage comes naturally to the Performer, whether at the water cooler or in front of an audience. They are magnetic and know how to inspire.

Traits:

+ Charming: there was no effort or thought put behind it. Fitz was a natural charmer, bewitching most of those around him. Be it his witty temperament or sleek appearance, the man was seamlessly refined. He’d learned quickly that he could get almost anything his heart desired with an enchanting smile and smooth words. It was like an alter-ego, an intoxicating version of himself that he could so easily slip into and enhance at will.

+ Persuasive: He knew the game well, every sentence designed with killer disposition. Fitz was a tactical thinker, strategizing his every move so that the cards would play out in his own favour. He had a talent for making anything sound appealing, it was not just a talent but an art to him. It was all part of politics, without a persuasive tongue, he wouldn’t get far.

+ Adaptable: It was his intellect that had made him good at adapting to any situation. He was never the fish out of the water, floundering simply wasn’t in his vocabulary or an option. In many ways, it made him a chameleon, how easily he could establish himself with such ease.

- Promiscuous: as any young bachelor, loyalty in such a sense was a manner in which he lacked. He was flirtatiously alluring, toying with broken hearts and he generally regards the women he seduces with little more than contempt. A romance wasn’t anything he’d ever been intrigued by. It seemed trivial to him, a gimmick that he solely had never sought to find.

- Ingenuine: Fitz was a liar, a con-artist disguised in pressed suits and designer shoes. He was a riddle that no mundane person was able to crack. He likes it that way, he doesn’t like the thought of being a person that’s easy to read. Fitz doesn’t want to be the guy that you can see what his next move is going to be, he takes pride in his spontaneity, he likes to keep people confused.

[feathersandblue]

Hi!I love your meta about black sails characters and I've read your last one about flint's real motivations and how much more human silver is.One of the biggest critic moved to silver is about madi, and the fact that he betrayed her stopping the war without her consent. That he has taken away from her a possibility to free the world from slavery. A cause for which she was ready to die for and to see him dying too. And for this betrayal he doesn't deserve and won't obtain her forgiveness...

Everyone is entitled to their own interpretation, and canon does not really answer the question what their future relationship will look like - or rather, it indicates that while reconciliation is possible and Madi might be willing to forgive him, their relationship will never be the same.

I don’t think canon really backs the idea that she won’t be able to forgive him. The fact that Madi comes to him in their last scene is pretty telling - it’s meant to indicate that Madi is changing her stance, rather than Silver. If the creators hadn’t meant to imply that they would still be together in some form, they could easily have their last scene be a shot of Silver looking at her longingly from a distance, and she turning her back on him and walking away. 

Of course, we also have a very concise statement from the show’s creators: 

“The way you see them at the end, they’re in the same frame but they’re yards away from each other. Emotionally, that’s as close as they’ll ever get again.”(x)

So I think it’s made pretty clear that Madi does forgive him, but that it’s not really the same after. And how could it be? Silver has betrayed her. There are fundamental differences between them that have now become obvious, which at least Madi hasn’t really been aware of before. He’s not the person she thought he was.

Concerning the fact that Silver stops the war without her consent, and that this makes him a bad person … well, I have a couple of problems with that. 

1. One of them is a distinct one-sidedness in the way people look at their relationship, where Madi is treated basically as a saint, and Silver as an illoyal boyfriend who doesn’t support her and her cause as is his duty. But in a romantic relationship, both parties have obligations toward each other, it can’t be just a one-sided thing, no matter how much we relate to one partner and their goals and ambitions.

It’s also important to point out that if Silver had acted the way she wanted him to, Madi would be dead. Madi only survived the entire ordeal because Silver chose a wife over a war. If he hadn’t brought the cache, even though Flint and the maroon queen opted against it, the governor would have shot her. 

It’s also only fair to  mention that the choice between a noble cause and the life of a partner is not one that you can dictate to anyone. It’s a deeply personal decision. The fact that Madi’s life was more important to Silver than vice versa is not something you can really blame Silver for. 

“You may think what you want of me. I will draw comfort in the knowledge that you’re alive to think it.”

I imagine it’s pretty difficult to remain perpetually pissed at a person for saving your life, going forward. 

When Madi was imprisoned by Rogers, she wasn’t willing to bargain for Silver’s life. It was her choice. I don’t see anyone pointing out that it would have been her moral duty as a romantic partner to think of Silver and what they had together, that she is a horrible girldfriend for putting her beliefs first. 

And yet I see people say that Silver’s failure to act in a way that reflects her beliefs rather than his makes him a bad person. 

In a relationship between two equals, there is no such thing as an obligation to defer to your partner in such a profound way. There is no way to justify why Silver should have to defer to Madi. And yet parts of fandom consider him a horrible human being for failing to do just that.

So really, that one-sidedness, where people look at things only from Madi’s point of view - one that emphasizes her marginalization as a black woman and comes with the premise that Madi’s wants and needs clearly exceed Silver’s - that he’s a horrible boyfriend for disregarding her priorities, which are so much nobler and more important - is something I can’t share or support. People often judge their relationship from a position of real life activism, where the fact that Madi is fighting slavery is a killer argument. In my personal opinion, regarding their personal relationship as well as their historical situation solely from that perspective is somewhat reductive and simplistic.

2. The second problem that I have is the assumption that Madi was entitled to that war, as if war was some sort of possession or property. It was “her war”, and then Silver “took it away from her”. You might recall what I said about Flint personifying that war in my previous meta post. So according to Flint, Silver is a ruthless murderer; according to fandom, he is a thief. 

But no matter how you twist it, war is not something that people have a right to, because war always requires the partcipation of other people. It requires soldiers to do your dirty work. If you are a war leader, you have to have the support of your troups, you have to lead them into battle, you have to order them to fight and kill on your behalf.

I’ve already written extensively about how Flint acts as a leader, but there’s one thing that can’t be denied, and that’s that he’s willing to put his own life on he line, fighting side by side with his men. He’s doing more than his own share of dirty work, he’s usually part of the boarding crew or the vanguard. It’s rare that we see him stand back while others do the killing. 

When it comes to Madi, on the other hand, we have an entirely different situation. Madi is the heir of what is framed as a hereditary monarchy, she wasn’t elected into a position of power, she’s awarded that position - stepping into the footsteps of a leader who is “priestess, governess, warlord.” Her authority is absolute, she even takes pride in making it obvious to Silver in 3.08. that her men obey her without question. But Madi doesn’t do the dirty work. She doesn’t spill blood. In an era where war still means a lof of close combat, Madi steps back and lets other peope fight her battles. 

What right does she have to this war, morally speaking, when that war demands the obedience and the sacrifice of other people? A position of authority where you can order people to die is not something that any human being, no mater how much we like them, should be entitled to.

Imagine there’s a war, and no one shows up. (*)

Basically, what Silver and Julius do in the finale, is to make that war so singularly unattractive to people that they are no longer inclined to show up. They are no longer willing to kill and die on Madi’s behalf because, guess what, they, too, value their own lives and those of their loved ones more than they value the prospect of a long, bloody war that puts their own freedom at risk and has very little chances at success.

Tough shit. It almost looks like it’s been Madi’s war rather than “their war”, as she so succinctly phrases it in her conversation with Rogers. Madi felt so confident speaking on behalf of her people, but then it turns out that she never actually had their vote. It should be mentioned that Madi herself has not experienced slavery first hand - not the way that Julius, Max, Ruth, or her mother and her father have experienced it, who are all far less enthusisastic at the prospect of a war because they know how much they stand to lose when England retaliates. 

I am going to copy & paste a couple of praragraphs from one of my earlier posts here. 

Fandom often treats Silver as if he were taking away Madi’s agency, but that’s not really what he’s doing.

By removing Flint and the treasure from the picture, Silver basically dissembles the nukes and cuts the finances of a war that he considers a fucking nightmare, which, and I don’t think anyone can deny it, is a valid concern. Flint, as a war leader and a brilliant tactiction, second to none, is more of a force of nature than a man. His reputation, his tactical genius, his ability to overcome the greatest odds, and his ability to get people to follow him are nothing short of amazing. So really, the analogy of Flint being the nuke - the devastating weapon of mass destruction - is not far off. And of course, the treasure is both a media-effective means of propaganda and a valuable resource. 

Both Flint and the treasure, however, are also not something Madi had a right to, or at least, her right to them did not surpass Silver’s.

Silver has bled, and spilled blood, for each of these things.

Silver was a key player in securing the Urca gold in the first place. He bled for the cause (lost his leg in Charles Town), he was part of the Walrus crew which made Flint’s name what it became in the aftermath of Charles Town. He was the one who served as Flint’s quartermaster, he was the one who sailed with him into that storm, he is the one who went with him through the doldrums. When Flint made the bargain with the maroons, he made it under coercion - because the maroon queen threatened the lives of him and his crew. But it was Silver whose intervention forged that alliance. Without Silver, Flint would have given up in that cages, and all of our pretty pirates would have ended up dead either from torture or slave labor, or slain during their escape. 

Madi, on the other hand, got that war handed on a silver plate (pun intended). She was living on that island, and, like most young people, struggling to forge her own identity by establishing herself in opposition to the more protectionsist rule of her mother. Along came a bunch of pirates who offered her a shiny war, as well as the war leader to fight it for her, a man with the persuasive power to convince her mother to support it.

Madi’s war relied on Flint - his tactical skills, his willingness to sacrifice anything and everything for the cause. It also relied on Silver, who put his life on the line again and again, torturing, killing, and descending into darkness. Silver was reluctant to step into that role, and we can see, during season three and four, how he struggles not to let that darkness consume him. Long John Silver is also not something that Madi has a right to. Nor, and that is where we get back to 1, is his unwavering support and loyalty even when it goes against his beliefs, especially since she doesn’t seem willing to offer the same.

When I say that Madi’s war relied on Flint, there is also another aspect to it, wich ties back to the previous meta about Flint and his reasons for fighting. Madi’s war relies on Flint being fucking miserable. 

The thing that Madi seems most upset about in 4.10 is the fact that Silver sent Morgan to Savannah to look for Thomas Hamilton. 

But why would Madi be upset about the fact that Silver sent someone to find out whether his best friend’s lover might still be alive? I mean, let’s assume that the Spanish invasion hadn’t happened, that Morgan had returned with the good news that Thomas was alive, imagine Silver had told Flint, there would have raided the plantation to free Thomas, and there would be a tearful reuion of two lovers. How on earth could Madi possibly see this as a form of betrayal? 

Maybe because Silver, and Madi herself, knew that Thomas being alive would be a game changer for Flint. Looking for Thomas - which is all Silver did in that moment, it’s not as if he’d really been planning to imprison Flint there at that point - can only be considered a form of betrayal if they both knew exactly that Flint was only willing to fight that war because he was so lost to his grief and rage that it drove him to such extremes, if they both knew that Flint was born “out of great tragedy”. But it’s Flint that Madi’s war relies on. Not James McGraw. 

All these things - the treasure, Flint, Long John Silver - they do not belong to Madi. There is a certain irony in the fact that Madi used Silver’s considerable skillset - his cunning, his inventiveness, his power of persuasion, the legend of Long John Silver - to fight her war, but that is is this exact skillset that is then used against her to end it. 

Of course, Madi is free to do as she pleases. If she wants that war so desperately, she can go and try to find some likeminded people who help her fight it. She can find the outsiders, the rebels, the other “scattered objections” and form her own army, wage her own war, if that’s what she thinks is right. Build her own resistance. Do it the hard way. She can send someone to Savannah to find Flint and free him. She can do a lot of things to make that war happen.

But she won’t do that, because she isn’t stupid, and she’s not like Flint, who was so consumed by his war that he simply could not let go of it. Madi has other things to live for, thankfully. For sane people, a war immdiately gets a lot less attractive the moment their chances of winning decline. Madi is a good leader to her people, and she’s a good person. She would not waste lives and resources in a war that no one wants.Silver did betray her, and I’m not saying she has to forgive him. But I think it’s important to acknowledge that Silver’s motives and reasons are no less valid than hers, and that taking out Flint and the cache did not mean denying her agency, because if her agency relied on these two things, then it was never real to begin with.

3. Third, what bothers me is to look at Silver’s betrayal of Flint and make it about Madi when it was never about her in the first place. I know we all look at the show from different pespectives, but I think it’s fair to say that Silver and Flint, their individual arcs and their complex and fraught relationship, are central to Black Sails. In Silver’s story, Flint is the antagonist, and the conflict between Flint and Silver and its resolution has very little to do with Madi - if anything, she’s a catalyst that contributes to brings things to a head. Accordingly, the idea that Madi’s wants and needs should be the determining factor in Silver’s decision-making seems quite absurd. Flint may be Madi’s nuke, but first and foremost, he’s Silver’s … friend, alter ego, antagonist, partner, captain, whatever you want to call it - this overwhelming influence in Silver’s life.

The relationship between Silver and Flint is complex, fraught, full of landmines. There’s a co-depenency that’s not quite healthy, a power imbalance that only changes in Silver’s favor in season four - and there’s a tentative, hard-won friendship between them. And in that situation - with their shared history and everything they’ve been through together - should Madi’s wants and needs really be the deteminigg factor in Silver’s decision-making? Or should it be his own moral compass? 

Of course, the situation in Black Sails is more complex than that, there are other factors to keep in mind - first and foremost, the issue of slavery, which, as I’ve said before, is a killer argument all on its own. How can Silver possibly turn aganst Flint and Silver when they fight for a better world without slavery, for a revolution? If he doesn’t want to fight, he can just walk away, can he not? 

But the thing is, people who tend to say that rarely look at the whole thing from Silver’s point of view. There is a distinct lack of willingness to put themselves in his shoes. 

Silver is in a position of an individual having to make a choice. Jack has arrived with a clear agenda, one that gives Nassau a chance at peace. From Silver’s point of view, Flint is entirely driven by rage, the intent “to see the world burn” - as someone who is decidedly not an idealist, Silver simply cannot focus on these far-away visions of a better future the same way. And in that situation, confined by his own experiences and worldview, Silver is left with two options: side with Jack, secure the peace and the freedom of Madi’s people, stop Flint, and keep Madi safe. Or turn against Jack, enable the war and let Flint set the New World on fire, then lose both him and Madi either trough a violent death or by leaving them behind. War or peace? The decision, in this moment, is not an easy one, but I think it displays a lack of understanding to suggest that with Silver’s and Flint’s relationship right at the core of it, with everything that stands between them - the things Silver has seen Flint do, the murder and the insanity and the gambling with lives, and the things Silver himself has done on behalf of the war - that Silver acting according to his personal beliefs makes him a villain, or that it is his moral duty to support his girfriend’s ambitions - the very girlfriend who, at this point, is only still alive because he’s already “betrayed” her once by prioritizing her life over the cause.

So, after all of that, we are still left with a couple of things that cannot be denied.

1. Silver acted behind Madi’s back, and he betrayed both her and Flint on a personal level. They had no reason to suscpect he would turn against them (though I would argue that there were signs, they just didn’t pick up on them), which further contributes to the sense of betrayal.  

2. Silver put a stop to a war that was meant to abolish slavery. We cannot conclusively say that it was the right choice (but neither can we say it wasn’t, as we have no means to determine what the outcome would have been).

It’s of course perfectly okay to have personal opinions about all of these things, or to think that Madi should not forgive Silver. But I can’t help but think that a lot of the criticism levelled at Silver is a consequence of a very limited viewpoint that is rooted in activism, not in empathy - to an extent where the entire thing becomes a black and white thing, where Madi gets awarded all the oppression points that forever put her on a pedestal of moral high ground, because SLAVERY! 

Perdonally, I don’t think that this viewpoint acknowledges the complexity of the issue at hand, something that the show itself is actually very good at. 

—————————————-

* The original phrasing, of course, is “Sometime they’ll give a war and no one will come.”  The variant used here is a re-translation of the German version, “Stell dir vor, es ist Krieg, und keiner geht hin.”

[mychristopherstokes66world]

Including CNN's Chris Cuomos Daddy

http://documents.gawker.com/jeffrey-epstein-s-little-black-book-1681447470 http://archive.is/qcJEO Don't forget the CDs in Epstein's safe in his Manhattan townhouse. Those were labeled "Young [name] + [name]." You can bet that those second "[names]" are more than a little worried. Then there is the ranch in New Mexico where the NM attorney general is cooperating with the FBI. There is a lot more to this than just Pedo Island. Dustin Hoffman?!?! OH NO NO NO no no no no!!!!! Hook was a pirate that kidnapped children. Please tell me it wasn't a real story. At least let me believe that Robin Williams was trying to save them. It will be hard but they will make a blind eye to most evidence. Remember, Epstein has everyone by their balls, so like in 2008, either those high profile people start working on getting him an excelent deal, or someone is getting doxed.... Epstein will NEVER have more than 5 years jail, and probably at home or in almost private comfy prison It seems like they've got two types they use in this blackmail operation. The first type is rich, powerful, influential, and easily bought with the second type, young, naive, easily swayed with lies. Both of them are the blackmail targets and both of them get used. The powerful ones get placed into positions where their influence can be leveraged whenever and however it is needed. The young ones get supported and raised into media personalities, anchors, actresses, authors, musicians, whatever they want so long as it serves the desired social ends. If you consider that such an operation could have been ongoing for more than one generation, then the implications get a whole lot weirder than they already were. They basically breed with each other and select each other's most attractive offspring to molest and groom for future generations of the cult. In fact, this would go a long way towards explaining why the cult seems to be too stupid to succeed at controlling the world anymore: too much in-breeding. I have been SAYING ALL ALONG that we will one day find that its not just powerful men who are pedos and rapists, but that all powerful people become warped by easy access to every common hedonistic pleasure. As a result, the truly perverse becomes the final frontier of hedonism and indulgence: pedophilia. Satanism rendered art. Or outright claiming intimate and full ownership over another human. And, look, here we are! Barbara fucking Walters and a host of other up-and-up women right next to their disgusting, guilty male counterparts. Hang them all. Alec Baldwin - Page 6 Sir Anthony Bamford - Page 6 Lord & Lady Baumont - Page 10 Tony Blair - Page 11 David Blaine - Page 11 Mike Bloomberg - Page 11 Richard Branson - Page 12 Jimmy Buffet - Page 13 Prince Pierre d'Arengberg - Page 18 Duchess of York - Page 21 Duke of York - Page 21 Ambassador & Lady Fairweather - Page 23 Princess of Firyal of Jordan - Page 24 Lord & Lady Giliford. - Page 27 Lord & Lady Hanson - Page 28 Elizabeth Hurley (as "Liz Hurley") - Page 32 Michael Jackson - Page 33 Mick Jagger - Page 33 Ted Kennedy Jr - Page 35 Senator Ed Kennedy - Page 35 Christoper Lambert - Page 36 Dr. Henry Kissinger - Page 36 Courtney Love (circled) - Page 38 Cheryl Mills - Page 43 Rupert Murdoch - Page 44 Joan Rivers - Page 51 Jessica Rothchild - Page 52 Hannah Rothchild - Page 52 Duke and Duchess Rutland - Page 53 Edouard de Rothschild - Page 53 Evelyn de Rothschild.- Page 53 Saudi Crown Prince Solman - Page 54 Kevin Spacy - Page 56 Peter Soros - Page 56 Baroness Francesca Theilmann - Page 58 Ivanka Trump - Page 59 Donald Trump - Page 60 Chris Tucker - Page 60 Barbara Walters - Page 61 Lord Weldenfield - Page 62 Serena Williams - Page 63 Prince Michael of Yugoslavia - Page 64 Don't just look up the famous people, some of the non house hold names return very interesting data. Lots and lots of businessmen from London and Israel are in here. It seems London, New York and Israel are the sex trafficking capitals of the world My suggest is not to go through the big names. A lot of the non household names are powerful people and those connections reveal more. Every single person in this document has a Wikipedia page, only a select ultra old rich people don't have much of a trace except foundations and events Nobody cares.  Kids are killed at Disney World/Land due to negligence, people still go. Everyone knows there are pedophiles in hollywood, people still pay to see movies. Everyone knows there is something suspicious about how many Nickelodeon girls turn out to be messed up junkies, people still let their kids watch it. Nobody cares. 1000 British girls were raped by shitskins and there were no lynchings. Why do you think it would happen here? http://documents.gawker.com/jeffrey-epstein-s-little-black-book-1681447470 What is bunk1-5? Also anyone got a txt document that is searchable? someone must have done it by now I'll get a round to it. Bronfman was the ones in on NXIVM. Honorable Charles Pearson >Honorable https://ift.tt/2jM0nSY >Charles Pearson is a Director of The Dickinson Trust Ltd, The Cowdray Estate Trust Ltd and the Cabardunn Development Company Ltd. He is the principal partner in the Dunecht Home Farms Partnership, a farming business operating over 3,000 acres (12 km2) in Aberdeenshire. Enterprises on the farm include cereals, oilseed rape, beef cattle and sheep. Charles Pearson and his immediate family are owners of Dunecht Estates, a diverse rural property based in Aberdeenshire and Kincardenshire. Dunecht Estates extends to 53,000 acres (210 km2) and comprises seven estates - Dunecht Estate, Ramoir and Campfield Estate, Dunnottar Castle, Forest of Birse, Edinglassie Estate, West Durris Estate and Bucharn Estate. Interests on the Estates include farming, forestry, field sports, minerals, let houses, commercial property, tourism and development land. Dunecht House, the Category A listed building that is the centre piece of the Dunecht estate, was sold to the Scottish business entrepreneur Jamie Oag in 2012.[1] BTW, Epstein isn't Trump's only link to pedophile networks. Look into Trump's connection to CIA pedophile ringleader, Roy Cohn.

Anyone have any thoughts on the power outage in NYC being connected to this?

Servers "wiped"?

Accounts "wiped"?

Destruction of documents?

Someone here has to have some better ideas than me.

Jeffery Sachs. Jeffrey David Sachs (/sæks/; born November 5, 1954) is an American economist, academic, public policy analyst and former director of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the title of University Professor, the highest rank Columbia bestows on its faculty. He is known as one of the world's leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty.

Sachs is the Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs and a professor of health policy and management at Columbia's School of Public Health. As of 2017, he serves as special adviser to the United Nations (UN)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_Sachs

I’d say NXVIM and Podesta are the two biggest connections these people will have. we know NXVIM is way way way bigger than we’ve discovered so far since it involves the Bronfman daughter. And Podesta/Alefantis have fallen off the map. we also have it confirmed now that Epstein paid women to bring other kids to him which is what the Smallville girl did in NXVIM. HOT SHIT DONTCHA Podesta probably psych-tortures the kids. NXVIM used to recruit recruiters. Shit is all connected.

Peggy Siegal. 

https://ift.tt/2GcFBDL

>The publicist and hostess isn’t just a fixture of New York’s Oscar circuit; she’s the engine that drives the whole thing, organizing lunches and dinners and receptions and screenings that introduce Academy members to the year’s Oscar hopefuls and drive the conversation about every single film in contention. The best way to win an Oscar is to make a great film, but the best way to guarantee it is to get Peggy to shine a light on it.

She is the one you go to, if you want to win an Oscar

Peter Soros, needs no introduction

https://www.pdsoros.org/fellowship/governance/peter-soros

PETER SOROS lives between London and New York and has managed his family’s investment office since 1998. Their investment activities have been concentrated in a relatively small number of venture capital, private equity and hedge funds, and a broader range of direct investments in the energy, technology, telecom, consumer and financial services sectors. Prior to that period he worked as an investment banker and managed a hedge fund

Leonard Stern

https://ift.tt/2jLEIu9

Another (((Philanthropist))) and investment broker.

>Leonard Norman Stern (born March 28, 1938)[2] is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.

He is the chairman and CEO of the privately owned Hartz Group based in New York City. The company's real estate portfolio was owned and operated under its Hartz Mountain Industries subsidiary company, of which he is also chairman and CEO

>Stern was born to a Jewish family,[4][5] the son of Hilda (née Lowenthal) and Max Stern.[5] Max Stern was the German-born vice-chairman of the board of trustees of Yeshiva University for whom its Stern College for Women was named. He had emigrated from Weimar Germany to the U.S. in the 1920s after his textile business proved unprofitable, bringing along 2,100 canaries from Germany to sell on the U.S. market. By selling caged birds, bird cages and other pet bird supplies to U.S. pet owners through Woolworth's stores over the next thirty years, Stern's father built up the family business: Hartz Mountain Corporation (HMC), also headquartered in Secaucus, NJ. HMC later grew to become the flagship subsidiary of The Hartz Group. The business was named after the Harz Mountains of Germany. Though Canaries originally come from the Canary Islands the Canaries in trade are the result of selective breeding by farms located at Harz.

I was digging on day one when the emails dropped, from comet to the tunnels to Pegasus to worldcorp to Epstein’s temple to brocks parties...we’ve been blue ballsed with dead ends so many fucking times that it’s hard to get excited but this looks like it could finally be the big one worth digging into and Pandora’s box has only just been cracked open

i published the world corp videos to my bitchute channel CIA CLOWN 

https://www.bitchute.com/video/xSIaA8fJ0oje/

Francesca von Habsburg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francesca_von_Habsburg

Francesca von Habsburg-Lothringen (born 7 June 1958) is an art collector and the estranged wife of Karl von Habsburg, current head of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. 

The amount of women in on this shit, blows my fucking mind! Me fucking too...me fucking too baka

I hear that fren.. pizzagate fucked me up for a while, I had to take a break cause I couldn’t get a decent nights sleep or stop thinking about the horrors going on and how all these people are involved and covering it up and then the useful idiots on the left helping them cover it up with their TDS and all the border invasion with no one even mentioning the child trafficking going on which is fucking weird why isn’t that every trump and conservative response to AOC and any other leftie crying over child separation. Just drop the child rape sex slavery trafficking stats relentlessly and they’ll shut up fast. But I guess the general public isn’t ready to hear it and have the reality of what’s going on shoved in their faces yet

Governor Charles Turnbull. Governor of the Virgin Islands where Epstein lives at little st james island

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Wesley_Turnbull

https://www.instagram.com/elizabethhurley1/?hl=en

If you saw her instagram, you would think she 

was a 22 yearold instagram 'model'. She posts bikini pictures literally all day everyday like shes 20.

I mean she looks great, but its inexplicable to behave that way at her age. its attention whoring of the lowest order.

>pic sorta related

the type of girls she competes for likes with

>The amount of women in on this shit

“Women are wonderful” effect. no one wants to think women, the nurturing motherly caregivers of our children, are capable of the horrors they can commit when they’re emotionally convinced it’s justifed. ask yourself how it’s possible that with modern medical technology and knowledge SIDS is just a totally unexplainable random thing that looks a whole lot like a baby being suffocated in its crib in its sleep in the middle of the night by a frustrated emotional mother. Never find a kid dead from SIDS in the middle of a grocery store at 2 in the afternoon with witnesses around, funny that.

Daisy’s destruction had a female participant that was just as sadistic as the man. Smallville actress was bringing in children for sex slavery. Female child abusers are some of the most sadistic. But nobody ever holds them accountable everyone assumes the man involved forced them to do the things they do

Robert "Bob" Weinstein. Creator or Miramax and Dimension films. Ran Harvey Weinsteins shit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Weinstein

>2 years ago this looked like insane conspiracy by wackos

It’s hard to remember how innocent things felt before the 2016 election....when AJ was just a funny conspiracy nutjob and stuff like this just wasn’t realistic. Even just the alefantis Podesta stuff was like what the fuck. Like AJ sneaking into the bohemian grove and you’re just like oh okay that’s a thing. That’s a thing that actually happens. Eyes wide shut is a thing and everything conspiracy theory around Kubrick and his death and the actors involved in his movies is now a thing and what the fuck rabbit hole is this

Steve Wynn, he runs NUMEROUS casinos in Vegas

https://www.forbes.com/profile/steve-wynn/#7ebf6643498a

Prince Michael of Yugoslavia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Michael_of_Yugoslavia

The Hillary timeline is a dark one fren. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Everything would be censored and shut down. You would have Dem rule forever as she floods the borders with 3rd world illegals while sending legal citizen males off to die in Russia and letting ISIS run wild to kill off the ones that don’t go to war while they all rape and breed the women and all Hillary’s debts to these elite sickos would get fulfilled as the pedo circles expand and get more blatant about it knowing they can’t be stopped

Police, Sergent Robert Goldberg...

All about Israel and the Island Massage parlor

Well hello David Rockefeller!!

just waiting for the connections to most powerful sub-par pizza joint operator in DC.

selling pizza to politicians is evidently enormous business in Washington

jimmy "hit the kids like a comet till they vomit" alefantis

james "enslave the kids in my pizza parlor" alefantis

ole' jimbo "my pizza sauce is made out of ground kids" alefantis

james "scott tenorman is a true story" alefantis

jimmy "dungeons, chains, leather & shipping container human trafficking " alefantis

jimbob "monroe in the front door, never leave, in to the museum behind my house" alefantis

james "live in DC, my museum is the pedo embassy" alefantis

big jim "drop 'em off at my house, chop 'em up in my museum" alefantis

james "just dont talk about my museum" alefantis

jimbo "what pedophile network?" alefantis

james "we don't even have a basement" alefantis

ayyy it's old jimmy "bloodthirsty rage upon the vulnerable" alefantis!!

jimbo "dont eat the hotdogs" alefantis

jimmy "dont even get me started on the punch" alefantis

james "the water in my museum" alefantis

jimmy "somebody poisoned the waterhole" alefantis

jimbo "most of my friends are homosexual pedos" alefantis

jim "after it was discovered my websites contained hidden downloadable content, a criminal destroyed my computers harddrive" alefantis

jimbob "i can help you burn down your island" alefantis

Ohhhhh hoe hoe tay! 

Ask Caroline Orr...how she like living in VA. Sampson Rd, Dahlgren, VA 22448 amirite???

Ask Tommy Christopher how he likes living on Newton Ave, Oaklyn, NJ 08107 and how 

Ellen T Thomas 69 1947

Kathleen J Thomas 39 1978

Matthew J Thomas 45 1971

Megan E Thomas 34 1983

Robert J Thomas 74 1942

Robert S Thomas 53 1964

Ryan R Thomas 34 1983

Dana M Thomas 52 1965

Ethel Thomas 97 1920

Jack C Thomas Jr 54 1963

Jeffery S Thomas 43 1974

Kelly L Thomas 44 1973

Kimberly A Thomas 49 1967

Margaret R Thomas 76 1941

Clara P Thomas 74 1943

John F Thomas 46 1971

Are all doing...tell them hiya from me...will ya 

Ask Oliver A Willis' fat ass how southern MD is. Sweetwood Pl, Waldorf, MD 20602 right? Wait...I ALREADY KNOW HOW IT IS! But, ask him how 

A Wills 46 1971

Ann Wills 48 1969

Beverly L Wills 40 1977

Cheryl D Willis 49 1968

Cheryl M Wills 57 1960

Christopher N Wills 38 1978

Frank Crosson 46 1971

Jane T Thomas 54 1963

Karen A Wills 64 1953

Oliver A Wills 65 1951

Seth T Sahid 37 1980

Sheila Sanders 61 1956

Ricky B Wills 57 1960

Tina L Wills 46 1971

Are all doing XDDDD tell them, suuuuuuuuuuup XD

Wait wait wait...here's his mammy and daddy

Mom and Dad 

Karen And Oliver Willis(Sr.)

Montezuma Dr, Fort Washington, MD 20744 is a shithole XDD

His sister Tina Sahid, Arbory Way, Laurel, MD 20707 Laurel huh??? My ex is from Laurel...blow them a kiss from me, k? 5/10

And don't forget you little bitch...you wanted this

https://thedevilman666.blogspot.com/https://www.facebook.com/groups/qanonreports https://twitter.com/CIACLOWN1 https://www.bitchute.com/channel/ciaclown16661/

[marcusssanderson]

101 Quotes for Instagram to Inspire Love

Looking for the best quotes for Instagram?

Instagram is one of the world’s biggest social media platforms today. According to recent statistics, the social networking app boasts of over 1 billion monthly active users.

Such popularity makes it a powerful platform to connect, engage, and influence others. It also makes it a great place for sharing inspirational narratives and spreading love and  positivity. 

While a picture is worth a thousand words, words can improve a picture by telling a story, providing context, or triggering curiosity. Instagram captions are a great opportunity to tell a powerful story and give information that the audience can’t see for themselves.

To help you channel the positive power of Instagram and help brighten you audience’s day, we’ve gathered these quotes that you can use for your Instagram captions. Use them to spread love to yourself and others. 

  101 quotes for Instagram to inspire love

  1.) “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” –  George Sand

  2.) “Don’t brood. Get on with living and loving. You don’t have forever.”— Leo Buscaglia

  3.) “Love in its essence is spiritual fire.”— Seneca

  4.) “We love the things we love for what they are.”— Robert Frost

    5.) “Love is like a good cake; you never know when it’s coming, but you’d better eat it when it does!”― C. JoyBell C.

  6.) “You don’t love someone because they’re perfect. You love them in spite of the fact that they’re not.” – Jodi Picoult

  7.) “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.”— James Baldwin

  8.) “Ultimately, it is the desire, not the desired, that we love.” – Friedrich Nietzsche 

  9.) “Love is not maximum emotion. Love is maximum commitment.” ― Dr. Sinclair Ferguson

  10.) “Love For All; Hatred for None” ― Mirza Nasir Ahmad

  Inspirational quotes for Instagram

  11.) “The only thing we never get enough of is love; and the only thing we never give enough of is love.”— Henry Miller

  12.) “A flower cannot blossom without sunshine, and man cannot live without love.” – Max Muller

  13.) “Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”—Robert A. Heinlein

  14.) “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.”— Plato

    15.) “Where there is great love, there are always miracles.” – Willa Cather

  16.) “Better to have lost and loved than never to have loved at all.”– Hemingway

  17.) “To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already 3-parts dead.” – Bertrand Russell

  18.) “Love is a divine being.”― Lailah Gifty Akita

  19.) “A loving heart is the truest wisdom.” –  Charles Dickens

  20.) “To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return.” – Madonna

  Uplifting and beautiful quotes for Instagram

  21.) “Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young.” –  Sir Arthur Pinero

  22.) “Self-love is the source of all our other loves.” – Pierre Corneille

  23.) “The greater your capacity to love, the greater your capacity to feel the pain.”– Jennifer Aniston

  24.) “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”—Lao Tzu

  25.) “The art of love is largely the art of persistence.”— Albert Ellis

    26.) “Nobody has ever measured, not even poets, how much a heart can hold.” – Zelda Fitzgerald

  27.) “Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal” – Gayle Forman

  28.) “Hate generalizes, love specifies”― Robin Morgan

  29.) “One day spent with someone you love can change everything.” – Mitch Albom

  30.) “Everything that you love, you will eventually lose, but in the end, love will return in a different form.” – Franz Kafka

  Inspiring quotes for Instagram that’ll warm hearts

  31.) “Love means never having to say you’re sorry.”– Ali MacGraw

  32.) “The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved – loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” – Victor Hugo

  33.) “The more the soul knows, the more she loves, and loving much, she tastes much.” –  W. H. Murray

  34.) “Love is what you’ve been through with somebody.” – James Thurber

  35.) “If you would be loved, love, and be loveable.”— Benjamin Franklin

  36.) “A bird cannot fly with broken wings. Your heart cannot love without learning to heal.”― Kemi Sogunle

  37.) “Our first and last love is self-love.”—Christian Nestell Bovee

    38.) “Love is a great master. It teaches us to be what we never were.” – Moliere

  39.) ”My wish is that you may be loved to the point of madness.” – André Breton

  40.) “And if our hands should meet in another dream, we shall build another tower in the sky.” ― Kahlil Gibran

  Quotes for Instagram to inspire love and friendship

  41.) “Love is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.” – Iris Murdoch

  42.) ”The highest function of love is that it makes the loved one a unique and irreplaceable being.” – Tom Robbins

  43.) “The only language you need is the language of the heart – love.”― Simran Silva

  44.) “Love is just a word, but you bring it definition.”– Eminem

  45.) “We loved with a love that was more than love.” – Edgar Allan Poe

    46.) “The first duty of love is to listen.”—Paul Tillich

  47.) “Love does not dominate; it cultivates.”— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  48.) “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love.” – Sophocles

  49.) ”There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” – Jane Austen

  50.) “Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends.” –  H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

  Quotes for Instagram that’ll make your day

  51.) ”To be fully seen by somebody, then, and be loved anyhow – this is a human offering that can border on miraculous.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

  52.) “Love is the flower you’ve got to let grow.” – John Lennon

  53.) “Let the love not escape from within.”― Suchet Chaturvedi

  54.) “True love comes quietly, without banners or flashing lights. If you hear bells, get your ears checked.” – Erich Segal

  55.) “We are most alive when we’re in love.”— John Updike

    56.) “Love cures people—both the ones who give it and the ones who receive it.”—Karl A. Menninger

  57.) “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust

  58.) “Love is never lost. If not reciprocated, it will flow back and soften and purify the heart.” –  Washington Irving

  59.) “There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.” – William Butler Yeats

  60.) “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” –Elisabeth Foley

  Beautiful love quotes for Instagram

  61.) “A simple ‘I love you’ means more than money.”– Frank Sinatra

  62.) “Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom.” – Rabindranath Tagore

  63.) “Love is flower like; Friendship is like a sheltering tree.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  64.) “The love we give away is the only love we keep.”— Elbert Hubbard

  65.) “If I know what love is, it is because of you.” – Hermann Hesse

    66.) “Love is the greatest refreshment in life.” – Pablo Picasso

  67.) “A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.” – Thomas Carlyle

  68.) “Man’s best support is a very dear friend.” – Cicero

  69.) “Love is ease.” ― Noorilhuda

  70.) “Spread love everywhere you go.” – Mother Teresa

  Quotes for Instagram that will make you appreciate love

  71.) “Love is a promise; love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear.”– John Lennon

  72.) “I’m gonna fight for you until your heart stops beating.” – Stephenie Meyer

  73.) “Life is a game and true love is a trophy.” –  Rufus Wainwright

  74.) “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”— Sophocles

  75.) “A life lived in love will never be dull.” – Leo Buscaglia

    76.) “You never lose by loving. You always lose by holding back.” – Barbara de Angelis

  77.) “It’s not what we have, but who we have.” – Winnie The Pooh

  78.) “Love is an endless act of forgiveness. Forgiveness is me giving up the right to hurt you for hurting me.”- Beyonce

  79.) “The only thing that really matters in life is to love and be loved.” ― Andrew Critchley

  80.) “Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.”—Jack Kerouac

  Quotes for Instagram about love and friendship

  81.) “Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.”– Aristotle

  82.) “Share your smile with the world. It’s a symbol of friendship and peace.” –  Christie Brinkley

  83.) “True love is selfless. It is prepared to sacrifice.” – Sadhu Vaswani

  84.) “We need not think alike to love alike.” – John Wesley

  85.) “The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.”— Hubert H. Humphrey

  86.) “To love someone means to see them as God intended them.” – Fyodor Dostoyevsky

  87.) “Trust your intuition and be guided by love.” – Charles Eisenstein

    88.) “For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.” – Carl Sagan

  89.) “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” – Thomas Aquinas

  90.) “The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” –  Audrey Hepburn

  Other inspirational quotes for Instagram

  91.) “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” – Walt Whitman

  92.) “One must not trifle with love.” –  Alfred de Musset

  93.) “Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.”- Dorothy Parker

  94.) “And in the end, the love you take, is equal to the love you make.”— Paul McCartney

  95.) “There is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” – Vincent van Gogh

    96.) “We love because it’s the only true adventure.” – Nikki Giovanni

  97.) “If you wish to be loved, show more of your faults than your virtues.” – Edward G. Bulwer-Lytton

  98.) “I get by with a little help from my friends.” – The Beatles

  99.) “Let us come alive to the splendor that is all around us, and see the beauty in ordinary things.”—Thomas Merton

  100.) “Don’t ever think you are nothing. Somewhere along the line, there is going to be someone who thinks you are everything.” ― MHS Pourri

  101.) “Those who listen with their hearts will begin to see patterns everywhere.” ― Grace-Naomi

  Did you enjoy these quotes for Instagram?

Although social media can sometimes lead to bullying and negativity, it can also be a place for positivity, diversity, and support.

As one of the most successful social networks today, Instagram provides a great opportunity to inspire and uplift others. Hopefully, these quotes will help you inspire love using your Instagram channel.

Did you enjoy these quotes for Instagram? Which of the quotes was your favorite? We would love to hear all about it in the comment section below. 

The post 101 Quotes for Instagram to Inspire Love appeared first on Everyday Power Blog.

[oselatra]

The walkout

As I understand it, many of the kids who walked out during the day of protest here in Arkansas will be facing suspension. This will not just be a few days off; they will receive zeros for any tests or assignments they miss. Unfortunately, standing on the right side of history has put them on the wrong side of their school's administration. In some cases these failing grades could hurt those students' chances of getting into college. Yeah, well, this might be true if they want to go to a Bible College or some other school where evolution has yet to evolve. However, if they want to go to any of the more enlightened schools in the world — which is, by the way, round — it shouldn't hurt their chances of getting accepted at all. In fact, if their college choice is in California I recommend they put this act of peaceful civil disobedience at the top of their resume.

David Rose

Hot Springs

Arkansas at the bottom

Living in rural Carroll County now for over 30 years, my wife and I would like our state government officials to explain the following facts about the state that our family has made home.

Out of 50 states and the the District of Columbia, Arkansas is rated:

• 51st worst in the number of workers in low-income jobs.

• 46th worst in poverty.

• 49th worst in student loan defaults.

• 48th worst in health of its citizens.

• 47th worst in incarceration rate.

• 41st worst in education.

• 50th worst in hunger.

Twenty percent of our state lives in poverty and 25 percent of our children live in poverty. Why?

My own observations are that racism is systemic in our government and our economy. Poverty is accepted as the price we pay for living in an unforgiving landscape, but is actually a result of the callousness of government. Some of the world's biggest companies call Arkansas home and yet they are infamous for keeping wages low and keeping hours of employees just low enough to not qualify for full benefits, and they are adamant about not allowing workers to organize. It is not natural beauty that makes a state great; it came to us that way. All we can do is preserve it or deface it. By representing the industries that spend great sums of money to influence you instead of the common good, you are dishonoring your position.

The awakening that has come from the election of Donald Trump and those who support him for their own selfish ends is going to change things, even in this third-world state, whose leaders seem to wear their ignorance like a badge of courage. I hope that you step aside gracefully when your turn is over, but it will be over, soon.

Mark and Suzanne Eastburn

Eureka Springs

Trump's America

The United States has a new religion called Americanism. The main guy is Donald Trump, ably assisted by Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell. Members are Republicans, but other faiths can join provided they pass the test on the holy document known as the Constitution. The 10 amendments to the Constitution have been reduced to just two: Make America Great and Keep America Great.

Fervor for the Second Amendment resides in the hearts of those who practice Americanism. Back in the late 1700s, the framers thought it necessary to make sure groups of men could protect the community, so they wrote, "A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." Those who practice Americanism maintain that, even though we have paid militiamen, we still must be ready for mythical invaders. Being ready requires weapons capable of killing many people with bullets that are lethal when striking any part of the body. Shotguns and rifles are unacceptable because they do not always kill with one shot. Failing to understand the Second Amendment eliminates any chance of joining Americanism.

Another part of the test makes sure the taker understands that women have no control of their uteri and can be groped at appropriate times. The main guy often demonstrates the proper use of women. The basic tenet of Americanism is to restrict women's right to things like health care and protection from discrimination, lest they become too powerful.

Americanism wants to build a wall along the Southern border to protect us from brown people. Americanism desires that only educated white people enter the country. Practitioners of Americanism work hard to make sure that the top 1/10th of 1 percent owns as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.

Americanism proudly waves the flag, but with the third stanza of the Star-Spangled Banner in mind. That stanza reads:

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore,

That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion

A home and a Country should leave us no more?

Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution.

No refuge could save the hireling and slave

From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,

And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

The bitterness expressed by Key in the third stanza is still expressed by those who practice Americanism except when it creates a political disadvantage.

Richard Emmel

Little Rock

From the web

In response to an Arkansas Blog post about Governor Hutchinson's moves to the far right spurred by his primary opponent, including boasts of cutting government and lying about Planned Parenthood:

I first met Asa about 30 years ago. Thought he was a weak stick then and have thought he's a weak stick ever since, although I will confess to having given him a couple of thumbs-up since he's been governor. But as of March 15, 2018, he's still a weak stick. And, Jan Morgan is bringing out that weak stick for many to see.

By happenstance, I met and briefly chatted it up with the woman in Hot Springs the other day. So I can understand why Hutchinson is scared, almost-to-death, of her. She's energized, friendly, easy on the eyes, very articulate, and not, in the least, shy about approaching people and telling them what she believes.

If Morgan can find enough money to get on TV early and stay on, Asa has every reason to fear her. The hard right and the gunslingers (among others) will love her.

No way in the world the likes of Jan Morgan can beat an incumbent governor? Why, sure. Get Asa to tell you about that.

And while you have his attention, get him to tell you why a stable genius like Donald John Trump couldn't win the Republican primary and then get himself elected president.

Durango

This is a great big steaming pile of a dog and pony show. The last cut brought a hundred newly created state positions of over 100K a year to all of his cronies who barely have a degree.

You have highly educated people who have spent their entire lives earning advanced degrees so that for a short eight- to 10-year span, have the chance to lead their chosen field. Instead those people are getting the shaft and their opportunity has been stolen by anyone who has donated to the campaign.

I'm sure that [Gov. Mike] Beebe was guilty of more than just placing Shane Broadway over ADHE, but I sure can't think of them now. Asa has placed cronies all over the state government that all of them promised to downsize and make more efficient.

This ploy will dissolve as soon as the primary is over and the big money in Arkansas will prove they aren't serious about making government better. This is unfuckingbelievable and disgusting.

Clem Hooten

In response to the Arkansas Blog post on the National Park Service grant to improve the historic Dreamland Ballroom:

I don't even know this place, but I'm delighted when historic buildings get a new lease on life. The children of tomorrow will not be very impressed by the buildings built today. Without very old buildings around, your town's got no WOW to it.

It would already be a big treat to go stand where Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Earl "Fatha" Hines, B.B. King and Ray Charles once appeared. Fifty years from now the experience will be out of this world ... assuming America is still around 50 years from now.

Deathbyinches

In response to an Arkansas Blog post, "Democratic Party weighs in on Wilkins' bribery allegation. Poorly.":

Max, I am sure that Michael Gray realizes that the Wilkins family can still turn out the black vote in Jefferson County, and that is why he was more than circumspect in his description of the wrongdoing. What we have is the reverse of the plantation economy, where black sharecroppers used to tell poll workers which plantation they worked on, and then ask them how they were supposed to vote. Now, the prominent black dynasties in politics tell them how to vote, and the Wilkins dynasty is real. This is not illegal, but the result is still the same. It's not illegal because poll workers are not involved. Bloc voting is nothing new unless people are being bribed. That is the key. Was Hank Wilkins bribed not only for his vote in the legislature, but also because he could deliver black votes for politicians? I think this is behind his constant battle with the black power structure in Jefferson County.

plainjim

Uh, plainjim, the turning-out-the-vote phenomenon isn't limited to blacks and black churches. I had a white voter ask me if she needed to vote on "all this other stuff" some years ago after she followed the suggestion (?) her preacher made on an issue. I don't have any idea how many others showed up to follow that preacher's dictates, but the situation does exist. And the turnout for that election was much higher than any I'd seen before. I still shake my head when I think about it. Bottom line, I guess, is that there are people who are willing to let others tell them how to vote. Why? Who knows? Ignorance, I suppose.

Doigotta

I think the Democratic Party needs a chairman who actually supports democratic causes. Voting present on important issues like the tax deduction for private school tuition doesn't cut it. I don't think anyone can do a good job serving simultaneously in the legislature and as state party chairman. Mr. Gray needs to choose one and let the other go.

Eutychus

The walkout