#Nancy Fulton

[katatty]

Another household I wanted to show off real quick is the Fultons, consisting of Quinn and Teyona Fulton and their two daughters Nancy and Angel.

They're a 100% story progression driven family! I've found story progression to be a little slow to actually get sims starting families without the occasional nudge, but these two got things sorted all on their own, haha!

Here's hoping the Fiero kids will befriend the Fulton kids :D

[sageandred]

Ok I'm on a new spiral of things I BETTER get in S5 of Lone Star (i'm joking) i'm serious

Paul, TK, and Carlos hanging out alone like they did in s1 // Paul + Asha and Tk + Carlos double date, esp. since my GraceJudd x Tarlos went down the drain

TK and Carlos sexytime à la s1; honeymoon period before shit hits the fan...thank youuu

Judd heavy plot that doesn't involve him and Grace having huge problems, falling out of love, etc (I'm ok, with the Wyatt arc; I don't need Grace and him struggling in their marriage as well); I love the idea of Judd s1 vibes

Owen, less screentime! I like him. I love him! But I NEED more 126 development when I know this man in and out now, including his skin care routine!

I want TK and Carlos to bond with each other's family more, now // I want Carlos' sisters to make an appearance and for TK to be shown talking with them 1-on-1..I want Carlos to really bond with his father-in-law and maybe remind him of things of his own father

I want TK and Carlos to talk about both of them losing a parent, how they compare with Carlos still having his mom/TK still having his dad, and to comfort each other in grief

Either flashbacks of Carlos and his dad ("baby" Carlos... or actually teenage/college Carlos would tremendously shock me) OR Carlos looking thru photo albums like we got with TK

Nancy and Marjan. NANCY AND MARJAN. (no preference, platonic or otherwise; they're very similar I need them to bond more)

More friendships, 1-on-1

Big natural disaster camera work and suspenseful storyline(s) (i'm hopeful from what i've seen)

[tomkeirblyth]

LOVE IS IN THE AIR!!!!

[chenlopez]

9-1-1: LONE STAR S04E07 | "Tommy Dearest"

[captain-gillian]

Here is a nice ask right back 💜🩷

What culture shock and antics would the 126 get into if they visited Australia?

(I will answer yours later probably when I am not doing what I'm supposed to do on my prep time at work again haha)

thank you so much for the return nice ask! 💕

this is a really fun one, i think they'd be on seperate trips not all at once, so they'd have different culture shocks and experiences. i have deffs overthought all of this, but it was fun. there's some new fic ideas brewing now.

so tk & carlos are on a vacation to celebrate their anniversary, tk has always wanted to see the great barrier reef.

owen is on a vacation because tk raved about the australian beaches so much, mateo tags along with owen.

grace, judd & charlie are in victoria visiting grace's sisters who are in aus for their music and doing a trip along the great ocean road.

tommy and the girls go on a trip to australia zoo because while tommy was sick she realised life is too short and she's always wanted to see a koala in real life, so once she's better, she pulls the girls out of school to spend two weeks in australia. they also visit uluru and learn about aboriginal culture and bush tucker.

paul and asha go on their honeymoon.

marjan and nancy are chosen to go to a global conference in perth about leadership for female first responders, to represent the AFD.

as for their antics and culture shocks:

for tk, I think he would somehow end up rescuing an animal, maybe an orphan wombat joey and trying to convince carlos that he can raise it fine and they don’t need to call WIRES (a wildlife carer organisation), carlos calls anyway. as for carlos, who we know is not a great traveller, I think he'd struggle with how even the familiar stuff, like american chain stores/fast food places, and basic foods like bread are different in Australia, but he'd find how laid back it is, even in touristy areas really relaxing for his anxiety.

I think judd would be surprised by how different and challenging he finds it to drive on the opposite side of the road. at first he assumes it'll be easy, he's a really competent driver, he can drive a firetruck, how hard is it to drive a minivan on the 'wrong' side of the road. He also absolutely loses his mind at hook turns in melbourne (for good reason, who came up with those?) In the end, grace takes over for their road trip along the great ocean road, and is a total natural at driving on the left. judd sits in the back with charlie pointing out every animal they pass and playing "i spy" with her. at some point in their trip, they pass a bunnings and charlie gets really excited because that looks just like hammerbarn from bluey.

i think owen would go to bondi beach to surf, and end up in an episode of bondi rescue stealing the lifeguard's thunder by pulling off some daredevil rescue before the lifeguards get there (but not before the cameras do), then he gets a really hipster vegan smoothie from a nearby cafe and somehow ends up getting a date with a rich much younger local blonde woman who's sole heiress to a mining magnate.

meanwhile, mateo takes a day trip to the blue mountains, to see if they're really blue in real life. he comes across wild kangaroos and thinks it would be so dope to send everyone back home a selfie of him petting a kangaroo and thus becomes intimately equated with the differences between paramedicine in austin and sydney. after he's been stitched up he avoids the wildlife, opting to wander around the city near their hotel playing pokemon go when owen goes to the zoo.

paul & asha are looking forward to a really relaxing honeymoon, along the east coast, eating good food, drinking good wine, sitting by the pool reading, walking along the beach, hiking and taking in the wildlife. unfortunately, as a member of the 126, paul can't stop attracting trouble, with people having emergencies everywhere they go. on the flight there, there's bad turbulence, a few people get hurt and paul has to give minor first aid. then they get to a resturant that had amazing reviews for the australian fusion cusine, paul has been dying to try it and a woman at the next table chokes just as their first course arrives. paul has to render aid until the ambulance arrives, by the time it does his food is cold, the resturant comps their meal though. then when they're driving to a mountain to go hiking, a car crashes in front of them, they help rescue the driver with no equipment before the car is engulfed in flames. by the time help arrives and they give their details etc, it's too late in the day to start their hike. a man almost drowns in the hotel pool just as paul gets to the good part of his book, the lifeguard doesn't notice, so he has to rescue them. asha starts to joke they shouldn't leave their hotel room. that said, paul is shocked by how good all the food is in australia, and the coffee. he struggles to adjust back to american coffee when he gets home, and starts importing a specalised blend from a cafe they visited in australia who ship worldwide.

while nancy and marjan are at their conference, they're constantly next to each other, in each other's personal space and making inside jokes/laughing at things the other says, to the point everyone they meet, including hen who's there representing the afd, assumes they're dating (they aren't, yet) and asks what it's like working together and dating. marjan wants to go to rottnest island while they're in perth and get a quokka selfie for her instagram, she gets at least a dozen, and convinces nancy she needs to be in at least one quokka selfie with her. they send it to the 126 groupchat and tk assumes it's an announcement that they're finally dating. they both blush. by the end of the trip they are, infact, dating.

tommy & the twins go to queensland first, they have the best time as a family at australia zoo where they cuddle a koala and tommy is so excited to see robert irwin doing the croc feeding show. then they go to the gold coast and stay by the beach, where tommy expereinces the culture shock of how much more laid back and peaceful it is. she wants to have a really 'authentic' experience, so they have fish and chips on the beach. they're surprised that nobody else is eating on the beach, until they get attacked by a flock of seagulls. after losing half their chips and all their calamari to the gulls, they decide to have ice cream for dinner instead. the twins dare tommy to try vegemite flavoued ice cream, and not only does she like it, but she gets it with a scoop of cookies and cream. when they're learning about bush tucker on their uluru trip, tommy is the only person in the tour group willing to try witcherry grubs.

[guardian-angle22]

911: Lone Star | Paul & Asha in S4E16

[fictionalreads]

9-1-1 Lone Star Season 4 Catch Up

Episode 11

Judd gonna be a granddaddy!😂 That whole conversation was a wild ride

Oh we get to see Marvin! He’s selfish. Could’ve just been a cameo and not a whole plotline

Oh she’s evil. It’s a ball and they didn’t mean to hit the ugly ass gnome.

Should’ve just let them have the ball.

Mateo. No do not pay that bail.

I’m with Judd. Wyatt doesn’t seem like firefighting is his thing. I wouldn’t make the call either. Woah I didn’t say he was soft Judd. You could’ve told him you wanted to see him on a ride along first or something.

Bad idea Nancy.

Damn. He died. Marvin did it himself, not you Mateo. BAD MATEO NO DRINKING

What the fuck am I watching? Oh he took the rap for Mateo and that’s why he owed him.

This is so weird. But I see why Marvin is a plotline now.

Episode 12

Oddly, I’ve seen this one.

Episode 13

Damn why is her tongue swelling so much.

Grace you still feeling some type of way? I’m not saying you can’t, I’m just saying if you don’t want your mama to know why maybe act more natural.

JUDD SAID HER VOICE WAS THE FIRST THING HE FELL IN LOVE WITH 😭😭♥️ I love them.

LMAO Owen is the other man. Yes he is freaking out.

God I love Judd, “Hey, you riding with us?”😂😂

LMAOOOO DID HE JUST POKE THAT MAN?!

EEEEEWWWWWW HE JUST BROKE HIS CHEST

Damn everybody husband going down. JUDD BETTER NOT GO DOWN

Oh shit she knew

THEY SINGING!! Ain’t nobody gonna get the doctor? The man woke up.

He probably poisoned himself.

Episode 14

Y’all trying too hard to blame her. I don’t believe it.

Paul. You are incredible. I love you.

I love Tommy but her storyline is kind of cringe. But Grace and Tommy together are in fact hilarious. Did he really just break up with her?

Paul gets the win again.

Owen you interfered. You don’t think he would feel some type of way?

HE WAS TRYING TO POISON HER!! OH SHIT IS SHE DYING FUCK OWEN

Episode 15

Y’all it feel like he was kidnapped or something.

Now how did you get knocked out?

Oh that’s sad Grace. She had to listen to that. I really thought the girl was gonna die.

Yeah that detective is an ass and not very good at his job. Oh kick his ass Grace, he did not just tell you to stick to answering the phone.

McGregor please go away

Awe shit Lexie died.

Tell Carlos. Don’t respond. Damnit Grace! CALL SOMEBODY ELSE NO GRACE AND WHY IS MCGREGOR JUST SITTING THERE CALMLY

SHE SWITCHED THE GLASS Smart Grace even if Judd still gonna kill you

He dying?

Episode 16

Tell them. Cause if you just die they’ll wonder.

That was not an answer to the boy’s question.

That guy is a creep, don’t talk to him kid.

Oh good the kid is safe. LOL Kids say the darnest things.

DAD JUDD IS THE CUTEST!! “What are y’all doing Thursday? Good y’all can babysit”

Get out Tommy

Tommy you don’t get to play dumb and be mad. The man called mayday and you ignored it and intentionally stayed it. I get your intentions, but you still put yourself at risk.

Tarlos is so cute

LMAO The reverend and Grace gonna go on a date if y’all don’t get ready.

Watch Grace and preacher man get into it on their behalf. 😂😂 I SAW IT COMING

“Get yo ass up Tommy”

Really Tommy? I mean the man didn’t have to go to HR BUT YOU DID IGNORE HIM

WYATT NOOOOOO I really hate that they did that to Wyatt just to make Tommy and Judd make up.

Episode 17

I think Judd is my favorite. From both shows. This is a new revelation for me.

Woah Carlos you have no from to talk. I don’t wanna get too political cause that’s not this blog but cops started out as a group that was meant to capture slaves so…

Nancy why you so invested?

NOOO THE BABY SAVE THE BABY

Judd don’t do this to my emotions. Oh no he lost function in his legs. I know people live full lives after, but it still sucks when you have something and lose it.

They’re showing Carlos’ dad too much and giving him a role in the wedding other than just being his dad. Nothing better happen to this man.

Judd I can’t believe you’re actually quitting.

Okay Owen do we really need the speech.

Owen. The man clearly had white wine, why did you fill his glass with red?

Ah shit. He got shot. HE DIED?! WHAT THE FUCK

Episode 18

What’s with the eyes Carlos?

Oh God he called him Tyler.

Shave Carlos. Usually I prefer men with facial hair but you just look greasy.

Of course the man had secrets. He was a Texas ranger.

The only upside to this episode so far is that it started doom and gloom which means it’ll be happy at the end.

Judd. Take the signals he’s sending you. He ain’t all that comfortable. Shit I sound like Judd when he’s talking.

This man said 2003 and my mind said “oh 2023, wait how did he make a video in October of 2023? It ain’t October yet and he died.”

Judd. Caregiving ain’t for you. He didn’t ask you to quit, that was your choice.

Oof. The airplane sound? Judd. My guy, my love (platonically cause you belong with Grace), you can’t do that.

Bad Carlos! Don’t hunt down people alone!

NANCY LOOKS SO GOOD MARJAN AND HER MAN LOOK CUTE TOGETHER

Did we know Paul was officiating? I feel like we did but it’s been a minute so… I forgot. 🤷‍♀️

Why is Marjan crying at Tommy singing? I mean it’s beautiful. But you okay sis?

No Owen is not ready.

Oh I liked that ending sequence a lot.

Miscellaneous

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to watch this show so I’m doing one big post.

Vaguely I remember episode 13 being marketed by the Kendra drama, but I can’t remember if they talked about the McClain sisters singing. If they didn’t, missed opportunity.

TARLOS WEDDING

[lire-casander]

#14 always talking about their s/o in front of others

always talking about their s/o in front of others original prompt list here

"Asha! What a pleasant surprise!" Marjan greets her when she sees Paul's girlfriend arriving at the station. "Does Paul know or is this a surprise?"

"Definitely a surprise," Paul says as he wipes his hands and walks toward Asha to kiss her on the cheek. Marjan knows he's done so to avoid the catcalling, but she's not letting him get away with it, so she whistles anyway. "Marj! Stop it!"

"Ah, young love," Captain Strand pipes in, popping his head out of the kitchen space to wave at her. "Miss Asha, welcome to our humble abode. You've got perfect timing. We were about to start lunch."

"Oh, I know," Asha laughs. "Remember I've got inside information?"

Paul blushes but he accompanies her to the table, one hand on her waist the whole time. Already sat, they encounter Nancy, who's trying to cheer up a very sad-looking TK.

"I believe you remember Nancy and TK," Paul reminds her. "Guys, make room for our visit."

Nancy greets her warmly, standing up to shake her hand, and moves a few things on the table so that Asha can sit comfortably next to Paul. TK also stands up, shakes her hand a bit more formally, and sits down again. Asha exchanges a look with Paul, who shrugs, but she decides not to let it slide. Call it professional shaping.

"TK, you alright?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm doing fine," TK replies, a little too curtly and distant from the man she met the first time she came to this firehouse.

"Are you ready?" Mateo announces as he steps in. "Today we're having a house special. Chili con carne!"

"Carlos loves chili con carne," TK sighs miserably.

"Carlos?" Asha whispers.

Paul shakes his head. "Carlos is TK’s fiancé. He's a police officer on a double shift because they were short-staffed this week."

"We're on hour seven of a twenty-four-hour shift," Nancy tells her, low enough for TK not to catch the words as he slowly stirs the food on his plate.

"That must be very sad, TK," Asha tells him. "Being away from your significant other for so long. But I bet it's not the first time."

"It's the first time since we got engaged," TK explains. "He's such a great man. Always wanting to help. He once got kidnapped because of that."

"He's been kidnapped?"

"Don't go there!" Judd warns her.

"Don't encourage him!" Paul exclaims. "We'll never hear the end of it!"

"Carlos usually sits where you're sitting," TK goes on. "Have I told you he's an amazing cop?"

Asha smiles warmly at him. "I bet he is a wonderful person."

"You should meet him sometime. You two would hit it off spectacularly. You coming to the wedding, right?"

Asha stares at TK blankly. She knew there was a wedding invitation in Paul's future, but she hadn't assumed she'd be his plus one. It had been bold to think so, back in the beginning; it's still bold, almost five weeks into their relationship. "Uhm," she stutters, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, I'm sorry," TK immediately tries to amend, under Paul's hard gaze that Asha chooses to ignore. "I didn't want to—"

"I wanted to ask you," Paul tells her. "I just thought you'd be, let's say, less than thrilled given how intense some people of my family in fire are."

"You sure?" When Paul nods, Asha beams at him. "Then yes, count me on it, TK!"

"I have to tell Carlos," TK says. "Have I told you how we kinda hit it off from the beginning and then I kept running but he was so patient?"

"I don't think so," she replies, trying to shove a spoon of chili in her mouth before TK speaks again.

The chorus of groans can be heard from outside the station as TK goes on another tirade about his fiancé who he misses so much despite the fact that they'll be seeing each other sooner rather than later.

[truth4ourfreedom]

THINGS NOT IN THE NEWS ANYMORE. VERSION 6.0

Things not in the news anymore….

(Version 6)

-Maui wildfires. -East Palestine, Ohio -Joe Biden classified documents as a Senator. -Fauci working with China to create a bioweapon. -Pete Buttigieg’s best friend in prison for child porn. -Cocaine in the White House. (TWICE NOW) -The BLM and Antifa riots during 2020 causing BILLIONS of dollars of damage. -The data collected from the Chinese spy balloons. -Ukraine intelligence documents released that showed they were suffering massive losses and the American taxpayer was being lied to. -Nancy Pelosi’s “documentary” film crew on J6. -Veterans being kicked out of shelters to make room for illegals. -Pizzagate “debunker” jailed for possession of child pornography. -Gay porn film in Senate hearing room. -Veterans Affairs prioritizing healthcare of illegals over Veterans. -THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS. -Afghanistan drawdown and 13 service members killed in an attack on Kabul International Airport, that they hid the severity of it. -Obama droning an American citizen in the Middle East. -George Bush’s false WMDs. -3 service members killed in Jordan. -Hunter Biden making over $1M for “paintings”. -J6 political prisoners that are still in jail. -85,000 missing children at the southern border. -Epstein’s clients. -Obama coordinating with John Brennan and 4 other countries (5 eyes) to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. -Mail-in ballots were the cause of the stolen 2020 election. -Jeffrey Epstein mentioning that Bill Clinton liked his girls “really young”. -The (NOW TWO) airline whistleblowers that mysteriously died. -Benghazi (I won’t mention anything more about this because I care about my life.) -Nancy Pelosi’s daughter stating that January 6th wasn’t an insurrection. -The January 6th committee destroying encrypted evidence before the GOP took over the House. -Nancy Pelosi admitting that J6 was “her responsibility”. -House Speaker Mike Johnson claiming there wouldn’t be foreign aid without border security in the bill, which was a lie. -The recent riots from illegal criminal aliens at the southern border and the border in general. -Hunter Biden not complying with a Congressional subpoena and deemed untouchable. Democrat privilege. -Vaccine side effects. -“Lab leak” out of China -The Secret Service having to basically guide Joe Biden everywhere he goes. -Who leaked (Sotomayor) the SCOTUS Alito decision. -Federal instigators inside the Capitol including pipe bomb evidence against them. -Obama’s chef “passing away”. -HRC’s chef “passing away”. -The Sheriff that happened to be in Las Vegas (during the mass shooting) AND the wildfires in Hawaii. -P Diddy sex-trafficking allegations. Where’s Diddy? -Gonzalo Lira (an American journalist) that was killed in Ukraine -Congress approving warrantless spying violating American’s 4th amendment rights while they are exempt. -Americans that were left in foreign countries (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan). -The billions of dollars of weaponry left in Afghanistan and the Taliban receiving $40M a week in “humanitarian assistance”. -Biolabs found in California. -Joe Biden’s impeachment. -The scum in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES waving the Ukrainian flag. -The over 300k ballot images that could not be found in Fulton County, Georgia; the same county Donald Trump on trial for “election interference”. -Democrats defunding the police causing massive rises in crime. -Kamala Harris’s record as DA in California. -The Transifesto from the school shooting. -Many U.S. Representatives and Congress receiving FTX funds. -They’re already working hard to bury Donald Trump’s àssassination attempt but we won’t let them bury that story. July 13th is never going away.

The distractions are out of control.

Share to show that legacy media is dead and that WE are the media now.

Please like,share and reblog to keep people aware!

[wilwheaton]

Emails obtained by the Guardian reveal a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials throughout Georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast, and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement. [...] Receiving the email were a handful of county election officials who have expressed belief in Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election in 2020, and have continued to implement policies and push for rules based on the belief that widespread election fraud threatens to result in a Trump loss in Georgia in November. They include Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton county board of elections who refused to certify results this year; his colleague Julie Adams, who has twice refused to certify results this year and works for the prominent national election denier groups Tea Party Patriots and the Election Integrity Network; and Debbie Fisher of Cobb county, Nancy Jester of DeKalb county and Roy McClain of Spalding county – all of whom refused to certify results last November.

Network of Georgia election officials strategizing to undermine 2024 result | US elections 2024

Just gonna highlight this part:

a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials throughout Georgia coordinating on policy and messaging to both call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast, and push rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement.

They are plotting to call the results of November’s election into question before a single vote is cast. I hope the Department of Justice is all over this.

[reality-detective]

Things that are not in the news anymore… 👇

-Maui wildfires.

-East Palestine, Ohio

-Joe Biden classified documents as a Senator.

-Fauci working with China to create a bioweapon.

-Pete Buttigieg’s best friend in prison for child porn.

-Cocaine in the White House. (TWICE NOW)

-The BLM and Antifa riots during 2020 causing BILLIONS of dollars of damage. And yes I brought this up on Juneteenth.

-The data collected from the Chinese spy balloons.

-Ukraine intelligence documents released that showed they were suffering massive losses and the American taxpayer was being lied to.

-Nancy Pelosi’s “documentary” film crew on J6.

-Veterans being kicked out of shelters to make room for illegals.

-Pizzagate “debunker” jailed for possession of child pornography.

-Gay porn film in Senate hearing room.

-Veterans Affairs prioritizing healthcare of illegals over Veterans.

-THE SOUTHERN BORDER CRISIS.

-Afghanistan drawdown and 13 service members killed in an attack on Kabul International Airport, that they hid the severity of it.

-Obama droning an American citizen in the Middle East.

-George Bush’s false WMDs.

-3 service members killed in Jordan.

-Hunter Biden making over $1M for “paintings”.

-J6 political prisoners that are still in jail.

-85,000 missing children at the southern border.

-Epstein’s clients.

-Obama coordinating with John Brennan and 4 other countries (5 eyes) to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign.

-Mail-in ballots were the cause of the stolen 2020 election.

-Jeffrey Epstein mentioning that Bill Clinton liked his girls “really young”.

-The (NOW TWO) airline whistleblowers that mysteriously died.

-Benghazi (I won’t mention anything more about this because I care about my life.)

-Nancy Pelosi’s daughter stating that January 6th wasn’t an insurrection.

-The January 6th committee destroying encrypted evidence before the GOP took over the House.

-Nancy Pelosi admitting that J6 was “her responsibility”.

-House Speaker Mike Johnson claiming there wouldn’t be foreign aid without border security in the bill, which was a lie.

-The recent riots from illegal criminal aliens at the southern border and the border in general.

-Hunter Biden not complying with a Congressional subpoena and deemed untouchable. Democrat privilege.

-Vaccine side effects.

-“Lab leak” out of China.

-The Secret Service having to basically guide Joe Biden everywhere he goes.

-Who leaked (Sotomayor) the SCOTUS Alito decision.

-Federal instigators inside the Capitol including pipe bomb evidence against them.

-Obama’s chef “passing away”.

-HRC’s chef “passing away”.

-The Sheriff that happened to be in Las Vegas (during the mass shooting) AND the wildfires in Hawaii.

-P Diddy sex-trafficking allegations. Where’s Diddy?

-Gonzalo Lira (an American journalist) that was killed in Ukraine

-Congress approving warrantless spying violating American’s 4th amendment rights while they are exempt.

-Americans that were left in foreign countries (Haiti, Palestine, Afghanistan).

-The billions of dollars of weaponry left in Afghanistan and the Taliban receiving $40M a week in “humanitarian assistance”.

-Biolabs found in California.

-Joe Biden’s impeachment.

-The scum in the UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES waving the Ukrainian flag.

-The over 300k ballot images that could not be found in Fulton County, Georgia; the same county Donald Trump on trial for “election interference”.

-Democrats defunding the police causing massive rises in crime.

-Kamala Harris’s record as DA in California.

-The Transifesto from the school shooting.

-Many U.S. Representatives and Congress receiving FTX funds.

-They’re already working hard to bury Donald Trump’s àssassination attempt but we won’t let them bury that story. July 13th is never going away.

The distractions are out of control.

Share to show that legacy media is dead and that WE are the media now. 🤔

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Dean Obeidallah at The Dean's Report:

It’s a “coup!” declared hysterical Republicans.  Were they talking about Donald Trump’s efforts after the 2020 election to overturn the election for which he’s currently facing criminal charges in both federal court and Fulton County, Ga?! Nope! What Republicans from JD Vance down were calling a “coup” was President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race. (I’m serious!)  Arkansas US Senator Tom Cotton wrote on X shortly after the news broke, “Joe Biden succumbed to a coup by Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama, and Hollywood donors, ignoring millions of Democratic primary votes.”  “The coup is complete,” wrote Trump loving Representative Paul Gosar from Arizona. That was followed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who also echoed the claim we witnessed a “coup” with Biden dropping out.

Talk of a coup even made it all the way to the top of the 2024 GOP presidential ticket when—in an interview that aired Monday--Fox News host Jesse Watters asked Trump and his running mate JD Vance, “Is it a coup against Joe Biden?” Vance responded point blank, “Yeah, I think it is.” Trump though—perhaps reflecting on what he did after the 2020 election—was uncharacteristically sheepish, offering Watters only this two word answer: “Sort of.”

Back on planet earth, we know that Biden made the decision to drop out for the same reason politicians have chosen to end their campaigns since time immemorial. As NBC News reported, in reaching his decision, Biden reviewed along with his family and top aides extensive polling data, including how Vice President Kamala Harris would fare in a potential matchup against Trump. It’s true Biden was not happy with the growing calls to drop out after his deeply troubling debate performance three weeks before. However, as NBC News noted At the end of it all, “Biden came grudgingly to accept that he could not sustain his campaign with poll numbers slipping, donors fleeing and party luminaries pushing him to exit.”

That led us to Sunday afternoon when Biden released a letter that informed the nation, “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.” (President Biden is addressing the nation on Wednesday night where we will find out even more of the details.) That’s not a coup. That is what American politics and democracy have long looked like. True, given it was a president dropping out only a little more than a hundred days from the election, it was both jarring and history making. But at the end, Biden made what he believed was the best choice for himself, his family, his party and his country.

[...] Trump attempted a coup in every sense of the word. Despite losing the 2020 election, he attempted to overturn the results to remain in power. That is why the federal indictment against Trump charging him with four felonies states, “Despite having lost, the Defendant [Trump] was determined to remain in power.”   To that end as the indictment continues, Trump “pursued unlawful means of discounting legitimate votes and subverting the election results.” Trump’s “criminal scheme”--as the indictment describes--included replacing legally elected electors to the Electoral college with fake ones chosen by his campaign to deliver Trump the victory he didn’t actually win. Trump’s illegal plan also included preventing Congress on Jan 6 from certifying the legitimate votes cast for Joe Biden--despite Trump losing every court battle to invalidate these very votes. Then there was the brutal Jan 6 attack on our Capitol, which FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress was an act of “domestic terrorism.” As the Jan 6 House committee’s final report put it: “The central cause of January 6th was one man, former President Donald Trump, whom many others followed,” adding, “None of the events of January 6th would have happened without him.”

Dean Obeidallah debunks the right-wing bad faith “coup” attacks against Joe Biden, and rightly points out that replacing Biden with Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee (before the nomination was formalized) is NOT a coup, but the Capitol Insurrection on January 6th, 2021 and Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results were most definitely one.

See Also:

The UnPopulist: Republicans' Bogus Claims that Democrats Acted Illicitly in Replacing Biden

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 16, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Oct 17, 2024

Two Fox News Channel interviews bracketed today: one this morning with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in front of an audience of hand-picked Republican women in Georgia, the other by Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris with host Bret Baier. Together, the two were a performance of dominance. 

FNC billed Trump’s so-called town hall as a chance for female voters, a demographic that is swinging heavily to Harris, to ask Trump about issues they care about. But Hadas Gold and Liam Reilly of CNN reported that FNC had packed the audience with Trump supporters. The first question came from the president of the Fulton County Republican Women, though she was not identified as such. FNC then edited the broadcast to cut out remarks in which the attendees expressed support for Trump. 

It seems unlikely that Trump attracted any new voters by speaking to an audience of loyalists audibly cheering him on.

After Trump refused to debate her again, Harris voluntarily moved into his right-wing territory, agreeing to an interview with FNC host Bret Baier. In that interview, Baier reframed right-wing talking points as questions, essentially giving Trump a second shot at a debate. Baier kept talking over the vice president’s attempts to answer—even putting out a hand to interrupt her—in a stark contrast to FNC’s deference to Trump. Harris asked him to let her reply, and then answered his questions, sometimes testily, usually turning them into opportunities to contrast her own candidacy and record with Trump’s. 

Control of the interview changed abruptly when Harris called out Trump for referring to the “enemy within” and talking about using the American military against those he considers enemies. Baier used that opportunity to show a clip of Trump saying he wasn’t threatening anyone, but the clip was edited to remove his threats against “sick,” “evil,” “dangerous” “Marxists and communists and fascists” including Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) and “the Pelosis”—presumably former House speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her husband, who was attacked by a man with a hammer in 2022 by a man who wanted to force Nancy Pelosi to renounce the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s ties to Russia. 

Harris had had enough propaganda.

“Bret, I'm sorry, and with all due respect, that clip was not what he has been saying about the enemy within that he has repeated when he’s speaking about the American people. That's not what you just showed…. You and I both know that he’s talked about turning the American military on the American people. He has talked about going after people who are engaged in peaceful protest. He has talked about locking people up because they disagree with him. This is a democracy. And in a democracy, the president of the United States in the United States of America should be… able to handle criticism without saying he’d lock people up for doing it. And this is what is at stake, which is why you have someone like the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff saying what Mark Milley has said about Donald Trump being a threat to the United States of America.” 

Simply by going on the right-wing network, Harris was demonstrating dominance. Then, by answering as thoroughly as she did, she undercut the right-wing narrative that she is stupid and inarticulate. By calling out the FNC for deliberately misleading its viewers, she took command. Baier, rather than Harris, was the one doing the post-interview spinning.

Writer Peter Wehner, who worked for presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush, wrote: “Bret Baier has rarely looked as bad (or tendentious) as he did in his interview with Kamala Harris. On the flip side, this was one of her best interviews. She dominated Bret. All in all it was quite a bad day for MAGA world's most important media outlet.”

In between the two FNC events were two others that also told a story, this one about how the Republican Party’s descent into MAGA is creating a new political coalition to defend American principles.

Trump held a town hall with undecided Latino voters moderated by Mexican journalist Enrique Acevedo for Univision. Members of the audience asked excellent questions: how would he bring down household costs, who would take the jobs left behind by undocumented workers if Trump deported them and how much would that drive up food costs, why Trump took so long to stop the January 6 rioters, if he had caused deaths during the pandemic by misleading Americans, and if he agrees with his wife, Melania, about protecting abortion rights. 

But Trump did not answer the questions, instead regurgitating his usual talking points. He promised to produce more oil and gas, called undocumented immigrants criminals, repeated the lie about Haitian migrants eating pets, and, after notably referring to the January 6 rioters as “we” and law enforcement officers as “the others,” called January 6 “a day of love.” The audience did not appear convinced.

Meanwhile, Vice President Harris joined more than 100 Republicans in Pennsylvania, near the spot where George Washington and more than 2,000 Continental soldiers crossed the Delaware River on Christmas night 1776 to surprise a garrison of British soldiers at Trenton, New Jersey, where they won a strategic victory. 

Harris noted that those gathered were also near Philadelphia, where in 1787 delegates from across the country gathered to write and sign the U.S. Constitution. 

“That work was not easy. The founders often disagreed. Often quite passionately. But in the end, the Constitution of the United States laid out the foundations of our democracy, including the rule of law, that there would be checks and balances, that we would have free and fair elections and a peaceful transfer of power. And these principles and traditions have sustained our nation for over two centuries, sustained because generations of Americans, from all backgrounds, from all beliefs, have cherished them, upheld them, and defended them. 

“And now, the baton is in our hands,” she said. [A]t stake in this race are the democratic ideals that our founders and generations of Americans before us have fought for. At stake in this election is the Constitution of the United States…its very self.” 

Harris welcomed the Republicans in the crowd, saying that everyone there shared a core belief: “That we must put country before party.” The crowd chanted, “USA, USA, USA.” 

Harris noted that many of the Republicans on stage had taken the same oath to the Constitution that she had. “We here know the Constitution is not a relic from our past, but determines whether we are a country where the people can speak freely, and even criticize the president, without fear of being thrown in jail, or targeted by the military. Where the people can worship as they choose without the government interfering. Where you can vote without fear that your vote will be thrown away. All this and more depends on whether or not our leaders honor their oath to the Constitution.”

Trump, she pointed out, tried to overturn the will of the people expressed in a free and fair election, has vowed to use the military to go after any American who doesn’t support him, and has called for the “termination” of the Constitution. “It is clear,” she said, “Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged, and he is seeking unchecked power.” Trump, she said, “must never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States.”

“And to those who are watching,” she said, “if you share that view, no matter your party, no matter who you voted for last time: There is a place for you in this campaign. The coalition we have built has room for everyone who is ready to turn the page on the chaos and instability of Donald Trump.”

“I pledge to you to be a President for all Americans. And I take that pledge seriously.”

She reiterated her promise to appoint a Republican to her cabinet and to establish a Council on Bipartisan Solutions to strengthen the middle class, secure the border, defend our freedoms, and maintain the nation’s leadership in the world. She noted that the country needs a healthy two-party system, and described how the Senate Intelligence Committee left partisanship at the door. It “was “country over party in action,” when she sat on the committee, she said, “[s]o I know it can be done.”

“[O]ur campaign is not a fight against something,” she said. “It is a fight for something. It is a fight for the fundamental principles upon which we were founded, It is a fight for a new generation of leadership that is optimistic about what we can achieve together—Republicans, Democrats, and independents who want to move past the politics of division and blame and get things done on behalf of the American people.

“[W]e are all here together this beautiful afternoon because we love our country…and we know the deep privilege and pride that comes with being an American and the duty that comes along with it…. Imperfect though we may be, America is still that ‘shining city upon a hill’ that inspires people around the world. And I do believe it is one of the highest forms of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country.”

“So, to people from across Pennsylvania, and across our nation, let us together stand up for the rule of law, for our democratic ideals, and for the Constitution of the United States. And in twenty days, we have the power to chart a New Way Forward, one that is worthy of this magnificent country that we are all blessed to call home.” 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[badgraph1csghost]

Everyone standing back and blaming people voting for 3rd party candidates better watch this and then come back and tell me a 3rd party ballot did this.

Video transcript below cut

[announcer] This is the story of how the world's richest person, the owner of Tesla and X, bought the global town square and then corrupted it, using his own immense wealth to help elect a convicted felon.

April 14, 2022. Elon Musk makes an unsolicited offer to buy Twitter for $44 billion. He claims the site has become politically skewed and says, "for Twitter to deserve public trust, it must be politically neutral."

October 27th, the deal goes through. The next evening, a far-right conspiracy theorist breaks into the San Francisco home of democrat, Nancy Pelosi, intending to kidnap her. Pelosi is away, but the man attacks her husband, Paul, hitting him repeatedly on the head with a hammer. Paul Pelosi escapes with his life, but requires surgery for a fractured skull. While most people take the chance to decry political violence, the new owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, posts a tweet sharing an entirely false claim that Paul Pelosi was, in fact, injured in a drunken fight with a male prostitute with whom he was involved. Musk includes a link to a false claim on a website that has a history of publishing conspiracy theory, including a story asserting that Hillary Clinton is dead and has been replaced by a body double. Musk's post is retweeted 24,000 times before he deletes it.

November 18th. Musk's Twitter starts to unlock previously banned accounts. Misogynist and far-right influencer, Andrew Tate, was permanently banned from Twitter in 2017 after urging women to "bear some responsibility for rape." Now, he's back. Tate posts, "I've decided to fly to the failed state of California, walk into Twitter HQ, and tell @elonmusk he's a legend. On my way." 2 months later, Tate will be arrested in Romania on suspicion of human trafficking, rape, and forming an organised crime group.

December 8th. Three members of Twitter's trust and safety council resign. In their resignation letter, they cite research that found slurs against African Americans and gay men jumped 195 percent and 58 percent respectively since Musk's takeover. Three days later, the remaining members of Twitter's trust and safety council are dismissed. Musk then tweets that "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci", a reference to a conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was exacerbated by America's top infectious-disease doctor.

December 16th. Having claimed he is a "free speech absolutist", Musk bans @elonjet, a Twitter account that tracks the movements of his private jet using publicly available data. Musk also bans the accounts of a number of journalists who have written about @elonjet.

February 12, 2023. Ahead of the Super Bowl, both Musk and President Joe Biden tweet their support for the Philadelphia Eagles. Biden's tweet is seen 29 million times, Musk's just 9 million times. Incensed, Musk leaves the game early and calls an impromptu meeting of Twitter engineers at 02:36 AM. Their job? To change the Twitter algorithm to artificially inflate the reach of Musk's tweets by a factor of 1000, making him the pre-eminent presence on the site.

July 23rd, Musk announces Twitter is now called X.

August 25th, Donald Trump, once banned, returns to the platform by posting a picture of his mugshot from Fulton County Jail with the words "Election Interference, Never Surrender". Musk reposts the shot. Four days later, X reverses Twitter's longstanding ban on paid political advertising.

November 15th. In a post promoting the racist conspiracy theory that Jewish people are importing immigrants to America to fix elections for democrats, one X user writes, "Jewish communities have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them." Musk replies, saying, "You have said the actual truth." In response, several advertisers, including Disney, Warner Bros., and Comcast pause their advertising on X. Musk then tells advertisers concerned by hate-speech on the platform--

[Elon Musk] Fuck yourself. Go fuck yourself. Is that clear?

[announcer] Over subsequent months, Musk will become obsessed with the false claim that democrats are allowing immigrants into America to create more democratic voters, in effect, stealing the upcoming election, sharing the claim numerous times with his followers and pushing it to tens of millions more who choose not to follow him. A year later, it will be revealed that Musk, a South African immigrant, worked illegally in the US in the 1990s.

November 25th. On X, Musk boosts the Pizzagate conspiracy theory; a long-debunked claim alleging high-profile democrats ran a paedophile abuse ring from a Washington pizza restaurant.

March 25th, 2024. Musk loses a lawsuit against the Centre for Countering Digital Hate. He'd sued them after they flagged a rise in hate-speech after Musk bought Twitter. In his ruling, a US district judge calls Musk's case "vapid" and that "this case is about punishing the defendants for their speech."

May 2024. Musk creates a political action committee which he calls America PAC. Its objective is to mobilise 1 million republican voters in swing states in an effort to hand the election to Trump. Musk commits to putting tens of millions of dollars of his own money into the Get Out the Vote push and clears his calendar every Friday morning for 30-60 minutes to meet with the team he's assembled to run the effort.

July 14th. Musk calls Trump on behalf of JD Vance, urging Trump to select Vance as his running-mate. Vance says abortion is murder and scolds women who haven't become mothers.

[JD Vance] --A bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they've made.

[announcer] Musk's phonecall is part of a broad effort by Silicon Valley billionaires to ensure Vance is selected. The next day, Vance is unveilled as Trump's vice presidential candidate.

September 6. Trump says that, if he wins, he will appoint Musk to head up a government efficiency commission.

[Donald Trump] --And Elon, because he's not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.

[announcer] The idea came from Musk, whose companies are currently facing at least 20 federal investigations. If he gets the role, it would give the world's richest man the power to regulate the regulators who won't sway over his companies. Last year alone, his companies were promised $3 billion across nearly 100 different contracts with 17 federal agencies.

September 9th. Musk spreads a conspiracy theory that immigrants in Ohio are eating people's pets. The following day, Trump repeats the slur during the presidential debate with Kamala Harris.

[Donald Trump] In Springfield, they're eating the dogs.

[announcer] The false claim leads to multiple bomb threats against the Springfield immigrant community.

September 15th and 16th. Over a single weekend, Musk amplifies a conspiracy theory that ABC leaked debate questions to the Harris campaign, falsely claims that "the dems want to take your kids", further fuels racist lies about immigrants eating pets, shares with his nearly 200 million followers on X that "Trump must win…to preserve freedom and meritocracy in America" and insinuates that "it is suspicious that no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala", adding a Thinking Face emoji. The US Secret Service confirms that it is aware of the post. The White House issues a statement saying "Violence should only be condemned, never encouraged or joked about. This rhetoric is irresponsible."

October 4th. Musk posts, "Unless Trump wins and we get rid of the mountain of smothering regulations, that have nothing to do with safety, humanity will never reach Mars. This is existential." Musk is the owner of SpaceX, and stands to make billions from US government space contracts.

October 5th. The X handle @america is taken from an X user and given by Musk to his America PAC. That evening, he joined the former president onstage in Pennsylvania, jumping about wildly.

[Elon Musk] Fight, fight, fight, vote, vote, vote.

[announcer] By now, he's moved with his senior team to a war room in a hotel in Pennsylvania to focus full-time on the Trump campaign. He speaks to Trump multiple times a week, is doing a series of pro-Trump townhalls across the state, and has recruited lieutenants from his companies to join.

October 15th. Legal filings for Musk's political action committee show that he has personally donated at least $75 million to the effort to re-elect Trump.

October 18th. It's revealed that another Musk-funded group called Future Coalition PAC is targeting Muslim voters in Michigan and Jewish voters in Pennsylvania with diametrically-opposed political advertisements about Kamala Harris. In areas with large Muslim populations, the group is painting Harris as a close friend of Israel and is suggesting that she is beholden to the beliefs of her Jewish husband. But in areas with large Jewish populations, the ads say Harris panders to Palestine. Simultaneously, Musk is offering $100 to any Pennsylvania voter who signs his online petition in an effort to build the list of likely Trump voters. He also starts giving away $1 million a day to a randomly-chosen voter who signed the petition.

October 19th. It's revealed that the Building America's Future PAC, another Musk-funded campaign group, is impersonating the Harris campaign by setting up a fake website containing fake policy positions, then sending out text messages driving voters to the fake site.

October 24th. It's revealed that Musk gave his America PAC another $44 million in the first 16 days of October.

October 25th. The Wall Street Journal reports that Musk has been in regular contact with Russian president, Vladimir Putin, since 2022.

October 27th. Musk speaks at the now-infamous Trump rally in Madison Square Garden, a gathering characterised by racism, misogyny, and threats of violence.

[Elon Musk] USA! USA! [exclaims]

[announcer] Musk has posted more than 3,000 times on X in the last month, including dozens of unfounded claims about the election which have been viewed hundreds of millions of times. Apart from Trump himself, Musk is now the single-biggest spreader of election disinformation.

November 5th. Trump wins the presidential election. Elon Musk, a far-right conspiracy theorist, has succeeded in using his immense wealth to help swing the election in favour of the convicted felon.

[lboogie1906]

Stanley O’Neal (October 7, 1951) rose through the ranks of corporate America to become the first African American to head a major firm on Wall Street when Merrill Lynch named him chief executive officer in 2002. In 2002 Fortune magazine named him the “Most Powerful Black Executive in America.” On October 30, 2007, he announced that he was stepping down from Merrill Lynch when it was revealed that the company had suffered an $8 billion loss as a result of risky investments in subprime mortgages.

He was born the eldest child of Earnest O’Neal, a farmer, and Ann Scales, a domestic. Although the family lived in Wedowee, Alabama, population of 750, he was born in Roanoke because Wedowee’s only hospital refused to admit African Americans. He sold and delivered newspapers.

The family’s move to Atlanta enabled him to attend the newly integrated West Fulton High School, where he proved himself a top student. GM offered him a spot at its General Motors Institute where he combined the study of engineering and industrial administration with work at the Doraville plant. He received his BS in Industrial Administration, graduating in the top 20% of his class. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

He moved to New York City where a job with GM as a treasurer’s analyst awaited him. He ascended the corporate ladder, becoming director of the treasury office in just two years. He married Nancy Garvey (1983), an economist, while at GM. The couple had twins: a son and a daughter. He decided to leave the company for a position with Merrill Lynch in their corporate finance division. He moved into management at Merrill Lynch, first as chief financial officer (1998), president of the US private client group (2000), president and chief operating officer (2001), chief executive officer (2002), and chairman in 2003.

He was named by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to oversee the redevelopment of New York City following the destruction of September 11, 2001. He served on the board of directors until 2006. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[antoine-roquentin]

This series is shaping up to be about covert attempts by institutional power structures to undermine the health and safety of the international working class. The previous part, Part 4, is here. You can find a cool easter egg by seeing who the magazine in the bottom right image was delivered to.

The above is a dossier compiled by a right wing business intelligence group and purchased by the CIA not long after the events I’m about to share occurred. It is hosted on the CIA’s website for declassified files, the Reading Room. It was prepared by Fulton Lewis III, an outspoken supporter of the Rhodesian government and the son of a Hearst-sponsored anti-communist radio broadcaster, sort of the Tucker Carlson of the 40s and 50s. We don’t have the CIA’s own assessments because those are still classified.

When we last left the crew of the spaceship Ramparts, they were dealing with infiltration, incompetence, hedonism, an inability to secure funding, and the heady addiction of fame. Things were about to get worse as their own interpersonal disputes had come to the fore. Keating had seen his power at the magazine get whittled away as incentives in the form of shares for other backers became necessary. At the time, Hinckle counted among his friends Howard Gossage, an advertising whiz kid who helped popularize Marshall McLuhan and did the Sierra Club's first campaign. He frequently went to Gossage for advice. The two came up with a plan to push Keating into the 1966 Democratic primaries for the 11th district of California (later held by Leo Ryan, a CIA critic killed at Jonestown, and now held by Nancy Pelosi) as a way of reducing his influence on the day to day operations of Ramparts. In the midst of a meeting, they had two staff members slip away and come back with signs that said "Keating for Congress" and "Keating the people's choice".

By the start of 1966, however, the election bug had spread through the offices, both because it allowed Ramparts to make the news it reported on as salacious as possible, and because the Democratic Party had largely denied ballot access to anybody who was anti-Vietnam War. Bob Scheer, the foreign editor, ran in Oakland, and Stanley Sheinbaum, the Michigan State University professor who'd exposed the CIA's role on campus, ran in Santa Barbara. All gained 40-45% of the vote, mainly by cohering those opposed to the war. One thing in particular all three did was bring together the black vote (for instance, Julian Bond, mentioned previously in the series, campaigned for Scheer). Their campaigns were run by a coterie of Ramparts staffers, namely CPUSA member Carl Bloice as well as Berekeley lecturer Peter Collier, and were endorsed by a combination of black and Hollywood luminaries, for instance Dick Gregory, the civil rights activist and stand-up comedian, and Robert Vaughan, Napoleon Solo on the Man from Uncle and both a murderer and a victim on Columbo (see him argue about Vietnam on Firing Line with William Buckley here). Some of the opposition research on the three came directly from CIA files and was given to the establishment candidates by LBJ's press secretary Bill Moyers.

With the elections lost, Ramparts needed a new spin on things to bring back all the anti-electoral politics radicals. Fortunately, in nearby Oakland, a new group had just been founded called the Black Panther Party. Huey Newton and Bobby Seale like to portray their group as their own innovation, two upwardly mobile college kids shooting the shit late at night. The group they'd been part of prior to the BPP, the Maoist Revolutionary Action Movement, described them as "adventurists" for their desire to put theory to practice and finally organize in the community instead of just talking about it. Whatever the case, Newton learned from Robert Williams' Negroes with Guns that California law, influenced by white supremacist vigilanteism, allowed anyone to openly carry a weapon even in the presence of police. He went to Chinatown, bought copies of Mao's Little Red Book for cents, and sold them for dollars in Oakland as part of a course in organized self-defence, then used the money to buy shotguns and M-16s for use by graduates of the course. By February 1967, Ramparts staff writer Eldridge Cleaver had made contact at a speaking event for Malcolm X's widow Betty Shabazz, where the Black Panther Party founders and their cohort were the only ones armed. Cleaver invited them to the Ramparts offices for a sit down.

Remember the bit from the last part about Shabazz' bodyguards? That was Seale, Newton, and Co. Their arrival caused  Hinckle's police buddies to get worried, and they put out an APB and surrounded the building, much to Newton's consternation. Hinckle suggested they go out for a drink, but nobody was buying it. Newton stared down a cop, who undid his holster. Seale put his hand on Newton, who told him off. "Don't hold my hand, brother." Seale released it, because that was his shooting hand. Newton taunted the officer. "You got an itchy trigger finger?... OK, you big, fat, racist pig, draw your gun!" All the Ramparts' staffers who'd come to watch as well as the officers' backup got the hell out of Dodge. Eventually, even the officer backed down. It was the first time the BPP had ever gotten the police to back down. It brought admiration from the entire Ramparts staff, who soon made the magazine the semi-official outlet of the BPP. And it brought Cleaver into their fold. They appointed him spokesman/Minister of Information within weeks. The following is the only news footage from that day shot after the incident, the rest having been lost, with Scheer in the background at one point:

And that wasn't even the most shocking thing going on at Ramparts. This series has previously mentioned the National Student Association as a bunch of debate nerds who essentially trained to have public speaking and organizing on their resume for future employers. The thing about the NSA was, it was a CIA front, and generally suspected as such. In 1947, there was an implosion of student politics' international facing groups. Those who had seen the Soviets fight in the Second World War generally accepted their claims to want world peace on their face, while the groups aligned with the Catholic Church teamed up with disparate right wing WASPs and Jews to fight back. The CIA had taken these students (to note, these were largely men in their late 20s or early 30s, grad rather than undergrad) under their wing and organized them into a front group that could report back on invitational events held in Eastern Europe. In turn, the top echelons of the NSA had to be sworn into legal secrecy as a prerequisite of participation, with the reward being entry into the old boys network of politicians and bureaucrats which virtually guaranteed a job.  

The CIA fucked up. In 1965, the elected president of the NSA was Philip Sherburne. He was sworn into secrecy on the source of funding for their new HQ and general operations, as was normal for the group. But he disliked that they had only one source of funding, and he wanted the NSA to be independent. At the time, the grassroots in the organization who followed international politics and hewed to the left had managed to get some of their membership into power, but they had felt straitjacketed by the CIA's complete control of NSA finances. Many wanted to join in on the anti-war marches. Sherburne and others, spurred on by abrogation of Juan Bosch's regime in the Dominican Republic and the electoral fraud that brought the American-backed opposition to power, worked to find alternative sources of funding. They sent one an NSA man as part of the operation, but he got cold feet and worked with Sherburne to expose it. In response, the CIA had a number of top NSA men declared eligible for the draft in Vietnam. Bureaucratic fights ensued, involving the lives of students in America, Spain, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Finally, Sherburne went above the CIA's head to vice president Hubert Humprhey. In response, the CIA went and cut all of Sherburne's independent lines of funding. Unbenkownst to them, Sherburne had made a relatively radical student named Michael Wood his outside line to donors. He'd told Wood not to approach certain groups because they were backed by "certain government agencies". Wood had surmised that this meant the CIA and gone and picked up the only book out on the Agency: The Invisible Government, by David Wise and Thomas Ross. When he saw that the NSA's funding for 1966 had the same donor groups backed by the CIA, he realized Sherburne had lost and stole the files.

Twice the New York Times had published articles critical of the CIA in some form. In 1965, Texas congressman Wright Patman, initially elected on his support of the Bonus Army and ever a thorn in the establishment's side, had investigated 8 charitable foundations and found them to be CIA cutouts. The NYT had written an article on this as well as replies from the funded orgs (Encounter Magazine and the Congress for Cultural Freedom). In 1966, spurred by Ramparts' articles on MSU, NYT reporter Tom Wicker wrote of the allegations and added details of other botched operations around the world he'd heard from sources over the years. This brought the ire of the agency. In 1961, in response to details of the Bay of Pigs invasion being published in The Nation before it occurred, President Kennedy told his aides to bother him when details showed up in the New York Times because it otherwise did not matter. The CIA had actually worked hard to kill the very same story before the NYT could publish it so by the time the invasion failed, Kennedy apparently exclaimed that he wished more details had been published in the NYT so that the invasion would have been stopped. CIA agent Cord Meyer made the postscript of Part 3 of this series as the handler of much of the CIA's work through cutouts and allied groups like AFL-CIO, especially in in regards to  the effort to influence the media known as Operation Mockingbird. Meyer and his wife, Mary Pinchot, were next door neighbours to the Kennedy's before JFK became president. Pinchot divorced Meyer after their child was killed in a car accident in 1957. She moved in with her brother-in-law, Ben Bradlee, later of Pentagon Papers and Watergate fame and played by Tom Hanks in the Steven Spielberg film The Post. In 1961, James Jesus Angleton, head of counterintelligence at the CIA, tapped her phone and discovered she was in a sexual relationship with JFK, including visits at the White House. When Pinchot was murdered in October 1964 in what was termed a robbery (a black man was arrested but acquitted), a friend of the family heard (he said) about the murder on the radio and phoned Bradlee first and Meyer second. Bradlee went to go find her diary and found Angleton sitting in her house (his garage) reading it. They later destroyed it. After that, Meyer became an alcoholic and compiled an enemies list of the CIA that included the Vice President. He was already fearful of a leak and told his subordinates to go after NSA staff but did not determine who Sherburne had told until his wiretaps of Ramparts phone lines informed him.

Ramparts, of course, knew that they had been tapped and kept phone calls brief. Scheer phoned Judith Coburn of the Village Voice and asked for her discretion. Wanting to break into a field dominated by men, Coburn felt like she was being called by a rock star, but nonetheless found it absurd that Scheer believed his calls to be tapped. She knew the CIA to be involved in assassinations like Lumumba's and thought their dealings with a minor org like the NSA were absurd. Ultimately, she helped by confronting a number of figures on their work. Eventually, a young WASP Harvard undergraduate who was on retainer from Ramparts named Michael Ansara got the call. His blog about it is excellent reading, located here. I quote:

One evening in the cold months of early 1967, my phone rang. A strange voice, obviously from New York asked, “Is this Michael Ansara?”

“Yes.”

“This is Sol Stern from Ramparts. Bob Scheer says you are our man in Boston.”

“Well . . . OK.”

“Listen I need you to do some work for us right away. I cannot tell you what it is about. I am calling you from a phone booth. Will you do it?”

“Well, what kind of work and are you willing to pay me for it?”

“It is research into two Boston based foundations. We will pay you $500.” 500 dollars was a lot of money. I had no idea how to research foundations, but I thought, what the hell. I could really use the money.

“Sure. What exactly do you want me to do?”

“I can’t tell you anything more than to find everything you can on the Sidney & Esther Rabb Foundation and Independence Foundation. They are based in Boston. I will call you in several days. You cannot call me. You cannot tell anyone what you are doing. You cannot mention the name Ramparts. Can I count on you?”

“I guess so. Sure. Yes.”

Ansara knew a much older man, an economist and lawyer who had sway in the Democratic Party named George Sommaripa. Sommaripa suggested Ansara go to a guy he knew at the IRS. Ansara did, and was told that under no circumstances could he have access to the files on two CIA cutout foundations. Chastened, Ansara complained to Sommaripa, who'd gotten the IRS clerk his job. A few days later, Ansara went back. The IRS clerk told him he could have any box he wanted, provided he did not go past the 990 form on the cover. He went past for the first two foundations and found that money came from an anonymous donor and in equal amounts went right out to the NSA. Ultimately, he pulled the files for 110 foundations, every single known group that the CIA used. He would look at the incorporation files for the foundations, see a lawyers' name, and look him up. Every time, the lawyer was an OSS operative during WW2, the predecessor org of the CIA. One of the lawyers had founded a firm with Sommaripa, a man named David Bird. Ansara confronted Bird, and Bird did not even stop to hang up on Ansara before phoning a contact at the CIA.

Left to right: Hinckle, Stern, Scheer.

A major corroboration of the story came from three students in New York who were disgusted by American foreign policy in Latin America. One in particular, Fred Goff, had been sent to the Dominican Republic with Allard Lowenstein (part 3) to observe the election of the pro-American candidate over the anti-American one. Goff had discovered that a man that Lowenstein had said he trusted on the country was actually a CIA agent, Sacha Volman. Another, Michael Locker, had done a paper about the CIA based on the NYT articles. Together, they walked in the doors of the AFL-CIO's American Institute for Free Labor Development and asked directly about the CIA, prompting a crashing sound and the institute's director, Thomas Kahn, planner of the 1963 March on Washington and the long-term romantic partner of Bayard Rustin, to scream at them.

The problem was when it came time to do the story. Sometimes, the researchers were paid by Ramparts. Other times, they received cheques from the Interchurch Center, a strange agency that serves as a front for charitable giving from the Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, Methodist, and United Churches in America. James Forman, mentioned in previous parts, once led a picket in favour of reparations from them. Ramparts staff demanded they talk to them by picking up pay phones that would ring at designated times, a dismal failure. Other times, Hinckle, Scheer, and Sol Stern would fly in, book rooms at the Algonquin, and order massive amounts of takeout and booze. 15 to 20 people would be in a hotel room trying to negotiate who would be writing the story by continent, or by year, or by foundation. At one point, Coburn broke into the NSA HQ and unwittingly stole the original deed to their land, where it remained undiscovered in Ramparts' files till the 2010s.

On New Year's Eve, 1966, Lowenstein was hanging out with the new members of the NSA leadership when he informed them that Ramparts was writing about their relationship with the CIA. "The usual sloppy Ramparts piece, lots of flash, little substance," he said. The CIA had known since at least Thanksgiving. A lower level NSA official who'd just been sworn in went to meet with Hinckle and Scheer. The duo, while nonchalantly throwing darts, offered the Ramparts donor list as an incentive to tell all, but he refused. Sherburne attempted to find counsel in a lawyer who'd once opposed the CIA's new Langley HQ on NIMBY grounds. Meyer had threatened the lawyer's brother, working in Bogota with USAID, but the lawyer persisted. Undaunted, Meyer got word to Douglass Cater, the first president of the NSA and now an advisor to LBJ. LBJ bumped it to Lowenstein and the CIA to develop a response, which was to hold a press conference with an article in Henry Luce's (the man, not the monkey) Time Magazine that this was all well known since the 1965 congressional hearings, that the money was not that impressive, that the Soviets had done much more, etc.

This could have killed Ramparts. The IRS was already looking for any sign of foreign influence as an excuse to shut down the magazine. It needed some sort of relationship with the establishment press in a way that would let it gain influence without keeping it from the areas it wanted to report on. At the very same time, both Time and the NYT were reporting on the survival of Ramparts: Keating had attempted a coup and lost a board vote 13-1, with Mitford and other backers providing anonymous quotes that while they disliked the "Animal Farm-ish" nature of the issue, they needed Ramparts to stave off a fascist dictatorship in America. Hinckle followed by setting up an astounding agreement with the New York Times and Washington Post: they would get full access to Ramparts' files on the CIA right now, before the White House could set up a press conference, in exchange for letting them run full page ads for days for their next issue.

The day the Times went to press, February 13, 1963, was termed by former CIA director Richard Helms in his memoirs as "one of my darkest days". The press pushed, smelling blood. President Johnson ordered a suspension and review of CIA funding for outside orgs. The CIA initially tried to find a way to blame a dead president, Truman, but realized that its own documentation on the program, written by Cord Meyer, claimed that then-director Allen Dulles did not have any responsibility to inform the president of what he had ordered. Switching tactics, they turned on their press weapon, known as the Mighty Wurlitzer, and claimed that the CIA would have been remiss to not conduct these operations. "I'm glad the CIA is immoral" was the headline of an article by Meyer's boss, Thomas Braden. He described $250 million a year the CIA believed to be spent by the Soviet Union on cultural subversion, to which a mere handful of dollars from the CIA could not compare. No evidence for the accusations was provided, of course. Finally, Helms pulled in a favour from Robert Kennedy and had him testify to the press that his brother had authorized the funding, carried over from the days of Eisenhower. 12 former NSA presidents (including Lowenstein) came out and said the relationship was above board. All had worked for the CIA at least once after they'd left the NSA, but that was not revealed in their letter.

The strategy was a half-success. All the foundations funded by the CIA fell apart and students around the world became suspicious of CIA infiltration. Much of what Ramparts found was investigated by Congress repeatedly over the next decade, culminating in the reforms that came out of the Church Committee, which Helms claimed in his memoirs was sparked by Ramparts and Watergate. Certainly press readership was high, and many stories were published in the NYT and WaPo confirming and furthering the work done. At the same time, the CIA escaped with only a few new rules on its behaviour. President Johnson was a paranoic and was more concerned about using the CIA as a tool against his domestic enemies. He authorized a much larger role for MHCHAOS in punishing his enemies (remember the cryptonyms? MH was the most illegal, as it meant the USA). Many of those fingered were considered liberals in good standing and were part of the labour movement, particularly AFL-CIO higher-ups. They fell in line with the rhetoric about communist subversion because they knew they'd be the ones punished if things went further.

Interestingly, a few months later, the NSA held a vote on integrating an anti-Vietnam War and anti-draft stance into its platform. Traditionally, the CIA had worked from the shadows to suppress these votes. This time, Allard Lowenstein whipped in favour of the anti- stance and it won. Lowenstein soon became a fixture in the anti-LBJ movement, leading the call to bring Eugene McCarthy and Robert Kennedy into the Democratic presidential primaries. To a large extent, the organizations that were closed to the CIA had been products of decades-old relationships and worked in ways that nobody had bothered to improve. Within the CIA, a tension had always existed between bureaucrats with their own fiefdoms and up and comers with new ways of doing things. To a large extent, this scandal simply pushed the former out and made room for the latter, who would not do things like create financial records with the exact same dollar amounts going in and out, or act so bluntly when it came to manipulating staff. While the CIA may have suffered a little in the short term, it was an act of "creative destruction" that improved how the CIA did business. For Ramparts, on the other hand, things were going to get much worse now that they had drawn the ire of the intelligence community. While the magazine reached its peak distribution of 250,000 copies a month, it still did not bring in enough money to cover its expenses, and it was about to be faced with a much larger funding crisis: the Six Day War.

AFTER ALLEN DULLES RETIRED, the director bragged about the NSA operation. “We got everything we wanted. I think what we did was worth every penny. If we turned back the communists and made them milder and easier to live with, it was because we stopped them in certain areas, and the student area was one of them.”... Edward Garvey, who also worked at CIA headquarters, puts it more dramatically: “My God, did we finger people for the Shah?”... Stephen Robbins, despite his limited CIA involvement during his year as president, echoes Garvey’s concern: “It’s South Africa that keeps me up at night.”