#and people who live near military bases or have seen armed police have probably seen big automatic ones

[ssaalexblake]

I feel like culturally the 13 gives yaz a gun is playing different among demos on both sides of the pond. 

[astoryinred]

"Trese" and the truth in the fiction

In short: why the actual monsters in Trese don't have horns, wings, or summoning rituals

Finally the Netflix anime adaptation of the Filipino graphic novel/comics series "Trese" has dropped. It is available in several languages such as English, Filipino, Japanese, Spanish...just to name a few. It is not a perfect work, both in technical terms as well as an adaptation of the source material, but it is worth a watch. Go watch it. Please.

That being said, there is so much to unpack about the series, and I do not mean in terms of the voice-acting and the ethnicities of the persons involved, or just how crunched together the writing is. I will leave that to the critics. What I am writing here is a view as to the real life truths woven into the horror/supernatural threads of the "Trese" episodes, and why these are important. It's because for a lot of people encountering "Trese" at this point, the actual every day monsters of the tale (or at least of the first 4 episodes) are even more distant than the aswangs, tikbalangs, nunos and other supernatural beings that populate the anime.

This will go into spoilers below the cut

Episode 1: The series opens with a train stopping right near the "Guadalupe Station", and some of its passengers being attacked by aswang as they walk along the railroad tracks. During the course of investigating this and another case (that of a ghost murdered on Balete Drive), Alexandra Trese learns that other spirits using this train line have recently perished in a fire or have also been murdered by aswang in league with a politician.

The squatter/informal settler community mentioned in this episode is based on a real one. That area has gone up in flames from accidental and not so accidental fires over the past few decades. Some of the settlers have moved on, but a good many have stubbornly stuck around despite the land being eyed by a large property developer. That area is a symptom of the inequality that plagues that particular part of the metropolis, since it is only less than a mile away from some of the country's swankiest gated subdivisions. While the powers that be are (probably) not involved in selling anyone for meat, they still have a long way to go to address the woes of that community when it is not election season.

As for the other murder in the episode? There have been several cases of women associated with or married to prominent politicians who have died in mysterious circumstances, with some of these deaths ruled as suicide. In many cases, the truth has been hushed up, or simply swept under the rug.

Episode 2: While Alexandra is pursuing the trail of a tikbalang running wild in the city, she also is called to investigate a mysterious series of electrocutions in a gated village. Along the way she discovers that this is a form of human sacrifice to the bagyons manning the electricity providers of the city.

As reprehensible as the bagyons are, what is truly sickening is the seeming indifference of the people in Livewell Village. It's mentioned more in the comics (but also given a line or two of exposition here by the Nuno) that the people regularly offer an outsider, usually a skilled worker in charge of maintenance, to ensure that the bagyon will bless them. In real life there is the callousness that some people exhibit towards essential workers such as yes, repairmen and electricians who have to endure heights and storms just to ensure the "comfort" of consumers. Although the Philippines isn't a country crawling with litiginous folk and "Karens", there are enough of this sort to make essential workers' lives miserable on a daily basis.

Episode 3: This is a difficult one, both in the comics and the anime. One of Trese's cases leads her to cross paths with an actress named Nova, who is later revealed to have had her child left to die (hence making her a target for a specific type of monster). Nova's story is admittedly not easy to deal with and may be considered incredulous, but there are two important contexts to remember when watching it.

The first is that abortion is still illegal throughout the Philippines. It cannot be legally offered by any clinic or medical practitioner. There are clandestine alternatives available, but at a steep price.

That being said, most Filipinos regardless of where they stand on the abortion issue will still consider the abandonment or murder of an infant to be beyond the pale. Yet this does happen. Every month one can expect to read a story or two of babies being tossed in the trash or left in bathrooms---and those are just the stories that make it to the press. There have been exposes about mothers who have sold off their infants to "adopters" willing to pay thousands of pesos or dollars for an under the table transfer of custody. These happen because of desperation, poverty, and lack of resources to support mothers. Maternity leave is only up to 120 days here in most cases, and there are few resources to support mothers with PPD, mothers abandoned by their partners, or those with just too many mouths to feed. Questions of "bodily autonomy" are not first and foremost in the mind of many women who do the worst to their newborns; the question is food on the table for the next day or the day after. Survival is key. Not independence or empowerment.

With these in mind, it is not surprising that Nova is considered one of the most disturbing and reprehensible characters in this episode. From what we see, her choice of abandoning her child stems from vanity and pursuit of a glamorous career. We can see that this is not because she would be out on the streets if she had a child to care for, or because she was escaping something. It's just portrayed as pure selfishness.

It is interesting that Nova is introduced here almost as a juxtaposition to another mother, Ramona. Ramona, the mother of Crispin and Basilio, is an armed insurgent who engages in a ritual to avenge herself on the military men who forced her to murder her own comrades. It is also implied earlier in the season that it was not just murder involved, but that Ramona had also been a "prize" given to the soldiers who captured her. And yes in this context, it can also mean rape. The Armed Forces of the Philippines does not have a shining record when it comes to its treatment of women dissidents and prisoners. This backstory does not justify what Ramona does for the remainder of her screentime, but it does show why she has absolutely no sympathy or mercy to give to anyone outside of her two children. She is part of a cycle of killing that makes any peaceful resolution of the insurgency in the Philippines so difficult to achieve. Both sides behave abominably, and civillians do get caught in the crossfire (or explosions).

Episode 4: Much of this episode revolves around the events in and surrounding a certain police station located near a large public cemetery. We see that the police chief Captain Guerrero has his hands full with cases and keeping his subordinates in line. The cops in the precinct range from the innocent apparent newcomer Tapia to the more stereotypical "asshole" cops Reyes and company. Later it is discovered that the bodies apparently "stolen" from the graves are resurrected zombies who are being directed to attack the station for a specific reason...and it has to do with how the police run their often bloody operations.

The real life neighborhoods surrounding the cemetery have seen their share of violence and "extra judicial killings". In some houses there are still candles and placards calling for justice for family members killed in raids or accused of having been drug suspects (almost a death sentence in the Philippines 2016 onwards). Eyewitnesses and CCTV footage show members of the police force taking part in these raids and clandestine operations. The worst part? The neighborhoods surrounding that particular cemetery haven't even seen the worst of it. Other disadvantaged communities in the north of the metropolis have seen even more deaths of this sort...with some of the deaths being those of children. Google the name of Kian delos Santos as a test case. Kian's case was one of the few to have extended media coverage, and even then the resolution has been rather wanting.

It is tempting to go into the "all cops are bastards" line of thought with this episode, but I do like how Captain Guerrero is forced to interact with someone who he is trying to save in the station, since as it turns out this person has recently lost a family member to this form of senseless murder. Captain Guerrero and the audience are led to remember that these victims have names. They had families. They had lives. They are more than body counts and statistics. That scene is one of the most humanizing of the series, and shows that while not all cops are bastards, there is enough rot in the institution to make it a problem.

Episodes 5-6: I would go more into Episodes 5 and 6, but those deserve a whole new treatment into the nature of truth, compromise, and even gaslighting (even I am not sure how much of a certain character's narrative is true, and how much is just meant to confuse Alexandra with regard to what she knows of her father). The context she does face before those harrowing revelations is a very real one though: things going wrong in a penitentiary.

The penal system of the Philippines is alarmingly punitive and full of inequities. Privileged inmates like politicians do receive special treatment (including media coverage and becoming leaders of factions) while less privileged inmates languish and must struggle to survive the brutal social hiearchy in some institutions. And yes it has happened that inmates have been sent out to do "jobs" of murder and arson in the outside world, often being snuck in and out. A movie that tackles this aspect better is "OTJ (On the Job)" directed by Erik Matti. That one will keep you up at night.

The ending of Episode 6 is rather ambiguous, and it remains to be seen what Alexandra really experienced during her trials prior to becoming a detective, and what her father really did to her and her sibling. We'll have to wait for another season to get to the bottom of that. But if the anime will continue to draw from the comics themselves for stories/case files, we can count on seeing more societal demons and baddies alongside the supernatural ones. And those are the villains that Alexandra Trese cannot just readily beat; it will take a heck lot more than a babaylan na mandirigma to handle those!

[sons-of-the-morning-star]

DISCLAIMER FOR ANY SENSITIVE READERS: This series is going to deal with heavy topics like abandonment, death, guilt, grief, and a lot of other stuff; this first chapter in particular is probably going to be pretty heavy for the same reason.

I will be writing this is present tense and will be constantly be saying, "if this was a show, this would happen or this is what we see," both because I originally thought of it as a show and because this is a screenplay, but more narratively cohesive.

Got that? GREAT!!!

Let's dive in!!!!!!!!!

Chapter/Episode 1: Union- Part 1

We start off in darkness with the sound of crackling fire in the background. One by one, a red light shines and silhouettes five figures, all standing in a circle as they face each other. If this was a show, the camera would be behind one of these figures as he and the other figures eye each other.

He starts a fire in his hand and two figures bristle while the other two back away-

An alarm clock blares out and we cut to a dark bedroom in a hotel suite, like the sound of the alarm woke US up, along with the character sleeping, who groans as his alarm keeps blaring.

After MAYBE the fifth chime, he sighs and slaps the alarm clock off, his arm slipping down his nightstand and droppong to the side of his bed.

His hand curls into a fist as the door is knocked on.

"Mr. Wagner? Are you awake yet?"

Yes! We start with our boy Lucius Wagner!

Lucius loudly humms, "Mm-hm" and sits up.

"You have an interview at nine', a meeting at a quarter to noon, and a conference at five'. Looks like another busy day."

He hears the person- man, woman, it doesn't matter- walk away and stands up from his bed to pull the curtain to his room back only to wince when the light hits his face.

It's too early for the sun to be so bright.

Despite being tired and not wanting to write to people because he can't talk, Lucius gets ready for his day.

Back to what we'd see if this was a show: the camera would be on Lucius as he stares out at the city before he takes a deep breath and turns away. Jump cut to the camera behind and away from Lucius as he turns and walks to the bathroom, turning on the TV before he starts getting ready, more specifically the news.

The camera stays on the TV as we learn Lucius, despite his young age of 22, is running for senator just like his human father did, but he is more successful because not only has crime rate already decreased, but any political opponents he goes against stepped down within minutes of the debate or conference he's in. With no evidence of bribery or any other scandal involved, as criminals are being found dead, one being brought up in todays broadcadt, Lucius is on his way to becoming Sentator of not only Massachusetts, but of the United States as a whole.

We do a transition from Lucius's room to the scene where the camera zooms in on the TV screen as it shows a body under a blanket and we hear the click of a camera and the lens shutters close and open.

On the streets, we now follow Damien Thorn as he gets as close as he can to the scene and the body. He has been investigating these 'accidents' since the arrival of everyone's favorite new politician, who has never spoken a word on camera, never said anything to or against his opponents, and never spoke during interviews. And somehow he's running for senator. Since it seems fishy to him, and because he keeps getting a sick feeling in his stomach when he sees Lucius on the news, he decided to start digging by tracing the criminals who have died and anyone who stepped down from conferences.

The body he is investigating today is a fisher from the town Lucius grew up in, who was charged for numerous cases of assault and fraud.

He is stopped by a police officer when he tries to cross the police tape.

"Sorry, that's close enough."

"It's for the paper. People want to know what's going on."

"They don't need to see this."

Damien scowls as his eyes go black, uttering a "sorry" as he stares the officer down.

The officer's face goes expressionless and just as he lifts the tape, the announcer gets a breaking report.

"This just in! An earthquake near the United Kingdoms has caused the south western quarter of England and Wales to be flooded and taken out to sea!"

Cut back to Lucius in his room as he chokes and gags on his toothbrush; if you've ever hit the back of your tongue while brushing your teeth, you'll get why he gags. He walks out, mouth kind of full of toothpaste and his toothbrush in his teeth, and sees an over head view of the map, showing just how much of England has been wiped out.

For context, here is what was taken out, circled in red⬇️⬇️

Lucius's eyes widen as he takes out his toothbrush.

I'm not good with fractions, but a third or fifth of England is now gone. And-

"While it is right now unknown how many are injured or missing, authorities have reported countless victims were lost in the catastrophe."

Lucius turns off the TV and finishes getting ready, a time jump/transition of Lucius going to the bathroom to spit out the toothpaste and then transitioning to him looking up from washing his face, like he leans down to spit out the toothpaste wearing no shirt and with some shower head, but when he leans back up, he's in a black dress shirt, about to tie his tie, his hair is tidy, and he is rubbing his face dry with a towel.

Part of England gone. Just like that.

It's a pretty shocking thing to imagine, with possibly hundreds or thousands of people being wiped out in the blink of an eye and the cause somehow being an earthquake.

Seems sort of fishy, if you ask me.

Lucius tries shrugging it off as he leaves his room, dressed to impress, and heads out for breakfast and his interview.

Cut to a pair of men walking on the sidewalk, the white-blonde haired one panicked and finicky while his red haired partner is swaggering beside him with a briefcase. The more brightly dressed man keeps "oh"-ing and whimpering , which is driving his more darkly attired kind of insane.

An angel and a demon.

If you've seen Good Omens, you KNOW who there two are

"Angel, stop muttering. You sound like you're summoning Satan himself."

"What if we can't find him? And what if he says 'no?'"

"We'll make him say 'yes.'"

Aziraphale looks down at the briefcase and then nods.

"And just how are we going to find him?"

"We found the antichrist once. We can find him again."

Aziraphale stops and gives him a withering look.

"Another one. We can find another one."

SPEAKING OF THE DEVIL'S SON!!!

Just as the two continue, they bump into a certain photographer that makes Aziraphale shudder like he's just gotten into an ice bath and Crowley smell either blood or smoke.

This wasn't what Crowley had in mind, but it's a start.

"Oi! 'Scuse me!"

Damien turns as he keeps walking. "Sorry, I have to hurry to..."

Aziraphale now starts trembling and Damien gets a sick feeling in his stomach, not like with seeing Lucius, like he has an air bubble in his stomach or really bad period cramps.

Crowley narrows his eyes behind his sunglasses and steps closer.

"Where you off to so quickly?"

Damien fights a gag as he continues to back away. "I-Interview. Wagner's see-seeing someone. Im-Important for the news."

Crowley steps closer and pulls Damien close by his color, making Damien pale and fall to his knees.

"Lucius Wagner?"

Damien nods.

Aziraphale and Crowley exchange glances before looking back at Damien, Aziraphale taking the briefcase away so Damien can recompose himself.

Cut to Lucius in the middle of his interview, which is being recorded on the news. So far he has been asked the basic political questions and he gave the correct answers to get people to love him. Then comes in ANOTHER breaking news report.

Part of California, Arizona, and New Mexico has also been flooded, but there aren't as many people missing as England.

"Mr. Wagner? How do you see yourself helping the families that are now broken by this tragedy?"

Before Lucius can answer, two people catch his eye.

Like when Damien saw him, Lucius gets a sick feeling in his stomach until he sees two young men, one scowling with wavy blond hair and the other with brown hair and the giddiest smile on a boy.

Suddenly, a member of the crowd pulls a gun out and shoots at Lucius, who throws himself and the woman he's interviewing with to the ground.

The blond smirks and the brunette grows angry.

The shooter gets a look of pure despair on his face as he drops to his knees letting the police drag him away.

Lucius is escorted away instead gets a call.

His schedule has changed completely. He must now go a military base, where a private jet is waiting for him to take him home; his address is classified to the public, so no one knows where he lives.

Cut to Lucius walking through a crowd as he tries to get to his jet, trying his best to wave at the paparazzi and camera people.

"Mr. Wagner, if you'll let me ask you-"

The man who asked grabs Lucius's arm and the two meet eyes. You know that part of the forst Lucius game where time freezes and you see your target with the screen tinted red? Lucius and Damien met eyes and time freezes entirely as they stare at each other and feel the growing urge to kill each other.

They don't hear anyone or anything. They only see each other.

Both are wide eyed as they realize who or what the other is and glare at each other.

Luckily, a body guard punches Damien away and helps Lucius to the jet, where he takes his seat and lets out a breath as he loosens his tie and tips his head back.

"So sorry for all that, Mr. Wagner, sir."

Lucius looks over to see someone like an air flight attendant and writes them a message.

'Don't worry about it. I've had worse happen.'

"Well, at least you're headong home, after all this."

Lucius nods and leans back once more, getting comfortable for his flight to home sweet home.

It's a relatively short flight, mostly because we'd see a timelapse of the sky and Lucius napping in his seat before we cut to him in his house.

Being a senator in the running, Lucius is on a very nice house, one he keeps clean and well furnished. Think Lucifer's penthouse in the shiw Licifer, but it's an actual house and doesn't have a wall of alcohol, just a small cabinet in his parlor and shelf in his fridge.

He turns on a light and nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees Crowley sitting in his living room.

"Hello, Me. Wagner. Nice flight?"

Lucius recomposes himself and raises an eyebrow as he holds a hand out. 'How did you get in here?'

"Just a bit of miracle work from a demon. Takes one to know one, right?"

Lucius takes a seat as he writes a message, showing it to Crowley with narrow eyes.

'I don't exactly know who you are, but you don't have the right to make an accusation like that.'

"You're one of the sons of Satan, I'm pretty sure I do."

'My father was Charles Wagner.'

"Ah, yes, the loon that killed your mother and his own staff while you were sent to the nut house."

'He tried to kill me.'

"Eye for an eye, you prat."

Lucius's eye twitches as he snaps his pen in half, eyes going red.

Crowley only smirks and removes his sunglasses, revealing his snake eyes, befire putting them back on; the lights Lucius has are bright.

Lucius settles and grabs another pen from the coffee table and writes a new message.

'Antony J. Crowley? It's about time London's famed has paid the US a visit.'

"You would think." Crowley leans forward until his elbiws are on his knees. "Look, you're not going to like this, but there's something we need your help with."

Lucius gets up and shakes his head before leaving a messge on the table, and to go the the kitchen to get a drink; like hell he's dealing with CROWLEY sober.

'I don't know if you've noticed, but I have a country I'll be running soon. I don't exactly have time to help you or your pet angel.'

Crowley snarls and follows Lucius to see the young man about to take a sip of a drink.

"Don't you think it's weird that parts of England and America are just gone? That the ocean just took them away and an earthquake was the cause?"

Lucius pauses and lowers his drink slightly, eyes on Crowley as he nods and gestures for the snake eyed demon to continue.

'I'm listening.'

And that will be it for part 1 of Chapter/Episode 1!!!! Man, was this fun to write!!!! Like I said, this is just part 1 and I will be continuing with Chapter/Episode 1 Part 2, I promise!

Sorry for all the yelling, I'm really excited!!

Thank you all so much for reading this and I hope you all have a happy and safe holiday season!!!

[temperancejones]

Some Kind of Curse - Chapter Three

Kris and Steve spend a few hours with Duke and the chief of police arranging their father's funeral for the next morning. They decide to bury him at punchbowl, as he was a veteran, and many people on the island considered him a hero for being such a great cop. Steve and Kris ultimately decide that they will put up a plaque for him at the family mausoleum next to his wife and parents, who all have a plaque there too. Oddly enough, the only McGarrett body buried there is of Jean, the widowed wife of Ensign Steven McGarrett, who died in the Pearl Harbour attacks. Once the meeting is over and everything is set in stone (thankfully HPD was already mostly done with their funeral plans for their father, because they knew that Steve and Kris were overseas at the time of his death), Steve and Kris head back to their hotel to finally get out of their uniforms and relax for the night. They end up grabbing a bite to eat again at the restaurant and have a few beers to unwind before heading back to their room for the night. During dinner, Steve steps out to make a phone call to Mary to inform her of their father's death, and to ask her to come to the funeral. Mary, who essentially grew up without any parents (she was only ten when their mom died and their father sent them away), said she would think about it, and then hung up.

The next morning, Kris find herself reluctant to get out of her bed after a night of minimal sleep. Her mind was racing all night, just trying not to think about her father's funeral in a few hours, and how miserable it truly is to bury both of your parents before the age of fourty. Neither of her parents will ever be able to be grandparents if Kris or her siblings have any kids down the road, and they will never get to see how their kids have grown up in so many ways. Deep down, it breaks Kris' heart to think about, but she knows that it is something that is completely out of her control. All she can do now is take care of her siblings and make sure that they keep the memory of their parents alive and (hopefully) make them proud.

Kris continues to lie in bed for the next little while, trying to muster up all the power and courage in her to get up while Steve goes out for a run to try and clear his mind. Kris would love to go with him, but she can't risk popping her stitches quite yet. Half an hour into Steve's run, Kris hauls her ass out of bed and trudges into the bathroom to freshen up a little bit and make herself look presentable for the funeral today. After washing her face, Kris looks at herself in the mirror for the first time in a while. Her brown hair that was recently cut (by Steve during a little bit of off time on base) into a choppy bob to stay out of her face during missions, and be as low maintenance as possible, is now a mess from her restless (lack of) sleep. She notices a few more wrinkles on her forehead and around her eyes- something that comes with aging and stress, she assumes. But her eyes... oh boy her eyes. Specifically, the bags under her sad, blue eyes that prove she hasn't slept in a while look rather daunting. If she had any makeup right now, she sure as hell would be using it to make her look like she was a living human being and not an exhausted person who probably hasn't had a good night's sleep in the last seventeen years of her life. Taking off her pyjama shirt, she sighs and takes a closer look at the rest of her body. Her chest is now littered with black and blue bruises from the bullets she took in her vest yesterday- she doesn't dare to touch them because she knows that it will hurt like a bitch. Kris sighs and looks at her left shoulder, which is still dressed in a white bandage that's probably due for a change. She carefully takes off the dressing and winces as she touches the tender skin around her bullet wound. From there, she grabs some saline, a new dressing and some medical tape from her medkit, then applies a new dressing, thinking about how this wound is going to lead to yet another scar on her body. Throughout her career in the Navy and Military, Kris' body has slowly begun to be covered in scars from bullet wounds, shrapnel, cuts, broken bones and the occasional surgery. It's just one of the joys of being on the front lines with the men and going out on dangerous missions all the time; Steve has plenty of scars and aches too from it. One thing that Kris loves about her body though, is her tattoos. Each upper arm has a tattoo, and she loves to look at them whenever she gets the chance. Her left arm has a beautiful custom Navy piece that she got with Steve when they graduated from the academy, and her right arm has a black and white mandala with some thick black stripes near her elbow. Kris then gets changed into a new pair of underwear and a sports bra, and washes her face, hoping it makes her look and feel less tired.

A knock on the bathroom door snaps Kris out of her thoughts. It's Steve, and he's back from his run, by the sound of it. "Hey, if you're done lookin' at yourself in the mirror, I brought some coffee for us. And maybe some cocoa puffs from the Liliha Bakery." Steve says loudly, which makes' Kris smile. She dries off her face and opens the door, now poking her head out of it. "Cocoa puffs? Gee, I hope you bought something for yourself, because if you think you're getting any of them, you're dead wrong. Gimme a sec." Kris grins, wiggling her eyebrows at Steve, who is putting the coffees down on the table, now chuckling at his twin who seriously hasn't changed at all since they were kids.

Kris throws her pyjama shorts back on and exits the bathroom, making a beeline for the coffee and cocoa puffs. Steve hands her a coffee, and then opens up the bag of cocoa puffs. Before Steve can even think about grabbing a cocoa puff for himself, Kris' hand is already on one, apparently quite eager to eat it. Steve can't help but laugh at his sister's antics; this was something she has done since they were little kids... she loves the cocoa puffs from Liliha, and would fight tooth and nail for one. Every Sunday, their mom would get up early and grab fresh cocoa puffs for the entire family to have, and they would usually sit outside and have them for breakfast as a family. From there, Steve and Kris eat their breakfast in silence, not really wanting to discuss what is going to be happening today, because frankly, it's something that they both don't want to think about. Once they're all finished, Steve heads into the bathroom to take a quick shower after his run, and then they both put their dress uniforms once again.

The funeral is a sombre affair. Many HPD officers come up to Steve and Kris and offer their condolences, and Steve and Kris answer them on autopilot, thanking them. Before their father's casket is lowered into the ground, Kris is handed the flag that was rested on top of it, which made her breath catch in her throat. Steve put a hand on her back in confidence and placed another on the flag as they said one last goodbye to their father. Kris found herself on autopilot for the entirety of the service, as it was something that she didn't really want to remember or experience ever again. Losing one parent was hard enough, but now that both were gone, and her father was murdered because of something that her and Steve were working on was something that was simply incomprehensible. The 'what if we hadn't taken on the mission of tracking down the Hesse brothers' made Kris feel sick to her stomach to think about- because if they hadn't, John McGarrett would still be alive today, and his children wouldn't be orphans.

When Kris comes back to reality, her and Steve are the only ones left at the cemetery. Kris sighs and crosses herself, whispering a quiet goodbye to her father, and then begins to walk away. She pats Steve on the back, and together they head back to the SUV, and drive back to the hotel in silence. They can mourn for their father once they catch Hesse. He needs to pay for what he did, and they need to get a little bit of revenge. But, they can't do that if their minds are occupied with mourning and emotions, so for now, they will be pushed back until they know that justice has been served to Hesse. Steve and Kris know that they can't bring their father back, but the least they can do is catch his killer and make sure he spends the rest of his life in prison for his actions and all of the pain he has caused.

When Steve and Kris get back to the hotel, they get changed out of their uniforms and go over their mission plan once more; sneak in the house through the back door once the coast is clear, and then begin to investigate the house. They need to see if Hesse left any evidence behind, and then they need to track down the tiger and the champ tool box to try and figure out why their father mentioned them. Maybe they would find out why their father apologized for lying to them moments before his death as well. Before they leave the hotel room, they make sure to grab their Navy ID's and their service weapons just to be safe; they don't know if Hesse is lurking around the house, just waiting for them to fall into his trap or something like that. It makes Kris nervous to think about going to the house, but she knows that it is something that needs to be done so they can get some real answers.

Thankfully, when they arrive at the house, nobody else is there. They decide to park the truck down the street and enter the house through the back door, just to make sure that they aren't seen by anyone in the neighbourhood, or by any HPD members who may be lurking around the house.

Seeing her childhood home for the first time in seventeen years is an odd feeling to Kris. She would feel relieved to be at home under any other circumstance, but today, it makes her feel a little sick to her stomach. For some reason, Kris can't think of any happy memories regarding this house- all she can think of all the pain she has felt here throughout her life; this is where she lost both parents. In the back of her mind, she wishes this house would just burn down so all of the bad feelings end emotions could be forgotten along with it, but at the same time, this house is all that Kris and her siblings have left of their parents, and she simply cannot bear to part ways with them entirely yet.

Taking a deep breath, Kris follows Steve into the house. They enter into the dining room, which also doubled as their dad's office. Kris remembers sneaking into the kitchen for a glass of water late at night and seeing her father doubled over case files, always working hard, even at home. But now, instead of seeing her father sitting at the desk and deep into his work, there are evidence markers, pools of blood and blood spatter on the walls. Before Kris can get too emotional about the sight before her, she tucks it into the back of her mind and gets to work. First, she needs to find the tiger that she made for her father- hopefully there are some answers in it.

Steve makes a beeline for the desk, noticing a lack of dust right in the middle of it, perfectly shaped like a computer. Kris can essentially see the gears turning in his head as he remembers that their father hated computers and refused to buy one. Steve then looks around for something and manages to grab a print next to the computer spot, thanks to some trusty wheel lube that their father had tucked away in the desk. Steve snaps a picture of it to run once they leave the house, and then continues to look around the room for more evidence left behind by Hesse and perhaps an accomplice, based on a bloody boot print left behind that doesn't match up to Hesse's custom shoes.

It takes a few moments, but Kris manages to find the tiger along the wall behind her father's desk. She quickly moves to it and picks it up, chuckling a little bit. This tiger was one of the ugliest things Kris has ever seen or made, and its impossible to tell that it even is a tiger- it's lumpy and poorly painted, but alas, it is something that her father had cherished from the moment she gave it to him, which is something she will always appreciate.

"Got the tiger. Let's go find the box." Kris tells Steve, who nods, and follows her out of the office, and to the garage, which is down the hallway and to the right. "Looks like Hesse had an accomplice. That's probably how they managed to ambush us. Looks like there was a computer here, too." Steve explains, pushing open the door to the garage, revealing their father's beloved mercury marquis, exactly how they left it seventeen years ago.

"So, Hesse and his accomplice managed to track our calls... son of a bitch." Kris mutters to herself, now understanding how those helicopters appeared out of nowhere and attacked their convoy in Korea. She shuts the door behind her and walks to the front of the marquis. Steve pulls off the cover on the car and lets out a low whistle, running his hands along the front of it. "Never thought we'd see this beauty again. I'm glad dad could never part with it." He grins, patting the hood of it lightly.

Kris smiles, now walking around the car to look at it entirely. "Dad sure had taste in cars. God, I missed this piece of junk. It needs so much work." She tells her brother, who only smiles in reply. Their father had bought this car when Steve and Kris were fifteen, and they were all working on it together so that Steve and Kris could drive it once they turned sixteen and got their own licences. But that never got to happen, as life got in the way. Kris, Steve and Mary were all sent away to the mainland before the car was completely fixed up, so it must have sat in here for the last seventeen years. Kris sighs, and looks inside the car, admiring the beautiful leather seats when she spots something along the far wall of the garage.

The red Champ toolbox.

Kris calls Steve and directs him to the box, and then makes her way over to it too.

With a bit of hesitation, mostly because he doesn't know what to expect inside this box, Steve unlatches the lid and pops it open, furrowing his brows at the odd contents inside it.

Kris notices the contents too and sets down the tiger next to the toolbox and reaches for a black tape recorder sitting on top of a bunch of old photographs. She looks it over, and then hits the play button, revealing an old recording from their father. Her heart sinks to her stomach when she hears her father's voice for the first time since his death, and immediately turns it off, not wanting to hear anymore of it right now. She places the tape recorder back in the box, and looks over at Steve, who is currently looking at the photographs, looking rather shocked. Before Steve can say anything, there is a distant slam in the house, which immediately sends Steve and Kris into defence mode. Steve quickly puts the photographs back into the box and shuts it. Kris hurries to get some cover behind the car and hopefully get the intruder, most likely Hesse with a surprise ambush. She slides her gun out of the holster on her right hip and looks over at Steve, who motions to the door to the house that they entered the garage from. Kris nods at him, understanding that someone is about to come through it.

And sure enough, someone does. A man, kris presumes by his loud voice, who is currently yelling orders at Steve, as they both have their guns pointed at each other. They manage to come to a truce and lower their weapons to show their ID at each other once the intruder introduces himself as Detective Danny Williams; the haole that HPD put on their father's case.

Once Steve and the Detective show their ID's to each other and put their weapons away, Steve tells Kris to come out. She slides her gun back in her holster and slowly stands up with her hands in the air, so the detective does not accidentally shoot her, and finally gets a good look at the loud voice she heard yelling at Steve.

Detective Williams is undoubtedly stunning.

This is going to be a big problem, Kris thinks to herself.

[tinyshe]

The shadow government of ousted former lawmakers in Myanmar has formed an armed militia aimed at opposing the military junta that seized control of the country in a coup on February 1 and killed more than 760 people who protested against the army takeover, organizers said Wednesday. The National Unity Government said the creation of the People’s Defense Force was exercising the authority given to it with the landslide victory of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in November elections. The three-week-old NUG said the force is necessary to prevent killings and other violent acts against the people by the junta, which calls itself the State Administration Council. “Today, May 5, we formed the People’s Defense Force. Preparations for this army were made a long time ago. A lot of time has gone into training,” said Khin Ma Ma Myo, the NUG’s deputy minister of defense. “Training is more important than manpower and weapons. A defense acquisition department has been established under the Ministry of Defense,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service. The NUG statement called the PDF a precursor to a “Federal Union Army” which would team up the majority ethnic Burman militia with Myanmar’s many armed ethnic rebel groups to fight the well-trained Myanmar military. The ethnic groups have been supporting anti-coup dissidents by providing shelter and training, but many powerful ethnic armies have sat out the conflict so far, and some remain distrustful of the NUG, which is made up of representatives of the government they were fighting before the coup. The Karen National Union, which represents the Karen ethnic minority, whose state in eastern Myanmar has been under attack by junta warplanes, voiced support for the new militia, and is discussing “fighting a common enemy,” according the group’s top foreign affairs official, Padoe Saw Tawnee. “I think there will be a lot to discuss, such as the formation of units,” he told RFA. Hla Kyaw Zaw, a Myanmar-based political and military analyst, told RFA the important lesson from the opposition against the coup, called the “Spring Revolution,” is the need for an armed uprising. “People have learned two valuable lessons from all this. They have learned that they have to fight back with weapons … and that all ethnic groups must unify to fight this military dictatorship,” said Hla Kyaw Zaw. ‘David and Goliath’ The NUG is also attempting to gain recognition from the international community. At a U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee hearing Tuesday, Myanmar’s representative to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, who was appointed prior to the coup, called on the U.S. and other countries to offer support to the NUG. “The international community's recognition and engagement with the NUG is a critical step to take, and it could pave the way to end the violence, to save the lives of innocent civilians and protect them from the military’s brutal and inhumane acts, to restore democracy in Myanmar, and provide humanitarian assistance to the people in need,” he said. Despite the NUG’s optimism, the defense force’s goal of taking on the Myanmar military is unrealistic, said Thein Tun Oo, a former army officer and executive director of the pro-military think tank the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies. “They have issued many statements and most of their officials are just working on paperwork for the rival government,” he said. But in a sign that support for the junta among some ethnic groups is eroding, the Arakan National Party, which represents the Rakhine people in the country’s westernmost state, announced it had halted its cooperation with the junta, which had given a Rakhine leader a seat on the SAC. The military regime had not met demands for the repeal of the terrorist designation of its affiliate, the Arakan Army, and the release of arrested on terror charges during a two-year-long war, the ANP’s leader said. “We have made requests and proposals in the interests of our state, but they were all ignored. … We are not happy with the current situation and there is no point of going on like this if we want to see some positive development,” ANP Chairman Thar Tun Hla told RFA. Anthony Davis, a Bangkok-based security analyst who writes for IHS-Janes security and defense publications, told RFA last month that a fight between an alliance of ethnic armed organizations and the Myanmar military, known as the Tatmadaw in Burmese, would be a "David and Goliath contest" "If you look at all the ethnic armed organizations in Myanmar, you’re looking maybe at around 75,000 to 78,000 armed troops. Now, on the Tatmadaw side, the army is in total probably around 350,000, so it’s significantly larger," he said, speaking before the formation of the NUG in mid-April. He added, however, that a loose combination of ethnic armies "in their own areas conducting operations against the Tatmadaw at the same time … would be a very, very significant problem for the Tatmadaw despite their firepower and despite their numbers." Local militias kill troops Recent days have seen local militias kill junta troops in Chin state, near the border with India, and the downing of a military helicopter in northern Kachin state, as well as a series of attacks in other parts of Myanmar in which outgunned civilians have taken up crude arms and killed more than two dozen security forces. In the Chin state capital Hakha, the Chin Defense Force said an army soldier was killed in a shootout in front of the Innwa Bank Tuesday night, the latest of nine soldier deaths since May 2. In a township outside Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, about 20 people armed with machetes and knives attacked a police post guarding a Chinese oil pipeline at dawn on Wednesday, killing three police guards. "I heard gunshots around 5 a.m.  What we learned is that five policemen were on duty at the police post and two escaped. Three died,” a local resident who requested anonymity told RFA. “The military later came to our village and were checking people’s movements and searched houses.” An unknown attacker threw a hand grenade into the house of the administrator of a village near Tamu in the northwestern Sagaing region, killing his mother, daughter and granddaughter,” a local resident told RFA. “The administrator was asking people to hand over their arms and was checking houses. This started an exchange of fire between the Tamu Defense Force and the military. During the commotion the house was bombed,” said the resident of Tamu, a city near the border with India where locals had killed 14 soldiers in a series of attacks in late March and early April. In Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, bombs went off in front of the junta-aligned Moe Gaung Hospital and some ward administrators were attacked and killed, witnesses said. The bombing followed another bombing Tuesday night of a building that had formerly been the Armed Forces Records Office building and was just opened as a hospital by junta leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing last weekend. There were no reported injuries in the earlier blast. RFA attempted to contact military spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on Wednesday’s violence but he could not be reached.   According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in Myanmar, security forces have killed more than 769 people across the country since the coup. Nearly 3,700 people have been arrested, while nearly 1,460 are at large but facing arrest warrants. Human Rights Watch and over 200 other nongovernmental organizations from around the world on Wednesday called on the United Nations Security Council to impose an arms embargo on Myanmar. “No government should sell a single bullet to the junta under these circumstances,” the groups said. “Imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar is the minimum necessary step the Security Council should take in response to the military’s escalating violence." Report by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. English version edited by Eugene Whong.  source

[dannycaing]

ACROSS THE FAR SIDE

ACROSS THE FAR SIDE by Danny Caing Date Written: May 8, 2019

Location:  Fond de Billionvaux near Haudainville,  France Date:  June 6, 1944 Tuesday 3:20 A.M.

Patrick Newdale was one of the 13,100 paratroopers, the first American combat operations during Operation Overlord, under the 82nd Airborne Division made night parachute drops early during the Normandy invasion, widely referred to as D-Day on June 6, 1944.  There was bad weather at that time when Patrick was on aboard at 432 C-47s planes.  He was the first paratrooper to jump when the drop signal was "on" the plane that had already flown too far west. However, there was a sudden electrical storm and the jump was ordered to stop for a minute or two but Patrick was already alone on the air with his parachute.  There was lightning all around him like he was at the center of a tornado.  As he touched down, the sky suddenly becomes clear. The storm was gone, everything was quiet.

On the ground, he folded his parachute and hid them in the bushes.  He was in the forest,  walked through an open field and an asphalt road.  It was 4:32 A.M. as he tried to synchronize his watch.   As he looked up the sky,  the planes were gone.  He was wondering how come they vanished that fast.  Along the side of the road, he saw a house and a garage with stockpiles of woods.  He was moving like a fox going from one corner of the road to the next one.  He was at the war zone he thought.  The village was so peaceful and clean.  Standing at the corner of Ruh Grande Street and Rue de Verdun Street,  there was a salon on the right side and on the left side was a building called Maire, the City Hall.  He jogged along Rue de Verdun Street and turned left to Rue de Butry until he reached the cemetery. He could not believe what he was seeing,  the cars parked along the road,  the design of the houses,  electric posts,  concrete pavements,  they were all new to his sight.  He rested for a while on the bench in front of the wired green fence of the cemetery.

A young lady and a boy came by with some flowers in her hand. Her husband died two years ago by a car accident and buried in the cemetery. They were curious about Patrick with the army camouflage suit and a rifle on the side of his bench.  He must have gone to sleep for a while.

PAULINE:  Bonjour! Êtes-vous le nouveau gardien?

Patrick was awake immediately and surprised to see a woman and a boy standing in front of him as he grabbed his M1 rifle.  The woman covered the boy at once in her arms and was shocked.

PATRICK: Who are you, people?  Have you seen German soldiers around here?

PAULINE:  You're an American soldier. I thought you were the new caretaker.

PATRICK:  You speak English.  Are you from the resistance?

PAULINE:  What resistance?   What do you mean by that?

PATRICK:  I'm a bit confused right now.  May I know what place is this please? Where am I?

PAULINE:  You are in Haudainville, France.

PATRICK:  I am too far West.  So, that is why I didn't see my buddies.

PAULINE:  My mother works at a U.S. Air Base in Evreux-Fauville. My grandfather was a U.S. Army in World War 2.  I can drive you to the base in my car.

PATRICK:  Do all of you here owns those cars along the road? It's not safe to travel on the road.   There are German soldiers everywhere.

PAULINE:  What do you mean German soldiers?   There is no more war here since May 1945.  Who are you?

PATRICK:  I am Private Patrick Newdale of the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army.

PAULINE:  My name is Pauline. This little boy is my son Lucas.

PATRICK (while shaking Pauline and Lucas hands): What date is today?

PAULINE:  Today is Thursday, June 6, 2019. The war was over 74 years ago.  

PATRICK: That's impossible. Do you mean I'm in the future?

A car stopped by in front of them as the driver asked Pauline if everything was all right.  He called the local police because he saw a rifle on Patrick's hand.

PAULINE (waving her hand to the driver):  Nous allons bien.  Merci pour votre sollicitude. Bonne journée.

PATRICK:  Is there a way I can go back to my time? What are they doing?

Another car came by to stop. There were people on the other side of the road with their cellphones focus on them.

PAULINE:  They are just surprised to see you.  Sir Patrick,  you have to listen to me very carefully.  I worked at the City Hall.  I know this kind of situation.  You have to surrender your rifle to me or put them on the bench and stay with me closer.  The police will be here in a minute. I will call mom now to ask for help.  Is it understood?

Patrick dropped his rifle on the bench. He stands closer to Pauline's side as the police cars were approaching in front of them.  Pauline was on her cellphone talking to her mother.  The Police Officer saluted to Pauline and Patrick saluted back.

POLICE OFFICER:  Bonjour madame. Nous sommes là pour vous aider. Est-ce que tout va bien?

PAULINE:  Cet homme est le soldat Patrick Newdale de l’armée américaine. J'ai déjà contacté maman. Ils envoient du personnel américain le chercher ici par hélicoptère. Pour le moment, il peut rester chez moi.

The Police Officer escorted Patrick to the backseat of the car while they waited for Pauline went inside the cemetery with Lucas to put the flowers on her husband's grave lot.  They were all seated at the backseat of the police car when they left the cemetery.

PATRICK: Where are we going now?

PAULINE:  You are going to my place for a while we wait for your men to pick you up by helicopter and bring you home.

Inside the house,  Patrick was amazed to see the flat screen T.V.,   laptop,  computer monitor and xerox machine,  microwave oven and video war games of Lucas.  During breakfast, he took 3 cups of coffee from a coffee maker.  Pauline showed him the guest room with its bathtub shower and closet.  He wore Lacoste T-Shirt and jeans, and converse shoes from Pauline's hubby that suited him well.  The military uniforms,   backpack,  black leather shoes, and a helmet were on the side of the bed.

PAULINE: You look better not in military uniform.  You haven't changed for the past 75 years, that's incredible for being twenty years old until now.  Your buddies in America will be 95 years old today.  How do you feel about this, Patrick?

PATRICK:  I don't know what to say.  Thank you so much for everything.  I wish I could stay here with you Pauline.  There's no hope for me out there.   Probably they are all gone by now.  They will not even recognize me, too.  They will conduct experiments on my body and lock me down.  I can take care of you and Lucas.

Pauline embraced Patrick,  Lucas embraced him, too.  Two Tomahawk helicopters were hovering above Haudainville and landed at the side of a warehouse's vacant lot along Rue De Butry.  There were U.S. Special Forces troops who went to the house of Pauline at Rue Grande.  Pauline met them at the door and told them the unexpected events that just happened.

PAULINE:  He just vanished inside the room while he was resting, but his clothes, boots, and helmet are intact.  His rifle is in the City Hall.  He told us that he was from the 82nd Airborne Division of the United States Army and his name was Private Patrick Newdale.

COL. McKINTOSH:   What do you mean vanished?  We thought he is with you right now.  Yes,  we know Private Patrick Newdale,  he was MIA during the air invasion in Normandy on June 6, 1944.  Excuse me,  Ma'am,  we want to see the room where he disappeared.

The Special Force personnel went inside the room,   kitchen,  living & dining room, study & basement, Lucas room, 2nd-floor rooms and ceiling,  and even scrutinized outside the perimeter of the house. Later,  the Colonel showed the black & white photo of the young Patrick to Pauline and Lucas.  

COL. McKINTOSH:  Is this how he looks when you saw him this morning?

PAULINE:  I am positively sure it's him.

LUCAS (pointing his finger to the face of the picture):  Oui c'est lui.

Colonel McKintosh investigated Pauline and Lucas thru a video that it's for confidential military records and asked more in detail how they first made contact with Patrick and every dialogue they made together.   After picking up all the items left by Patrick inside the room,  the Colonel looks soberly to Pauline and politely shook her hands,  gave a tap at the back of Lucas with a smile.

COL. McKINTOSH:  Thank you, Ma'am, for this unexpected event.  We would want you to understand that this did not happen.  We have not been here or seen you. Likewise, it's an honor.  

PAULINE:  Sir,  can I have the photo of the soldier.

Colonel McKintosh immediately handed the picture to Pauline with a nodding gesture while holding his cap.

COL. McKINTOSH:  Ça a été un plaisir.

The Special Forces dropped by at the City Hall to pick up the rifle then proceeded to the two Tomahawk helicopters. Pauline and Lucas went to the car and drove along the side of a warehouse's vacant lot at Rue De Butry where the two Tomahawks had just taken off, then the cemetery where they first encountered Patrick resting on the bench, and further ahead is the Canal de L'Est (Branche Nord) where on the other side of the bridge Patrick was waiting for them.  However,  while the car was moving towards Verdun on the dirt road,  Pauline,  Patrick, and Lucas were unaware that an invisible military drone was monitoring their location.

MISSION CONTROL:  We have a visible contact of the target at D301 road,  a red Renault Twingo moving towards the intersection of Aliee de Wes and Rue de L'Ecluse.   Ground Delta Force 1 this is Castle 2,  confirm position at Chemin de la Cote de Puty to engage.

DELTA FORCE 1:  Roger. Copy that.  We have visual contact.  We are now ready to engage.  Confirm action.

Music Background "Across The Far Side" by Danny Caing https://soundcloud.com/genizyn/across-the-far-side-by-danny-caing

All Rights Reserved Wonderful Stories Limited Copyrighted @ 2019

[pickcpodcast]

12 Show Notes - What’s the best historical reference in Avatar: the Last Airbender?

Strap into your flying bison because this episode is a doozy!

This week’s question is: What is the best historical reference in Avatar: The Last Airbender?

A.      Chin the Conqueror

B.       The Order of the White Lotus

C.       The Dai Li

D.      Tenzin & Monk Gyatso

First of all: it is a cardinal rule of the universe that one cannot talk about history and ATLA in the same breath without mentioning the amazing work that has been done over on ATLA-Annotated https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com, where you will find not only translations of all the Chinese used in the show but also exhaustively researched posts about everything from the clothing styles to the architecture seen in the show.

In the episode, we mentioned an upcoming (at the time) series about Avatar Kyoshi. That series is now out, and it’s called The Rise of Kyoshi! Find out more here: https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/yee-nickelodeon-collaboration_9781419735042/ https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/The_Rise_of_Kyoshi

As promised in the episode, we’ve included pronunciations for names were we could find them. Some had IPA and recordings available, while for others we only found transcriptions in Hanyu Pinyin, the standard transcription/Romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin does give you all the information you need to pronounce something correctly, but it’s not the most intuitive for native English speakers. So here are some resources for how to use it for the names in this post: https://www.yoyochinese.com/blog/pinyin-beginners-guide-mandarin-chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Mandarin

Option A: Chin the Conqueror / Qin Shi Huang-di, the First Emperor

Here’s Qin Shi Huang in IPA: [tɕʰǐn ʂɨ̀ xwǎŋ]

And in Hanyu Pinyin: Qín shǐ huáng

And for those who don’t like reading either, here’s a recording: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e4/Qin_shi_huang_pronunciation_2.ogg

Our main source for the IRL Qin conqueror was Mark Edward Lewis’s The Early Chinese Empires: Qin and Han, which goes into the origins of the pre-imperial state of Qin, its militarism and legalistic policies. If you want to learn more about the man himself, we’ve previously referenced Jonathan Fenby’s The Dragon Throne: China’s Emperors from the Qin to the Manchu for its comprehensive coverage of Chinese imperial history and the chapter on the Qin dynasty is just as solid.

One of the major primary (sort of) sources that we have is Sima Qian’s Records of the Grand Historian, which you have probably heard Sophie reference before, and which we will draw on again in future episodes. This is because it’s one of the richest sources available to us on early Chinese history, written by Sima Qian [sɨ́mà tɕʰjɛ́n] over a lifetime. It’s this historical tome that contains one of the best-known stories about the First Emperor, which is that he burned books and killed scholars. As powerful as such a story is, it’s unclear how much of it is historical fact and how much of it is a Han dynasty with an axe to grind and a predecessor to discredit. For more on this academic debate, you can start with this article: http://ulrichneininger.de/?p=461.

For those more interested in the myth than the man, Sophie mentions the film Hero, a 2002 film by Zhang Yimou starring Jet Li, Zhang Ziyi, and Donnie Yen among others. On top of being a really intriguing film full of mind games, it is! So! Pretty!

Now: back to the show! If you want to learn more about the adventures and misadventures of Avatar’s Chin, the Avatar fandom wiki is a wonderful and thorough source: https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Chin

In the episode we also talk about the worldbuilding and political setup of the Earth Kingdom in general. For those who are interested, we can’t recommend Hello Future Me’s video about this very topic enough! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-FNPuIM9jg

Other sources:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/people/reference/qin-shi-huangdi/

Option B: The Order of the White Lotus / White Lotus Society

In the original show, the Order of the White Lotus is a secret society, composed of many bending and martial arts masters across the four nations who are implied to be working together to end the Hundred-Year War. Near the end of the show, White Lotus members mobilize in force to liberate Ba Sing Se from Fire Nation occupation. The Avatar wikis have a pretty thorough compilation of the White Lotus’s exploits and history: https://hero.fandom.com/wiki/Order_of_the_White_Lotus https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Order_of_the_White_Lotus

The IRL White Lotus Society (Báiliánjiào in Mandarin) was also a secret society (or sect or cult, depending on who you ask). They were around for at least four hundred years—multiple sources record their involvement in the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in the mid-1300s as well as in the White Lotus Rebellion between 1794 and 1804. Some sources even include Zhu Yuanzhang (Zhū Yuánzhāng in Pinyin), the founder of the Ming Dynasty, as one of its members.

Like the fictional White Lotus, the historical society/sect apparently had traditional practices such as martial arts, medicine/healing, and meditation. The historical White Lotus also had a strong religious element; many of its beliefs were based on Buddhism and Taoism but with a smattering of Manichaeism (https://www.britannica.com/topic/Manichaeism) which—to vastly simplify some very old and complex beliefs—is defined by duality and struggle: light vs. dark, good vs. evil, and so forth. There may also have been elements of messianic belief/prophecy in the White Lotus religion—members believed that humanity in its current state had been corrupted and needed saviors to lead them to reconciliation with the good and divine. However, unlike the fictional White Lotus, which seems to be comprised of societal leaders and elites, the real White Lotus attracted people on the other end of the spectrum—women, peasants, and other marginalized populations.

To learn more about the historical White Lotus’s philosophies, practices, and history, check out Susan Naquin’s Millenarian Rebellion in China: https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/5983 and Elizabeth Perry’s article “Worshipers and Warriors: White Lotus Influence on the Nian Rebellion”:  http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/68415/10.1177_009770047600200102.pdf;jsessionid=608E03C2AA7738C4B7F214F3763E17DD?sequence=2 .

Other sources:

[1] https://heathenchinese.wordpress.com/2015/01/03/millenarianism-pt-4-the-white-lotus-society-and-the-nian-rebellion/

[2] https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Buddhism#ref71731

[3] https://www.britannica.com/event/White-Lotus-Rebellion

[4] The book Sophie was reading that mentions the White Lotus was the one we mentioned in Episode 10, Arthur Cotterell’s The Imperial Capitals of China.

Option C: The Dai Li

In the show, the Dai Li are the shady secret police force that basically runs the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se. Originally founded by Avatar Kyoshi, one of Aang’s past lives, to protect the city’s “cultural heritage” and “traditions,” by the time of the show they are associated with kidnapping, brainwashing, and political repression in the name of “stability” (“There is no war in Ba Sing Se,”etc.). https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Dai_Li

What you may not know as that the Dai Li, and especially their leader, Grand Secretariat Long Feng, are mostly likely inspired by Dai Li (Dài Lì in Pinyin), an IRL spymaster who was active in Republic-era China before dying under mysterious circumstances in 1946.

The main account of Dai Li’s life and exploits that we used comes from Kathryn Meyer & Terry Parssinen’s Webs of Smoke: Smugglers, Warlords, Spies, and the History of the International Drug Trade (1998), which is (as it says on the tin) about the illicit drug trade (mostly opium and cocaine). The whole book is a fantastic read, but you can find most of Dai Li’s shenanigans in Chapter 8, “Spies.”

For those who hate good books, you can find some more straightforward accounts of his life here https://chinachannel.org/2019/03/22/dai-li/  and here https://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=894. The long and short of it is that he rose from obscure poverty to work under Chiang Kai-Shek [ˈtʃæŋ kaɪˈʃɛk], the leader of the Kuomintang [ˌkwəʊmɪnˈtaŋ]  or Republic of China, which ruled mainland China between 1928 and 1949. Dai Li ran the Military Statistics Bureau, also known as the Bureau of Investigation and Statistics or Juntong (Jūntǒng) for short, which was the front for the Kuomintang’s intelligence/security/secret police arm. Like his in-show counterpart, Dai Li’s reputation is one rife with foul play, assassination, and the prioritization of internal threats over external and arguably bigger ones.

The name of his rumored girlfriend, Chinese actress Hu Die (meaning “butterfly”) is pronounced Hú Dié. She was also known as Butterfly Wu. Dai Li died in a plane crash on the way to visit her, one stormy night in 1946—jury’s out on whether that was an accident or not.

Option D: Monk Gyatso & Tenzin / Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

This option is interesting in that the same historical figure is reference twice in the Avatar universe: both Monk Gyatso, Aang’s mentor, https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Gyatso and Tenzin, Aang’s son, https://avatar.fandom.com/wiki/Tenzin are references to the same figure: the current Dalai Lama, also known by the first two of his religious names, Tenzin Gyatso [tɛ̃ ́tsĩ càtsʰo].

You can read more about the Dalai Lama’s remarkable life here:

[1] https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dalai-Lama-14th

[2] https://www.dalailama.com/the-dalai-lama/biography-and-daily-life/brief-biography

As we mentioned in the episode, the Dalai Lama is officially an influential leader (but not the head) of the Gelug [ɡèluʔ] school of Tibetan Buddhism. He and his past lives are believed to be the reincarnations of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara [ˌʌvəloʊkɪˈteɪʃvərə], or Chenrézik in Tibetan.

The connection between the Borjigin lineage and the Dalai Lama, which we touch on, is actually a really interesting one. According to Jack Weatherford’s The Secret History of the Mongol Queens, the word “lama” comes from a Tibetan word for “chief” or “high priest” and is a title given to spiritual teachers in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. In 1578, two Borjigin descendants—Mongol leaders Altan Khan and Queen Noyanchu Junggen—gave the title of “Dalai,” a Mongolian word meaning “sea,” to the Tibetan lama Sonam Gyatso, making him the first Dalai Lama (“sea of knowledge”). Each of Sonam Gyatso’s subsequent reincarnations has borned the same title, including the Dalai Lama we know and love today.

Finally, in the episode we touched on the real-world and ongoing conflict between China and Tibet. Yes, the Fire Nation is much closer to imperial China than it is to Japan, although there are certainly semblances to Japan too. You can read more about that in ATLA-Annotated’s tag “The Fire Nation is not Japan” https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/tagged/The+Fire+Nation+is+not+Japan and specifically this post: https://atla-annotated.tumblr.com/post/14206674362/on-the-fire-nation-tibet-and-the-genocides-the

If you’ve made it this far, thanks so much for reading and listening and we’ll see you in a couple of weeks!

[newstfionline]

Desperate Rohingya Flee Myanmar on Trail of Suffering. ‘It Is All Gone.’

By Hannah Beech, NY Times, Sept. 2, 2017

REZU AMTALI, Bangladesh--They stumble down muddy ravines and flooded creeks through miles of hills and jungle in Bangladesh, and thousands more come each day, in a line stretching to the monsoon-darkened horizon.

Some are gaunt and spent, already starving and carrying listless and dehydrated babies, with many miles to go before they reach any refugee camp.

They are tens of thousands of Rohingya, who arrive bearing accounts of massacre at the hands of the Myanmar security forces and allied mobs that started on Aug. 25, after Rohingya militants staged attacks against government forces.

The retaliation that followed was carried out in methodical assaults on villages, with helicopters raining down fire on civilians and front-line troops cutting off families’ escape. The villagers’ accounts all portray indiscriminate attacks against fleeing noncombatants, adding to a death toll that even in early estimates is high into the hundreds, and is probably vastly worse.

“There are no more villages left, none at all,” said Rashed Ahmed, a 46-year-old farmer from a hamlet in Maungdaw Township in Myanmar. He had already been walking for four days. “There are no more people left, either,” he said. “It is all gone.”

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who live in Myanmar’s far western Rakhine State. Most were stripped of their citizenship by the military junta that used to rule Myanmar, and they have suffered decades of repression under the country’s Buddhist majority, including killings and mass rape, according to the United Nations. A new armed resistance is giving the military more reasons to oppress them.

But the past week’s exodus of civilians caught in the middle, which the United Nations said had reached nearly 76,000 on Saturday, dwarfs previous outflows of refugees to Bangladesh in such a short time period. Friday’s influx alone was the single largest movement of Rohingya here in more than a generation, according to the United Nations office in Dhaka.

The dying is not yet done. Some of the Rohingya militants have persuaded or coerced men and boys to stay behind and keep up the fight. And civilians who have stayed on the trail are running toward conditions so grim that they constitute a second humanitarian catastrophe.

They face another round of gunfire from Myanmar’s border guards, and miles of treacherous hill trails and flood-swollen streams and mud fields ahead before they reach crowded camps without enough food or medical help. Dozens were killed when their boats overturned, leaving the bodies of women and children washed up on river banks.

Tens of thousands more Rohingya are waiting for the Bangladeshi border force to allow them to enter. Still more are moving north from the Rohingya-dominated districts of Rakhine State. And the violence there continues.

“It breaks all records of inhumanity,” said a member of the Border Guard Bangladesh named Anamul, stationed at the Kutupalong Rohingya refugee camp. “I have never seen anything like this.”

Here, in the forests of Rezu Amtali near the border with Myanmar, dozens of Rohingya told stories that were horrifying in their content and consistency.

After militants from the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army attacked police posts and an army base on Aug. 25, killing more than a dozen, the Myanmar military began torching entire villages with helicopters and petrol bombs, aided by Buddhist vigilantes from the ethnic Rakhine group, those fleeing the violence said.

Person after person along the trail into Bangladesh told of how the security forces cordoned off Rohingya villages as the fire rained down, and then shot and stabbed civilians. Children were not exempt.

Mizanur Rahman recalled how on Aug. 25 he had been working in a rice paddy in his village, known in Rohingya as Ton Bazar, in Buthidaung Township in Myanmar, when helicopters roared into the sky above him.

“Immediately, I had fear in my heart,” he said. His wife came running out of their house with their son, less than a month old.

They escaped to a nearby forest and watched as the choppers’ weapons engulfed the village in flames. Myanmar security forces descended, and the sound of gunfire reached the forest.

Mr. Rahman’s extended family fled the next day, but not before seeing his brother’s body lying on the ground, along with seven others. Three days later, as they climbed a hill near the border with Bangladesh, Mr. Rahman’s mother was shot dead by a Myanmar border guard.

“Now we are supposed to be safe in Bangladesh, but I do not feel safe,” Mr. Rahman said, as he wandered through a market in the Kutupalong refugee camp, with no money in his pocket.

His wife’s postpartum bleeding has increased so much that she can no longer walk or produce milk for their infant son. The baby, cradled in Mr. Rahman’s arms, looked skeletal, parched skin pinched at his joints. Other refugees took turns gently touching the baby’s feet to check if he was still alive.

The Myanmar military said on Friday that nearly 400 people had been killed in the violence that has swept across northern Rakhine since Aug. 25. Of that death toll, 370 people were identified as Rohingya fighters. Fourteen civilians, including four ethnic Rakhine and seven Hindus, were also reported killed. Myanmar officials, however, have given no specific accounting of civilian Rohingya deaths.

Dozens of people I spoke to on the refugee trail said they had seen multiple people shot dead in at least 15 different villages. Others spoke of families burned alive in their homes.

Human Rights Watch, the New York-based watchdog, documented 17 sites where satellite imagery showed extensive fire damage, including one village where 700 buildings had burned.

The Myanmar government claims Rohingya militants have torched their own homes in a bid for international sympathy. And the military maintains its current operations in Rakhine are designed at rooting out “extremist terrorists.”

There are, clearly, combatants on the Rohingya side. The state news media have reported that more than 50 clashes have broken out between the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, known by the acronym ARSA, and Myanmar security forces over the past week.

That has further complicated life for civilians trying to flee.

Fortify Rights, a human-rights group based in Bangkok, interviewed villagers remaining in Maungdaw township who said that ARSA was forcing men and boys to stay and fight. The refugees flowing into Bangladesh have been predominantly women and children, leading to speculation as to where the men are.

Mr. Ahmed, the farmer, said that he was too old to fight, but that 20 others from his village, Renuaz, had remained. “They have nothing to lose,” he said. “The Myanmar government wants to eradicate an entire ethnic group.”

What the survivors are fleeing into is no haven. Bangladesh is itself poor, overcrowded and waterlogged, and has been reluctant to take on more displaced Rohingya. Around 400,000 already lived here before the exodus, according to government figures.

An urgent humanitarian disaster is brewing here in a country hard-pressed to feed itself, much less a new influx of refugees that one Bangladeshi official estimated could soon surpass 100,000 people.

For now, the Border Guard Bangladesh is mostly turning a blind eye and allowing the Rohingya to stream across the border.

But there is little help for them here, as they push on in hopes of reaching some of the grim refugee camps further in.

The luckiest of the Rohingya leaving the violence by trekking through the Chittagong Hills hefted bamboo poles laden with their most treasured belongings: sacks of rice, umbrellas, solar panels, water pots and grass mats.

Others, though, carried nothing at all because they had no time to organize anything before their flight. Toddlers marched naked. Not a single person wore shoes, which would have been ripped off by the sucking mud.

An international response to the crisis has started. On Wednesday, Britain arranged for a closed-door meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the Rohingya emergency. The civilian government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has faced mounting global criticism for refusing to acknowledge the magnitude of the military offensive on civilian Rohingya populations.

In an open letter to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, nearly a dozen of her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates labeled last October’s military offensive “a human tragedy amounting to ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.”

[chrissyglikesbooks]

88 Crazy Things You Probably Didn't Know About Australia

1. Australia is as wide as the distance between London to Moscow.

2. The biggest property in Australia is bigger than Belgium.

3. More than 85% of Australians live within 50km of the coast.

4. In 1880, Melbourne was the richest city in the world.

5. Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, earns $1 million every half hour, or $598 every second.

6. In 1892, a group of 200 Australians unhappy with the government tried to start an offshoot colony in Paraguay to be called 'New Australia'.

7. The first photos from the 1969 moon landing were beamed to the rest of the world from Honeysuckle Tracking Station, near Canberra.

8. Australia was the second country in the world to allow women to vote (New Zealand was first).

9. Each week, 70 tourists overstay their visas.

10. In 1856, stonemasons took action to ensure a standard of 8-hour working days, which then became recognised worldwide.

11. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke set a world record for sculling 2.5 pints of beer in 11 seconds. Hawke later suggested that this was the reason for his great political success.

12. The world's oldest fossil, which is about 3.4 billion years old, was found in Australia.

13. Australia is very sparsely populated: The UK has 248.25 persons per square kilometre, while Australia has only 2.66 persons per square kilometre.

14. Australia's first police force was made up of the most well-behaved convicts.

15. Australia has the highest electricity prices in the world.

16. There were over one million feral camels in outback Australia, until the government launched the $19m Feral Camel Management Program, which aims to keep the pest problem under control.

17. Saudi Arabia imports camels from Australia (mostly for meat production).

18. Qantas once powered an interstate flight with cooking oil.

19. Per capita, Australians spend more money on gambling than any other nation.

20. In 1832, 300 female convicts mooned the governor of Tasmania. It was said that in a "rare moment of collusion with the Convict women, the ladies in the Governor's party could not control their laughter."

21. Australia is home to the longest fence in the world. It is 5,614 km long, and was originally built to keep dingoes away from fertile land.

22. Australia was one of the founding members of the United Nations.

23. Melbourne is considered the sporting capital of the world, as it has more top level sport available for its citizens than anywhere else.

24. Before the arrival of humans, Australia was home to mega fauna: three metre tall kangaroos, seven metre long goannas, horse-sized ducks, and a marsupial lion the size of a leopard.

25. Kangaroos and emus cannot walk backward, one of the reasons that they're on the Australian coat of arms.

26. Speaking of, Australia is one of the only countries where we eat the animals on our coat of arms.

27. If you visited one new beach in Australia every day, it would take over 27 years to see them all.

28. Melbourne has the world's largest Greek population outside of Athens.

29. The Great Barrier Reef is the planet's largest living structure.

30. And it has it's own postbox!

31. The male platypus has strong enough venom to kill a small dog.

32. And when the platypus was first sent to England, it was believed the Australians had played a joke by sewing the bill of a duck onto a rat.

33. Before 1902, it was illegal to swim at the beach during the day.

34. A retired cavalry officer, Francis De Groot stole the show when the Sydney Harbour Bridge officially opened. Just as the Premier was about to cut the ribbon, De Groot charged forward on his horse and cut it himself, with his sword. The ribbon had to be retied, and De Groot was carted off to a mental hospital. He was later charged for the cost of one ribbon.

35. Australia has 3.3x more sheep than people.

36. Prime Minister Harold Holt went for a swim at Cheviot Beach, and was never seen again.

37. Australia's national anthem was 'God Save The King/Queen' until 1984.

38. Wombat poop is cube shaped! This helps it mark its territory.

39. European settlers in Australia drank more alcohol per capita than any other society in history.

40. The Australian Alps receive more snowfall than Switzerland.

41. A kangaroo is only one centimetre long when it is born.

42. Sir John Robertson, a five-time premier of NSW in the 1800s, began every morning with half a pint of rum. He said: "None of the men who in this country have left footprints behind them have been cold water men."

43. The Box jellyfish has killed more people in Australia than stonefish, sharks and crocodiles combined.

44. Tasmania has the cleanest air in the world.

45. The average Aussie drinks 96 litres of beer per year.

46. 63% of Australians are overweight.

47. Australia is ranked second on the Human Development Index (based on life expectancy, income and education).

48. In 2005, security guards at Canberra's Parliament House were banned from calling people 'mate'. It lasted one day.

49. In Australia, it is illegal to walk on the right-hand side of a footpath.

50. Australia is the only continent in the world without an active volcano.

51. Aussie Rules footy was originally designed to help cricketers to keep fit in the off-season.

52. The name 'Kylie' came from an Aboriginal hunting stick, similar to the boomerang.

53. 91% of the country is covered by native vegetation.

54. The largest-ever victory in an international football match was when Australia beat American Samoa 31-0 in 2001.

55. There are 60 designated wine regions in Australia.

56. Melbourne has been ranked the world's most liveable city for the past three years.

57. If all the sails of the Opera House roof were combined, they would create a perfect sphere. The architect was inspired while eating an orange.

58. Australia is home to 20% of the world's poker machines.

59. Half of these are found in New South Wales.

60. Moomba, Australia's largest free festival, held in Melbourne, means 'up your bum' in many Aboriginal languages.

61. No native Australian animals have hooves.

62. The performance by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony was actually a prerecording- of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

63. The wine cask (goon sack) is an Australian invention

64. So is the selfie.

65. Durack, Australia's biggest electorate, is larger in size than Mongolia.

66. The world's first compulsory seat belt law was put into place in Victoria in 1970.

67. Each year, Brisbane hosts the world championships of cockroach racing.

68. In 1932, the Australian military waged war on the emu population of Western Australia. Embarrassingly, they lost.

69. Canberra was created in 1908 as a compromise when Sydney and Melbourne both wanted to be the capital city.

70. A gay bar in Melbourne won the right to ban women from the premises, because they made the men uncomfortable.

71. In 1992, an Australian gambling syndicate bought almost all the number combinations in a Virginia lottery, and won. They turned a $5m purchase into a $27m win.

72. Eucalyptus oil is highly flammable, meaning gum trees may explode if ignited, or in bushfires.

73. In 1975, Australia had a government shutdown, which ended with the Queen firing everyone and the government starting again.

74. A bearded Australian was removed from a darts match in the UK, after the audience started chanting 'Jesus!' at him, distracting the players.

75. There have been instances of wallabies getting high after breaking into opium crops, then running around and making what look like crop circles.

76. An Australian man once tried to sell New Zealand on eBay.

77. In 1940, two aircraft collided in midair, in NSW. Instead of crashing, the two planes became stuck together and made a safe landing.

78. The male lyrebird, which is native to Australia, can mimic the calls of over 20 other birds. If that's not impressive enough, he can also perfectly imitate the sound of a camera, chainsaw and car alarm.

79. Some shopping centres and restaurants play classical music in their car park to deter teenagers from loitering at night.

80. Despite sharing the same verbal language, Australian, British and American sign language are all completely different languages.

81. In 1979, debris from NASA's space station 'Skylab' crashed in Esperance, WA. The town then fined NASA $400 for littering.

82. There have been no deaths in Australia from a spider bite since 1979.

83. There currently a chlamydia outbreak among koala species, which has led to a 15% drop in koala populations.

84. In NSW, there is a coal fire beneath the ground which has been burning for 5,500 years.

85. An Australian election TV debate was rescheduled so it didn't conflict with the finale of reality cooking show Masterchef.

86. Chinese explorers travelled to Australia long before Europeans arrived. As early as the 1400s, sailors and fisherman came to Australia for sea-cucumbers and to trade with Indigenous peoples.

87. The first European to visit Australia was Dutch explorer Willem Janszoon, in 1606. More Dutch explorers visited the country over the next hundred years, plotting maps and naming it 'New Holland'.

88. Captain James Cook first landed on Australia's east coast in 1770. In 1788, the British returned with eleven ships to establish a penal colony. Within days of The First Fleet's arrival and the raising of the British flag, two French ships arrived, just too late to claim Australia for France.

[theviolentfembot]

The questions remain. How did so many bombs get placed in the building without anyone noticing? Did the three teenagers found in a field have anything to do with it? They seemed to have had a great deal of knowledge about the shooting. Why did they say no bullies at Columbine? Why haven't the"third-gunman" reports received more attention? Why does the top investigator with the FBI have disturbing ties to Columbine and the shootings? Why were officers told not to talk? Why are some files "missing"? Did Klebold and Harris wear masks, or were other assailants wearing masks? What is to be made of the numerous timeline discrepancies? What happened to them on Jan 30, 1998? Who else knew? Why were Manes and Duran arrested and others not? There are even more questions and fewer answers...

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Bill Zabel's Columbine

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starviego

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Bill Zabel is a long-time Columbine researcher who lives in the Denver area. He recently did a series of telephone interviews at "Vyzygoth's Grassy Knoll,"(based in Tampa, Fla) link here:

www.vyzygoth.com/index.html

Click on the below links to listen to his interviews:

vyzygoth.com/audio/zabel11-1-06.mp3

vyzygoth.com/audio/zabel11-13-06.mp3

vyzygoth.com/audio/zabel11-16-06.mp3

--------------------

Tidbits and Oddities

Some of what Zabel says is a little bit out there, but all in all he seems to know his subject. He didn't name his source in everything he said, though he does seem to have talked to many of the players. Excerps:

--MIB(men in black) were walking the halls at 9am, the student thought they were cops.

--On Monday, 4-12-99, the week before, the school had a mock shooting and a lock down.

--Wound to Klebold was to the back of his head, not the side.

--The DEA was called in because they had infrared scanning equipment.

--MIB were shooting at each other in the gym, according to one girl.{They could be talking about the rumored 'armed response' between SWAT teams at about 3pm}

--Josh Ladd, who died later in that air crash, said MIB were chasing each other in the hall.

--The DECCA banquet, which many students used to excuse their absense that morning, actually occured the DAY BEFORE, on Monday, April 19. Zabel found this out when he went to the Welshire Inn and a manager and another employee there confirmed that. Susan Keating compiled a list of students who went to that baquent and it is dated 4-19-99. {The implication being, I guess, that numerous students had foreknowledge and were told to use that DECCA function as an excuse.}

--He watched Bree Pasquale's interview on TV, quoted her as saying '"OMG, the parents were involved" Pasquale allegedly said that the library shooter look like Klebold, only older.

--Harris' dad was seen with H&K that day, before the shooting. He was also not at work that day.

--The BBC showed a video clip of three vehicles driving down one of the pathways near the school in Clement Park. First vehicle was a state trooper car, the second was a large black panel van, followed by a green mini-van full of MIB. The person sitting in the front passenger seat, also dressed in the uniform, was Thomas Klebold, Dylan's father.

--Three girls that Zabel interviewed were told they would disappear if they kept talking.

--One student descibed the shooters as men wearing ski masks, not students.

--About five students said the 'splatter punks' were inside the school at some point.

--Rachel Scott and Cassie Bernall were associated with the trenchcoat mafia at some point.

--Says reconstruction of cafeteria afterwards involved putting a Wiccan symbol-something having to do with tree branches-on the ceiling(ceiling of the old library area).

--Judy Greco, special ed teacher, admitted to being a practicing Wiccan to the Rocky Mountain News, and was putting kids into a trance in her class. Judy Greco was involved in helping H&K to put their 'basement tapes' together.

--Nate Dykeman was seen in the office area with a weapon. Robert Perry was 250-280lbs at that time and was also a shooter. Chris Morris would have been the rooftop shooter. Stair was also there. Zabel says that all four had a parent working for law enforcement.

--a .45cal pistol and an AR-15 were also found on the scene.

--He claims to have video of the FBI bringing someone dressed in black out of the school on a stretcher. The face is covered by a towel.

--Rumors of more victims than the ones named were common amongst the police.

--Zabel saw a video clip of a guy holding a shiel with 'NATO' on it.

--One of cop's rooftop snipers was an Italian guy who barely spoke English who said he was some kind of a foreign exchange program.

--At the memorial service couple of days later the street was lined with soldiers carrying M-16 rifles. Onlookers were allegedly intimidated by the display. There were also numerous military brass there, admirals and generals from all the services.

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starviego

Re: Bill Zabel's Columbine  

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Part 4 of Zabel's Columbine interview over at Vyzygoth:

vyzygoth.com/audio/zabel11-27-06.mp3

Excerps:

--102 bombs & devices found in the school(unk if he included those found in their cars); 24 of them were 20lb propane tanks!!

--Witnesses saw 'devices' out in the open before the shooting started, including one kid who saw one in a trashcan in a science classroom.(Possbly referring to that special-ed kid who muttered something about 'bombs in a trashcan' the day before)

--In his statement, science teacher Kent Friesen admitted showing the students how to make pipe bombs. When the cops searched his room, the found several sitting in wire basket sitting on his desk.

--Students accused ex-student Cory Friesen of carrying some of the gear into the school.

--Denver SWAT found the kitchen bomb on 4-21(elsewhere reported as being discovered on 4-22), after the area had been declared secured of bombs at about 9:30pm on 4-20. FBI SA Rich Price said this bomb was too sophisticated for teenagers to have constructed, and included a mercury switch attached to a timing mechanism(probably taped to one of the watch hands?)

[Note: this kitchen bomb was also reported elsewhere to have had a remote-control detonation device]

--Three witnesses-- a JeffCo deputy and a couple of 'CSI' types--witnessed the BATF carrying a device INTO the school the night of the 20th. That night dispatch called Denver SWAT to assist JeffCo in looking for four men who went into the school without authorization. Denver SWAT encountered four BATF in the school at the top of the cafeteria stairwell, who told them they got lost trying to hook-up with another SWAT team.

--Zabel had the opportunity to talk to some the BATF at the Columbine Review Commission meetings. He said they were heavy-duty, neo-nazi biker-types, who he said were "mouthing-off" and using the 'F-word' a lot.

--The follow-up interviews of two of the main janitors were never released, and they were fired after 4-20.

--Zabel also talked to John Stone, who always used the phrase "the people involved in this" instead of "Harris and Klebold" when talking about the suspects.

--He says that FBI SA Rich Price took credit for not allowing the cops to go in, in an interview with the DenverRockyMountainNews of 4-21-99, "becasue I had a team collecting intelligence and that team had to finish their jobs first before SWAT could go in."

--In the wake of Columbine, new non-disclosure laws were created allowing schools involved in future incidents to duck any questions about what they knew or didn't know.

--The TCM employed secret signs and handshakes(like the Masons, I guess).

mama4paws

Re: Bill Zabel's Columbine  

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Will we ever know the truth?? What really happened? HummmJust my two cents

~~Mama~~

"There are things known and things unknown and in between are the doors." Jim Morrison

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CyanideKoolaid

Wow  

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This is a lot to take in. It all seems so bizarre that it would have to be false. Why on earth would so many people, go through this much trouble, to kill some high school kids? The only thing that sounded authentic was the possibility that dylan was shot through the back of the head and not the side. Eric may have shot him, the SWAT team may have shot him. I don't know. What do you make of all these details though Mama?

GnosticPrince

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Do you have these original shows downloaded ?  The links do not work anymore because the Vyzygoth site is for sale now.

Lord Carpainter

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GnosticPrince wrote:Do you have these original shows downloaded ?  The links do not work anymore because the Vyzygoth site is for sale now.

I found them on a streaming website once. You couldn't download them, but you could listen to them. I can't find them now.

thecure

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I have the .mp3 files for all 4 parts, don't know how to send them though

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Cezar

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Jul 17 12 4:44 PM

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thecure wrote:I have the .mp3 files for all 4 parts, don't know how to send them though

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thecure

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Aug 9 12 6:27 PM

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http://yourlisten.com/cha...907594/Bill+Zabel+Part+1

http://yourlisten.com/cha...907595/Bill+Zabel+part+2

http://yourlisten.com/cha...907596/Bill+Zabel+part+3

http://yourlisten.com/cha...907597/Bill+Zabel+part+4

Lord Carpainter

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Oct 11 13 6:16 AM

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Bill Zabel did another audio with Binall of America on September 10, 2013.

http://www.cyberears.com/cybrss/20518.mp3

He starts in about how the evangelical base in the area surrounding Columbine High refuses to acknowledge the involvement of Dylan Klebold because it is a deep sin to "blame the Jew." Later he's discussing the massacre at Virginia Tech. When the interviewer remarks that he hasn't heard anything about other suspects at Virginia Tech, he mentions that the witnesses reported an assailant who was six feet tall and says: "This is an Asian kid, he probably wasn't more than 5'8, 5'9!"

He doesn't make much sense for most of the interview. He goes into his April 19 theory (he now believes it was a drill instead of a hostage situation) and states that the massacre in Aurora was completely fake. He believes they use actors to simulate the more recent events because they don't want to get caught in the act of real ones. Another of his anecdotes regards a woman who disappeared who had information that supports the January Incident theory. It is indeed interesting that John DeCamp, another researcher with close CIA ties, has come out in support of this theory recently. Also interesting in that I recall Ron Aigner and Bill Zabel having a rather heated argument on Facebook some time ago about Donna Taylor's credibility.

He also relates a story about how a woman was told to shut up about the massacre at Columbine by a powerful man in Europe known as "Hans Kolvenbach." The Black Pope? Telling a woman to hush up in a restaurant?

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Lord Carpainter

Oct 13 13 2:16 PM. Edited 2 times.

starviego

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Oct 12 13 10:47 AM

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Even the interviewer is having doubts about his guest. At one point the host says "Every time I talk to you Bill it gets stranger and stranger, I don't know.... ." Bottom line is that Zabel makes all sorts of claims but never cites sources. His credibility is low, to put it lightly.

evanlong

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Oct 13 13 1:57 PM

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To put it

very

lightly.

http://www.EvanLong.net/

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[its-thompson-kerman]

The Mystics Part 2

The Mystics Part 1: The Myth

The Mystics Part 2: The Destruction

         How do great civilizations fall? This is a question historians have been debating for some time now, especially since the fall of the Madician civilization about ten years ago. Until now, historians have never tried to explain how such a supposedly stable society fell in such a relatively short period.

First, here are the facts. The Madician civilization arose around 5072 A.V (1800 B.C.E) though even calling it a civilization is debatable. They did not have any sort of a military, police force, or borders. It was also a strict brutal theocracy ruled by the Vita, a life mystic which they believed was the creator of all life on Earth. They were formed purely on the principles of a form of spiritual worship known as Mysticism. Mysticism was a primitive religious practice that separated people based on nonsense, such as their connection to the spirit realm. The civilization was mostly based around ceremonies. These ceremonies took place during the important phases of the sun and moon, where certain mystics would show off their power.

There is a myth out there that mystics were all just charlatans. That they never actually had any powers to begin with, but this is verifiably false. All accounts: Madician, Coassian, and even Agrippain claim mystics indeed had some sort of abilities tied to fire, water, and life. Anything stated otherwise is pseudohistory.

Miraculously, the Madician civilization was able to maintain city affiliations that spread across the globe. A curious thing about the Madician civilization is that there seemed to be no significant revolts during its two-thousand-year reign. That was until the end, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

To understand the fall of the Madician civilization, we must first talk about the origin of Coassia. The power, as we all know, that seceded the Madician civilization. The Coassian Empire rose around the year 6872 A.V or 0 C.E. It was initially a small city-state lying on the northern coast of the Padadome Ocean. The city-state was quite forward-thinking of its time, creating universities and funding scientific and political experiments. As we all know, it was a Coassian scientist who invented the first steam engine, a technology that would change the world forever.

Coassian’s embraced science and reason, and Madicians stuck to their traditions. Madicia refused to industrialize. Even when the Coassian Empire started expanding around the year 100 C.E or 6980 A.V.. Madicia did try and reinvent the steam engine in the last couple of decades before the Agrippa uprising, but by then, it was too late.

         The Coassian’s first attacked the Madician’s in 133 C.E or 7015 A.V. They quickly and efficiently conquered a small commune (the Madician equivalent of a providence) near the recently expanded Coassian border. The battle was reasonably bloodless. Only two Coassian soldiers died and six of the local population. Then after a week of relatively peaceful occupation, Vita Azalea arrived with two of her daughters, Angi Ember (a fire mystic) and Misty (a water mystic), and her husband, Dejen. Together they created utter chaos sending the Coassian army back into the heartland of Coassia. A year later, the great Emperor Lewis sent six Coassian slaves to the Vita as a peace offering. Vita Azalea excepted, and the two powers lived in peace for another thirty-three years. Little did Vita Azalea know those six slaves would be her civilization's downfall.

One of the six slaves was none other than the bastard child of Sir Helier Edison. Edison was the right-hand man of the Emperor and the forefather of modern gender and racial science. His bastard, Benjamin Edison, was well versed in his father’s teachings and enlightened the people of Madicia. Though he was shunned by the Madician religious establishment, he was able to recruit a following of young Madician men. This would be the start of the insular group known today as the Agrippas.

 In the year 7033 A.V (148 C.E), Vita Allium, the last Vita, rose to power and met another one of the Coassian slaves, Agrippa. She fell in love with him and decided to make him her husband. But on the night before they were to get married, Agrippa stabbed Allium through the chest.

No one knows for sure why he did it. Some say that he went mad. Others say it was a political move against the matriarchy and the mystic establishment. Still, some sources suggest that he was tricked into doing so by a Coassian spy. Whatever the reason was, he was publicly executed for this act. The first and only time someone was publicly executed in Madicia. It is this act that killed the Madician civilization if any single action did.

A couple years after Angi Ember came to power, she banned the teachings of Helier Edison and other similar gender and race scientists. The band was based purely on the idea that they were sacrileges. In rebellion, a handful of Madician men (and some women) created a secret college that taught the ideals of Coassia and enlightened their students on the nonsensical aspects of Mysticism. They called themselves the Agrippas after the man they believed exposed the fragility of the Vita.

 The Agrippas were also militant groups based on the ideals of Coassia, science, and reason. However, despite this, the Coassian government never endorsed their organization, at least publicly. Though we do have some evidence that even before their banishment in 7,042 A.V (157 C.E), they were secretly funding their organization.

In 7,042 A.V, the Agrippas made their first public attack when they assassinated Angi Ember’s husband, Tri. (Though in their writings, they claim it’s the second. The first being Agrippa murdering Vita Allium). After that, all Agrippain members (even the peaceful ones) were banished from Madicia and any of her allies.

 As stated earlier, Coassia took in a lot of these Agrippain refugees. Even this act infuriated the Angi, so she single handedly burned the city of Britassa, the capital of Coassia at the time, to the ground killing hundreds and thousands of people. A few years later, in retaliation, Emperor Lewis II attacked Coassia and, like his father before him, was defeated.

 But the war was not totally in vain, for it gave more experience to the Agrippain refugees to return to their country of origin in 7,054 A.V (170 C.E.). Eventually, successfully killing Angi Ember, her daughter Moana, and all the remaining lineage of Vita Azalea. Successfully taking over the country in 175 C.E. and dismantling the theocracy and the mystic religion as a whole.

However, the Agrippain were not perfect rulers, as one might expect. They murdered the mystics to the point of extinction, as well as many gender-nonconforming individuals. This lasted until 193 C.E when Madicia was finally incorporated into the Coassian Empire.

So why did Madicia fall? How come the mystics were utterly wiped out. Well, first of all, it starts with technology. The Mysticism religion banned the steam engine's use, therefore making it easy for the Agrippas (armed with Coassian weaponry) to sweep in and defeat them. The second reason is that the mystics were simply passivists creatures who refused to attack anyone. Men are naturally aggressive. So indeed, it’s incredible these people weren’t slaughtered earlier, and maybe they should have been…

         Azar threw the paper across the room in a fit of fury. Her curly red hair sparked in irritation. Azar took a deep breath; she had remained hidden this long. There’s no need to expose herself now. Not when she is so close to fulfilling her promise, she made sixteen years ago to her people. She was sixteen at the time. Shortly after that, her powers exposed themselves.

If only the ceremonies were allowed to continue, maybe her powers would have manifested earlier. Or maybe Sol kept them from her for so long to keep her safe from the Agrippas. Perhaps it was a blessing. Or maybe it was a curse to watch everyone and everything you love die and not have the power to do anything about it. To force yourself to keep on living to create life in such a destructive world. But she made a promise. To her mother as she suffocated on coal filled smoke. To her Aunt Nina, as she was tossed in chains into the ocean. To her father as they hung from a tree with a nurse around their neck. Azar promised them she would live, she would fight, and she would continue Vita’s legacy whatever it takes.

Azar turned to the author of the paper, the man she had just slept with. He was still sleeping naked under the sheets. She should just leave. Azar got what she needed from him, and even if she didn’t, she’s sure she could find some other man to sleep with her. Maybe one who didn’t think of her people with such contempt. But she hoped it was done. She honestly didn’t want to sleep with anyone else. She barely wanted to sleep with him, and that was before she read his paper.

Azar grabbed her stockings, laid it down on the side of the bed. She walked to the other side of the room to grab her dress that was conveniently lying next to the disgustingly inaccurate paper. Azar looked over at him. The moonlight coming from the window made his creamy skin sparkle. He looked so peaceful. Azar envied that.

Maybe she was wrong about him. Perhaps he was just ignorant. After all, he was about her age, maybe even younger, and he had mentioned to her that he spent his whole life in Coassia. He probably has no memory of Madicia like she does. He probably has never seen one of the “savage” ceremonies he talks about in his paper. He couldn’t feel the spirit dancing around him or touch the heat of the eternal flame. He’s probably never seen the miracle of life being created before his very eyes. Or maybe he never wanted to, perhaps he wishes for the simple answer that the world is only the physical and nothing more. It’s easy for a man to think that not being able to see the spirit world and all. Still, she had to find out. She had to find out if he was even worth being kept alive.

         She climbed back onto the bed and sat on his hips the way she had when they were making love, holding the paper behind her back. He woke up and smiled, rubbing his hand up her leg. His hands were soft like her mothers and smooth like her fathers were. Azar leaned down and kissed him on the neck, still with her arms behind her back. He smelled like rose water. Azar hadn’t smelled rose water since she was a little girl.

         It was the Da’vita’olivo or the day of Vita and Oliver. The most important holiday in Mysticism. The day they celebrate Vita’s arrival on land and the creation of the olive tree, the lifeblood of the world. It was the first and last ceremony Azar went to. The Agrippas had already been in power for five years and had banned all ceremonies. But this was Da’vita’olivo, so in rebellion, her small mountain town held the ceremony in a secret cave a few miles away from the village.

“Do you want to go again?” he asked, almost a little nervous.

         “No,” Azar sat up and revealed the paper she hid behind her back, “I want to talk.”

The ceremony was supposed to take place outside. So, Azar’s mother and her older cousin, Asatica, decorated the cave with ivy, grapevines, tulips, lilies, roses, azalea bushes, and in the center of the cave, an olive tree. Her aunt Nina created torches to bring light into the den. Her aunt Maayan erupted the natural spring, creating a fountain and a temporary irrigation system for the plants. The normal humans also decorated the cave for the occasion, painting pictures of past Vita’s and their creations on the walls. They painted the cave’s ceiling with the sun, moon, and stars, hoping that their spirits would still look down upon them. Hoping the spirits were still with them through those hard times.

Though Azar, who was only six at the time, didn’t realize it. This was essentially a suicide mission outing the town as mystics, all so she and the other young children could experience one ceremony in their lifetime. Apparently, it was the head of the town, Azar’s grandmother’s dying wish to have one more Da’vita’olivo ceremony in her honor, and they did. The whole village, men, women, dule sights, and mystics came together in this cave to celebrate Da’vita’olivo. 

They brought their Tri steam-powered lamps. (Despite what Coassian propaganda states, noncoal stream powered lamps were commonplace by the time the Agrippas came to rule). They placed them along the cave's edge, creating an illuminated mist that swept through the cave floor. They brought lamb, unleavened bread, wine, grapes, and of course, olives for their feast. There was music and dancing; there were stories and games, and yes, there were rituals.

Mystics and dual sites might have led the rituals, but everyone participated. Just because these groups had different roles to play doesn’t make them any less important than one another. They're merely different. Why did Agrippina’s and Coassian’s see that as a bad thing? The rituals, to Azar, were reminders that everyone at the end of the day were the children of Sol and Luna and inhabitants of the world.

The man before her was comforting in a way. He reminded her of that day. Of that time, once in her life when everything seemed to be ok, and almost right. He was almost right. But he’s just a man, a Coassian man, an Agrippa apologist. It breaks her heart, almost.

“What do you want to talk about?” the man asked.

Azar sat back up and showed him his paper, “This.”

“You’ve read it?” he sat up, grabbing the paper from her.

“Yes, it’s awful,” Azar said.

“Look, I know it’s a little rough around the edges…”

“It’s misleading and incomplete and grossly out of context,” Azar said.

The man rolled his eyes, “Oh, really like what?”

“Well, take your explanation of ceremonies. The ceremonies were more like what Coassian’s would call festivals. They were large celebrations or parties where the whole community gets together to celebrate. The rituals had more meaning than ‘showing off the mystics power.’ Take, for instance, the ritual used to start the ceremony of Da’vita’olivo.”

“What?” the man interrupts.

Azar rolled her eyes. Spirit, this man is stupid, “the day of Vita and Oliver.”

“Oh, that one. I forgot.”

Sure, he did.

“Anyways, as I was saying, everyone gathers around the olive tree and the fountain. They are all dressed in their traditional attire, not because they're forced to or anything but because it’s fun and yes, it’s tradition. Three mystics: one life, one water, and one fire stand in the center of the circle. The life mystic creates a bunch of roses. Then the water mystic swirls around a couple gallons of water from the fountain picking up the roses and swirling them above overhead, creating a small whirlpool in the sky. Finally, the fire mystic creates a massive fire underneath, heating up the water and letting the rose petals dissolve into the water. Then the water mystic releases the water, showering the rose water over all the attendees. The stems of the roses fall from the sky, and if you catch one, it’s a sign that you will find love within the year, but if you prick your finger on the rose stem, it will mean you will lose a great love. There was this girl you see, a young mystic, though she had not yet come into her own, who pricked herself on the rose stem. She was upset at first, but her parents said it was just an old wise tale and that it didn’t necessarily mean that she would lose someone she loved. But the next day, the Agrippas came with their coal guns spraying her and her mother in a cloud of coal dust then setting her house on fire. Do you even know why coal-powered steam engines were banned in Madicia?”

“Because of some stupid religious…”

“No! It’s because fossil fuel emissions literally kill life mystics. It takes the life out of Earth, but you stupid Coassians didn’t care! You were happy that it kills life mystics because then that was one less ‘enemy’; you had to worry about you selfish assholes!” Azar’s body lit on fire. Soon her legs dissolved into a cloud of flames that hovered just above the man.

The man was shaking. His green eyes were wide with horror, “You…you’re the… the Angi?”

Azar marveled at her inflamed body, then looked out the window as the sun began to rise over the horizon. She smiled; Sol had not abandoned her people. She would be the beginning of a new legacy. She glared down at the petrified man. She had gotten what she needed from him. He was useless to her now. She now knows what he is, a coward, and a simple man. Her legacy was sealed, and in nine months, she will have the next Agua, and the cycle will continue whether he liked it or not.

She fell back on the bed, reverting back to her human form. She gasped and looked over at the father of her future child. He didn’t even realize what he released in her.

“They’ll kill you,” he murmured as Azar collected her things.

“They can’t,” Azar snapped, putting on her stockings.

“We killed one Angi. We can kill another,” he spat.

Angie stopped, “What did you say?”

“I said we killed one. We can kill another.”

“You, I just thought you were some Coassian asshole, but no you…you Agrippain… Murderer!”

A ball of flame shot out from Azar’s hands, catching the Agrippain on fire. He screamed in agony, trying to put out the fire, but the flames only grew.

“You can’t kill me this time!” The new Angi screamed, “Because I’ll kill you all first!” She slipped on her dress and stomped out the door.

“After all, what more do I have to lose,” she whispered to herself.

[electricoutdoors]

What Happens to the Military and Police After SHTF – EROL and WROL

What Happens to the Military and Police After SHTF?

There’s always a lot of talk about how we’re going to survive following a SHTF event. What we should store, how much ammo we need, how do we filter water, how should we secure our homes, and on and on. But what about the government? Won’t they still be here after SHTF? Won’t the military still be around to keep everyone under control? Would the police simply go home and not come back?

Those are all good questions that we don’t stop to consider often enough. Let’s take a look at the police and military and think about how they may react after a SHTF event hit. [wc_toggle title=“Table of Contents” padding=“” border_width=“” class=“” layout=“box”]

The Traditional SHTF Scenario, an All Out Free For All

The Military and Police During WROL

What Would Lead to EROL?

EROL after SHTF

Would the Police and Military Go Along With EROL?

The Real Dangers of EROL

[/wc_toggle]

WROL and EROL

The Traditional SHTF Scenario, an All Out Free For All

There are two different types of situations that I feel will drive the reaction from local, state and federal government agencies. The first comes with a traditional style SHTF event. In this scenario, the world has ended as we know it. It may be because of an EMP, some kind of catastrophic viral outbreak or anything else you can think of that would cause a SHTF. How we got here doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that the government has ceased to function as we know it, law enforcement isn’t coming when you dial 911 and so on.

This type of situation is probably what most people think of when we think about SHTF and what would probably lead to WROL (without rule of law).

The Military and Police During WROL

Many people who haven’t served in the military, or had a lot of exposure to them, think they are robots, or slaves, or some other kind of human automaton that will blindly follow orders regardless of what those orders are. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. You really need to look past the uniform and see the person under it!

Military and police personnel have families and lives outside of their jobs. When a SHTF kicks off they’re going to be just as concerned about their families as you are. They aren’t going to have time to come help if you call for help, or go running out to lock down the streets to stop rioters.

I don’t think the military will have much of an impact if something truly life-altering happens. Those that live on base may retreat back within the gates and try to secure themselves there, but those that live downtown are going to go to their families. The same can be expected from the police.

When SHTF comes it really will be everyone for themselves. Police and military acting in any kind of official capacity will be almost non-existent.

What Would Lead to EROL?

These types of events could be something like a gradual decline brought about by widespread social unrest and rioting or even a slow financial collapse where the dollar is slowly devalued until a roll of toilet paper costs more than a night out at the movies with the family. In these situations, the government is going to see the SHTF event coming and take what it sees as an appropriate action to try to protect the population of the country. This will most likely lead to EROL (enhanced rule of law).

EROL after SHTF

EROL is the exact opposite of what many of us think of when we imagine SHTF. Instead of there being no one to enforce laws, the military and police are enforcing a more aggressive form of law.

In this scenario, the government has tried to control a societal collapse in the only way that they really can, by implementing a police state. Armed law enforcement and military members on busy corners, military-style patrols on the streets, checkpoints and mandatory curfews are just a couple of the things you could expect in an EROL. In EROL the use of deadly force may even be authorized against curfew breakers.

The cities would have it the worst. A police and military presence would likely be visible around the clock.

The further you get from major population centers, the less impact you would see from EROL. Small towns may not see much of a change at all other than the occasional roving checkpoint or convoy passing through.

Would the Police and Military Go Along With EROL?

This obviously goes against everything that we believe in as Americans but it’s very likely to occur at the beginning stages of almost any SHTF event.

I believe an EROL would have a lot of buy-in from military and police personnel in the beginning. When the two options are to either keep the public under control and as safe as you can or let the country become a free for all, most are going to take the first option.

Leaders understand that their people would never go along with an order that involves widespread violence against the American people, so the chances of that occurring near the beginning of EROL is almost non-existent. My concern with EROL really comes after it’s been implemented for an extended period of time.

The Real Dangers of EROL

There are two major dangers that I see with EROL beyond the obvious.

The first comes during a best-case scenario. Imagine that the increased military and police presence were able to stop any widespread violence and the country was able to start moving in the right direction again.

When do you take the military and police off the streets? There’s no clear-cut answer to this question. When has a government ever given back rights after it has taken them from the public? If you look at history, the answer is sadly almost never. This means that now that we are going back in the right direction, we may never recover the rights that we had to forfeit. It’s a scary thought.

My worst fear comes from an extended EROL. In this scenario, there is no end in sight. The military and police presence hasn’t made anything better.

The longer the military is used to police the public, the more they’re going to see them as the “enemy”. The more often their buddies are injured by rioters, the more they’re spit on by protesters, the more they're hated by the public in the streets and in the media, the more likely they are to use violence in response to civilians.

Look at the police forces in major cities. Many of them have seen the public as the “enemy” for decades. Imagine what it would be like in a SHTF environment. This sort of experience drives an “us and them” mentality that you would never want to see between civilians and the U.S. military!

Do you let America devolve into anarchy after a SHTF or do you start taking away people’s rights in an attempt to keep some kind of order? It’s a difficult question that I sincerely hope we never have to answer.

The previous post What Happens to the Military and Police After SHTF – EROL and WROL is republished from: https://readylifestyle.com/

What Happens to the Military and Police After SHTF – EROL and WROL published first on https://readylifesytle.tumblr.com

[mrmichaelchadler]

Jon Bernthal’s Incredible Work Gets Lost in the Second Season of Netflix’s The Punisher

Jon Bernthal is insanely good in “The Punisher.” A remarkable blend of skill, vulnerability, and the work of a great casting director have to coalesce for a performance like this to exist at all. Sometimes he moves, and it’s as though some sort of programming has kicked in for Frank Castle; his limbs carry him forward with incredible force and viciousness, but his face remains a mask of agony. At other times, his movement tells another story, and it’s as though Castle chooses to give over to some base instinct or primal drive, and he opens his mouth and bellows, allowing the beast to consume the man. Bernthal never forgets to check in on Castle’s adrenaline levels. Something happens—he’s startled, or frightened, or he kills or is wounded, and it lingers. The pulse takes a good long while to slow. This isn’t a man who makes jokes or acts affectionately with ease, and Bernthal shows us how hard it is for Castle to unclench the fist within. He is endlessly thoughtful. He plays Castle unsparingly, but with compassion. He gives him a soul, but does not let that soul off the hook. He is even, occasionally, funny.

It is not an exaggeration to call Bernthal’s performance in “The Punisher” one of TV’s best unsung turns, but existing as it does in the meandering, frustrating second season of the Netflix series, his excellent work is actually a bit of a double-edged sword. He’s so good that it underlines all the shortcomings of the writing. It becomes clear exactly how much shoddy storytelling he’s compensating for, because when the camera leaves him, it all falls to shit. It’s not that the other actors are bad. Far from it. They’re just not Jon Bernthal. When he can’t square the bad writing or fill in the gaps, it’s obvious the show has lost its way, because he’s been making it work, episode after episode, and even he can’t make this right. And his gripping performance adds one more layer of disappointment to the proceedings, because here’s the most unforgivable sin of the second season of “The Punisher”: You have a magnificent performance like this one at your disposal, and this is what you choose to do with it?

The action picks up well after the end of the first season, and Frank Castle has taken his get-out-of-jail-free card and hit the open road. The Punisher is dead, long live nice-guy drifter Pete Castiglione, the kind of regular Joe who stops at a roadside bar in Michigan just because the music sounds nice. A chance encounter gets him thinking about putting down roots, but then a smart-mouthed, wily teenager winds up in a jam with a whole lot of lethal force, and within minutes Pete’s gone and Frank’s back, covered in blood and aggravated by the bad guys and the scrappy teen alike. Amy (Giorgia Whigham) has suddenly become Castle’s responsibility, and that makes her a bloody pain in the ass. (She literally has to stitch up a wound in his ass.) The people chasing her don’t stop coming, so Frank doesn’t stop killing, and that’s the season—though of course, there’s a lot more to it than that.

And that’s all pretty good. Not all of it works—Frank ends up repeating himself a lot, and the appealing Whigham handles the scrappy, quippy stuff better than the heavy, haunted stuff—but it lives somewhere between “okay, let’s move along now” and “yes, Frank Castle and an unruly teenage daughter, more please, thanks.” But there’s another major arc to this season. It’s unwieldy to say the least, but one can fairly say that “The Punisher” is essentially split in half: There’s the “8 Simple Rules for Saving My Teenage Sidekick” storyline and all its component parts, and then there’s season one villain Billy Russo (Ben Barnes) and the mess that comes with him. The first half of the season essentially hinges on the idea that Billy may or may not remember what he did after leaving the military, up to and including the murder of Frank’s entire family—who, as Curtis Hoyle (Jason R. Moore) tells Amy, were pretty much also Billy’s family, making the betrayal that much more abhorrent. Dinah Madani (Amber Rose Revah), who basically haunts Russo’s hospital room, is certain he’s lying, and that he remembers it all. Krista Dumont (Floriana Lima), a psychologist with her own traumatic backstory, believes that he doesn’t, and is certain that he’s capable of and worthy of redemption. Russo is haunted nightly by dreams of a skull, says he misses his brothers-in-arms Frank and Curtis, and claims to have no idea who messed up his face. A very, very, very long time is spent on him remembering, and almost none in actually interrogating any of the ideas and themes found therein.

Barnes doesn’t lack abilities, and Revah (who flits, as Moore does, between both stories) fares about as well as anyone could within this stagnant, sour plot. Lima, terrific as Maggie Sawyer on “Supergirl,” gets the rawest of all raw deals—to say her storyline goes to every stale and empty place you think it will shouldn’t be a spoiler, but once you’ve seen one really bogus female psychologist storyline, you’ve seen them all. Still, she’s good. They all are. But there’s no helping this fact: By the time Billy Russo makes the same heavy-handed, joyless speech for the umpteenth time, it’s likely that viewers won’t be so much wishing that he’d get his memories back, as wishing that he’d forget more things, like his lines, or where he lives, or that he’d prefer to stay out of jail. It’s endless, it’s nowhere near as interesting as “The Punisher” thinks it is, and it has the disobliging habit of sucking all of the oxygen out of episodes that might not have been great, but could probably have been passable.

It’s too bad, because when the camera tears itself away from Billy Russo’s scarred-but-not-that-scarred face, it often lands on some pretty gripping fight scenes, and solid filmmaking in general. An early episode is particularly excellent, spending much of its runtime locked inside a police station with Castle, the kid, and a savvy Sheriff wary of both as they endure a ceaseless assault from outside forces, and that one in particular uses lots of the crayons in the violence Crayola box. Director Jeremy Webb shoots it at times like a tense, slow-moving western, at others a roomy thriller; he carefully frames shots so that the station feels at times like a safe haven, at others like an isolated death trap. When Castle finally leaves to deal with the problem, as you know he must, the camera stalks the woods as matter-of-factly as the man who kills his way through them. It’s a taut, thoughtful affair, quietly stylish, and brutal without glorying in its brutality.

Coincidentally, most of those descriptors are also words I’d apply to Bernthal (maybe not quietly stylish—the costumes, by Lorraine Z. Calvert, are terrific, but Castle’s not exactly a fashion plate). The best things about “The Punisher” in both its seasons are often reflected in his performance. But Bernthal plays Castle as a man who feels doomed to repeat the same brutal cycle over and over again, convinced that there’s only one thing he’s good for, and that, sadly, is also true of the second season of this series: repetitive, bleak, and unwilling to admit that it might be capable of doing anything new. 

Full season screened for review. 

from All Content http://bit.ly/2QV5Fpu

[todaynewsstories]

Poisoned Pussy Riot activist: Russia was sending a ′warning sign′ | Europe| News and current affairs from around the continent | DW

DW: How do you feel right now?

Pyotr Verzilov: Compared with last week, when I was still completely unconscious and not understanding what was happening, obviously it is a huge jump in the direction of being better. I am still not completely well. I would probably not run 1.5 kilometers or something like that. I still have problems with my eyes — very weird problems that basically don’t allow me to read with glasses or focus your eyes. So yes, some problems are still there.

But essentially this nerve agent — as everyone who is thinking about it has speculated — it most likely has a very short term strong effect and then basically dies out. And this is what we saw in my condition.

You life is obviously in danger. Are you afraid of returning to Russia?

No, I am definitely not afraid. I feel that Russia has the greatest people — we are not afraid of anything. If in Berlin it might make sense to walk with bodyguards, in Moscow it doesn’t make any sense because the people who want to do something bad to you, they can still do it. So if you do opposition politics in Russia you just have to be ready for any course of action.

Are you under police protection right now?

Yes. Once I go out or meet someone outside they escort you.

What do you believe was the main reason for your poisoning?

I believe the main reason was to give a warning sign that we should not dive too much into uncovering what has happen in Africa (Editor’s note: Three Russian journalists were killed in July while working in the Central African Republic) and the agency who knows how to work with poisons… it’s kind of their language now. So I believe the African investigation is more or less the reason.

Not the run on the pitch during the recent World Cup final in Moscow?

It could be, but at the same time we all saw how the Moscow police were struggling over the past two months to write some sort of new protocol in order to arrest for 15, 30 days and being unable to do that. Because the local court in Moscow just kept sending the papers saying: We are not gonna work with this.

You haven’t published an investigation of the Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic. You said there is new information about this incident. When do you want to publish your findings?

This really depends of what we will be doing at stage two [of the investigation], and if we will be doing stage two at all because the publication of some sort of information right now might make investigation harder.

Would you like to stay in Berlin? With all the creative freedom here you can do a lot of political actionism…

Actionism is a language which is used first of all in Russia, because of the specifics of our political reality. Here in the West are billions of possibilities of self expression — you can enter politics, you can change something, do creative statements. Our actionism is a result of the lack of possibilities for self expression in Russia — in the West there a lot of them.

Pyotr Verzilov is a member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot. He fell ill in Moscow two weeks ago and was flown to Germany for urgent treatment. He was released from a hospital in Berlin on Wednesday.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Starting a riot

All-girl Russian punk protest band Pussy Riot created an international storm in 2012 with a guerrilla performance in Moscow’s main cathedral that called for the Virgin Mary to protect Russia against Vladimir Putin, who was elected to a new term as Russia’s president a few days later. The protest attracted worldwide attention, and three members of the group were arrested.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

State censorship

During the ensuing court hearing in Moscow in August 2012, Pussy Riot members Nadya Tolokonnikova (right), Maria Alyokhina (center) and Yekaterina Samutsevich (left) could be seen in a glass-walled cage. Support for the Pussy Riot activists came from all over the world.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Cause celebre

Pussy Riot’s iconic colorful balaclava face masks allowed supporters near and far to become “members of the band.” Here, a protester is arrested during a demonstration in support of Pussy Riot in 2012 in front of the Russian consulate in New York on the day a Russian judge found three members of the provocative punk band guilty of hooliganism.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

No way out

Pussy Riot band member Nadya Tolokonnikova looks out from a holding cell during a court hearing in April 2013. Tolokonnikova was appealing her conviction for “hooliganism motivated by religious hate,” for which she was serving two years in a remote prison. Many international stars such as Madonna called for the Pussy Riot members’ release.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Back under attack

After their release from prison under an amnesty in late 2013, Pussy Riot were soon protesting again, this time at the Winter Olympics in the Russian city of Sochi. While they were preparing to sing the song “Putin Will Teach You to Love Your Motherland,” a spoof on state nationalism, a Cossack militiaman who was armed with a whip attacked band member Nadya Tolokonnikova and a photographer.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Fight the power

Masked Pussy Rot members leave a police station in Adler during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in February 2014. Two members of the band, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were detained after they were wrongfully suspected of stealing a handbag from their hotel.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Getting the word out

By 2015, Moscow-based Maria Alyokhina (left) and Nadya Tolokonnikova increasingly traveled Europe to continue campaigning against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here they answer questions from the audience at the 23rd Sziget (Island) Festival on Shipyard Island in Budapest, Hungary, on August 14, 2015.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Part of Banksy’s world

Here, in September 2015, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina performed at the closing party of the “Dismaland” project by graffiti artist Banksy. The street artist described his subversive, pop-up exhibition at the derelict seafront Tropicana lido in the UK as a “bemusement park.”

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

How to start a revolution

Pussy Riot co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova wrote her own guide to individual freedom in the face of totalitarianism, “How to Start a Revolution,” which was published in 2016. She soon toured the book around the world, stopping in Berlin and at the Lit.Cologne literary festival (above).

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Provoking the corrupt security state

In 2016, Pussy Riot were again indulging in political provocation at home, releasing a film clip to their new protest song “Chaika” that mocks corrupt and violent Russian security agencies – under whom the jailed band members faced “endless humiliations” – after it was revealed that the country’s chief prosecutor, Yuri Chaika, had links to the local mafia.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Trump meets Putin

Pussy Riot’s criticism not only targets Russian authorities: At this performance in a San Francisco theater in February, a caricature of Donald Trump accompanied Vladimir Putin on stage. During the event, they discussed the current state of human rights in Russia, and how LGBT individuals and political activists in prison are affected.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

The struggle continues

On August 6, 2017, Pussy Riot members Maria Alyokhina and Olga Borisova held flares and a banner on a bridge near a prison in Yakutsk, Russia to protest the jailing of film director Oleg Sentsov. He was arrested in Crimea – which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 – and convicted by a Russian military court of conspiracy to commit terror attacks. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Live in Germany

In September 2017, the group performed their “feminist punk manifesto” in Germany at Frankfurt’s Künstlerhaus Mousonturm. Titled “Riot Days,” the concert is based on band member Maria Alyokhina’s eponymous book that describes her co-founding of Pussy Riot in 2011 with Nadya Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Shutting down Trump Tower

In October 2017, the group stormed Trump Tower in New York City to voice opposition to Putin and Trump and the incarceration of political prisoners. Wearing their famous balaclavas, they held up a banner once again urging the release of Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov. Police closed the 58-story skyscraper for a half hour.

Riot Days: Pussy Riot’s acts of defiance

Protest on the pitch

Dressed as police officers, members of the collective invaded the pitch during the World Cup final in Russia, interrupting the game. According to the group, the goals of the protest were for the Russian authorities to free all political prisoners, stop illegal arrests at public rallies and allow political competition in the country. The members were sentenced to 15 days of jail time.

Author: Stuart Braun

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[oselatra]

Why all the outrage?

What T Rump did in Helsinki is consistent with who T Rump is.

Why all the outrage?

What T Rump did in Helsinki is consistent with who T Rump is.

There were no surprises. No mysteries. No reason to be any more outraged than you should be when he assaults women, praises neo-Nazis, imprisons 2-year olds, violates the U.S. Constitution, demeans persons of color and entire cultures of different faiths, demonizes the media, criminalizes his political opponents, insults our allies, glorifies tyranny, ignores facts and shamelessly lies and lies and lies.

If we were privy to his secret two-hour, 10-minute tete-a-tete with Putin, what else would we learn that would be more insulting, more treasonous ... cause us to be more outraged?

Alfred Herget

Little Rock

Diplomacy always better than war

After the Cold War ended and before Trump, the U.S. broke agreements with Russia to not expand NATO bases toward Russian borders, some of which hold massive nuclear weapons.

The Obama and Hillary administration directed the Ukraine coup (extreme meddling) on Russian borders. They practiced massive war games near Russian borders. They reignited the Cold War with $1 trillion in new nuclear bombs.

They continued and expanded Bush's endless "Global War on Terror," which has cost $5.6 trillion thus far. Like Bush, they conducted regime change war crimes in Libya, after which Hillary psycho-laughed about killing their leader. More extreme meddling.

They continued the brutal imperial U.S. history of interfering and violently overthrowing dozens of governments. Nobody meddles like the U.S.A. Read Gen. Smedley Butler's book "War is a Racket" free online. Read William Blum's book "Killing Hope."

Russians are under severe threats, and millions practice nuclear drills to prepare for U.S. attack. Like millions in the Middle East, Russian people are terrified of the U.S. war machine for damn good reasons.

The CIA with its history of lying and meddling in other nations is hard to trust on anything. But if Russia did meddle, it is entirely logical in light of the danger they face, being surrounded by U.S. military bases, war games, nukes, coups and endless bombings.

Perhaps with Trump there was at least some hope for change for them. Despite all the horrors of Trump, if his warmer relations with Russia avert nuclear war, he will have done something great.

Trump is terrible, but so are Obama and Hillary, just like the brutal Saudi dictators that Obama, Hillary and Trump sold record arms deals to. They all stink, and have lakes of blood on their hands, just like Bush, who has an Iraqi ocean of blood, along with Hillary and Biden.

But what sucks worse than all these? Nuclear annihilation. Of course we must practice diplomacy and be friends with Russia, as Trump correctly said. I just wish he or any of the others mentioned were trustworthy.

If only we had a political party and leaders sincerely for peace. We do, but the war parties and their warmonger media pals will not even allow them in debates. Democracy? Lol.

Abel Tomilson

Fayetteville

Work requirement is wrong

Your recent story "Federal court strikes down Kentucky's Medicaid work requirement; DHS says Arkansas unaffected" spotlights the recent court decision to strike down federally approved Medicaid work requirements in Kentucky and the decision's possible ramifications on other states with approved work requirement waivers, including Arkansas.

The court decision emphasized that Medicaid work requirements go against the core value of the Medicaid program: to provide health care access to low-income individuals. By placing employment reporting requirements on enrollees who, data show, already work, work requirements are an obstacle designed to slash enrollment in the program and put the health of thousands of vulnerable Arkansans in jeopardy.

Arkansas's was the third federally approved work requirements waiver earlier this year. As consumer health advocates, Consumers for Quality Care hopes it will soon be the next to have its work requirements eliminated. It is our hope that the health of Arkansans will always be put at the center of health reform decisions by policymakers, ensuring those with little don't lose it all.

Donna Christensen, M.D

Former member of Congress and member of the board of directors for Consumers for Quality Care, Washington, D.C.

Jeremy Hutchinson's five rodeos

Last month's newspaper articles concerning state Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson's involvement in the GIF scandal is not Hutchinson's first rodeo.

RODEO No. 1: His first rodeo began in 2010, when it was printed in several newspapers that he was having an affair with Julie McGee prior to divorcing his wife in December 2011.

RODEO No. 2: Also came about in 2010, when Hutchinson's girlfriend emerged with two checks totaling $2,700 that were not reported to the Ethics Commission as coming from campaign contributions. For that omission, he paid a $500 fine and received a warning letter. You can't use campaign money to support a mistress.

RODEO No. 3: A third rodeo came the same year when, in a police report, both Hutchinson and McGee claimed minor injuries due to violence toward each other. McGee allegedly hit the senator over the head with a stuffed alligator, causing a small laceration.

RODEO No. 4: His forth rodeo was in 2012 when he rented a house in Bella Vista for a year so he could see his children, who were then living in Fayetteville, on weekends. After a year, the owners returned home in June and found their house in shambles. On July 15, 2012, they filed a 32-page police report indicating that Hutchinson must have had continued altercations with the same girlfriend he knocked around in Little Rock. The report speaks of McGee trying to get away from Hutchinson by locking herself in the bathroom. Photos show where the senator kicked the door in. The report shows pictures of blood on the carpet, broken sheet rock, dings on the walls indicating flying objects and other signs of violence.The owner told Hutchinson to not use his boat, but the senator used it anyway and damaged it. When the senator finally moved out, he took some of the owner's furniture and belongings with him.

RODEO No. 5: Is currently under investigation, along with the massive GIF scandal that involves so many of our past and present state legislators.

CONCLUSION: The dead stuffed alligator probably can't bite the senator anymore, but there are at least two live ones out there that may swallow him whole yet.

The police report on the trashed house in Bella Vista can be seen at the Bella Vista Police Department. It is Incident 12-01459 dated 07/15/12.

Lt. Col. Jim Parsons (RET.)

Bella Vista

Why all the outrage?

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Former CIA head offers policy of prevarication and tortured truth On May 21, in his first formal public address, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (sworn in May 2) effectively declared war on the sovereign nation of Iran. Pompeo has no constitutional authority to declare war on anyone, as he well knows, so his declaration of war is just short of overt, though it included a not-so-veiled threat of a nuclear attack on Iran. Pompeo’s declaration of war is a reactionary move that revitalizes the malignant Iranaphobia of the Bush presidency, when predictions were rife that Iran would have nuclear weapons by next year, next month, next week, predictions that never came true over twenty years of fearmongering. In effect (as we’ll see), Pompeo wants us to believe that everything bad that happened in the Middle East after Saudi terrorists attacked us on 9/11 in 2001 has been Iran’s fault, starting with Afghanistan. Almost everything Pompeo had to say to the Heritage Foundation on May 21 was a lie or, more typically, an argument built on lies. Heritage Foundation host Kay Coles James called Pompeo’s 3,700-word speech “Bold, concise, unambiguous” and “a bold vision – clear, concise, unambiguous.”  It was none of those, except perhaps bold in its willingness to go to war with an imaginary monster. Even without open warfare, warmongering has its uses both for intimidating other states and creating turmoil among the populace at home. Buckle your seat belts. The 2012 Iran nuclear deal (officially the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA) was, by all reliable accounts, working effectively in its own terms up until May 8: inspectors confirmed that Iran had eliminated the nuclear programs it had promised to eliminate, that its uranium enrichment program for nuclear power plants was nowhere close to making weapons grade material, and so on. Whatever perceived flaws the deal may have had, and whatever other problems it didn’t cover, the deal was working to the satisfaction of all its other signatories: Iran, France, Great Britain, Germany, Russia, and China. As a measure of international cooperation, the deal not only worked, it was an available precedent for further negotiations among equal parties acting in good faith. The US was not such a party. On May 8, the US President, unilaterally and over the clear objections of all the other parties to the agreement, pulled the US out of the deal for no more clearly articulated reason than that he didn’t like it.  Or as Pompeo tried to re-frame it in his May 21 declaration of war: President Trump withdrew from the [Iran nuclear] deal for a simple reason: it failed to guarantee the safety of the American people from the risk created by the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is a Big Lie worthy of Nazi Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels. What “risk created by the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran” is there? Iran poses NO imminent threat to the US, and wouldn’t even if it had nuclear weapons (as North Korea and eight other countries have). Iran has no overseas bases, the US has more than 600, including a couple of dozen that surround Iran. A classified number of US bases and aircraft carriers around Iran are armed with nuclear weapons. Iran lives every day at risk from the US military while posing almost no counter-risk (and none that wouldn’t be suicidal). There is no credible threat to the American people other than fevered speculation about what might happen in a world that does not exist. To clarify Pompeo’s lie, the President withdrew from the deal for a simple reason: to protect the American people from a non-existent threat. In reality, peremptorily dumping the deal without any effort to improve it first may well have made Americans less safe in the long term. There’s no way to know. And given the current US ability to manage complicated, multifaceted problems, there’s little reason for hope. Since no one else seems as reckless as the US, we may muddle through despite massive inept stupidity and deceit. The frame for Pompeo’s deceitful arguments is the familiar one of American goodness, American exceptionalism, American purity of motive. He deploys it with the apparent self-assurance that enough of the American people still fall for it (or profit from it) that it gives the government near carte blanche to make the rest of the world suffer our willfulness. Pompeo complains about “wealth creation for Iranian kleptocrats,” without a word about American kleptocrats, of whom his president is one and he is too presumably. And then there’s the unmentioned collusion with Russian kleptocrats. Better to divert attention and inflate the imaginary threat: The deal did nothing to address Iran’s continuing development of ballistic and cruise missiles, which could deliver nuclear warheads. Missiles were not part of the nuclear agreement, so, of course, it didn’t address missiles. And even if Iran, which has a space program, develops missiles under the agreement, it still wouldn’t have nuclear warheads to deliver. There is no threat, but the US could move the projected threat closer by scrapping the agreement rather than seeking to negotiate it into other areas. That move both inflames the fear and conceals the lie. In effect, Pompeo argues metaphorically that we had to cut down the cherry orchard because it failed to produce beef. Pompeo goes on at length arguing that all the problems in the Middle East are Iran’s fault. He never mentions the US invasions of Afghanistan or Iraq, or US intervention in other countries creating fertile ground for ISIS in Libya and genocide in Yemen. Pompeo falsely claims that “Iran perpetuates a conflict” in Syria that has made “that country 71,000 square miles of kill zone.” Pompeo falsely claims that Iran alone jeopardizes Iraq’s sovereignty. Pompeo falsely blames Iran for the terror and starvation in Yemen caused by US-supported Saudi terror bombing. Pompeo falsely blames Iran for US failure in Afghanistan. Pompeo uses these and other lies to support the long-standing Big Lie that “Iran continues to be… the world’s largest sponsor of terror.” This is another Bush administration lie that lived on under Obama and now gets fresh life from Pompeo, but without evidence or analysis. US sponsorship of Saudi bombing of defenseless civilians in Yemen probably accounts for more terrorist acts than Iran accomplishes worldwide. Israeli murder of unarmed protestors in Gaza has killed more people than Iran’s supposed terror. The demonization of Iran persists because of the perverse US public psychology that has neither gotten over the 1979 hostage-taking nor accepted any responsibility for destroying Iranian democracy and subjecting Iran to a brutal US-puppet police state for a quarter-century. The Big Lie about Iran is so ingrained in American self-delusion, Pompeo may not be fully aware of the extent to which he is lying to his core (he surely knows the particulars of specific smaller lies). Only someone who is delusional or dishonest, or both, could claim with apparent sincerity that one goal of the US is “to deter Iranian aggression.” Pompeo offers no particulars of this Iranian “aggression.” So far as one can tell, in the real world, Iran has not invaded any other country in the region, or elsewhere. The US has invaded several countries, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, and by proxy Yemen. American aggression has been real and deadly and constant for decades, but because the US is the one keeping score, the US doesn’t award itself the prize it so richly deserves year after year as the world’s number one state sponsor of terror. This is how it’s been since long before 1967 when Martin Luther King tried speaking “clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.” That’s the way it was, that’s the way it still is, that’s the future Pompeo points us toward with a not so veiled threat of nuclear war: And I’d remind the leadership in Iran what President Trump said: If they restart their nuclear program, it will mean bigger problems – bigger problems than they’d ever had before. And then Pompeo launched on a lengthy description of Iran as he sees it, a self-serving interpretation of Iranian events that may or may not mean what Pompeo says they mean. What is most remarkable about the passage is that it could as well apply to the US today. Just change the Iran references to American references, as I have done in the text below, leaving everything else Pompeo said intact, and the likely unintentional effect is eerily like looking in a black mirror reality: Look, these problems are compounded by enormous corruption inside of [the US], and the [American] people can smell it. The protests last winter showed that many are angry at the regime that keeps for itself what the regime steals from its people. And [Americans] too are angry at a regime elite that commits hundreds of millions of dollars to military operations and terrorist groups abroad while the Iranian people cry out for a simple life with jobs and opportunity and with liberty. The [American] regime’s response to the protests has only exposed the country’s leadership is running scared. Thousands have been jailed arbitrarily, and at least dozens have been killed. As seen from the [#MeToo] protests, the brutal men of the regime seem to be particularly terrified by [American] women who are demanding their rights. As human beings with inherent dignity and inalienable rights, the women of [America] deserve the same freedoms that the men of [America] possess. But this is all on top of a well-documented terror and torture that the regime has inflicted for decades on those who dissent from the regime’s ideology. The [American] regime is going to ultimately have to look itself in the mirror. The [American] people, especially its youth, are increasingly eager for economic, political, and social change. As an analysis of the US by a US official, that might suggest we were headed toward enlightened and progressive policy changes. Even for what it is, Pompeo’s self-deceiving pitch to “the Iranian people,” it could have led in a positive direction.  It didn’t. Pompeo followed this assessment with a dishonest offer for new talks. It was dishonest because it came with non-negotiable US preconditions, “only if Iran is willing to make major changes.” Then came a full page of preconditions, “what it is that we demand from Iran,” as Pompeo put it [emphasis added]. Meeting those US demands would be tantamount to a surrender of national sovereignty in exchange for nothing. Pompeo surely understood that he was making an offer Iran couldn’t do anything but refuse. The Secretary of State’s bullying chest puffery continued for another two pages of falsehoods and repetitions. He called for a global alliance of democracies and dictatorships “to join this effort against the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Linking Egypt and Australia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea, Pompeo spun into a fully delusional statement about nations with little in common: They understand the challenge the same way that America does. Indeed, we welcome any nation which is sick and tired of the nuclear threats, the terrorism, the missile proliferation, and the brutality of a regime which is at odds with world peace, a country that continues to inflict chaos on innocent people. Wait a minute! Nuclear threats! Missile proliferation!  Brutality at odds with world peace! A country that continues to inflict chaos on innocent people! That’s us! That’s the US since 1945. And that’s absolutely not what Pompeo meant, insofar as anyone can be absolutely sure of anything. He made that clear with yet another lie: “we’re not asking anything other than that Iranian behavior be consistent with global norms.” Pompeo came to the predictable conclusion familiar to other countries: Iran will “prosper and flourish… as never before,” if they just do what we tell them to do. And to illustrate US bona fides and good faith in all its dealings, Pompeo showed himself, however unintentionally, capable of true high hilarity: If anyone, especially the leaders of Iran, doubts the President’s sincerity or his vision, let them look at our diplomacy with North Korea. THAT is funny. It’s just not a joke. http://clubof.info/