#because the secret service were and are still loyal to trump

[atheistforhumanity]

Trump’s Efforts to Steal The Election

Days after the presidential race has been called, Trump refuses to acknowledge his loss. He is continuing to spread false claims that he won the election and that wide spread voter fraud is the reason for Biden’s apparent victory. Remember, that in 2016 Trump won the election by the electoral college, even though he lost the popular vote by 3 million. Even after winning he claimed with no evidence that those 3 million votes were by illegal immigrants. Trump actually vowed an investigation, but never followed through.  Before this election was called, Trump tried to file lawsuits in the battle ground states he was losing to stop the counting. Because Trump’s admin had zero evidence to support their claims that fraud was in process the courts refused to hear his cases.

It is now November 11th and this is where we stand in this fabricated controversy. Trump is filing a large number of lawsuits in states and counties where his defeat was narrow. I don’t believe there has been a determination yet on whether those cases will be heard or thrown out. Regardless, Trump and his allies still hold zero evidence to support their claims. 

Republicans around the country are split on support for Trump, but many are jumping on the bandwagon. In Wisconsin the Republican speaker of the house will be starting an investigation into voter fraud, again he possess no evidence to justify such accusations. In other states, mostly the ones with the closest margin, Republicans are demanding recounts, planning to subpoena election boards for documents, and basically taking any legal avenue that they can to challenge the results. Republican supporters of Trump, such as the two senators in Georgia, that are now in run off races, have called for state officials of both Republican and Democratic parties to step down, claiming that they failed to protect the state’s election process. As of now, no one will be resigning as they are not guilty of any failure. 

I don’t believe that many of the lawsuits being filed will even be heard. Even if they are no court with a shred of respect will rule in the favor of someone with absolutely no evidence. The NYT has contacted election boards directly in 45 states, taken public comments for 4, but Texas refuses to respond. Every election board in the country has clearly and emphatically stated that there is no evidence of fraud or widespread issues of any kind. 

More Importantly

The various recounts and lawsuits are never going to be fruitful for Republicans and they are the least of our worries. What America should be paying attention to is Trump’s less obvious tradition breaking and refusal to transfer power. Currently, Trump is not allowing Biden’s team to have offices and resources in the White House so that Biden can begin building his government. This is actually required by law, and Trump is breaking that law. Biden has commented saying that nothing will stop them. Currently, the house is preparing plans for next year as if Trump will still be there. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has lashed out at the press with his assertion that Trump has won the election. 

Most disturbingly, Trump has suddenly started firing the heads of several government agencies such as the Secretary of Defense and replacing them with loyalists. There is talk that his next move will be to replace the heads of the FBI and CIA. 

THESE are the actions of someone planning a coup. This hints that Trump is planning on physically refusing to leave office. Knowing that he would be removed by secret service, military, FBI, or CIA agents he is placing loyalists in charge of all those organizations. This is how authoritarian leaders steal leadership in other countries. If they can fill enough important government positions with people loyal to them then the task of removing them becomes a much larger conflict, and a dangerous one at that. 

With everything we’ve witnessed over the past four years, this is not the time to blindly assume that something awful like this could not happen. We’ve been proven wrong about that time and time again. 

[newstfionline]

Friday, April 9, 2021

The $50 billion race to save America’s renters from eviction (Washington Post) The Biden administration again extended a federal moratorium on evictions last week, but conflicting court rulings on whether the ban is legal, plus the difficulty of rolling out nearly $50 billion in federal aid, means the country’s reckoning with its eviction crisis may come sooner than expected. The year-old federal moratorium—which has now been extended through June 30—has probably kept hundreds of thousands or millions of people from being evicted from their apartments and homes. More than 10 million Americans are behind on rent, according to Moody’s, easily topping the 7 million who lost their homes to foreclosure in the 2008 housing bust. Despite the unprecedented federal effort to protect tenants, landlords have been chipping away at the moratorium in court. Treasury Department officials have been armed with nearly $50 billion in emergency aid for renters who have fallen behind, and are racing to distribute it through hundreds of state, local and tribal housing agencies, some of which have not created programs yet. The idea is to get the money to renters before courts nationwide begin processing evictions again.

A court filing says parents of 445 separated migrant children still have not been found. (NYT) The parents of 61 migrant children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration have been located since February, but lawyers still cannot find the parents of 445 children, according to a court filing on Wednesday. In the filing, the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union indicated slow progress in the ongoing effort to reunite families that were affected by a policy to prosecute all undocumented immigrants in the United States, even if it meant separating children from their parents. Of the 445 remaining children, a majority are believed to have parents who were deported, while more than 100 children are believed to have parents currently in the United States, according to the court filing. The government has yet to provide contact information that would help locate the families of more than a dozen children.

N Ireland leaders call for calm after night of rioting (AP) Rioters set a hijacked bus on fire and hurled gasoline bombs at police in Belfast in at least the fourth night of serious violence in a week in Northern Ireland, where Brexit has unsettled an uneasy political balance. Youths threw projectiles and petrol bombs at police on Wednesday night in the Protestant Shankill Road area, while rioters lobbed bricks, fireworks and petrol bombs in both directions over the concrete “peace wall” separating the Shankill Road from a neighboring Irish nationalist area. Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Jonathan Roberts said several hundred people gathered on both sides of a gate in the wall, where “crowds ... were committing serious criminal offenses, both attacking police and attacking each other.” He said a total of 55 police officers have been injured over several nights of disorder. The recent violence, largely in pro-British loyalist areas, has flared amid rising tensions over post-Brexit trade rules for Northern Ireland and worsening relations between the parties in the Protestant-Catholic power-sharing Belfast government.

Biden seems ready to extend US troop presence in Afghanistan (AP) Without coming right out and saying it, President Joe Biden seems ready to let lapse a May 1 deadline for completing a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Orderly withdrawals take time, and Biden is running out of it. Biden has inched so close to the deadline that his indecision amounts almost to a decision to put off, at least for a number of months, a pullout of the remaining 2,500 troops and continue supporting the Afghan military at the risk of a Taliban backlash. Removing all of the troops and their equipment in the next three weeks—along with coalition partners who can’t get out on their own—would be difficult logistically, as Biden himself suggested in late March. “It’s going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline,” he said. “Just in terms of tactical reasons, it’s hard to get those troops out.” Tellingly, he added, “And if we leave, we’re going to do so in a safe and orderly way.”

One in six Latin American youths left work since pandemic’s start (Reuters) Across Latin America and the Caribbean, one in every six people aged 18 to 29 has left work since the coronavirus pandemic began, forcing many to abandon their studies, a report said on Thursday. The precariousness of employment for young people rose across the region, according to an investigation by Canadian charity Cuso International based on data from a U.N. commission and a poll by the International Labour Organization. “It’s extremely difficult for young people to access the labor market due to issues around specialization, lower wages, and poverty,” the advocacy group’s Colombia director Alejandro Matos told Reuters. More than half of those who stopped working since the start of the pandemic were let go by their employers, the report said, while others saw their businesses close and those employed in the informal sector could not work due to lockdowns.

Myanmar ambassador in London locked out of embassy after speaking out against military (Washington Post) Myanmar’s ambassador to Britain, who has spoken out again the military coup in his country, said he was barred from the embassy in London on Wednesday by officials loyal to the military junta. “They are refusing to let me inside,” Kyaw Zwar Minn told the Telegraph. “They said they received instruction from the capital, so they are not going to let me in.” Kyaw Zwar Minn told the British newspaper that when he left the embassy during the day, colleagues and officials linked to the military stormed the premises and kept him from reentering that evening. In early March, the ambassador, a former military colonel, spoke out against the military’s detention of the former British colony’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, drawing criticism from the junta that had orchestrated her ouster and praise from the British government for his “courage.” The London-based ambassador was recalled, according to Myanmar state television, after he posted a statement on the embassy’s Facebook page demanding “the release of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint,” but he did not return to Myanmar.

Merkel tells Putin to pull back troops as Kremlin accuses Ukraine of provocations (Reuters) German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday to pull back the Kremlin’s military buildup near the border with Ukraine, while he in turn accused Kyiv of “provocative actions” in the conflict region. Ukraine has raised the alarm over an increase in Russian forces near its eastern border as violence has risen along the line of contact separating its troops from Russia-backed separatists in its Donbass region. Russia has said its forces pose no threat and were defensive, but that they would stay there as long as Moscow saw fit. A senior Kremlin official said on Thursday that Moscow could under certain circumstances be forced to defend its citizens in Donbass and that major hostilities could mark the beginning of the end of Ukraine as a country.

China builds advanced weapons systems using American chip technology (Washington Post) In a secretive military facility in southwest China, a supercomputer whirs away, simulating the heat and drag on hypersonic vehicles speeding through the atmosphere—missiles that could one day be aimed at a U.S. aircraft carrier or Taiwan, according to former U.S. officials and Western analysts. The computer is powered by tiny chips designed by a Chinese firm called Phytium Technology using American software and built in the world’s most advanced chip factory in Taiwan, which hums with American precision machinery, say the analysts. Phytium portrays itself as a commercial company aspiring to become a global chip giant like Intel. It does not publicize its connections to the research arms of the People’s Liberation Army. The hypersonic test facility is located at the China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center (CARDC), which also obscures its military connections though it is run by a PLA major general, according to public documents, and the former officials and analysts, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter. Phytium’s partnership with CARDC offers a prime example of how China is quietly harnessing civilian technologies for strategic military purposes—with the help of American technology. The trade is not illegal but is a vital link in a global high-tech supply chain that is difficult to regulate because the same computer chips that could be used for a commercial data center can power a military supercomputer.

Indonesia landslides death toll rises to 140, dozens missing (AP) The death toll from mudslides in eastern Indonesia has risen to 140 with dozens still missing, officials said Wednesday, as rain continued to pound the region and hamper the search. East Flores district on Adonara island suffered the highest losses with 67 bodies recovered so far and six missing. Mud tumbled down from surrounding hills early on Sunday, catching people at sleep. Some were swept away by flash floods after overnight rains caused rivers to burst their banks. On nearby Lembata island, the downpour triggered by Tropical Cyclone Seroja sent solidified lava from a volcanic eruption in November to crash down on more than a dozen villages, killing at least 32 and leaving 35 unaccounted for, according to the National Disaster Mitigation Agency.

Reversing Trump, Biden Restores Aid to Palestinians (NYT) The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would restore hundreds of millions of dollars in American aid to Palestinians, its strongest move yet to reverse President Donald J. Trump’s policy on the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The package, which gives at least $235 million in assistance to Palestinians, will go to humanitarian, economic, development and security efforts in the region, and is part of the administration’s attempt to rehabilitate U.S. relations with Palestinians, which effectively stopped when Mr. Trump was in office. The restoration of aid amounted to the most direct repudiation so far of Mr. Trump’s tilt toward Israel in its decades-old conflict with the Palestinian population in Israeli-controlled territories.

Royal rift ends (NYT) Jordan’s King Abdullah II said on Wednesday that the “discord” that has roiled the kingdom for days has “been stopped,” signaling a resolution to a rare royal rift that resulted in the house arrest of Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, the former crown prince, and the detention of several Jordanian officials who were accused of plotting a foreign-backed coup against the monarchy.

Conflict and COVID driving record hunger in DR Congo, warns UN (Al Jazeera) A record 27.3 million people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are facing acute hunger, one-third of the violence-wracked Central African country’s population, largely because of conflict and the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the United Nations has warned. The DRC is “home to the highest number of people in urgent need of food security assistance in the world,” the World Food Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization said on Tuesday in a joint statement, describing the scale of the crisis as “staggering”. “For the first time ever we were able to analyse the vast majority of the population, and this has helped us to come closer to the true picture of the staggering scale of food insecurity in the DRC,” Peter Musoko, WFP’s representative in the country, said. “This country should be able to feed its population and export a surplus. We cannot have children going to bed hungry and families skipping meals for an entire day,” he said.

Beware The Carpet Cleaner (The Guardian) Parkinson’s disease is the fastest-growing neurological disorder in the world, and the US is experiencing an explosion of cases. In the last decade, the number of Parkinson’s cases in America has increased 35%, and a neurologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center thinks over the next 25 years it will double again. Most cases of the disease are considered idiopathic—without a clear cause. But researchers now believe one factor is environmental exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE), a chemical compound used in industrial degreasing, dry-cleaning, and household products like some shoe polishes and carpet cleaners. TCE is a carcinogen already linked to renal cell carcinoma, cancers of the cervix, liver, biliary passages, lymphatic system and male breast tissue, fetal cardiac defects, and more. Several studies point to a link between Parkinson’s and workplace exposure to TCE. The US Labor Department issued guidance on TCE saying exposures to carbon disulfide (CS2) and TCE are presumed to “cause, contribute or aggravate Parkinsonism.”

‘Tantalizing’ results of 2 experiments defy physics rulebook (AP) Preliminary results from two experiments suggest something could be wrong with the basic way physicists think the universe works, a prospect that has the field of particle physics both baffled and thrilled. Tiny particles called muons aren’t quite doing what is expected of them in two different long-running experiments in the United States and Europe. The confounding results—if proven right—reveal major problems with the rulebook physicists use to describe and understand how the universe works at the subatomic level. “We think we might be swimming in a sea of background particles all the time that just haven’t been directly discovered,” Fermilab experiment co-chief scientist Chris Polly said in a press conference. “There might be monsters we haven’t yet imagined that are emerging from the vacuum interacting with our muons and this gives us a window into seeing them.” If confirmed, the U.S. results would be the biggest finding in the bizarre world of subatomic particles in nearly 10 years, since the discovery of the Higgs boson, often called the “God particle,” said Aida El-Khadra of the University of Illinois, who works on theoretical physics for the Fermilab experiment.

Unlikely chauffeur (Foreign Policy) Kevin Rudd is best known as a former Australian prime minister. Last Tuesday night in Queensland, he was mistaken for an Uber driver. The former Labor party leader became an unlikely chauffeur when a group of revelers—described as “tipsy” by Rudd’s daughter—piled into his car as he sought parking at a local restaurant. Rudd obliged the passengers, reportedly driving half the journey to the town’s main drag before being recognized by his would-be customers. “Four young Melburnians getting drenched in a Queensland subtropical downpour at Noosa last night with no Uber in sight … So what’s a man to do?” Rudd later wrote on Twitter.

[gofancyninjaworld]

turns out I wasn’t quite done yet

@scumerage I realised I wasn't satisfied with my response to you, so now I'm digging a bit. Found sales figures for season 2, and now I'm just looking at the enterprise from a business standpoint.

Fundamentally, the value of OPM lies in delighting the customer. It doesn’t make the customer rich. It’s not something they need. It’s entertainment. If they're not delighted, they won't buy. It's compounded by the fact that the anime has low to no-cost first view access. Unlike a movie theatre where you can at least charge people to watch new releases, most streaming services are very cheap -- or even free if you just want to watch the anime.

Just as movies don't make money on people who only go to the theatres to watch it once, the anime doesn't make any money on people who aren't invested in the story enough to either buy the Blu Rays or DVDs, or the merchandise and they'll only do that if they're really delighted.

So here's the business question: what does delight consist of?  Delight is when you get something that you expect and yet is also novel in a way that is pleasurable. We're very weird that way, we like the same but different.  How different stories create delight is a variable thing, but they have this element, especially when they run long.

The brand ONE created in OPM takes something very familiar -- strong man saves the world -- and makes it novel by looking at tropes in an unusual way and using it as a platform to explore the human condition. The crazy things that happen, the gags, and the bombast go on top of it.

Who is the customer? Even though it looks and smells a lot like a shonen story, its profitable audience skews older and more female than the usual shonen audience. It's an audience that prioritises quality over quantity. Failing to understand that is the big mistake Bandai did in rushing season 2 out. When Murata puts Zombieman on the cover of volume 17 because he recognises that a lot of the paying audience are women, he understands where his bread is buttered. If you don't understand who your customers are, you fail to sell.

The sales figures were really horrible for season 2 -- shifting 1265 copies of the 1st blu ray in the same time period that the season 1 had shifted 8865. Link https://www.reddit.com/r/OnePunchMan/comments/doi0l9/opm_season_2_volume_1_sold_1265_bd_copies/

You can tell that the sales didn't improve in two critical ways: near-total radio silence on official channels and the increasingly miserable extras included. OAV 6 looks like it was done by people who have all given up and just want to go home -- not a thing you associate with a successful franchise.

Whether or not they make an operating profit on season 2, their sales forecast has just been dragged round the back and shot.  Return on investment has tanked and what seemed like a cash cow is looking rather shaky.

Which brings us to mistake number 2: understanding the brand.

Natsume really got that brand. He approached OPM as a drama that was only secondarily about a superhero. And then he got together a great and talented cast of animators to really make it pop. A win on all fronts that brought what made OPM work to life in a coherent way. Even people who generally didn't do anime bought it.  So the brand the anime created was something of rarity and high quality in addition to the drama, the humour and the subversion of familiar tropes.

That is something Sakurai did not get. You can talk about characterisation and pacing and animation until the cows come home, but the biggest problem was a lack of a clear director's viewpoint. He could have taken a different point of view from Natsume and had it work, maybe lost a few people, but he’d have gained some more.  The lack of a clear vision and understanding of its brand really hurt and was the source of confusion from which everything else flowed.

Expectation and novelty. When you don't meet expectation, people don't buy in. Plain business. If you don't understand the brand and you don't understand the customer, you won't meet their expectation.

Why did Bandai do this? They’re not stupid. They’re not blinded by greed, let’s be clear on that. They have a business model based around regular availability which has worked well for most of their properties and failed to check if those assumptions were true with regards to OPM. They're right that in general, 'is it on screen' trumps 'is it any good' for a lot of properties, but OPM specifically is a manga that comes out in a hit-and-miss fashion and still has a large and loyal audience. They're not as availability sensitive.  Not checking who actually buys into OPM and how those customers might differ from their other properties is like selling Motorola phones to Apple customers on the basis that they’re both smartphones.

To make it worse, we come to another core business principle: stakeholder management.

It's no secret that JC Staff didn't have as good a working relationship with ONE and Murata as Madhouse did. It really shows in the OAVs – it’s so clear that ONE had less and less to do with them as they proceeded. However, it also translates onto the main story as they weren't as concerned with 'getting' where the author was coming from. Which is a problem as OPM isn't a straightforward story to adapt. It doesn't just follow one or two characters, so there's a lot of thought to go into what to emphasise and why. Who best to ask but the author? Natsume had a great working relationship with ONE, which combined with his great relationships with other people across the industry, led to a stunningly good season.

If Bandai greenlights season 3, they're going to have to find a studio and a crew who need to build a good relationship with ONE, which is all that time, time, time they didn't want to waste, but have wasted nonetheless.  You do business with people at the end of the day. Or they could just go crawling back to Natsume and see when he has time. Or Studio Bones, who also work very well with ONE.  Wherever they go, it’s going to take longer than they ever hoped for initially.

Here's the evillest kicker of them all. If I remember correctly, OPM season 2 was originally coming out next April, right? That's why they decided they couldn't wait that long and took the property away from Madhouse. But the next reasonable place for season 3 to stop is going to be out in print at the time that season 2 was going to run. If they'd not been so impatient, there'd have been one long wait and then we'd never be more than 18 months away from a new OPM season. As in not every year would see a new OPM season, but every season would be worthwhile with a good director who has a great relationship with the author and a consistent studio delivering that money-making delight.

Now, they're going to have to start afresh whenever it is that they make enough money to consider making another season. So there's two long-ass waits rather than just one.

Bad business for Bandai, a shame for us viewers.

That's business for you.

1. Check your business model assumptions.

2. Understand your brand.

3. Understand your customers.

4. You do business with people.

So, anyway, season 3. If they rush again and put out something that looks like a minimum viable product (if you like, ask and I’ll break down what that means for season 3’s story specifically) into a market that's made it very clear that it expects a premium product, they will never make another OPM season. They'll lose too much money.

I may stan characters, but I do more than just that.

[realitywarpinq]

(reposting bc tumblr removed my post from the da tags and I’d really love to know other people’s thoughts on Thomas and O’Brien bc I wasn’t here when s1&2 were airing so missed all the fandom stuff)

I had a lot of thoughts about this and in trying to put them into words I had even more and yeah needless to say it got quite long so… anyone who wants to read some character analysis and my thoughts about why Thomas and O’Brien’s relationship played out Like That pls see below the cut!

I think if Siobhan Finneran had planned to stay on the show we might’ve got a better arc for the two of them. S3 to me plays entirely like, upon hearing she wanted out, jf scrabbled around for a way to make her exit organic because he hadn’t previously considered O'Brien ever leaving Downton. Then, for lack of something better, he discovered a great old plot unsticking device, Homophobia.

O'Brien displays two key ‘positive’ traits throughout three seasons - 1) loyalty and 2) the softer side of her that appears when looking after those she cares for/is sympathetic to (s1 Cora miscarriage - though ofc there’s a large element of guilt to that - s2 Cora’s spanish flu, Mr.Lang’s ptsd and s3 when Alfred arrives)

While O'Brien’s 'blood is thicker than water’ ideology towards the Alfred/Thomas situation makes sense for her character, I’ve always seen the progression of s3 as an absurd overreaction. I mean, while it would be frustrating that your friend was unwilling to help give your nephew a leg up in his profession it’s like… not the end of the world? And Thomas has a point - he worked hard for years to earn his position and Alfred barely knows where to put the serving spoons.

Thomas actively sabotaging Alfred’s work (ruining Matthew’s jacket) is definitely something to fall out over, but trying to have him exposed, fired, arrested and sentenced to years of hard labour???? Hello???? A Bit Much, perhaps??? Also, from whom do we think Thomas learnt to behave this way in the first place??

She’s a ruthless person who will use anything against someone to achieve her goals - in this case revenge and humiliation. To get Thomas to make a move on such an performatively masculine and heterosexual man is the ultimate power play. It communicates that even though they aren’t friends anymore Thomas still listens to what she has to say. She’ll always be the wiser of the two, like she’s been the puppet master behind their schemes, and as much as he thinks himself too smart to deign to help Alfred, she can manipulate him as easily as she would someone who hasn’t spent years as her accomplice (and should know exactly what she’s like and capable of.)

If Siobhan hadn’t been leaving the show this would’ve been the perfect “checkmate” moment for her. It’s the ace in her deck?? (idk anything about cards) it’s her final move. She’s clearly known about Thomas’ sexuality for years and this is her saying “See how easily I can use this against you? Exactly so get back in line.”

Of course then Thomas could’ve pulled out his trump card, the soap. And then O’Brien would choose whether or not to call his bluff, ultimately settling on shifting the power dynamic in their relationship to more equal footing - if it wasn’t such a terrible secret for her I honestly think she’d be impressed by his threat. She’d underestimated him and it appears he’s actually learnt well.

So, in this bad timeline in which she left the show, when Jimmy wants to put the issue to bed and she seems hell bent on seeing Thomas behind bars, that’s the part where it all seems excessive to me, stumbling into ooc behaviour.

But they had to raise the stakes in such an ooc way in order for the wedge between them to be irreparable because she HAS to leave. Since s1 they’ve been thick as thieves, and how do you break a bond that strong? Betrayal of the highest order, which is not something we’ve seen to such a degree from O'Brien until now. It’s vicious and unrelenting, and comes right after we’ve been introduced to a more empathetic side of her in s2. A backwards step for her character. It’s totally fine for characters to go forwards and backwards in their progressions as people, in fact it’s more realistic that way, but she runs away to India and is never seen again.

We know O'Brien has been at Downton a long time from the way everyone talks about her, and in explicit canon Thomas has been there for ten years at this point. So how could such a fiercely loyal person do such a complete 180 on the only friend she’s seemingly ever had, downstairs or up?

Because of this it’s only at this point that I truly cry bad writing. Everything up until then could possibly be worked out between Thomas and O'Brien - they’re both strong-willed, goal oriented people with very specific moral codes and loyalties, they know how it is; cross them and they have to get you back somehow.

It’s just a shame that Siobhan wanted to leave, really, even though I completely respect the decision.

I’m so curious as to where Thomas’ storyline would’ve gone if she’d stayed. Baxter never would’ve replaced her and he would’ve had at least one friend/ally during the conversion therapy/depression/social isolation storyline that led to *what it led to*, if they’d even decided to go down that route at all with Thomas still having someone on his side. I also wish we’d got to learn more about O'Brien as a person, seen the more human sides of her that we got glimpses of in s2. There would’ve been ways to do that without reducing or overdoing the antagonistic role of her character.

tldr; looking at their relationship in s1&2, I think the only reason it went wrong was because it had to. If it wasn’t for Siobhan Finneran leaving I think Thomas and O’Brien would’ve had some entertaining ups and downs but ultimately stayed friends or at least allies. Maybe they could’ve even helped one another achieve lives outside of service if the show wasn’t written by an upper crust Tory who punishes any of his working class characters who dare to dream above their station and repeatedly uses gay suffering as a narrative device ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[canchewread]

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The Trump Suspensions, Big Tech and Section 230

If the truth is to be told, I've spent the better part of the past week and a half trying to put Trump and his coup attempt behind me; with a hyper-capitalist Biden administration on tap, and already trafficking in austerity mythology and neoliberal authoritarianism, my internal analyst's relevancy clock is ticking like a time bomb. Furthermore, I believe that the fallout from the actual chud insurrection on January 6th, has finally rendered Trump himself an impotent, and increasingly less relevant, figure in what I have repeatedly predicted will be an ongoing American fascist movement. Finally of course, after five years of writing “yes, this guy is literally a fascist” over and over, I've grown extremely weary of arguing about what fascism is, and isn't, with contrarian left types who don't realize they're still operating under the hypnotic spell of American exceptionalism.

Unsurprisingly however, the news itself hasn't really given a damn what I'd rather be analyzing, and the fallout from the chud riot in D.C., has utterly dominated the coverage and discourse; creating infuriating and irresponsible narratives about what is ultimately a clear cut act of politicized violence by far right, fascist extremists. Recently, I've been offering a lot of push-back on narratives popular among the more reactionary elements of the online “left,” but today I'd like to turn our attention to a popular “neoliberal” (but not necessarily Democratic Party) narrative being pushed by elite capital, and the cluster of companies we collectively know as Big Tech. Namely, the idea that in the wake of the coup attempt, billion dollar social media companies should be lauded for finally suspending the accounts of Donald Trump and thousands of his fascist cronies, on their various services.

Now, don't get me wrong here; this isn't going to be a rant about censorship, and I personally think it's an unquestionably good thing that Trump (and fascist organizers) have been driven off social media, but something smells like rotting fish in all this, and I'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that greedy, crypto-reactionary Tech Bros running billion dollar social media companies, are at the heart of it. To understand my problem here however, the first thing we have to ask is “why was Trump suspended from social media?”

Obviously each of the various social media companies have released statements about their decisions, but we're not really here to waste our time dissecting what amounts to public relations and propaganda. On an extremely basic level, most people understand that Trump's accounts were suspended for using election fraud conspiracy theories to ultimately incite fascist violence, and inspire a chud insurrection that left five people dead. Reduced to its essence, this then leaves us with three major “justifications” for the Trump suspensions; spreading dangerous conspiracy theories, inciting an insurrection, and inspiring (lethal) violence – all very good reasons to suspend someone's Twitter or Facebook account, wouldn't you say?

Unfortunately for guys like Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey however, there are in fact some obvious problems with this narrative no matter which angle you choose to approach it from; let's start with the fact that Trump's social media feeds have been creating dead bodies and inspiring reactionary violence for years. It is no great secret that racialized violence and hate crimes have risen drastically in America (and the larger Pig Empire) since Trump launched his first election campaign with an explicitly fascist speech about Mexicans and migrants. What is far less often discussed however, even on ostensibly “liberal” news networks, is the ways in which Trump (and his tweets) have already directly inspired violence and murder in America and even abroad:

In addition to the surging national hate crime figures, a May 2020 investigation turned up at least “54 criminal cases where Trump was invoked in direct connection with violent acts, threats of violence or allegations of assault.” As ABC notes, “the cases are remarkable in that a link to the president is captured in court documents and police statements, under the penalty of perjury or contempt. These links are not speculative – they are documented in official records. And in the majority of cases identified by ABC News, it was perpetrators themselves who invoked the president in connection with their case, not anyone else.”

At least three different mass shooters (Pittsburgh, El Paso, Christchurch New Zealand) can convincingly be said to be have been inspired by Trump, or Trump’s rhetoric in some direct and observable way. Their total body count is eighty-four dead people who would likely still be breathing today, if Donald Trump had never logged on to social media or been given a platform to spread hatred and fascist ideology.

All of this is of course to say nothing of Trump’s peripheral involvement with and support for other groups responsible for right wing violence, like the Q-Anon conspiracy movement, or the neo-Nazi rioters who tore up Charlottesville and murdered Heather Heyer.

Naturally then, the obvious question becomes, if Trump was suspended for inciting deadly violence on January 6th in D.C., why wasn't he suspended for doing exactly the same thing before now? Hell, I'll do you one better; if Trump is suspended for inciting reactionary violence and murder, then why aren't guys like fascist provocateur Andy Ngo, and Wilks Brothers muppet Ben Shapiro (who himself has inspired an international body count) also suspended? Right, it simply doesn't track, and therefore we can conclude that Trump's social media suspensions really didn't have anything to do with inciting violence.

Alright, so be it, maybe you personally agree that “inspiring deadly violence and hate crimes” is somehow a loose reason to suspend a guy's social media accounts, whether he's president or not. Maybe, you figure that where Trump really crossed the line was purposely inciting a goddamn insurrection, and you're happy that Big Tech corporations understand the fine line between fascist murders and fascist terrorism. Unfortunately, that narrative doesn't track either because this isn't the first time Trump has tried to inspire an insurrection on Twitter; please recall the partially-AstroTurfed “Anti-Lockdown protests” in the spring, and in particular Trump's attempts to inspire an uprising in my home state of Michigan. Do you remember the “Liberate Michigan” tweet? The armed fascist militias occupying the Michigan legislature? The chud plot to kidnap and perhaps kill, the Governor of Michigan? Would it surprise you to learn that many of the same people who participated in those prior chud protests were part of the crowd that stormed Capitol Hill on January 6th? Is Jack Dorsey really arguing that Trump's insurrectionist tweets in the spring were fine, but his insurrectionist tweets in January are not because... more people saw the later on TV? Say what?

All of which of course brings us to the somewhat nebulous, “dangerous conspiracy theories” portion of the rationale for suspending Trump now, in the wake of the chud uprising. It's not much of a leg to stand on either however, because not only has Trump been pushing election fraud conspiracy theories for the past freaking year, but that isn't even the most dangerous and deadly example of his false reality narrative causing carnage in our society. You can take your pick, but I'd wager that both the Q-Anon conspiracy movement Trump has openly supported on social media, and the unhinged coronavirus conspiracies he propagated online for months and months, have much higher body counts than anything we saw on Capitol Hill. Why should anyone believe Big Tech companies care about conspiracy theories and how many people they kill, given their prior behavior up to this point? Please keep in mind that these are the same companies that decided not to suspend Trump's accounts when he was using them to threaten North Korea with annihilation; an act that could have easily lead to a catastrophic nuclear exchange if Kim Jong Un were half as un-moored from reality as our CIA-loyal media likes to imply.

Given all that then, what is the real reason behind suspending Trump's social media accounts? Again, it’s not that I'm concerned that a flatulent billionaire fascist manbaby lost some of his favorite outlets to spread fascist conspiracy theories, but why now, and not then?

To understand that, we're going to have to take a little bit of a detour here and talk about Section 230. What is Section 230? A portion of the American law that governs the internet, which ultimately indemnifies social media companies from legal liability for the crap other people post on their platforms. Without Section 230, victims of fascist violence organized on Facebook, could conceivably sue the pants off Big Tech companies for allowing that to happen. This is of course an existential crisis to gigantic tech firms that rely heavily on wildly unpredictable algorithms and automated processes to avoid having to hire moderators and actually keep an eye on what users are doing with their platforms. Furthermore, in the lead up to the 2020 election, both Joe Biden and Donald Trump talked about repealing Section 230, for (and this is key here) entirely different reasons.

Trump and his numerous allies in the Republican Party spent much of 2020 using the threat of repealing Section 230 as a cudgel against social media companies taking even mild action to combat these same dangerous conspiracy theories, and the spread of fascist ideology online. The GOP argument, disingenuously presented as a defense of free speech, was then that if Big Tech didn't let the fascists say whatever they wanted, regardless of its veracity or the potential consequences, they would open up companies like Twitter and Facebook to American libel laws. Of course, that's pretty laughable if we're talking about someone like Laura Loomer suing Twitter over her account being suspended, but Big Tech companies only have to look as far as Peter Theil's ultimately successful quest to destroy Gawker to realize it only takes one reactionary judge in a high enough chair, to sink their battleships entirely. Obviously then, you don't really need to be a genius to figure out Big Tech companies weren't excited about the idea of suspending Trump or his followers, because that would presumably result in an all-out assault on Section 230 from the sitting President of the United States and his (still quite influential) political party.

Ok, so great news for the Tech Bros right? Biden won after all, and barring a chud uprising on a scale not even I think they're capable of, he's about to become POTUS. Not so fast, because Biden and the so-called “centrist” neoliberal establishment in the Democratic Party are also threatening to repeal Section 230 for their own political advantage. The neoliberals too are disingenuously hiding their motives, this time behind a desire to combat hate speech and disinformation; truly noble goals, but obviously utterly irrelevant to rich white liberals who've spent the past five years conflating both Russian spies, and murderous fascist thugs, with leftists who want healthcare. Truthfully, this entire maneuver ultimately represents a ruling class, liberal elite attempt to arbitrate what is and isn't considered true, or newsworthy in the public discourse; a quest they've been furiously working on since the first Bernie Sanders political insurgency threatened to topple Democratic Party leadership, and naturally, throughout the bogus Russigate fever dream that dominated the first two years of Trump's presidency. Of course, even after Biden won the election, there really wasn't much reason for Big Tech companies to take this threat seriously; clearly the Republican Senate wasn't going to allow elite liberal censors to use a potential Section 230 repeal to dictate who can say what online, right?

Yeah, about that Republican Senate majority though; whoops. What if I told you then that the decision to suspend Trump's social media accounts sooner or later, was largely a forgone conclusion after the events of January 5th, not January 6th, 2021? What happened on January 5th? Joe Biden and the Democratic Party swept the Georgia special elections, effectively taking control of the American Senate, and putting folks like Zuck and Dorsey squarely in Biden's line of fire going forward.

Thus it can be said that the answer to both of our questions, “why wasn't Trump suspended before,” and “why is Trump suspended now” ultimately come down to who wields power in our society and our old nemesis, the profit motive. Companies like Twitter and Facebook don't really give a damn about disinformation, conspiracy theories or even Tweets that rack up their own body counts; what they care about is maintaining the warm embrace of legal impunity their business model depends on, and they'll do anything, to appease anyone with the power to remove that embrace, if they think it'll keep the gravy train going. Big Tech isn't fighting fascism, it's fighting oversight and the tyranny of having to pay live human moderators; there's nothing noble or praiseworthy about that, even if I'm still forced to admit that the censored neoliberal authoritarian alternative would be no better, and might be quite a damn sight worse.

Come meet the new boss; same as the old boss, indeed.

- nina illingworth

Independent writer, critic and analyst with a left focus. Please help me fight corporate censorship by sharing my articles with your friends online!

You can find my work at ninaillingworth.com, Can’t You Read, Media Madness and my Patreon Blog

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“It’s ok Willie; swing heil, swing heil…”

[harleyquinnbluemoonlove]

Welcoming the new Social Movement/Platform/Political Party in the World

Official Name:  Blue Dog Bite Mafia 888 *BETA*

Owner/CEO/Founder/Dealer/Player/Delivery BAD B: 

Current Name:  Monica Gill   FUTURE Name: Mercedes Lynnette Giovanni

Email:  fairytalesexist2020@gmail.com

Current Financial Status:  $0.00     ---- You may DONATE by using CASH APP Cash Tag #$bluedogbitemafia888

***MY CYBER FAMILY MUST ENSURE THAT DONATIONS ARE NOT HIGHJACKED/STOLEN****

BASIC IDEA/PLAN OF ATTACK/EXECUTION OR POSITIVE WORDS LIKE “LAUNCH”.  We can issue an ATTACK or a LAUNCH CODE.

I will dumb it down a little bit. I am taking advantage of my position of power, now that I am a Celebrity in the World. Its the greatest feeling in the world, feels better than good sex and that is a hard thing for me to admit because I love some good, hot, sweaty sex and I’ve been going without for several weeks. I almost fell like a Nun because I cannot even pleasure myself because I was molested as a child by Lovie Price’s boyfriend “Frank Parker” a gasoline man from an early. I told Connie Price about it when I was 15 and her name at the time was Connie Dunford. It was the same day Brandie Ann Thompson said Curtis Triplett tried to rape her in the bathroom at the house In Frayser, Memphis TN. Brandie Ann in her hayday, resembled a youthful Cameron Diaz. Cameron Diaz dated Justin Timberlake once upon a time. She played in the move “The mask” and the mask was green. At the end of the movie, the dog put on the mask. You all know, when you wear that mask---you become a Shape Shifter, transforming into anything/anyone you think will grab the Hot or Not Rated #10 Woman’s ATTENTION/HEART/LOVE and will do anything, I mean anything to get it. The secret to my success is a compilation of everything good, bad, dirty, evil and let’s call it “The Struggle” or the “Human Experience”. 

Old School (OS) Operating System (OS) Back to Basics (B2B) Brandie Thompson (BT) Barry Thompson (BT) Blue Tooth (BT) Brandie Smith (BS) Bull Shit (BS) Rent A Center (RAC) Roger Adren Crawford (RAC) $1K (RAK) Rags to Riches Richard Abernathy (RA) **secret boyfriend shh!!** Douche Bag (DB) or Douglas Belknap (DB) Thomas Jones (TJ) County Road (CR) Danny Thomas (DT)  Deanna Thomas (DT) ... Trying to show you how I think period dot. In ya’ll are slow, period dot also equal two dots. You must have two dots to play connect the dots and draw the lines to illustrate inspiration into a masterpiece. The best pieces of Art are very old, have a solid reputation, and is properly curated to ensure it maintains its value for infinity times three.

Basically, you can get with my program, drink my Kool Aid, swallow your pride, do the right thing, if you have done something wrong, you really need to return to your basic religious beliefs what they may be, get right with yourself, because what you have done will come to light, exposed, we are moving on from there. We are, as a society going to change and deliver the children and the children’s children: a brighter future with more options, a limited amount of privacy, give them the world and see what they can accomplish with living in a world of positive vibes, beautiful colors, great music, entrepreneurship, dreams, and now, the little girls if we get married will truly believe in fairytales. This right here is whats up because we have an opportunity, once in a lifetime opportunity, to fix society, establish unity and peace, competition is good but everyone needs a chance to win sometimes to boost their confidence and pride. When there is monopoly or kingdom, it fosters the seven deadly sins, seven capital sins, and the seven cardinal sins, which is systemic to original sin. 

Genesis clearly explains that certain things were created on certain days and back time was measured. You cannot just create a man or a woman. First, you need the Universe. Then, you need the Galaxy which creates Space. In Space, you have the moon, stars, sun, planets, black holes, asteroids, comets, shooting stars, orbit, gravitational pull. Here we are on planet Earth with 7 continents and 7 oceans. I like the number 8 because it represent a number, a symbol, and no limitations--infinity. My son was born on 3-8-03 weighing 8 pounds, 8 ounces and 19.5 inches long, color: BLUE, life: No sign of it. It took 10 minutes and PLEADING WITH THE LORD AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS SCREAMING PRAYING TO PLEASE GIVE HIM LIFE, I DON’T WANT TO HAVE GONE THROUGH 35.5 HOURS OF LABOR AND 7 HOURS OF HARD PUSHING WITH NO PAIN MEDICINE, NO EPIDURAL, GAVE BIRTH TO A STILL BORN BABY NATURALLY AND THE GOOD LORD ANSWERED MY PRAYERS AND THAT BOY CRIED AND WENT TO THE NICU AT BETHESDA NAVAL HOSPITAL IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MARYLAND. ITS ALSO REFERRED TO AS “THE PRESIDENTS HOSPITAL”.

He is 17 years old, already a MASTERMIND and a Professional Gamer. He is so smart like me, that he had to design/build/code his own computer because there is not a computer on the planet that can keep up with his level of gaming. I saw a photo of it. Its a desktop computer with the case taken off the side--lit up with blue LED lights

It’s Confession Time and Holy Communion Time that means confess your sin, wrongdoing, break bread, eat bread, drink wine, not whine. No days off, no excuse, no immunity, no setups, no blame game, no liars, no stealing, checks and balances, no absolute power because absolute power fosters absolute corruption, which is why were in this position right now with COVID-19, Corona Virus.

I think one person needs a pardon because he has stayed on the job, even though he was originally lied to by the Feds. He deserves a pardon, record expunged, and an opportunity. I see great potential, just needs an opportunity, believe in himself, and have the courage to escape his own prison of gold diggers, groupies, fans, and whores.

In this triad, it is a rags to riches story times three. There is only 1 TRUE VERSION of ME, and its right here in Memphis TN, age: 41(Birth Cert).

To succeed in any sports game, you must be fit, educated, content with yourself to include your pros/cons/demons and knowledgeable & intelligent enough to know that I am certified True OG, I got your back no matter what because to me money ain’t a thing, fame fades just like stars, but loyal dogs do not turn on their master unless they are abused or hungry. I am a Blue AKC Royal Bloodline Pitbull, Staffordshire Terrier. Pitbull is the image you need to have in your mind when you think of ME.

#donations #loyalty #888 #TRUMP2020 #IG #WHISTEBLOWER ACT #RULES #ESPNSPORTS #RAPGODS #GREEKGODS #GOD #CLASHOFTITANS #THEGAME #THEROCK #GLUE #DOCTORS   #LAWYERS #COWBOYS #DANCE #L.I.F.E. #LOVE #SM #EM 

#NEED SOME COM[ANY AND VITAMIN D

BLUE, COME ON UNLESS YOU ARE “CHICKEN” “SCARED”

I PROMISE I WILL NOT BITE. BUT, I AM STARVING, LONELY, NEED MONEY TO CREATE AND LAUNCH MY DREAMS TO POSITIVELY AND EFFECTIVELY CHANGE THE WORLD WHICH WILL PLACE ME AND PRESIDENT TRUMP IN THE HISTORY BOOKDS. AND THE HISTORY BOOKS ARE GOING TO BECOME FACTBOOKS, AND HISTORY CLASSES WILL BE MANDATORY THROUGHOUT LIFE REGARDLESS OF AGE, POSITION, JOB, FINANCIAL STATUS BECAUSE THE BEST EDUCATION IS A “CONTINUOUS EDUCATION”. IF YOU DO NOT CONTINUE LEARNING, YOU BECOME RUSTY AND THEN, YOU CANNOT KEEP UP THE FAST PACED CHANGES OF ADVANCE TECHNOLOGY IN THE REAL WORLD AND IN THE REAL GAME OF LIFE.

RECOMMENDATIONS ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1.  DONATE MONEY TO MY CAUSE ON CASH APP 

$BLUEDOGBITEMAFIA888 

DO NOT HACK MY PHONE OR MY LAPTOP, DO NOT HACK ANYTHING OR ANYBODY BC YOU CANNOT DO IT BETTER THAN U.S. BC U.S. CREATED THE INTERNET IN WASHINGTON DC AT THE PENTAGON CALLED “DARPANET” IN 1974. THE FIRST COMPUTER WAS AN APPLE, SECOND COMPUTER WAS MICROSOFT. A GOOD BRAND IS A HP WITH MS WINDOWS. I HAVE A BLUE HP LAPTOP STREAM, I HAVE A BLACK APPLE IPHONE 7. I AM ON A WIFI WITH A VPN THAT KEEPS GETTING DISABLED. THE SOUND ON MY PHONE DOES NOT WORK. I AM BACKING UP BOTH DEVICES AND GOING TO RESET TO FACTORY SETTINGS SO I CAN GURANTEE EFFECTIVE DIGITAL SECURITY.

2. I NEED COMPANY TO SIT WITH ME, DRINK WITH ME. I WOULD LOVE SOME JACK AND COKE OR A BUD LIGHT. I WOULD ALSO LOVE SOME FOOD THAT CONTAINS RED MEAT TO ASSIST ME WITH MY BLOOD PROBLEMS. BUDDY OR BLUE OR YO -- FIGURE IT AND SEND ME SOMEONE I KNOW. I AM TOO PRETTY AND TOO COOL TO BE CHILLING BY MYSELF WITH NO FOOD, NO ALCOHOL, NO MONEY, NO WEED, ETC. 

3.  SELF EVALUATE OR DO A PEER REVIEW/. SELF EVALUATION IS LOOKING AT YOURSELF IN THE MIRROR AND THINKING ABOUT YOUR LIFE. I LIKE TO WRITE THINGS DOWN, IF HELPS ME. IT WILL BRING ABOUT A SENSE OF UNDERSTANDING WHO, WHAT, WHY YOU ARE WHO YOU ARE, HOW YOU BECAME PERSON, AND DESIGN YOUR OWN ROADMAP TO BEING A BETTER PERSON AND OPENING YOUR HEART TO REALIZATION THAT THE CHILDREN ARE THE FUTURE, RIGHT WE ARE THE WORLD, WE CAN ACHIEVE GREATNESS, A NEW TYPE OF MAGIC “UTOPIA”.

WHAT ARE YOU ABOUT? WHAT DO YOU WANT OUT OF LIFE? ARE YOU HAPPY WITH YOURSELF? CAN YOU FREE YOUR MIND? CAN YOU OPEN YOUR HEARTS? CAN YOU COMMIT? DO YOU KNOW WHEN TO WALK AWAY? WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN? DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE? ARE YOU IN YOUR OWN PRISON--YOUR MIND, YOUR FEELINGS, YOUR RELATIONSHIP STATUS?

WISDOM COMES WITH TIME, EXPERIENCE, EDUCATION, HARD WORK, SERVICE, LOYALTY, PURPOSE, AND TRAVELING.

At the end of the day, who do you want to be with? 

Woman - Wise can deliver the world or drop the world, age 41 -- looks better than 20 & 30 year old GIRLS. Does not care about money, fame, status, power because the game was scheduled and unfortunately, unaware of the OP -- she walked, ran, sprinted STOLE the Flag, and won the game. 

Everyone wants to still run their mouths, try to control a man, and those hos, have no power, position, fame, etc. They are with or around you because of who you are, what you have done, and what you can give them---in my opinion that is abuse of power and targeting someone to manipulating them to do what you want them to do.

I like structure, things to be done a certain way because I like cleanliness, organization, faith, love, hope, trust, and loyalty. 

I would not cop an attitude with everyone, if  I did not feel like the world was against me. Hint, hint -- I don’t trust authority figures because I was molested, abused, targeted, almost died several times, lied to, cheated on, setups, smear campaigns, gossiped about, bullied, beat on, yelled at, called names, jealous women everywhere so dumb they forget I have a hunger against Human  Trafficking. People are on this RACISM BULL SHIT. 

Its 2020, Racism = IGNORANCE AND IGNORANCE IS NOT BLISS ANYMORE, IGNORANCE IS DEADLY. 

Basic belief system of Karma, it is a metaphysical/paranormal reality that is mixed with real, artificial, and soon-to-be virtual reality. It is what it is. 

What you set your mind, what you do and the thoughts and actions you put into the world will either grant you your dreams or come back times three by the of karma, what goes around, comes around.

I want/will do good and be a good role model for everyone. I am going to teach, help you, do what I want, when I want, how I want because I know my worth, my value, and what I can GURANTEE/DELIVER.

Greed, jealousy, laziness, and all the ugly things that are in the world

                                                  WILL

 get you no where but hungry, lonely but free, penniless, candy-less, eliminate sports.

                                        COMMIT OR QUIT

MY MISSION WILL ENDURE AND CARRY ON UNTIL I FEEL MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. I DO NOT HAVE A FAILURE TO THRIVE AND I DO NOT LACK A WILL TO LIVE. 

MY ISNT OVER, YET;

[robert-c]

Forty Years In The (Un)Making

The de-evolution of the Republican Party into principally a bunch of blindly loyal sycophants didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen just under Donald Trump’s watch. It actually began with Ronald Reagan in 1980 and has been on a steady trend in this direction ever since.

The political landscape of 1980 was complicated. President Jimmy Carter was widely regarded as having mishandled the Iran Hostage crisis, and Democrats were heavily split between him and other challengers like Ted Kennedy. It was one of those rare elections in which there was significant third party challenge. Pat Robertson, making noises on the religious right (which would ultimately result in his run for office in 1988), also threatened to weaken the Republican base at a time when the Democrats were vulnerable.

Reagan’s response was to invite the religious right into the upper ranks of the party. How much of this was his personal belief, and how much calculated strategy we’ll probably never know. Nevertheless, this gave a significant role to people who believe regardless of facts, and for whom personal steadfastness of belief is more important than anything else. Reagan also introduced the major fostering of falsehoods that satisfied the personal myths of his supporters. Most notable was the “welfare queen” story. He alleged that there was a woman in Chicago living the high life, driving a late model Cadillac, and doing it all on welfare. Good investigative reporting and persistent demands for facts ultimately exposed this as a fabrication. And yet even today, some right wing people believe this story as true because it matches all of their fears and prejudices about public assistance. [As someone who has known people on public assistance I can assure you it is difficult enough to get a minimum of what you need, let alone become ‘well off’.]

Since then it has been a fairly steady trend of presumptions, assumptions, myths and outright lies. All with the intent of fostering the following ideas:

people getting public assistance are liars and cheats,

regulation of businesses kills jobs or drives them out of the country,

businesses are ‘good guys’ and don’t need to be regulated because they never do anything wrong, and “profit above all else” is the American ideal

immigrants are criminals (if they are people of color),

a medical system that supports the profits of drug and insurance companies is the best way to ensure health care coverage choices,

despite the first amendment of the Constitution, this is a “Christian country”,

the second amendment of the Constitution guarantees unregulated access to any weapon a citizen may want, and somehow intends that citizens take up arms against the government when they think their rights are being violated, and

many more on a smaller scale, but all with the idea that anyone not stuck in the 1950’s is somehow an enemy.

 LIES! All lies!

The truth is that people on public assistance don’t get what they need because rules supposedly to prevent fraud end up preventing them from finding and keeping most gainful employment by requiring visits during normal work hours, and other reviews of their situation. All of this while the largest potential for fraud exists in government defense contracts, just based on the amount of money that flows through the programs.

Businesses move jobs overseas because of low wages and lack of regulation. But let’s keep in mind what those regulations do. Most of them were initiated and designed to stop unsafe practices in the business; practices that endangered employees, consumers and/or the public at large. Evading such restrictions shouldn’t be praised as a great avoidance of “socialist” control, but should be seen as the callous disregard of the safety and security of others for the sake of a few dollars more profit.

Profit above all else could hardly be called a moral philosophy but that is exactly what this myth would have us believe.  It rests on a couple of myths we all want to believe; that success in this country is because of “building a better mousetrap” and that  gaining  wealth is somehow proof of superior intellect or work ethic, while neither could be farther from the truth about how real wealth is acquired and kept.

Casting immigrants as criminals (if they are people of color) is right in line with centuries old racial prejudices. Little more should need to be said to explain their sick justification for these ideas. Anyone even tempted to believe it should be suspect. Any sweeping generalization based on something someone can’t control (like their ethnicity) is automatically racist.

Portraying “socialized medicine” as a situation where patient choices are limited and/or unavailable is, at best, a recollection of old, failed implementations OR the fears that the rich cannot use their wealth and influence to jump to the head of the line, past real life or death cases just to be sure that their headaches aren’t brain tumors. Oddly enough, the insurance companies, who are somehow cast as the “heroes” in these tales, would if they could limit choices even more. In their best profit interests people with pre-existing conditions (which is all of us, eventually) get no coverage at all, or if they do it is at a premium designed to cover all of their likely expenses in the year, which amounts to no insurance at all and just paying everything out of pocket. Ultimately, they would like to sell their coverage to people who will never use it, or use it sparingly if at all, while at the same time, if they must, charging others with a premium that will at least cover what they expect to payout in claims. This is a perfect example of where capitalistic, free market enterprise does NOT result in the best product or service at the best price. Attempts by competitive insurance companies who want to balance the premium and risk over the largest possible group, will have higher rates for the young who are less likely to use or need insurance and so will be uncompetitive in that group. The so called “free market” system is biased in favor of this ridiculous, anti-competitive arrangement.

Likewise, drug companies make more money selling treatments, than cures. There doesn’t have to be a cover up or secret directive; budget allocations for research and development will naturally favor the most likely profitable drug or approach and that will always be treatment. Cures are more likely the accidental byproduct of researching treatments. The scientists at work in the labs won’t even suspect, they will think they are working toward cures by learning how to develop treatments. Again, think about the idea that the “sacred” profit motive produces only good, and think it out for yourself as to which is the most profitable approach.

At the founding of this country, the mother country, England, had just been through several centuries of warfare and persecutions based on people’s religion. The new country of the United States of America wished to avoid such a situation, and so the first amendment to the Constitution establishes a separation of church and state. It doesn’t matter that most of the Founders could never have imagined how far this separation would have to go; great ideas usually far exceed their originators’ imaginations. Whether it is not lending support to one Christian sect over another, or Christianity versus Islam, or even total disbelief in religion, the concept of separation is the only way to ensure that everyone has the broadest freedom to believe as their conscience dictates. While things like the motto “In God We Trust” on the money are small issues, generally not worthy of a major effort to remove them at this time, they are part of the disinformation that portrays the USA as some sort of religious government or society.

By creating the impression that there has to be (or ought to be) some “general” religion of the US, they have already won half the battle, because the various Christian sects still make up a majority of the populace. BUT the principle of freedom and liberty of belief means that a person should have equal rights to believe as they wish even if they are the only one in the world who believes as they do. This is not abstract, but relates directly to people’s ability to choose abortion, end of life choices, how their remains are to be disposed of (did you know that cremation used to be illegal if anyone of your relatives objected? This was due to the religious notion that at the “end of days” people would be raised up from the cemeteries), and a host of other restrictions including what could be sold at stores on Sundays.

As for the second amendment, it begins with the phrase “well regulated” so any idea that it meant unrestricted access to weapons is stupidly at odds with the actual language of the amendment. There is also absolutely nothing in the Constitution, or its development, that suggests the point of this amendment was to provide a mechanism for people to overthrow the government. In addition to laws against taking up arms against the government (and the definition of treason in the Constitution itself), the Founders thought that the representational nature of the republic would prevent the need for such an uprising. To the extent that the second amendment had anything to do with the preservation of a free government it was that armed forces would be recruited from the citizenry. It NEVER was intended to ensure that criminals, and those with the intent to overthrow the government of the United States (if and when they think it has strayed from its proper role) had access to any and all weapons available.

The other issues are everything from abortion to Sunday closing laws, from consensual prostitution to adult book and movie stores. Once again, it doesn’t matter that you or I wouldn’t want to participate, it’s that as long as there is no coercion involved it is none of our business and if you think it is a sin against God, then God can take care of it – He/She/It doesn’t need our help.

BTW, this is where I should share an experience I had with one of these religious fanatics. Her belief was that the USA had never had a famine because of the “In God We Trust” motto on the money. I will spend no time dismantling the obvious idiocy of this idea. What was significant about her unhinged belief, was that she used the principles of “externalities” to justify her position. To refresh, the principle of externalities is why you cannot drive drunk or without insurance. Your actions that can affect others are rightly regulated under this principle. Her idea, clearly given to her by someone else as she was nowhere near smart enough to have thought this on her own, was that to avoid the retribution of God (as she understood Him) we all had to adhere to at least a minimum of His instructions (again conveniently interpreted for us by self-appointed ‘experts’ in these matters).

It is past time to reject these superficial and self-serving myths.

[alexsmitposts]

Why is US Focused on Killing Leaders of Terrorists These Days? From the very beginning, USA’s battle against Daesh (a terrorist group banned in Russia) looked strange to say the least. Having put together a coalition of more than 60 countries and conducted thousands of combat missions, the “valiant” U.S. Army actually allowed militants from the aforementioned organization to substantially increase the territory under their control. And when the black flag of the caliphate was about the be raised over Damascus, Russia’s military intervention in Syria saved this country from the “Black Death”. Washington has been using radical Islam and terrorists as a tool for quite some time now. Chechen political analyst Islam Saidaev, a former militant and ideologist of the secessionist government of the Chechen Republic, has described, based on his experience, how U.S. intelligence agencies operate: “While it was beneficial for the United States, they called us insurgents and provided us with financial support. But once we had been defeated and fled to the Pankisi Gorge, we were labelled terrorists and arrested. And there was a motive behind such actions. For instance, a militant is behind bars in Guantanamo, then he is released and ends up in Libya commanding a unit that is fighting for democracy against the “tyrant Muammar Gaddafi”. All the rebels arrested by Georgian, British and U.S. security services sooner or later show up in Iraq, Syria and Libya with new cover stories, funds and heroic past. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the caliph of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also has a similar background,” elaborated the Chechen expert. Several years after Saddam Hussein and his government had been ousted by the U.S.-led coalition, as if by “sheer coincidence” (?!), former Iraqi servicemen and members of the Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party with substantial military experience were released from jails by Americans and left with no means to support themselves financially. In the meantime, a terrorist organization was forming in the Levant, which subsequently began a battle with the aim of establishing a global caliphate. And although several Western analysts still think that the collaboration between former Iraqi (and not only!) servicemen and terrorist groups, such as Al-Qaeda and subsequently Daesh (banned in Russia and many other countries of the world), started spontaneously, no one could argue with the fact that once Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi became the leader of these units, recruitment of former Ba’ath Party members turned into a deliberate strategy. What is especially noteworthy is that there is even incontrovertible evidence (including photographs published by many Western media outlets in 2013) of face-to-face contact between former U.S. Senator John McCain, famous for his varied plans aimed at changing the world order, and “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as well as Mohammad Nour, a leading member of the Northern Storm brigade (a unit of Al-Nusra Front, i.e. al-Qaeda in Syria, also banned in Russia and a number of other nations). Nowadays, Western media outlets openly admit to the fact that many Daesh leaders were imprisoned in U.S. jails. For instance, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Daesh (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), was detained at the Camp Bucca military facility in Iraq, and was subsequently released in 2006. Another military leader of this terrorist group, Abu Ayman al-Iraqi (a former lieutenant colonel in the Iraqi Army), was also freed from a U.S. detention camp in Iraqi territory. Abu Mohammad al-Adnani, a Syrian by birth and a former official spokesperson for ISIL responsible for Islamic State propaganda for quite some time, was released from prison five years after he had been arrested in 2005 while residing in Iraq. It is also noteworthy that, during this period, U.S. President George W. Bush’s administration introduced a policy of “creative destruction” aimed at inciting violence on religious grounds in the Middle East. According to the 2007 article “The Redirection” on the new American policy by Seymour M. Hersh, the United States needed to build closer ties with moderate Sunni states (and not only Saudi Arabia) in order to deal with the Shiite resurgence that occurred in Iraq after the U.S. invasion in 2003. These “moderate Sunnis” were to conduct clandestine operations to weaken Iran and Hezbollah, Israel’s key opponents. The policy shift also aimed to bring “Saudi Arabia and Israel into a new strategic embrace, largely because both countries” saw Iran as an existential threat. It has been an open secret for quite some time that the terrorist organization Daesh (banned in Russia and many other countries) had not come into being “out of the blue” but instead with assistance from the United States acting in its own strategic interests. It is also well-known that the United States and its allies helped terrorists by providing military consultants, supplying them with weapons, evacuating and treating their sick in Jordan, Turkey or other countries who were part of the so-called Coalition Against Terrorism led by the USA. Many articles have been written about all of this and not only by alternative media outlets independent of Washington. However, exposés are just the beginning. Later on, the global community, which is currently leaving the unipolar world dominated by the United States behind, could demand that an independent investigation be carried out. And a global trial (similar to the Nuremberg trials) may subsequently find not only specific nations but also individuals guilty of encouraging the spread and consolidation of the “Black Death” of Daesh. Hence, just as during the time of the Third Reich and of its collapse, those guilty of spreading the “Great Plague” are especially concerned nowadays about destroying, as quickly as possible, any evidence of their involvement by assassinating leaders of this terrorist threat who are particularly knowledgeable about this operation. In such a context, instead of an intensified battle, waged by Washington, against any remaining terrorists in Idlib or other regions, we are seeing rousing reports about clandestine missions to first assassinate Osama bin Laden, then Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and also a number of other extremist militants in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.  Having agreed to go along with this fairly important quest from certain U.S. military and political circles, President Donald Trump even demanded that American intelligence agencies kill Hamza bin Laden, a son of the founder of Al-Qaeda (an organization banned in Russia) despite the existence of more pressing terrorist threats. In addition, Washington and its for now loyal allies have been ardently defending the actions of remaining terrorists in Idlib in the face of aggression from Russia and the Syrian forces in media sources as well as global discussion forums. After all, these former terrorist accomplices are demanding protection from Washington in exchange for not revealing the truth about their “clandestine” collaboration to the rest of the world. Moreover, it is perfectly clear to everyone that the presence of even a small number of militants could be used as a justification by Washington to keep its troops in the region, who continue to rob Syria and Iraq of their oil, and archaeological artefacts and treasures kept in their museums. It is, therefore, not surprising that yet another scandal is brewing nowadays. It involves the smuggling of ancient relics, which must be happening with the full knowledge of the Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve in the Syrian Arab Republic and its deputy commander Alex Grynkewich. Unfortunately, U.S. legislation does not allow for any serious punishment for the theft of artefacts from territories of other countries, which is evidenced by reports of similar crimes committed by Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq. Still, there must be numerous international organizations tasked with keeping track of such violations, and we cannot rule out the possibility that they will investigate the crimes committed by Americans in nations occupied by them. Hence, we are likely to witness more and more rousing reports in the nearest future from the Pentagon and the CIA about assassinations of some leaders of terrorist groups or Islamic militants in the Middle East who are still keeping the shameful truth about Washington’s actions in the region secret.

[marcjampole]

The history of presidential misconduct puts a whole new light on the Trump impeachment hearings

When viewed through the lens of today, the defense of Trump by Republicans seems reprehensible to a growing number of Americans. Despite the daily piling up of more evidence of his illegal attempt to force a foreign government to interfere with our elections, most Republicans continue to vociferously support the president. Those who are inching away, such as Senators Linda Murkowski and Mitt Romney, do so with extreme care. Trump’s betrayal of the Syrian Kurds has influenced almost no Republicans to look at Trump in a new light, just as most Republicans ignored Nixon’s illegal bombing of Cambodia—at least at first.

But in the context of American history, the Republican reaction is pretty standard. As you can learn by reading Presidential Misconduct, virtually everything about the current situation resembles most presidential scandals throughout American history.

Presidential Misconduct is a compendium essays about investigations into the misdeeds of presidents and their immediate coterie edited by the distinguished historian James M. Banner, Jr. Originally commissioned by the House Judiciary Committee during the 1974 Watergate Hearings, Presidential Misconduct presents the historical record of the misdeeds of past presidents and their cronies reaching back to the Washington administration and compiled by leading presidential scholars of the day. The Committee originally conceived of the book as a benchmark against which Nixon’s misdeeds could be measured. A recently published update includes all the presidential administrations through Obama’s. What is stunning is the degree to which every controversy surrounding virtually every potential presidential misdeed—whether an impeachment hearing or a Congressional investigation—follows a set pattern that only three people break: Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon and now, Donald Trump.

In depicting this pattern, I will leave out consideration of one investigation—the impeachment of Bill Clinton related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. In every other of the literally hundreds of cases of investigating a president or his administration for wrongdoing (including other accusations against Clinton), the issue was either corrupt practices in which money exchanged hands for favorable treatment or unlawful attempts to influence elections. Only in the case of Slick Willie’s oval office affair was the issue a personal indiscretion—in this case, a sexual relationship between consenting adults. Despite the fact that there are many instances of fooling around by presidents or their advisers, Congress has only once decided to open an investigation related to a sexual dalliance, which lead to Clinton stupidly do what most people do when confronted by their infidelity—they lie. Again, there are numerous documented cases of presidents lying or stretching the truth—Tyler, Lincoln, LBJ, Reagan, Bush II—to name just a few before our current liar-in-chief. You know, the one who manufactures new lies almost on a daily basis. Yet very few have been taken to task for lying and no president other than Clinton suffered punishment for lying about a personal matter. The Trump impeachment hearings have so far completely ignored the more than 20 outstanding accusations of sexual assault against the Donald. A strongly partisan element infects all investigations of presidential malfeasance, to be sure. But the Clinton case is so out of the ordinary that we can learn nothing from it that we can apply to the current situation.

With that caveat out of the way, what we learn from Presidential Misconduct is that the unfolding of the Trump impeachment hearings proves the validity of the old French expression, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” 1) In virtually all cases, someone found malfeasance by a member of cabinet, a high ranking advisor, an entire department or a close relative or friend of the president. 2) Opinions have always split down party lines, with the party of the president and friendly media aggressively proclaiming the innocence of the accused party and the opposing party and media hotly and noisily proclaiming and pursuing guilt. 3) A common defense was to admit the suspect events took place but insist they were not illegal. 4) Presidents have varied in the speed of their responsiveness to requests for information and the testimony of subordinates. Yet while executive privilege was sometimes invoked at an early point, at the end of the day presidents almost always have provided the information requested without lawsuit and virtually all witnesses called ended up testifying or giving a deposition. 5) The president always loyally supports those accused, often after their guilt has been well established. In most cases, the president runs into the most trouble for his continued backing of a crony or subordinate under investigation. 6) Often, as with the case of Grant, Harding and Truman, the dastardly deeds turned out to be legal, but didn’t pass the common sense “smell test.” In these cases, Congress passed new laws and /or the department in question changed its standard practices.

Most important, every president except Madison, Polk and Ford has faced a number of major scandals in his administration, and at the end of the day, virtually none were blamed for it. Either the officer, department or crony was exonerated, or the president was found completely innocent of knowing anything about the crimes. Besides Nixon’s administration, among the most corrupt were those of Tyler, Buchanan, Grant Harding, Truman, Reagan and Bush II. The Reagan administration provides an interesting case: The administration involved itself in as much law-breaking as Nixon’s did, but Reagan never personally benefited from any of the corruption and no one could find evidence that he knew about the political scandals like Iran-Contra. In a sense, he was a modern Ulysses Grant, personally incorruptible and idealistic, but surrounded by a den of thieves. With investigations exonerating presidents for everything except bad judgment and rigid loyalty, impeachment was hardly ever mentioned and almost never attempted.

Kevin M. Kruse said it best in summarizing the Carter administrations on page 402: “In the end, the three main scandals of the Carter Administration followed the general pattern, in which sloppy financial practices and suspect business dealings invited close inspection but ultimately proved to have fallen short of outright criminal misdeeds.”

The first exception to this pattern of presidential exoneration was Andrew Johnson, whose “high crimes and misdemeanors” involved orders he gave and did not give, specifically concerning the Secretary of War and the treatment of the renegade southern states returned to the union only after a long, bloody war. In a sense, Johnson’s impeachment and near conviction was the last skirmish of the Civil War.

The second exception was Nixon, who unlike all other presidents, knew all about all the corruption in his administration, serving as the source and center for most of it. The Watergate break-in and other dirty tricks. The illegal pay-offs to silence the guilty and protect the administration. The enemies list. The illegal campaign contributions. It was Nixon who authorized the illegal bombing of Cambodia and directed his representatives to convince the South Vietnamese to refuse to come to the negotiating table until after the 1968 election. Nixon was as dirty as dirty can be.

And that’s why I think Trump is going down.

Trumpty-Dumpty, like Tricky Dicky, is at the center of every controversy as instigator, motivator and bad actor. His already debunked fantasies of the Bidens corruptly profiting from Papa Joe’s influence as vice president and of Ukraine interfering in the 2016 election served as the motivating factor in the illegal and unethical actions of Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Pompeo and others in Ukraine. Trump is leading the cover-up by refusing to hand over documents or let officials testify. Like Nixon and Cambodia, Trump is solely responsible for the scandals that are not part of the impeachment proceedings but are causes for additional disgruntlement, such as the betrayal of the Kurds, the separation of children at the border, the exit from the Iranian nuclear deal and the Paris Accord, and Trump’s record of sexual assault and harassment.

Like Nixon, all the evidence points to Trump being dirty.

Those despairing that like Andrew Johnson and Clinton, Trump will be impeached by the House but not convicted by the Senate should consider that we’re still early in the process, still at the point at which all opinion has a highly partisan tinge to it.

What the Republican Senators are waiting for is a smoking gun. And if Nixon serves as a precedent, the court will supply the requisite still-hot firearm by forcing Trump to turn over material including his taxes. I’m guessing that the requirement to turn over the taxes will compel Trump to resign from office rather than let it out that he is owned by Russian interests and that he is worth far less than a billion smackers. But whatever it is, something in what we find in the taxes or in the records that the administration wants to keep hidden will hang Trump with his own party. He will most likely resign in a deal that spares him indictment on any federal or state charges rather than face conviction. If in his crazy grandiosity, the Donald refuses to follow the Nixon model, he will not have a big enough Praetorian guard, loyal only to him, to attempt to stay in office by force after his conviction. While we can spin apocalyptic fantasies about the end of our democracy, I think we can realistically depend on the loyalty to the United States and our Constitution by the military, the Secret Service, the FBI and local police.

History suggests that because the investigation centers on Trump and not his subordinates, the likely result will be that he leaves office before his term is up. That is, assuming the smoking gun produces enough smoke.

Meanwhile, although we may consider the Republicans sticking to Trump like white to rice to be despicable, they are in fact engaged in nothing more than business as usual, the same business that has surrounded presidential misconduct since the time of George Washington.

[b00bconnoisseur]

60 questions for @not-my-brain

1. selfie.......Ugghhhh ok. Imma take one rn

Ok here u go (yes thats a bmth shirt)

2. what would you name your future kids?.....Ooo hmmm well when i was a kid i really liked the names disney, and mesiah. I didn't know at the time that mesiah was another name for god i think lol. I liked it cause of handlers mesiah. I still do. Ooo and maybe Tj too

3. do you miss anyone?......Yeah. My friends on Pinterest from a year ago. My friend lucas. Stan lee. Bob ross. My cousin who died from cancer some years ago. Snape. Sirius. Lupin. Tonks. Dobby. *continues to name every unfortunate death in hp*

4. what are you looking forward to?.......SE-YA next month!! Its the south eastern young adult festival at this college. You can have meet n greets with authors and alot of stuff its the besstttt

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?......DEFINATELY. @dirtysocke @mysisterlooksforthisaccountsobye @cristal-kyd1280 @sammchenry my friend lucas and @septembersbloom. ^^

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?..... What like...romantically? Or like a death? If romantically uhhh idk it took over a couple weeks but im ok now. Ive never had another relationship so idk. If death oof yeah idk maybe. Ig it depends on how much i knew them idk. Like when my nanny (great grandma) died i was sad for days (is that alot?)

7. what was your life like last year?.....Sucky af. Still is. But the highlights of my life last year was getting and making friends on tumblr, going to the tøp concert and going to warped tour, volunteering at the library, going to seya and meeting some of my favorite authors, reading, changing and improving my art, listening to all the bands i listen to now, getting into more fandoms, going to a friends house for the first time

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?.......Yes lol. Some years ago when i couldn't find smtn id be so annoyed and pissed id start crying. I dont now but still lol

9. who did you last see in person?.......Hm ig family doesn't count....? Wait do u mean a friend? If so uhh my friends rebekah, anika, and Judah at a TAB meeting at the library sometime last month.

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?......I think so? Like i mean I can hide whenever i get my....time of the month from my mom (talking abt stuff like that with her makes me uncomfortable) and i hid a breakup. And other p big stuff too. So imma say yeah

11. are you listening to music right now?........*pops on earbuds after reading this* yee im listening to bitch lasagna by pewdiepie xD (do i have the best spotify playlist or what?)

12. what is something you want right now?.......To hug @mysisterlooksforthisaccountsobye but SOMEONE has to live so far away

13. how do you feel right now?........Happy that my earbud still works cause they got washed in the wash yesterday....oops. Its not my fault. I told my dad to remind me to take it out of my jacket pocket before they threw it in but noooooo he forgot

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?.......Uhhhhh fuck idk it was probably from my lil 4 yr old bro sometime last week. Other than him (hes my favorite sibling) i dont let them hug me too much

15. personality description.......Nerdy. Fangirl. "Emo". Tomboy. Hotsause obsessed. Book lover. Music lover. Black. Blue. Harry potter. Introvert. Fall. Sports. Values friendship. Loyal. Uhhhh i cant think of much lol

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?.......*sigh* yes. Yes yes yes. Theres some things abt me, or my life really, that i havent told anyone on here or my irl friends that i sooooo want to so bad but i haven't cause i feel like they'd feel bad and pity me and i don't want that

17. opinion on insecurities........I dont really understand this one. Everyones insecure abt something. Is this askin like if i think its ok or not? I say its ok. Im insecure about literally everything about me. My face. My personality. My socialness. My art. What i do. What i say. Basically my whole body. The things i feel good abt are my books, music taste, and my friends (ily fuckers)

18. do you miss how things were a year ago?.........Hmm this time around a year ago....idk its sorta the same but all the stuff i mentioned abt my year from last year didn't happen yet so nah tho my life sucks rn its better than this time last year

19. have you ever been to New York?........Nooo but i want too soo baddd i wanna visit @septembersbloom !! Im coming for ya soon gramps *does the eye watching thing* my dads been to nyc before tho cause he does construction and he had a concrete job to do there. It was a 23 hr drive for him

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?........Uhhh idk!!! So hard! Maybe.....the whole thats the spirit album by bmth ;)

21. age and birthday?.....15 yrs of age and September 27th 2003 (whats yours brainy? I'll put it on my calendar)

22. description of crush......Its weird idk im not sure if its a genuine crush or not but uh....They like hp :).Thats all u get

23. fear(s).......Losing my best friend @dirtysocke and my other friends. Death. Failure. Momo chasing after me then killing me slowly keeping my eyes open to look her dead in the eyes while i die

24. height......5'6 call me short and I'll fuck u up with THIS *pulls out trusty potato peeler named now steve* dont test me boi

25. role model......Hhhhhhhh so many! But uh gosh one of them is @superraedizzle (youtuberrrr) and vexx and bob ross and da vinci and aaaaaaa so many

26. idol(s)......First person that immediately comes to mind is @sammchenry cause he's super cool and he's really nice and his art's reallyyy good (if u havent seen it w-w-what are u even doin with your life?) And he has a great sense of humor and *continues to ramble about why samms the best*

27. things i hate.......Dabs. Transphobes. Homophobic ppl. Basically any hate on the lgbtq+ community. Bullies. The ship starker. Umbridge. Snape haters

28. i’ll love you if….....U you'll eat pizza, draw, and rp harry potter with mee

29. favourite film(s)......Fantastic beasts. Every hp film. Twilight. The maze runner 1-2. The hunger games. Spiderman homecoming. Kingsman: secret service. Into the spideyverse tho i havent seen it yet

30. favourite tv show(s)......Inkmasterrrrr. B99. The mick. The middle. Uhhh idk mostly ink master xD

31. 3 random facts........Ive never had shrimp. I had a beta fish for over a year once. Im eating pizza crust rn

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?.......G i r l s. I have all girl friends irl and one boy. And on tumblr it seems like i just meet girls? Likei agree with @cristal-kyd1280 its like alot more gals then dudes here. But i do have some guy friends on here too. But mostly girls

33. something you want to learn.......TO DRAW ANATOMY DAMMIT

34. most embarrassing moment........Every moment of my lifes an embarrassing moment. Idk of i can pick a "most" embarrassing one. But one time i i sent my crush (now ex bf) a hey fuckface and like some hearts or whatever for an ask game that meant like "i have a crush on u" "youre adorable" etc and said Hewo but i did it all anonymously. But he confronted me askin if i sent it cause im the only person he knows that actually says hewo lol. Then later on i finally admitted i really liked him and well y'all know the story after i think. Unless you're new

35. favourite subject.......A R TTTT OFC

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?........meet my friends on tumblr. Get into mtsu (college i wanna go to) and study art. And go skydiving

37. favourite actor/actress........favorite actor uhhhhhh probably thomas brodie sangster or tom felton and my favorite actress? Hmmm idk maybe evanna lynch (luna lovegood)

38. favourite comedian(s).......probably kevin hart lol he's p funny

39. favourite sport(s)........basketballllllll and football

40. favourite memory........uhhhhh idk?? One oh my favorite memories was when we went to see tøp in concert

41. relationship status.....single as a pringle

42. favourite book(s)......harry potter and the order of the pheonix. Harry potter and the half blood prince. Simon vs the homo sapiens agenda. Divergent. Maze runner. Twilight. Fangirl. Fallen. Red queen

43. favourite song ever.......TOO HARD DONT MAKE ME CHOOSEEEEEE

44. age you get mistaken for.........16 and 17 sometimes lol

45. how you found out about your idol........i was watching someone on yt and superraedizzle always poped up in my feed and my mom turned on one of her vids cause she always saw her vids too now ive seen most of em i love her. Id heard of vexx but never watched him and i was watching a collab from anthony miller art and shrimpy and i checked out shrimpys channel and was lookin at comments and alot of ppl said his art is like vexxs so i checked out vexx. At first i was like eh ok. Now i cant click fast enough when he posts a vid. And i actually fpund out about bob ross from my grandpa on jan 20 2017 when trump was getting sworn in or whatever. We turned on pbs and my grampa told me to look and bob ross was on and i was IN. I loved it. I even started watching full episodes on YouTube of the joy of painting after that. Wonderful man. My first painting i ever did i think was when i followed one of his tutorials xD (i didnt know it was popular at the time)

46. what my last text message says......."ok your turn"

47. turn ons.....uhh nerds ig idk um book lovers, music lovers, art lovers, potterheads, idk and nice ppl

48. turn offs......jerks. Homophobia. Idk ig whatever i said in things i hate

49. where i want to be right now......uhhhh idk wait didn't i already answer this? Ok this ones different ig so uhh with my friend lucas

50. favourite picture of your idol.....oh shit...favorite? Idk xD i have a fave of vexx but not of rae or bob. But heres pics of them any way

51. starsign......a libraaaaa boiii

52. something i’m talented at......drawing and speed reading. Thats about it lol. Oh and procrastina

53. 5 things that make me happy.......ooooo art, my friends here on tumblr, books, harry potter, and music ^^

54. something thats worrying me at the moment.....if my friend thinks im being annoying

55. tumblr friends......hhhhh so manyyyyyy. @dirtysocke @mysisterlooksforthisaccountsobye @cristal-kyd1280 @chinesewaffles2 @kingantlion @queen-baelin @sammchenry @septembersbloom and more

56. favourite food(s)......green beans, pepperoni pizza, and vanilla madelines

57. favourite animal(s).......basically any reptile. Puppies. Cats. Any animal really but my #1 are snakes

58. description of my best friend.....well she's a tiny bean (5 feet) and she has dark hair, she wears glasses, she doesnt take shit, she's in love with Josh dun, she's awesome, funny, nice (YES youre nice jackie) and shes the best friend ive ever had. Oh. And she has a weird obsession with spaghetti

59. why i joined tumblr.......well i heard abt it on Pinterest over a year ago but didnt want it. Then @mrfastbass-deactivated20181231 on DeviantArt said he got tumblr so i made one then followed him and figured id just post art and that's it cause i thought tumblr was boring as hell when i first got it. Now im p much obsessed with it

60. ask me anything you want.......go ahead brainy shoot. Give me smtn good

[bountyofbeads]

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article233668342.html?__twitter_impression=true

Lead U.S. prosecutor in ’08 Epstein case — who sources say wanted to charge him — resigns

BY JULIE K. BROWN AND JAY Weaver |Published AUGUST 08, 2019 07:38 PM | Miami Herald | Posted August 9, 2019 |

A. Marie Villafaña, the lead federal prosecutor who helped negotiate a controversial plea deal for accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, has submitted her resignation to the Justice Department, the Miami Herald has learned.

Her departure comes amid a federal probe into the role she and other federal prosecutors, including her former boss, Alexander Acosta, had in sidelining a 53-page indictment against the wealthy New York investor in favor of a state plea to minor prostitution charges in 2008. Epstein, 66, was accused of molesting dozens of underage girls, most of them 14 to 16 years old, at his Palm Beach mansion more than a decade ago. He is now facing federal sex trafficking charges involving minors brought against him last month by prosecutors in the Southern District of New York.

The Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) is examining whether Acosta, who resigned his cabinet post as secretary of labor last month — and other U.S. prosecutors involved in the 2007-2008 case — committed misconduct in negotiating the secret pact with Epstein. A federal judge in February ruled that the prior deal was illegally negotiated because Epstein and federal prosecutors concealed it from his victims in violation of the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.

The Herald has learned that several people involved in the Epstein case have been questioned by the Justice Department in recent weeks as part of its ongoing OPR investigation.

Jonathan Biran, Villafaña’s lawyer, confirmed her resignation Thursday, noting that she has long planned to transition to a legal career in healthcare, and now plans to join the federal Department of Health and Human Services. In recent years, she has handled a number of healthcare fraud cases in South Florida.

Villafaña, 51, has worked in the Southern District of Florida, mostly based in West Palm Beach, for the past 18 years. She is the last member of the federal prosecution team that handled Epstein’s case in 2008 still employed by the Department of Justice. The other members of the team, including Acosta, left in the years after Epstein’s case was closed.

Acosta, appointed labor secretary by President Trump in 2017, stepped down July 12, six days after Epstein was arrested on new sex trafficking charges in New York. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, in announcing the indictment last month, dealt a rebuke to Florida-based prosecutors who dropped the federal case against Epstein.

“While the charged conduct is from a number of years ago, it is still profoundly important to the many alleged victims, now young women. They deserve their day in court and we are proud to be standing up for them by bringing this indictment,’’ Berman said at a July 8 news conference.

Epstein was denied bail and remains jailed in Manhattan pending his trial, tentatively set for next June.

On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis  ordered a criminal investigation into the state’s handling of the Epstein case, from his sentencing in 2008 to his incarceration and probation in 2009. In 2006, former Palm Beach State Attorney Barry Krischer declined to prosecute Epstein on serious sex charges, which led to the U.S. Attorney and FBI taking over the case in 2007.

Palm Beach Sheriff Ric Bradshaw’s role in the case is also under scrutiny since under his watch he permitted Epstein liberal work release privileges that allowed the multimillionaire to be chauffeured by his valet from the jail to his office in West Palm Beach six days a week, 12 hours a day.

Even when Epstein was in his cell at night, sheriff’s deputies reportedly allowed him to keep his door open.

The Justice Department’s probe, by its Office of Professional Responsibility, is similar to a police department’s internal affairs inquiry, focusing on possible misconduct or policy violations by federal prosecutors. It’s not clear what impact, if any, Villafaña’s resignation will have on the investigation.

Michael R. Bromwich, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, said it’s unlikely that Villafaña’s departure will derail OPR’s probe.

“There is no reason that they couldn’t continue the investigation, especially in a case like this where there is broad public interest in knowing what happened,’’ said Bromwich, a former inspector general for the Justice Department.

He added that it’s important for the department to make its findings public given that so much secrecy has surrounded the Epstein case.

“OPR’s tradition is to keep things bottled up in the department and to put very few of their reports in the public domain,’’ Bromwich said. “This time, it should be transparent.’’

The case has raised fundamental questions about whether well-connected, wealthy people wield influence over prosecutors and others in the justice system. Epstein had a wide circle of powerful friends, including former President Bill Clinton, President Donald Trump, Prince Andrew and former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Villafaña has never spoken publicly about the case. Sources close to her have said that she disagreed with Acosta’s decision granting Epstein and others involved in his activities immunity from federal charges.

Those close to Villafaña said that in the end, she was a loyal career prosecutor who toed the line of her boss while focusing her efforts on a provision in Epstein’s agreement that forced him to pay restitution to his victims. At the time of the deal, the FBI had identified 34 underage victims, most of them middle and high school girls who came from underprivileged backgrounds.

Epstein employed a number of people to help him schedule girls on a rotating basis to come to his Palm Beach home on the pretext that he would pay them to give him massages. The girls, however, told Palm Beach police that they were pressured to perform sex acts with him and with adult women. They were paid $200 to $300, and could earn more money if they brought friends, which many of them did, police documents show.

In November, the Herald published a series of articles, Perversion of Justice, revealing that Epstein may have sexually abused or molested more than 100 girls in Palm Beach alone. Court records and FBI documents also showed that at the time his case was settled in Florida the FBI had received tips that there were other victims in New York, New Mexico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein owns homes.

Recently released documents revealed that Villafaña strenuously objected to Epstein’s work release, and wrote a letter to the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office in December 2008 pointing out that the crimes he committed were not accurately reflected in his work release paperwork and that those records contained “omissions” that should have disqualified him for the program.

She was overruled, however, and Epstein continued his work release, ultimately serving 13 months before being released in 2009. One woman has since come forward to say she was hired to perform a sex act on Epstein in his office while he was on work release.

Biran said Villafaña’s resignation had nothing to do with the Epstein matter, and that she has recently completed a two-year training program on healthcare compliance. Most of her career has been spent advocating for the rights of victims, and she has received numerous awards for her work, he added.

“Ms. Villafaña is confident that, when DOJ’s internal investigation has been concluded, the department will find that she acted properly in all respects as the lead prosecutor in the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein,’’ Biran said.

Supporters said she has been a tireless prosecutor who rarely gives up a fight.

“If she was going to leave because of this case, she would have left a long time ago,’’ said former federal prosecutor David Weinstein, who supervised Villafaña early in her career.

“My experience with her is she digs in her teeth and doesn’t give up. She tries to uphold what all good prosecutors do, and that is to see that justice is served.’’

[diarrheaworldstarhiphop]

Hodeidah, Yemen (CNN) – Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners have transferred American-made weapons to al Qaeda-linked fighters, hardline Salafi militias, and other factions waging war in Yemen, in violation of their agreements with the United States, a CNN investigation has found.

The weapons have also made their way into the hands of Iranian-backed rebels battling the coalition for control of the country, exposing some of America's sensitive military technology to Tehran and potentially endangering the lives of US troops in other conflict zones.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, its main partner in the war, have used the US-manufactured weapons as a form of currency to buy the loyalties of militias or tribes, bolster chosen armed actors, and influence the complex political landscape, according to local commanders on the ground and analysts who spoke to CNN.

By handing off this military equipment to third parties, the Saudi-led coalition is breaking the terms of its arms sales with the US, according to the Department of Defense. After CNN presented its findings, a US defense official confirmed there was an ongoing investigation into the issue.

The revelations raise fresh questions about whether the US has lost control over a key ally presiding over one of the most horrific wars of the past decade, and whether Saudi Arabia is responsible enough to be allowed to continue buying the sophisticated arms and fighting hardware.  Previous CNN investigations established that US-made weapons were used in a series of deadly Saudi coalition attacks that killed dozens of civilians, many of them children.

The developments also come as Congress, outraged with Riyadh over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi last year, considers whether to force an end to the Trump administration's support for the Saudi coalition, which relies on American weapons to conduct its war.

In 2015, Riyadh launched a coalition to oust Iranian-supported Houthi rebels from the country's capital and reinstate the internationally recognized government of President Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi. The war split the country in two, and with it came the weapons -- not just guns, but anti-tank missiles, armored vehicles, heat-seeking lasers and artillery -- all flooding into an unruly and complex state.

Since then, some of America's "beautiful military equipment," as US President Donald Trump once called it, has been passed on, sold, stolen or abandoned in Yemen's state of chaos, where murky alliances and fractured politics mean little hope for any system of accountability or tracking.

Some terror groups have gained from the influx of US arms, with the barrier of entry to advanced weaponry now lowered by the laws of supply and demand. Militia leaders have had ample opportunity to obtain military hardware in exchange for the manpower to fight the Houthi militias. Arms dealers have flourished, with traders offering to buy or sell anything, from a US-manufactured rifle to a tank, to the highest bidder.

And Iran's proxies have captured American weapons they can exploit for vulnerabilities or reverse-engineer for native production.

                                           'Do you have American guns here?'                            

In the narrow, ramshackle streets of Taiz's historic district, weapons shops lie tucked between women's clothing stores.

Arms markets are illegal in Yemen, but that doesn't stop them operating openly in this large, mountainous city in the country's southwest.

To one side hang veils, abayas and colorful dresses for sale; to the other are pistols, hand grenades, and US assault rifles available on special order.

In one arms market, sweets were displayed among the ammunition. "Do you have American guns here?" CNN asked. "The American guns are expensive and sought after," the weapons trader replied, in an exchange captured by undercover CNN cameras.

In another of the city's markets, a very young-looking boy handled weapons like an expert. Men joked and chewed khat, a commonly used drug, and the atmosphere was casual. But these shops don't just take individual orders, they can supply militias -- and it's this not-so-hidden black market that in part is driving the demand for hi-tech American weapons and perpetuating the cycle of violence in Yemen.

Once the intellectual heart of the country, Taiz is now a tinder box that set off a war within a war last year, when the various militias backed by the Saudi-led coalition turned their guns on each other.

Amid the chaos of the broader war, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) made its way to the frontlines in Taiz in 2015, forging advantageous alliances with the pro-Saudi militias they fought alongside.

One of those militias linked to AQAP, the Abu Abbas brigade, now possesses US-made Oshkosh armored vehicles, paraded in a 2015 show of force through the city.

Abu Abbas, the founder, was declared a terrorist by the US in 2017, but the group still enjoys support from the Saudi coalition and was absorbed into the coalition-supported 35th Brigade of the Yemeni army.

“Oshkosh Defense strictly follows all US laws and regulations relating to export control," the firm told CNN.

And there are deadlier forms of weaponry that have made their way into the city. In October 2015, military forces loyal to the government boasted on Saudi- and UAE-backed media that the Saudis had airdropped American-made TOW anti-tank missiles on the same frontline where AQAP had been known to operate at the time.

Local officials confirmed that the airdrop happened, but CNN's attempts to conduct further interviews were blocked and the team was intimidated by the local government. A local activist joked that the weapons had probably been sold on.

Graveyard of US military hardware                            

At a graveyard of discarded US-made military hardware near the flashpoint port city of Hodeidah, it becomes clear that the Alwiyat al Amalqa -- the Giants Brigade, a predominantly Salafi, or ultra-conservative Sunni, militia -- is a favored faction.

Nearly half a dozen Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles sit side by side, most bearing stickers with the insignia of the Giants Brigade.

One even has the export label on it showing it was sent from Beaumont, Texas to Abu Dhabi, in the UAE, before ending up in the hands of the militia. The serial number of another MRAP reveals it was manufactured by Navistar, the largest provider of armored vehicles for the US military.

The armored all-terrain vehicles are built to withstand ballistic arms fire, mine blasts and improvised explosive devices (IEDs). “It’s the vehicle that every crew wants when they’re out in the field,” Navistar’s website says. The firm declined to comment on this report.

Recipients of US weaponry are legally obligated to adhere to end-use requirements which prohibit the transferring of any equipment to third parties without prior authorization from the US government. That authorization was never obtained.

The Saudi coalition did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A senior UAE official denied “in no uncertain terms that we are in violation of end-user agreements in any manner.”

The Giants Brigade is a “part of Yemeni forces,” the official told CNN, adding that the group was under the direct supervision of the UAE and, therefore, the equipment was in the “collective possession” of the coalition.

The US Department of Defense, when asked specifically about the Giants Brigades, said it had not given Saudi Arabia or the UAE permission to hand over US weaponry to other factions on the ground.

"The United States has not authorized the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates to re-transfer any equipment to parties inside Yemen," Pentagon spokesman Johnny Michael told CNN. "The US government cannot comment on any pending investigations of claims of end-use violations of defense articles and services transferred to our allies and partners."

Iran is ‘assessing US military technology closely’         

Because a majority of American troop deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq are caused by IEDs, it is critical that knowledge of MRAP vulnerabilities does not fall into enemy hands.

But it's already too late.

In September 2017, a Houthi-run TV channel broadcast images of Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the de facto rebel leader, proudly sitting behind the wheel of a captured US-made MRAP in the capital Sanaa, as a crowd chanted "death to America" in the background.

CNN obtained an image showing the serial numbers of a second American MRAP in the hands of another senior Houthi official last year in Hodeidah.

The vehicle was part of a $2.5 billion sale to the UAE in 2014. The sale document, seen by CNN, certifies that "a determination has been made that the recipient country can provide the same degree of protection for the sensitive technology" as the United States.

MRAPs like these, captured on the battlefield, have been probed by Iranian intelligence, according to a member of a secret Houthi unit backed by Iran known as the Preventative Security Force. The unit oversees the transfer of military technology to and from Tehran.

The member of the force, speaking to CNN anonymously out of fear for his safety, revealed that Iranian and Hezbollah advisers have already gotten their hands on the armored vehicles and other US military hardware.

"Iranian intelligence are assessing US military technology very closely," the source said in an audio interview done from Sanaa. "Listen, there isn't a single American weapon that they don't try to find out its details, what it's made of, how it works."

IEDs are now mass-produced in Yemen by Houthi forces on a scale only previously achieved by ISIS, according to a report published by Conflict Armament Research.

The group tracks weapons and their supply chains in conflict zones, and has found IEDs containing Iranian components in Yemen.

Hiram Al Assad, a member of the Houthi Political Council, confirmed to CNN that the MRAPs were still in Houthi hands but denied the existence of the Preventative Security Force.

Iran has not responded to a CNN request for comment.

Human cost of conflict                            

The flood of US weaponry is fueling a conflict that has killed tens of thousands -- among them children on school buses and families fleeing violence -- and pushed millions more to the brink of famine.

Two-year-old Rehab is so severely malnourished that her chest has collapsed into a deep dent at the center of her tiny body.

There are an estimated 200 cases of malnutrition like hers in the village of Tohta, a frontline area surrounded by artillery and mortar positions on the Red Sea coast near Hodeidah.

A few months ago, the local clinic was shut down due to political disagreements over funding. But Dr. Fatma Ibrahim won’t give up.

She conducts house-to-house visits every week, and as soon as she steps into the street, worried parents flock to her.

“Look, look,” one father demands as he shows the doctor his skeletal 14-month-old girl, Roula. Ibrahim gently examines her, but soon it's time to move on to the next baby.

For a young man, joining a fighting faction is one of the few means of finding employment in a poor country with little infrastructure and a barely functioning economy.

At the same time, too many powerful political figures and key armed actors in the region have been prospering greatly from the conflict and, as a result, they lack the incentives to agree to a peace process that would threaten their financial gain.

The US is by far the biggest supplier of arms to both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and its support is crucial to the Saudi-led coalition’s continuing war in Yemen.

US lawmakers are trying to pass a resolution ending the Trump administration’s support for the coalition. But there is scant evidence that the White House wants to listen, despite evidence that the actions of a key US ally may be making Americans less safe.

In the wake of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi murder last year, Trump said it would be foolish for the US to cancel multi-billion dollar arms deals with the Saudis. "I don't want to lose all of that investment being made into our country," he said.

[venusparker]

loyal surroundings ↬ p.p

prompt: with nosy friends and aunts sticking their nose into your business, it’s about time your best friend peter parker saved you––but in a different type of suit.

warnings: maybe foul language?? i don’t remember

notes: i know thanksgiving just passed, but i’ve been thinking about this, and also it could apply for christmas as well. p.s this is super long. hope u all enjoy xo.

•••

Of all things, Peter Parker was loyal. That was for certain. Every detail that defined him, every characteristic that covered him from head to the worn out soles of his sneakers, screamed it. There was no way a boy such as him, with a heart that could’ve quite believably been literally made of gold and selflessness, who had gentle, hazel eyes and a warm smile, could betray you. The light freckles that danced on his nose and cheeks swore their friendship to you in a way his mouth never could when he felt too nervous to say it.

He’d tell you anything and you’d do the same. Though it had taken him some time to tell you the biggest secret of them all, he eventually told you and that was all that mattered. With the same sigh of relief and the promise of no more lies. This was your Peter. He would do anything for you.

Or, at least that’s what you told him as he sauntered and paced about his room, chewing on his bottom lip, making it more pink than usual. You had done possibly everything in your power to convince him to do you this one, humongous, important favor that you swore by the Son of Odin, that you’d pay him back for. He’d done everything for you—even saved you from an armed robbery, but you don’t talk about that—yet not this one solid and simple service.

“Peter Benjamin Parker,” The words left your mouth flustered and desperate, and stressed. “Please.”

He shook his head and shrugged, putting away the remaining homework he had finished after your school had let you out for annual Thanksgiving break. You had spent the past twenty minutes begging for Peter to do what you asked because after all, what were best friends for? Usually, Peter would’ve dropped everything to help you out, which was a quality he had that you were grateful for; his forever chivalrous manner causing him to come when you called. And yet, no budge.

“No, [Y/N], I will not pretend to be your boyfriend.” He gave you an incredulous look as he repeated what you had asked of him and you bit your lip, staring at his hardwood floor, unable to see the blush growing on your best friend’s face. “Why don’t you ask Ned? He’s adorable.”

“I did ask Ned! But he’s going back to Hawaii to see some extended family this year, so I came to you, my gorgeous and lovely first best friend who I assumed would help me out before Ned Leeds, who has bailed on me twice and counting, did.” A sharp expression spread over your features and Peter sighed.

“I thought you didn’t even like Thanksgiving, you always say it’s a glorified holiday celebrating Native American genocide and colonization.”

“Exactly, it is. And right now, I don’t need racist aunts or ignorant uncles adding onto this terrible holiday, all I need is my best friend at my side,” You cooed sweetly as he sat down next to you on the bed, and you threw an arm around him hoping he’d give in.

Peter eyed you carefully, his brain rapidly trying to come up with excuses that you hadn’t already shot down. You had already gone through the steps of asking Aunt May if she would like to come over for Thanksgiving this year so that her and Peter wouldn’t have to spend it alone and she gladly accepted—so that was out of the question. The past following weeks had been, well, calm for the most part, if you could even describe Queens as that.

He listened to the traffic, which he did often since now his sense really gave him no real choice, and chimed into a lady’s conversation from the building over, hoping to stall. He knew that you understood what he was doing. But he had to think about this carefully. Him. Being your boyfriend? Even as pretend, it made the teenager feel nervous and clammy, and he curled up his sweater sleeves around his palms to soak it all up.

“I–I have, you know––” He began sheepishly, only for you—clever, cunning, pretty you—to cut him off with a logical, debunking answer prepared.

“Heroes deserve a holiday off too.”

“Real heroes don’t take them,” He shot back and you rolled your eyes falling onto your back on his bed, staring up at him, curls of brown falling in his face.

“Come on, Peter. One night. One night where you’re not out there risking your life for this city, one night where it’s just you and me and some badly seasoned turkey. Come on.”

Peter always knew that you could be convincing, but this was a different level. “But, like, won’t it be weird?”

Your phone rang the minute he said that, but you ignored it. ”Promise it won’t be. It’s a one time thing, Peter. This year my extended family is coming over to our house and one of my great-aunts who hasn’t seen me in forever is relentless. Just pretend and then next year around I’ll say we broke up.”

Peter didn’t know why he couldn’t just say no to you. He’s refused and denied more important things before, but he could feel himself giving in. Truthfully, he couldn’t see this ending well. He simply did not see this entire plan that you took the liberty of conjuring up as a good idea. It was something out of a book Aunt May would read with a glass of red wine when she was feeling upset, not Peter’s life. He already had enough going on with not blabbing about being Spider-Man and crime in New York, or teaming up with the Avengers. Now, he had to worry about this? Oh, boy.

“Pete, my mom is calling and I have to leave and I will continue texting you about this if you don’t answer me now.” You smiled at him, grin huge, fluttering your eyelashes and giving him the best doe-eyed look you could ever give. He found it incredibly cute and his heart may have leaped out of his chest, but that was not the task at hand right now.

“[Y/N]...I—Maybe,” he mumbled, glancing away from you to pick at loose thread of his blanket.

“Sorry, what was that?” You mocked, before chuckling, “I’m just kidding. Thank you so much, Peter! I love you, you won’t regret this.”

You went up to leave, throwing a look and a wave to Peter before you eventually did. ”Just promise you won’t fall in love with me, Spidey. See you in a couple days.”

Peter watched as you walked away, a sigh escaping his mouth from feelings not even he could detect. Upon the traffic, his rapidly beating heart, and hustle and bustle of the city life that remained outside his window—the only thing he could focus on was himself, whispering, “Can’t make any promises.”

•••

As Thanksgiving rolled around, you found yourself in your own house, drinking some soda as you attempted to gracefully dodge questions at you and your lovelife, or what college you planned on going to even though you were only a sophomore because, as your least favorite uncle says, it’s never too early to start planning that degree in nursing, even though you’ve never been interested in nursing.

Among the throngs of people, you couldn’t find the one familiar place that felt like home and you couldn’t fight the frown placing itself onto your face. Peter. Aunt May had arrived early with a pie, store-bought of course since she didn’t want to risk burning one herself, but it was still delicious with ice cream on top, nonetheless. And by her side was no one, and as May puts it, it was due to the fact that Peter had “gotten caught up with things.” You knew what she meant by things, and, though she or Peter had never said anything that caused you to suspect May’s knowledge—you knew that she understood what things meant as well. Perhaps it was the look of pity mixed with disappointment that gave it away.

To be completely fair, you didn’t really and absolutely need Peter Parker to live through this holiday, seeing as you could usually bare with it when you traveled every year before. However, it would’ve been nice to not feel so threatened in your own ground by nosy aunts and your mother’s subtly condescending friends, and him practically hanging out with you and helping you avoid and surprisingly answer questions would’ve eased you up. Especially since your great aunt was hounding you with every heteronormative question possible, making you wish you could’ve choked on the ice cube in your drink that had been long melted away.

“So, you’re grown now! And so attractive. Anyone nab you off the market?”

Nab? You wanted to grunt, but you didn’t want to be rude considering she was family and she had been nice so far. It wasn’t like you wanted to be mean and standoffish, which you really weren’t, but a night of dealing with drunk family members and homophobic remarks and Trump supporters had really wore you down. Grabbing onto your sweatshirt as a way of comforting and reminding yourself that this night was close to over, you realized that it, funnily enough, belonged to Peter. Opening your mouth to answer, you were instead given a greeting.

“Hi, sorry I’m late. I had some, uh, trouble.”

Peter had bruises that looked fresh by his jaw that were already starting to heal slightly but slowly, and he wore a dress shirt and some jeans and sneakers. Though you could tell he had Spider-Man business to take care of, he had combed his hair and gotten dressed, and that made you smile. In all honesty, he looked great, and you had to force yourself to stop calling him cute in your head.

“It’s no problem, you’re just in time. Trust me.”

With that, you grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze and he immediately caught the message. He cleared his throat one too many times and you had to cover up your laughing with a cough. You knew him. He had rehearsed this. He had practiced what he was going to say in reply to any questions he got. What a dork!

“I’m Peter, [Y/N]’s...um, best frie––boyfriend! Boyfriend. Nice to meet you,” He managed to get out, blushing like mad, pink dotting across his cheeks like spilled over paint.

He tried to push some of his awkwardness away, imagining himself to be the smooth and social butterfly he often hoped to appear as, but eventually he would just look at you and it was all go to ruins. It’s not like him pretending around you was any different, or something he wasn’t used to. The amount of times you’ve made him feel jittery and anxious was uncountable, but this night really pushed the limit through the roof.

His eyes flickered over to you and in response, your soft smile provided him with an unspoken hello, eyes lingering on your lips for a little too long.

The rest of the night seemed to flutter by with ease, and you managed to get away from your family as Peter gladly took all the questions they had of you and him and whatnot. You had sworn that you would make it up to him, constantly texting him to ask if he was alright, or if he wanted you to come in and save him instead. He had always replied that he was feeling fine and that he could handle a few rogue family members, but that wasn’t exactly what you were referring to.

You could tell Peter wasn’t this used to many people at Thanksgiving, or any holiday for that matter. The initial reaction he had when he first laid eyes upon you and everyone in your house had said it all, no matter how good Peter thinks he is at hiding things. You watched him silently when the rare moments came where you were apart for the night, you mainly by the kitchen as he stayed in the living room, your folks gathering around him like hungry wolves ready to tear him up with inquiry after inquiry, sometimes menial and others actually quite interesting. Aunt May, on the other hand, naturally gravitated towards you and her nephew when she had the chance, and you were glad to see she was having such a nice time too. You’re sure that after this they would be invited many more times, or maybe even vice-versa could take place if both were up to it. You often hated huge family get-togethers, but you couldn't imagine spending holidays alone and quiet.

“[Y/N]!” Aunt May had called out, but it barely sounded like calling out since everyone was so loud, air lively with buzzing chatter and the whistles from the football game on television. You grinned, placing down your plate of mashed potatoes and corn as she walked up to you, her glasses pushed up and long hair tied into a bun. “How’s the plan going?”

“Plan? What–what plan?”

“Don’t worry, kiddo. Peter spilled everything to me. It’s amazing what that boy can say when he’s nervous. I️ wasn’t sure he was really going to come since he already told me he had––well, I’m sure you already know what he had to do, but I guess those things that were aforementioned weren’t so important to him after all. Well...I guess not as important as you.”

“May, you’re making me blush–”

“With good reason. Don’t say I said anything. Peter will be furious with me. He says I embarrass him too much,” she winks before leaving you be, Peter strolling up to you, face beaming and happy. You weren’t stupid. You knew what Aunt May was trying to get at, but it wasn’t like you didn’t know your own feelings. You knew you liked your best friend Peter Parker, and you knew that you really did want him to be your boyfriend. Actually. Not pretend. But you’d rather not ruin the moment.

Or blow your cover.

“Quite a night, huh?” Peter heard you say as he took a seat next to you, finding some solace away from the excitement and laughter that he had been facing the entire night. Most of the night, anyway. His stares at you were becoming more and more obvious during the night before this moment and he told himself that he was simply playing the part really well. Sure, it was a little too well, but who cares? He had answered every question about you lovingly and honestly, and listened to stories of you from when you were a child that made you burn bright red in shame. His gaze always stayed on you though, and he was beginning to fear that you had noticed.

“This was fun.”

“Fun? Peter, did I hear you correctly, or is too much pumpkin pie causing me to hallucinate?”

“It was!”

Peter was being genuine, like he always was, always had been. You hated him for it. He truly was loyal if he found Thanksgiving with your family in any way amusing rather than miserable. The two of you laughed and he wrapped an arm around your shoulder as the party began to slowly fade off and relatives began to leave, all remembering to make at least one remark of how perfect a couple you and Peter were before they went out the door.

The only guests who remained in your house were Peter and Aunt May, and three family friends whom took up most of the attention of your parents as you and Peter snuck up to your bedroom, exhausted and seeking privacy. The rest of the night previous had been spent with you two sitting in the empty dining room, eating randomly during conversations that took up hours of each’s time. As you two sat in your bedroom, Peter on the floor and you on the bed, the conversation of interest had been the events that had played out tonight.

“So, Spider-Boy, how was being my boyfriend for the night?”

“Easy.”

“Easy?”

“Wait–uh, that’s not what I meant.”

A silence overtook the both of you, resulting in you two staring at each other. You patted the spot next to you on the bed and, even though it took hesitation, Peter joined you, refusing to meet your eyes this time. This gave you a cue that maybe this was your chance, a chance to say something.

To start something.

“We’ve got to address the turkey in the room. Tell me what you meant, Peter.”

“I don’t...I don’t know.” Peter flipped over on his side out of habit of all the times where he was too tired to swing back to his house when yours was closer, so he’d discreetly sleep over in your bed after a night of playing hero before leaving quickly in the morning before school. “I guess it’s...easy, in a way, for me to be your boyfriend because...because–”

“Because what, Pete? Come on, I know you can say it.”

With each shaky breath, he slipped out a word. Breath that smelled like peppermint from your mom’s peppermint hot chocolate fanned against your lips. “Because I want to be your boyfriend.”

“You do? For real?”

“Yes, for real.”

You placed your hands underneath his jaw, wary of the bruise as you gingerly avoided it, and placed your mouth on his. Surprised was an understatement for Peter, as he froze at first, before kissing you back. It was quick, quicker than either for you wanted it to be, but still everything you expected. It was tense and not as magical as you thought it was going to be; he didn’t immediately kiss you back again, but longer, or do anything newsworthy, but that didn’t matter, because it was with him.

Your Peter.

[dipulb3]

Melania Trump and adult Trump children avoid the spotlight after one of nation's darkest days

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/melania-trump-and-adult-trump-children-avoid-the-spotlight-after-one-of-nations-darkest-days/

Melania Trump and adult Trump children avoid the spotlight after one of nation's darkest days

Professional lighting, the sort used for photography and videography, could be seen through the windows of the White House. “Photos were being taken of rugs and other items in the Executive Residence and the East Wing,” a person familiar with the day’s activities with the first lady told Appradab. Trump — who, as Appradab has reported, has expressed interest in writing a coffee table book about decorative objects she has amassed and had restored in the White House — was overseeing the photo project, said the source, with her remaining time in the White House dwindling.

Just blocks away, domestic terrorists were swarming the US Capitol in a riot that her husband had incited earlier that day at the rally. While images of the mob breaking into the Capitol consumed the airwaves, the first lady was focused — with the White House chief usher, Timothy Harleth — on getting the shoot completed. Both the media, including Appradab, and members of her staff were asking if Trump had plans to tweet a statement of calm, or a call to stop the violence — something she had done a handful of times months earlier during the protests surrounding the police killing of George Floyd. She did not.

Instead, the first lady was quiet, and has remained so. Her disinterest in addressing the country was indicative of being “checked out,” said another White House source, who added, “she just isn’t in a place mentally or emotionally anymore where she wants to get involved.”

Except with the furniture.

By Wednesday evening, two of her first hires as first lady, chief of staff Stephanie Grisham — who also served as Trump’s closest adviser, speechwriter and spokesperson — and Anna Cristina “Rickie” Niceta, White House social secretary, had submitted their resignations effective immediately. Appradab confirmed both Grisham and Niceta quit their jobs in large part because of Wednesday’s events.

Much has been made of the first lady’s influence on her husband. But it was Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter, who held an emergency meeting with him in the Oval Office Wednesday, where she urged him to call for the violence to stop.

Still, the first lady and the President, as Appradab has reported, have a close relationship, which is sometimes surprising to those who have interpreted salacious stories of Trump’s alleged adulterous behavior and their physical distance as a sign of a dislike. The first lady speaks on the phone throughout the day with the President, according to several sources who have witnessed it — from both wings of the building — and she is the first one to share with her husband her thoughts on domestic and international issues.

Though the bulk of her public statements in recent months have been related to holiday decorations, on November 8, she tellingly tweeted her support of Trump’s baseless fight against the election results. “The American people deserve fair elections,” said the first lady. “Every legal – not illegal – vote should be counted. We must protect our democracy with complete transparency.” It wasn’t a lot, but it was enough to indicate she was on his side.

The first lady has also not been shy when her opinions differ from her husband’s, tweeting — either on her own or via Grisham as her mouthpiece — messages that would seem to be out step with his.

But this week was not one of those times.

Appradab has reached out multiple times to the East Wing, both before and after Grisham’s departure, to ask for comment on the first lady’s thoughts about Wednesday’s events, or if she had any comment at all. The requests were not answered.

The Trump children

Along with the first lady, the other three most influential people in the Trump orbit are his oldest children, Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric Trump, all of whom have amplified the voice of their father after his election loss, calling for Americans to “fight” against what they baselessly deemed a corrupt election.

Trump Jr. was part of a roster of speakers at the Ellipse Wednesday morning, more than willing to inflame an already blindly loyal and largely infuriated group of supporters. “This gathering should send a message to them. This isn’t their Republican Party anymore,” railed Trump Jr. “This is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.”

He addressed lawmakers in his hype speech, which was peppered with expletives: “You can be a hero, or you can be a zero. And the choice is yours. But we are all watching. The whole world is watching, folks. Choose wisely.”

Eric Trump and his wife Lara spoke too, and listened with big smiles as the crowd of thousands serenaded the younger Trump with “Happy Birthday;” he turned 37. The couple vociferously maligned the democratic election process, and the will of American voters who elected Joe Biden as President. The crowd loved it.

“We live in the greatest country in the world, and we will never, ever, ever stop fighting,” said Eric Trump, the word “fight” a dog whistle to the eager crowd who were just blocks from where they — falsely — believed their future was being dealt an illegal hand by lawmakers. Shortly after Eric and Lara left the stage, they were whisked by Secret Service to the airport — the match they helped light in the rear-view as they flew back to their multimillion dollar New York home.

The President was at the rally, too, of course. The headliner, he first watched the crowd on monitors from a tented VIP area with his daughter Ivanka Trump, who did not speak at the rally, before he took the stage.

Ivanka Trump would shortly be the one whose responsibility it was to press her father to publicly call for the violence to stop — but not before she sent her own tweet, referring to the Trump supporters rioting as “American Patriots.”

“American Patriots — any security breach or disrespect to our law enforcement is unacceptable,” wrote Trump, who also said the violence must stop. After being called out for dubbing them “patriots,” Trump deleted her tweet.

At the White House, panic was setting in. “The President didn’t want to listen to people telling him he had to get these people to stop doing this,” a White House official told Appradab.

“Everyone else was told to leave the room,” a different source close to Ivanka Trump told Appradab of her emergency meeting with the President in the Oval Office. Trump had been called on by multiple people, both in person in her West Wing office and from Capitol Hill, where she had multiple contacts. “The message was, ‘President Trump has to tell these people to stop. He’s the only one they’ll listen to,'” said the source, who noted Ivanka Trump was already more than aware the rioters were wreaking irretrievable damage.

In their meeting, Ivanka Trump argued her father must make an immediate, televised address to the nation, the source said. The President was hesitant, with multiple sources telling Appradab he appeared at times to enjoy watching the chaos he had unleashed unfold. Trump turned down the request for an immediate televised address, but would eventually compromise with a milquetoast version of reproach from the Rose Garden, which he then tweeted. “We love you,” he said in a recorded video to the people who forced lawmakers and staff to hide under chairs, scared for their lives. “Go home,” as though they had stayed too long at a dinner party.

“He will do what he wants to do,” said the source close to Ivanka, referring to the President. “But if she wasn’t in there yesterday, his tweets would have been a lot different,” the source added. Ivanka Trump has often received public criticism for taking credit for working “behind the scenes” on issues related to the President — and this time will likely be no exception. But the source told Appradab Wednesday’s actions were not “virtue signaling by her.”

On Thursday evening, in another prerecorded video message, the President publicly conceded for the first time that he will not serve a second term, although he stopped short of congratulating Biden. With his presidency threatened by resignations and potential impeachment, Trump acknowledged that a transfer of power to a new administration is underway.

Ivanka Trump and her brother Don Jr. later retweeted the video.

[rauthschild]

“Deadly Force” Zone Activated In Wake Of Strike On Nashville Voting Machine NSA Spy Hub

By: Sorcha Faal, 

A highly-classified “Of Special Importance” new Security Council (SC) report circulating in the Kremlin today discussing events relating to Day 54 of the election war currently raging in America, says immediately following the missile strike that took out the NSA hardened AT&T switching facility “spy hub” in Nashville-Tennessee on Christmas morning, the FAA designated the skies over Nashville as “National Defense Airspace”, that activates the use of deadly force against airborne aircraft, if it is determined that the aircraft poses an imminent security threat—an activation of deadly force needed because this attack has crippled communications in the Huntsville-Alabama region where is located one of the most critical military bases in America known as Redstone Arsenal, whose strategic importance President Donald Trump has elevated since he began moving his loyal FBI forces there by the thousands.

Was a massive explosion Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) analysts quickly determined was caused by a US military aircraft fired “thermobaric weapon” specifically targeting the secret NSA spy hub in Nashville, that was first revealed by former CIA-NSA operative Edward Snowden as being part of the NSA-AT&T mass spying operation known as the “Fairview Surveillance Program”—saw this massive explosion occurring exactly at the front door entrance to the 15-story AT&T Nashville Main Central Office located at 185 2nd Ave N in Nashville—a front door entrance Google maps has always blurred the image of—though many are still confusing this location with the 33-story AT&T South (Bell South) Tennessee headquarters, also known as the Batman Building, that is located a couple of blocks away (about 440 feet away) from where this massive explosion occurred.  

And critical to notice is that in the days just prior to this explosion, the State of Georgia began a signature audit of election ballots—a signature audit whose findings of Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, on 23 December, said would be revealed later in the evening on 23 December, or at the latest on the morning of 24 December—a revelation of these signature audit findings, however, that has yet to be made—but when this signature audit was being conducted, a Microsoft engineer shockingly discovered that Georgia voting machine results were secretly being sent to Communist China—a shock discovery joined by reports that, on 21 December, a contract had been given to AT&T to conduct a forensic audit on Dominion voting machines, and these machines were being transported to Nashville.  [Note: Some words and/or phrases appearing in quotes in this report are English language approximations of Russian words/phrases having no exact counterpart.]

https://www.brighteon.com/a2b5e5ef-907b-4909-9add-b27760ca9ca6

https://www.brighteon.com/a7bb23d9-5e1e-402c-8d80-68bcf28fdff0

On 21 December 2020, reports began emerging (above) that AT&T received a contract to do the forensic audit on Dominion voting machines and they were being transported to Nashville-Tennessee.

CIA-NSA operative Edward Snowden, in 2013, revealed the existence of the NSA-AT&T mass spying Fairview Surveillance Program and their locations (above), one of whose main spy hubs is located in Nashville-Tennessee.

Nashville is the capitol city of Tennessee and located in the middle of that State (above).

At 5:30 a.m. Central Time on Christmas Day-25 December 2020, a massive explosion (above) occurs at the front entrance of AT&T’s Nashville Main Central Office located at 185 2nd Ave N in Nashville-Tennessee, where is located the NSA spy hub Fairview.

The main front entrance to AT&T’s Nashville Main Central Office at 185 2nd Ave N in Nashville-Tennessee is always blurred out on Google maps (above).

In the milliseconds before the massive fireball explosion occurs in Nashville-Tennessee, a tell-tale “thermobaric weapon” contrail is captured on closed-circuit television (CCTV) video (above)—a contrail that ejects from this type of weapon a fuel mixture upwards into the air at rapid speed…

…that’s then ignited to catastrophic effect when this type of weapon explodes near ground level (above).

According to the limited portions of this highly-classified report permitted to be reviewed and commented on by various ministries, the SVR continues examining the ANTIFA forces that moved their train derailment terrorist campaign from Canada into the United States earlier this year—and when yesterday they noted the two ANTIFA train derailment Washington States terrorists captured by the FBI last month, that was followed earlier this week by the fiery and explosive train derailment in Washington State the FBI has rushed forces to, today they’ve now added to this growing list the massive train derailment that occurred in Iowa on Christmas Day.

A Christmas Season of massive explosions and train derailments in America, this report continues, that’s now been joined by a Christmas Eve devastating three-alarm occurring in Rochester-New York—a fire that completely destroyed the building housing the printing company City Blue Imaging—and is notable because City Blue Imaging is a subcontractor for the Rochester-New York printing company Phoenix Graphics made infamous for its misprinted and wrong address mail-in election ballots.  

In this reports conclusion section it sees SVR analysts giving a detailed briefing to Security Council Members about a believed to fictional person named Anthony Quinn Warner—SVR analysts that are intimately familiar with how the CIA creates their “patsy” assassins like Lee Harvey Oswald—so when it was first reported that Anthony Quinn Warner is the “suspected” suicide bomber who died in the Nashville explosion, SVR analysts began waiting for the CIA fairy tales to begin—the first of which was quick in coming when it was reported that the FBI is investigating if “5G paranoia” was behind the Nashville explosion, that will no doubt be followed by “stories” saying this “person” was a pedophile because graphic images of children were found on his computer—fairy tales needed to quickly cover-up the fact that the supposed RV said used in this explosion is nothing like the one said previously photographed in Warner’s home driveway—which is why SVR analysts look for “message clues” as to why this name is being used—the most glaring one is the use of the name “Anthony Quinn”, the now deceased famous American actor made notable because he had a personal relationship with Mafia crime boss Frank Costello, who aside from being known as the “Prime Minister of the Underworld” was business partners with Joseph Kennedy, the father of publically executed President John Kennedy—thus making it no surprise that the Mafia helped the Kennedy’s steal the 1960 presidential election and this name is being used as reminder of this fact—though for the greatest understanding of what’s really occurring, sees these SVR analysts stating that it’s revealed in their “reverse speech” analysis of the warning that preceded the missile strike explosion in Nashville—a warning that repeatedly told people to evacuate the area, but when reversed plainly says: “Are you ready...It will happen very quickly...Are you ready for a Merry Christmas to all!”.          

FBI says above RV was used in Nashville explosion…

…but the RV photographed in the driveway of Anthony Quinn Warner has two pinstripes on top left side of roof, not one, and has a clearly different exhaust duct to the right side of small side window.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4-5iLK8sjE&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=CALLFORFIRE

[thenightling]

Meet the minion

A list of Morpheus’ minion from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman.

Morpheus' minion:

Matthew  - Spy / messenger.  Matthew is Morpheus’ Raven.  He is a former human who died and whose soul remained in The Dreaming.  Matthew used to be a government agent known as Matthew Cable. After several misadventures in the Swamp Thing comics his body languished in a coma.  During the coma Matthew was taught the error of his misogynistic ways (He had been abusive to his wife) by the nightmarish Eve.   While comatose the corrupt hospital he was kept at harvested organs from his body.  Out of mercy his wife tried to shut off his life support systems but he woke up long enough to apologize ot her and do it for himself.  Once deceased his soul stayed within The Dreaming where he became Morpheus’ loyal raven.  

Lucien AKA Mr. Raven - Morpheus' Librarian and most trusted assistant.  Lucien is a raven but he is usually in human form.  He is very tall (Taller than Morpheus) and has pointed ears. When Morpheus was imprisoned it was Lucien who kept things running for him while most of Morpheus’ other servants fled. Lucien is still Morpheus’ most trusted servant.

Rover - Lucien’s pet werewolf.  Though not seen in Sandman, Lucien kept a werewolf “Pet” in his original comics. 

Nuala - Maid.   Though presented to Morpheus as a slave, Morpheus did not want to keep a servant against her will.  He was pressured into accepting her under threat of offending the Faerie court.  He removed the glamour illusion that was (under pressure from the other faeries) cast on her to make her “Prettier” (preferring her true form) and never once gave her an order though she set about cleaning the castle for him and doing household chores on her own.  Later when the faeries came to reclaim her, Morpheus granted her a boon for her loyal service.  He even once rescued her not-so-kind brother from certain death for her sake and made it clear that it was for her sake.

Mervyn Pumpkinead - Mervyn or Merv Pumpkinhead is the chain smoking  grounds keeper / Handiman of The Dreaming.  At some point while Morpheus was imprisoned, Mervyn abandoned his usual work and took up driving a bus in The Dreaming. Morpheus had to bring him back to the castle to continue his original duties.  As his name suggests he has a jack-o-lantern pumpkin for a head.  

Abel - Abel is the Keeper of the House of Secrets and the victim of Cain’s homicidal tendencies.   Mostly immortal, the kind hearted Abel always bounces back from the dead after being killed by his brother, who murders him regularly in a strange form of obsessive compulsion.  Abel keeps the mysterious house of secrets, which is often changing it’s form and is bigger on the inside.  The house contains nearly all the secrets one could wish to know.

Cain - Keeper of the House of Mystery and story teller.  Cain has a morbid obsessive compulsive need to murder his qausi-immortal brother on a near nightly basis.  Cain is a proud nightmare inducer.  His house of Mystery is the stouter twin of the House of mystery.  For every mystery there is a secret but not every secret requires a mystery.  Like the house of Secrets his house is bigger n the inside and can change form. The House of Mystery seems to be sentient and both houses can appear anywhere in the waking world while still having roots in The Dreaming.   A haunted cemetery exists between their houses.  

Eve - Eve is the Keeper and protector of the ravens that serve Morpheus.  She is a nightmare to Misogynists. She is able to be any age she chooses in appearance.  She resides in a cave in The Dreaming.  This is the same cave that Matthew’s soul inhabited during his long coma before his death and transformation into a Raven.

Original Goldie - Ghost (moved on).  In the old Tales from the Crypt style horror comics that Cain and Abel originated from, Abel had an “imaginary” girlfriend, a ghost named Goldie.  Cain would sometimes patronize this imaginary girlfriend and tell her stories.  Later it was inferred that Goldie was real and had been featured on the cover of an issue of the House of Secrets.   It’s been indicated that she has since moved on to some other afterlife or reincarnation.   

Goldie = Abel's baby gargoyle pet.  In issue 2 of Sandman< Cain gives Abel an egg that hatches to reveal a little golden gargoyle.   Abel names the gargoyle Irving at first but Cain is insistent that Gargoyles must have names that begin with “G” so the gargoyle is renamed Goldie, after the old ghostly girlfriend.    

Gregory - Cain's dog-like (in personality) and draconic (Dragon-like in appearance) Gargoyle.   Gregory is a puppy-esque gargoyle that seems to forget his own size.   He likes to dig up the cemetery and when Morpheus collapsed on his way to the castle (after his escape from captivity) it was Gregory who delivered him to The house of Mystery where he could recover under the care of Cain and Abel.   Gregory is big and green.

Oskar - Cain's black cat.   Though rarely seen these days, Oskar is Cain’s black Cat who often hunts rats in the cemetery.  

Corinthian Versions 1 and 2 - Nightmare.  Corinthian was created to be a “Dark mirror” of human nature.  He was a nightmare that looked human, with white-blond hair.  The difference is Corinthian has mouths full of teeth where his eyes should be.  He can see very well (Somehow)  and he loves the taste of human eyeballs.    The Corinthian went on a murder spree in the waking world during Morpheus’ long imprisonment and when Morpheus hunted him down he “uncreated” him.  Later Morpheus re-created him with a few “adjustments” (making him more loyal). The Corinthian is gay.  This is not a feature of his ‘nightmare” qualities.  He just happens to be gay.    

Fashion Thing / Mad mod Witch - A witch who follows fashion trends and keeps up to date on the human world (Rarely seen).

Brute and Glob =  Two Nightmares. During Morpheus’ absence Brute and Glob tried to create their won Dream Dimension and recruited two Sandman morta superheroes to maintain it, the second of which was Hector Hall, Daniel’s father. The two are very defiant and like to cause trouble.

Ruthven - A vampire bunny.  Not much is known about Ruthven but he was in the castle toward the end of the Brief Lives storyline.

Puss 'n Boots - The Faery tale character of Puss ‘n Boots was seen fighting a Musketeer Mouse in the castle library during Brief lives.   Other literary characters have randomly appeared in that library. 

Echo - (from The Dreaming spin off) - A new Nightmare made from a dead trans woman.   Echo (who temporarily replaced Corinthian) now serves as a Nightmare with a (as she always wanted) a fully biologically female body. 

Taramis - Morpheus' chef. 

Judge Gallows - A nightmare judge (from The Dreaming spin off) that tried to banish Cain.  He seems to think he has more authority than he does, probably because Daneil doesn’t actually get off his ass and do anything.

Cuckoo - The Cuckoo is a parasitic nightmare that looks like Barbie as a little girl.  Later the Cuckoo happily takes the form of a bird (as she always wanted) and flies away even though the immortal witch known as Thessaly wanted Morpheus to kill the Cuckoo. 

Aristeas The poet - An Ancient Greek raven of Morpheus’.  Aristeas served Morpheus for a long time.  After serving him for two centuries he decided he wanted to be human again.  As reward for his loyal service his request was granted however this did not last (as he was no longer happy in The Human World and misfortune kept befalling him) and he eventually returned to being a raven.  Aristeas was based on an historic figure.

Tethys - Daniel's female white raven.   (God, how I hate The Dreaming spin off...)

Alianora = Ghost and Morpheus' old lover.  Alianora rescued Morpheus when he was held prisoner in his castle by two Lovecraftian Gods. The two fell in love but eventually that faded.  with no where else to go, Morpheus cretaed a world of her own out of a skerry in The Dreaming.  This wonderland was maintained by a dream stone.  When it was shattered in A game of You a ghost verison of Alianora made a brief appearance while the skerry was being recalimed by Morpheus.  

Gilbert / Fiddler's Green - Fiddler’s Green is a very pretty place in The Dreaming.  He took human form and lived on Earth for a while using the name Gilbert.  The Fiddler’s Green is a pretty and inspiring place in The Dream realm.  While Morpheus was imprisoned Fiddler’s Green became curious about the human world and took human form, wandering to Earth.  Eventually he was returned to The Dreaming.

The Gate keepers - Morpheus' Wyvern, Hippogriff, and Griffin.  The Wyvern, Hippogriff and Griffin guard the castle in the centre of The Dreaming.  They are Morpheus’ gate keepers.   The castle is surrounded by a gate of horn and a gate of ivory.  Dreams that are lies and deception pass through the gates of ivory.  Truthful and profound dreams pass through the gates of horn.  No one guards the gates of horn. 

Abudah - Monstrous Nightmare creature.  Briefly assists Mervyn Pumpkinhead.

Danny Nod - Lucien’s assistant (Sandman Dreaming spin off).   LIke most characters introduced in The Dreaming Spin-off Danny Nod is unsettling but not in a good way. Many characters in The Dreaming feel like Happy Tree Friends after the novelty of watching cute creatures mutilate each other has worn offThe whole thing is overly dark and gritty and makes all the Dreaming characters frankly unpleasant and unlikable.  No one is written write in that thing.

Knight of Clouds and Shadows and The The Forgotten Trumps - Not much is known about these guys except that they had an appointment with Daniel at the start of Sandman: Overture. 

Note: There were several other dream characters in Sandman  that appear randomly but these are the only ones I know of that were specifically named.