#could be a good opportunity for a third party candidate to roll up and run a super strong campaign

[namjoonsteeth]

Does She?

And I heard you got a new one that looks just like me Ooh, just like me, yeah

But does she want you like I want you? (Like I want you) Does she want you like I want you? Yeah (like I want you, yeah) Does she love you like I used to? See you for the real you? Does she want you like I, like I, like I want you? (Like I want you)

Jay Park x Reader

Genre: Smut

Word Count: 3.8k

_________________________________________________________________

I’ve never laid eyes on him and ever not wanted to have my hands on him. Even at my angriest, when that thin line between love and hate became so transparent that I’d seethe with madness; I wanted my mouth on his, his fingers pressing into my skin. I don’t know when I’d become so blindly addicted to him, somewhere between telling him my name and tasting his lips he’d become my weakness. 

Watching him with someone else didn’t tamper that need that rested deep in my belly for him. I watch him from across the room. He’s trying his best to pretend like he doesn’t see me. I’d caught the smallest look of recognition earlier before his shoulders tightened up, and the set of his jaw became rigid. His hand curves around her waist tightly, possessively. I miss that. I miss the feel of his four fingers pressed against my hip, his thumb rubbing my side. I miss when he’d lean over and tell me all the dirty things he had planned for me after whatever event we were at. 

Now, he avoids looking at me. There’s tension in the air. Everyone knows about how messy our break-up was. A monumentally fucked up situation that ended with him breaking both of our hearts. I know I’m supposed to say that it was all for the better. Staying in a toxic relationship does more harm than good always, obviously. 

But we were different. We’ll always be different. I loved Jay in a way that fried every single cell in my body. I loved him with a force so strong that it physically knocks me back sometimes. I still do. 

I get that I shouldn’t be here. I get that I’m only making it worse. He looks happy, and I should just let him be happy. But, I know him. I know Jay. I know that he’ll always love me the same way that I love him. 

“She looks like you,” a friend leans over to whisper. I can’t be bothered to see which one of the girls it came from, because I’m too focused on the words. She looks like me. 

Her hair is laid, obviously some expensive unit that Jay reached into his pocket for. Her short red sequined dress clings to her shape like wet rubies, the light bouncing off her body with each movement. She makes my own red latex dress seem obscene. Dark skinned, and gorgeous. Jay has a type. 

“It’s almost like we coordinated,” I smile, bringing the small glass of liquor to my lips. The shot tastes like courage and bad decisions that could possibly ruin my ex-boyfriend’s new relationship. 

I get my opening to walk over when a mutual friend walks past, heading in Jay’s direction. We make small talk about weather and skirt around the fact that I’m definitely using them to approach the group of artists and smaller background figures. Managers and social media experts who’ve bulit there careers with the tiny devices in their hands. A lot of them boldly take Instagram videos and pictures with Jay in the background. He hates that shit. I step in frame of one candid shot of Jay, blocking his face. 

“Look who’s here,” 

It’s a shitty and awkward introduction, but I don’t care. 

That physical reaction is back. The feeling of breathlessness that I get whenever I’m in his personal space. My skin feels like it’s buzzing, my mouth goes dry, my fingertips ache to touch him. Like a kid forced to share their favorite toy, I’m filled with a barely restrained fire that’s stoked as his eyes finally land fully on me. 

His hair looks wet, his lips dark pink from a tinted lip balm. My mind works to take in all it can. It’s been a full year since I was this close to him. The last time we were within arm distance, I’d called him the worst thing to ever happen to me. He’d called me selfish and ticked off all the things I’d ruined in his life. 

I ignore his gaze and lock eyes with the girl who’s standing where I want to be. Determination is a strong feeling; it’s eight parts will to succeed and two parts believing in yourself. I’m past that. I have to win. This isn’t a petty game between two girls; it’s me against Jay. As good as he is, he’s not fighting for Jay Park. I’m fighting for Jay Park. My stakes are higher than it’ll ever be for him. 

“You’re—,” she starts, her eyes lit with contained discomfort. I’m a little sorry that she has to get caught in such a mess. Not sorry enough to miss out on this opportunity. 

“The ex-girlfriend,” I smile at her. I tilt my head. Looking at her close-up makes me feel a little better. She’s still gorgeous, a face that belongs on magazines and selling Victoria Secret lingerie or some shit. 

But she’s not me. 

“Right,” Her smile falters a bit. “I’m—,”

I don’t hear her name. I block it out. If I know her name, it makes her a real obstacle. I can’t afford to let her be. Right now, she’s just a game piece. It’s unfortunate. 

“Nice to meet you,” I lean in, pressing my lips against her cheek. 

Finally, I give Jay my attention again. The hard tick of his jaw begs me to be good. His eyes, his eyes tell me everything I need to know. 

He loves me. 

He wants me. 

He needs me, too. 

“Hi,” I feel my hard front start to crumble. I want so badly to just lean into him. 

“Hey,” he says. He pulls his hands away from his girlfriend, who looks up at him questioningly. 

“I need to talk to you,” I tell him. He holds my eyes for seconds. He’s trying to tell me that none of the soft stuff between us matters. He’s trying to tell me that all that’s left between us is two cold hard stones that we’d placed on both of our hearts. He’s trying. He’s failing. 

“I don’t think we should,” he says quietly. 

“I don’t want to make a scene,” I tell him with a smile. “I will, though,”

He looks like he expected the words. His dark eyes dart around us like he’s seeing just how many people are watching. My guess is that everyone’s watching. 

I tilt my head toward the exit closest to us. He rolls his eyes, not bothering to hide his annoyance. He bends down, whispering in her ear and I watch as her eyes light up, her shoulders relaxing as he reassures her. The quick kiss that he plants on her mouth is enough to make my skin crawl and my blood burn. 

It must be the reaction he’s after because he smiles, lips pulled back in a biting grin that genuinely hurts me. I turn away, leaving the group without saying my goodbyes, and know he follows. Snagging two more shots off of a tray carried by a waiter too young to even drink. 

There’s a coat room around the corner, but even that’s still too close to the her. My heels click angrily against the ground as I lead us far away from the party. 

He calls my name, exasperated. I ignore him, gripping the glass in my hand to push down the vomit that threatens to come up. It was just a kiss. It’s been more than a year since he’s had his mouth on any part of me, and still I feel like he’d given something that belongs to me to someone else. 

“Stop,” he sighs. “Just stop. You don’t even know where you’re going,”

We’re in a hallway with nowhere to go but out. If we wanted to, we could make a quick get away. No one would even see us. I’d call a car, take him to mine, find out what I’ve missed in the last 388 days. 

“Drink this,” I push the shot at him, not bothering to wait on him as I take my own. 

“I’m not drinking it, Y/n,” he holds a hand up, refusing to take the glass. “And you have five minutes,”

“Drink the fucking shot, Jay,” When I hear my own voice, I sound weak. With just a few seconds of comfort to her, he’s broken down my whole facade. I can’t even pretend to be above any of this. I had planned to take the high road—well as high road as taking my boyfriend back could be. I most definitely didn’t plan on letting him see me fall apart over him because of a kiss. 

“Not everyone runs on your time,” he frowns. “You want to talk then talk, because you’re fucking running out,”

I lean against the wall, and bring the glass toward my lips to down the alcohol myself. Jay wraps his fingers around my wrist, stopping me from drinking it. 

“Geez, what the fuck is wrong with you?” He grabs the glass and drinks it quickly. “Why are you acting like this girl,”

I stare at him. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to look at him. Everything about him tonight is exactly how I’ve always liked it. His hair is longer, gelled in ringlets that fall into his face but not quite enough to be annoying. The red shirt he’s wearing is silky, unbuttoned down to the third or fourth button, the tattoos on his chest exposed. He’s wearing high rise slacks that show off his ankles. 

“Y/n, I can’t do this with you. If you’re fucked up, I can get you a car and wait with you but if this is some game—,”

“Do you still love me? I mean, not in that forever in your heart bullshit way, but do you still love me for real,” I pull my bottom lip between my teeth, scared that there’s even a possibility that he’ll say no. 

“Y/n,” he starts to say something but I can already tell that he’s not being truthful. He’s going to try to dodge my question. 

“You still spin my world,” I sigh, leaning my head against the cold brick wall behind me. I have to watch him, because his body is more truthful than his words right now. 

“I haven’t thought of anyone else but you, Jay. When I close my eyes, it’s you. When I fuck, I’m fucking you. Even when it’s my own hands, I can’t get yours off of me,”

“I’m not doing this with you,” Jay says quietly. “I’m not fucking doing this,” His head shakes. Still, he doesn’t leave. I watch him lean against the opposite wall, putting distance between us. There’s something in the air that’s keeping our eyes on each other. Like a magnet, I can’t look away. 

I take in everything I’ve missed. His hair is grown out more than usually. There’s a new tattoo peaking out of the sleeve of his rolled up shirt; the logo for his second label. I remember joking, weeks before we’d broken up, that his next tattoo would be of my name. There’s so many parts of him that I want to touch right now. So many parts of him that I need to see if I know the same way that I used to. 

I take a bold step toward him. 

His eyes look away from me finally, toward the wall behind me as I draw closer. I’ve come this far, there’s no use in not diving full force into him. I need to be in his space, in his face. I need to touch his skin and prove that he’s still mine, the way he’s always been. 

My arms circle around his neck. I half expect him to shake me off but he stands still. I need his hands on me, too. That part might have to wait just a little longer. Right now, I just need him. There’s a craving, a yearning for everything related to him. I want to be wrapped up in him. 

“Let’s try again, Jay,” I whisper, looking up at him, resting my chin in the center of his chest. He smells like the same soap he always uses, the same cologne, the same after shave. It’s ridiculous how much I’ve missed him. 

He’s quiet as he looks away from me. He’s still here, though. He could’ve told me to fuck off. But he’s here with me, letting me touch him. 

“Do I have to beg?” I ask. “You want me on my knees for you, begging?”

He doesn’t budge. His juts out in defiance. I wonder what he’s thinking about. There’s a war within himself, that much I know. I can see it going behind his dark eyes. There’s something for me there. I know it.

“Your girlfriend looks like me. You notice, right?” I try again. I can’t keep the malice out of my tone at the mention of my replacement. 

His eyes flick to mine. “She looks like you but she’s nothing like you. She’s not fucking crazy. She’s not—,”

“In love with you,” I interrupt, rolling my eyes at him. “She’s doesn’t love you the way I do. You can dress her up any way you want but she’s not me,”

“Who says I want you—,”

I press my mouth against his neck. We’re talking in circles, getting nowhere really. He can fool every single person in that room, but he can’t fool me. Not when he looks at me like he’s daring me to do something about all of this. I can’t waste time tonight. We’ve already wasted enough. 

“Tell me to stop,” I whisper. My hands pull at his shirt, untucking it from inside his slacks. I waste no time pressing my fingers against his warm skin. My lips move up his throat, his jaw until I’m close to his mouth. 

Jay looks down at me for a long second, his dark eyes moving over my face. We’re caught in a heavy silence for seconds, both of us afraid to move. I wonder what he’s thinking about. How is he framing this moment in his head. 

My hands move further up underneath his shirt, laying flat just beneath his pecs. 

“Y/n,”

“I think about this all the time. Do you remember? Do you even think about me? You have to,” I whisper. All the parts of me that’s refused to believe that Jay and I are over—truly over, rise and awaken at having him in front of me. I’m desperate.

“I think about how your skin feels against mine, the look on your face when you cum," He says suddenly, surprising us both. 

He reaches up to settle his hands on my hips. He smells so good and I bet he feels even better. There’s too much between us. Too many layers of clothing, too much unspoken tension, too much of everything that has nothing to do with getting his hands on me. I force myself to stay like this, to not push him too far no matter how much I want his mouth on mine. 

"I remember," He continues with his mouth close to my ear. "How you taste. I love it, putting my mouth on you. You came the hardest with my tongue on you. Inside you. You’re always so responsive. I miss trying to keep you still," 

His lips press against the skin below my ear. He reaches up to move my hair so that his mouth can work up my jaw. My hands slide down from his chest to his sides, fingers pressed roughly against his skin. Once again he’s taken control of the situation. I want to let him, but he could leave me here. He could still go back to her. 

“I need you, Jay. I need you so bad—,”

He kisses me. His teeth knocking roughly against mine as he takes my mouth harshly. He sucks on my bottom lip, and it takes everything in me not to peel my dress off here. He’s on the same page. His fingers reach up my dress, curving to my skin underneath the latex. 

He tastes like patron, and not her. I pretend that the alcohol washed away any trace of her. I pretend that we never lost each other. 

“Come home with me,” I whisper, breathless.

He doesn’t respond. Instead he hikes my legs up on his hips, his hands gripping my thighs as he pushes me against the wall. I’ll fuck him here. If that’s what it’ll take, I’d do it. Right in the hallway where anyone could find us. 

“I can’t wait,” he says. His mouth trails down my neck, tasting my skin. His wet tongue dips into my collar bone before his teeth sink into my skin. 

Suddenly, he drops me and pulls my dress down. He grips my hand and pulls me along with him. We go outside, past the people waiting for cars to go home or just showing up. We go around the back of the building, stepping through flower beds and shrubs. We trip over ourselves, laughing as we catch each other and kiss away giggles. 

“Here,” he points to a tiny gazebo, pulling me into it. “This is going to have to work,”

It’s so dark inside that I can barely see him. But I can feel him. That’s all that matters. My hands are busy with his belt buckle as he pulls the rubber material of my dress up my thighs. His hand feels around the thin lacy material of my underwear for a second before his grip tightens and pulls them off. 

“Beg,” he says suddenly. “Beg me,”

“To fuck me or take me back,” I ask the dark. I hope he can hear how smug I am. We both know that as willing as I am to get on my knees for him, he’ll end up doing whatever I want. 

“Which one do you want the most?” He asks. 

I don’t think about it. Him. I want all of him. His laughs and his frowns. I want his highs and lows and any thing that lies in between no matter how bad. But right now I need both. I don’t trust him to give me one and not the other. So, I stay silent. 

I reach down to grab his hand and bring it up to my hip, leading him backwards until he sits in the wooden bench behind him. 

He watches me, eyes taking in as much of my skin as he can see. I straddle his waist, one knee pressed to either side of him on the hard mood. His hands grip my ass, keeping me balanced in his lap. 

I reach up to pull the straps of my dress down my shoulders. One of his hands reaches up to touch one of my breasts. His thumb rubs over a nipple before tweaking the peak roughly. A hand on my hip jerks me forward roughly until I can feel his breath on my skin. His lips kiss the center of my chest once before he licks my skin, pulling a nipple into his mouth. 

“I don’t have anything,” he says. 

At this point nothing will stop me from having him inside of me. Condom or not, I’m passed needing him. 

“I don’t care,” I tell him, pressing my mouth against his. My hands hold his face like I’m afraid that he’ll slip away if I’m not touching him in every single way I can. 

I lift on my knees so that he can undo his slacks and pull himself out. He takes my mouth again as I settle in place, groaning at the feel of him again. It’s indescribable how good he feels. It’s like trying to explain the creation of the universe. It’s like explaining the chemical formula for love and faith and every other invisible thing that we’re told exists even though we can’t touch it. 

If love were tangible, though—if I could hold it in my hand or bottle it up, it would be in the form of Jay fucking me inside of a gazebo. It would be the first time I saw him. It would be the first time he’d smiled at me, and the first time he’d told me that he loved me, and the first time we talked about being together forever. It would be all our important moments balled into one lump of perfect. Because this is perfect. We’re perfect. 

His hands move my hips the way that makes us both feel good. We swallow each other’s moans, bite at each other’s lips, smooth away frown that come from how amazing this feels. When I pull away from his mouth and throw my head back, his hand tangled in my hair and pulls me back in. 

He feels how close I am to an orgasm and he uses his fingers to pull it out of me until I’m shaking against him, barely able to let my knees hold me up. 

“Give me your mouth,” he says hoarsely, helping me unravel myself from his lap. 

I slide down his body, wrapping my mouth around his him. His hands hold my face firmly as he pumps his hips roughly. I feel my throat start to ache, my jaw start to lock up but I do my best to work through it as he uses my mouth to get off. 

“Fuck,” He curses, throwing his head back against the wall. I look up at him, watching him come apart above me. His pink lips parts as he mumbles about how good my mouth feels, how no one can make him cum like I can, how he missed me. I’m more than satisfied, more than reassured. He’s mine. He’ll always be mine. 

I finish him off, licking my lips as he catches his breath. I add this moment to our list of fucked up situations we’ve found ourselves in: fucking in a gazebo with people only a couple hundred yards away. It wouldn’t be surprising if someone heard us, but we’re both beyond caring. 

He pulls me off of the ground and to my feet. His hands brush over my sore knees before he sits me down on the bench beside him. He pulls the straps of my dress back in place before rubbing his thumbs under my watery eyes. 

“Miss me?” I smile up at him, laughing against his mouth as he pulls me in. 

Jay cups my neck with his hand, bringing my forehead against mine. He kisses me long and hard and full of everything we’ve been missing. 

“She doesn’t fuck you the way I do, does she?” I ask him smugly. 

He pushes my hair out of my eyes a presses his lips roughly against mine. “No,” he says, breathless. “She wouldn’t know where to start,”

[unganseylike]

TRC the good place au! part 1

as promised, a tgp au! None of the characters are supposed to align specifically with tgt characters or pairings, but there may be similarities. sorry about the spacing, tumblr is the Worst!

—-

Blue Sargent opened her eyes to a blank wall with the words “Everything is fine.” She once considered herself some sort of artist, and thought she wouldn’t design a welcome sign with so little glitter. A door she hadn’t realized was there opened. A friendly, but remarkably...gray... face popped out. “Hello, Blue,” the man said warmly. “I’m Mr. Gray, the Architect.”

The aptly named Mr. Gray asked her to sit down, then set a overflowing file on his desk. “Miss Blue, you’ve had quite the life! I’m so excited to welcome you to the Good Place.” As he explained the afterlife, Blue sat with what she hoped was a pleasant smile to conceal her confusion. It wasn’t that she thought she was a bad person, it was just that the life she led was unremarkable, especially in comparison to the standards that Mr. Gray said determined who went to the Good Place.

It wasn’t until he began marveling on her life that Blue was certain something was wrong. “I haven’t met many psychics, you know, since most of them don’t exactly qualify for the Good Place. But after you discovered your powers, you used them in every way you could to help others. The way you guided that mother to find her long lost son was truly amazing. And you died healing that little girl’s illness. Nothing like it!”

Blue was not psychic. In fact, she probably more not psychic than other not psychics, as her entire family but her was gifted with the sight. She had tried to be a part of the magic, but it didn’t want her. So Blue decided to abandon the magic, leaving her home for a place where being ordinary was, well, ordinary. She lived without the extraordinary, and had certainly died without it, in a quite mundane car accident that any marginally talented psychic could’ve foreseen.

But who was Blue to contradict the authority of the afterlife? What if they sent her to the Bad Place Mr. Gray had spoken of with such distaste and haste? She resolved to sort it all out later. For now, Mr. Gray gave her a tour of their Neighborhood.

It was trendy, with the unique presence of a small New England town but with a sense of purposeful quirkiness. Mr. Gray noticed her staring at the array of frozen yogurt shops. “We tailor all elements of a Neighborhood to its residents, from the scenery and your homes to the restaurants in its center.”

“There must be a lot of people who like frozen yogurt in this neighborhood, huh?”

“Well, that was mostly you!” He laughed. Something about it sparked Blue’s curiosity. She did like yogurt, that was for certain, but she had always felt a little annoyed by the popularity of froyo since it’s essentially ice cream. Maybe Heaven had frozen yogurt that actually preserved the yogurt part. Blue resolved to try it- she should be more open minded now that she would be here for eternity.

After passing rows and rows of houses, all of which reminded Blue of her childhood home- a bit eccentric, yet comfortable and warm- they stopped. The one in front of them was more stately, reserved than the others. With apprehension, she followed Mr. Gray inside.

It was...nice. She thought of the wealthy boys she served at Nino’s, and how after the long, miserable hours, she had longed to have money and live in a house like this one. Blue knew she had never really wanted that though, as much as she resented the money troubles and constant business in 300 Fox Way. The impeccably white walls were broken up by a large window. She couldn’t get a good look at it from where she was standing, but the view in it definitely didn’t seem to be from directly outside. Before she could ask about it, Mr. Grey gestured to the doorway. “Here he is now, your soulmate!”

Blue was not expecting a soulmate in the afterlife. She hadn’t really expected to find a soulmate-if they were even real- for at least a few more years in living life. She was only 25, after all. She certainly wasn’t expecting her soulmate to be wearing such a bright polo and be announced by Mr. Gray as “Richard Campbell Gansey the Third.”

His presidential grin dimmed a bit. “Please, just call me Gansey.” He stuck out a hand, like he was meeting a senator.

Blue hesitantly took the hand. “I’m Blue.”

As Gansey’s eyes narrowed, Mr. Gray took the opportunity to quickly excuse himself. “Blue, you say? Is that a nickname?”

She allowed herself an eye roll before remembering they were supposed to be soulmates and live in the same house. She could at least start out friendly. “Nope. It’s my first name, on the birth certificate and everything.”

“What about Jane?”

“Excuse me?”

“I like the name Jane.”

Blue huffed. “My name is Blue, Mr. Richard Campbell the Third.” She didn’t feel bad when he cringed.

“Sorry.” Gansey looked uncomfortable as he tried to recover his swagger. “Well, Blue, what brings you here?”

“What brought me to... the afterlife? I died?”

“Oh. No. I mean, how’d you get here, to the Good Place? Start fourth wave feminism or something?”

He didn’t say it with too much acerbity, so Blue decided to attempt again to be friendly. “I wish, actually I....” Shit. Should she tell the story Mr. Gray had or the truth? She thought of what the women at 300 Fox Way did when they were dealing with a particularly sensitive case or client- be ambiguous and divert the attention. “I did my share of social work, but 25 years is too short, huh. But, please,tell me about yourself, Gansey.”

“Well, after my teenage years gallivanting in forests, I decided to follow the rest of the family into politics. I worked on my mother’s campaign for Congress for a while, and soon I ended up as the campaign manager for a multitude of candidates. I was hoping to run myself some day, but, obviously I didn’t make it there. I suppose helping others be advocates reflected well for me, then, since I’m here.” Blue was scared to even ask what candidates and politics Gansey stood for. She was interested in asking about the gallivanting in woods part, though.

Before she could ask, Mr. Gray strolled back through their doorway. In his hand was a fancy invitation. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I have exciting news. Two of our new residents, Adam and Ronan, will be hosting a welcome party tonight! You all must come and meet them and the others in your neighborhood!”

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to a weekly collaboration between FiveThirtyEight and ABC News. With 5,000 people seemingly thinking about challenging President Trump in 2020 — Democrats and even some Republicans — we’re keeping tabs on the field as it develops. Each week, we’ll run through what the potential candidates are up to — who’s getting closer to officially jumping in the ring and who’s getting further away.

The Democratic National Committee announced Thursday its first presidential primary debates will be held in Miami, Florida on June 26 and 27, which is less than three months away, but the presidential field is still far from set.

Miramar, Florida Mayor Wayne Messam entered the race this week, inching the primary field count closer to 20 candidates. And with former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Michael Bennet, and Rep. Tim Ryan (among others) discussing possible runs, it may not be long before the group tops 20. If that happens, that could pose serious problems for the DNC and the thresholds it set for its initial primary debates. The party has currently capped the number of debate participants to 20 and said in February that if more than 20 candidates met this criteria, they would give preference to candidates who cleared both the polling and fundraising thresholds, and if that was still too many people, they would include candidates with the highest polling averages.

Here’s the weekly candidate roundup:

Mar. 22-28, 2019

Stacey Abrams (D)

In an interview on “The View” Wednesday, Abrams responded to reports that Biden was interested in naming her as his running mate as he reportedly prepares to mount a presidential bid.

“I think you don’t run for second place,” the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate said, adding, “If I’m going to enter a primary, I’m going to enter the primary.”

Abrams said she still has not reached a final decision about her political future, but is “thinking about everything,” including presidential and Senate campaigns.

Michael Bennet (D)

The Colorado senator told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Thursday that he’s “very inclined” to run for president in 2020.

“We’re looking at it and I think … the American people need somebody who’s going to run and tell them the truth in 2020,” Bennet said. “We can’t get anything done around here if we continue to do what we’ve been doing here for the last 10 years, it’s not just since Trump arrived.”

Joe Biden (D)

CNBC reported Wednesday that a Biden presidential announcement could come as late as the end of April, citing those familiar with his plans.

The former vice president also attracted attention for expressing regret over his handling of the 1991 Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, during which Anita Hill accused Thomas of sexual harassment. “To this day, I regret I couldn’t come up with a way to get her the kind of hearing she deserved,” he said, during remarks at the Biden Courage Awards in New York Tuesday, honoring students who have worked to prevent sexual assault.

Cory Booker (D)

A CNN town hall in South Carolina on Wednesday touched on a number of Booker’s campaign priorities, including criminal justice reform and the rising costs of health care.

The New Jersey senator said he would “absolutely” consider issuing mass pardons for those convicted of marijuana-related crimes, noting that “there is no difference in America between using and even selling marijuana between blacks and whites, but if you’re African-American in this country, you’re almost four times more likely to be arrested for that.”

Booker also somewhat broke from his past support of the pharmaceutical industry — which is particularly prominent in his home state — by pledging not to take money from industry executives and PACs.

Pete Buttigieg (D)

Buttigieg had a relatively strong performance in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, polling at 4 percent,which tied him with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and vaulted him into an upper-tier of candidates where in a crowded field capturing more than 1 percent support is hard..

Sports fans who have noticed the resemblance between Buttigieg and Boston Celtics head coach Brad Stevens got a kick out of Stevens expressing his admiration for the South Bend mayor and noting he has “followed him pretty close.”

“I’ll be real candid, I love a lot of his platforms. I’m a big fan of his,” Stevens told NBC Sports Boston. “I haven’t endorsed anyone yet, I don’t get into the political stuff too much, but he’s a hard one for me to root against. He’s also rising pretty quickly.”

Julian Castro (D)

Castro called President Trump’s claim that the GOP would soon be known as “the party of health care” by calling the declaration “stunning.”

“This administration is going completely against the will of the people; going against the will of Congress, and trying to pull the rug out from under millions and millions of American families,” he said on CNN Tuesday.

John Delaney (D)

The former Maryland congressman said in response to Barr’s letter to Congress, which summarized the results of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that “as an American” he was glad “on some level … that the President of the United States was not indicted for colluding with a foreign power.”

“I was happy that the report is over because I think we’ve spent way too much time talking about this, and obviously I think every American on some level should be happy with the headline results,” Delaney said on Fox News Wednesday.

Tulsi Gabbard (D)

While acknowledging she supported Mueller being given the opportunity to complete his investigation without interference, Gabbard tweeted Monday that Americans now needed to “set aside our partisan interests and recognize that finding the President of the United States not guilty… is a good thing” for the country.

Kirsten Gillibrand (D)

Gillibrand became the first candidate to release her 2018 tax returns Wednesday, revealing that she earned roughly $218,000 and paid nearly $30,000 in taxes. The New York senator further called on her fellow candidates to follow suit. Elizabeth Warren’s website includes 10 years of tax returns but her 2018 form has yet to be posted.

In her first major event since officially joining the race, Gillibrand spoke outside of Trump International Hotel in New York last weekend, where she called the president a “coward” and said she has “stood up against Donald Trump more than anyone in the Senate.”

Kamala Harris (D)

On Tuesday, Harris rolled out a plan to invest federal money in raising teacher salaries across the nation, promising an average increase of $13,500, plus additional funding for educator training programs.

“Our country’s success is a product of the two groups who raise our children: parents and teachers. We are not paying our teachers their value,” the California senator said in a statement. “Teachers should not have to work two or three jobs to pay the bills.”

John Hickenlooper (D)

In a Washington Post op-ed, the former Colorado governor said he supports “the concept of a Green New Deal,” but that the much publicized proposal put forth by Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. “sets unachievable goals.”

“We do not yet have the technology needed to reach ‘net-zero greenhouse gas emissions’ in 10 years. That’s why many wind and solar companies don’t support it,” Hickenlooper writes. “There is no clean substitute for jet fuel. Electric vehicles are growing quickly, yet are still in their infancy.”

“Amid this technological innovation, we need to ensure that energy is not only clean but also affordable,” he continues.

Amy Klobuchar (D)

The Minnesota senator announced a $1 trillion infrastructure plan Thursday, focused on repairing and replacing roads, highways and bridges; expanding public transportation; increasing internet access; rebuilding schools; and modernizing airports and seaports, among other initiatives.

“This plan is about bringing our country together,” Klobuchar said in a statement. “Building bridges is not just a metaphor — this is what I’ve done and what I will continue to do as president. ”

Terry McAuliffe (D)

CNN reported Wednesday that McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia, is leaning toward entering the presidential race, citing Democrats close to him as sources.

McAuliffe has long said that he is considering a campaign, but numerous outlets have previously reported that the former governor’s decision could be influenced by Biden’s deliberations.

Wayne Messam (D)

The relatively unknown mayor of Miramar, Florida officially entered the race Thursday morning with a video detailing his background as the son of Jamaican immigrants who earned a football scholarship before starting a construction business and entering local politics.

In an interview with CNN, Messam touted his outsider status as an advantage in the crowded field of Washington politicians.

“I see it to be a unique opportunity for Americans to look at another option of leadership,” he said, adding “When you look at a mayor, Americans see mayors favorably. We are at the front line of what Americans are dealing with every day.”

Seth Moulton (D)

The Massachusetts congressman, who is still considering a presidential campaign, issued an electoral reform plan Thursday, which included things like expanding automatic voter registration, granting Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. statehood, and making Election Day a national holiday, CNN reported.

Beto O’Rourke (D)

After a quiet week following his whirlwind first days on the campaign trail, O’Rourke will hold a trio of kick-off rallies in El Paso, Houston and Austin, Texas Saturday.

The Texas congressman finished third in a Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, garnering support of 12 percent of respondents, trailing only Biden and Bernie Sanders, who have consistently finished first and second in early primary polls.

Tim Ryan (D)

Ryan continues to deliberate over a presidential run, but he acknowledged this week he could join the field soon.

“In the next few weeks definitely got to pull the trigger one way or the other, got to make a decision,” Ryan told the Youngstown Vindicator Monday, while adding he was concerned he was not hearing enough about “jobs, health care and pensions” from the current candidates.

The Ohio congressman will visit Iowa Saturday for the Iowa Farmers Union “Heartland Forum.”

Bernie Sanders (D)

The Vermont senator told MSNBC Tuesday that he does not support “incremental reform” to improve the Affordable Care Act, only his “Medicare-for-All single payer program” and argued for the complete elimination of private insurance.

In a column in the Des Moines Register, Sanders pledged to support Iowan farmers and take on corporate agribusinesses, writing that farmers have “been systematically stripped of their ability to control their own futures and no longer know whether their hard work will earn them future success and stability.”

“When we are in the White House, we are going to strengthen antitrust laws that defend farmers from the corporate middlemen that stand between the food grower and the consumer, and have now become so big and powerful that they can squeeze farmers for everything they’re worth,” Sanders wrote.

Elizabeth Warren (D)

Much like her crusade against some of the country’s largest tech companies, Warren is also proposing that large agriculture businesses be broken up, writing in a blog post Wednesday that “we must address consolidation in the agriculture sector, which is leaving family farmers with fewer choices, thinner margins, and less independence.”

Northeast corridor travelers felt kinship with the Massachusetts senator earlier in the week when, in a viral moment, TMZ captured her running to New York’s Penn Station to catch a train.

Bill Weld (R)

The former Massachusetts governor and Libertarian vice-presidential candidate, who established a presidential exploratory committee in February, said during a radio interview Monday that he’ll reach a final decision on a primary challenge of President Trump by April.

“I’m leaning towards doing it unless something changes, and set myself an informal deadline of the month of April to pull the trigger,” he later told reporters in New Hampshire.

[fivesaucekisses]

RARE || Awsten Knight Fanfic 1

Chapter Two:

I introduced Waterparks effortlessly and quietly walked off the stage as the curtain drew showing the three men behind me.  They apparently just released an album two days before the show and from the response of the crowd at least a good handful knew about it already.  The crowd roared excitedly as the sound of guitars filled my ears.  The beat made my head bob, but the voice that came out of lilac man was something I was prepared for.  It was rare, you could tell he meant every word he was singing.

I stood behind the curtains, not taking my eyes off of the stage just as infixed as the audience.  My foot started tapping to the beat as I reached for my phone and quickly typed a note to myself: "Waterparks."  I'd have to check them out later.

"Sophia, let's get you back to your seat," Isabel states, coming up from behind me.

"Actually," I smiled, turning around to face her.  "Could I maybe stick around back stage just for a little while?"

She gave me a look that made it seem like I had just inconvenienced her plans, but she sighed giving in.  "I mean I guess you could hang out back here for just a few more minutes, but please be back to your seat after the next commercial break," she pleaded.

I tried to hide my excitement as I eagerly clapped my hands, turning back to the performance just in time to see both guitar players bouncing around the stage.  A few moments later, Otto, the drummer finished with an impressive solo before the lights went out and the crowd erupted yet again.  The curtain fell and the three men came jogging off stage, goofing off as they did so.

"Good job guys!" a man yelled as he met up with the three of them a few feet from me.  He had a camera around his neck and a head of bright red hair.  A colorful bunch, I note.

"I got so nervous just as the curtains came up," lilac guy admits, letting out a breath it seemed like he had been holding.  "I can't believe we just did that," he's suddenly beaming, jumping up and down some.

A smile spreads across my face as I finally take the opportunity to approach them.  "Hey, I just wanted to say that you guys were really great out there," I say as nonchalantly as possible.

"Really?" lilac man questions, shooting me a wide grin.  The other two say 'thank you' in unison before turning to their friend with the red hair who seems intent on not speaking at all as he blatantly stares in my direction.

I give him a smile, trying to hold in my laughter before responding to his question.  "Honestly, I put your bands name into my phone halfway through the song because I wanted to hear more later," I admitted, tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear.

"Do you want to hear more right now?" he asks tilting his head to the side just slightly, reminding me of a very cute dog.

"Definitely," I grin, knowing full well I was going to get in trouble with Isabel when I wasn't back in a few minutes.

"I'm Awsten by the way," he says, holding his hand out to me for a simple handshake.  "That's spelled with a 'w'," he clarifies as I nod.

"Noted."

"That's Geoff, and Otto," he says pointing out the other two members of his band as we walk back towards the dressing room I had first noticed him.  "Oh and Jawn, he's our photographer.  He spells his name with a 'w' too, in case you were curious."

Forty minutes later I was sitting cross legged in my Versace dress on the floor in their green room, listening to demo's off of Awsten's lap top he just happened to have on him.  We'd gotten past the star struck phase and gone straight into Awsten's universe and I was so okay with it.

"And right here, I was thinking I could add in some cool harmonies and it would add this dope effect to the sound, so I decided to throw something together and, well just listen," he's talking quickly, quieting down when he wants me to hear something specific.  His music is good, better than good, it's fantastic and his passion speaks for itself.

"Hey Sophia," his friend Jawn says, pulling me out of my trance.

"Hmm?" I hum, looking up at him from the ground where Awsten and I were crouched.

"Is it weird if I ask for a picture?" he asks, clearly trying to tread lightly.  I appreciate his asking and not just doing.

"Oh yeah, totally," I say, running a hand through my hair some in preparation as I began to stand.

"No no, you can stay down there, I just-" he pauses, looking down at Awsten and over to me.  "you two looked really candid, and it'll make the band look pretty cool," he stated as Awsten's face began to get a red tint.

I look over at Awsten who's just a few feet away from me and smile some.  I guess I didn't always have to have the exact right angle for a photo.  Falling back down beside him, I gesture towards his lap top.  "Alright, what's next."

We stay that way for a while, all five of us talking as the music continues to play in the background.  The longer I'm there, the more they seem to relax around me.  They begin kidding with each other, talking about anything and everything, laughing loudly and occasionally embarrassing themselves or each other.  These are the moments I missed the most when I was working 24/7.  Every person I spoke to was normally older, my boss, or a coworker who acted like they liked me for the sake of a film.  A content sigh leaves my lips as my head bobs to the music.

A knock on the door causes us all to quiet down.  It opens seconds later and I see a familiar face come into view.  "Sophia are you kidding me right now?"  Isabel says in a very similar tone to that of my own mother.

"Isabel," I say, standing up quickly, flattening out the ripples in my dress, "Hey."  The four guys stand up, trying to clear out as fast as possible, causing me to frown some.  "Way to ditch," I mutter as Awsten waves at me, a playful smile on his lips as he runs for the door.

"Do you even know what time it is?" She's now shrieking as she grabs my wrist and begins pulling me out the door.  "You have to be at Andy Cohen's after party in less than 30 minutes.  The award show is over and you dipped literally half way into the show.  Not a good come back for you, Sophia."  Her lecture seems to have ceased for now as we walked in silence towards the exit.  I look around in hopes of spotting Awsten or Jawn's bright colored hair but they're nowhere in sight.

A few minutes and a lot more lecture later, I had finally made it to the overly crowded club.  It's now becoming clear to me that I missed the memo of free booze at the event making me one of the only sober people in the room.  As soon as we're through the door's Isabel is gone, probably already beginning to network.  More power to her if she wants to spend every waking moment of her life working.

"Sophia, so good to see you!" I hear a slurred voice say as a clearly drunk Andy Cohen makes his way over to me.

"Hey Andy, this party is amazing.  Thank you for the invite," I say giving him a hug and a smile.

"Oh stop it, you know you're always invited to my parties babe, you're one of America's favorite faces, who by the way has to make an appearance on my show now that you're back in the spotlight" he laughs, shooting me a wink.  I had to hold back the urge to roll my eyes.

"You're too sweet, but I'm only back for the night." I wave off his statement as best I can, patting his arm.

"That's a real shame Sophia.  Don't let that dumb boy stop you from being the true star I know you are," he coos, wrapping an arm around my shoulders.  "I've got to go make my rounds sweetie and you've got to get a drink in that hand of yours," he states, turning me towards the bar before letting go of me.  My eyes can't help but notice a familiar head of purple hair.  No way.  "Go have some fun," he mutters into my ear before disappearing into the sea of people.

Third time's a charm right? I wonder to myself before taking a deep breath and walking over to him.  He's leaning against the bar, staring at the bar tender who keeps blatantly ignoring him and taking other's people's orders.  "Need some help?" I ask, squeezing in beside him.

He glances over to me briefly, smiling some when he does.  "Hey Sophia, are you stalking me?"

I laugh at his comment, trying to hide the redness in my cheeks.  "Actually, I was going to ask you that."  I look back over at the bartender and catch his attention with a quick wave and a smile.  "Hey, could I get a glass of champagne? And whatever he wants," I say gesturing over to Awsten who's just staring at me incredulously.

"Water please," he says, breaking eye contact with me to look at the bar tender who just scoffs at him.

"Water?" I question, furrowing my eyebrows together.  "Bold choice," I grin.

He lets out a slight chuckle, looking down at his hands in front of him.  "I'm a risk taker, what can I say?"

The bartender hands us our drinks and I take a small sip, looking over at Awsten.  He was attractive and his purple hair looked good against his lighter skin tone.  He peers up at me from his glass, noticing that I'm staring.  "Do you have two different colored eyes?" I ask, flicking my eyes back and forth between his.

He lets out a laugh at my bluntness and nods, "yeah, look!" he says excitedly, opening his eyes a little wider and leaning into me some.

I giggle more than okay with him closing the gap between us.  I stare at his eyes intently, noticing the slightly darker hue of his right eye.  "Your eyes sort of remind me of the ocean," I smile some as I see pupils dilate.

He leans back a little, a smile spread across his lips.  "You're very smooth," he admits honestly, laughing some as his cheeks slightly redden.  He grabs his glass off the counter and takes a quick drink.  "For the record, your eyes are a much prettier blue," he says with a nod.

I lean on the bar some, taking another sip of my drink as I bat my eyes at him playfully.  "You think so?"

"You got something in your eye?" he quips back, causing me to drop my act and begin giggling.  He smiles wide again as the silence falls between us, "you're pretty cool," he states matter of factly, seemingly happy with his discovery.

"Do you not think I was cool before this?" I ask, genuinely curious.

"No, I've always thought you were cool," he clarifies, "it's just been that most actresses are fake these days," he winces some at how that came off.  "Wow, uh I'm sorry, that was the worst way I could have said that.  You're great, I swear I think you're the coolest, you're talented, you're beautiful, I mean you're you, you know?" Awsten is full on rambling, trying to dig himself out of a hole and I can't help but smile.

My face is starting to hurt from smiling so much in one sitting.  I cover my mouth with my hand to try and hide my amusement as he continues.  He doesn't stop until he's completely out of breath.  "Can we pretend I stopped talking after I said you were cool?" he asks, red in the face from talking so fast.

"And ignore the fact that you said I was beautiful?" I grin as he scratches his head, now avoiding eye contact with me. "Absolutely not."

"Awsten!" I hear someone shout as we both jump apart.  Jawn comes plowing through the crowded bar and over to the two of us, camera still hanging from his neck.  "We thought you'd gotten lost," Jawn states, shaking his head at Awsten before turning to see me.  "Oh hey Sophia," he smiles and gives me a quick wave.

Awsten shakes his head some rolling his eyes at his friend.  "I've literally been gone ten minutes."

"I can let you get back to your party," I interject, "I've got to make my rounds anyways."

"Hey before you go," Jawn says, turning towards me.  "Can I actually get a picture of you and the band?"

"What he's asking is for you to give us free promo," Awsten says, nudging my side with his elbow.  "Which I think is a fantastically generous thing to do with your social media power," he states holding his hand over his heart.

Jawn laughs as he leads us away from the crowded bar to the tables near the edge of the club.  "Otto, Geoff, come here for a sec," he beckons.  The two are sitting at a booth talking back and forth with drinks in their hands.  They look up to see the three of us and walk over.  "Hey Sophia!" Geoff waves happily as he approaches.  I wave back with just as much excitement.

"Group photo," Jawn states, the four of us come together, Awsten's on one knee in front of me, his elbow resting on his knee and his chin resting on his hand.  God.  Otto and Geoff are on either side of me, smiling wide.  The camera goes off and we all relax before Awsten stops us.

"Wait wait, I need one on my phone, Travis will never believe this if I don't text him immediately," he insists handing the phone over to Jawn before hopping up and standing directly in front of me.  "This is the perfect picture," he says through laughter, his entire frame blocking me from view.  What a nerd.

"Funny," I fake laugh, pushing him to the side a little to pose for the camera a beaming smile on my face as Awsten looks down at me still laughing at his own joke.  Jawn takes the picture amid the chaos and nods with approval at his job well done.

He hands the phone back to Awsten and starts looking through his camera at his other photos.  "This is great!" Awsten shouts, laughing at his phone before turning it to face me.  It was a pretty great picture.  The two of us are in the center, both smiling extremely wide, while Geoff and Otto are on the outsides, with looks between a smile and confusion.  "Please tag me in this if you post it."

"I'll tag you in it, but you can't get a follow from me," he states seriously.  I stop smiling for a second and furrow my eyebrows.

"What? Why?"

"I don't just follow anybody," he says as if I should somehow know this.  Meanwhile I'm literally following thousands of people.

"How many people do you follow?" I ask, now completely curious about this.

"Like 350 maybe?" he says, thinking for a moment.

I stare at him for a moment, in awe.  "You're pretty cool," I laugh, quoting his statement from earlier.

He takes the compliment with an eye roll and a scoff, "I'm posting it right now."  With that he unlocks his phone and opens Instagram instantly.

I try not to stare at his phone too intently as he begins editing the photo, looking up at me briefly.  "What's your handle?" he chuckles before adding.  "God what a millennial thing to ask."

"It's 'thesophiamontgomery'," I say leaning in some to take another glance at the picture.

"Hey hey, look away, you'll see it soon enough," he says, shooing me away, turning his back to me.

"Sophia!" I hear Isabel shout over the noise.  "Sophia, we've got to get going.  There's another party I want to hit before we're done for the night," she says as she approaches me.

The smile I had been sporting almost all night slowly fell from my face.  "Another party?" I ask, trying my hardest not to sound like I was whining, even if I was.

Isabel looks behind me at Awsten who's turned around now, phone slid away.  "Again?" she whispers to me as if he couldn't tell she was talking about him.  Shaking her head some she sighs, "say goodbye to your friends, we have to go," and just like that she's gone again, holding her hand in the air wiggling her fingers around to indicate I had exactly 5 minutes to say my goodbyes.

I turn around to face Awsten who's giving me an understanding look.  "If I follow you on twitter, will you at least consider giving me a follow back?" I ask, as his eyes light up.

He nods, "Absolutely."

Before I know what's come over me, I wrap my arms around him and give him a quick hug.  "It was really great meeting you," I smile as I pull away.

"You too," his cheeks are still flushed pink and I can't help but smile.

I give a small wave to his bandmates and Jawn who wave back.  "Goodnight Awsten," I say, tucking some hair behind my ear as I turn and walk back into the crowd of people, towards the exit.

Chapter Three X

-------

This was a long one, but it was also super Awsten heavy so you’re welcome.  This story can also be found on wattpad if that’s more your scene for fic.  Also I’m picturing Sophia as Barbara Palvin, but you’re welcome to picture her however you please.  This story will eventually have some social media stuff and I needed someone, you know?  Anyways, I hope you enjoy and I’ll see you with another chapter in a week.

[jasonfields]

THE GREAT RESET waged by the Elites

-jason fields

Soon, if not already, you are going to start hearing about the publicly known agenda now named #TheGreatReset. Re-Sloganed locally as needed. It’s a positive thing it seems at first.

Right now, VERY LARGE global organizations and governments are readying the roll out of far reaching plans to “save” our economy, and our Planet and our People.    These Super Orgs are hoping to get the opportunity to reset ALL things, and finally reign in the chaos.  Country by Country, State by state, City by City. A once and and for all time FIX to “save” the PLANET. Even in the U.S., under the guise of our democracy, for as long as the illusion holds. They have been salivating over the idea of a pandemic for many years, and China is leading the example in controlling populations.

Global Elites, leaders, heads of state, very large foundations and some billionaires around the world have loosely banded themselves together concertedly with the power of nations and a public vision to SAVE US from this current dire economic and covid crisis alike, while resetting all structures in order to control all things , and finally be able to control the "coming climate crisis” for good. And they are fully aligned to profiteer on the chaos. Their vision pamphlet at the World Economic Forum discussed in Davos this year reads “COVID 19 : The Great Reset”   Sounds positive.  And any negative associations will be considered lies of course.

We already know Covid is being weaponized as a tool by various power hungry Entities around the globe. HUGE RETURNS on investment for the ELITE Power Brokers gobbling up entire systems.  AND forever Affecting us.  Swooping up what middle class business owners could not hold together during lockdowns.  For Control of all sorts in the name of cutting emissions, but the acts will be played out by global giants in the spirit of greed and control.  Deals cut all across the globe to lockdown entire nations states to kill economies for reset. 

These global players have a plan to “save” things. It's going to be #TheGreatReset of everything globally. It is packaged as a plan to save the world from coming climate and economic disaster. And to “redistribute wealth”.  Killing the upper and middle class and feeding it to the poor while giving immunity to the Elites. Its mission is public. Not currently hiding.

This alignment would usually be a failure.  Normally it would be IMPOSSIBLE to achieve full government control in the US, pre-covid and post-covid. The ripe window to strike is during CHAOS.   They need to consolidate power in the business sectors in order to dial emissions to planet-saving levels. Even their own literature reads:

“COVID-19, the great reset”. Right now; done by 2030.

This is not a Theory. This is the open and searchable agenda of the World Economic Forum, as well as the International Monetary Fund, and this agenda was greatly discussed at the last world forum in Davos. IMF, by the way, has the financial means to “save nations”.  Many many poor nations are irreversibly indebted to the IMF.  It’s a type of hidden control and colonialism by elites puppet masters.

One of the slogans of the European reset campaign is that by 2030, “We will all own nothing, and we will all be happy.”

One of the key components of the agenda is to replace ownership of ALL things including replacing all businesses owners with government stewards, shareholders stepping aside.

This effort will solve the “imminent climate crisis” by perfectly dialing in global emissions for all businesses with ultimate state control.  By making these fundamental changes, they believe the earth will be saved from the “evils of capitalism” so that we can finally return all businesses to net zero emissions. Not some things... But this time, once and for all things.  From food to production to healthcare and education and you best believe all media and free speech.

With power brokers, the ends justify the means. With Planet Savers it will be the same. An army of young people indoctrinated with the word EQUITY.  And the fearful public will let the government break every process if they they believe their life depends on it.  Versus let's just agree we need to do something about our national crises together.

National production resources will be ruled by Government stewards and people who are supposedly not susceptible to greed and power and such. You wanna talk about fascism? This far-left agenda looks more fascist than anything I’ve ever seen. It’s about control.

This oldish globalist agenda would not usually concern me, because up to this point the USA has been IMMUNE and has still remained free. A beacon of hope, with its own issues. This agenda would be impotent. BUT not anymore post-covid.

Covid was necessary to pull this agenda off. It’s now or never. Regular and sustained chaos is required. Supply chains forever broken and remade. Numerous countries involved will lose some of their remaining freedoms. Many country leaders have been bought to join the Global Elite and Shut the Entire Country Down to cripple the middle class buffer.   

It will require these fascist tactics in order to fully control the regular people who were keeping the food on the table and keep running going efficiently. Don’t be distracted by the covid part. This is not a Covid argument. Nor is this an election argument.

You say: CHECKS and BALANCES will keep our Union together and free of Communist or Fascist rule.  Normally Yes, BUT NO!  The balance WILL be exploited Exactly during the Virus.  Control is never given back historically.  Who needs the house and senate when you have the fearful populist masses, a fixed system, and a common enemy painted by the coordinated state press as evil science denying viral killers trying to steal democracy.

Once FACIST or Oligarchy Control is achieved, historically, and 100% for all time, it is never given back.  Not without blood. And not without paying its global masters.  Free thinking lost forever.

America's small businesses were far too powerful for the elites to control. Our sense of freedom was too strong to give up. Our middle class was too independent. Chaos and hunger must strike first, in order to break our spirit and consolidate power; at least some, as much as they can get.

GREED is Thick and the elites just tasted it. For the last nine months, they tasted a little taste of the glory and GREED.Global elites in 9 short Covid months have added 20% to their billions. And Many doubling and tripling assets. And that is nothing compared to the power consolidated.

Could it happen here?

During the great depression era, the good average German people would have never let the Nazis take complete fascist rule without first experiencing deep economic devastation, confusion and disunity and CHAOS. Watch history. Chaos is required by the movement. They need us dependent, they want to feed us in food lines, and take care of our every need. Again, not a covid argument. They will create the chaos so that they can be the ones to bring it back into order as to their playbook. They will take whatever jurisdiction they can get their hands on. Entire countries and sectors under control.

They believe they would do a better job using OUR bodies as a national resource than we can.

And we will be happy.

Sounds blissful. If there was ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE FREE WORLD LEFT to ESCAPE TO.

I don’t know about you but I am deathly in love with FREEDOM.

And if THEY only succeed in fully controlling half or a third of the free world, they would be delighted. They will make millions of people believe that the Earth's future existence depends on it. And the time is now.

Here is how.   They have already cataloged each one of us individually, to destroy any little part of our lives if we don’t comply, and they will give their low ranking thugs access to the extensive harvested digital database of YOU.

Privacy is personal safety. Do I have something to hide? In the future, Yes a lot of things; like, the whereabouts of my children at all times, my business plans, my location etc.

Great Britain and Europe and Australia are already lining up to “reset” their countries unbeknownst to their people. It is just being slowly rolled out in a controlled message of HOPE . This is not a partial reset. This is the Great Reset.  US is looking at the face of its Manchurian Candidate.

Most Americans only get their news sources from comfortable and synchronized sources that have the deepest pockets of influence and legal team.   They don’t even know who owns that Media outlet, and who bought it for a billion last week. Follow the money.  Check your Media Bias Chart.    Compare notes with your friends who think differently and utilize far different news sources.   Is the media being fair?  What is not being told?  Who is the audience?

Fast forward. It will all seem innocent until we see political parties launch their own partisan police force just like all Fascists and communist movements do to ensure compliance in the streets. By then, the fight for freedom gets much harder, and completely underground.   At this point you actually will need Jesus to help you make it through.  Nothing in the natural will help you then.

This year, countries are soon to roll out with things like the Virus Passport and will use it with various levels of control of your movements and privileges. As the limit of each country's people is tested, other countries and governors will watch and be emboldened with this power grab      orgasm. (Excuse me). Governors who throw house party dinners with scientists and doctors while cancelling our Thanksgiving.  (not a covid opinion) just reality.

The enemy is not within. It’s not our neighbors. It’s not the Democrats, it’s not the Republicans. It's not the upper class. It is the Power Brokers, the global elite conveniently aligned to snatch power in this once-in-a lifetime grand opportunity of Covid. The Elites are also rightly afraid of the peaceful masses, after watching all these other countries be overthrown recently.

I challenge you to take a look at who’s in charge of the global economic forum, and what their beliefs are. Look at their collective capacity to make this GreatFlip. Do this, if only to be informed about what powerful people are doing and what other nations are doing. Hidden mass human rights violations around the globe...uhhh, Fox didn’t tell us that? A Fox would not kill a Wolf either. The Elites are almost powerful enough to destroy what’s left of the free world. Their power is YOU.

But not yet…

Do not be divided or you will give them the very Power they need to pull it off.

Ask yourself, “Why was 2020 so bad?” It's not just any one catastrophe, but hundreds and thousands of disasters. Chaos economics. Other elites may not align exactly to each others causes. Yet, they WILL AND ARE united by greed and are participating because it pays HUGE power dividends to the ruling class, and a large amount of wealth is transferred from the middle class and upper class as smaller businesses get gobbled up and destroyed by the economic blow. Again, not a covid argument. Chaos and public fear is necessary to pull this off.

Much worse, a common core value within the upper ranks of the World Economic Forum leaders is to seek solutions to keep the world's population down. It’s kind of a religion. Do your own research. But it’s important considering it’s the personal hope and mission of Bill Gayytes to save the world by lowering the population, and since he’s so involved in our vaxx-s. Will you be his sacrifice? “Do it for Bill?” This is Not a vaxs argument. I am just going to allow you to jump ahead of me in line. Please go first. I'll wait for round 2, But in many countries, you do not get to choose; you have to just trust that your leaders have your best in mind for your race while they catalog you and suppress your movements.….while any deaths in dark corners of the world will be blamed on covid despite the bullet wounds to increase fear and weed out dissenters. Follow these forceful tactics to their evil sources, the lowdown governor types and their nursing home horrors of fear.

Thank you for listening. Honestly, I predict that these global elites and the media outlets that they own will be greatly embarrassed, and the governors consolidating control, are going to overplay their hand in the USA and fail. God Save us! Maybe they’ll have another shot in 20 years. But we can’t go through this sleeping. Do not let yourself be split from your family and neighbors by Facebook algorithms. Stick with your people and love them anyway; they are not the problem. 

We must not be divided. Do not get caught up in rumors. If you watch the news,turn that Sheeeiiit off for a week and READ broad and various news sources. Challenge your current narrative as if you would have to defend professionally, what are your sources. Know your media biases. Do not limit your findings from only one bias. Hear the spin on both sides. No gaslighting allowed for yourself or your family members. Respect and love your family, aside from their perspectives.

Save your country by doing these little things. Build bridges to people nearby you that you could bless and let them know that you are looking out for them during this time. This will help cure the slow onset of mental illness for thousands of people around the world. if we did this contagious thing. Or maybe you think the govt would be better served mandating government workers to program the love work, the feeding, the monitoring and mental care, and the job placement? Maybe your grandmother won’t die alone if the government helps give company.

More importantly, SAVE AMERICA. Do not let 1-2 term politicians make you so filled with hate that you are willing to compromise and divide. Unless they divide us, they have no power.

Unfortunately, it seems we may have just handed over the KEYS of hate and division with one botched election; and half of America making partisan decisions to not hear the case or see it. 

Just gaslight it. Hear no evil, see no evil. The worst kind of case. Instant result.

Fair elections is all we have. No democracy without it. This is a dangerous problem. 60% of Americans think this will be the last hope of a real election. USA over. We handed them the blind hate they needed. Without hate, we can act with fair judgement and process. But, with mass public hate, the process can be subverted by the people. Hear no Evil. 

The news today covering this is an Act of War on American people. Must remove orange guy, shut down the evidence, perfectly divide the nation… Please do not go there in your heart. Not a perfect candidate nor a bad candidate is worth dividing people by subverting justice. These temporary leaders are not worth dividing over. If we let this happen it will be shortly followed by being herded and corralled by fear to full control. They will use the manufactured violence to justify taking guns, and voices forever silenced.  You then go to work for the dark side, or you starve.

Once the internet is fire-walled, we have reached the point of no return on the stranglehold of power. It's going to be a paranoid beast in its fascist infancy. But, right now, this is a hidden sneaky elite class war being waged and it’s being painted as hate amongst the poor and busy masses, who are freshly being divided by Facebook algorithms. You want to talk about woke?

I pray that the poor masses would not turn on each other to be used like pawns in the next six months.

It is important that you value freedom, and the process, MORE than you love politics. If not, you will have participated in handing our collective Power of the People over to the STATE to never return.

To Liberty,

Jason Fields

[heypoliticsdad]

NYC General Election Endorsements November 2017

Oh yes, y’all, strap in. Another long one awaits. I am not weighing in on every race here; there’s too much for me to keep track of and there’s a lot I don’t know. Especially in city council races, it’s so local that it’s hard to keep track if you’re too far away. It’s also true that a lot of these races aren’t that contested (have you changed your party affiliation?), so there isn’t much to say. In races where there is a clear front runner, even if I kind of hate them, I’m not bothering to weigh in. 

I also am noticing two things about these endorsements: one, that there are two places where I recommend a male upstart over an existing female candidate; two, that I am clearly biased against incumbents. I’m not quite sure what to do with either of those things, but I wanted to name them as important. The city council stands to lose several women this time around, and while my feminism isn’t as simplistic as “women are automatically the best candidate,” I am still unsure what role misogyny is playing here, especially when incumbency means you have more to be hated for.

Want to know who’s on your ballot? Go here. Want to know where you vote? Go here. Polls are open 6am to 9pm so you really have no excuse.

Finally: when in doubt, write in Beyoncé. 

Mayor: Write in Beyoncé I can’t in good faith say vote for Bill de Blasio. He just hasn’t done enough good. The approval of the Bedford Armory redevelopment is just the latest fuckery in his “affordable housing” plan; he has the stank of corruption around him. He’s done some cool things but a lot of those cool things were already in process. Short of some kind of freak occurrence, he’s going to win (I’m not even going to bother looking up the correct spelling of his GOP opponent’s last name, it’s like that) and so you might as well write someone in. Beyoncé gets shit done. She would be ruthlessly effective and the longer she goes the more politicized she becomes. If we’re going to live in an oligarchy, I want my billionaire overlord to be the one that sunk a police car in a music video.

Public Advocate: Team Tish! I like what Tish James has done for us. I feel like I am waiting for the romance to be over and it’s possible I’ve missed some things. But she’s been a good public advocate, has stuck up for people, and I feel an overall sense of goodwill about her. The Public Advocate job is a weird one – tasked with advocating for the public – and I think necessarily this requires about some grandstanding as well as actually resolving complaints. It seems like she’s done good work so far, has the work to back up the grandstanding, and she’s definitely the best of the options.

Comptroller: Oh whatever, just go for Scott Stringer, or Beyoncé He’s better than the other guy, I think.

Manhattan DA: Write in Marc Fliedner. Remember the Brooklyn DA primary? With 500 people lining up around the block to be the most progressive? Marc Fliedner was one of those. He actually got ranked the best by the 5 Boro Defenders, a largely POC group of public defenders in the city. I ended up going for Anne Swern by a hair; Marc would have also been a good choice. Now he’s running in Manhattan as a write-in against Cy Vance, the sitting DA who is recently best known as declining to prosecute people who contributed to his campaign. (de Blasio, the Kushners, Harvey Weinstein). I feel great endorsing Marc as a write-in. Tell your friends!

District 1: Christopher Marte, I think I don’t know a lot about the long-term context of this race. I know that Margaret Chin is one of these funny third-term council members, a long-time incumbent. It’s hard to tell what her district thinks of her. I can’t find a good reason she gives for not doing participatory budgeting and it seems like there’s a lot of rage in the neighborhood around her work to preserve affordable housing, especially around the Two Bridges development. I’m a pragmatic guy at heart and her answers were, well, pragmatic; however, they’re a lot of that weird “people don’t really know what went into making these deals, we really tried” without actually telling people what went into making the deals and what she tried. Christopher Marte is from the neighborhood, evidently very involved, but in the way where it’s hard to know if what he does is as important as it looks on paper. He has the League of Independent Theaters’ endorsement, which also matters to me, although Chin’s overall list is much longer and includes Make the Road NYC and Planned Parenthood. She’s squarely in the middle of the City and State NY’s ranking of city council members. I read both of their responses to the Citizens Union survey about open government and found his more compelling. So vote Christopher Marte, I think, but I’m willing to be wrong about this one.

District 35: Jabari Brisport Laurie Cumbo sold out her district to the Bedford Armory. She has repeatedly bowed to developer pressure and the people just don’t like her. She attracted primary pressure, but the power of incumbency propelled her; luckily, people are still running. His Citizens Unite survey is full of the kind of truisms about government you get from the idealistic left, but what the eff, he’ll be a strong member of the progressive caucus. It’s a shame Ede Fox didn’t beat Cumbo in the primary, but I am happy to open the door to Brisport. I don’t think Cumbo is bad – she’s actually very highly ranked as a councilmember in responsiveness to her constituents, and she’s been the prime sponsor on a lot of bills about things that I think matter (% for arts reporting, public art, sex ed, multilingual information on housing.) Butttt…..I’m leaning Brisport. By a hair.

District 40: Brian Cunningham, Brian Cunningham, Brian Cunningham Mathieu Eugene has been a trash councilman. He has been the lead sponsor on only 7 bills in 10 years. He can’t even get a crosswalk made for a school. He might not even live in the district. Cunningham is young, he’s full of energy, he’s from the neighborhood, he’s worked with youth, and even if he ends out to be no good he’ll be no good in a new, better way. Cunningham is endorsed by the Working Families Party, the Stonewall Democrats, Planned Parenthood, TenantsPAC, and the Brooklyn Independent Democrats (we like them! They’re not the IDC!) 60% of the district voted for someone other than Eugene in the Democratic primary, but the vote split; Cunningham had the Reform endorsement which meant he could be on the general ballot on their line. He’s got good ideas about housing and more than that seems to actually care about what he does. You’re going to have to go to the Reform Party line to vote for him – he got the WFP endorsement too late to be on the ballot with them – so scoot that pencil to the right column and fill in that box. (Full disclosure: I’ve been volunteering with them.)

Prop 1: The Con Con:……no, but I hate myself a little and I might change my mind. Oh, the Con Con. I have been wrestling with this one and frankly it’s part of why this is coming out only one day before the election. There is so much good that could come from this, and so much bad that could come from it. The right says it’s a bad idea because the left would control the agenda; the left says it’s a bad idea because the right would control the agenda. Public unions are against it because of the risk to pensions. It’ll cost so much! (Will it cost so much?) It’s the only way to make change aside from our dysfunctional system! (Is it the only way to make change aside from our dysfunctional system?) The last one did nothing in the end! The one before that did so much! Most of our progressive laws come from constitutional conventions! The Koch brothers would take it over! NYCLU is against it; Citizens Union is for it. Unions are against it; progressive politicians are for it. The New York Times is against it; Newsday Long Island is for it. I have been watching debates and reading articles and it is one giant, messy ball.

The fact of the matter is this: no one knows what will happen because everything goes up for grabs. Everyone agrees on this. The pro side is arguing this presents an enormous opportunity for change: home rule for cities! Gender expression could be a protected class! Early voting! Legislative term limits! A unicameral legislature! The con side is basically making the same argument, only the bad side: loss of union pensions! Rolling back of the right to shelter! Gerrymandered senate districts leading to a conservative delegate base! The pro side says this is a chance for the government to truly be shaped by the people; the con side says the process will be hopelessly corrupt and just cost people money.

Voting yes hits all my love of sweeping action and big change. Past conventions are what have given us many of the things that already make New York relatively progressive: the “forever wild” land preserve, the right to welfare, expansion of voting rights. It’s a seductive argument. How often do we as progressives get a chance to build something from the ground up?

And yet. You might have noticed this isn’t a great time for progressives at the ballot box. One of the few things that I have not heard countered by the pro side is the fact that the statewide left is weak; Democrats aren’t even organized enough to get rid of the IDC, let alone a statewide progressive caucus. The unions are against it because they don’t feel they can guarantee a progressive outcome, and to me when someone publicly says they aren’t sure how powerful they are, you listen. That gerrymandering is real, and while a majority of the state senate districts went for Clinton over Trump, the state Senate is split more or less evenly. 

How all that translates to a vote really boils down to this: are you a pragmatist or are you an idealist? Are you a risktaker or do we play it safe? In my heart of hearts, I want to believe in the con con. I want to believe we can do something great. But…I just can’t get over the feeling in my gut that this is not the moment. Politics worldwide don’t look good for progressive, expansive views, and especially in the United States it’s a moment for the left to be very careful with the risks we take. So I say vote no, but grudgingly, and I reserve the right to change my mind at the last minute in the voting box and make an idealistic, possibly reckless vote.

Prop 2: Cut Pensions for Public Officials Convicted of Corruption Yes really. It’s a question. FOR GOODNESS SAKE’S VOTE YES. It doesn’t even automatically cut these pensions. It just makes it an option for judges when the circumstances warrant it. VOTE YES. I’m not even giving you a link; if you vote against this, just go home.

Prop 3: Land Bank for Modifications for Forever Wild This is one of those upstate questions that we down here don’t really think about. Basically, it comes down to this: right now, the “forever wild” lands upstate can’t be developed for any reason. This seems good until you realize, say, a bridge needs to be repaired, only it can’t be repaired without a constitutional amendment because the repair would need to use some small corner of the forever wild land. This proposition would create a bank wherein the state would buy 250 acres of new forever wild land and then make the same amount of land available for projects like bridges and internet cables. This makes sense and is endorsed by the Nature Conservancy as well as a broad coalition of preservation groups for both the Adirondacks and the Catskills, which is good enough for me. 

Ok, if you made it to the end, one more thing: this ad for Kalman Yeger in Boro Park. That race is its own hot ticket - Yoni Hikind, Dov Hikind’s son, against Kalman Yeger. The Forward goes into the underground heat, but I just want to give Kalman Yeger an award for the jingle of the election (and for all I know, this is a dis track, but I don’t know enough Yiddish to figure it out):

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 10/20/2019

Good Morning #realdreamchasers. Here is your daily news cap for Sunday, October 19th, 2019. There is a lot to read and digest so take your time. Remember you can read full articles via Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS), Barbados Today (BT), or by purchasing a Sunday Sun Nation Newspaper (SS).

HEADS TO REPORT ON STEWARDSHIP – Five chairmen from statutory corporations face the public to give reports on their stewardship, at the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) 81st annual conference to be held in Queen’s Park. It will be one of the highlights of the October 25 to 27 conference whose theme is BLP 2019 – A Refreshing Change for Barbados. “We’ve asked for the five chairpersons of boards to report to Barbados. It will be streamed to all Barbadians and this is the first time that this has happened at the conference. We are asking the chairmen of the Barbados Port, the Transport Board, the Barbados Water Authority, the Sanitation Service Authority and the Queen Elizabeth Hospital to report on their stewardship and reflect on the challenges, their leadership and direction they are going and just to be part of the idea we are an open, transparent, honest Government,” said chairman of the conference planning committee, Kirk Humphrey at a media briefing yesterday. (SS)

DRIVE TO TAP WIND ENERGY – Barbados’ energy sector is set for major transformation with the introduction of wind energy generation facilitated by the Barbados National Oil Company Limited (BNOCL), in conjunction with the National Petroleum Corporation (NPC). The initiative is expected to reduce energy costs to average Barbadians. The wind generation project funded by the Inter-American Development Bank has commenced with a detailed wind study of key sites through a partnership with Barlovento Recursos Naturales from Spain. It will also involve community outreach and town hall sessions to engage with key stakeholders regarding the initiative’s potential benefits and impacts. (SS)

MARIOTT GOING ELEGANT – Major changes, including a rebranding, hotel sales, and management shake-up, are likely as part of a BDS$260.2 million deal that will see global hospitality giant Marriott International acquire Barbados-based Elegant Hotels Group. But officials of Marriott International Hotel Licensing Company revealed that if Elegant’s shareholders said yes to the sale, the company’s more than 1 100 employees in Barbados would be secure as IHLC “does not intend to make any material headcount reductions within the Elegant Group as a result of the acquisition”. The potential benefits from the acquisition were welcomed by Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds yesterday, who told the Saturday Sun “their interest in making this kind of investment in Barbados is a very clear testimony to the fact that Barbados is again being seen as a destination which is working well, and is worthy of major investments”. (SS)

TURF CLUB SACKS TWO OFFICIALS – The Barbados Turf Club has made two notable changes at the end of the second season maintenance break. Gone are race course consultant Gerry Alleyne, who held the post for just under two years, and paddock and building maintenance consultant Naz Issa. When the third season runs off on November 9, David Archer is the man tasked with filling the roll of track and paddock consultant. Archer who took up the post from last Tuesday worked at Bloomfield as property manager and was manager at Valley Plantation. Both Alleyne and trainer Issa who had replaced Charles Downie following his retirement back in 2017, got their letters of termination last Monday. (SS)

NEW POLITICAL PARTY IN GUYANA – A new political party, promising campaign financing legislation, was launched here as Guyana prepares to hold fresh regional and general election on March 2 next year. The Citizenship Initiative (CI), which has also indicated that it has no intention of joining with either the People’s National Congress (PNC), which is part of the ruling coalition administration and the main opposition People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), said it intends to change the way issues related to politics are addressed in Guyana. “Our key platform has to do with leverage in parliament. Now to answer the question of coalition, let me say very explicitly now: Our message is that this adversarial politics by the two giants continues to be the primary burden for the development of Guyana. “Coalition is not an option…You can’t say that you have goals that you want to attain, you change the status quo and then join the status quo,” said the party’s executive member, Ruel Johnson. Apart from Johnson, who is the government’s cultural advisor, the other founding members are web developer Shaz Ally, the managing director of a private school, Alphonso de Armas, educator Ronda Ann Lam and business executive, Yonnick David. Ally said Guyana has been looking to find its way since it gained independence in 1966 but has instead found itself marred by ethnic divisions, limited opportunities and questionable leadership. He said Guyana has put power in the arms of two major political parties who have been in control for over 50 years while many of the country’s struggles and problems remain. He said the new party is focused on chartering a better course for all of Guyana and its members would be representative of the entire society. Johnson said Citizenship Initiative, whose symbol is a scale balancing two water lilies, will contest the upcoming elections and if successful, would be pushing for constitutional reform as a priority. He said the party is also focused now on naming Presidential and Prime Ministerial candidates and will address that issue as it rolls out its plans and programmes. President David Granger named the election date after Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo was successful in tabling a motion of no confidence in his coalition administration last December. The PPP had been pushing for an early poll, but the head of state said he would have only announced the date when the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM0 had indicated to him that it was prepared to conduct the elections. (SS)

TRINIDAD PM SPEAKS OF PLOT TO ASSASSINATE AG – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley has linked opposition operatives to a plot to assassinate Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi and warned the population of Trinidad and Tobago that they should not consider the threats to be a joke. “We have told this country that many of them stole public money and will be held to account. We have been accumulating the evidence through the legal channels and they know that and that’s why one of the first meetings I have had in Whitehall (Office of the Prime Minister) in recent times with the security forces of this country involved is to determine how to protect the Attorney General because persons have paid money to kill him,” Rowley told a public meeting of the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) here on Friday night. “Understand what we are dealing with in this country. I tell you this not because I am being irresponsible, because I want you to know (and) you can’t say you don’t know. I want you to know because I am the Chairman of the National Security Council,” Rowley added. He reminded supporters of the June 1990 murder of then attorney general Selwyn Richardson, who was shot by unknown assailants as he was entering his driveway to his home, adding “those of you who think it is a joke, let me remind all of you that somebody, somewhere in this country, killed Selwyn Richardson and up to this day that matter has not been solved”. “Let me tell all of you again, who have much to say, desperate people do desperate things,” Rowley said, reminding the meeting of the two attempts that had been made on his life in the lead up to the 2015 general elections. “On two occasions they hired a killer to kill me. The first killer refused and determined that somebody has to know this and went and told a government official. The government official came and told us. We told the police. “While we dealing with that they went and found another one. He too refused and by this time Special Branch (of the police) was involved and Special Branch knew about it. There’s honour among thieves in this country. It appears there’s honour among killers too,” Rowley said. He said that apart from the police, he also had to secure private security and in some instances were being told where he should and should not go because of the dangers involved. “That happened in Trinidad and Tobago in 2015 and they know what they did and they know what they are facing because we have told this country that many of them stole public money and will be held to account,” Rowley said. He warned supporters against “all of them who have your future in hand to bring you this land of milk and honey they have reason to want to get back in office more than anybody else, because only when they get back into office they can kill everything that is live now and that is their primary motivation . . . .” Earlier, National Security Minister, Stuart Young, told the public meeting of the “disturbing” pattern being observed involving known members of the main opposition United National Congress (UNC) and the members of the criminal underworld. Young, indicating that he was coming out of the Parliament where he could have been afforded parliamentary immunity to make the statement, said that he had been informed that “very high ranking members of the opposition, the UNC opposition, at the highest, highest levels . . . are engaging in active conversations and communication . . . with the criminal elements in our society. “You know that in National Security one of the things we did was to pass anti-gang legislation and you remember how hard we had to fight for that to make it a crime in Trinidad and Tobago to be part of a gang and to participate in gang activities. So it is now criminal to be part of a gang, to communicate with gangs . . . that is now a crime in Trinidad and Tobago. “I stand here tonight without fear of contradiction to tell you that at the highest level of the opposition they are engaging the criminal elements,” Young, who is also an attorney said, pointing a finger also at sitting opposition members of both houses of Parliament. (SS)

CYCLIST SERIOUSLY INJURED IN COLLISSION – A pedal cyclist was seriously injured in a collision along the Oistins Hill Road in Christ Church Saturday evening, police say. Around 5:18 pm the cyclist – identified as 50-year-old Lloyd Cummins of Unity Road, Gall Hill, Christ Church – was riding down Oistins Hill when he lost control of the bicycle and fell. Cummins injured his head in the fall, causing him to lose the ability to speak. He was transported by ambulance to the QEH where medical personnel said he was semi-conscious. Investigations are ongoing. (BT)

MOTHER WANTS JUSTICE FOR SON - Parents of the 11-year-old boy killed by three former Princess Margaret Secondary School students want the full extent of the law to be visited on their son’s killers. This was revealed when convicted manslayers Maria Antoinette Goddard, Doniko Javier Alleyne and Shaquille Shamar Khallel Bradshaw returned to the No 2 Supreme Court on Friday. Goddard, then 12, now 22, of Parish Land; Alleyne, also then 12, of Balls Land, and Bradshaw, then 14, now 24, also of Balls Land, Christ Church, were found guilty, earlier this year, of unlawfully killing – manslaughter – Ian Gibson on September 20, 2009. Principal Crown Counsel Alliston Seale prosecuted the matter. Attorney Angella Mitchell-Gittens represented Alleyne and Goddard, and attorney Arthur Holder appeared for Bradshaw during the trial. (SS)

TWO ON MURDER CHARGES REMANDED – Two St Michael men charged with the island’s 37th murder earlier this month were remanded to prison when they appeared in the District “A” Magistrates’ Court yesterday. Christopher Anderson Shepherd, a 20-year-old shop assistant, of Queen Street, The City, and Rio Richian Jelani Malcolm Benn, 28, of Upper Dukes Alley, Nelson Street, The City, were not required to plead to murdering LeAndrew Sharvar Coward, 33, formerly of Field Place, Bayville, St Michael, on October 3. Prosecutor Vernon Waithe later asked that accused Benn be released back into police custody in relation to further investigations. Acting Magistrate Joy-Ann Clarke ordered that Benn be released into police custody until Monday. The magistrate, however, remanded, both he and co-accused Shepherd to HMP Dodds until November 15. (SS)

FIND ROOM FOR HAYNES – West Indies fast bowling great Michael Holding has urged Cricket West Indies (CWI) not to discard outstanding former teammate Desmond Haynes but to absorb him into the coaching set-up of the men’s team. Haynes, a member of the legendary West Indies sides of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s, missed out on becoming head coach of the regional side last week after CWI appointed his former opening partner, Phil Simmons. However, Holding contended that Haynes still had a valuable role to play and said CWI and Simmons needed to utilise his skills in order to enhance the struggling side’s development.  (SS)

CRUNCH TIME FOR WALES – Weymouth Wales and Clayton’s Kola Tonic Notre Dame will be hoping to keep their Capelli Cup hopes alive after their crucial championship stage clash tonight at the Wildey Turf. Both teams have been drawn in a mouth-watering group with University of the West Indies (UWI) Blackbirds and only a victory will be satisfactory if they are to progress to the quarter-finals. One of Wales’ strengths this season has been the quality they have been able to call on off the bench. The Dames’ domestic form has been inconsistent recently but they have shown a strong attacking threat and greater creativity from midfield so far and their improved cohesion should serve them well against a stacked Wales. (SS)

FOGGING SCHEDULE OCTOBER 21-25 – The Ministry of Health and Wellness’ fogging programme will continue in four parishes this week. On Monday, October 21, the St Peter districts to be fogged are Diamond Corner, Lower Castle, Upper Castle, Gays Road, Mount #1 & #2, Boscobelle, Collins, and the environs. The team will be in St James on Tuesday, October 22, spraying Sion Hill, Sion Hill Terrace with avenues, Westmoreland, Porters Road, Lancaster, and surrounding areas. On Wednesday, October 23, the St George districts of Bird Hill, Sinclair Road, Coral Drive, Bakers Close, Grace Drive, Haggatt Hall Development, Cutting Road, Mapp Hill, Dash Valley, Hanson Heights, and the environs will be sprayed. Areas to be fogged in Christ Church on Thursday, October 24, are Sargeant’s Village, Bartlett Road, Sargeant’s Village Tenantry Road, Browne’s Road, Smith Road, Warners Gardens, and neighbouring districts. The team will return to St James on Friday, October 25, to fog Paradise Heights, Hopefield Close, Wanstead Drive, the 2nd, 4th and 6th Avenues of Wanstead Terrace, West Terrace, West Terrace Gardens with Avenues 1 to 16, Oxnards, Violet Circle, Cherry Drive, West Terrace Heights and surrounding areas. Fogging takes place between 4:30 and 7:30 pm each day. Householders are reminded to open their doors and windows to allow the spray to enter. (BT)

WEATHER – Synopsis: A surface to mid-level ridge pattern is the dominant feature. Forecast: Fair to partly cloudy with a few brief isolated showers. Wind: Generally easterly at 10 to 30 km/h. Seas: Slight to moderate in open water with swells from 1.0m to 1.5m. Tonight Synopsis: A surface to low-level shearline will be approaching the island. Forecast: Fair to occasionally cloudy with a few brief scattered showers. Wind: ENE – E at 10 to 30 km/h. Seas: Slight to moderate in open water with swells from 1.0m to 1.5m. (BT)

NEW LOCATION FOR BLP CONFERENCE – The Barbados Labour Party’s 81st annual conference will take place in Queens Park this year. Chairman of the conference planning committee Kirk Humphrey said the location was reflective of the refreshed party as it was open, close to parliament and was a venue where founder Sir Grantley Adams laid many political pronouncements. Under the theme BLP 2019 – A Refreshing Change for Barbados, the three day conference being held from October 25 to 27, will feature an award ceremony, speeches, an address from the Prime Minister and a concert where members of parliament will perform. One of the highlights will take place on October 26, when the chairmen of the Transport Board, Barbados Port Authority, Barbados Water Authority, Sanitation Service Authority and Queen Elizabeth Hospital will be giving reports on their stewardship. (SS)

UWI HONOURS FACEBOOK DIRECTOR – Hundreds crossed the stage at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, on Saturday morning.  During the first graduation ceremony, scholars from the Faculties of Humanities and Education, Science, Medicine and Technology and Law all accepted their scrolls with pride. Director of Diversity at Facebook, Maxine Williams of Trinidad and Tobago, was conferred with an honourary doctor of laws. (SS)

There are 74 days left in the year Shalom!  Follow us on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram for your daily news. #thechasefiles #dailynewscaps #bajannewscaps #newsinanutshell

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Tonight marks the fourth Democratic primary debate, and although we’ve written, as a site, that maybe the race is now just between two or three candidates … there are actually 12 candidates on the debate stage. Which kind of begs the question: How much do these debates actually matter? Are they winnowing the field? Helping voters better understand the candidates?

In honor of one of my favorite debate-style questions that seems to have fallen out of favor, a quick show of hands

— who thinks these debates matter?

galen (Galen Druke, podcast producer and reporter): I think debates can matter in primaries. But I don’t think the debates in the 2020 Democratic primary have mattered very much.

So … timid hand raise from me.

julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor):

I think they have mattered.

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): The DNC has used the debate qualification process to basically winnow the field — that has mattered, of course. But I don’t think the actual debates have mattered much.

galen: I don’t even think the DNC’s criteria to determine who makes the debates have mattered all that much!

The public doesn’t seem particularly interested in anyone beyond the top 3-5 candidates.

sarahf: Galen bringing the heat

julia_azari: Here’s why I’d argue the debates have mattered: 1) This field has more potential front-runners than any in recent history, with maybe the exception of the Republican field in 2016. 2) Debates offer an opportunity for front-runners to show their flaws.

It’s notable, for instance, that Elizabeth Warren has managed to get through the debates without having any bad moments so far. And with Joe Biden, his debate performances haven’t been outstanding necessarily, but his support hasn’t changed a ton either.

perry: Julia, are you saying the debates haven’t been bad for Biden?

julia_azari: Right, I don’t think they have been. Sure, the debates have showcased his flaws in a way that wouldn’t be as evident without them. (He’s slow on his feet, at times, and rambles). But the debates have also reinforced conceptions that folks had of Biden going in; namely, that he’s moderate and looking to carry on former President Barack Obama’s legacy. Entrenching the status quo still has an effect; it’s just hard to make a big show of it.

sarahf: And what about someone like Kamala Harris? Can’t we trace her highs — and lows — to the debates?

julia_azari: Harris definitely has had a series of bad debate moments, and they have mattered. She’s had lines that landed poorly in the third debate, flailed a bit on health care questions in the second debate and later faced backlash against her confrontation with Biden in the first debate.

galen: But isn’t it also true that Harris’s story is more of a reversion to the mean after her boost from the first debate wore off?

After all, she had lost roughly a third of what she’d gained in the polls by the second debate, and her fall in the polls wasn’t about debate performance.

sarahf: But her rise was!

galen: OK, sure. The debate mattered … for two weeks.

Which a nominee does not make.

sarahf: Haha, what about someone like Warren, though? Isn’t there an argument that her debate performance has helped fuel some of her rise in the polls? As Julia mentioned earlier, it is notable that she hasn’t really had a bad debate performance yet.

galen: So, I looked at this a bit before our chat, and it is clear that Warren began rising in the polls before the first debate on June 26 and 27.

And sure, you can see some upward movement in the polls in the week or so after the second and third debates. But it’s hard to chalk that up to just her debate performance because she’s been gaining steadily throughout the summer. In fact, some of her biggest gains came in the last two weeks, which was long after the third debate on Sept. 12.

perry: As Galen said, Warren has been steadily rising in the polls for months now — but I’d argue that none of the debates were big inflection points for Warren or the other candidates, for three reasons: 1) Biden entered the race with strong numbers, and he’s largely maintained his standing. 2) Sanders’s numbers have fallen, but that doesn’t seem to be tied to the debates; and 3) None of the lower-profile candidates have broken out in the debates. Pete Buttigieg’s rise, for example, happened outside of the debates.

galen: Amen to what Perry said.

The Warren story is about running a good campaign and the media loving her.

It’s not a story of owning the debates.

julia_azari: I would never argue that Warren’s story was mainly about owning the debates. But I don’t think we can entirely dismiss them either. Think of debates like vice-presidential picks: They can do a fair amount of harm, but they also rarely help.

True, this argument is more applicable to the front-runners than the other candidates — but debates are important for highlighting a candidate’s flaws.

perry: If Julia’s argument is ‘debates matter because Biden and Warren could have screwed up really bad and didn’t,’ I agree with that.

I don’t think Harris’s decline is because of the debates, but we might just disagree there.

sarahf: OK, so it sounds as if debates serve two main functions: 1) Test out the strength of the front-runners; 2) Give someone who isn’t a front-runner an opportunity to break through.

We’ve talked about the first point quite a bit, but perhaps the second point really hasn’t been borne out this cycle? Because even after Julián Castro had a stand-out performance in the first debate, or Beto O’Rourke performed well in the third debate, their numbers in the national polls haven’t shifted that much.

julia_azari: Yeah. I mean, there were brief moments where it looked like someone’s performance might shift the race, but that just hasn’t happened. And I’d argue some of the minor, yet plausible, candidates — Amy Klobuchar, O’Rourke — just haven’t had great performances, overall.

perry: Is a debate performance only good or bad if it moves the numbers, though?

Serious question.

sarahf: This feels like the old “if a tree falls in the forest” question … but yes, right??

julia_azari: I think you can talk about someone’s debate performance separate from his or her polling numbers.

Take Biden in the last debate. He got flustered when asked a question about the legacy of segregation in the U.S., and his response was a word salad in which he suggested playing a record player at night could help children be exposed to more words. It was, as Jamil Smith at Rolling Stone pointed out, a really troubling answer that underscored just how out of touch Biden is on issues of race.

But as we discussed earlier, Biden’s numbers haven’t really shifted because of the debates. Instead, I think his debate performances have staked out where he falls in a party that is increasingly split on the question of whether the party is too “woke” on issues of race, as well as whether returning to the status quo before Trump is desirable.

perry: So I agree with this, and I think the debates have shaped the contours of how the race is being discussed.

Biden’s weird comment about record players, for instance, has opened the door for people who were already against him to strengthen their case to people who might be inclined to like Biden (black voters.)

I’m increasingly convinced that I should be watching the debate for the discussions of issues, not for how the event affects the polls. So when I say the debates don’t matter, I mean in that they don’t matter in terms of affecting the horse race. I definitely think the debates matter for better understanding the divides in the party.

galen: I’ve definitely learned about the contours of the Democratic Party from watching these debates. The first debate, in particular, was interesting for showing how far to the left the candidates thought they had to go in order to win. But also …

THIS ISN’T HORSESHOES AND HAND GRENADES, PERRY!

WINNING IS WHAT MATTERS.

perry: Well, winning matters, sure. But Biden has now called “Medicare for All” too radical in several debates. That is not great for Warren if she is the nominee — since Trump and his team can quote Biden criticizing that policy.

However, the fact that the debates have all led with a discussion around health care has definitely helped frame the primary around this issue, turning the larger “electability” discussion into a policy divide (Medicare for All vs. “Medicare for everyone who wants it.”)

julia_azari: And, of course, once you’ve won the nomination, it matters what you do with your coalition. Can you keep it together? Are people disgusted with you? There’s now a whole other thing to win — the general election.

galen: I like that point, Julia, but I also think that how the eventual nominee is defined will have a lot more to do with how Republicans characterize them through campaigning than with what Democrats said about them during the debate.

julia_azari: But the debates do reveal candidates’ positions and force candidates to occasionally take firm stances.

perry: So what have the debates revealed thus far?

sarahf: That aside from Biden, no other moderate candidate has really caught on?

I continue to be amazed that no other moderate candidate has really emerged as an alternative to Biden (maybe Buttigieg).

julia_azari: Well, the revelations are limited to a degree, given the party is changing, but I’d say they include: Biden will stick to his positions on race from the early 1990s, Castro is well-versed on LGBT issues, and Beto wants to take away your AR-15.

perry: I do think the second and third debates — and the fallout from them — revealed a party that wants to move on from many of Obama’s policies, but at the same time, can’t really abide by any direct criticism of Obama.

galen: What about positions that will shape the 2020 general election?

I think, for instance, Warren’s announcement that she supports decriminalizing crossing the border — and the fact that she raised her hand in the first debate when asked if she supported it — is a 2020 attack ad if she wins the nomination. Support for decriminalizing border crossing among Democrats is also unclear. Some pollsters like NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist have found middling support (45 percent), although other progressive pollsters like YouGov Blue have found that Democrats are perhaps warming to the idea.

perry: I mean, I think Democrats will support this position and basically all of Warren’s positions if she is the nominee, although I know decriminalizing border crossings is a controversial stance.

galen: Oh, I don’t think Democrats won’t vote for Warren or support her positions, but can Democrats win a general election with only support from “get in line with the party” Democrats? Maybe. I don’t know.

perry: I tend to think that the argument that “Democrats’ liberal positions in the primary will hurt them in the general” should be tempered. After all, Trump ran a primary campaign that advocated barring all Muslims from entering the U.S. and building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. He didn’t back down in the general, and now he’s president.

julia_azari: Right, perhaps one of the more lasting messages of 2016 is you don’t have to run to the center to win.

sarahf: OK, to wrap — it seems as if there is some consensus that the debates have mattered, at least in helping us better understand where the party stands on certain issues or what direction the party could move in. And maybe the debates have accomplished more of that — at least this cycle — than they have impacted individual candidates?

galen: Here’s a take we can all agree on (maybe): The debates have mattered for political science, though perhaps not for the actual primary race.

Actually, I have a caveat to make.

There are going to be SO MANY more debates.

And they could still change things, especially as the field winnows.

sarahf: Wow, backtracking.

galen: Haha, this isn’t a backtrack. I’ve maintained that the debates haven’t mattered so far.

julia_azari: I think we’re feeling some of what we’re feeling because people aren’t paying attention yet. For people who follow politics closely enough to watch the early debates, much of what we saw confirms previous stereotypes about who the candidates are.

galen:

Julia speaking truth.

perry: My concluding thought is that I keep thinking the debates will change the poll numbers, and they just aren’t. And that’s made me rethink some of my assumptions about politics, television and the Democratic Party.

[undercovermcdfan]

dashes and tallies | Vylance, Hatch Marks AU

prompt: Red tallies appear for every person you’ve loved, black for every person you’ve loved that has died, and a white tally for when you meet your soulmate

a/n: so this takes place in the same universe of hatch marks, except I’m focused on Vylance this time! Don’t worry—if I can finally drag myself from this rut, I wanna make a part 2 to Hatch marks. Also BIG shout out to @crybabytime for not only drawing a fantastic comic based off the first fic (I’m in tears) HERE but being the MVP friend and helping me sort much of the HCs put into this fic??? LIKE??? ur da best & really so amazing thank you

warning(s): mention of other relationships (garrance), alcohol consumption, adult themes, again me crying because this au is so cheesy??

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“H-hello? Hello? Uh… um, Vylad? This is Laurance!”

Part of Vylad, a part deep deep deep down wished he hung up the phone the moment he heard the desperate voice that wasn’t his brother on the other end. A part overruled by common courtesy to stay on the line despite the panic setting in and his heart still for but a moment.

Garroth always been a good brother—not the outstanding sort but he wasn’t cruel like their third brother, the middle one, Zane. Simply just a guy who saw life without much worry. And though he loved the elder brother dearly, sometimes…

Sometimes…

Garroth’s antics led to situations like this and Vylad questioning why he went out of his way to help.

You know why, his thoughts shot back, his subconscious pushing back as the memory of Laurance’s thankful when Vylad agree that yes, he’ll fetch his drunken brother from causing more havoc at Dante’s birthday bash, floated into mind. Leaning his head against the cool glass of the uber car’s window, he watched as the quiet residential streets of where his apartment build bled to the lively heart of the city, bright lights and all.

Frankly, there’s a special hell for people like him but he didn’t have the luxury of waiting from his own passing, no, whatever gracious being that watched over him from above must’ve thought his suffering was amusing.

To find attraction in another person was a natural occurrence—and for the longest, Vylad thought he must’ve been one of the lucky individuals who didn’t have to go through it romantically. He seen the trouble love could cause, and as the years went, his skin went unblemished with a marking. Acquaintances never crossed the threshold into friendship, and because his life enveloped by the overprotective mother and embarrassed step-father, he never sought out opportunity to find any meaningful connections.

All this, living in apartment without Garte’s heavy breathing down his neck or his mother’s insistence he kept close, with Garroth who went from a distant brother that would appear every now and again between extracurricular activities to being as much of best friend a sibling could be… this was new.

They met Laurance through Cadenza, the heiress to the Zvahl corporation—a new competition that even made Garte sweat in nervousness. From Joh’s innovative and charming persona that wooed many sponsors away from the Ro’meaves Inc. to the brilliant, outspoken daughter who already gracing business magazine covers to… the mysterious adopted son who kept out of the spot light and rumored buzzed among the old money elites his family surrounded themselves with. Cadenza was bright-eyed, beautiful girl, but Garte muttered under his breath, “Watch yourselves. She’s a cunning one.” She worked the party, occasionally returning to them with a gleaming smile and checking in, sweet compliments rolling off the tongue.

The third work around, she brought him.

Fiddling with his cufflinks and before they stepped into ear shot, Vylad could tell the two were in a heated discussion. To this day, he wondered: did he share a distain for his family? Did he hate the outfit he wore? Or the party in general? The mystery man Cadenza brought looked out of place, uncomfortable.

And it’s when he felt that heart racing, tied-tongue feeling.

“Hello.” A bright smile not unlike Cadenza’s, though more forced, as he offered an outreach hand to Garroth, who was just as much swept up in the man’s grace, “I’m Laurance.”

His hand was warm, firmly shaking Vylad’s after Garroth and a simple nod towards Zane when his apathetic brother opts to grunted a “hello” rather than taking his hand.

After the greeting, a brief formal chat, Laurance was eventually lead away by his oldest brother. It’s then when Vylad realized there was an almost pull… a small flicker of jealousy of wishing he stepped up first and did so. But that was out of character, he was the quiet, well behaved step-child of Garte who held nothing in power but his name, not the privileged heir that was Garroth.

Vylad sighed.

A few days after that fancy dinner, Garroth pulled him aside, “Hey, Vylad could you clear out for an afternoon? I’m inviting Laurance over and…”

To his credit, Laurance and Garroth have been dating for months now and apart from a few run ins here and there, once in their apartment lobby and once after Laurance dropping off Garroth off, the two sharing a parting kiss before they said their goodbyes, Vylad steered clear of Laurance.

In person.

Sadly, online, it was a different story. He never really found much use with keeping up with any of his accounts but after the dinner and a moment of weakness, he accepted Laurance’s obligatory friend request.

Some days he thought, his actions might border strange—he’d never like a photo or post Laurance made, but would linger for a thoughtful moment or two. Eyes lit up when the other mentioned a show he enjoyed, or funny pictures he taken, or the more candid pictures he retweeted from his friends and…

“Garroth has rather good taste, doesn’t he?” Zianna, his mother, exclaimed excitedly once to him as she scrolled through Laurance’s profile. She claimed it was her ‘motherly’ duty to just see what kind of men her precious eldest got involved with but Vylad knew it was her being nosy without directly pestering his brother.

Though—if they were talking from an aesthetically pleasing point of view, Vylad readily agreed Laurance did look good. He struck as a natural at posing in his candid picture and the sort of smile that warm, easy, infectious if you saw him in real life. The kind of smile Vylad liked to see more in person, if… he ever worked the courage.

Well, unless I commit to this plan of getting in and getting out as fast as possible… this could be my chance to talk to him. He fiddled with his scarf, readjusting it to properly cover his neck. I should stop thinking like this. Laurance… is Garroth’s… We aren’t high school rivals, no need to boyfriend steal.

Even if I saw him first. Even if he might be my…  

He paused.

I can’–

“Sir,” the gruff voice of the driver impatiently grunted, “your destination. Sir.”

Vylad sighed, reaching into his wallet.

“VYLAD,” Dante managed to startled him despite the loud pulsating music that filled the small space of Dante’s apartment. With glasses that lit up in the dark, a skewed birthday hat and stripped down to a tank top and… swimming shorts? the extroverted blue haired man all but threw himself at Vylad the moment he saw him, “DUDE I THOUGHT YOU WEREN’T GOING TO MAKE IT.”

Vylad grimaced and glanced around. Not many familiar faces—Lucinda, a popular fashion guru who slung an arm around a pretty redhead girl, a woman named Katelyn who he remembered seeing in Zane’s office (never happily) sulking on a couch and… he sighed when he saw a familiar Zenix and Sasha dart through the crowd, a third person hot on their tail as the two laugh obnoxiously.

Not exactly my scene. “I wasn’t planning to. I’m here to pick up my brother—have you seen him?”

Dante furrowed his brow, “WHAT?”

“My brother. Garroth? You know, MY BRO— “

Dante held up a hand, cutting him off as he shook his head, “You don’t need to yell, I—okay, sorry. Forgot, bad sense of humor,” he rolled his eyes, just as Vylad’s stare held its scowl, “You can find Garroth… um. Actually, last I saw him, he was hanging in the hot tub with Aphmau but… okay wait, follow me!”

This was tiring.

This was terrible.

Following Dante through the crowd, he continued find words to describe how this party, disco lights reflecting pretty colors and the room felt almost suffocating with the strange smell in the air—

Oh. Well there goes for avoiding Laurance.

Dante tapped Laurance’s shoulder, throwing an arm around him for side hug as he leaned in to whisper something in his ear. Beside him, a white-haired man almost as tall as Laurance’s lanky stature fidgeted with a red cup for a moment before sharing a look with Laurance and striding off in direction of Katelyn on the couch.

“Vylad, this is Lau— “

Laurance, shoving Dante’s face away, and turning enough to properly see Vylad, he gives a bright smile, more genuine than the one when they first met. “We already met. Now scram, dude—I heard K.C. was looking for you.”

“Ehhh,” Dante hung off Laurance’s shoulder, pouting, “Why do you treat me like this? Before Travis and Garroth, I use to be your main man!”

“And you still are. Just need you to be less clingy,” he managed to detached from Dante’s grasp and with a defeated look, the birthday boy conceded his defeat.

Not without the dramatics though, “Whatever. You still owe me an after-Birthday hangover breakfast tomorrow morning. I’m getting that breakfast burrito supreme!” And like a bumbling gazelle, Dante was gone.

In that moment, Vylad was acutely aware of a few things. His heart loud beats could drown out the music. Laurance was just as tall as his memory serves him. And the tongue-tied feeling wasn’t a one-time thing.

“Vylad, I’m so sorry for this short notice,” Laurance started, digging his pocket to pull out a familiar black smart phone, “Garroth… is somewhere. He told me something a hot tub and kind of handed me this and his wallet.”

Dropping the phone and case in his hands, Vylad pocketed them immediately, before shrugging, “It’s no issue. It’s better if I take him home before he really does something stupid…” Vylad paused, noticing the look in Laurance’s eyes, “…What did my brother do?”

“A lot of things. I have things to explain and apologize for to my sister and her girlfriend type things,” Laurance shook his head, massaging his temple before giving a sheepish smile, “No offense. To your brother, I mean. Garroth is usually such a… great guy. I guess alcohol is his vice.”

Vylad frowned, concerned for what his brother might’ve done rivaled concerned what his brother might’ve done to Laurance. Or said. Or whatever reason that caused this sour expression. “I apologize. He’s never was one to handle his drink.” Vylad couldn’t handle holding contact with Laurance for so long, his gaze connected for a moment with those baby blues before scanning the crowd.

“Or bottle, for the matter.” Laurance muttered, voice muffled by the music.

“What?”

He waved his hand, before resting it on his shoulder, “Never mind me. I’m a bit on the tipsy side of things but… I think it’s time for us to find that heir and drag him home before he breaks something else.”

“Break something else?” Vylad tilted his head suspiciously and in worry, looking up at Laurance.

Laurance, on the other hand, cracked a wide smile, teeth and all before pressing his lips together with his pointer finger, “Shh. I left some cash in Dante’s room for what Garroth broke—not even Dante know it’s broken yet,” his blue eyes sparkled with mischief, “I’m trusting you to keep my secret.” Because he lowered his voice, Laurance had to lean closer and Vylad could only jerk his head up and down, nodding Yes, not trusting his words.

Satisfied with the answer, Laurance grabbed his hand, pulling him deeper into the crowd— “Usually it would be faster to separate and find him but Dante sometimes invite shady people. Or Zenix might pick you as a pickpocket victim. Either way, just stay close.”—and again, Vylad could only nod yes, stumbling in after him.

“B-But, Laurance,” Garroth whined, his arms looped around him in a similar manner Dante did to Laurance before. Yet Laurance looked unbothered. “Please. Don’t… do that.” Garroth poked at Laurance’s cheek for his frown.

“Garroth, I—okay, fine,” Laurance said defeated, as he combed through his boyfriend’s blond hair, “This’ll be a conversation for tomorrow.”

“Yes. My win.”

Vylad stopped watching in the mirror as the two proceed to share another kiss, sinking lower in his front seat. He questioned whether letting Laurance ride back to the apartment was a good idea—but one look, the kind that conveyed ‘I’m tired of this’ coupled with Garroth’s clinginess, Vylad conceded quickly.

Watching the street lights go by, he could only think of one thing: fuck.  

The sight was strange, seeing Laurance standing there, squinting at the bottle in hand.

But what made Vylad hesitate from going back into his room and instead take a brave step forward was because at that moment, even with his drunken brother sleeping not so quietly on the couch… Laurance looked… lonely?

“Um…” Vylad licked his lips, gesturing to the bottle in the other’s hand, “I thought you said you drank enough for tonight.”

Laurance laughed, a soft one, settling on the floor and patting the space beside him. “Nope. I’m sure I said I was tipsy… but our little search party for the prince in distress kind of sobered me up,” he paused, leaning against the couch with his expression falling into something more complicated, “And after tonight…? I need it.”

Vylad settled beside him, eyeing the bottle still. It wasn’t one of their finer ones, and it wouldn’t be a reason to pry the bottle away from Laurance but he felt off. Yet, he didn’t speak up as Laurance cracked it open and took a small swig.

Silence settled between them, Vylad sneaking glancing at Laurance and Laurance staring blankly ahead. It was only broken when he suddenly offered Vylad a sip with “a penny for your thoughts?”

“Oh, um,” Vylad quickly shook his head, “No, no. I only drink when I have to. For, um, business dinner stuff.��

“Smart boy,” Laurance grinned at him, lifting the bottle again and squinted it, “this taste fine, but I understand why, after seeing what happens to your brother.”

“What happened at Dante’s was nothing to what I heard he done in college,” Vylad shrugged leaning his cheek against the couch as he stared at his resting brother that occasionally tossed and turned, “The frats would throw wild parties and… Garroth is a little too gullible at times.”

Laurance snorted, before taking another swig effortlessly, “After tonight, I believe you completely.”

“And you’re right.”

He gave Vylad a raised brow. “You were right because Garroth is probably the reason why I… don’t casually drink.”

Seeing the genuine smile, then the laughter that followed warmed him in a way he couldn’t described, and he was right; Laurance’s smile was infectious. He could feel the corners of his lips lifting, then chuckling.

“Aw man! I mean,” Laurance as he started to calm down, he shot him an amused look, “sometimes the most fun drunks are the serious ones, you know. And if not, if you had his carefree dancing skills…” Laurance whistled, raising the bottle, “Man, you’d be the life of the party.”

“Really?” Vylad with a deadpanned look.

“Okay,” Laurance had a playful smile, lowered the bottle and turning more towards him, “my sense of ‘life of the party’ might be a little skewed.”

He continued with the look.

“Okay…” Laurance raised his hands in defeat, “I mean, at least he had fun at the end of the day.” Vylad nodded, content with his win and soon, he finds conversation flowed easily between them.

The two traded facts about each other, as their conversation turned from Garroth to each other, and Laurance admitting his curiosity.

“You barely use your accounts, nor ever online.”

“It’s mostly for my freelance work and how people can easily contact me.”

“Freelance? Don’t work for your dad?”

“Yes and no— “

And their discussions continued like for a long while.

Vylad grown a little confident as Laurance put away the bottle, and find himself scooting closer and closer. Their voices grew soft, cushioned by the need of sleep but their want to talk. It wasn’t long until the two were within each other’s space rather than starting off with him by Garroth and Vylad by the end of the couch.

The only noise now that disturbed the air was Garroth’s snore. While minutes ago, Vylad felt a second away from sleep, now sat attentive and hands balled in his lap as Laurance, eyes half lidded, continue to lean close.

So close.

What are you doing? He thinks to himself, as Vylad tilted his face up, almost entranced by how Laurance looked and suppressed the chill that ran down his back as a finger trailed down his jaw, cupping his chin.

Vylad wasn’t well versed in social cues but he knew when a kiss was coming. The way their bodies shifted closer, the way weight Vylad didn’t know existed lifted from his shoulder, and he wondered if Laurance could hear his thundering heart.

He closed his eyes and he started to lean in.

What are you doing?

“W-wait,” a hand stops his moving in, and Vylad’s eyes fly open, cheeks flushed red flushed even redder. “I… I can’t do this, Vylad. Your brother. He’s right there.”

“…” Vylad recoiled even more, unable now to meet with Laurance’s eyes but the other still attempted to touch his hand.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t m-mean to lead you on. I just,” Laurance then touched his cheek in a gesture to look up but Vylad away further, rising to his feet, “This is my fault. I’m so—wait, Vylad, wait!”

He always prided himself of his quickness and while he felt nothing but shame at this moment, Vylad was already in his room by the time a slightly swaying Laurance could get to his feet.

“Vylad, I’m sorry!” was the last he heard before he locked the door.

Leans against it, almost straining to hear the other side of the dense door. No movement. Not a peep.

His hands lifted to his neck, before tearing off the scarf his wore over it. Vylad walked over to his mirror and craning it slightly, he checked the tally on it.

White.

He wondered if it was normal for it to feel like it’s tingling, the pull to Laurance was still there. He felt… regretful more than angry. And because of that, he felt more shame with how he regretted not going in for the kiss, to kiss his brother’s boyfriend, without a shed of remorse.

He squeezed his eyes shut, settling on his bed before flopping back.

“Well I guess avoiding him has gotten way easier,” he mumbled to himself, while Vylad didn’t see Laurance’s face, he’d imagine something close to guilt and heartbreak for Garroth’s sake, that he almost…

He squeezed his eyes tighter.

What was I thinking?

Laurance leaned his forehead against the door, his hand on the handle.

The moment it slammed shut and the audible click of the locking mechanism… Laurance felt the plead die at his throat.

Vylad looked… almost in pain the moment his eyes opened and realized what they were about to do. Humiliation. It was a gut reaction, for the last second before they could press their lips together, he remembered Garroth.

His… well, his soon to be ex, boyfriend. After tonight.

During the night, since the moment Garroth admitted the reason why he hadn’t shown Laurance his tallies was because… he didn’t have a white one to match Laurance’s white. He never directly lied to Laurance’s face, saying he did have a red one, to match Laurance’s red but.

That would explain so much.

He remembered his father once described, finding your soulmate, there was a natural pull to each other.

And Laurance was fond of Garroth, given different circumstances, he’d even say he’d grow to love the blond. But as he returned to the couch, he cask a look the resting blond as he sorts through his thoughts.

He felt connected to Vylad within a few hours versus the months he spent time with Garroth.

A pull.

He would even come to say, the pleasure of getting to know the quiet Ro’meave felt more fun than he had at the party. And the near kiss…

Laurance touched his own lips, frowning. They looked really soft. I wonder if they feel the same.

He glanced towards the hallway Vylad ran down, still frowning. I’m so screwed. What have I done?

Laurance didn’t know for sure.

But he wanted to know; the night of the dinner, he only gotten two new tallies. A red and a white.

If Garroth wasn’t the white…

“I hope I’m not wrong.”

[scottmapess]

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[thisdaynews]

GOP squabbles as Louisiana governor nears reelection

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/gop-squabbles-as-louisiana-governor-nears-reelection/

GOP squabbles as Louisiana governor nears reelection

Edwards is working hard to distance himself from national Democrats, touting things like signing into law a bill that restricts abortion rights, or his pro-gun stance that’s arguably more in step with Republicans. And Republicans who want to nationalize the race are crossing their fingers that the incumbent will fall short of 50 percent and give either Abraham or Rispone a one-on-one shot next month against Edwards, who ran a scorched-earth campaign in 2015 and defeated scandal-tarred Republican David Vitter.

“Look, some of the positions that I always held — and I’ve been clear and consistent about this from the beginning — are not consistent with the mainstream of the national party,” Edwards said in an interview at the governor’s mansion here last week. “But they are consistent with an awful lot of Democrats in Louisiana. I’m talking about being pro-life and my Second Amendment views.”

While Edwards flaunts his bipartisan bona fides, the two major Republican candidates — Abraham, a third-term congressman, and Rispone, a self-funding businessman — are trading attacks. Rispone launched a negative ad targeting Abraham last month, and Abraham struck back on Monday with a new spot calling Rispone “desperate,” telling voters, “Eddie Rispone is lying to you.”

Of the three off-year gubernatorial elections this fall — Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky — the Democratic Governors Association considers holding Louisiana its biggest priority, according to two Democrats with knowledge of national party strategy. And while Republicans, including both Abraham and Rispone, have repeatedly said they are confident they will force a runoff, Democrats have privately begun to entertain the possibility that Edwards could clinch reelection outright on Oct. 12.

Democrats say Edwards, if he falls just short of 50 percent in the primary, would still be well-positioned for a runoff — and they see the race as a potential blueprint for how other candidates could win in deep red states during an era of extreme national partisanship.

“For too long, I feel like our national party has not put enough emphasis on building political infrastructure in rural areas. We’ve seen the cost of that in 2016. We saw some improvement of that in 2018. But that’s a blue wave, not a sea change. And if we want a sea change, not just a wave, then we have to build long-term standing infrastructure in rural communities,” Isaac Wright, a veteran Democratic strategist with extensive experience running southern races, said. “And we’re at the precipice. I think there is a chance that for the first time we may recognize that.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, a Democrat, said for candidates running in deep red states like Louisiana or Mississippi, avoiding “close alliance with the national party or national issues” is an effective strategy to localize their races.

“I think John Bel Edwards has focused relentlessly on not trying to get gummed up on some of the issues of the national Democrats and stay relentlessly focused on issues like the economy, Medicaid expansion … education — those bread-and-butter issues,” Hodges said, calling them the “successful recipe for Democrats running in Deep South states.”

Democrats have had little success across the Deep South over the past decade, but there have been some bright spots since Edwards’ 2015 victory. In 2017, Alabama Democrat Doug Jones avoided national policy stances and clung closely to health care and education in defeating another controversial Republican, Roy Moore, in a special election for Senate. And while Republicans are favored to hold the governorship in Mississippi next month, Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Hood is considered Democrats’ strongest candidate in decades.

Faced with Edwards’ profile, Republicans have attacked his record on jobs and health care, rather than just pegging him as a liberal Democrat in line with the party’s unpopular national figures.

“We’re the only state, regardless of what the governor said, that has not created jobs in the last 12 months,” Abraham said in an interview. “We’re at the bottom of the barrel in health care and education, fiscal responsibility, job opportunity. Good Lord — what other issues do you need? I mean this is where we are, and we are better than that.”

On health care, neither Republican supports rolling back Edwards’ Medicaid expansion, but both say the Democrat has bungled the program.

“The way it’s done is unsustainable,” Rispone said. “It’s going to go broke if we don’t do something. Medicaid is for the people who cannot help themselves — and we keep expanding and expanding and expanding to more than that.”

But while both Republicans spend plenty of time hitting Edwards, they have increasingly taken aim at each other in recent weeks. Some public polls have showed Rispone, who has spent more than $11 million of his own money on the campaign, inching in front of Abraham.

Abraham countered last week with internal polling data showing him just two points ahead of Rispone. But the survey showed Edwards at 47 percent — dangerously close to 50 percent, with Abraham (22 percent) and Rispone (20 percent) well behind the incumbent.

In a televised debate last week in Lafayette, each GOP candidate worked to peg the other as a political insider. Rispone repeatedly attacked Abraham as a phony Trump supporter while framing himself as the real “outsider and a conservative.” Abraham shot back, saying he’s been a “a doctor, a farmer … [and] owned three separate businesses” — while Rispone, a long-time GOP donor, “has been in politics a long time.”

National Republicans have sought to provide cover while Abraham and Rispone duke it out — and try to hold Edwards under 50 percent. A group funded by the Republican Governors Association has aired ads attacking Edwards on taxes and Louisiana’s jobs numbers during Edwards’ tenure.

Republicans also expect Trump to get involved in the race if there’s a runoff. But Trump allies, including Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump reelection campaign manager Brad Parscale, have all slammed Edwards on Twitter.

Meanwhile, a pro-Edwards outside group, Gumbo PAC, has continued to air ads bashing the two Republicans. Its latest ad mocks one of the GOP candidates as “phony Eddie Rispone.”

Despite Louisiana’s Democratic tradition, no Democratic governor has won a second consecutive term since Edwin Edwards (no relation) won reelection in the mid 1970s. But the current incumbent is confident.

“If the election were held today, there would not be [a runoff],” John Bel Edwards said in the interview last week. “But it’s not today. It’s still October the 12th.”

“I like the movement I have seen in the last week or so in the polls,” added Edwards. “And either we’re going to win on October 12th, or we’re going to come extremely close.”

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[topicprinter]

$1.2m raised (including early Trivago investors)100's of "Stash Points"MVP built for ~$350$6 to store your bag for the day with around half going to the stash point ownerAnthony Collias and Jacob Wedderburn-Day have created hundreds of "stash points" next to major stations and attractions to free travelers from their luggage on arrival and departure days. I spoke to Anthony to find out how they validated the idea, cheaply built their MVP and how they funded global expansion - NathanYou used to live near Kings Cross - how did that lead you to seeing enough opportunity in bag storage to create Stasher? And how did you meet your co-founder?My co-founder and I met at uni, we both studied economics at Oxford. After graduating we were interested in pursuing entrepreneurship.As you mentioned, I lived between Euston and Kings Cross and my brother was a student at City University in Central London. We saw tons of international students there and we always had friends asking if they could leave stuff at our apartment while they went home for half terms and such. This is when Jake and I realised there was an opportunity to use people's homes for storing bags.The Stasher TeamAlthough the first use case was for students who are going home for half terms but we thought that we could open it up to any storage use case. we signed up our homes on a makeshift platform and quickly realised that the self-storage market is pretty saturated - both in terms of large companies that already existed and in terms of small companies that are innovating in that space.However, there was no innovation in the short-term market and everyone that was using our service was actually using it for short-term one day storage - Typically for backpacks and suitcases. So we decided it made more sense to focus on that niche. We also saw the need for people to be able to book on demand as we typically got a message the day before or the morning of their arrival.We quickly got sick of running back to our homes to let people in, and that is when we realised it made more sense to work with local businesses who are open anyway. That also opened up a strong case for us to take a much larger chunk of the money. When revenue is ancillary for a business that's open anyway you don't need to share an as large portion of the cash to make it worthwhile for them to provide the service.How did you then validate the idea and how much did you spend in doing so?I think we put in maybe £100-150 each. We found a platform called ShareTribe and I really recommend it for MVP’s. It’s a rental marketplace, software-as-a-service business and cost only £30-50 per month.So we purchased this software, decided we would work on it for 3-6 months and if we saw traction we would pursue it further. That’s exactly how we validated it, we set up a simple website, put some google ads up for terms like “luggage storage kings cross”. At that time no one was advertising on the term so it was only ~£0.10 per click.What made you go after funding?Firstly, we had no savings as we were recent graduates and the second reason is the same as with any startup - the more money you raise, the more time you can spend on it and the more you can spend on growth.Also the tax incentives for the first £100-150k that you raise are so strong that it’s actually quite reasonable to raise. It gave us the opportunity to work on it full time which we felt would let us achieve much more.There was One thing that we chose specifically to avoid as we saw funding the business as an important part of validating We made a point of not accepting money from friends and family in the first round. I have an article online about this (you can have a look at it here)- to keep it short  we thought it was important to get investors at arms length to validate our progress and make sure we weren’t just asking family and friends to fund us to do something stupid.I saw that you took funding from the Big Yellow Storage founder and some other notable investors - were they able to help you in ways on top of just giving cash?When we raised from the CEO of Big Yellow Storage we saw ourselves as a storage business. It goes without saying that in general business terms he was immensely helpful. He’s a clued up guy, he's very friendly and was always happy to take a call.As we grew we realised we were more of a travel business than a storage business, as people typically stored their bags when travelling.That’s when we took part in Expedia's Hotel Jumpstart, which allowed us to expand our network and gain valuable skills in the travel industry. We ended up winning the competition and brought on the ex-president of Hotels.com as an investor and advisor.Some of our other investors include a fund called HOWZAT, they were the early funders of Trivago, they were also the owner/operators of cheapflights.com which became Momondo group.We also brought in some cash from some marketplace experts. A fund called VentureFriends who’ve invested in and personally run a bunch of marketplace businesses.We really had a bias towards investors who have operational experience and it has been helpful.What specifically?Our investors who were in the travel space gave us introductions to potential candidates for hiring but also strategic introductions, whether that’s people within large organisations or people we meet at conferences.Operationally - we catch up with all of our investors at least once a month and we’ll talk through questions like “what kind of things have you tried recently?”, “have you tried this, one of our other portfolio companies tried it and it worked really well”. “Here’s a contractor you can maybe work with”, “here's someone you can potentially hire”. So a good mix.Have you seen any downsides to raising money?We haven’t had a negative experience but there is stuff to look out for.People glamorize the process of raising money as if raising money equals succeeding in your business. Raising money is a step that you take, and in fact a distraction, that allows you to fulfil a promise to grow the business. It is not the end goal. There’s a Winston Churchill quote I particularly like: “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” Which is quite apt when it comes to raising money. People celebrate raising $1 or $10 million but actually they’ve just made a commitment to grow their business a lot in the face of uncertainty.Make sure that the dilution that you face is less than the increase in value you hope to achieve otherwise you’ve literally just given away value.What does it cost to store a bag and what margin are you seeing?It costs about £6, $6 or 5/6€depending on the city. We retain about half of that. The bag storage location takes about half - so in the UK our typical standard fee is £2.50 per bag per day for hosts. In some territories, the cost of business is higher so they might get a higher proportion.What is the ad cost associated with each purchase?It’s fairly sensitive data but what I will say is that we’re profitable on first purchase.Are you seeing people re-use Stasher?It’s great that we see not just people coming back but we’re also seeing that the rate at which people are coming back is improving with every cohort!Are you looking to upsell purchasers in anyway?There’s lots of completely new services we could launch including luggage delivery. Another one that we’re considering quite seriously is utilizing storage facilities for non travel related use cases - B2B use cases for example.Almost like a courier service?Potentially like last mile delivery, potentially for exchange of goods for businesses. It’s something we’re exploring.From what you were saying earlier, Adwords ads seem to be the largest driver of sales but how else have you driven sales?Search is important but like any travel business we do find that partnerships are really valuable. There's loads of companies whose customers are likely to need our services so we form arrangements with them so they refer their customers to us. Sometimes we’ll give them a discount or a kickback, depending on the specific situation. That’s the channel we’re focusing on and we think it’ll lead to huge growth in the future.You recently expanded to the US, have you noticed any differences between operating in the two regions?One to consider is that we don’t work with any unionised hotels in the US at the moment, simply because we have to work out how we can work with unions, which is obviously a big endeavour.In terms of how we roll out it’s not really different, we follow the same game plan and it functions quite well.Is there a way you vet the places you store the bags and have there been any horror stories?Very minimal horror stories, we’ve actually never had a claim on our insurance despite having stored several hundred thousand bags.In terms of vetting, we work with contractors or members of our team or groups of hotels/shops where we communicate with them directly where we vet them. Otherwise we use a third-party service that’s like a proxy checker. It’s not their core focus but they do us a favor by doing it.In reality, we’re storing bags. We tell people, “don’t leave your passport” and I think that’s just common sense. The very worst is that maybe a shop owner is ill and leaves early so someone can’t access their bag, in which case we’ll facilitate shipping.What apps and tools power your business?Slack’s kind of a given. Zapier is super useful. Another one people may not have heard of is Supermetrics - a tool that lets you easily move database information into sheets and excel, it’s a good tool for team members who aren’t so comfortable with SQL. You can pull from loads of different data sources and everyone is comfortable playing with that in Excel.If you enjoyed this interview - the original post is here.

[ofubox]

When Donald Trump descended the golden escalator to announce his run for president, none in the sceptical media pack below could have imagined he would win. It was on this day four years ago - at the exact same stage of the last US presidential cycle - that Mr Trump made his announcement: he would, for real this time, run for the highest office in the land. The property mogul and TV host was the 12th candidate to come forward to try to claim the Republican Party's nomination. If the Washington establishment was sceptical, it was because this was not the first time he had floated a run for the White House, only not to follow up on his own speculation. Many of the reports that day reflected those doubts. Many of them, employing a degree of mockery rarely used in news, denigrated his performance at the podium inside the gilded Trump Tower. Some of them, though only some, focused on his claim Mexico was sending "rapists" over the border. What did commentators that day fail to understand about the man who would be president? And what did they get right? "Donald Trump is actually running for president," our North America reporter Anthony Zurcher wrote. "Few people expected it to happen - he's gone through the motions many times before - and his political rants up until now have been roundly derided as a joke. But this time he actually said the words, and he seems like he means it... "He's already proven a willingness to take swings at his opponents. Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio 'don't have a clue', he said in his announcement speech. 'How are these people going to lead us?' he asked. "If he says that enough times during a debate - or in a multi-million dollar television advertising spree - a lot of people are going to stop laughing and take notice. And that's probably just what Mr Trump wants." Media captionHow Donald Trump announced he was running How does that view look now? "Donald Trump got people to take notice all right, but I never thought someone with negative ratings as high as his could capture the nomination," Anthony writes in 2019. "I figured the Republican establishment would coalesce around an alternative - and it never really did. "There's a theory that Trump's presidential campaign was a publicity stunt gone awry, a real-life version of The Producers, where an enterprise designed to fail became an accidental success. "Only Mr Trump knows the truth, but his pugilistic brand of politics capitalised on a moment in American history when just enough voters were fed up with the status quo to take a chance on an unlikely outsider." 'Much-needed seriousness' - Democrats What they said in 2015 "Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days," Democratic National Committee (DNC) spokeswoman Holly Shulman said in a statement that proceeded to lay on the sarcasm in spades. "He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation." How does that view look now? Neither the DNC nor Holly Shulman responded when asked how they viewed those comments now. Trump may have an opening - Washington Examiner What they said in 2015 Days before Mr Trump's announcement, Byron York wrote in the conservative Washington Examiner that the mogul could appeal to Republican voters tired with the direction the party was taking. "It's been clear for quite a while that some conservative voters are so disgusted with the GOP that they would entertain the notion of a third party," he wrote. "If he pursues a race seriously, Trump could win the support of those I've-had-it-up-to-my-eyeballs voters. Their concerns aren't a joke. If Trump doesn't address them, somebody else will." How does that view look now? The fact Mr Trump was not an establishment politician, and could shake up the system, was a factor his supporters went on to regularly cite for why they loved him. Here's what some of his supporters told us in summer 2016: Media captionWhy they love Trump: 'He's not a politician' Four years on, there is no question that the Republican Party has been shaped in the image of the man who led it to the White House: more hardline and more aggressive. Former Ohio governor John Kasich, who was the last Republican candidate standing alongside Mr Trump in 2016, said in May that it was now the Trump party. "Ninety percent of the Republican Party supports him," he told CNN. All eyes on the primaries - New York Times What they said in 2015 Correspondent Maggie Haberman predicted Mr Trump's campaign would end with him not winning the nomination (and instead earning a nice fat cheque for the next season of The Apprentice). But she also anticipated intriguing times ahead in the crucial early states in the Republican primary race. "He would likely have to somehow outperform both Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio in Florida, where he is a part-time resident," she wrote. "If Mr Trump could buy a state with an early nominating contest, like New Hampshire, and brand it with his name, it might help." Anyone suggesting Mr Trump could win a primary at this stage was... a lone voice, shall we say. How does that view look now? Well, The Apprentice did return, but Mr Trump was a bit too busy to host it by that point. As far as the primary race was concerned, Maggie Haberman was right - his win in New Hampshire in the second primary gave him a critical boost. After that, he didn't look back. And by the time of the Florida primary in March 2016, his momentum did help him outperform Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush (who had by that point withdrawn from the race) - Mr Trump won 45.7% of the vote there. Trump could dominate debate - Washington Post What they said in 2015 Trump the performer could take up all the oxygen of the other candidates, predicted Chris Cillizza, now of CNN. "He will interrupt, bully and seek to dominate the debate in ways that will make it impossible to get a word in edge-wise," he wrote. "And, if past is prologue, the sorts of things he does say when he gains control of the debate floor will be stuff that appeals heavily to the Republican base and turns off, well, almost everyone else... "While it's possible Trump's poll numbers collapse between now and August, that doesn't seem very likely since much of how you perform in national polling at this point is a function of pure name recognition, and Trump has plenty of that." How does that view look now? Even though the Trump campaign didn't launch until mid-June, analysis shows his campaign was the second-most covered news story of the year on US television networks in 2015. No other candidate - apart from the Democrats' Hillary Clinton - was anywhere close. When the first Republican debate rolled around in August 2015, all the headlines were about him and what he said (in this case, he refused to withdraw comments he had made denigrating women). He would continue to dominate the news agenda all the way through to the election. Trump's 'pretty sexy' message - Fox News What he said in 2015 Republican media strategist Adam Goodman predicted Mr Trump's status as an outsider billionaire who was "unashamed" about his wealth could prove attractive to voters. Appearing on conservative channel Fox News on the day of Mr Trump's announcement, he told broadcaster Gregg Jarrett that Mr Trump was "talking to the disaffected" American. In prescient comments, he discussed how Mr Trump's "America First" platform would appeal to those voters. "In a way he's sending a signal to a lot of Americans who are not making it, which is: 'Put me in place, and I will make sure America's brand is back on top again'. 'I will make sure that when I am president of the United States, I will do everything I can to put you first, and allow you the opportunities I had to make it and fulfil the American dream.' "That's a pretty sexy message for anyone to hear." How does that view look now? Four years on, Mr Goodman maintains he "felt something" when watching Mr Trump declare his candidacy for the Republican ticket. He tells the BBC he stands by the comments he made on Fox News. Mr Trump's "America First" message, Mr Goodman says, was "code" to disenfranchised Americans who felt the system had "let them down". The "sexy message" he described on Fox News gave Americans "something to feel good about in a pro-America way". "Donald Trump, for all of his faults, certainly brought that message. Unashamedly and unedited," Mr Goodman says. "Trump reflected what was in people." Has Trump delivered on his promises? Neither Mr Trump nor his nationalistic platform have changed since then, Mr Goodman says. "Trump today is the same as candidate Trump in 2015," he says. In the 2020 presidential election, Mr Goodman predicts Mr Trump will leave a "lot of people scratching their heads again". Jeb Bush would win the nomination - Polls What they said in 2015 On the day Mr Trump entered the race, polling data painted a fairly bleak picture for him. He was languishing towards the bottom of the pack with 3.6% of support, according to a RealClearPolitics average of polls. Leading the field on 10.8% was former Florida governor Jeb Bush, ahead of Wisconsin's then-governor Scott Walker (yes, really). Mr Trump's average in the polls would dip to 3.2% on 22 June 2015, but that would prove to be his lowest ebb. From that point onwards, his rise was meteoric. His approval rating spiked on 12 July 2015, when he accused Mexicans of "killing us at the border" at a mass rally in Phoenix. Eight days later, he overtook Mr Bush, his polling average climbing to 16.8%. After that, only Ben Carson would surpass him - once on 5 November 2015 - until his nomination was confirmed. It's only the Democrats picking a candidate this time around and so far, their race has been dominated by one name: former US Vice-President Joe Biden. He has been the runaway leader for the nomination, even before entering the race on 25 April this year. As of 12 June, his polling average, according to RealClearPolitics, puts him top at 32.8%. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is his closest competitor on 17.3%, while the rest of the pack - including Elizabeth Warren (9.2%), Pete Buttigieg (7.2%) and Kamala Harris (7.2%) - trail in single digits. Those ratings are likely to fluctuate as candidates lock horns in Democratic primary debates starting on 26 June. As Mr Trump's unexpected ascendancy in the 2016 race shows though, it's still too early to make any sensible predictions...

http://ofubox.blogspot.com/2019/06/the-day-trump-ran-for-president-and.html

[bikethevote]

2019 L.A. City Council District 12 Candidate: Stella Maloyan

Candidate campaign page: https://www.stellamaloyan.com/

Stella Maloyan’s response to our questionnaire can be summed up with one exceptional quote: “Vision Zero is insufficient. We need Action Zero.” While she doesn’t call anyone out by name, Maloyan makes clear that she’s dissatisfied with the inadequate pace of progress on the City’s signature street safety initiative, pointing out the hypocrisy of politicians who talk a good game on the need to address climate change but continue to stand in the way of meaningful improvements that would make it easier for more people to walk and bike.

Maloyan is committed to getting 10 miles of protected bike lanes installed throughout the 12th District in her first term, including a route connecting Cal State Northridge to Metrolink. At the same time, she pledges to work hard at engagement and coalition building so that crucial improvements gain lasting support from the community. Between her strong commitment to safe streets and her background in the nonprofit sector, Stella Maloyan is poised to be a strong and effective ally for bike and pedestrian advocates on the City Council.

Bike The Vote L.A. 2019 Primary Grade: A

(See below for full candidate questionnaire response)

Let me say at the outset that I am a strong supporter of public transit and active transportation. Most politicians would follow that sentence with a BUT; where they’d equivocate about why we can’t build protected bike lanes — too soon they’d say — or lower transit fares or increase frequency of bus service. With me, there is NO BUT. If elected, I would be the strongest ally on council to bicyclists, pedestrians and transit users. Period.

My seventeen years with the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) taught me many things. The first is that progressive change is achievable; I know this because my organization helped achieve great policies at LA City Hall. Second, winning policy requires team effort. It takes multiple progressive sectors coming together to push in smart ways. Finally, it takes leadership. I’m running for office because I’m tired of politicians saying one thing and doing another, or talking around an issue as a way to offend no one. You can’t have a councilmember preaching action on climate change while they’re blocking the construction of bicycle lanes from public transit to the largest commuter school in the entire United States.

1. What role do you see for walking, transit, and biking in the getting residents and students in Council District 12 to and from local businesses, parks, and schools?

Walking, biking and public transit are currently being used by people in the 12th District. My goal is to dramatically increase the opportunity for people to leave the cars at home. If people are given the opportunity to enter the street feeling safe and supported, I know they will walk and bike to school/work more often and use our streets for recreation.

It’s an infrastructure question, and this is where city council must stand firm: we must design streets so that pedestrians and bicyclists feel welcome and safe.

The design of LA’s streets, as well as the pace of our car-centric life, must be challenged. And I’m willing to do that. For me, it’s a quality-of-life question. Why must we cede so much of our public space to the automobile? Why do we make safety a secondary priority in order to allow cars to speed through our neighborhoods? Our priorities are off. And it’s critical to recognize that burning gasoline is LA’s #1 contribution to climate change. Our current convenient way of “getting around” is posing a danger to our children’s future.

LA City’s Mobility Plan 2035 lists over 150 strategies to reduce automobile use and make streets safer for pedestrians and bicyclists. Unfortunately, the City has been slow to implement the plan, and too many of these strategies remain merely ideas on paper.

Specifically, my goal in the first four years of my term will be to construct at least 10 miles of protected bicycle lanes in CD 12, with a particular focus on connecting Cal State Northridge (CSUN) with the Metrolink Northridge Station, and to begin to connect CSUN with the Balboa Orange Line Station, five miles away.

Second, I will work with LAPD to enforce speed limits and safety measures along key thoroughfares. Drivers need to be on notice that they must share the road.

Third, I will work with the City and Metro to expedite the construction of the North San Fernando Valley Bus Rapid Transit project. Metro has a lot on its plate right now, but that cannot be an excuse. I will use my position to prioritize this project – to move it from study phase to implementation. I will also work with Metro to ensure that these new rapid buses have room for bikes to be safely placed inside the buses as well.

Next, well-intentioned members of the Northridge public have opposed double-tracking Metrolink’s Ventura County Line. I sympathize with them. Nevertheless, I would work to negotiate with all parties to get a win for residents while making the line safer, reducing air pollution, and speeding the movement of passenger trains.

Last, although not in my district, I will help expedite the design and construction of the Sepulveda Transit Corridor and the East San Fernando Valley Transit Corridor. Once built, these lines will help CD 12 residents move about the region.

2. Thirty-eight percent of Cal State University, Northridge students do not have access to a car for their daily commute. What actions can Los Angeles take to make the CSUN campus more accessible for students, staff, and faculty including better bike, pedestrian, and transit connectivity around the campus? Additionally, do you support implementation of protected bike lanes on Parthenia Street to connect Metrolink Northridge Station to existing protected bike lanes on Reseda Boulevard?

California State University Northridge campus currently sees over 200,000 weekly car trips. I would work with the City and campus administrators to set measurable time-specific targets to reduce car trips. There are many options, from van-pooling to dedicated buses connecting the campus from the Red and Orange lines, from removing parking spaces to subsidizing Metrolink passes. (Today, CSUN offers reduced fares on the Metro U-Pass, but not for Metrolink.)

Yes, I support protected bike lanes, and Parthenia Street is acceptable. But a more suitable route may be Aliso Canyon Wash to Nordhoff Boulevard. A well-designed, well-lighted bike path along the wash, under the shade of oak trees, could make the bicycle commute more inviting, thereby drawing more students to this way of commuting. Through Measure M, Metro may even have funds for such a path.

3. CD12 sees some of L.A.’s worst speeding and street racing, with three out of the top five most dangerous intersections in all of California located within the District. In response to the condition of dangerous streets across the city, Los Angeles adopted a ‘Vision Zero’ program with the goal of significantly reducing the 240+ annual roadway deaths that the City currently sees. Do you support prioritizing safety on L.A.’s High Injury Network streets in CD12 such as Reseda, Roscoe, and Balboa Boulevards, even when there may be trade-offs in terms of automotive travel time or on-street parking?

Vison Zero is insufficient. We need Action Zero. Yes, I fully support prioritizing public safety efforts along CD 12’s major boulevards.

That said, I am sensitive to businesses that view street parking as benefitting their bottom line. I think it’s a question of education and smart planning. As part of street safety, I would establish a concurrent economic development taskforce to help businesses realize the financial benefit of having more livable (slower) streets.

4. LADOT has determined that speed is the predominant factor in whether traffic collisions are deadly. Despite this fact, Los Angeles recently increased speed limits on 100 miles of local streets to abide by state law, including raising the speed limit to 45 mph on Winnetka Ave., Wilbur Ave. & Reseda Blvd. in CD12. Would you support implementation of lane reductions and other traffic calming infrastructure in order to reduce vehicle speeds on surface streets in CD12?

Yes, with a caveat. Traffic calming must not look like big government telling people how to behave – that approach never works. Instead, there needs to be collaboration between government and on-the-ground communities and institutions. Local groups can provide context on why the change is needed. The best outcome would be for the CD 12 public to tell me what they want – and that they want traffic calming. I’m ready to lead on the issue and support dramatic changes to protect the public. But it will take a coalition, not just one leader standing alone, to achieve this goal.

5. Los Angeles’ traffic woes are compounded by the reality that many parents, students, and workers don’t feel safe commuting even short distances or performing school drop-offs walking, rolling, or by bike. What would you do as Councilmember to improve active transportation options around schools, public transit, and in commercial districts to provide better mobility options for CD12 residents?

As explained above, I will work with LAPD to enforce speed limits and promote safety measures in key areas, and I will work to build many miles of protected bikeways in the district. However, there is a human element as well. Angelenos are unaccustomed to sharing the road. As councilmember, I’d promote bicycling via various media, my newsletters and via social media.

6. While one of Los Angeles most recently developed districts, CD12 also has the largest senior population by percentage in the city. What improvements to mobility options would you implement to empower CD12's senior population to comfortably age in place?

AARP is a major supporter of CicLAvia, which is a great reminder that we shouldn’t assume being older entails becoming inactive or immobile.

Affordable senior housing is one of my core issues – and to make those facilities livable by promoting biking and walking go hand-in-glove. Just as I will work to build affordable housing in my district and throughout Los Angeles, I will focus these efforts along transit corridors and work with planners to co-locate commercial and cultural attributes within walking distance.