#am I accused of infantilizing. will OTHER people take this and run with it in the cutesy parental figure. or sweet cinnamon roll bottom.

[vizthedatum]

Sigh, more complicated feelings: my brother was informing me over video chat about how my mother read some shit on the internet and thinks I should be going to rehab for "marijuana-induced psychosis" (I haven't been taking weed in weeks) because last year I told her I used it for pain and anxiety since my increased NSAID use had caused so many GI issues. My doctors know I use cannabis, and the majority of my friends use it.

To be honest, it's better to use cannabis than opioids in the long run. Whatever though. All my doctors know that I have a medical card and that I've used it for both medical management and also for recreational. I'm also living in a state that's working toward recreational use. My usage has also dramatically gone down since I left my ex-spouse (admittedly I did use it way too much when I was in that relationship).

It's honestly so infantilizing because she has accused me of being an addict since elementary/middle school (she was convinced that people were giving me drugs at school or mixing them into my food)...

She's telling my brother this because she doesn't think I'm autistic. That's part of the whole reason she's saying this (and also, she's probably offended that I'm trans *sarcastic gasp* and that I'm not talking to her, and that I've been financially insecure ever since my divorce and blah blah blah).

Anyway, it's complicated because at the end of my video chat call - my brother got a call, and my mom fell down in her driveway and is going to the hospital.

It's hard - my mom has had a lot of health crises. I love her a lot, but she was also my original abuser. I suffered a lot at her hand (literally) and also emotionally - she could tear me down like no other. I was beat until I was a teenager, and I tried my best to be the "best daughter" I could be... while masking my neurodivergence, gender, and trauma... what more could I do? I literally went to an Ivy League, learned a bunch of skills, ended up getting a PhD, and I manage (I struggle but still) my own life. Yes, I am struggling because I'm chronically ill, traumatized, and still grieving... but what the actual fuck. (She's calling me a "marijuana eater")

But I still feel for her when she's like this, even though she thinks I'm an addict who needs to go to rehab (which isn't a bad thing morally ofc - but like... lol, what's gonna happen when they take me to rehab? Find nothing in my system? Ridiculous). I hope she's okay.

[ranvwoop]

I love writing autism Hate thinking about common perception of autism

[blackstarising]

coming back to this post i made again to elaborate - especially as the ted lasso fandom is discussing sam/rebecca and fandom racism in general. there are takes that are important to make that i had failed to previously, but there's also a growing amount of takes that i have to, As A Black Person™, respectfully disagree with.

tl;dr for the essay below sam being infantilized and the sam/rebecca relationship are not the same issue and discussing the former one doesn't mean excusing the latter. and we've reached the glen of the Dark Forest where we sit down and talk about fandom racism.

i should have elaborated this in my last post about sam/rebecca, but i didn't. i'll say it now - i personally don't support sam and rebecca getting together for real. i believe what people are saying is entirely correct, even though sam is an adult legally, he and rebecca are, at the very least, two wildly different stages of life. for americans, he's at the equivalent of being a junior in college. there are things he hasn't gotten the chance to experience and there are areas he needs to grow in. when i was younger, i didn't understand the significance of these age gaps, i just thought it would be fine if it was legal, but as someone who is now a little older than sam in universe, i understand fully. we can't downplay this. whether or not you think sam works for rebecca or not, even despite the gender inversion of the Older Man Younger Woman trope, whether or not he is a legal adult, i don't think at this point in time, their relationship would work. i think it's an interesting narrative device, but i don't want to see it play out in reality.

that being said!

what's worrying me is that two discussions are being conflated here that shouldn't be. sam having agency and being a little more grown™ than he's perceived to be does not suddenly make his relationship with rebecca justified. i had decided to bring it up because sam was being brought into the spotlight again and i was starting to realizing that his infantilization was more common than i felt comfortable with.

sam's infantilization (and i will continue to call it that), is a microaggression. it's is in the range of microaggressions that i would categorize as 'fandom overcompensation'. we have a prominent character of color that exhibits traits that aren't stereotypical, and we don't want to appear racist or stereotypical, so we lean hard in the other direction. they're not aggressive, they're a Sweet Baby, they're not world weary, they're now a little naive. they're not cold and distant, they're so nice and sweet that there's no one that wouldn't want approach them, and yeah, on their face, these new traits are a departure and, on their face, they seem they look really good.

but at a certain point, it reaches an inflection point, and, like the aftertaste of a diet coke, that alleged sweetness veers into something a lot less sweet. it veers into a lack of agency for the character. it veers into an innocence that appears to indicate that the person can't even take care of themselves. it veers into a one-dimensional characterization that doesn't allow for any depth or negative emotion.

it's not kind anymore. it's not a nice departure from negative stereotypes. it's not compensating for anything.

it's patronizing.

it is important that we emphasize that characters of color are more than the toxic stereotypes we lay on them, yes, but we make a mistake in thinking that the solution is overcorrection. for one thing, people of color can usually tell. don't get it twisted, it's actually pretty obvious. for another, it just shifts from one dimension to another. people of color are still supposed to be Only One Character Trait while white people can contain multitudes. ted, who is pretty much as pollyanna as they come, can be at once innocent and naive and deep and troubled and funny and scared. jamie can be a prick and sexy and also lonely and also a victim of abuse. sam, however, even though he was bullied (by jamie, no less), is thousands of miles away from home, and has led a protest on his team, is usually just characterized as human sunshine with much less acknowledgement of any other traits beyond that.

and that's why i cringe when fandom calls sam a Sweet Baby Boy without any sense of irony. is that all we're taking away? after all this time? even for a comedy, sam has received a substantive of screen time over two whole seasons, and we've seen a range of emotions from him. so as a black person it's hurtful that it's boiled down to Sweet Baby Boy.

that's the problem. we need to subvert stereotypes, but more importantly, we need to understand that people of color are not props, or pieces of cardboard for their white counterparts. they are full and actualized and have agency in their own right and they can have other emotions than Angry and Mean or Sweet and Bubbly without any nuance between the two. i think the show actually does a relatively good job of giving sam depth (relatively, always room for improvement, mind you), especially holding it in tension with his youth, but the fandom, i worry, does not.

it's the same reason why finn from star wars started out as the next male protagonist in the sequel trilogy but by the third movie was just running around yelling for REY!! it's the same reason why when people make Phase 4 Is the Phase For Therapy gifsets for the mcu and show wanda maximoff, loki, and bucky barnes crying and being sad but purposefully exclude sam wilson who had an entire show to tell us how difficult his life is, because people find out if pee oh sees are also complex, they'll tell the church.

and the reason why i picked up on this very early on is because i am an organic, certified fresh, 100% homegrown, non-gmo, a little ashy, indigenous sub saharan African black person. the ghanaian tribes i'm descended from have told me so, my black ass parents have told me so, and the nurses at the hospital in [insert asian country here] that started freaking out about how curly my hair was as my mother was mid pushing me out told me so!

and this stuff has real life implications. listen: being patronized as a black person sucks. do you know how many times i was patted on the back for doing quite honestly, the bare minimum in school? do you know how many times i was told how 'well spoken' or 'eloquent' i was because i just happen to have a white accent or use three syllable words? do you know how many times i've been cooed over by white women who couldn't get over how sweet i was just because i wasn't confrontational or rude like they wrongly expected me to be?

that's why they're called microaggressions. it's not a cross on your lawn or having the n-word spat in your face, but it cuts you down little by little until you're completely drained.

so that's the nuance. that's the subversion. the overcompensation is not a good thing. and people of color (and i suspect, even white people) have picked up on, in general, the different ways fandom treats sam and dani and even nate. what all of these discussions are converging on is fandom racism, which is not the diet form of racism, but another place for racism to reveal itself. and yeah, it's uncomfortable. it can seem out of left field. you may want to defend yourself. you may want to explain it away. but let me tap the sign on the proverbial bus:

if you are a white person, or a person of color who is not part of that racial group, even, you do not get to decide what is not racist for someone. full stop. there are no exceptions. there is no exit clause for you. there is no 'but, actually-'. that right wasn't even yours to cede or waive.

(it's also important to note that people of color also have the right to disagree on whether something is racist, but that doesn't necessarily negate the racism - it just means there's more to discuss and they can still leave with different interpretations)

people don't just whip out accusations of racism like a blue eyes white dragon in a yu-gi-oh duel. it's not fun for us. it's not something we like to do to muzzle people we don't want to engage with. and we're not concerned with making someone feel bad or ashamed. we're exposing something painful that we have to live with and, even worse, process literally everything we experience through. we can't turn it off. we can't be 'less sensitive' or 'less nitpicky'. we are literally the primary resources, we are the proverbial wikipedia articles with 3,000 sources when it comes to racism. who else would know more than us?

what 2020 has shown us very clearly is that racism is systemic. it's not always a bunch of Evil White Men rubbing their hands together in a dark room wondering how they're going to use the 'n-word' today. it's systemic. it's the way you call that one neighborhood 'sketchy'. it's how you use 'ratchet' and 'ghetto' when describing something bad. it's how you implicitly the assume the intelligence of your friend of color. it's the way you turned up your nose and your friend's food and bullied them for it in middle school but go to restaurants run by white people who have 'uplifted' it with inauthentic ingredients. it's telling someone how Well Spoken and Eloquent they are even though you've both gone to the same schools and work at the same workplace. it's the way you look down at some people of color for having a different body type than you because they've been redlined to neighborhoods where certain foods and resources are inaccessible, and yet mock up the racial features that appeal to you either through makeup or plastic surgery.

it's how when a person of color behaves badly, they're irredeemable, but a white person performing the same act or something similar is 'having a bad day' or 'isn't normally like this' or 'has room to grow' and we can't 'wait for their redemption arc', and yes, i'm not going to cover it in detail in this post but yes this is very much about nate. other people have also brought up the nuances in his arc and compared them to other white characters so i won't do it here.

these behaviors and reactions aren't planned. they aren't orchestrated. they're quite literally unconscious because they've been lovingly baked into western society for centuries. you can't wake up and be rid of it. whether you intended it or not, it can still be racist.

and it's actually quite hurtful and unfair to imply that concerns about racism in the TL fandom are unfounded or lacking any depth or simply meant to be sensational because you simply don't agree with it. i wish it was different, but it doesn't work that way. i'm not raising this up to 'call out' or shame people, but i'm adding to this discussion because, through how we talk about sam, and even dani and nate, i'm yet again seeing a pattern that has shortchanged people of color and made them feel unwelcome in fandom for far too long.

coach beard said it best: we need to do better.

[meanautisticenbian]

Fuck it, I'm gonna dissect all the bullshit in that one Lilith post bit by bit

TW// Lilith hate, victim blaming, abuse, cult mention, ableism towards Autistic people, sexualization of minors (briefly mentioned)

I'll be putting my text in bold just in case it's hard to distinguish between the pictures and my commentary

Here's the post I'm referring to in case you're curious

Moving on and starting with this bit

People pay attention to Eda all the damn time, she's literally one of the main characters. Funny how you only mention tik tok and nothing else. Is that the only other social media you have? Because fans on different social media platforms act much differently; on IG and Reddit stuff like the sexualization of minors and fucking ODALIA AND ALADOR STANS are normalized, where everywhere else it's pretty much universally agreed that that stuff is bad. I don't know a lot about what toh Tik Tok is like just because I don't usually go on tik tok, but even if it is like this, it's not the same for the rest of the fandom. A lot of the fandom still hates Lilith and blames her for her abuse and not being able to leave

You say that like she's a bad person, she's really not. The curse she placed on Eda wasn't intended to be permanent and probably wasn't even supposed to take the effects that it did. She was most likely scammed. I mean look at how she reacts when Eda transforms for the first time. She also feels guilty enough about it to throw herself into an abusive situation and spend almost her whole life trying to make up for it. Lastly, yes she hurt Luz, but let's not forget that Belos threatened her life upon Eda's capture and Lilith was running out of time and had no other option. Obviously what she did was wrong but she's not the real monster here.

"I do like Lilith" this entire essay says otherwise.

Literally none of us ignore any of the bad shit she's done, stop lying about us.

Yes, Lilith did mock her for her curse, which was messed up, but we don't actually know for sure if the curse is basically canonically a disability in that world, so if that's the case then for now it's technically not ableism until we get confirmation otherwise.

"it was an accident and I forgive Lilith" no you fucking don't. First of all this entire essay is you talking about how evil you think she is and secondly, if it really was as bad as you view it, you wouldn't be that forgiving.

Ah yes the victim blaming, the one thing that almost everyone does to Lilith and barely anyone talks about.

There is literally not a single Lilith stan out there who blames Eda for getting cursed. You're just mad that your victim blaming towards Lilith got called out so you silence us by lying about how we do the same thing to Eda.

No one is making Eda out to be the villain either, the only example I can find of this is a few fanfics where she treats Lilith a lot more harshly than she should, and even then, scenes like that are written in a positive light as if you're supposed to be on Eda's side, so with that in mind, the writers of these fics are clearly not even Lilith stans. In terms of how actual stans treat Eda, the worst they do is make her slightly ignorant of Lilith's trauma, kinda like the fandom, minus the "slightly", until she grows as a character and learns to see the red flags. If that's the problem you're talking about, then breaking news: Eda's not perfect either. She has flaws too just like literally everyone else in the show and people are allowed to write about them

Tell me the truth: are people making playlists for Lilith that include a lot of sad and angry songs because she's not a happy person anyway so there wouldn't be a point in having any happy songs, or are they making "trauma" playlists? There's a difference

I'm sorry, are you trying to tell me that people recognizing Lilith's trauma is victim blaming Eda? That's not how it works sweetycakes

There is far more Eda angst out there than there is for Lilith, where are you finding so much Lilith angst? LILITH is the one who's traumas are being ignored while Eda's gets all the attention. You're acting like one of those white cis gays on twitter who see black people talking about the anti blackness they experience daily and accuse them of being homophobic because "there is so much homophobia in the world and they still manage to make it all about race".

No one is saying that Lilith has worse trauma, we're only saying that her's is also severe and that it definitely exists. Also funny how you're allowed to be mad at us for comparing Lilith and Eda's trauma (once again lying about us), then you go on to do the exact same thing and say that EDA'S trauma is worse. Even if, hypothetically speaking, Eda did have it worse, that doesn't mean Lilith doesn't have the right to be traumatized. Both of them have trauma, both should be recognized. Also, Lilith had far more going on in her life than just the guilt of her actions, she was was implied to have been psychologically and maybe physically abused, and was probably even tortured. Stop ignoring all the red flags and condemn the actual abuser (Belos) before you criticize anything the abused (Lilith) has done.

We're not making everything about Lilith, like shut up.

Please don't say that autistic people "have autism", it implies that it's something that can be removed from us. For example: you don't say "a person with blackness" when referring to black people or "a woman with homosexuality" when referring to Lesbians.

Oh yeah I'm also autistic so here are MY thoughts

Amity and Lilith are not antagonists anymore, hcing them as Autistic is not villainizing autism.

The autistic Lilith headcanon was made by autistic fans, allistics only latched onto it because they either wanted to be supportive or they saw that she actually had a lot of autistic traits

You're not the only autistic person alive, just because you're not like Lilith or Amity doesn't mean none of us are or they're not autistic. I mean, I know I am

You're not fun or funny

"not all Autistic people are like this" remember that line, dear readers

Actually, I prefer the autistic villain trope MUCH more than the grown ass autistic adult that acts like a five year old trope. At least we'd have less stereotypes associated with us.

Autism is not supposed to be portrayed in only fun and happy characters, that is literally the epitome of stereotyping and infantilizing. You literally just said that not all autistic people are the same, doesn't this count as being all the same? Does this mean I don't exist anymore? Am I just not autistic? Are you even aware that a flat affect or monotone voice is literally a very common autistic trait? You can't just say that we're stereotyping autistics and then just go on to stereotype us, like what the fuck are you even on? Is it only ok when you do it?

Amity is not edgy for fuck's sake

Literally no one is headcanoning Lilith or Amity as autistic because they're mean, we headcanon them as autistic because they actually show traits of it

Oh, our harmless headcanons are making you feel uncomfortable because they don't fit into the stereotypes you made up about us? Good to know our plan is working I guess

Last thing I wanna say regarding this post as a whole: why are you acting like liking Lilith and feeling sympathy for her is a bad thing? If you find this then don't say "I don't think that's a bad thing", answer HONESTLY

Well that's all I have for now, thank you for reading, I need to go to bed soon

[kmp78]

DISCLAIMER AND RULES

These are the UPDATED directions/guidelines for all who want to participate/contribute to this blog. Our topics of conversation revolve mostly around 30 Seconds to Mars/the Leto Bros, but we have been known to also discuss various other current events around the world.

By reading, and especially by contributing, on what goes on around this blog, you are willingly agreeing with all guidelines and directions I have mentioned below - no exceptions.

I am willing to give a space to those who wish to discuss Mars (or other topics), and I am washing my hands from any and all fuckery that may ensue from other people´s opinions.

Also worth mentioning: I am fully aware that some people who publicly and very vocally denounce any interest in either this blog or Mars gossip lurk around this blog and then spread shit elsewhere on the internet. 

By doing that, you are essentially outing yourself as a quiet kmp78 admirer, so to speak. 

Or a fangirl, if that suits better. 🤗

Alright then... READ.

1.  This blog is laced with sarcasm, jokes, stupid and often very dark humor and PERSONAL OPINIONS - both mine and the people who participate in our conversations. This is not CNN, BBC or even Fox News - this is a personal blog run by a (sort of) fan. Not someone with inside information, and not someone whose opinions and views should be taken too seriously, and definitely not as gospel. I have no direct access to anyone in the Mars organization, and I do not work for them.

2. Nor do I work for YOU. This may be a blog which is mainly used for discussions about all things Mars and all opinions and topics are welcome, but the only one in charge is ME. I decide if a message gets published, if a message gets edited, if a message gets deleted - and if the sender gets blocked.

And not that it really needs to be said, but here goes anyway: I do not work for any Leto troll either.

3. And speaking of blocking: 

those who send threats or offensive messages will be blocked, as will anyone who I deem block-worthy. Rest assured, I never block anyone without a reason, so if you should discover that you have been blocked, that means I had a reason. I may or may not inform publicly when a person has been blocked, depends on my mood.

4. Everyone who sends messages is responsible for their own words - I do not accept any blame for other people´s opinions. Misunderstandings by accident or on purpose are not my headache. If I suspect a message will potentially cause unnecessary problems or annoyance for me, I will not post it (or will edit it), and  I don´t owe anyone any explanations as to why I´m not posting it. I may explain, or not - that´s up for me to decide. 

In any case, as I said: I will not take responsibility for anyone else´s words other than mine, and screaming at me over here or elsewhere online regarding comments someone else made and I posted...

Well, that´s just infantile. 🙄

5. All opinions are welcome, positive AND negative. A positive opinion does not automatically make you a sheep, and a negative opinion does not automatically make you a hater. 

Readers to this blog should be adult enough to handle both sides.

6. Calling women sluts or whores is not ok here. 

You also need to be able to tell the difference between calling a woman a whore and calling a Leto a whore. If you can´t understand the difference, then get out immediately.

SPECIAL CLAUSE:

the term “YACHT GIRL” when used in connection with an actually legit model who YOU ARE JEALOUS OF BECAUSE SHE GETS TO BONE A MAN YOUR FLABBY LOINS BURN FOR, actually is the equivalent of you calling her a whore, so kindly DO NOT.

Use whatever brain cells your parents genes bestowed upon you and make them at least somewhat proud. That should hopefully partially make up for the disappointment they most probably are already feeling knowing you actually read and participate in this shit.

7. What is also not ok is accusing people of crimes, calling them psychopaths, or threatening others with physical violence etc. - not even sarcastically or as jokes.

Think of it this way: 

when typing your message, if at any point you think that what you are writing might come across differently or more seriously to the person reading it than to you while writing it - then do not write it. Any innuendo about people´s potential “social diseases” is not welcome either, and neither are accusations of “obsessions” and people “stalking” the men this blog is focused on. Be VERY careful when using these terms. 

YOU are responsible for your own words. I cannot stress that enough.📣

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Do not use people´s real names in messages. 

If you do not know who a particular person is, please come ask via chat (directions on how to use the chat feature can be found here). I may or may not blur out a name in a message if I think it´s necessary.

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As for links to either newspaper articles, IG accounts, other blogs or the like: you can find credits to the sources by either clicking on the links, or if I have decided to post screen caps, in the pics themselves. Again, I do not write articles or make videos and very, very rarely post anything other than other people´s comments - after all, this is prominently a discussion blog now. Opinions/messages from other people represent THEIR views and thoughts, my views/thoughts can be seen in my answers (in case of submits or multi-part messages, you will find my contributions to the message after this sign: ***).

To make this very clear: we don´t make news here, we discuss them.

10. When sending submits, if you are unsure of others potentially seeing your “ID”, please mention in your message that you want to remain anon and I will post it anon. Also please remember tho that there is no such thing as complete anonymity - so be careful when writing down your thoughts. Censor yourself if necessary - don´t make problems for me or others, or yourself.

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If I out your IP, then there is a reason for it.

Don´t give me reasons if you want to remain in the shadows.

(And same goes for chat messages btw: don´t pretend to be my friend in private, but then turn your back and stab me in it in public. More often than not I WILL find out, and if I choose to then out your bullshit by posting private messages, THAT´S ALL YOUR OWN DOING, KIDDOS.

Play nice with me and you have nothing to worry about.

Start kicking dirt in my face and...🤷‍♀️

12. If you are addressing your message directly to someone (= other than me), please say so CLEARLY in your message, for example by starting your message with “For anon who said...”, or something along those line. I have had it with misunderstandings and unnecessary messes due to unclear messages! BE SPECIFIC!

13. ONLY write either in English or Finnish. I won´t waste my time on Google Translate, I have enough on my plate as it is and your weirdo mongrel lingos are boring as hell anyway.

14.  DO NOT SEND MESSAGES WITH THE SOLE PURPOSE OF STIRRING UP SHIT - OR TO INSULT OTHER COUNTRIES OR NATIONALITIES. That would rank quite high the PATHETIC categories...

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16. READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! READ PREVIOUS MESSAGES! 

I´m beyoooooooond bored answering the same questions over and over again, sometimes in the space of just a few hours! The archives and search option are available on my blog for a reason! USE THEM. ��

17. When sending messages containing info or “receipts” or whatever it may be that you think we should be made aware of, either clearly state WHERE that info can be found and WHO you are talking about. Do not simply send a message a´la “VK can be seen on Monica´s/Richard´s/Beatrice´s IG”. We don´t know who these people are! You may, but we don´t! I do not follow a single model or fashion industry creeper on social media so FIRST NAMES mean fuck all to me. GIVE FULL DETAILS OR SHUT THE FUCK UP. 

18. IF I SAY A TOPIC IS OFF-LIMITS, THEN YOU WILL RESPECT THAT.

19. I usually try to post messages in the same order they have been sent - with a few exceptions: 

If a situation arises which calls for “immediate attention” (new troll pics or other sudden Mars-related activity, for example), I may leave older messages for later and focus on newer ones first. Also when I am operating on my mobile, I am often unable to post certain messages (videos etc.), so those will be left for later when I am back to an actual computer. 

20. More often than not, tumblr fails to deliver messages to my inbox. If you suspect that yours has not been delivered, please send it again. I don´t mind getting duplicates.

21. If I feel that a message offers no relevant or needed content, I won´t post it. For example, a message such as “JL & XX in Japan bang bang” is unnecessary and pointless and not worth posting. I only have 250 allowed posts per day, and on busy days I have to make judgments on what is worthy of posting and what is not. I apologize if I therefore have to skip some messages. 

When I run out of allowed posts here, I will let everyone know that I am switching over to use the secondary blog which can be found at @kmp78secondaryblog

(PLEASE NOTE: That blog is ONLY used when we run out of room here, and I never go there unless I have to so please don´t send any messages to that blog unless I inform we have to move there!)

AND FINALLY PLEASE REMEMBER:

THIS IS A FANDOM FOR A BAND. NOT A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH. ACT ACCORDINGLY.

Creating hater accounts dedicated to POSTING PICTURES OF MY BLOODY EYEBALL (that btw actually happened because of course it did! This is the echeLOOOOOON after all! 👍) won´t make me quit this blog, so...

Yeah.

Anyway, for further information, please contact me via private message here, on my IGs, or at kmp78@yahoo.com.

Thank you. 🙏

PS: In case you run into accounts/comments made under my tumblr “identity”, or otherwise unauthorized “kmp78″ activity outside of tumblr which you recognize as being linked to this blog in any way (such as my posts being tagged with JL´s tags etc.), please report them immediately, both to the admins of the sites you found these accounts on, and to me directly so I can take appropriate action, thanks.

Any of my personal pics taken from this blog have been taken without permission and I have never and will never give permission to post them anywhere. And when I say I “appropriate action”, I mean just that. If need be, I will be contacting the authorities, like I did when I received public death threats. 

Be very aware that my tolerance for that is less than zero - and also be aware that these guidelines and my rules may change whenever I feel the need to change them.

#DEAL ✌️

[dfroza]

in Today’s reading of chapter #2 in the ancient Letter of Colossians

we see a point being made by Paul of coming out of the past (tense)

of being cleansed (inside, Anew) and moving forward...

I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone.

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”

I’m a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I’m on your side, right beside you. I am delighted to hear of the careful and orderly ways you conduct your affairs, and impressed with the solid substance of your faith in Christ.

[From the Shadows to the Substance]

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.

So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.

The Letter of Colossians, Chapter 2 (The Message)

and from the same chapter mirrored in The Passion Translation about the significance of this baptism into grace, and of coming to view life through the baptism eyes of a child of Light, as daughters & sons in Love:

For we’ve been buried with him into his death. Our “baptism into death” also means we were raised with him when we believed in God’s resurrection power, the power that raised him from death’s realm. This “realm of death” describes our former state, for we were held in sin’s grasp. But now, we’ve been resurrected out of that “realm of death” never to return, for we are forever alive and forgiven of all our sins!

He canceled out every legal violation we had on our record and the old arrest warrant that stood to indict us. He erased it all—our sins, our stained soul—he deleted it all and they cannot be retrieved! Everything we once were in Adam has been placed onto his cross and nailed permanently there as a public display of cancellation.

Then Jesus made a public spectacle of all the powers and principalities of darkness, stripping away from them every weapon and all their spiritual authority and power to accuse us. And by the power of the cross, Jesus led them around as prisoners in a procession of triumph. He was not their prisoner; they were his!

The Letter of Colossians, Chapter 2:12-15 (The Passion Translation)

and again about the “Oneness” achieved in Love from these lines in The Voice:

This battle I am facing is huge. And I want you to know I do it for you, for all those at Laodicea, and for everyone else (even those who have never seen my face). I’m working hard to comfort and encourage them so that they will be knit together—that many hearts would become one through His love.

The Letter of Colossians, Chapter 2:1-2 (The Voice)

A chapter of the New Testament that is paired for Today with chapter 10 in the book of Exodus in dealing with Pharaoh’s continued stubbornness in letting God’s children of Israel go:

[Strike Eight: Locusts]

God said to Moses: “Go to Pharaoh. I’ve made him stubborn, him and his servants, so that I can force him to look at these signs and so you’ll be able to tell your children and grandchildren how I toyed with the Egyptians, like a cat with a mouse; you’ll tell them the stories of the signs that I brought down on them, so that you’ll all know that I am God.”

Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said to him, “God, the God of the Hebrews, says, ‘How long are you going to refuse to knuckle under? Release my people so that they can worship me. If you refuse to release my people, watch out; tomorrow I’m bringing locusts into your country. They’ll cover every square inch of ground; no one will be able to see the ground. They’ll devour everything left over from the hailstorm, even the saplings out in the fields—they’ll clear-cut the trees. And they’ll invade your houses, filling the houses of your servants, filling every house in Egypt. Nobody will have ever seen anything like this, from the time your ancestors first set foot on this soil until today.’”

Then he turned on his heel and left Pharaoh.

Pharaoh’s servants said to him, “How long are you going to let this man harass us? Let these people go and worship their God. Can’t you see that Egypt is on its last legs?”

So Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. He said to them, “Go ahead then. Go worship your God. But just who exactly is going with you?”

Moses said, “We’re taking young and old, sons and daughters, flocks and herds—this is our worship-celebration of God.”

He said, “I’d sooner send you off with God’s blessings than let you go with your children. Look, you’re up to no good—it’s written all over your faces. Nothing doing. Just the men are going—go ahead and worship God. That’s what you want so badly.” And they were thrown out of Pharaoh’s presence.

God said to Moses: “Stretch your hand over Egypt and signal the locusts to cover the land of Egypt, devouring every blade of grass in the country, everything that the hail didn’t get.”

Moses stretched out his staff over the land of Egypt. God let loose an east wind. It blew that day and night. By morning the east wind had brought in the locusts.

The locusts covered the country of Egypt, settling over every square inch of Egypt; the place was thick with locusts. There never was an invasion of locusts like it in the past, and never will be again. The ground was completely covered, black with locusts. They ate everything, every blade of grass, every piece of fruit, anything that the hail didn’t get. Nothing left but bare trees and bare fields—not a sign of green in the whole land of Egypt.

Pharaoh had Moses and Aaron back in no time. He said, “I’ve sinned against your God and against you. Overlook my sin one more time. Pray to your God to get me out of this—get death out of here!”

Moses left Pharaoh and prayed to God. God reversed the wind—a powerful west wind took the locusts and dumped them into the Red Sea. There wasn’t a single locust left in the whole country of Egypt.

But God made Pharaoh stubborn as ever. He still didn’t release the Israelites.

[Strike Nine: Darkness]

God said to Moses: “Stretch your hand to the skies. Let darkness descend on the land of Egypt—a darkness so dark you can touch it.”

Moses stretched out his hand to the skies. Thick darkness descended on the land of Egypt for three days. Nobody could see anybody. For three days no one could so much as move. Except for the Israelites: they had light where they were living.

Pharaoh called in Moses: “Go and worship God. Leave your flocks and herds behind. But go ahead and take your children.”

But Moses said, “You have to let us take our sacrificial animals and offerings with us so we can sacrifice them in worship to our God. Our livestock has to go with us with not a hoof left behind; they are part of the worship of our God. And we don’t know just what will be needed until we get there.”

But God kept Pharaoh stubborn as ever. He wouldn’t agree to release them.

Pharaoh said to Moses: “Get out of my sight! And watch your step. I don’t want to ever see you again. If I lay eyes on you again, you’re dead.”

Moses said, “Have it your way. You won’t see my face again.”

The Book of Exodus, Chapter 10 (The Message)

my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, march 27 of 2020 with a paired chapter from each Testament along with Today’s Psalms and Proverbs

[progeny-of-the-fury]

Law & Order

Log date: 9/7/17

OOC Note: The text in these logs are strictly for the readers enjoyment. Anyone using the knowledge displayed within this text without the participants knowledge risks the potential of blacklisting from future communication and roleplay. Please do not meta-game!

Tags: @lightsinshadows

A man who becomes blind to the purpose of law, will find themselves slowly descending into anarchy. Where he might see the justice behind his actions, the righteousness against the authority that oppresses, there are those who watch in horror over his zealotry are left knowing their freedom has come into question. That the only livelihood they have ever known may cease to exist.

Adelise De'bayle: "You know, coming into the path of a Morbol is an extremely dangerous fate. It is best to not temper such beasts by standing about idly like some snack."

Lawrence Wallace: Kneeling on one knee, poking at a pair of boot prints in the mud was Law, a rather intense expression on his face. In his free hand was clasped a wrinkled sheet of paper, images of charcoal barely visible in his hand. The sudden voice caused a jump, the man whirling around. "Oh! Oh. Well. They know better." he forces a smile and gives a wave, his eyes flicking to the lance on her back.

Adelise De'bayle eyes the man with a raised brow, her dour expression unwavering. "I highly disagree. They are actually quite aggressive," the young woman's eyes flicker onto one of the great creatures that meandered about in the distance, a small infantile wyvern poking its head out from her pauldron. "Are you in search of something?"

Lawrence Wallace looks at her, then to the paper in his hand, rolling it up to tuck it into his belt. "Just a wanted criminal said to be wandering these parts. He, uh." the man looks down at the boot prints and kicks at one with the toe of a boot. "He's slippery. What brings you out here, though? Hardly a place for idle traveling."

Adelise De'bayle: "Practice," she remarked out flatly, her hands moving to tug at the straps that crossed her chest, them presumably holding her lance to her back. "A wandering criminal? Are you a vigilante of the sorts? Your armour is hardly that of the Holy See's. Nor is it of the Adders or Wailers."

Lawrence Wallace: "Practice." he blinks, bewildered by the answer. The drawing of a weapon shook his reverie, and he casts a quick flick of the eyes left and right. "Vigilante? What a name. No, I'm just an adventurer. It's our job to handle risks to everyone, is it not? The Adders compensate me from time to time, even offer to let me come along on patrols now and then."

Adelise De'bayle seemed to scoff at the notion, her head dipping off to the side as long locks of umber flowed out behind her to her waist. "Adventurers," she remarked out in some manner of disdain. "The title of one who would rather avoid saying they are lost. Lost to ambition, lost to purpose," the girls eyes narrows dangerously, her boots sloshing through the water as she made swift approach toward the Elezen. "What brings you to do this? What is your passion?"

Lawrence Wallace leans his head back, as a cat would when a dog ventures too closely. "Lost. I am hardly lost." though his voice wavered, the boy uncertain of tone in the best of times, there was an edge that gathered under the accusation. "I do this because it is right. Because if there are none doing what needs to be done, it is the weak and the innocent that shall suffer." his eyes narrow and he stands tall. "Is that a satisfactory answer?"

Adelise De'bayle purses her lips some, her chin tucking forward to her chest as if to accentuate her piercing crimson glare. "No," the words escaped her like ice, frigid and pointed. "It is right? Yes, that is true. It is right, however... you are wrong in that it is not your place to take up such a responsibility as a mere adventurer. If you wish to save people, pick up a worthy cause. Join the Wailers. Join the Adders. Learn more, see more, gain more. Help more. To shine for others, you must first take the steps to do so. Climb your way there, even if you must bleed. There is more to doing what is 'right' then just wandering aimlessly for a bounty."

Lawrence Wallace let out a scoff, his expression hardening from its former flash of uncertainty and fear. "And who are you to stand so grandly, look so frighteningly sure of yourself, and judge me for my actions? I do this not for glory, not for coin or country, but because it is /right/. Because this man has made the choice to live his life as a brigand and bandit, to murder, and steal, and terrorize, and yet still he draws breath." his fist clenches, and he waves it behind him. "Running free as a rabid dog off its leash. If none are to hunt him down. I will."

Adelise De'bayle only seemed to colden, a breath leaving her nostrils. "And you believe no one else to do the same? Do you look down on those who pursue positions of power in order to make a grand change to the world around them outside of hunting down criminals?" the Half-Elezen huffed, a hand slipping to rest over her hip. "If the Adders are aware of such a criminal, then I am sure they have scouts searching for the man as well. This is why you are a vigilante, no hero," she shakes her head. "Such passion wasted. There is great potential in a man with such a drive to help the greater good. You should learn to see the bigger picture," her her tugged back, boots shifting under her as she moved to turn away.

Lawrence Wallace glares at her, his hands crossing over his chest in a glower. "I am no hero. I am no person of influence or -no!" he reaches forward to grab at her shoulder. "You will not speak down to me and walk away as if your actions mean nothing." his voice cracked in his fervor, and he immediately lets go, a glimmer of doubt betraying him. "Stand by your words if you are to speak them." he mumbles, eyes casting to the ground. "I am no hero. But I do what I feel I must. Those who dedicate themselves to cooperation with their fellow soldiers hold my respect, but I am not of their calibre. And I cannot stomach the sensation of sitting still while there is still more left to do." his voice trailed as he spoke, all that fire so quickly snuffed by a moment's self-reflection.

Adelise De'bayle shoots back a furious stare as the man took a hold of her, nearly seconds from thrusting a fist forward. Jaw clenched, Adelise turned toward the Elezen as her visage visibly enraged. "How dare you think I am one to not stand by my word. My word and my lance are the only truths," she gravelled out, tone dark. "I aim to be that calibre, but I also aim to not let them hold me still. They will never leash, and I will use the power they give me to make the world better. You and I are not so different. It is simply clear who holds the ambition to see their future be a reality. I do not talk down to you because I think it is true. I talk down to you, so you too can feel the rage of another making little of your duty."

Lawrence Wallace: "A lesson?" his brows furrow, clear confusion at what he'd just heard playing over his face. He blinks twice and shakes his head, fists shaking at his sides. "You who know NOTHING of me-" he stops and turns away, a shuddering breath forcing himself to calm. "I- I know that." he breathes again eyes forced shut. "I command not respect nor authority in my words and actions. But I am right. I. Am. RIGHT." he whirls around and once more rage is his expression. "And whether that makes me some loathable, lowly vigilante or not, I will always act when I see the opportunity. Always."

Adelise De'bayle crosses her arms over her chest, offering the man a flat stare, vermillion eyes now dullen. "Hm. Is that so?" she asked out lamely. "How very chivalrous of you. Tell me ah..." she motions a hand toward him, shifting on her feet some, "I fear I never caught your name."

Lawrence Wallace blinks at her, caught off guard by the sudden removal of fire from her eyes. He steps back, wary for a moment and slowly reaches out a hand. "Lawrence Wallace. And yourself?"

Adelise De'bayle eyes the hand some, her lips twisting some as her arms unlocked from one another, her hand moving into his for a powerful shake. "Adelise De'bayle. Viscountess of House De'bayle, in service to Fortempts under the Holy See," she draws out in practiced tone, her hand slipping from his. "Tell me, Lawrence. What is right? What is just in this world. As I wish to know what you believe it to be."

Lawrence Wallace returns a somewhat less impressive handshake, his brows furrowing under the implications those titles held. "What is right? Is that a question to be asked? Defense of the innocent, protection of the weak and infirm. To stand firm against the corruption and evil of this world, and strike it down wherever able. Even the youngest of children can say such things."

Adelise De'bayle: "Who are the innocent? Who are the weak and infirm? Good and evil, Lawrence. Is not so black and white."

Lawrence Wallace narrows his eyes once more. "The words of one weighed down by bureaucracy and their vision stained by arguments of being 'pragmatic' and 'practical'." he scoffs, a hand pushing back through his hair. "It is. There is good, and there is bad. The only thing worse than an evil man, is a good one who does not fight against wickedness in the name of convenience or some selfish safety. Inaction by uncertainty and moderation is a crime of being complicent in the work of evil."

Adelise De'bayle simply looks toward the man, her stare unchanging despite his attempted jab. "I believe you to be an evil man, Lawrence," she breathed out, her tone surprisingly convincing. "My children do as well. You have struck fear into me and those around you through your zealous nature. Good and evil is black and white, and you are the evil."

Lawrence Wallace: "And you are not good. You claim your titles, you live your life under the yoke of another, and you live a life of inaction and complacency." his voice shakes and wavers, clearly shaken by the accusation, but not willing to step down. "Fear. Fear is natural, I fear you, I fear the man I hunt, and i fear those I work for. Letting fear paralyze you or cloud your judgement is no way to live."

Adelise De'bayle: "You are correct. It is no way to live," Adelise motions a hand up, "I do not care if you believe me to not be good. I do not aim to come off as good or evil to anyone. Nor to comment on your presumptions of my life," she shrugs, the small wyvern that lay just barely visible glaring at the man. "I do not fear anything, as I have lived in fear long enough, and killed it," she seethed, taking a deep breath. "Use that passion to understand that if you truly wish to do right in this world, you will have to learn to adjust. And that not all is as they appear. Considering your words, I would think you would understand."

Lawrence Wallace stares hard at the woman, entirely unsure of how to respond. He opens his mouth to retort, and instead lets it close once more. His jaw tightens as he turns away, staring at the ground with hands balled into tight fists shaking at his sides."I apologize. I spoke out of turn."

Adelise De'bayle: "You spoke your truths. I simply replied in hand. Do not apologize for the passion in your heart. Live by it."

Lawrence Wallace: "What-" he holds his hands up to his eyes and sighs, dragging his hands down his face. "I do! I live by my passion and then get called a villain for trying to protect people. Then the same woman-gah this makes no sense!"

Adelise De'bayle: "Yes, you did. Because not all will agree that your passion is just. I do not actually feel that way," she exhales, "I simply wished to give you a taste of your ideals. Black and white. Zealous behaviour is considered evil."

Lawrence Wallace turns to Adelise and huffs, his face strained. "Then you lied to me. To prove a point?"

Adelise De'bayle: "I was not lying. It was a bit," she remarked flatly, "I figured the tone would give it away, I forget not all can pick up on such. Listen. Your passion can be put to good use, Lawrence. Do not squander it being so hasty to make a difference that you fail to see the many opportunities available to you. Ones that allow you to do far more than you alone might be able to accomplish."

Lawrence Wallace casts his eyes down, "Of course. Any fool with an eye could have spotted that." a hand goes up to the side of his head and his fingers curl in his hair. "I am sorry. I am told my heart rises too quickly, and is struck down just as fast."

Adelise De'bayle: "You apologize too much," she huffs. Reaching into her taberd, the young woman tugged out a black pearl, holding it out toward the man. "If you wish to see the world become a better place, I am willing to extend an invitation to such an ambition."

Lawrence Wallace looks to her once more, utterly drained by this point of emotion. He holds his hand out for the pearl and nods. "Once I know what to make of this meeting, I will. You are. Terribly vexing, you know that?"

Adelise De'bayle: "So I have been told," she cracks a small uncharacteristic grin. "Find me, when you know what you want. We will meet again."

Lawrence Wallace let out a sound that can only be exasperation concentrated and pushes his hand back through his hair, finally letting it rest at his side again. "And. If you need help with something. If you know someone who needs help. I am willing."

Adelise De'bayle: "Take care, Lawrence. Until we meet again."

Lawrence Wallace: "Call me Law."

Adelise De'bayle frowns some, taking a deep breath. "If you insist."

Lawrence Wallace: "Only Nanna calls me Lawrence."

Adelise De'bayle waves off his statement, her eyes rolling up as she begins making her leave, "Stay safe."

I could show him true justice.

[go-redgirl]

"Resisting A Democratically Elected President" Is Destroying Our Norms And Institutions, Not Trump Real Clear Politics ^ | May 31, 2019 | Tim Harris

In an interview aired Friday on "CBS This Morning," Attorney General William Barr explains why he opened an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation. He doesn't say what the evidence is, but Barr tells CBS News legal correspondent Jan Crawford that there is evidence that makes him believe senior government officials may have acted improperly to authorize surveillance of President Trump's 2016 campaign. He says that led to "spying" on the campaign.

He said the hyper-politicized nature of politics today is a danger to longstanding institutions and he took the job of attorney general because he is at the end of his career.

"Nowadays, people don't care about the merits or the substance. They only care about who it helps, whether my side benefits or the other side benefits. Everything is gauged by politics, and I say that is antithetical to the way the Department [of Justice] runs, and any attorney general in this period is going to end up losing a lot of political capital," Barr said. "And that's one of the reasons I decided I should take [the job] on. At my stage in my life, it wouldn't make any difference."

"I'm at the end of my career," he said. "Everyone dies. I don't believe in the Homeric idea that immortality comes by having odes sung about you over the centuries."

"In many ways, I'd rather be back at my old life, but I love the Department of Justice, I love the FBI, I think it is important that in this period of intense partisan feelings we do not destroy our institutions."

"One of the ironies today is that people are saying it is President Trump who is shredding our institutions. I really see no evidence of that.

(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...

TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California KEYWORDS: botox; california; declassification; fbi; fisa; impeachment; jerrold nadler; jerrynadler; nancy pelosi; new york; san francisco; san frannan

________________________________________

OPINION:  Its the insanity of the Democrat Party thats ‘shredding our institutions’ at the cost of our liberty and justice for their own ‘evil’ political gain.

_______________________________________________________________________

INDIVIDUALS COMMENTS/POSTS;

To: billorites

"One of the ironies today is that people are saying it is President Trump who is shredding our institutions. I really see no evidence of that. From my perspective, the idea of 'resisting' a Democratically elected president and basically throwing everything at him, and really changing the norms on the grounds that we have to stop this president. That's where the shredding of our norms and institutions is occurring,"

After the [perhaps failed] coup d'etat, this is the most disconcerting thing about today's political environment. Destroying the long-standing tradition of the peaceful transition of power in the U.S. does not bode well for the nation. 

The communist tactic of "the ends justify the means" is the true Obama legacy and will lead to our downfall.

2 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:32:15 AM by ProtectOurFreedom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: billorites

I like this mans attitude and outlook on this situation.

3 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:35:51 AM by Ron H. (Gab.ai) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: billorites

Eventually people will come to realize ( hopefully before it is too late) that the noxious swamp is toxic to the American nation. Washington,D.C. is built on land much of which was a fetid swamp. It has reverted to its origins.

4 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:39:52 AM by allendale (.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: billorites

Leftists are power hungry, angry people. Never trust them and never help them. They will use your money and efforts and turn them against you.

JoMa

5 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:45:21 AM by joma89 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: billorites

Barr is a star. All indications are he’s the right man in the right job at the right time.

6 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:47:40 AM by be-baw ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: billorites

Actually, that is not true. If it were merely resisting a POTUS that would be nothing. Instead what is happening is a perfect storm of the accusations mattering for one bunch and hardly at all for another.

The double standard, while not new at all since at least a Democrat was willing to brag about it during Reagan’s tenure, comes when the party that effectively exercises it, protecting its own endlessly while ruthlessly conducting witch hunts, has become a criminal enterprise and also has a complicit, subservient media.

The Left is not simply just the people that the anticommunists of old were fighting to prevent, a collection of fellow travelers that understand the basic socialistic narrative and work to achieve that, but have been mightily influenced by Cultural Marxism till they have come to basically have a Cultural Suicide Fetish, with many having become so insane that they cannot understand why nations should have borders, never mind who uses what bathroom.

This is a consequence of the social nature of what the Left has become, for it to a significant degree no longer acts on the basis of ideals but of sentimental cultural clumpiness which defines the why for their hyper partisanship. A largely conformist affair it oozes in the direction of what the culture seems to be doing at the moment. Because it is ill defined that necessitates constant virtue signaling by those desperately afraid to be subjected to the shunning and doxxing of others.

Unlike birds whose song may be sometimes thought of as “I’m here, I’m here” the conformist Left is basically screeching out “I’m a good person, don’t hurt me” when they echo what they perceive to be the popular sentiment.

To the Left only the bad people, the deplorables, the people who merit destruction in society (though some are warming to simply killing us as defectives), don’t go along with the crowd. Everything that is not-we eventually becomes Hitler.

And they are easily manipulated by any who were able to get their -phobia word in early enough as well.

It’s democracy of morals and ethics drawn to its inevitable conclusion of mob rule, not one of dark masters pulling strings (at least not off the spiritual level), but of fear laden conformists each oppressing his neighbor and all easily used as Useful Idiots by whomever would rule over them or seek their harm ... as if Big Brother has been long, long dead but the masses keep living like he’s still there because thats all their infantilized and conformists minds can still accept as being real.

7 posted on 6/1/2019, 8:53:04 AM by Rurudyne (Standup Philosopher) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: billorites

Sometimes elections are close, and other times they’re not.

However, even in the close ones, there is a winner.

If we disregard the winners of close elections because they were close, we might as well never have elections again.

The Electoral College was the standard going into the 2016 election. Both candidates knew this, even if their followers didn’t.

However, to claim this system invalid because your candidate lost under it is what is ultimately destructive to our system of choosing our leaders.

Don’t like it? Then fight to change it, but do not attempt to undermine the entire system’s RESULTS.

8 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:00:41 AM by Alas Babylon! (The media is after us. Trump's just in the way.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: allendale

The fundamental problem here is that one side refuses to accept the outcome of an election. The alternative to a peaceful transition of power is bitter divisiveness, political chaos, and worse. That is what we are seeing now all because the Left won’t accept the fact that they lost.

Our system is designed such that the losers will have their opportunity to convince the American people to vote them into power the next time. All it has to do is wait and prepare for the next election in four short years. But they reject that long standing process as well as the very basis of entire our election process.

If we think the Swamp is bad now, just imagine what it will be like when the Democrats regain power. The current crop of radicals will take a tyrannical turn that ensures they never relinquish their stranglehold on power again. And the nation as we knew it will be lost.

9 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:03:53 AM by Starboard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: joma89

Leftists are power hungry, angry people. Never trust them and never help them.

***************

The Republicans may not be as power hungry and angry but I don’t trust them either.

10 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:05:23 AM by Starboard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: Alas Babylon! If we disregard the winners of close elections because they were close, we might as well never have elections again.

*************

That, in reality, is what the Left is striving toward. They will call them elections, but they will be rigged, manipulated affairs that all but guarantee the “right” outcome.

The intensity of their attacks on our system clearly signals that.

11 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:09:04 AM by Starboard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: ProtectOurFreedom

Barr seems to be the right man, at the right time, doing the right job for the right reasons

12 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:09:41 AM by cyclotic ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: billorites Barr is naive if he thinks his display of rationality and objectivity is going to win over any on the Left. They will perceive this as weakness. The only thing they understand is strength and resolve to oppose them.

13 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:16:20 AM by Starboard ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: cyclotic

I completely agree. Can you imagine attempting to clean out the Augean Stables at that age? He and Trump are alike in that regard. The two of them are TRUE public servants who don’t need their jobs attempting to save the Republic.

14 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:30:00 AM by ProtectOurFreedom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: ProtectOurFreedom

Barr: "One of the ironies today is that people are saying it is President Trump who is shredding our institutions. ProtectOurFreedom: [This communist tactic of misdirection]...the true Obama legacy....

Indeed. Hating the Orange Man is just the cover., and it couldn't have operated more efficiently.

From high school faculties across the nation, coursing nonstop throughout the entertainment world and rebroadcast hourly by the MSM, the hate continues - and it is allowed greater volume by the RINO silence and its active lack of support for Trump and his MAGA.

The anti-Americans are doing better work than our conventional institutions at training the next generation of voters (supplemented by the importation of non-Americans). Clearly the nation needs a strong, widely based rally such as Trump has started, one that continues to grow after he leaves office.

15 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:33:55 AM by frog in a pot (The U.S. Constitution - "Use it or Lose it.") ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: frog in a pot

Clearly the nation needs a strong, widely based rally such as Trump has started, one that continues to grow after he leaves office. Absolutely right. I wonder if he can get the flames of freedom burning strongly or whether the tinder he ignited will sputter and go out.

16 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:39:10 AM by ProtectOurFreedom ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: billorites

Probably the best interview by a cabinet rank official ever.

The money quote is above. He does not care about public opinion.

17 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:39:46 AM by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: Starboard

You missed the point if you think he gives a damn about winning over the left. He only cares about enforcing the law, regardless of left or right.

18 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:43:15 AM by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: Starboard

The Republicans may not be as power hungry and angry but I don’t trust them either. Most of them are not that way when they first run for office and are elected. When they arrive in the swamp, they are subjected to hostility from all sides, and the pressure breaks them (i.e. the Stockholm syndrome sets in). I think that one of the main ways we can drain the swamp is to limit the amount of time any politician spends in that environment. These days, meetings can be held via teleconference and communications via email. There is no reason for any of them to have to live and work in the swamp. If they lived in their home districts, they would have the support of constituents and would be largely shielded from the hostile actors.

19 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:45:00 AM by exDemMom (Current visual of the hole the US continues to dig itself into: http://www.usdebtclock.org/) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ To: billorites

The leftists are vile creatures.

20 posted on 6/1/2019, 9:54:42 AM by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I’m feeling good I’m feeling good — Nina Simone, Feeling Good, 1965 The idiocy of our times – those tick-tick-tock-tock empty cranial caverns of the American collective delusion – have us clear thinkers and revolutionaries at heart on the ropes. How do we even sleep walk through the carnival that is Facebook, Saturday Night Live, endless Black Fridays, malls and movies, the spectacle that is un-news and the infantile capacity of adults from Ellen to Trump, from Rachel to Tom Friedman, from MSM punks to you-name-it-still-employed economist to control vast hundreds of millions – check that, billions – of destinies. Looting the tax coffers, hollowing out the middle class, rampant perpetual poverty and indebtedness, chronic illness, crashing climate, and a shit-storm of a planet now that we all think Capitalism is the only solution to death. We fiddle with holiday deals while holocaust looms, and we sit, kneel, genuflect, roll over, lie down and plead in our hog-tied American way. Bombs from the suburbs lifted into space with the deadly drone god while Southern California burns, Phoenix evaporates, and both ends of the country flop around like lice-plagued GMO fish on the sinking deck. Prognostication, this is the daily bread, by the millions – blogs, WoP, WSJ, NYT, endless on-line mutterings of the controlled opposition. We have become Pokémon dealers, shuffling the next culling of the economy, or placing bets on the insanity plea of Trump and Company, hoping for black rain and Sunday bloody Sunday. This is the time of Botox broadcasters, the male and female versions of the same plastic people, there, in their million dollar flats at night, conjuring up more of the same silly and insane narratives about things they know nothing about. They ply their trade like traveling prostitutes, selling their bits of Cellophane wisdom and glowing manicured selves like jesters, clowns. The more they try and sound Ivy League and display Driveling Room Temperature IQ, the more difficult it is to understand them. The elite is not some gang of point-one One Percenters. They are in the several millions, count, sixty million of them in the USA, held together with the thieving accountants and hired hands of the legal-illegal class. They are wannabe’s and blue collar millionaires, two doctor heads of households, high end business owners, the traders of guns, pharmaceuticals, laws and other lies. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both. — US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis Yet, we have to listen endlessly to the We Are the Ninety-nine, which is the absurdity of double-think. One percent isn’t holding up the house of cards. The minions, and the mighty masses supporting these titans of industry and billionaires, they are the Twenty-Solid (& Hard) Percent, in their glory, libertarians and thieves and unwilling to be the blood coming from their proverbial onion hearts. In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in relatively few hands. As of 2013, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 36.7% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 52.2%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 89%, leaving only 11% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.8% I dance through this mumbo-jumbo Hollywood and Single-Screen-Scroll-after-Scroll mush we call culture, and I hurdle over the Eichmann’s, big and small, and I end up in the same place I started more than 45 years ago – all thieves and charlatans, but with that big all-you-can-eat American cafeteria grin, the lives set in drive through coffee, grease and drugs delivery. This country, ripe for the taking, after genocide after genocide, and then the War is a Racket turned into America is the King Pin, the Biggest Racket of them All. Blue blood in her circulatory system, ever the slave-trading mindset, dredged in Puritanical and Crypto-Zionism. Promised Land is the Disney Effect, and chosen people come and go, as the drive-in’s turn to weeds and the ever-present huckster and PT Barnum and Lying Lynching Legal class rule over the entire mess, over all of the stars and tycoons. Beady-eyed money changers, and those sniveling ones making markets out of nothing, the very steps we take, breaths we exhale, lives we shed. There will be blood is the banker’s credo now, backed by Smith and Wesson and plethora of rockets bursting in air from every corner of the White Man’s/Christian/Jewish world. Cops and coaches, captains and CEOs, we know their kind, and no matter which XX or XY you attempt to rationalize into the madness of Capitalism, no matter which Gender or Identity serves the point-one One Percent class, the project is all cornered and flayed because Capitalism is the breeder of the heathens, the reckless and ruthless, the smiling and sincerely elitist crew. Yet, we hear endless drivel now about Groping A and Groping B, the slithering tongues of these Capitalists on steroids and amyl nitrate and human growth hormones and T-cells, and lubricated eggs from virgin sturgeon. These people in the center of that millionaire goo, in that trade of body and soul for the spin around the rotunda or jaunt down Sunset Boulevard, no matter which Charlie Rose or Dustin Hoffman or Sean Penn you end up with in the same room or office or court of law, unfortunately, they are all the same, groping or masturbating or climaxing or exhibitionisming or peeping tomming or S & M-ing, no matter how you run with them, these elites will eventually get under your skin like pin worms and chiggers. We’ll be seeing the fallout now of the alleged perversions and sexual overtures and manipulations and cajoling and assaults and rapes, wherever they go with those gag rule clauses after the payoffs and silence money. Just out on this day of infamy, Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, stories on John Travolta, one of the richest guys in Hollywood with 5 planes and jets, and his own runway in Florida. This is the microcosm of what Americans are, what they watch, what they believe. Imagine he and his wife, Kelly Preston, living their multimillionaire tax-evading, money-sheltering, cash-gouging lives. So, old John (the Italian-American actor) is accused of attacking masseuses, and he is now in the pig wash slurry of more scandal, as his movie on John Gotti is being dropped (by Lionsgate) because of the allegations swirling around old John (Travolta) attacking guys coming to his hotel rooms for massages (professional): Mafia leader Gotti was brought to trial multiple times throughout the 1980s, only to be acquitted. Travolta, 63, plays Gotti in multiple stages of his life, including when he finally went to prison in 1992. Gotti died of throat cancer, while still incarcerated, in 2002. Last month Travolta was named in a criminal complaint by a 21-year-old masseur who accused the actor of sexual battery that reportedly took place in 2000. According to the bombshell police report, the masseur alleged that Travolta groped his bare buttocks and indecently exposed himself during a deep body massage at the LaQuinta Hotel in Palm Springs, California. During the alleged incident, Travolta, 63, also made lewd remarks about gay fantasies while at the hotel’s spa facility around 1:30 am on February 15, 2000. The masseur reported the incident to the Palm Springs Sheriff’s Department. Officer Mark Peters went to the hotel to speak with Travolta, who had already checked out by the time he arrived. This isn’t the first time Travolta has been accused of misconduct while getting a massage. In 2012, Travolta was sued over accusations that he tried to have sex with a male masseur during a therapy session at the luxury Beverly Hills Hotel. Okorie Okorcha, the lawyer representing the masseur said: ‘My client is afraid of John Travolta’. He added: ‘Mr. Travolta made very explicit threats against my client, which are contained in the lawsuit. ‘Specifically, John Travolta told my client that Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity. ‘Let’s face it, John Travolta is an extremely powerful man, and my client absolutely felt threatened by Mr. Travolta. My client was sexually assaulted by Mr. Travolta and he needs to be held accountable for his actions.’ Read more: I bring this most recent case up to illustrate the insane and perverse and surreal aspect of American society, and the money made by talent-less actors who are in bizarre relationships with spouses (arranged marriage with Preston per Scientology), who have the lives of the rich and famous all bundled up in their wacko ways. Do we want to sit through two hours of Gotti, at $12 a pop per movie ticket? Do we have no common sense in this country? The poor and the rich are the mad crowd, the spectacle now conjoined as aberrations of humanity. Travolta, a deacon in the Scientology cult. Do Americans boycott these people, these companies, these ideas, these death by a thousand cuts philosophies and this repressive un-culture to our own humanity? Boys will be boys, and then some. How many men have made the news for their alleged crimes of groping, harassing, cajoling, blackmailing? How many rabbis are speaking out against the large amount of Jewish men caught up in the allegations? How many preachers and priests are speaking up? What about the school teachers, and those university faculty? Mothers? Daughters? Aunts? Any Trump family out there willing to go out on a limb? Where is that ethical code humanity universally has to live with to make sure we do no harm? Golden Rule, Seven Sins of Gandhi ? On October 22, 1925, Gandhi published a list he called the Seven Social Sins in his weekly newspaper Young India. Politics without principles Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Commerce without morality Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice The list sprung from a correspondence that Gandhi had with someone only identified as a “fair friend.” He published the list without commentary save for the following line: “Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.” Unlike the Catholic Church’s list, Gandhi’s list is expressly focused on the conduct of the individual in society. Gandhi preached non-violence and interdependence and every single one of these sins are examples of selfishness winning out over the common good. It’s also a list that, if fully absorbed, will make the folks over at the US Chamber of Commerce and Ayn Rand Institute itch. After all, “Wealth without work,” is a pretty accurate description of America’s 1%. (Investments ain’t work. Ask Thomas Piketty.) “Commerce without morality” sounds a lot like every single oil company out there and “knowledge without character” describes half the hacks on cable news. “Politics without principles” describes the other half. In 1947, Gandhi gave his fifth grandson, Arun Gandhi, a slip of paper with this same list on it, saying that it contained “the seven blunders that human society commits, and that cause all the violence.” The next day, Arun returned to his home in South Africa. Three months later, Gandhi was shot to death by a Hindu extremist. The law of reciprocity, and where does that fall on American culture, whether through the lens of millionaire men or millionaire women? One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (positive or directive form). One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (negative or prohibitive form). What you wish upon others, you wish upon yourself (empathic or responsive form). The Golden Rule differs from the maxim of reciprocity captured in do ut des—”I give so that you will give in return”—and is rather a unilateral moral commitment to the well-being of the other without the expectation of anything in return. The fall-out in this dog-eat-dog, one man/woman for him or herself stolen land, which is the undertow of predatory capitalism, unfortunately, is all (unduly so) on the shoulders of all men – fathers and uncles, teachers and social workers, sons and uncles, all of us, righteous and far from any capitalist usury mindset, divorced from the take-take-take that is America, seemingly embraced by every boy or girl, man or woman, all intersexuals and transsexuals. The voyeurism, titillation, exhibitionism, proclivities toward gender and self debasement, and the ejaculatory and phallus aims of those tainted elites, and not so elite, are tied to the usury, exploitative and downright greed in every human or business transaction in Capitalism. Men, alas, the patriarchy, are all tied up with what we in America have become along all gender and sexual identities: paranoid, exceptionalist, supremacist, imperial and self-important, warring, and supercilious, superficial and shallow.  It’s an epigenetic cause and effect relationship, inside the DNA code of most red-blooded Americans, gay, straight, lesbian, trans-sexual, and what have you! Scam, flimflam, extort, fine, levy, tax, fee-fee-fee, and then, we steal from our futures, bankrupt our own retirements, rip off generations yet born, dredge the lake for that last caviar-producing fish, and we put it all out there in Google-land, Selfie the Entire Disaster, go on Twitter Tizzies, and then ask for more, and order it all on Amazon, trucked to the door and drone-delivered to the balcony. Funny, how conservative guys like Paul Craig Roberts see this next spasm of looting with the Republicans throwing down their true colors and the Pelosi-Schumer schemers in the Big D club yawning about their protected investments/millionaire and yammering about Russia, here at Counterpunch: What we are witnessing is the complete looting of America and the entirety of the West.  While the Western World collapses, the insouciant, submissive people sit there sucking their thumbs while they are being ruined. Nothing is left of the West except looters at work. This tax bill is an abomination, an act of brutal plunder.  Its sponsors should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, if not hung from a lamp post. If we really break this down, really, what is that tar and feather routine? Imagine, a real world where we aren’t going to take it anymore, one where the tar is 200 degrees and the feathers are all knife sharp and hardened. Imagine the dunking of those thieves-murderers in vats of their fossil fuel gunk, near boiling temperature. I wonder if that’s what Craig Roberts is asking for? And, then, really, what does it mean to be hung on a lamp post? The old ways put the tarred and feathered tied to a lamp post, but hung evokes a lynching. Is that what this staid and conservative Paul Craig Roberts is asking for? Hmm, a call to action, violence? The reality is Americans love their thug royalty, all the Bushes and Clintons and Obamas and the endless Kennedys and now the Trumps. This country not only tars and feathers dissidents, but we’re strung up to dry on the vine. I have lost jobs for speaking out, for advocating as a teacher or journalist or social worker. I write about this all the time, and many places I’ve called my work place were havens for women, me being in the super minority. I have no bended knee and favoritism for the female side of capitalism, like many now are gaggling about. I have been face to face with ameliorating, middling, and in many cases malfeasance prone supervisors and HR directors with the XX gene, and I am not about to go on a tirade of reverse stupidity and count all men as Harvey Weinsteins or John Conyers. We are living up to our collective reputation as mushy thinkers, in this next Tweeting for the Highest Scream for grope x, y and z. Untethered bathrobes, full-on kisses, and all the other pathetic pranks and sexist fun (sic) these leaders of the free world engage in. But . . . . Bombing the world, gutting the world, and possibly stealing all the world’s things, and we talk about Al Franken the Bumbler. Imagine now, a few days ago, that parading multimillionaire, mutilating man, Obama, calling for more women to be elected to office. “. . . because men seem to be having some problems these days.” In all his neoliberal, girl child killing, female wedding party murdering, undocumented woman deporting glee, he sits on the pile of manure that is American retro-thinking and makes these declarations worthy of the nonsense that overrules everything in this country. This is Obama at a private event in Paris on Saturday, and he, of course, was referring to the sexual misconduct allegations made against many high-profile men he golfs with, rubs elbows with, hobnobs for.  Here, this is a must read, his eleventh-grade wisdom and drearily daft psychology: “Not to generalize but women seem to have a better capacity than men do, partly because of their socialization.” Here he is, commenting on the plethora of misdeeds and worse of the great elite class, those champions of perversion like Weinstein or the Franken fellow or Alabama Crimson Tide Moore and Company. This is in Paris, speaking to his elites, arranged by a network of communications professionals known as the Les Napoleons. Millionaires, and many of them perverted on many levels. You think one of these boys and girls club acolytes have a bone of humanism left? Listening to wise scriptures, austerity, sacrifice, respectful faith, social welfare, forgiveness, purity of intent, compassion, truth and self-control—are the ten wealth of character (self). O king aim for these, may you be steadfast in these qualities. These are the basis of prosperity and rightful living. These are highest attainable things. All worlds are balanced on dharma, dharma encompasses ways to prosperity as well. O King, dharma is the best quality to have, wealth the medium and desire (kāma) the lowest. Hence, (keeping these in mind), by self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself. — Mahābhārata Shānti-Parva 167:9 This is 21st Century Google Man, Obama, at his best and most hypocritical, somehow declaring that I as a man should not run for local office or be involved in social change at the political level because of a few perverts making the Twitter feeds? He declares men seemingly have a few problems, and so, this wise American Murder Incorporated CEO (ex) is asking me to stand down as a male and wait for the female leaders, because women have a better grasp on socialization? What the hell does that mean? Where do these Gollum characters come from, this Barak and his Michelle and the millions of shekels shoved into their pockets for their mere existences, for a few hiccuped words ghost-written into Number One Best Seller Hardbacks? The socialization of women like Madeline Albright, Chancellor Merkel, Margaret Thatcher, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Janet Reno, and, well, the reader can generate his-her-their own list. Socialization of these fine ladies shine a light on their incredible lightness of goodness? This is side-mouth, PC, identity politics talk. These are loopy times, and we’ve been in them for decades, really, since Eisenhauer, as undertow after riptide produced the death of integrity, the death of common thinking, the inability of the American trite and superficial man and woman to advance to a level of sophistication or deep thinking or even wisdom or common sage sense. Look at these fellows and women running the world into the ground while they stash-stash-stash away retirement money enough to feed the world 50 billion times over.  Look at how they are not us and they indeed want us prostrate and afraid and on the run and now in their goofy show of faux integrity. All for one, one for all women. Here’s a run down of some of those so-so better socialized women Obama is calling on. I need not go into their dirty deeds, their recklessness, their thieving and in many cases direct connection to murdering thousands and structurally and violently assaulting millions and millions more. That other gender Obama is asking for help from, the female persuasion, is now front and center the only gender to be socially and structurally ready for service to the country, as Obama blurts out during one of his Point One Percent Meetings in France . . .  because men seem to be having some problems these days. Madeleine Albright  Condoleezza Rice Hillary Clinton . Arizona governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security Margaret Spellings Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos  Secretary of Education Susan E. Rice, Loretta E. Lynch, Laura Bush, Karen Hughes (Bush Women) Samantha Power? (Wow, what a bastion of integrity . . . I had to throw that in). More rah-rah bullshit from mainstream propaganda: Forbes USA Most Powerful Women Fortune’s Most Powerful Women And, the following from other lists, imagine, the power they wield, and because they are women, according to Barak Obama’s calculus, are stalwarts of humanity! Merkel, May, Gates, Trump — bastions of integrity! Angela Merkel is still the most powerful woman in the world. The German Chancellor has held the top spot on the Forbes Most Powerful Women List for seven consecutive years, and 12 years in total. Another prominent political leader, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, ranked second. It is her first time appearing on Forbes‘s annual list. Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is the highest-ranking American woman, taking the third spot. Seven of the world’s 10 most powerful women are American, according to the Forbes list. Forbes determines its ranking by evaluating four categories: money — which covers net worth, company revenues, assets under management or GDP — media presence, influence and impact. Of the 100 women on the list, nearly half are from the United States. Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to and daughter of President Donald Trump. Here’s the David Letterman Countdown, Top Ten. Gates Foundation, Facebook, GM, YouTube, Fidelity Investments, IMF, Bank, IBM. Just think of those companies, and how unjust, how predatory, and how destructive they are, but with women in higher up positions and even as CEOs, well, according to Obama, we all can sleep better tonight now that women are at the helm! * Angela Merkel: Chancellor, Germany * Theresa May: Prime Minister, U.K. * Melinda Gates: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. * Sheryl Sandberg: COO, Facebook, U.S. * Mary Barra: CEO, General Motors, U.S. * Susan Wojcicki: CEO, YouTube, U.S. * Abigail Johnson: CEO, Fidelity Investments, U.S. * Christine Lagarde: Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, U.S. * Ana Patricia Botín: Chair, Santander Group, Banco Santander, Spain * Ginni Rometty: CEO, IBM, U.S. Here, an interesting list, with, of course, a few amazing human beings lumped into the superficial and super-rich — Addams, Aquino, Carson, Curie, Mead, Parks, Wolff. But it’s Time Magazine, so we know what that means (run by a woman, or has she been replaced?) Jane Addams (1860-1935) Corazon Aquino (1933-2009) Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Coco Chanel (1883-1971) Julia Child (1912-2004) Hillary Clinton (1947-Present) Marie Curie (1867-1934) Aretha Franklin (1942-Present) Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) Estée Lauder (1908-2004) Madonna (1958-Present) Margaret Mead (1901-1978) Golda Meir (1898-1978) Angela Merkel (1954-Present) Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-Present) Rosa Parks (1913-2005) Jiang Qing (1914-1991) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) Gloria Steinem (1934-Present) Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) Martha Stewart (1941-Present) Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Margaret Thatcher (1925-Present) Oprah Winfrey (1954-Present) Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) Most Powerful Women According to Fortune Magazine, 2010! Highest paid, take a look at that loot, again, as Obama proclaims, why not have them all (women) run the senate, congress, Supreme Court and the Executive Branch? Carol Bartz                          Yahoo!                 $47.2 million Safra Catz                            Oracle                   $36.4 million Carrie Cox                            Schering-Plough      $23 million Irene Rosenfeld                  Kraft Foods         $22.1 million Wellington Denahan-Norris      Annaly Capital Management $21.6 m Pamela Patsley                 Moneygram International            $17.9 million Susan Ivey                          Reynolds American          $16.2 million Martine Rothblatt            United Therapeutics       $15.8 million — Carol Meyrowitz               TJX Companies              $14.8 million Indra Nooyi                      PepsiCo                           $14.2 million Angela Braly                     WellPoint            $13.1 million Brenda Barnes                  Sara Lee               $11.5 million — Linda Chen                        Wynn Resorts    $11.2 million — Patricia Woertz                 Archer Daniels Midland     $11.0 million Kim Sinatra                       Wynn Resorts    $10.5 million — Mary Callahan Erdoes     JPMorgan Chase $10.4 million Nancy Wysenski               Vertex Pharmaceuticals          $10.2 million — Jackwyn Nemerov           Polo Ralph Lauren $10.1 million Ursula Burns                     Xerox    $9.9 million Martha Stewart                Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia     $9.7 m Ann Livermore                 Hewlett-Packard              $9.7 million Doreen Toben                   Verizon Communications              $9.2 million Katherine Krill                  AnnTaylor Stores              $9.1 million — Kathryn Fagan                  Annaly Capital Management       $8.6 million Ellen Kullman                   DuPont $8.3 million You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. — Nina Simone Note:  Give it to the New York Daily News to call this “the Weinstein Effect as Sexual McCarthyism” http://clubof.info/

[dfroza]

A tapestry of Love

is out in the open. it has been made perfectly clear. and it is only seen through baptism eyes of Light in the humility of a child (as a daughter or son of God)

A point that is seen in the reading of an ancient Letter as Today’s chapter in the book of Colossians

Chapter #2:

I want you to realize that I continue to work as hard as I know how for you, and also for the Christians over at Laodicea. Not many of you have met me face-to-face, but that doesn’t make any difference. Know that I’m on your side, right alongside you. You’re not in this alone.

I want you woven into a tapestry of love, in touch with everything there is to know of God. Then you will have minds confident and at rest, focused on Christ, God’s great mystery. All the richest treasures of wisdom and knowledge are embedded in that mystery and nowhere else. And we’ve been shown the mystery! I’m telling you this because I don’t want anyone leading you off on some wild-goose chase, after other so-called mysteries, or “the Secret.”

I’m a long way off, true, and you may never lay eyes on me, but believe me, I’m on your side, right beside you. I am delighted to hear of the careful and orderly ways you conduct your affairs, and impressed with the solid substance of your faith in Christ.

[From the Shadows to the Substance]

My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You’re deeply rooted in him. You’re well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.

Watch out for people who try to dazzle you with big words and intellectual double-talk. They want to drag you off into endless arguments that never amount to anything. They spread their ideas through the empty traditions of human beings and the empty superstitions of spirit beings. But that’s not the way of Christ. Everything of God gets expressed in him, so you can see and hear him clearly. You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to realize the fullness of Christ, and the emptiness of the universe without him. When you come to him, that fullness comes together for you, too. His power extends over everything.

Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.

So don’t put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Don’t tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They’re a lot of hot air, that’s all they are. They’re completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.

So, then, if with Christ you’ve put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? “Don’t touch this! Don’t taste that! Don’t go near this!” Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they’re just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.

The Book of Colossians, Chapter 2 (The Message)

and the paired chapter of the Testaments with this is Isaiah 50 where we read of choosing not to fear by fully trusting in Love (although it is the beginning of True wisdom to fear God, to have reverence toward our Creator)

[Who Out There Fears God?]

God says:

“Can you produce your mother’s divorce papers

proving I got rid of her?

Can you produce a receipt

proving I sold you?

Of course you can’t.

It’s your sins that put you here,

your wrongs that got you shipped out.

So why didn’t anyone come when I knocked?

Why didn’t anyone answer when I called?

Do you think I’ve forgotten how to help?

Am I so decrepit that I can’t deliver?

I’m as powerful as ever,

and can reverse what I once did:

I can dry up the sea with a word,

turn river water into desert sand,

And leave the fish stinking in the sun,

stranded on dry land . . .

Turn all the lights out in the sky

and pull down the curtain.

The Master, God, has given me

a well-taught tongue,

So I know how to encourage tired people.

He wakes me up in the morning,

Wakes me up, opens my ears

to listen as one ready to take orders.

The Master, God, opened my ears,

and I didn’t go back to sleep,

didn’t pull the covers back over my head.

I followed orders,

stood there and took it while they beat me,

held steady while they pulled out my beard,

Didn’t dodge their insults,

faced them as they spit in my face.

And the Master, God, stays right there and helps me,

so I’m not disgraced.

Therefore I set my face like flint,

confident that I’ll never regret this.

My champion is right here.

Let’s take our stand together!

Who dares bring suit against me?

Let him try!

Look! the Master, God, is right here.

Who would dare call me guilty?

Look! My accusers are a clothes bin of threadbare

socks and shirts, fodder for moths!

Who out there fears God,

actually listens to the voice of his servant?

For anyone out there who doesn’t know where you’re going,

anyone groping in the dark,

Here’s what: Trust in God.

Lean on your God!

But if all you’re after is making trouble,

playing with fire,

Go ahead and see where it gets you.

Set your fires, stir people up, blow on the flames,

But don’t expect me to just stand there and watch.

I’ll hold your feet to those flames.

The Scroll of Isaiah, Chapter 50 (The Message)

and the number 50 reminds me of the alphabetic number of the letters TWG from an Oklahoma license plate [TWG 181] which was on a Mazda MPV that i drove up until October of ‘07

and to add to this, Today’s Psalm 11 for july 11 contains 7 verses that reflects upon the date 7.11

A song (a poem) about finding refuge in Love amidst the chaos of this world and its lies that can turn into false accusations or harrasment that is brought up against people who hold grace as their treasured innocence (rebirth)

Song of the Steadfast

For the Pure and Shining One, by King David

Lord, don’t you hear

what my well-meaning friends keep saying to me:

“Run away while you can!

Fly away like a bird to hide in the mountains for safety.

For your enemies have prepared a trap for you!

They plan to destroy you with their slander and deceitful lies.

Can’t you see them hiding

in their place of darkness and shadows?

They’re set against you and all those who live upright lives.”

But don’t they know, Lord,

that I have made you my only hiding place?

Don’t they know that I always trust in you?

What can the righteous accomplish

when truth’s pillars are destroyed and law and order collapse?

Yet the Eternal One is never shaken—

he is still found in his temple of holiness,

reigning as Lord and King over all.

He is closely watching everything that happens.

And with a glance, his eyes examine every heart.

For his heavenly rule will prevail over all.

He will test both the righteous and the wicked,

exposing each heart.

God’s very soul detests those who love to resort to violence.

He will rain down upon them judgment for their sins.

A scorching wind will be their portion and lot in life.

But remember this: the Righteous Lord loves

what is right and just, and every godly one

will come into his presence and gaze upon his face!

The Book of Psalms, Poem 11 (The Passion Translation)

to be concluded with a set of lines from Today’s chapter in the book of Proverbs about kindness and truth:

A God-Shaped Life

When you’re kind to others, you help yourself; when you’re cruel to others, you hurt yourself.

A life devoted to things is a dead life, a stump; a God-shaped life is a flourishing tree.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 11:17, 28 (The Message)

my reading of the Scriptures for july 11, day 21 of Summer and day 192 of the year that mirrors the alphabetic number 192 of the words “Central Park Tulsa” or CPT which is where i was living at this time a decade ago on the 17th story: