#cus his american at least sounds believable

[ironasss]

why is david tennants imdb picture from gracepoint of all things. like of every photo out there why the 2014 american remake featuring his trash american accent and a mid supporting cast

[cyarskaren52]

“It was like holding a f**king live wire”: how Rage Against The Machine’s explosive debut album changed everything

It was early evening on Sunday, February 21, 1993 when the balloon went up. To the majority of people listening to Radio 1’s weekly chart rundown, the name Rage Against The Machine meant nothing. Why would it? A brand new band mixing metal and hip hop like no one had done before, they’d yet to make an impact outside of the nation’s rock clubs or the stereos of the more clued-in metal fan.

And so, when presenter Bruno Brookes cheerfully announced that their new single, Killing In The Name, had entered the charts at No.27 and cued the song up, neither he nor several million listeners knew what was about to happen.

The song started with a coiled guitar and tense bassline, as some guy rapped about the American police force’s inherent racism with palpable vitriol in his voice: ‘Some of those who work forces are the same who burn crosses.’ Then – boom! – the whole thing suddenly erupted. Over guitars that sounded like a thousand police sirens wailing all at once, the line ‘Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me!’ blasted out of radio speakers everywhere, not just once, not twice, but 16 times. And then, suddenly, it reached its gloriously profane crescendo with one word hurled out with all the anger and pain that could possibly be mustered: ‘MOTHERFUCKER!’

Understandably, the snafu prompted a deluge of complaints to the BBC from offended listeners. Bruno Brookes, who was unaware that an unedited version of the song had accidentally been aired, was suspended for a week and almost lost his job. In just three and a half minutes, a group of political agitators from Los Angeles had detonated an incendiary device live on the airwaves.

“We knew the band’s politics were radical,” says guitarist Tom Morello today. “And that the band’s music was a radical combination of styles. But we didn’t think it was going to matter, ’cos no one was ever going to hear it.”

But people did hear it, in their millions. Rage Against The Machine were about to start a four-man revolution.

More than a quarter of a century after it exploded like a car bomb under the hood of mainstream culture, Rage Against The Machine has lost none of its power, impact or provocative fervour. It was the sound of Public Enemy yoked to Black Flag, of Dr Martin Luther King and Malcolm X set to a soundtrack of cutting-edge rap-metal.

Rage arrived as the wilfully shallow, MTV-driven rock scene of the 1980s was flat on the canvas with bluebirds fluttering around its head, laid out by the emergent grunge movement. In America, a new generation of hip hop bands was providing a vital social commentary, marrying the gritty reality of the streets with the violent glamour of a Hollywood crime blockbuster. All this was happening against a backdrop of global turmoil, racial tension and the threat of war in the Middle East. In hindsight, their timing was perfect.

In reality, it was purely accidental. Vocalist Zack de la Rocha, guitarist Tom Morello, bassist Timmy C (aka Tim Commerford) and drummer Brad Wilk had been in various low-level LA bands, including hardcore firebrands Inside Out (Zack) and Lock Up (Tom, who played on their sole album, the unfortunately titled Something Bitchin’ This Way Comes).

“I had been in a band that had a record deal, I had already had my grab at the brass ring,” says Tom. “The band got dropped and I was 26 years old, and I thought that was it. I thought, ‘If I’m not going to be a rock star, or make albums, I’m at least going to play music that I believe in 100%.’ And I was fortunate to meet three people who felt very similarly.”

The four were brought together by various mutual friends, though Zack and Tim had known each other since childhood. Zack and Tom came from similarly radical backgrounds – Zack was the son of Mexican-American political artist Robert de la Rocha, Tom was the son of a white American activist mother and a Kenyan diplomat father. Growing up, both had experienced racism first hand, and bonded over their hard-left political views – views that would shape Rage from the off.

“I wanted to ensure the protection of this band’s integrity,” Zack told journalist Ben Myers in 1999. “Our words had to be backed up by actions, because we’re dealing with this huge, monstrous pop culture that has a tendency to suck everything that is culturally resistant to it into it in order to pacify it and make it non-threatening.”

Ironically, for a band who would go on to become one of the most successful of the 1990s, Rage Against The Machine saw their very existence as limiting what they could achieve.

“We began with zero commercial ambition,” says Tom. “I didn’t think we’d be able to book a gig in a club, let alone get a record deal. There was no market for multi-racial, neo-Marxist rap-metal punk rock bands. That didn’t exist. So we made this music that was just 100% authentic, it was 100% what we felt like playing. We had no expectations.”

Still, it was clear to the members of Rage from the start that they were onto something unique. Brad Wilk can vividly recollect the band’s very first rehearsal.

“More than anything, I remember this connection and movement and momentum that was happening in the room,” he says. “Something clicked. I played so well with Tim and Tom, and then we had Zack, who was a bolt of lightning, flying off my kick drum and was in it for real. There was something really special about what we were doing. We weren’t analysing it or putting our fingers on it yet. It was just an intense moment for us all. We saw the very beginning of the potential we could have.”

Like so many Californian bands before them, Rage’s first gig took place not at a club but at a party, in Huntington Beach, in the sprawling suburb of Orange County, south of Los Angeles.

“It was a party in a house, and the place felt electric,” says Tim Commerford. “A lot of our songs didn’t even have vocals at that time. In fact, we played a version of Killing In The Name that was just the music – he hadn’t got the vocals done. You could feel the electricity. It felt like holding on to a fucking live wire. That’s what it was: a live wire. And it kept getting more and more live.”

Collectively, Rage were fans of hip hop, and Tom recalls the band’s early days being sound- tracked by the likes of Public Enemy and Cypress Hill. But while hip hop provided a big steer for the band, it wasn’t their sole influence. All four had grown up on guitar music ranging from 70s rock and 80s metal to punk.

“Our histories run deep, that’s why we were the band we were,” says Brad. “We didn’t just listen to hip hop, we listened to all kinds of things, from Black Sabbath to Led Zeppelin to Minor Threatand the Sex Pistols. When we were getting together, we agreed that we wanted our record to sound somewhere between Ice Cube’s AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted and Led Zeppelin’s Houses Of The Holy.”

In March, Rage embarked on their first proper tour as openers for Public Enemy. Thanks to the controversies whipped up by the US media around ‘gangsta rap’ acts such as NWA and Ice-T, mainstream America had a poisonous – read: virulently racist – relationship with hip hop, and trouble was never far away. It was the perfect environment for Rage Against The Machine.

“The tour was a needlessly controversial one,” says Tom. “At the time, rap was considered a dangerous endeavour, and the police sometimes outnumbered the audience at these shows. They tried to shut several down, filed injunctions – none of which were successful, I might add. We were playing these colleges, and the audience would be 100% white fraternity boys and sorority girls, passing through five levels of metal detectors and pat-downs. I think the cops were afraid that we were going to be bussing in Bloods and Crips to the show. There was an air of hysteria.”

Today, the guitarist still expresses bafflement that anyone at all would want to take a chance on Rage Against Their Machine and their political message, let alone a corporate record company. But their 12-track demo tape found its way into the hands of Michael Goldstone, the Epic Records A&R hotshot who’d previously signed Pearl Jam.

“Our only goal was to make music for ourselves and to make our own record – a cassette tape, an elaborate demo tape of the 12 songs we had written,” says Tom. “That was our entire goal. We never thought we’d play a show. We never thought we’d make a record.”

Garth Richardson was a young Canadian studio engineer whose biggest credit came on an album by hair metal B-listers White Lion. But he was young and hungry, and when Epic asked his boss, producer Michael Wagener, who should work on the debut album by this hot new rap-metal band they had signed, he was an obvious choice.

“I got the demo tape and went, ‘Holy shit.’ There was nothing else like it,” he recalls. “I went over to see them play in their jam space. I think they played me four songs, and I was blown away, to the point where I couldn’t talk afterwards, because my stutter was so bad. I was like, ‘Are you fucking kidding me – I’m going to be doing this band?’ It was their power, and also what Zack was saying. It was so fresh and so new.”

Rage began recording their debut album with Garth in March 1992. Seven of the 12 tracks from the demo tape, including Killing In The Name, Bomb Track and Bullet In The Head, would appear on the album.

“The songs were probably about 85 to 90% there,” remembers Garth. We made a few changes, mostly lyrically. Literally, somebody just had to capture them.”

To achieve this, the producer brought in a full concert PA system to get the full impact of the band’s live firepower. This was undiluted Rage – though sometimes it created unforeseen problems.

“The problem is that sometimes Zack’s voice went,” says Garth. “He was working it so hard. The end of Freedom, where he’s screaming, ‘Freedom!’, that’s just one take. Every time he sang, he gave it his all. Anybody that wanted him to hold back, he was, like, ‘No, fuck off, leave me alone.’”

Given the incendiary lyrical subject matter, there was surprisingly little input from Epic. They seemed to learn their lesson after suggesting the band remove the line ‘Now you’re under control’ from Killing In The Name. “There was a big conversation about that,” remembers Garth. “And the band just said, ‘Fuck you, that part stays.’”

Killing In The Name would be the song that broke the band in the UK. For six months, it soundtracked every rock club in the country, its impassioned call-to-arms galvanising dancefloors of people out to party. Yet, like so many of the great songs, it came about by accident.

“I remember coming up with that riff,” says Tom. “I was giving guitar lessons at the time, and I was teaching some Hollywood rock musician how to do drop-D tuning. In the midst of showing him, I came up with that riff. I said, ‘Hold on a second’, and I recorded it on my little cassette recorder to bring into the rehearsal the next day, never realising that it would be the genesis of a song that would have that lasting impact.”

In April 1992, a series of riots erupted in Los Angeles when four white policemen were acquitted of beating African-American motorist Rodney King, despite the assault being filmed by a witness standing on his balcony. For America, it was a moment of chaos. For Rage Against The Machine, who had already recorded their debut album and would release it in November, the timing was unfortunately convenient.

“All of those songs were written prior to the Rodney King riots,” says Tom. “In some ways the record was prescient, in that it saw this maelstrom of racial strife and imperialist war on the horizon. When the record hit, it was a fertile field for us to have the ear of audiences around the world.”

Rage were proudly revolutionary – too revolutionary for America, who were slow to catch on. Britain was a different matter, as Bruno Brookes’ unfortunate Radio 1 mishap proved.

“The UK was the first place people lost their minds over this music,” says Tom. “One of the principal reasons was that there were more lax lyrical censorship laws on your MTV and radio. We never edited the curse words out of songs, so people in the United States couldn’t even hear them on MTV, they couldn’t hear them on radio. And secondly, people over there were surprised to hear an American band that had a view of America that was similar to Europe’s view of America.”

From that small spark, a conflagration began to spread, as word about Rage Against The Machine grew. Their snowballing success had the desired effect, as a generation – or at least sections of it – began to wake up to the messages they were delivering through the bullhorn of their songs. Musically, too, they dragged the dormant rap-metal movement that had briefly flared up in the late 1980s back out of its stupor (in Bakersfield, California, the members of a brand new band named Korn were certainly paying attention to what Rage were doing).

Plus, society was changing fast in the early 90s. While sexism, racism and homophobia were still unfortunately prevalent, there was growing opposition to such outdated outlooks. Rage Against The Machine took it several steps further, crediting Black Panthers founder Huey Newton and Provisional IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands on the credits list to their album – a contentious move on both sides of the Atlantic. The sleeve itself featured a 1963 picture of Vietnamese monk Thich Quang Duc setting himself on fire in protest of his government’s oppression of Buddhism. It was the ultimate visual representation of protest.

“My heroes were not guys in rock bands,” says Tom. “They were revolutionaries who were fighting to change the world. It looked like we were going to have an opportunity to get in that arena. This was an incredible opportunity to engage the planet – not just with our music, but with our ideas.”

The success of Rage Against The Machine took everyone by surprise, not least Rage Against The Machine. They rapidly went from being the outcasts of the Hollywood scene to a lightning rod for the alt-rock movement. Rather than blunting their political edge, success only sharpened it – most famously in 1993, when they took to the stage at a Lollapallooza festival show in Philadelphia naked, apart from gaffa tape over their mouths, as a protest against censorship.

But the pressure-cooker environment that comes with being in a revolutionary left-wing band eventually took its toll. Tensions between the bandmembers grew, and Rage split up in 2000 after just three studio albums. They have sporadically reformed since – most famously for a one-off gig in London’s Finsbury Park, after a fan-led campaign saw a reissued Killing In The Name trounce the Simon Cowell-backed X-Factor winner Joe McElderry to the 2009 Christmas No.1.

More than 25 years after it was released, Rage’s debut remains a landmark – the point where rap and metal truly came together to deliver a body-blow to the status quo.

“Human strife has not changed. Racism has not changed. Things have actually gone backwards,” says Garth Richardson. “Rage Against The Machine wrote an incredible record that was current – and it will be time and time and time again.”

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock, Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw, not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo, the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill. He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

“There was an interruption to a news broadcast with the voice of this alien… I thought, ‘What if it were real?’” I Am The Manic Whale bring an old storybook to life

Sent from my iPhone

[formulatrash]

I think Alan jones is right 🤷‍♀️ Daniel sounds like some rookie, why was he so rattled by the replays? None of the other drivers said anything about it why the hell is he having a tantrum? It obviously got to him bc he had a terrible restart and got eaten up by the pack behind him, I know we love babying the drivers but thats weak. And whether we like it or not people want to see that stuff

I debated whether to post this because to me you’re very wrong but actually I think it’s good to think about these things. And to try to see it from your perspective, maybe because so many people seem to think this way.

It’s really difficult, as someone who’s sort of - oh, this is wank but like - speaking from inside racing, cus I watched the Bahrain GP from a media centre surrounded by team personnel, not to get incredibly angry at this. So I’ve sat on it for like a week to calm down and think how to discuss this properly because it would be too easy to get emotional. I do get there is a gap in perception, here.

Just because other drivers didn’t speak up about it doesn’t mean that they felt unaffected by the footage being replayed over and over. Attitudes like Alan Jones’ are what makes them suppress things they have every right to speak out on, professionally. They absolutely should have the right to agree whether footage of their or their peers bodies being mangled and broken is used again and again or at the very least, we should all accord them the respect to listen to their opinions about it and invite them to talk about it more. 

When Grand Prix racing was first on TV they’d show drivers burning to death in their cars while the race carried on around them; we obviously don’t think that’s right anymore, both the callousness to the drivers’ lives and to broadcast someone dying violently for the sake of sport but at the time, it was viewed as part of the character. The TV camera doesn’t have any inherent ethics, it’s just a lens but what we choose to frame in it is important. 

The viewer has a passive role in what you’re shown; you can’t select it. If it’s on the broadcast, there’s an inherent assumption that it’s ok to be on the broadcast, that this is a good or interesting thing to see. I don’t know if Liberty being an American company, where crashes are replayed a lot, lot more is a factor here but it felt very unlike modern F1 to replay it so many times.

The way that we portray the drivers and the role we give them in being able to decide that and consent to it (or to terms that they broadly agree to) should be empathetic. Because then it doesn’t come across as cheap repetition, that encourages every armchair FIA safety expert to come out with their own nonsense version of events - I understand car safety structures a lot better than twitteruser471 who reckons if Romain was a better driver he would have simply been able to not be on fire and I would never attempt to hazard a guess about what happened in a crash without proper information and data.

People are curious about things - I think it would have been best to have shown it once, after it was clear Romain was ok and then to work on preparing analysis, have a statement and timeline of events and what we know happened with it ready for the end of the Grand Prix. Knowing what happened lets people process something, endless speculation is a route to panic and well, literally trauma. 

The drivers are filmed as part of competing in F1 but the idea that that gives the broadcasters the right to show whatever they like without needing to justify it is wrong and part of the culture that gets bandied about that they should be willing to endure anything to be in the sport. Yes, being an F1 driver is a privilege but that shouldn’t come parcelled with signing away the right of FOM to traumatise your mum.

Let’s be clear on one thing: Romain survived that crash but until the FIA investigation is concluded, we don’t know whether that was because you could have expected him to or a total fluke. Safety systems such as the halo did their job but the crash itself was unexpected, unprecedented, none of the systems on the car were designed to work in those circumstances, they just - thank god - managed to add up into a series of tiny bits of luck that did. What you see in that accident isn’t someone dying but a few millimetres of change it it could be; it is a deadly-high-speed impact, it is a deadly hot fire, it is the absolute limits of what the survival cell and halo can bear and try to protect the driver inside.

That can seem difficult to understand because he got out. But getting out and it being fine are very different things. Every crash is dangerous, freak things can happen at relatively low speeds and without anything apparently dramatic - like Billy Monger and Jamie Caroline’s British F4 crash. 

Romain’s crash is a deadly one. What you are watching on the replay is a tiny, sliver-thin chance that a man lived or at least, wasn’t horribly, critically wounded. I’m not saying that to be dramatic or to over-exaggerate it: a 53g crash through an Armco barrier, with a fuel fire, just is that serious.

Lewis has spoken often about just how dangerous F1 is - and how little people realise it still is - and Lando and a couple of the others have spoken about how scared their families are when they go racing. Replaying something so, so, so close to being deadly to the point of, as Daniel identified, amusement, is tasteless to the people that worry about them - including themselves - and reductive of the risks.

I guess if you don’t know anyone who races cars you could view it as a video game perspective. It’s ok, Romain got out, we passed that level and now it doesn’t matter. For a lot of people, though, what you see every time is all the ways he doesn’t. Because that was an unbelievably close one - Romain himself has talked about believing he was accepting death as he sat in the burning cockpit.

The interview, afterwards, that most got to me was Guenther Steiner. He’s a hard man, who’s been in racing a long time and is performatively aggressive, unsympathetic, in many ways the stereotype of what a brutally pragmatic team boss has to be. He stood there on Sky last Thursday shaking and stutteringly incoherent, five days after the accident, not able to look at the footage - because he nearly lost his driver. 

Every single one of Romain’s team was watching that footage as it was forcibly looped over the screens in the paddock and pit lane. Yes, you are glad he got out - of course, that’s the most important thing - but knowing that he did doesn’t make replaying that and seeing how small the margin by which he did really was any less upsetting.

If watching the crash means nothing to you, it doesn’t mean that the people who are affected by it are weak. Everyone has a different understanding of things - you can not care what you’re watching or even think that it would be acceptable to watch a driver die but for the vast majority of people in the sport, neither of those things are considered ok.

[itty-bittle]

I know absolutely no one asked for this, but I was overcome and had to get this out of my brain. and i had to break my 4 months of writer’s block. so here’s this, i might make more! i am selling a product for which there is no demand 😌

______________________________________________________________

Nursey/Dex, 1500 words (so far)

He knew this road like the back of his hand. All of them, really, the way they sprouted and converged with one another, each leading to a building or a park or a neat row of raccoon-infested dumpsters he’d seen a thousand times. It was easier at night to see them all again, brain on autopilot as one hand worked the steering wheel, the other tucked under his thigh. It made him almost angry, the nostalgia that’d wormed itself into his chest again. He hated this fucking place. 

The only part he liked was the Persian tobacco store owner who’d sold to him since he was a scrawny 16 year old, who saw his shaved head and poorly ace bandage-bound chest, and passed the carton of cigarettes across the counter without even asking for his ID. He smoked half the pack in one sitting the first time, hoping his lungs would just shrivel up on the spot. They didn’t, he just felt sick and lightheaded his entire drive back home. He didn’t stop, though. He almost liked the way they made him feel. The nausea drew him out of his body, clenching his stomach instead of his heart for a few brief minutes. 

He was smoking now, actually. The filter of a fresh dart pinched between his index and middle fingers, stinking smoke into the ceiling of his pickup. Luckily it’d already reeked of ashtray when he bought it, so he didn’t have to feel bad about ruining the upholstery. He shifted his unused hand to steady the bottom of the steering wheel while he took a drag. No one knew he smoked, at least at Samwell. He didn’t live in the Haus so it was easy enough to hide, not that they could do anything about it if they found out. His coaches could tell him to stop, but he did well enough on the ice with black lungs already. He just knew Bitty would be disappointed in him. 

The road was quiet, like it always was after 8pm. In a town full of hicks and the elderly, everyone was busy either snorting pills or resting up for early church service. The night was mild and sweet outside his windows, insects screeching in the foliage framing either side of the road. Dangling his cigarette between his lips, Will dipped his hand outside the window, wind whipping through his fingers like silk. The headlights of the truck barely illuminated the road immediately in front, but it didn’t matter. He knew all the curves were coming before he even had to think about it. He was thinking about going to the shop, Izad was usually there well past closing and would let him in as long as he paid in cash, when his phone started buzzing against his thigh. Glancing down, he saw a facetime request from Nursey, his contact name “annoying shithead” staring back at him. Confused, he spotted a parking lot a little ways down the road and pulled in, heart thumping faster in his chest. He chalked it up to the nicotine buzz.

“What do you want?” He said once he parked, resting his phone on the middle of his steering wheel. The streetlight illuminated him just enough that Nursey couldn’t complain about not seeing his ‘stupid mug’. 

“Hello to you too, sexy Dexy.” Nursey drawled. Behind him, Will could see a gorgeous oak desk covered in every manner of clutter: dishes, books, loose papers and half-finished granola bars. “Is a man not allowed to check in on his favorite little star every once in a while?” 

“Ha ha.” Will said, flicking the ash off his cigarette where it hung out of the window, safely out of frame. “Then to what do I owe the, uh… pleasure?” 

“I missed you.” Nursey said simply, like that wasn’t enough to make Will’s throat tense up with… something. “And I wanted to ask you if you’d quit that awful job yet.” The only decent one he could get in this shitty town, Nursey meant. Will sighed, watching as the ember ate away at his tobacco. 

“No, idiot, because they pay me enough to keep gas in my truck. And it’s… I don’t know. It’s nice to do something. To have like a purpose.” Nursey nodded sagely, and something flickered across his face. He probably had a wealth of time sitting on his ass doing nothing, Will thought, and he definitely didn’t envy him. Nursey liked to keep things moving along as much as him, and Will couldn’t imagine what he’d even do if he didn’t have to worry about putting gas in his car or food in his sibling’s mouths. Nursey was probably going insane with boredom. 

“What about the lobster boat?”

Will sighed, scrubbing a hand across his face. “The hull is fucked. My uncle crashed it into a sandbar that had a few too many rocks in it. It’ll probably take him all fucking year to get around to fixing it.” The news was disappointing, but not shocking when it came. Uncle Matt had a tendency to drink a few too many when the water got still and the stars were out. Will couldn’t say he blamed him, it was lonely out there. Still, sucked that he had to spend eight hours in a sweltering mechanic shop all summer rather than on the ocean. “How’s C?” 

“He’s fine. Cait’s coming to visit him soon.” The scenery behind Nursey changed as he made his way down one of what Will assumed to many long hallways in his house. He’d never actually been, but in his mind Nursey lived in a mansion on top of a skyscraper. “How come you never visit me, babe?” Nursey pouted, little frown replaced by an easy smile when Will scoffed. 

“Because I have a job.” Will replied, deciding he didn’t care if Nursey knew his car and his hands and his breath smelled like an ashtray, he paid eight fucking dollars for the carton and he wasn’t going to waste a cigarette because Nursey liked impromptu facetime calls. Besides, Nursey was a lot of things, but he definitely wasn’t a snitch. He took a mildly shameful drag, flicking his eyes away from the screen as he pulled and exhaled. Nursey didn’t look surprised at all. 

“American Spirits. Didn’t know you were a fuckin’ tree hugger, Dexy.” Despite himself, Will smiled, taking another pull. 

“Fuck off.” Was all he said. There was silence as Nursey reached into the fridge and pulled out a bottle of, oddly enough, white wine. “Whoa there, big shoots. I thought your parents didn’t drink.” 

“They bought it at some fundraiser cus Ma liked the art on the bottle. I’m just going to mix it with cranberry juice, make myself a nice little rose.” Will gagged loudly, scowling at his screen while Nursey laughed. The worst part was knowing he was dead serious. 

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Will murmured through a mouthful of smoke. 

“Bestie withdrawals.” Nursey sighed dramatically, uncorking the bottle and dumping it into a pint glass. He waved the open neck under his nose, inhaling deeply, eyes comically rolling back in his head. “Mm, I’m getting strong notes of… let’s see… cat piss, vinegar and oh,” he inhaled again, “Hints of rubbing alcohol. Simply splendid.”

Will was giggling despite himself. He hated how much he loved Nurse’s stupid antics. “C only left four days ago, how can you already be having withdrawals?”

“Yeah, but I haven’t seen you for like, two months.” He said, and again the same feeling jumped up into the back of Will’s throat, twisting at his guts. It was weird. It was hard to tell when Nursey was being sincere about this kind of thing. All the flirting, the pet names, all of that was a joke, obviously, it had to be. But sometimes Nursey would say things so easily, like they were true, like he really did capital-m miss Will. It wasn’t that Will didn’t miss him too, of course he did, some days he’d wake up and the first thing he did was mindlessly open his phone to scroll through Nursey’s insanely long Snap stories, just to look at his face. He’d never tell him that, of course, which is why the sweet nothings Nursey would casually admit probably affected him so much. Probably. 

There was silence again as Nursey rooted around in the fridge for the juice, and Will flicked his ash out the window. 

“Y’know…” Will started, hardly believing he was saying what he was about to say. “I do have a Friday off next week. And the shop is closed…” 

“Saturday through Monday. Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Nursey was grinning, the kind that made Will’s ears heat up and he had to turn his eyes to the window again, pretending he was watching something outside. 

“It’s a hell of a drive, though. You better be worth my time, Nurse.” Will said, trying to sound mean but it mostly just came out soft. He stuck his cigarette back in his mouth so he wouldn’t say anything else.

“Oh, I’ll make it worth it, William.” Nursey said, and Will didn’t even need to look to know he was waggling his eyebrows at the screen. 

“You’re paying me gas money.”

“I’ll pay for a new shitty fuckin’ pickup if you bring some of your brother’s hooch with you too.” 

[careydodd]

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[snapecanslytherinin]

How are they still employed??

I hope you enjoy!! No warnings just fun times!!!

Word count: 2099

..........................................

How they got employed? Well that is relatively easy to answer; they all aspired to be a part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia and showed great strengths with the ability to easily pinpoint the places the criminals would flee, along with having an outstanding skill in getting information from them that they needed. How they STAYED employed? I can promise you that it is a mystery to each of them at this point. Between the pranks they pull, how much they truly annoy Strauss and how they all barely manage to turn in paperwork done correctly and on time, it is truly an American mystery by now.

There is the time that Kira was caught posting criminal dick pics on Strauss' facebook account, thank god Aaron was the one to catch Kira, or they may have gone missing. Or the time Vel kept hacking the main sound system and played emo hits for the entire day which only made her sad. Then you have the time that Sammy 'kept telling Reid blatantly incorrect facts which ended with him crying in Hotch's office and Hotch taking away Sammy's internet at work for a week. While they may be crucial to the team and how they function, everyone has thought about giving them three their own office to share, hoping to keep the chaos controlled. I feel the best way to explain how these heroes function is just a list of the chaos from the past month.

Kira

1. Monday morning, at precisely 8:30, the bull pen is filled with the sound of a scream from Vel who is currently standing on Reid's desk, using him as a personal shield. Hotch comes flying out of his office, only to see a cackling Kira in the corner and instantly knows Vel has been pranked. Sighing and walking to the back of her desk he sees a rubber realist spider, and rips it off from where its taped. Kira instantly knows they are in trouble when they see the famous Hotchner glare.

"My office. Now."

2. "So how do you think he will react?" Kira asks perched at the edge of Sammy's desk.

"I don't know, but keep me out of it. I'm still in trouble for stapling Hotch's tie to the desk." Before Kira could react, a bombing Italian voice sounds from behind them.

"Kira, I know you are the culprit. Stop putting pasta sauce in my drawers. Do you understand how infuriating it is to expect a pen but get A JAR OF PASTA?!?"

3. Sitting in front of the criminal with Emily at Kira's side, they stare dead at the creep, surprisingly making them shift uncomfortably in the seat avoiding eye contact. The team needed information and decided that Kira was best fit to make him regret ever keeping a secret.

"So" Kira finally speaks up, " you like to murder people huh?"

"Yeah, sure. Why else would I do it?" They answer back sarcastically?"

"Tell me, how would you murder me?"

Walking from the interrogation room, criminal pulled off behind them, Kira walks straight to Hotch, a Proud look across their face, Vel and Sammy running over to hear the news.

"How did you get him to talk?" Hotch questions, a weary eyebrow raised.

"Well I asked how he would murder me, and he isn't a sexual sadist, so APPARENTLY vigorously letting out sexual moans when he explains what he would do and talking about getting some alone time together, it can really make a murderer uncomfortable, and fess up."

Vel

1. Rolling in to the bull pen, Vel slides by Morgan and spins to face the others desk, sitting on top of her own, slushie in hand. Losing a deal with Kira, Vel had to show up to work in roller skates, and deciding to spice it up some, she chose to add heart sunglasses, a work appropriate red flared skirt and a FBI navy shirt she found at a goodwill a year back.

"What in the world are you wearing?" Morgan asks a smile making an appearance.

"I lost a bet, so this is my work outfit. Nowhere does it say I can't wear roller skates. The sunglasses and space buns are just to add to the effect. I think it's very work appropriate!"

The first two hours of the day went along without a hitch until she was called into Strauss' office, for some unknown reason.

"What are you wearing Agent?"

"Well ma'am, I looked through the entire handbook and it says nothing about roller skates, my skirt is the correct length, and if I'm honest, I think I look amazing."

She was excused from the office since, she was correct and Strauss couldn't say a word about it, having her get back to work. Instead of doing the files she needed done, she chose bother Morgan by trying to talk him into getting a pair, showing them off to a proud Rossi and also getting avoid by Hotch, since every time they crossed paths, Vel would grab his sleeve for a free ride, and he refused to let the office see him cackling at the interaction he actually found amusing.

2. It was a rainy Friday afternoon, which resulted in Vel choosing to stay in for lunch, and bug the shit out of Hotch until he murdered her, or found a way to shoo her off; which would be quite hard, because she knew how to talk her way out of a goodbye, jesus does this child have issues? (yes)

Hanging upside on the couch, legs crossed over the back, Vel sat there as a disgruntled Hotch was placed a few feet away at his desk, trying to finish his current pile of work.

"Do you think star fish have feelings?"

"I don't know, Vel."

"Would you kiss Rossi for 500 bucks?"

"I'd rather choke."

"If I lost my voice what would you do?"

"Cry happy tears, probably."

"Fuck, marry, kill; Me, Morgan, JJ?"

"Language, Agent."

"Answer the question."

"Kill Foyet, get rich, never play this game again."

"Nothing about that answer was correct!"

"Fine, fuck, marry, kill, me or Morgan. Only two choices."

"Kill myself."

"WHY ARE YOU SO BAD AT THIS!!"

"You are super pretty, Hotch, you know that?"

"Thank you. Please shut up."

"Do you like me?"

"I can't imagine where I would be without you and the other two migraines."

That left a smiling Hotch and a quite Vel, choosing to take a nap, now tired from all of her questions. Plus who could pass up a nap on his couch?

Sammy

1. "No okay, but hear me out, Reid. It's a talking Mongoose!"

"It isn't real Sammy! why would you believe that!"

It is the last time Reid will insult Sammy's cryptids, I mean what kind of monster do you have to be to argue with Sammy about something so fun and exciting!

It is a week later on the jet, coming back from a long case in Ohio and everyone is thrilled to finally go home. After take off everyone does their own things, Hotch and JJ do some finalizing on paperwork, Morgan listens to music, Rossi and Emily share a drink, Kira and Vel watch a horror movie together, which normally Sammy would join, but instead he sits next to boy genius, rereading a book.

"Wanna play some chess?" He asks with a chipper tone.

"Of course Sam, I'd love to!"

Pulling the board over to them, Sam asks if Reid will grab them some drinks, to which he obliges leaving Sammy alone with the board. Quickly setting up the pieces, he adds a little extra love to Spencer's pieces, him arriving shortly after.

"Let's get this game started!" Trying to move a black piece, Spencer's eyes grow wide before letting out a girlish screech, realizing that Sammy glued his pieces down to the chess board.

While that action got him work grounded for two months, and the out of pocket money to buy a new board, Sammy was content, and Reid learned to not question the cryptids ever again.

2. Sammy wasn't one to often interrogate, usually bored by the slow place or ready to fist fight the room's occupant, but when he does enter that work area you can imagine, just like Kira and Vel, he himself also has an interrogation quirk that shows itself in each case.

"Listen, just fess up to the fucking murder, and I'll hand over the candy of mine you've been eyeing the entire time."

"THIS IS THE LAST TIME I WILL ASK! ARE YOU GOING TO ADMIT TO FIRST DEGREE MURDER, IF I CAN PROMISE YOU'LL GET A LIFE TIME SUPPLY OF COOL RANCH DORITOS!?!?"

"Okay I know this is super serious, and I usually offer the snacks to the criminals for information, but Hotch, if I can talk Vel into sharing her Mac n Cheese cups with you on the jet, will you go drink some water, you look like you could pass out."

All of that is relatively normal, but the next encounter is not something anyone on the team expected to happen, and frankly, caused Vel to have to use her inhaler from laughing so damn hard.

There the team sat, a long dark wood table in the court room, under their clasped hands as they awaited the trial for themselves. The BAU has gotten in trouble before, but when they failed to remove all by standers before trying to take down and apprehend a bomber, resulting in injuries, there they all stood on trial for their actions. In front of them were the supervisory board, all very scary mean looking men, who were bound to scare Penelope and Vel more than any criminal they've seen before. Each person got their own moment alone with the board to speak, although he others were still near by and could hear the events of each private session. Sammy's came third to last, passing Emily who was on her way out. Sitting down he crossed his arms on the table and looked as professional as Hotch could convince him to, waiting for the question to be asked. After arguing with them for what seemed like every question, Sammy had, had enough and knew he was going to be suspended anyways, so thought to have at least a good exiting line.

“Would you like a snickers, Sir? They say you aren’t you when you’re hungry and you are being annoying as fuck right now.”

With that last comment he was excused with a week extra of suspension, but he couldn't care less. He got to get away from that grouch bag and that's just an extra week to go visit his favorite folklore.

THE THREE PIGEONS (DON'T ASK, NO ONE KNOWS)

1. No day was greater for the pigeons, than when they decided to hide tiny plastic babies around the office. They put them where ever they could manage; in everyone's coffee cups, taped to pens, glued to paperclips. The best was when Hotch when to open his bottom desk drawer only to find it filled with tiny babies, the look on his face causing the trio to burst out laughing, and out themselves as the culprits.

2. When I tell you they like to mess with Hotch, I mean this man can never get a moment of silence when they are around (Even though he enjoys their company, he would never admit it) which brings us to the great season of summer, when he couldn't get them vacation time to go camping, he walked into his office the next day, to see a tent step up in the center of the room and his furniture pushed to the side. On the floor sat the group, in pjs, laying in sleeping bags and watching a movie on a tv they somehow managed to get in. The day was filled with forcing to watch one with them on his lunch break, having to quiet the laughter when he got a phone call, and by the end of the day, the whole team was in Hotch's office to do paperwork and enjoy the "camping".

Although they create mass chaos and definitely made some things harder than they have to be, the team would be lost without them, and they sure in hell would be lost without each other in this work force. Now just wait until you hear the story of how they become the BAU teams fuck toys ;) [for legal reasons that last comment was a joke....unlessssss]

@davidrossi-ismydad @good-heavens-chris-evans

[tslasvegas]

Episode 3: “UGH just rename Luxor to Loser” - Xavier

Well... that takes care of the Timmy problem... Love Timmy... Just didn’t know how our dynamic would be cus he was runner-up to the last survivor game I played which I won. Hm... Well...

That went well. There's nothing like a live video tribal to get people together. and stephen didn't react too badly. but i know now he won't work with me moving forward

I’m sorry I’m terrible at confessionals... So things are going well, I think we have a decent tribe but it is too soon to tell. I’m not a huge fan of creative challenges, at least from my previous game, I guess we will see how that goes. Most of the guys seem nice, still trying to feel everyone out.`

A 4-2 vote off is interesting. Someone is on the bottom for sure. Also, this next challenge is a creative challenge and when I do these solo I usually do really well. Hopefully I can channel that energy into a win for us here because two tribes are going to tribal. We’ll be down to 17 after this, so I’m not sure if we’d go into a tribe swap yet? Maybe 2 tribes of 8 with one person sitting out? 

Oh hot dang, two tribes are going to tribal next time. Probably going to be us :( now it is time to make alliance chats!

....five seconds later

I suspect that after this double vote out that there will be a tribe swap. I hope I end up with Mo and Jaiden at least.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17NPxKO_TKgqjNqsaWlbmlL0jgU36Aygi/view?usp=drivesdk

I really like this challenge. I feel confident about it but at the same time nervous that 2 tribes will be going to tribal. I really hope my tribe wins this one since I still don't know how the tribe feels about me. Wish me luck guys!

My tribe is not going to win this immunity challenge. Our nightclub is due just hours away and we have little nothing done. I am going to have to scramble soon.....I did nothing to help my tribe with the challenge, so if it is me that goes, I would understand 

....five seconds later

Honestly, I want to keep Jaiden and Mo around because I feel closer with them than anyone else. I want to keep Kailyn around because she seems to make time for challenges. Everyone else I am okay with going home, Ben hasn't really done anything soooooo maybe him? Oof

If we lose, then it's 2/3rds my fault and 1/3 Stephen. We better not be on the chopping block if we do lose. This is a two person Tribe as of now. Bobby Jon and Stephenie.

...five seconds later

UGH just rename Luxor to Loser

Second we lose Ben finally responded to my pm’s..... hm..... alright....

Y’all rlly won with a PowerPoint SKDJDJSKLALALL

Some of these guys have an excuse for not giving input into the challenge. Some do not. If I go home because some americans could be bothered doing some base level discussion, ill be annoyed. If I go home because a tribe threw a challenge because they thought id be an easy vote, ill be pissed.

All that hard work that went into this challenge really paid off! We scored the best and don’t have to attend tribal!! Which is absolutely exciting! Andrew told me he wanted to work together which is rad. Livingston and I want to work together which is radder. And Joey and i want to work together which is raddest. I haven’t spoken too much with Jeff lately even though we talked quite a bit early on. Pat and I speak occasionally. Stephanie and I didn’t really speak at all until recently but we’ve gotten into a good groove the last few days. I’m feeling pretty good about this game so far. I hope there’s no tribal swap or anything right away.

So when I get my chip total I'm gonna update Keegan. He is currently at a soap making class but I want him to know I am serious about working with him in this game and I think this is a good gesture. - keegan has let me know he has 4 chips and is willing to pool them over to me when we have enough so that we can unlock the store. I let him know I am okay with doing the same thing to him, whichever. But yes this is looking HOT for me. - "what's in the store?" | all i can really assume is advantages. we need 10 chips to unlock it. This is very similar to the Unnamed Season but the betting cap gives us more control. At this point, I don't think anyone can mathematically unlock without pooling chips. Keegan and I just need 1 more chip between us. Let's just hope we aren't separated by a swap or some shit. I am hoping for a bit more time on this amazing tribe to get that set up so I have a good idea of what the store holds.

Some of these guys have an excuse for not giving input into the challenge. Some do not. If I go home because some americans could be bothered doing some base level discussion, ill be annoyed. If I go home because a tribe threw a challenge because they thought id be an easy vote, ill be pissed.

We lost again!?!?!?!?!??! I am so surprised? Nah I'm kidding, but I don't care. I don't blame our team for losing because 3/5 of us were panicking because our president could be a cheetoh. I'm voting Stephen tonight, I hope the others follow suit. It SHOULD be simple, but 9 hours is a long time for Survivor; and if he knows it's him then might run around and create some chaos - which would be funny.

Rachael (love her she’s probably who I’m closest with along with DeNara and Kailyn) is not being subtle about the fact that she either has a pre-existing friendship with Ben or is currently aligned with Ben. Because Ben, from my knowledge has not been social with anyone, nor has he been super active and in our alliance chat with Kailyn, Rachael seems uncomfortable with the fact that Ben is said to be the vote and is saying she would prefer someone else to go. But like c’mon you can’t deny he hasn’t been social, and even if I had a friendship with somebody before a game, if they aren’t active I’m voting them out. Also I lied to my tribe a couple times this round because I’m lazy.

UGH. We LOST the challenge!!! And it wasn't even close *grumbles angrily* But it's okay. I'm gonna have to work my pussy out to this entire tribe to make them keep me around! I feel pretty good about this, I believe the target is leaning towards Ben but we'll have to wait and see. I don't think it's possible rn but I'm hoping for a swap soon so I can feel a little more re-energized in this game because my tribe has been super quiet lately... I think people will try to move the vote around so I'm going to use my current lack of employment as an opportunity to make myself stay alive on this tribe lmao

These guys are being super boring and either Jake is dumber than i thought, or shadier than i gave him credit for. Xavier might be trying to play me but regardless its doubtful ill stay. John seems to have the most chance of winning out of these four as hes not overplaying. Kevin hasnt spoken to me since the colin vote and it pisses me off that I might be going home after being one of two people that worked on the challenge when kevin was taken off the chopping block immediately for playing jeopardy. i hate this tribe.

....five seconds later

Johns out, Jake too by the sound of it. Time for plan B, which never works but might as well try. Fake idol time.

Oof well the uhh, “obvious friend group” has picked their target and it just so happens to be the only person I’ve made an actual alliance with :/ Poor DeNara. I really didn’t want to have to vote her off this early if I didn’t have to and then the worst part is she didn’t even hear it from me. Nobody is even mentioning game right now and Rachael is acting legitimately surprised to me when I came to her saying “okay this is an easier vote than I thought”.. even tho Ben claimed he had already talked to her..?? Idk man I must’ve done something wrong along the way but these people LEGITIMATELY don’t talk to me. My instant reaction is leaning towards being bitter but bitterness doesn’t really get me anywhere :/ I feel kinda.. out of it rn emotionally just because of everything else I have going on so if I seem more reserved tonight at tribal than usual, that’s why. I just hope that I’m not still stuck on that damn mountain rolling my dumbass rock back up only to get knocked back down again. I’m remaining optimistic for the future.. let’s keep winning some challenges mmkay

Okay good news, I shouldn't be leaving. But that being said DeNara, you have goT TO PULL. YOURSELF. TOGETHER. She's packing her bags and from my knowledge she's going to be fine tonight. Hopefully it'll be Ben who's going but DeNara giving up like this isn't helPING. 

....five seconds later

Also I am in two alliances which is cool I guess.

Oops....... and now I'm controlling this vote I think :) It feels good. I don't know what my plan is !! I'm lying to everyone. I basically put myself in a position to be the 4th person in both votes and I love it so much. I keep telling ppl I'm an emotional mess and I think I'll milk that because SOMEONE is going to get betrayed tonight... love that for me. Rachael, Nik, and Ben want to vote out DeNara Mo, Kailyn, and DeNara want to vote out Ben And tbh I would prefer Rachael or Nik!! Since neither of those things are happening I guess it's up to me to decide which way I wanna swing... I hate/love myself for this. I think there are good cases for both people to leave, because I think that getting rid of DeNara strengthens bonds I never had with Rachael and co. while getting rid of Ben just makes me their enemy. Honestly I am starting to lean towards getting rid of DeNara for that sole purpose alone. It'll be messy for sure. Ben provides NOTHING to the game right now and I hate the fact that he announced in his intro that he's just here to backstab people... but villains don't win unless they're sitting next to another villain. He's the goat to me and Rachael right now, but pretty homos like me always win xx I might regret this decision down the road but HOPEFULLY whichever side I take will pay me back in protection down the line. I think I have the charm to smooth shit over w Kailyn and Mo but its up for determination. I think that I have the finesse to beat Rachael in a vote, too, but I don't want to put her back up against the wall just yet..... ;) Anyways... I hope this isn't my last confessional. I wasn't having fun until I found my place. Let's get it on.

It is me or Ben tonight. Guess we will find out who...

[mannlibrary]

Bird travels

From the great white pelican to the snowy owl — birds spread their wings and flock southward in droves in the late summer and early fall. As the bird lovers among us would likely agree, few natural sights are as breathtaking as a group of cranes flying in a V-formation or a migrating group of snow geese, or even robins, which typically migrate in groups of less than fifty but sometimes gather in groups of hundreds or thousands. For those of us lucky enough to live near migration corridors, the sight of this fall phenomenon can captivate the mind and move the soul.

Over the centuries, many naturalists have attempted to better understand avian migration. One of these was early 20th century American ornithologist and author Frank Chapman. Chapman was a self-taught ornithologist from New Jersey – he is perhaps most well known as an early promoter of the photographic blind in bird photography, and for bringing the science of ornithology to the people through the use of non-specialized language and field guides composed with the bird-loving lay person in mind. As Frank Chapman observed in his lovely 1916 volume, The Travels of Birds, the study of natural history has been replete with thoughtful theorizing about the reasons behind bird migration, some of which have been a little out there (at least in the light of what we do currently know).  Writes Chapman “At one time it was thought that some birds flew to the moon. Others, particularly the Swallows and Swifts, were believed to fly into the mud and pass the winter hibernating like frogs; while the European Cuckoo was said, in the fall, to turn into a Hawk.”

Such speculations may sound silly to us today, but the truth is, the facts of bird migration are indeed astonishing — bird populations seemingly disappear en masse overnight, make their way without a map or compass, across hundreds of thousands of miles of land and sea only to reappear every year, hale and hearty after winter’s last thaw. Thanks to insights gathered from careful scientific observation over the years, we now know that our feathered friends are able to navigate using a variety of methods such as a sun compass or olfactory cues, that migration is cued by factors like changes in day length, and that migration is driven to a significant degree by the seasonal availability of nourishment in different regions of the globe.

In Travels, Chapman takes a moment to ponder one of history’s most impressive migrants, the North American passenger pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) whose day-flying migratory group — as observed in the early part of the 1800s at least — could reach flocks that were “a mile or more in width. Often the sun would be obscured by the clouds of flying birds." So great were the numbers of these birds in migration flight that hunters assumed the passenger pigeon would provide them with an inexhaustible supply of income — and used their rifles accordingly. Alas, passenger pigeons were hunted with such reckless abandon, and their deciduous forest habitat was sufficiently degraded during the course of the 19th century, that in less than 100 years, the death of the last known surviving passenger pigeon at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914 marked their final extinction. 

So, while Chapman's lyrical  volume about travelling birds does not fail in his goal of evoking in his readers a great (yes we'll call it soaring!) sense of wonder and appreciation about bird migration, it serves as a sobering cautionary tale as well. With brand new research by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology highlighted in Science Magazine just this month suggesting an alarming 30% decline in the general bird population of Canada and the United States since the early 1970s, it's a tale that we would be wise to take seriously to heart. 

Sources: 

wikipedia

audubon.org

catalog.hathitrust.org

[cowboy-canoodler]

A High Note of Love: Part 8

(prepare for angst and violence in part 9 my dudes, (Y/N) has had a cushy way so far. Until now. ;) )

Master list: http://cowboy-canoodler.tumblr.com/post/183094165570/a-high-note-of-love-master-list

The sky seemed clearer now, birdsong more beautiful, the water vividly clear, a place to call home, friends, and Arthur. You were walking back hand in hand with your new lover, Arthur Morgan,a more handsome man you’d never seen, his hand was tight within your grasp; on the walk back to camp you shared giggles, the smile hadn’t left your faces since you told him you’d accept Hosea’s invite into the gang, you prodded and poked into each other, chiding chuckles and laughs from happy lips.

“Are you sure you wanna join? It’s not an easy life (Y/N)” Arthur was concerned with your decision, for he knew more than anyone what you could lose from this life, the fear of losing you like he’d lost Mary, Elizabeth and Isaac, other gang members he’d been close to; the fear of losing you now would almost consume him.

“Arthur, I would do anything to be around you and you’re family, save maybe Micah” Another snicker between the two of you as you wrapped your arms around each others waists. This was the perfect end to this day and you had never felt happier.

The walk to camp was short and brisk you and Arthur chortling and taunting each other with small jokes and smiles. As the tents came into view you could see gang members gathered around the main table, Hosea, Micah, Bill, and Lenny all there talking, arguing, debating? Who knew, but voices were raised well above over each other.

“What’s going on?” You questioned, grabbing Arthurs hand from your waist, giving it a small squeeze.

“Prob’ly a lead to a job, the usual” Arthur had said this so nonchalantly with naught but a shrug of his shoulders, but of course this life was second nature to him. Stealing and pillaging, these must be things you agree with to be part of the gang.

“Arthur! (Y/N)! Come over here for a second, help us sort this out!” Hosea shouted over at you, prompting you and Arthur to walk over to the scene of the argument. On the table lay a map of New Austin, the cross roads near Emerald Ranch circled with different crosses and movements written then scribbled out. “Which way should we attack a stagecoach coming through here?” Hosea pointed towards the map, this then cued the men to argue over which way they should attack the coach, Micah and Bill insisting on a frontal assault, Lenny, and Hosea arguing an ambush. Arthurs hand abandoned yours and proceeded to try and calm them down, the ambush being his favoured choice. This went on for a couple of minutes, and in this time you took it upon yourself to look at the map, studying the roads and landscape, ‘6 Guards’, ‘at least $3000′ and other crossed out words littered the map.

“I wouldn’t go with either” You muttered, silencing the group, who all stopped and looked at you.

“What the fuck would you know about a stage robbery, prissy?” Bill puffed his chest out and took a step towards you, but you didn’t retreat and instead stood your ground.

“What the fuck would you know about thinking, Bill?“ Bill didn’t like this, he took another step forward and raised his hand to you, but you stared him down, “You need a distraction to take out the guards, an ambush won’t work they’ll be expecting it, so sit your ass down and let the adults do the thinking, you lump of oats” The group emerged in raucous laughter and Bill huffed, his hand lowering and brows crumpling together with clenched jaw.

“Well then, missy” Micah piped up at last, you could see a bruise forming on his jaw from where you had hit him earlier, “seein’ as you and Arthur are fuckin’ now, how would you do it?” Murmurs of agreement, and a dagger of looks from Arthur shot towards Micah. You pointed at a rock on the map.

“Have someone hide here, a woman will be more believable, dishevelled and dirty, the coach will stop and pay attention to her, especially if shes in high class clothing. She creates a distraction, you guys circle around, quietly, take out the guards stealthily and then shoot the rest. Bingo!” You clasped your hands together with an audible clap and brought your face up to meet the gangs eyes who were focused on you, some mouths slightly agape others nodding in agreement.

“That’ll work” Hosea agreed with you, Arthur, and Lenny concurring in agreement.

“I still say an ambush! What does she know? She ain’t one of u-” Bill shouted, visibly distressed at the thought of you winning the rest of them over.

“Actually she is” Arthur interrupted, “(Y/N) is joining the gang” he encircled his arm around your shoulders in a protective manner, shielding you from them.

“That’s wonderful!” Hosea clapped his hands together, a smile wide on his face, a blush rise slightly to your cheeks at his warm welcome. Lenny and Arthur were also smiling at you, but Bill and Micah shared ‘a look’.

“well if shes in The Gang-” Bill started.

“-She just volunteered” Micah finished the sentence, a wicked smile on his face.

“She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to” Hosea interjected, but you raised a hand to shush him.

“I’ll do it.”

“(Y/N) It’s fine they’re jerkin’ to get a reaction from ya” So kind was Arthur to keep you from harms way, but you wanted to prove yourself to the gang, and this was the opportunity.

“I know that, but I’m still going to do it!” You had your resolve, the other members agreed to let you act this role, despite Arthurs protests. An hour later and the plan was all worked out, the horses fed and saddled, your dress covered in mud and your hair in a messy up do, thanks to Miss Grimshaw’s excellent hair care. You sauntered over to Arthur,who was checking the guns on his horse, in your newly ‘distressed woman’ attire and threw your arms out wide, putting on the best American accent you could muster.

“Well, partner, how do I look?” Smile plastered over your face, but Arthur only returned a look of apprehension, “What?”

“You look great, your accent is great but (Y/N) are ya sure you wanna do this? You could get in danger, or hurt. I only just got ya I don-”

“Hey hey hey” you hushed him and placed a hand on his cheek, “I’ll be fine, we’ll do this job, I’ll head back to Saint Denis, pick up my things and then we’re good to go Arthur, I promise” Arthurs baby blue eyes stared into yours and he leaned into your hand, his guard dropping ever so slightly as his hand came to yours delicately pulling it off of his cheek and toward his lips; he planted a soft loving kiss on your palm.

“Alright get yer shit and get goin’ come on!” Bill shouted as he mounted his horse, the others laughing and starting the ride to the ambush site, you were riding with Arthur, sat in front with his arms resting at your sides as he held the reins.

A natural feeling came from riding out with the gang members like this, you belonged here, all the hurt you had previously suffered and the pain you went through to get to America and away from your family had paid off. This is who you were meant to become. A con-woman extraordinaire. Although that may have been taking it a little far. The ride to the ambush site was quiet, you rode in two groups to avoid attention, Bill and Micah Ahead, Lenny alone, and you and Arthur behind them, hardly anyone passed, and if they did there was no more than a sideways glance.

“This is the place” Arthur stopped his horse and checked his pocket watch, “Coach’ll be here soon” You slipped off the horse, and walked over to the rock, although you were a born performer, you were nervous beyond belief. If this somehow went wrong, it would be your fault and this would prove you’d be no more than a hindrance to the Gang. This had to go right. 

“Yes, thank you Arthur” You looked over to him, Arthur was still concerned for you, his brows furrowed and jaw clenched. “I’ll be fine Arthur” you then swapped to your American accent, “I’m supposed to perform, now go on, Git!” You waved your arms around dramatically and Arthur bucked his horse, riding steadily towards the others, who were hiding somewhere around but you could’t tell.

Even though it had been merely minutes, it felt like hours, nervous twitches in your body, your eyes darting around the roads to look for the stagecoach, head jolting at every noise. Your palms were clammy and beads of sweat rolling down your back until you finally heard it, the sounds of the stage coach, you peaked out from the rock and caught it in your eye line, there were 6 guards, and two more on the stagecoach, a couple of deep breaths and you calmed down, waiting for just the right moment until-

“PLEASE! Can someone help me please!?” You ran out from behind the rock, bewildered and crazy, your arms flailing around to catch their attention, and catch their attention you did. “Sirs! Please!” You ran up to the stagecoach as they looked at you with both suspicion and unease.

“What’s wrong lady?” The one in the drivers seat replied, turning all attention fully to you, this was the clincher.

“Please! Mah husband! He was captured! They killed him, I managed to escape. Please! You’ve gotta help me I don’t want them to find me!” Tears welled in your eyes as you grabbed onto the driver, hysterical sobs erupted from you and the air changed immediately.

“Hey its alright now, what’s your name?” The driver let his guard down and released the reins, bending down to place a hand on your shoulder.

“It- Its Marjorie. Marjorie Roberts” You sobbed enthusiastically, all of the men had their attention on you and you were killing this role. As they offered you a ride home you heard the sound of a gun shot, only 3 guards remained plus the drivers.

“What the fuck?” The driver shot up and you bolted to the rock staying down while the men dealt with the rest, flurries of gunfire and men yelling. Just as soon as it started it had finished, you peeked your head out and saw all the men making sure the guards were dead.

“Did it work?” You asked innocently, standing up and admiring the view of an empty stagecoach littered with dead bodies.

“Yeah, we’re all good” Arthur beckoned you towards him and you obliged, a little jog in your step as you had never felt more alive. “You did great darlin”

“Why thank ya darlin’“ a smile tugged your lips and an arm wrapped around Arthur’s waist, Lenny, Bill, and Micah worked on getting the money from the lockbox inside the coach.

“Well look-ee here, this must be closer to seven thousand!” Micah and Bill guffawed at the money as they started splitting it, Bill handed you your share, “Here”

“What?”

“This is your money! Take it godammit!” You took the money and looked over at Arthur who returned a smile.

“You earned it (Y/N), you did a hell of a good job” Lenny grinned at you as he pocketed his money.

“I hate to say it, but the Kid’s right” A surprising turn as Micah had given you a compliment.

“Woah hold on there Micah, people might think you care” You laughed and held your hands up.

“Eat shit, come on we should go” A collective whistle from each person but you and horses came into view from behind the trees, “meet back at camp”. You mounted Arthurs horse, shortly after so did Arthur, and a quick gallop took you away from the crime. Adrenaline still shot through your veins as Arthur pulled the horse to an abrupt halt, many miles away from the robbery.

“Okay we should be alright here” Arthur looked around to make sure no one was following you but you didn’t care, a grin was wide on your face, the rush of it all still within you.

“That was- thrilling!” You let out a shrill laughter and dismounted Arthurs horse pacing backwards and forwards, a way to just let out the energy your body was pumping into you.

“You did real good, I’m proud of ya!” Arthur dismounted, and any worry that had previously been on his face was replaced with smiles, an enveloping hug and he swung you around planting kisses on your cheeks as you giggled into each other.

“Oh my goodness, I can’t believe it! We did that! WE did that!” More giggles and kisses, and as the energy burnt down as quick as it came you stood there breathless and encased in Arthurs arms, your head buried within his chest. By now the sun had set, an evening robbery and a night of success.

“What do you say we go and grab my belongings now? I want to get back to the gang as soon as possible”

“Well if that’s what you want, I’m not gonna stop yo-”

“I could buy myself a gun and some new clothes” Excitement filled your veins once more as you shot out suggestions for uses of the money, Arthur just nodded along with each of them. you were both so enraptured by the atmosphere you couldn’t hear the hooves and footsteps of incoming persons.

“Well well, if it ain’t Van Der Lindes lap dop” an Irish voice bellowed from the nearby woods as the men made them selves known as horses rounded around you and Arthur, at least 13 men all with their guns pointed at the two of you.

“What in the hell do you want O’Driscolls?” Arthur had already reached for his pistol and pointed it at the one who was talking, his other arm pulling you in close to protect you.

“Us? Now why would we want anything boys?” They laughed around you and Arthur, the air was sour and any chance of escape seemed thin. Your eyes darted around looking for any slight opportunity to present it self to you.

“Well well, whats this?” An arm yanked you away from Arthur making you yelp out a shriek, which was quickly silenced with a foreign hand and a gun to your temple, “you wanna shut the fuck up miss or my finger might just slip” the gun was pressed harder to your head you stifled a muffled weep as tears swelled in your eyes.

“Get your hands off of her!” Arthur stepped forward and their guns followed him all cocked and ready to shoot at a moments notice.

“Wait wait” another man spoke up and dismounted, “I’ve seen her before” two brisk steps towards you and he grabbed your face and pulled his within an inch, studying your features, “ohoho your daddies got a bounty for you missy” your eyes widened as they darted around the attackers face, “Leave him, we’ll take her instead”

And in the blink of an eye, Arthur was knocked out on the floor cold, you hogtied on the back of a horse, and O’Driscolls talking about how ‘Her daddy wants her alive, but now how alive’ 

Fuck

[mossyrossaliceinterviews]

Going Down the Rabbit Hole with Wes Watkins

Aug 25, 2020

By Mossy Ross

Photo: Bohemian Foundation

Wes Watkins has seen it all. From living on the streets and sleeping on trains, to touring the world with bands like Air Dubai or Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats; Wes has earned his stripes as an authority on life experience. So I thought it would be more insightful to use his own words to introduce our interview, by sharing what he wrote on Bandcamp to release his latest EP:

“I share this rushed album in hope that it reaches you in a place of good health, curiosity, and motivation.

I do not think that I, by any means, have all the answers.

I do believe that if we were more diligent in our pursuit of the actuality of our country’s history we would find our generation more prepared to underpin the greater good in the days to come.

I believe that we have been subject to the bigoted representation of an individual’s worth by our racist country and most are unaware that they are even effected by the indoctrination.

I believe that we all have our own bias and true change starts with an individual.

I believe that when that individual can truly hold themselves accountable for their daily actions, words, or thoughts; then they can begin to truly hold their community accountable as well.

I believe when that community can truly hold themselves accountable for their daily actions, words, or thoughts; then they can begin to truly hold their communities accountable.

And the fight grows and goes on.

So I share this album to make, at least, the beginning of the painful process of unveiling the true chronicles of our country a little more sufferable.

I have included some very basic, Wikipedia, links to get everyone started on their voyage.

Stay healthy, Stay empowered, Stay informed, Stay curious.”

In keeping with Wes’s advice to stay curious and research, you can click on the bold faced words to learn more about the people, places, and political and historical events he references. You can click on each one, and go down a rabbit hole of enlightenment. According to Wes, information is our biggest ally in the fight towards a more equitable society. Here’s a chance to arm ourselves with knowledge. Mossy: Are you originally from Denver?

WW: Yeah, believe it or not.

Mossy: Why is that unbelievable?

WW: Well, because Denver is super segregated. Aurora’s a pretty integrated city. But I think being black and from Denver, not just, like, living in Denver, is kind of like being black and from Seattle.

Mossy: Gotcha. So what was growing up in Denver like? I’m guessing, based on the sound of your new album, that you grew up going to church.

WW: Yeah, I grew up in the church. My parents were like, “You are not listening to mainstream music.” So I could listen to oldies, and I was in the church, and I started playing trumpet when I was twelve. I was playing keys and singing before then. And then when I was seventeen, my parents got a messy divorce, and I ended up homeless. And I like to say I’d been playing trumpet, at that point, for six years. But when I really started playing trumpet, was when I was homeless. I used to meet all these old cats who were like, “Ah, you don’t know what you’re doin.’ Do this, do this.” And then when a buddy got back from college, all of a sudden I was in one band, and then I was in, like, a bajillion bands. And that brings us to here. And now I’m not in any bands. I quit all of that and started my own.

Photo: George Blosser

Mossy: How did you end up homeless from your parents’ divorce?

WW: My mother went to a shelter, and since I was turning eighteen the next week, I couldn’t go with her. And since a restraining order was filed against my father, I couldn’t go with him. I was a minor when the restraining order was filed.

Mossy: How long were you homeless?

WW: Few years. Three years-ish. I think by 2009, I was finally on a lease.

Mossy: Did you ever live in a shelter?

WW: I went to a shelter, but I bailed out of the shelter pretty quickly. Cus shelters are messed up, man. There’s cats who are workin’ the shelter dealing drugs. It’s just another system that is really poorly designed. So it’s not helping these cats who are stuck in these situations at all, really. I would buy a cup of coffee and sit in the coffee shop all night, and then I would buy a round trip ticket on our light rail, and just sleep on the light rail in the morning, and then go and play trumpets on the streets all day.

Mossy: So something I liked about your album besides just the music alone, was what you wrote about it on Bandcamp. History seems to be such a strong focal point for you. It seems like when history is taught in schools, it’s more for reading comprehension. You just read the chapter and answer the questions at the end. There’s rarely any context, or explanation for why things that happened in the past, are still affecting what’s happening now today. You have speech excerpts by James Baldwin, Malcolm X, Nina Simone…these important historical figures. Clearly it’s important to you for people to hear those voices. How do you think knowing history can help end the systemic racism in this country?

WW: Well first off, I’m actually a high school teacher now.

Mossy: Oh shit! What do you teach?

WW: I teach audio production at alternative high schools. But you know, I don’t believe in history. I say that a lot, I talk about history a lot. History’s just weird because whoever wrote the history, that’s what we’re hearing. The winning side gets to write history. What I really believe in is chronicles. Because a chronicle is a factual account of history. There’s no, “We won, so it was like this!” Look, the last civil rights movement was fourteen years long, and it never stopped. I think that now what I find, is what we’re teaching our kids is kind of this weird experience of, “Martin Luther King was like this, glorious god.” And it’s like, no, Martin Luther King was a chauvinist. He was a sex addict and he really struggled. But in the same regard, he did amazing things. If we were doing a better job of just saying, “This is what happened,” and letting people assess for themselves, I think that we could teach empathy. And I think if people were empathetic to how our world is working, then all of a sudden we don’t have racism. Racism exists because people don’t have the empathy. They don’t understand how to put themselves in somebody else’s shoes. And I don’t think we can actually put ourselves in somebody else’s shoes, but you can try. And that’s empathy. I don’t wanna have sympathy for anybody, I just want everybody to have a little bit of empathy. And I think there’s a reason that you have cats like King and Simone and Fred Hampton, Huey P. (Newton), Muhammad Ali, all these cats…they’ve been sayin’ the same thing. I wrote songs ten years ago that I can go and play at a show, that will still have valid content today. And that’s because nobody got the empathy tip.

Mossy: Yeah, history definitely helps teach empathy. But also critical thinking and curiosity. What you said about Martin Luther King, I mean, in some religious and/or racist communities, every great thing Martin Luther King did, is discredited because he cheated on his wife. And so, you have these pious, religious people saying that anything this man said about treating people like human beings, is completely null and void. Because he had his own issues. I mean, sex addiction is a real psychological problem. It doesn’t discredit everything you do. It just means you need help. It doesn’t mean you’re not a sensitive, intelligent person. If that was the case, we wouldn’t be able to like a lot of artists. Jackson Pollack or Michael Jackson.

WW: Yeah! I mean, people are still buying Kanye records! (Laughs) Why!? Have you ever heard the name Glenn E. Smiley? 

Mossy: No.

WW: Glenn E. Smiley is an interesting character that’s been erased from American history. When they started COINTELPRO, number one on that list was King. Number two on that list was a white man by the name of Glenn E. Smiley. Glenn E. Smiley studied Gandhian ideals. He’s who’s credited for teaching King peaceful protest. And so it’s like a weird thing where it’s like, why don’t we know who Glenn E. Smiley is? Why don’t white people know who Glenn E. Smiley is? Well, our government didn’t want them to know that there was a big, white ally character doing all of that. But Gandhi also… Gandhi was a racist! He hated black people. But still, there’s great things. You have to be able to see through that. Like you said, critical thinking. They don’t want us to critically think. That’s why we don’t get history.

Mossy: How did you hear about Glenn E. Smiley?

WW: Well, because I realized that before the last civil rights movement, a few interesting things happened. The Depression happened, then the New Deal happened, and even if there still was just a giant wage disparity, you could still get a job. People had jobs. You had educated black people who went to school for things like Civics. And we don’t have that now because they worked real hard to make sure we didn’t have that again, because they didn’t want a Black Messiah. And so, I realized, that we’re not prepared. I don’t think our generation is prepared for the civil rights movement, so I just think we should all be researching. I think we should be figuring out what the fight has been thus far. If we know what the fight has been, then we don’t have to keep fighting the same fight. We can say, “No! You said this fight was over for this, this, and this. And now we’re picking up the fight here.” We don’t need to try and redo everything that already happened. It already happened. And there’s been legislation that passed. We gotta put that legislation back in place. So yeah, I just started researching and I just found Glenn E. Smiley on Wikipedia.

Mossy: Yeah, Wikipedia and Snopes are your friends. You mentioned Fred Hampton before. He was shot in his sleep, and now we’re seeing that again just this year with Breanna Taylor. It’s like you said, we keep fighting over the same things. What do you think is the first thing people could do to take a step towards not being racist?

WW: I think it’s not just a first step, I think it’s every step. You have to ask “why?” We have all the options to learn the information. Black people didn’t create race. White people created race. Which is the weirdest thing. When I go down the rabbit hole, what I always get stuck on is, I don’t know why people are afraid. I think that there’s implicit bias towards a situation. I think true change is going to start with the individual dealing with that bias. I deal with my bias. I just retook all the Harvard bias exams. And I got that I had a strong bias towards trans people. And it’s something I talk about pretty publicly.

Because I don’t wanna hear stories about racists. I wanna hear stories about reformed racists. So I talk about how I took the Harvard bias exams recently, and I got a strong bias towards trans. And immediately my question was why? Why do I have that? I started to go down the rabbit hole, and I found out why. It’s because I’m a racist. Because I’m pissed off with white people all the time, and when I think about somebody being stuck in a body they don’t feel is theirs, who can afford to change that…it’s not people who look like me, for the most part. And that’s where that bias comes from. So now I have to go back and challenge the other bias it comes from. And I make the steps to become better every day, because I can ask why. I can critically assess that. I think the hardest thing to do is to challenge yourself. It’s easy to say, “Fuck the world, the world is racist.” It is hard to say, “Man, I just crossed the street to get away from that black person. Why did I do that?” So the question, I think, if you wanna fix racism is, “Why are you afraid?” And a lot of people don’t even know they’re afraid, so they are not even there, you know? For a lot of people, it’s like, “Why did I act that way?” first. And then they can say, “Because I was afraid.” And then you can start to dive into why. Just gotta ask why. Actually, I don’t think fixing racism is very hard. (Laughs)

Mossy: I know!

WW: Just be nice! I don’ t know. (Laughs)

Mossy: Or just have a conversation with someone who’s not like you, and find that they’re just a person like anyone else. So do you have any trans friends?

WW: Oh yeah. I’m pretty deep in the activist community here. And that’s the thing. I have friends who took the Harvard bias exams, and found they have a strong bias towards black men. And they’re some of my best friends. And they’re goin’ through asking “why?” Because they didn’t know that. I don’t think that having a bias is necessarily a bad thing. It’s just a step. It’s knowledge, it’s history. And as soon as you can understand that that exists, then you can start to address it. I’m pretty immersed in the scene, which is nice. And it’s funny, because I’ve talked to my trans friends about it, and I’m like, “Yeah, I realize where I get frustrated. It’s the race aspect of this.” And they understand where I’m coming from. They’re not stoked, obviously, about what I’m saying. They’re like, “Well this is still bigoted.” And I’m like, “Yes I know.” (Laughs) “I’m trying to deal with it.”

Mossy: That’s an amazing thing to be able to openly talk to people about a bias, but not have it end in some screaming fight. It’s realizing that this is a reality, and I’m not gonna deny what it is, and let’s talk about it and do something about it. It’s like any emotion you have. If you ignore it, it gets worse. When you address it, and give it the attention it needs, it subsides.

WW: Right. And as a teacher, I’m never gonna go up to a student and say, “You did that wrong.” What I’m going to say to the student is, “Maybe we could do this a different way.” And I think it’s easier for me to say, “We are bigoted. And this is where my bigotry lies.” Because then it doesn’t feel like I’m just gettin’ down on people. Even though, a lot of times I say, “We are bigoted,” and what people hear is, “I am bigoted.” And then they get mad. They get defensive, because they feel attacked. But I know I need to deal with all of these biases. Biases towards women, biases toward blacks. When I first took the Harvard bias exam, I got a strong bias towards black men. And so, yeah, we have to know that we have these things that have been indoctrinated into our cultures and, let’s fix it.

Mossy: I know that, as a woman, I’ve been indoctrinated to believe women are weaker and lesser than. So I’ve experienced a weird form of misogyny towards myself or other women, which sort of manifests as shame over what I am. One of my black friends told me one time that he finds black people to be more racist than white people. Which…I mean, I don’t know about that! But when you’re told your whole life that you’re less than, you start to believe it.

WW: Yeah, I have a lot of white friends here. I mean, I’m in Denver. I got a lot of white friends. And it’s something that comes up. I think for a lot of America, that’s part of the divisiveness that has been the control of our country. I did kind of grow up in rough conditions. I mean, I saw my first body when I was twelve years old. If you didn’t grow up immersed in that culture, and you never took the option to seek it out, because you don’t know to do that, then you don’t know. I took my first trip to New Orleans, and I remember getting there and being like, “What the hell is happening?” It was a different experience. It felt like I fit in. I’m, like, not a standard human being anywhere in the world. I go everywhere and I am fetishized and people are like, ”Why do you look so weird?” “Is that a man in a skirt?” I am a straight, cis man. I just don’t think clothes have gender. But in New Orleans, I fit in. And I realized that I had never taken the opportunity to seek out a community like New Orleans. I never thought that seeking out communities like that was an option for me, until I was touring. And so then, after I got some world experience and some perspective, I came back to Denver, and I started doing a better job of cultivating, and seeking that out.

Photo: jameson_us via Drew Botcherby

Mossy: One thing I think that’s been lost, is the art of debate. People will get on social media, and make their snarky comments, or they’ll just post a meme. But there’s no debate. I think being able to debate is something that’s really important. You seem really good at that. What do you think are some of the keys to healthy debate? So that conversations can be an intellectual exercise, rather than some sort of ego maniacal, verbal sparring that gets nowhere and upsets everybody.

WW: I ask “Why?” You know, I think black people are tired. I’ve been holding forums here in Denver. I’ll hit up a bunch of cats, we’ll go to the park, or some of the bars that are open here again. So we’ll go and get the big patio, and we have our own table. And all the beatniks used to hang out at this bar in Denver. “On the Road” was written at this bar. It has a good vibe there, where I know this shit was happening here before. And we sit and we just talk. And I think the big thing is, as your talkin’ to somebody, you know, nobody can tell me what my experience has been like as a black man, except for myself. I think the big thing is you just have to be able to trust that people have had an experience that you can understand. The name of the game is intersection. You have to be able to kind of try and figure out how to understand the emotion that came when this person had this experience. 

And as far as online, I don’t think anything’s going to get solved online. I think that the online presence is dopamine addiction. It’s click bait. My black problems are not your click bait. I have seen people who I know from Denver posting beach selfies, and the hashtag is “Black Lives Matter.” What is that about? I don’t think that me engaging that situation online is going to fix anything. I think me trying to invite people like that to a forum of free thinking people, who are trying to just get to the root, might help fix that. We’re gonna talk about the history. We’re gonna try and spread information. When they’re there in that situation, they get held accountable. Because you’re looking somebody in the face. If you’re on the phone, and you don’t like what somebody says, you say “Fuck you,” and you shut off your phone. It’s easy to get away from. If you can’t get away from it, it’s different. It’s the same thing as those people saying, “Black people need to do this, black people need to do that,” but they have never in their lives met a black person. Cus they’re all the way out in, who knows where. Even this hood. You got all these people living out in Cherry Creek, and they don’t know that, before it was a part of Denver, this was the black hood. And then the KKK came in. Maybe it’s changed now, but for a long time, we had the most Klan members per capita in the United States. The grand master used to live in Colorado. Our streets are named after these cats.

Mossy: Is that changing?

WW: Well one of the neighborhoods, it looks like, is going to change. (Laughs)

Mossy: Just one?

WW: Because people don’t have the information. And Denver’s become such a hub too, so there’s so many new people here. And they just don’t know. They don’t know that the street they drive down every day across town, is named after a Klan member. They don’t know that the statue that just got toppled in front of our capital, was the dude who committed the Sand Creek massacre. People just don’t know. So, I think that’s our job. That’s why I encourage people to research. People need to be informed, so that they can understand the “why” of who they are.

Mossy: I think it’s the values of those in power that is most concerning, because they’re so separate from what the values of the majority are. We value health, community, and sustainability over acquiring and hoarding. We all have to want what they have in order to give it value. If we all just said that it was kind of gross and lame to have fifty billion dollars while people are starving in the street, their whole system would fall to the ground. Do you think some of our political leaders are getting scared because the people are getting wise to their dangerous and exploitative value systems?

WW: Yeah, this came up at one of the forums recently. Minority or oppressed communities thrive because of culture. They thrive because they’re a community. But on the other side, when you think about the white male leader, he thrives in comfort. I’ve never in my life had my black buddy pull up to my house and be like, “Look, I got the nicest car on the block.” He might come up and be like, “Yo, you wanna see my car? Let’s go for a ride.” But he’s not gonna be like, “I have the nicest car, I have the nicest house.” But that is what we have taught white men that they have to be. And I think that’s what we taught white culture in a big way. And unfortunately then, we’ve taught black people that their worth lies in being recognized in white culture. So now they’re trying to do it on top of it. I think that the most dangerous thing for our world is to have an individual. They don’t want us to have individuals, so they got us all into the idea of this American Dream. It’s not the American Dream, it’s a rich white man’s dream.

Mossy: It’s true. And now, like you say, that has become the new measure for equality. Equality shouldn’t mean that a woman or a black person or an immigrant has as much stuff as their white rich neighbor. To me, it means that they have the freedom to live their lives within the value systems that are important to them. If that means that they work four hours a day, so they can spend the rest of the day with their families or serving their communities or creating, then that’s their business. But now, you see black people or women who claim to have equal rights, because they have the same job or lifestyle as a white man. But they’re just basically dressing and acting like a white man.

Equality is not to be measured by how evenly your life compares to a white man’s, and his acquisitions. It’s about living the life you want to live, whatever that looks like. And not having to struggle to do that.

WW: I was watching that dude Michael Che from Saturday Night Live. And he’s like, “You know what’s weird. Black people didn’t ask for anything extra. Like, the gay community went out and said, ‘We want equal rights.’ Our rights movement was the civil rights movement. We just want ya’ll to be civil!”

Mossy: What do these forums you hold look like? How many people are there? What’s the age, gender, race demographic? How often do you all meet? I would love to know the logistics so I could try to do the same.

WW: Yeah, that’s really my goal, is to encourage other people to start doing the same. I mean, I don’t have the time to fix racism. (Laughs) I think James Baldwin nailed it. All those cats said the exact same thing, “Look, we already tried to fix racism. You guys fix it.” We don’t know how to fix it. We’re not thinking about you any differently because the color of your skin, we’re thinking about you differently because of how you’re treating us. I mean, I teach at alternative high schools, so I have had one white student in four years of teaching now. So it’s easier for me to teach kids like that because I look kind of like them. They can hear me a little easier. If you went to that same school, they’d be like, “What’re you doing?” They wouldn’t be able to release themselves enough. So I was like, we gotta start forums so people can let their flags fly, so we can kind of start to address it.

Otherwise, we’re in a dangerous situation. We need to get to a place where people can start to call out their peers. For example, when all the protests started down here, one of the biggest struggles I’ve had is with white women. And liberal white women! I’m lucky I got some good white friends. Cus those cats…we all share our location. If I go downtown for the protests right now, they will be there within fifteen minutes. They will get out of work, they will show up, cus they know I’m down there. So we’re downtown with one of my black friends, and by this point, legislation had been passed in Denver so the cops weren’t being violent in the same way. Now Aurora’s about get to lit on fire. But, Denver had chilled out. And this lady is on the Black Lives Matter side, and she’s screaming at these cops, “You have a tiny dick!” “Your job doesn’t matter!” “Your wife’s gonna leave you!” And all this stuff! I mean, I have a big mouth, but I’m kind. (Laughs)

Mossy: And this was a white woman who was saying this?

WW: Yeah. Holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign. And I walk over to her and say, “Ma’am, could I talk to you?” And she says, “Oh sure!” Immediately so nice with me, ya know? And I said, “Hey, I just wanted to ask you if, maybe while I’m walking my buddy home, if you wouldn’t scream at the cops? But either way, maybe we shouldn’t be screaming at the cops. Because we’re just speaking their language. We’re just feeding into the same system, you know?” She called me an Uncle Tom. So I gave her a joint and went, “Here ya go. Have a good night.” If you are holding a Black Lives Matter sign, and then you’re calling me an Uncle Tom, because I’m asking you to stop doing something that’s making me feel unsafe, what are you really doing down here? And I’ve had a lot of experiences like that. So my reaction was, I need the hip white women I know, to be callin’ out white women. Get your people. I’m gettin’ mine. I’m callin’ men out left and right. Unabashedly. 

The one thing I’m really starting to work on, and I don’t know how to address yet, is black men. Because, look, me and you, we are in an interesting place. We represent the side of the oppressors, and the side of the oppressed. And if that’s the case, that means we have to be really careful about what we’re saying to people, why we’re saying it to them, and when we’re saying it to them. I’ve seen some kind of whack things in these protests, where it’s just black men shutting women down left and right. And I don’t like that. I think unfortunately we kind of have to address it all at the same time. And I don’t think all of us can address everything, but that’s why we’re doing the forums. And they do always change. There’s a crew of about three or four of us who are always around.

Mossy: You’ve mentioned de-escalation. I think de-escalation is a good word. I do think things are being escalated, partly by the pandemic because people have been stuck in their houses and losing their jobs. There are so many factors at play here, and it’s creating a potentially dangerous situation if we don’t work harder at de-escalation. I think that can be accomplished with exactly what you’re doing. Meeting in small groups, not meeting en masse where cops are gonna come and do god knows what. This is how we can get one over on them. This is how we can intellectualize this revolution, instead of turning it into a civil war. Weapons are used when people aren’t thinking enough. This is a way of saying we’re gonna do something different. We’re gonna meet in small groups and talk about how we can get along, even though we’re all different and come from different places.

WW: I agree. I mean, there’s gonna be people who fight with the cops. But this isn’t even about the cops! That’s the weirdest thing to me.

Everybody’s like, stuck on the cops. This is so much bigger. But I think it all just starts with uniting our general public, the citizens. Because we’re all in the same place. Unfortunately, the only way that systemic oppression can work is, anybody who shares a quality with me, if you’re an artist, if you’re a teacher, if you’re black, if you’re a woman, if you’re poor…if you share any quality with black culture, you’re going to be oppressed. But maintain hope. And research. We got some time. This isn’t going away overnight.

Listen to Wes’s entire EP and other works at: https://cosmicslim.bandcamp.com/

Follow on IG @theweswatkins

[thegodthief]

.

"Excuse me. Are you available for readings?”

I didn’t realize I had dozed off, or that I was crying, until the fearful man tapped on my table. As I wiped my tears and my face, he sat down. “Maybe. But if you’re asking for something bespoke, you’ll need to ask diviners from within that tradition.”

He looked behind him. I followed his gaze. A group of similarly dressed people stood with obvious hostile intent. They spat at the ground in front of them when he looked at them. He quickly turned back to me.

“That... didn’t go well. They said I should come to you.”

“And... exactly how did they say you should come to me. Their exact words, please.”

He placed his hands in his lap and looked down. “It... It wasn’t polite... I think.”

“Their exact words or leave.”

“They... they called me a pend...e... ho... whatever that means. And that the only place for a pendeho is a cu... lo.., and they pointed at you.”

“So, pendejo, in the most pleasant of translations, means son-of-a-bitch, bastard, or fucking asshole, though in this usage, they were just calling you a dick, a penis. And culo is slang for ass and in this context, means a receptacle to be used without thought. And what was it you were asking them?”

His face reddened and his sorrow overflowed to soak his cheeks and his hands. “I just... I just asked for a reading... that maybe... since part of my family is from their culture... I’m trying to connect and... “ He covered his face and sobbed.

“What are you not telling me?”

“They said I was raised white. Green go. And because of that, I have no family to chase. They said whatever real blood I had was pissed out a long time ago, and that I’m only good for eating whatever shit they want to give me. They said they were doing me a favor by telling me to go away, because they could tell me anything and I would believe it because I had no family to tell me otherwise. The only reason they didn’t, they said, is because I don’t have the money to pay their public reading fees. It’s a lot, a whole lot.” He took a breath then hid his face again. “They said to go to a white reader and told me your table number.”

I was not lucid yet, but I was appearing identical to my physical form. Brown skin with light brown lines where the jewelry sat and dark brown hues on my always exposed arms, neck, and face. Short hair tightly curling in the scant quarter-inch of length. And completely lacking in cultural markers, which is in itself, the cultural mark of a True American™.

And they called me a White Reader™.

And this fool carried their insults for them.

I don’t need the money that bad.

I watched the others watching us from a safe distance. There was no way to win here. If I read for him, I was confirming their condemnation of me. If I left, I was assisting in their abuse of him. There was no right answer.

So I got up to leave without apology nor grace with intention of leaving the convention entirely, and perhaps my spiritual pursuits as well. I, too, am tired of being kicked for the sin of existing. That was my intention, anyway.

A large hand slammed into my shoulder, reversing my motion and securing me to my chair. I didn’t realize the other readers had been laughing until the sound of their laughter suddenly stopped. The hand was holding a large lit cigar. Ash from the end jerked off the cigar to dust my chest and my lap as I came to an abrupt stop.

I looked at the hand. A black man’s hand, large and muscular. The deep hued skin was covered with a layer of ash that gave it the resemblance of death. I smelled peppers and bitter fruits that I could not name.

“Are you quitting my table?”

I could not turn my sight away from the hand that continued to grip the entirety of my shoulder. I thought to myself that the size of the person holding me must be massive for his hand to be larger than my head.

The deep voice spoke again. The bass tones vibrated in my bones and made my teeth chatter. “Answer me, girl... Are you quitting my table? Because once you quit, you will never sit here again. And once you turn away from me, you will never see me again.”

I did not recognize him. Somehow I knew that he was the reason I was at this convention. That his oversight was controversial for a multitude of reasons. That those he formally sanctioned viewed me as a pretender at best and a thief to be hung. And while the group that was currently watching from what they thought was a safe distance were not connected to him, they regarded me as a mongrel just the same.

I cried. I sobbed to drown out the man still waiting in hope for me. I mourned things I never knew and connections I’ll never have. I cried to empty myself and cried again at the revelation of just how deeply I lack.

But I did not leave.

“No, Sir. I am not quitting your table. But I don’t know what to do anymore. What helped me before does nothing now. What comforted me before is as dust. And the more I seek to learn, the more I realize I will never know. They’re right, Sir. I’m White. I haven’t any hue to me. I was raised White because I wasn’t the right shades of brown. I was kept White because there was no profit in correcting me when there was still the chance to. And now all I know is White and the chasms of culture and understanding I will never be able to cross because I’m too old to change. I will not be found in any book, because who writes a book about nothing? Do you keep me as an example of what happens when culture is irrevocably lost? Or am I your Ugly Stick™ to shame those proper to their stations that are taking their stations for granted? The worst pain is finding out what you could have been, what you should have been, and have that ideal call for you to be [removed] for the sin of surviving what was meant to kill you.”

The hand did not move from my shoulder. My sight did not leave the hand. I “knew” who was holding me to the chair, but I did not comprehend who was holding me to the chair. He held me in place until my sobbing stopped. He then lifted his hand, but remained a dense presence behind me.

“Decide now. Quit my table, or help him.”

I looked at the man. If I quit now, there is no help for us both. If I remain, at least his sorrow can be eased even though it will bring mine into broken glass focus. I have been sorrowful for [a long number of] years. What is one more at this point? (I don’t know if the lie to that question is too little or too much.)

I pulled my decks from my bag and placed them on the table. “I’m not in the right headspace for tricky questions and double-edged answers. So I’m just gonna start laying cards, and we’ll see what unfolds. Is that okay with you?”

I wasn’t sure if I was asking the grave-somber presence behind me or the now penitent man in front of me.

The man nodded. I asked him to speak his consent clearly. He did. In the distance, the other readers loudly talked shit about us both before spitting on the ground again and turning to go back into their tent.

The man picked the Legacy of the Divine tarot to be the reading deck. As I shuffled the deck and tried to put myself into a receptive headspace for reading the cards, I felt the night-dark presence back away from me. A feminine presence came to press against my back instead. Somehow I knew she was a very dark skinned old black woman who was dressed in layers of white linen and lace with a white cloth wrapped around her head. Yet for all that knowing about her appearance, I could not “see” her feet.

She laid one hand on my left shoulder, and reached up with her other to cup my still wet face. «Keep going, [girl]. I have you.»

I laid down cards in three groups according to instinct. As I started to speak of them, my body became more animated even as my mind felt like it was sliding away. I realized it wasn’t “me” giving the reading anymore. That it was the feminine presence behind me, and the presences further behind her. I yielded to whatever was riding me, and the scene faded into a comforting darkness.

My last melting spark of awareness heard a thick and deep creole voice say, “I will not quit you as long as you don’t quit me.”

I slept.

[mitchiemusicreviews-blog]

Music Masterpiece - DON BROCO//PRIORITIES (2012)

If there’s one thing I’ve learnt from listening to Don Broco it’s to not judge a book by it’s cover. I used to think they were alternative rock’s version of One Direction/ another boy band. I saw someone describe them “if Uni Lad were a band” which made me chuckle.

Ask me 3 years ago what I thought of this band, I wouldn’t even give them the time of day and called them “Don Bronco” for the longest time. Whoops. 

Ask me what my opinion of this band 3 years ago, I would have slaughtered them and I didn’t even listen to them.They reminded me of lads or a group of Sixth Formers. I was a stupid kid stuck in her ways, thinking every band had to be covered in tattoos. When I saw Bring Me The Horizon in 2016 at the O2 I heard they were opening. I was skeptical but decided to give them a chance. They performed songs from Automatic and I fell in love. 

Originating from Bedford, England, they released their debut album after a string of EPs in 2012. The band consists of Rob Damiani, Tom Doyle, Simon Delany and Matt Donnelly; forming after they met at school. 

Prior to hearing the whole album, I heard Yeah Man, Hold On, Priorities and Actors. 

The titular track, Priorities, can be described as snarly, sarky and sarcy. Rob makes the lyrics “I miss you pumpkin, I miss you babe” sound irresistible. The songs premise talks of someone who’s “priorities” are not in check. The song pretty much a middle finger to someone who constantly lets you down. The sarcastic punch to it is oh-so clever. The anger and the angst drives this song’s instrumentals and is a firm favourite from the album. It was made for arenas and singalongs. 

“Hold On” is a very hit and miss song for me. I still think it’s a good song instrumentally but I prefer the slowed down version. I think the song’s topic is why I disliked the band for a long time. To put it bluntly, the song gave me “laddish” vibes. I guess you have to be in a certain mood to listen to this song or it seems sleazy to me. Rob seduces listeners with “saucy nonsense” and “keeping this bullshit up all night”. Tom Doyle’s bassline in the bridge has to be my favourite thing about the song. It doesn’t showcase a range of Rob’s incredibly voice but it’s still catchy as hell.

“Yeah Man” is one of my favourite Don Broco songs of all time. Hands down. However, without a fail, I keep mistaking the first 5-10 seconds for Twenty One Pilots “We Don’t Believe What’s On TV”; they both have similar drums patterns. Rob’s voice floats over lyrics with the incredible drum in the background. It’s about life on the road and spending time with his best friends and the trouble they get into such as “being poorer than poor today”. I will admit, Don Broco have lyrics that are incredibly British. This is showcased in this song. If an American tried to sing “and we’ll never get fat cus we jump around like prats”, it wouldn’t work. The energy in this song is infectious and quite literally make you jump around like a prat. The acoustic version is just as good if not better.

I first heard “Actors” when they performed it at the O2. It’s deemed a fan favourite. Compared to the entirety of Automatic, it’s heavy. It’s fast and choppy and angry and in your face. That opening guitar kicks you in the gut before Rob starts singing. He’s pissed and angered at someone but this is really is it (”this really takes the biscuit” he sings. Another example of extremely British lyrics only Brits make sound good. 

“Whole Truth” is such a cool song. It’s catchy and upbeat. I do think Rob’s vocals were just a little bit too quiet for my liking; I felt like the instruments drowned him out. The song is about a friend who has cheated and they have yet to find out. The lyrics “the whole truth would break your heart” is so sad yet so honest and will stick with you. 

“Fancy Dress” is the heaviest on the album. Not really a memorable song but one you can jump around to and just let go. 

The beauty of this album is it’s different vibes and themes. You can go from jumping around like an idiot to Yeah Man to relaxing to “You Got It Girl.” For some reason the beginning little beats remind me of Sia’s Breathe Me; if anyone knows what I mean. It’s such a chill song about inspiring someone and being brave through the dark times. It slowly builds up towards the end and bursts into life with drums thundering and Rob basically shouting “YOU GOT IT GIRL”. A haunting song perfect for a pick me up. 

“Let’s Go Back To School” has a very reminiscent feeling to it. It’s chill yet edgy. Don Broco met in school so it’s calling back to that. I have the same issue as I do with “Whole Truth”; Rob’s voice is drowned out by the guitars. Still a good song to listen to.

Priorities is a good album overall. It has it’s highs, it has it’s lows but it’s still a good offering as a debut album.It’s clear to see the transition they’ve made over to Automatic; such as the production value improved. But never forget your roots.

6.5 maybe 7/10

FAVES: Whole Truth, You Got It Girl, Yeah Man, Priorites and Actors

LEAST: Hold On, Let’s Go Back To School, Fancy Dress

[anonymoustalks]

i think with the media and disinformation any democracy is a bit shaky now

(6-18-20) You both like politics.

You: hi

Stranger: hello

Stranger: should we tear down statues of racists

You: mhm

You: I can understand why people do it

You: I think it should normally be done through voting and due process

You: but angry people might tear them down anyways

Stranger: true its fine for communists to do it right

You: hm?

Stranger: tear down stalin statues and stuff

Stranger: people celebrate that

You: well yeah people celebrate stuff they care about

Stranger: i think its interesting, i am mildly against it

You: because?

Stranger: its history and i want it to be preserved

Stranger: cant just pretend none of it happened

You: what do you think about legislatures voting to remove statues?

Stranger: its just projecting modern morals onto the past where they didnt exist

Stranger: thats fine but id vote against it personally

You: sure

You: I think communities should have the right to determine their public decorations lol

You: the democracy thing I guess

Stranger: true but you could apply that to any political issue

You: yup, I do apply that to any issue

Stranger: i dunno i might be against democracy too

You: haha

Stranger: at least the flawed form it is here

You: how is it flawed in your view?

Stranger: id rather none than some its too frustrating

Stranger: in britain at least, fixed two party system and mp constituencies make alot of votes wasted

You: yup

You: so if you could invent any systems what would it be?

Stranger: i know its typical to go scandiavian but those systems seem at least a bit better

Stranger: at least abolish the first past the post system

You: mhm

You: I think there are ups and downs with any system

You: coalition governments are freaky when they can't even form a government

Stranger: i think with the media and disinformation any democracy is a bit shaky now

You: yeah media and disformation

Stranger: its pretty annoying

Stranger: my impossible ideal is archano communes ngl

You: archano...?

Stranger: stateless communism

You: oh

You: it seems like a fairly popular view here on omegle ^^

Stranger: yeah id rather live in a self sufficient classless local community

You: at least something similar

Stranger: i probably get that view from living in a small country village and being able to spend almost all my money locally

You: mhm what country?

Stranger: britain like i said earlier

You: ohh okay

You: I'm from the us

Stranger: whats your ideal system

You: mhm, I think I would like to a modernization of democracy I guess

You: utilize technology so there are some more opportunities for direct democracy

You: I think my objective is to elevate engagement/faith in the political system

Stranger: i always think its funny to think about when the middle class was first allowed to vote in the uk after 1832 and the chartists started handing out pamphlets and the mps said it was an attack on democracy

Stranger: imagine if they saw the level of manipulation today

You: lol

Stranger: pretty sure robert peel also said the average person isnt capable of making decisions for himself but i think most people couldnt read then

You: yup I think this is a fairly common argument against direct democracy

Stranger: not to say the ability to read makes todays average person capable of understanding complex geopolitical and economic decisions

You: ahh okay

You: yeah the last person I spoke to said that they believed nobody under age 30 should have the right to vote

You: because young ppl are too dumb lol

Stranger: i think thats pretty stupid have they seen any middle aged persons facebook

You: lol

You: I think "dumbness" depends on your point of view to some extent

Stranger: after the brain finishes developing its a level playing field in terms of smartness right

Stranger: until they get old and decline

Stranger: so if anything old people shouldnt be able to vote

You: mhm that person said that too

You: he thought that only age 30-65 should have the right to vote

Stranger: sounds like your 20s would be an extremely frustrating decade

You: lol yeah

You: there would be more activists on the streets I think

You: it would reinforce the perception that voting does nothing

Stranger: i voted communist at our last election cus fuck it right

You: mhm that's cool ^^

Stranger: like i said even if there were enough collective votes for one communist mp they would be so spread out it would be like 0.1% for each individual communist mp across the country and those people would get no representation

Stranger: its so fucked up

You: yeah...

Stranger: i think last election the green party had like 10% of the vote but like 0.5% of the mps

Stranger: literally 1 mp

You: yeah that sounds frustrating

Stranger: people here are obsessed with sticking with the antiquated system because they are deluded into thinking we were super progressive centuries ago

You: yeah systems could use some changes

You: we are not the same as centuries ago lol

Stranger: im fine with tradition but not when it impacts every aspect of society

Stranger: yeah i dont get the american obsession with the founding fathers like they were saints or something

You: I think it's related to nationalism

Stranger: i get you have to have a foundation to stick to or its chaos but still they were a bunch of old dudes in the 1700s

You: yup

You: I mean they wrote some pretty interesting stuff

You: because times change

You: and I think modern people who write interesting stuff should be considered too lol

Stranger: yeah they can at least consider modern developments

You: yup

Stranger: e.g the pamphlet to social media development

Stranger: not insignificant

You: mhm

Stranger: im just ranting at you anyway which is fun for me but

You: but?

Stranger: probably not for you

You: oh it's fine for me ^^

You: I'm pretty chill

Stranger: yeah seem to be

Stranger: what state are you from

You: I like listening to people

You: one of the northeast ones~

Stranger: very vague, like new england

You: yup

Stranger: thats cool makes me think of a big fisherman with a red face and a beanie on

You: it's small enough geographically that it could kind of be a state lol

You: lol fisherman

You: I wonder what we should do about media in the future

You: alternative news and alternative facts and things

Stranger: yeah it seems especially bad in america tbh like how different the slant on fox and .. cbs? cnn?

Stranger: something like that

You: mhm fox is very very different

You: although I'm more worried about internet news

You: I spoke to someone who said they don't trust any of the mainstream media

Stranger: we dont have any massive differences in tv reporting by station here though

You: and they get all of their news from a youtuber they trust

Stranger: yeah thats stupid too, especially bots designed to create divisions

Stranger: trying to alienate people

You: I feel like distrust of the mainstream media is much more common these days

You: of course there is media bias

You: but there's a lot of outright rejection of facts

Stranger: im pretty sure there are bots made to seem left and right wing but especially obnoxious to alienate both sides

You: mhm

Stranger: and yeah especially with everyone just reading headlines now

You: idk, I feel like there are changes to education that should be made to address this

You: but I feel like it would be seen as politicized

Stranger: thats true, what do you think about the educated left wing slant, is it brainwashing or are left wing people smarter lol

Stranger: smarter as in more educated i guess

Stranger: more informed?

You: mhm... idk if that's always the case

You: I think more educated people tend to be cities

You: and cities have different interests than rural areas

You: so when you have two party systems, interests end up united under umbrellas

Stranger: yeah its so complex

Stranger: anyway i need to pee

Stranger: it was nice talking

You: kay!

Stranger has disconnected.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Argentinian president Mauricio Macri speaking on September 3rd, 2018 (Youtube screenshot). After a hectic weekend with speculation aplenty, Argentina woke up on September 3rd waiting for the announcements of president Mauricio Macri. After accomplishing the feat of being late in delivering a recorded video, the message of more than 20 minutes was finally broadcast, with Macri announcing new austerity measures to try and get an earlier disbursement of the funds contemplated in the agreement with the IMF that was signed in May. ***** Argentina’s current context is one of economic contraction, inflation, an increase in interest rates and a strong devaluation of the currency, which has lost 50% of its value with respect to the US dollar so far in 2018. For all these woes the Argentinian president found the solution in resorting to the IMF. But he did manage to find a multitude of parties responsible for the current situation: the rise of oil prices, drought, the commercial “war” between the United States and China, troubles in Turkey and Brazil, and above all the corruption and bad policies of previous governments. But while the Argentinian president did his best to assign blame to his enemies, near and far, the explanation for the crisis – the failure of neoliberalism – was right in the middle of the screen, since nobody embodies noeliberalism better than Mauricio Macri himself. Finance minister Nicolás Dujovne later presented more details of the measures that the government wishes to implement, before departing to meet the IMF in order to secure an early release of funds. These measures include a tax on exports and a promise to reduce the 2019 deficit to 0. In the agreement with the IMF the goal was 1.3%, so this reduction will hinge on bigger cuts to public spending and hikes in energy and transportation prices. It should be stressed that these measures do not represent a shift, but rather a doubling-down on the policies that have been implemented since the Cambiemos coalition took power. The past two years have seen brutal increases in electricity and gas prices, a pension reform, massive layoffs in the public sector, major cuts in areas such as science, education or healthcare, attacks against labour rights, etc., with disastrous consequences for the population. The Argentinian government, who was represented by Dujovne in the US, hopes that this latest round of sacrifices to the almighty markets will slow down the currency devaluation and secure the blessing of the high priests of the IMF and Wall Street. Nevertheless, prophecies about market uncertainties do have a tendency to self-fulfil. Not only that, the Argentinian executive, now slashed in less than half, is a team of businessmen that will know which interests to protect when push comes to shove.1 Macri and Dujovne meeting with IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde on March 16, 2018 (Photo: Casa Rosada) Discursive platitudes Macri’s speech was littered with elements that would have sounded extremely familiar to anyone who followed the austerity programmes that were implemented since 2010 in countries like Portugal or Greece. When the Argentinian president said that “we have been living above our means”, any Portuguese person could have recalled listening to their own president in 2011 – Cavaco Silva – say exactly the same thing. Along the same lines, this was also the verdict reached by the Greek prime minister – Georgios Papandreou – who signed the first bailout agreement, and the all-powerful German finance minister – Wolfgang Schäuble – has always harped on this string to justify the austerity imposed on Greece. In truth the sanctimonious discourse of “living within our means” is no modern invention, but rather something that has always closely followed the neoliberal doctrine, even going back to Thatcher. Another common element was the admission, with dishonest concern, that these measures will result in increased poverty. In 2011, the Portuguese prime minister went even further, saying that only by getting poorer would the crisis be overcome. In exchange, there is always a pledge that “the most vulnerable will be looked after”, and that those with more resources will be called upon to make bigger sacrifices, when it is well known that, almost by definition, the purpose is quite the opposite. The cases of Greece and Portugal Keeping in mind the distances between the examples we discuss, the similarities in the official discourse demand that we at least examine what took place in Greece and Portugal. In these cases the IMF was not the only creditor institution: it was joined by the European Central Bank and the European Union to form the fearsome “troika”. These were perhaps the most extreme cases of the austerity that was imposed throughout the continent in response to the crisis that broke out in 2008. Greek GDP contracted by more than 40% since 2008. After the implementation of the memoranda of agreement with the troika, unemployment has consistently topped 20%, and youth unemployment has been around 40%. More than that, 4 out of 10 children are at risk of poverty. These are but a few indicators, among many others, that showcase the devastation that was unleashed upon the Greek people, while billions of euros of bailout money ended up directly in the hands of foreign banks. As for the stated goal of the austerity packages, Greek public debt grew from 146% of GDP at the time of the first “structural reform” programme (2010) to 180% of GDP in 2018. Although officially Greece has exited the bailout programmes, the debt remains absolutely unpayable, and the idea that Greece can go on for decades balancing budgets under this weight is an illusion. The Portuguese case is slightly less tragic. The 2015 elections resulted in a defeat for the right-wing coalition – which had implemented the deal signed with the troika in 2011 – and the emergence of a new government solution, which from afar might seem like it is on the left. The new government put an end to austerity and managed to revert the economic tendency and register economic growth once more. The mere action of putting an end to austerity, while slowly reverting salaries and pensions to their 2011 levels, was a demonstration that the path of harsh budget cuts and tax increases was not the only choice. However, Portuguese public debt remains unpayable and an obstacle, among others, which will have to be confronted sooner or later. Carlos Latuff depicts austerity in Greece Where austerity leads to This small transatlantic detour is useful to illustrate that, despite some declaring them as successful, the bailout plans did not manage to bring debt under control in Europe’s peripheral countries. But that goal, as well as the sacred budgetary targets, are simply argumentative artefacts. Austerity packages, which are often more eloquently branded as “structural reforms”, are nothing but mechanisms to transfer wealth from labour to capital, with an underlying logic that profits are private and losses are socialised. When salaries and pensions are cut, when healthcare and education budgets are shrunk, when public services are dismantled, when thousands of workers are laid off, in order to pay back creditors, the people are being sacrificed to safeguard the interests of a handful of shareholders, be they national or foreign. This transfer of wealth also occurs under the form of privatisations. These can be blatant or hidden under the pretext of the inefficiency of public management, but bailouts and structural adjustment plans have always been tremendous opportunities for capitalists. In the Greek case, important state assets, such as airports or the port of Piraeus, one of the biggest in the Mediterranean, ended up in private hands. In truth, the Macri government has already made its position quite clear on the issue of privatizations; for example, in the energy sector, where the state is looking to sell its stake in several projects. In addition, the Argentinian company that produced satellites, ARSAT, was sold to an American company. The agreement with the IMF, and especially the version on steroids that will allow for an early release of funds, is sure to bring a new wave of privatisations, much to the delight of investors, and reviving ghosts of a not-so-distant past in Argentina.2 But it is not just through privatisation that room is opened up for private companies, especially multinational corporations, to flourish. The mere reduction of the reach of the state and public services leaves an open space to be filled by the whims of the market. In this context, the suppression of the health ministry, now reduced to a secretariat in the new ministry for health and social development, is quite symbolic. That this happened at a time when the implementation of the Universal Healthcare Coverage (CUS), a programme with a mercantile view of healthcare, is being discussed, is not a good omen for public healthcare in Argentina. At this point we should go back to the issue of “living within our means”. The evolution of capitalism, even in times of crisis, has seen an ever growing concentration of wealth. It is estimated that 8 men own about as much wealth as the poorest half of the planet’s population. Therefore there are people living above what should be their means. But these are not pensioners, or public workers, or trade unionists, etc., as some would have us believe. Resistance and repression The Cambiemos government offensive, which will be intensified in the coming months, has been met with resistance from the Argentinian people in the streets. For example, a faculty strike in the university system, in protest against cutbacks in higher education and reforms in the pension system, was joined in August by a strong student mobilization in support, with several universities throughout the country temporarily occupied. Trade unions, contradictions notwithstanding, also look to resist, and have called a general strike which is taking place on September 24-25. And perhaps there has been nothing more surprising and inspiring than the mobilisation of several hundred thousand people to defend the legalisation of abortion. Despite the goal not having been achieved for now, the awakening of consciences and the scale of the street mobilisations are building blocks for the upcoming struggles. The challenge is to turn all these struggles into attractor poles of a single, unified battle front. Demonstration in Buenos Aires during a National Day of Protest, September 12 (Photo: Resumen Latinoamericano) While it is fair to say that the rapid development of the crisis has caught the Argentinian government by surprise, the fact is that preparations to contain and repress any resistance to austerity had long been on the march. The decree which allows the armed forces to intervene in internal security matters, something which had not happened since end of the dictatorship, is particularly significant, not to mention the installation of US military bases in Argentinian territory. The government and its talking heads have put forward a fallacious argument; namely, that with a tremendous sense of duty, those in charge are doing what needs to be done with no concern for upcoming elections. In reality what they are doing is ensuring that the interests of capitalists are shielded for decades, way beyond next year’s elections. It is the purest defence of class interests. Because at the end of the day power is not confined to the presidential palace or to legislative chambers. An important difference with respect to cases such as Portugal or Greece is that in Argentina, thanks to the hegemony of media conglomerates such as the Clarín group, a scapegoat to which attention can be diverted has been put in place. This is the (alleged) corruption of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and members of her government, which is presented as the root of all evils that befall Argentina. Similarly to what has happened in cases such as Lula’s in Brazil, the goal is to have the trial in the media for short-term political gain.3 The cases of Portugal and Greece, alongside many other recent examples of “rescue plans”, give an idea of what is to come. Under the excuse of “having lived above our means”, different mechanisms to transfer wealth to capital, brazen or hidden, will be implemented. And faced with the difficulty of meeting unrealistic budgetary targets that are imposed from the outside there will be no solution other than imposing more and more sacrifices on the majority of the people. After its failure and exhaustion as a political project, neoliberalism resurfaced in Latin America essentially leaning on the media and on the (politicisation of the) judicial system. It now looks to contain any alternative, in the case of Argentina, by mortgaging the country’s future and reactivating repression mechanisms. All of this places Argentina in the front line of a battle that is not just about next year’s presidential elections. The task ahead is to resist, every day and in every way, against this renewed offensive, and at the same time to construct a true, and radical, alternative. • Thanks to Luciana Daffra for her comments and corrections. • First published in Investig’Action * On September 17 Dujovne presented the 2019 budget before the Argentinian Congress. It is, in his words, an “austere budget”, with a 7% cut on public spending, a prediction of economic contraction of 2.4%, and a zero deficit goal. * It is worth recalling that this is no pure ideological matter for Macri, since the Macri Group is one of the largest business conglomerates in Argentina, with activities over a range of sectors, and having directly benefited from privatisation of state assets in the past. * Our goal is not to vouch for anyone’s innocence, rather to point out the clear manipulation of justice for political ends and the double standards (or lack of standards) of the media. In Argentina, for example, a large circus has been set up surrounding the famous “notebooks” which detail the corruption of a former official during the Kirchner governments. The notebooks came from a remorseful driver, but up until now only photocopies of the smoking gun have been presented. In exchange, Macri featuring in the Panama Papers did not seem to merit the same level of scrutiny from the media, and the same can be said about the “fake contributions” and money laundering in the campaign of Maria Eugenia Vidal, governor of the province of Buenos Aires and one of the main figures of Cambiemos. http://clubof.info/

[goldenworldsabound]

Chapter 8 - Food Is the Ultimate Plan

cutesy stuff~

Wendy woke in the morning. She felt warmer than usual. Was that the covers bunched up behind her? No...some soft snoring cued her in to the situation at hand.

Shizuo’s here! She blushed, putting a hand over her mouth. Because of his height he was kind of curled around her, his head a few inches higher up the bed. She carefully rolled over in place, facing his chest. She snuggled up to him, gently, hoping not to wake him.

“Mm?” He seemed to have noticed the change of position. His eyes half-opened, he gazed at her, smiling. With one hand he played with her hair a little. “Mm.” His eyes closed again. He stopped playing with her hair, and used that hand to pull her closer, draping his arm over her.

She could feel his heartbeat, consistent, reassuring, from his chest, where her head pressed against him. She liked this immensely. It was soft, and warm, and sleepy. She wished she could stay in bed the entire day like this.

Her phone made a notification sound. She opened her eyes again. She was pretty sure notifications weren’t supposed to go off 9 am or so...so they’d slept in, that seemed fine...another notification. At the very least she wanted to put the phone into Do Not Disturb.

She started to roll over, but found that she couldn’t. Shizuo’s grip had tightened, and he held her against him.

“Shizuo…” Wendy said, smiling.

He opened his eyes halfway again, looking at her silently. He removed his arm from over her side, looking up and slightly annoyed. It was very cute.

She rolled over to check the phone. The first thing she noticed was the time. “11:30???” She squealed, surprised. “Oh, my…” As for the messages,

‘<Hi Wendy-chan! Do you know how to cook?>’ The second one said, ‘<I’m inviting a friend over tomorrow, and we wanted to cook, but neither of us know how…>’ A third one appeared. ‘<Shizuo can come eat with us once we’re done, if you like!>’

Shizuo’s phone make a text sound as well. Grumbling, he grabbed it from his pocket. Wendy marveled briefly that he had slept with a phone in his pocket.

‘<That sounds great Celty-chan! What time?>’ She sent back. A friend of Celty’s, huh…

She rolled back over to face Shizuo, still holding the phone, waiting for the response. Shizuo was looking at his own phone.

“My friend Tom wants to meet you.” He said, eyeing her. “Is that okay today?”

“Mm, sure! Maybe we could do a late lunch? You probably need to go home and get changed into clean clothes, right?”

Shizuo thought for a moment. “Unfortunately.” His clothes were too nice - it was obvious when they were wrinkled and worn.

He texted a bit more, and Celty responded to Wendy with a time - 3 pm Sunday. So a dinner meal.

“Um, Celty invited me over tomorrow to cook dinner, and she said you’re welcome to come once we’re done cooking.” Wendy smiled cheerfully.

“Mm, that sounds good.” Shizuo sat up, scratching his head. Wendy sat up too, stretching a bit. She giggled, and he looked over, smiling.

“What are you laughing about?” He tilted his head at her.

“I can’t believe you’re here. In my room. And you were all night.” She blushed, but smiled wide, not trying to hide it.

Shizuo suddenly lay back down, pulling Wendy with him, and into an embrace. “I can’t believe it either.” He said, nuzzling his face against hers. “But I’m glad.” He kissed her forehead and sat up again, responding to his phone pinging again.

“Tom suggests Russia Sushi at 1. I won’t have time to come get you...will you be okay getting there on your own?” He asked, buttoning up his shirt the rest of the way.

Wendy nodded. “It’s bright out and I...think I know where that is. It’s pretty recognizable.”

“Good. I should get going then.” Shizuo said, frowning a bit.

“It’s okay, it’s not even 2 hours we’ll be separated.” Wendy offered, hugging him from behind. Once she let go, he stood up, gathering his vest and bowtie, putting the outfit back together,

“I wish it were none.” He grumbled back.

“Next time you come over you should bring a change of clothes to leave here. Maybe a few...I’ll wash the dirty ones for you.” She suggested pragmatically, following him into the living room.

He put on his sunglasses and shoes, and it was time to leave. She was still in an over-sized shirt and shorts, hair messy, bangs sticking up everywhere. He doubted his hair was any better.

“I’ll see you later, sweetie.” She said, standing on her toes until he bent down so she could kiss his cheek.

“Let me know if you change your mind about walking alone. Later.” Shizuo replied, heading outside, hands in his pockets as he walked away.

She closed the door and locked it, and then headed to the shower.

Shizuo and Tom arrived at roughly the same time to Russia Sushi.

“Huh? Where is she?” Tom asked, looking around. “She’s coming separately?”

“Yeah. She’s new to Ikebukuro so it might take her a bit longer.”

She showed up not too much longer.

“AH! I’m sorry for being late, I took a wrong turn…” She seemed out of breath.

“It’s no big deal, we weren’t waiting long.” Shizuo said, eyeing her from behind his sunglasses. He took in her outfit. A mid-length pleated skirt of varying pastel colors, and a light green top. It was nice, though he had to admit he preferred the dresses more.

“Wendy-chan, this is my friend and colleague, Tom-san.” Shizuo said, pointing at Tom. “Tom-san, this is my girlfriend, Wendy-chan.”

“Pleased to meet you!” Wendy said, bowing a bit and blushing. He used the word girlfriend! Internal screaming!

“Nice to meet you too.” Tom said, only bowing his head a little bit, looking a bit unsure about her bowing.

Satisfied, Shizuo nodded, walking into the restaurant. Wendy and Tom followed.

“Shi-zu-o-san! Oh, and Tom-san, and who is this small lady?” Simon greeted them, pausing as he got to Wendy.

“Hi Simon. This is Wendy-chan, my girlfriend.” Shizuo replied.

“Girlfriend? Wow, I’m impressed, Shi-zu-o-san!” Wendy looked a bit embarrassed, while Shizuo remained silent, a small blush on his face. They sat down at the bar.

“Where you from, Wendy-chan?” Simon asked.

“America. I only moved here about 3 weeks ago.”

“Oooh! America! <I speak a little bit of English. We learn it in school in Russia.>”

“<Are you from Russia, then?>”

“<That’s right.”>

Shizuo drank his tea without concern, while Tom seemed to sink lower and lower, looking between Wendy and Simon somewhat anxiously. He wanted to whisper to Shizuo asking what was going on here, but Wendy was sitting between them.

“I’ll go get you some sushi! Sushi good, sushi fresh. Not made of Americans!” Simon wandered off.

“Was that...English, then?” Tom asked, glad to hear Japanese from Simon again, even if it was fairly broken Japanese..

“Mm-hm.” Wendy nodded. “It’s always nice when I can converse in English for a bit.” She smiled pleasantly.

“I see.” Tom felt a bit guilty for being annoyed, but quickly moved on from it.

“Tom-san, are you fairly strong too?” Wendy asked, prompting Tom to laugh and hold up his hands.

“Ha, no. Shizuo-san’s the muscle in our duo. I keep track of who we’re talking to next and how much they owe use.”

“I see. You make a good team then?”

“Yes.” Shizuo interjected. “If it was just me, I’d probably forget to collect the money.”

“Aah well, without you there wouldn’t be any money to collect, much of the time…” Tom laughed nervously. “Wendy-san, what do you do?”

“I’m a software developer.” As the two discussed Wendy’s career, Shizuo tuned out a bit, just watching Wendy talk and admiring her. Out here, in public with someone else he knew, he tended not to smile as much, although he didn’t realize this himself.

“Sushi ready! We’ve got crab sushi, cream cheese sushi…” The list went on.

“Simon-san, I can’t have the cream cheese ones. I’m lactose intolerant.” Wendy said, sighing a bit.

Simon tilted his head curiously at her. “What?”

“<Lactose intolerant?>” She tried again in English.

That seemed to land. “Oh! I’m sorry, I’m sure Shizuo-san and Tom-san can have them, right?”

“Yeah, that’s fine with me...although, it is a little weird, cream cheese in sushi…” Tom replied.

Shizuo remained silent. Wendy looked over at him, and jumped a bit. He was staring at her with a look of total shock. “Lactose...intolerant?” He said, gripping the edge of bar.

“Er...ye-yeah. It’s been a few years now, I guess.” She looked a bit nervous.

“But...dairy is the best. Milk is the best. How...how do you live like this…” He slumped over a bit, seeming very depressed by this news.

“Sh-Shizuo-kun…” Wendy said shakily, reaching out a hand and putting it on his shoulder.

He swiveled suddenly, grabbing her shoulders. “I didn’t know you were suffering this way. I’m so sorry.” He was holding onto her a bit tighter than usual.

“I-it’s okay, I’m fairly used to it by now, and there’s, uh, lactose pills I take sometimes...it’s okay, I promise.” She clasped her hands together. “C-can you let go, please?” She asked, laughing awkwardly.

“...Sorry.” He let go, and returned to facing the bar.

Tom and Simon stared at him. Simon shrugged and put down all the sushi, then walked away again.

Shizuo looked back at Tom. “What?”

“Er...nevermind.” Tom said, drinking tea as a substitute for asking his question.

“Let’s...eat?” Wendy said cautiously, breaking her chopsticks apart. The other two followed suit. Sushi had never been a favorite of Wendy’s, but this sushi was...pretty weird, and pretty good. Shizuo seemed to take extra care to savor the cream cheese ones, sneaking glances at Wendy as he did so, as if feeling apologetic somehow.

The rest of lunch passed without much incident.

“I’ll see you Monday, Shizuo-san.” Tom said, excusing himself after the meal. It hadn’t been much, but coming from Shizuo things like little smiles and staring at his girlfriend felt sickeningly sweet. Tom found that as much as he was happy for his friend, he was a bit jealous as well.

“What do you want to do now?” Wendy asked, as they started walking away from the restaurant.

Shizuo suddenly turned to her, hugging her tightly.

“Um, not that I’m complaining,” She said hugging him back. “But...is something wrong?”

“I’m so sad that you can’t have dairy.” Shizuo mumbled back.

“R-really, Shizuo, it’s...it’s okay.” She laughed gently. “I’m used to it.”

He stopped hugging her, and looked at her sorrowfully. “If you say so...I don’t know what I’d do without dairy…”

“You figure it out.” She replied, shrugging.

He nodded slowly.

“So then, what would you like to do?” She asked. Her question was answered as he scooped her up into his arms again.

“This.”

Wendy laughed. Shizuo smiled. “Okay, but what else?” She clarified.

“Watch a movie at your place?”

“Oh that sounds lovely! We can decide a movie on the way over. Oh wait, even better, we should stop by your place first and pick up that extra set of clothes! And anything else you want to...stay.” She grinned up at him.

He smiled. “You’re always on top of things like that, Wendy.” He said, changing direction to head that way.

[mrstephenscorner-acts]

Paying More For Using Less Power !

Why is California building fossil-fuel power plants it doesn’t need? A big piece in the Los Angeles Times asks that question. Californians have done a great job of conserving energy; electricity usage peaked in 2008. Even relatively new power plants have been shut down in recent years because the state doesn’t need their electricity. But utilities keep building new generators. There are more than 10 plants cued up for approval — a couple are solar and geothermal projects, but most would run on natural gas. In a sane world, we’d be shutting down the most polluting plants as we ramp up clean energy. But building new plants is incredibly profitable for utilities, so they keep doing it. “Utilities are typically guaranteed a rate of return of about 10.5% for the cost of each new plant regardless of need,” writes the Times. Basically the incentive system we’ve set up for utilities in the U.S. is great for spurring growth, but terrible for efficiency and achieving our climate goals. It’s also terrible for poor people: Californians are paying $6.8 billion a year more for electricity than they did in 2008, even though they’re using less. If the full article is too long for you, here’s a great distillation of the main points. And here are some ideas for restructuring the utility incentive system. Nathanael Johnson 4 hours ago Get Briefly in your inbox Privacy Policy DEJA WOO WOO dinosaur cowboy Shutterstock A South Dakota education bill has scientists wondering if we’re headed back to the Cretaceous. Senate Bill 55 would let teachers present “the strengths and weaknesses of scientific information.” Critics worry that the legislation would lead schools to dilute or ditch lessons about evolution and climate change in favor of teaching ideas like creationism. The bill made its way through South Dakota’s Senate last month, and is being considered by the House Education Committee today. Similar bills have come up in South Dakota in past years, but this is the first time one has made it this far. And it’s not just South Dakota. State legislators in Indiana, Oklahoma, and Texas are also considering bills that would open science classrooms to “alternative facts.” So take note, kids: 70 million years ago, South Dakota was crawling with dinosaurs like T. rex and triceratops. But no, your ancestors definitely didn’t ride them. Amy McDermott 4 hours ago NOT-SO-GREAT EXPECTATIONS Lamar Smith NASA HQ Watch out: Notorious climate denier Lamar Smith is fixated on “Making EPA Great Again.” That’s the title he’s given to a hearing that will happen on Tuesday in the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which Smith chairs. The hearing is likely to focus in part on Smith’s Secret Science Reform Act, which passed the House in 2015 but didn’t make it through the Senate. Smith is expected to reintroduce the bill, which would require that scientific studies used by the EPA be “transparent or reproducible,” meaning independent scientists can check the work. This may initially sound like a valid constraint, but as the Intercept explains, in practice it would prohibit the agency from using studies that contain confidential information (as many health studies do) or studies of one-time disasters like the Deepwater Horizon explosion. Scott Faber of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group told Fusion that the bill is “just horseshit.” Last week, Smith listed “emphasizing sound science at EPA” as a top priority, and his committee announced that it will “use the tools necessary to put the EPA back on track.” Smith’s bill is just one of many current threats to the EPA. On Friday, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz introduced a bill to shut down the whole agency, saying, “we need to start fresh.” Emma Foehringer Merchant 6 hours ago OY SURVEY! Just one-quarter of Trump voters think climate change is caused by humans. That’s compared to 90 percent of Clinton voters and 65 percent of the general public, a new survey shows. screen-shot-2017-02-03-at-2-32-25-pm University of New Hampshire These findings, from a post-election survey conducted by the University of New Hampshire, suggest that — surprise! — beliefs about climate are split along partisan lines. They also indicate that Trump voters are out of sync with the majority of Americans when it comes to understanding climate science. At least there’s this: Nearly half of Trump voters said they believe renewable energy should be a greater national priority, according to the survey. For the Trump voters who know what’s up with human-caused climate change: Spread the word! As the president sows confusion about climate change and basic math, it’s getting harder and harder to tell fact from fiction. Kate Yoder Feb 3, 2017 DAKOTA ACCESS Standing Rock protest Stephen Melkisethian The Standing Rock Sioux will soon march on Washington. On Wednesday, the tribe announced that the Rise With Standing Rock Native Nations March will happen in D.C. on March 10. That’s more than a month before the March for Science and the People’s Climate March. The news comes at a time of rising tensions among the Standing Rock Sioux and other water protecters who are fighting construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota. The tribal council requested that the three main protest camps disband by Jan. 30, but the founder of the Sacred Stone camp, LaDonna Brave Bull Allard, has refused. And this week, after news emerged that the Army Corps is moving closer to issuing a permit for the disputed section of the pipeline, Allard asked water protectors to return to Sacred Stone. In response to an announcement of the march on Facebook, Allard commented, “Standing rock betrayed the water protector.” Separately, activists at a new protest camp (unaffiliated with the tribe) also refused to disband. On Wednesday, local police raided the camp and arrested 76 people. Meanwhile, a group of veterans continues to stand in solidarity with the Sioux, claiming, “That pipeline will not get completed. Not on our watch.” Come March 10, that watch will likely grow by thousands. Sabrina Imbler Feb 3, 2017 MARYLAND, MARYLAND, QUITE CONTRARY-LAND hydropower dam Shutterstock Maryland lawmakers have pushed past their governor’s veto to embrace renewable power. The state’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, had vetoed a bill that would require utilities to buy 25 percent of their electricity from wind, hydroelectric dams, and other renewable sources by 2020, but legislators voted to override his veto. Now this new, stronger renewable energy standard replaces the previous one, which had called for utilities to be getting 20 percent of their power from clean sources by 2020. Democrats argued the bill would create jobs, mitigate climate change, and clean up air pollution. Republicans said it would cost too much. According to the Baltimore Sun, “Nonpartisan legislative analysts estimated it might raise residential electricity bills by 48 cents to $1.45 per month.” It’s easy to focus on the U.S. presidency — that’s the center of the national reality show. But much of the substantive policy in this country is made on the state and local levels, where people are often more practical than ideological — or, you could say, more likely to be tailored for reality, rather than for reality TV. Nathanael Johnson Feb 3, 2017 A Beacon in the Smog® © 1999-2017 Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Grist is powered by WordPress.com VIP. Help us call out Alternative Facts. GIVE TO GRIST