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thornstocutyouwith · 6 years ago

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★ FILL IN THE QUESTIONS AS IF YOU ARE BEING INTERVIEWED FOR AN ARTICLE AND YOU WERE YOUR MUSE.

TAGGED BY: Nobody

TAGGING: Anyone who wants to do this

1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME? "Asher Delkari.”

2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME? "Well certainly people have many names for me, but as far as I can still tell, it’s still Asher Delkari.”

3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU’RE CALLED THAT? “It is just the name I was given, is all.”

4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN? "Well, that depends, now doesn’t it? You could say I am taken by Darius. But it is more so Darius being taken by me.”

5. WHAT ARE YOUR POWERS AND ABILITIES?

“Well, let me just read this list my mun made -Adjusts his glasses and holds up a sheet of paper-

Wrath Embodiment: Users can become a physical manifestation or personification of wrath in their reality and gains power from the anger in others or oneself. Users can use anger and endless rage as a power source to extend their life span or as a weapon. They can become immune to death unless certain conditions are met. Without endless rage/anger, the user is weakened. Releasing anger can weaken the user. User may attack/destroy anything or anyone when enraged. Sin Embodiment: Users become a physical personification or manifestation of the sins of man that brings them down and gain power from sins and vices of others and oneself as well as the very concept of Evil. Users can use sins as a power source to extend their life span, use it as a weapon or cause others to sin/be evil, it can also be displayed by their physical, spiritual forms. The user can commit any sin they want and can also augment their inducements on a victim until they are rendered completely insane or dead. Death Negation: User can negate/cancel out some or even all kinds of deaths from oneself and others, truly making them ensuring that the living stays alive, even in death they can resurrect themselves for as long as the user so desires, potentially defeating death itself no matter how strong or impossible the odds may be. Energy Manipulation: User can create, shape and manipulate energy, the capacity to cause change: one of the most basic quantitative properties of a system, such as an object or a field of energy. Energy can be transformed (converted) among a number of forms that may each manifest and be measurable in differing ways. The law of conservation of energy states that the (total) energy of a system can increase or decrease only by transferring it in or out of the system, thus the total energy of a system can be calculated by simple addition when it is composed of multiple non-interacting parts or has multiple distinct forms of energy. Common physical forms of energy include the kinetic energy of a moving object, the radiant energy carried by light and other electromagnetic radiation, and various types of potential energy such as gravitational and elastic. Demon Sex Lord Physiology: User with this ability either is or can transform into a Sex Demon Lord of the highest caliber. They possess incredible supernatural power, unchallenged dominion over demons of lust and corruption, and tremendous supernatural abilities in both domains. Sex Demon Lords wield dark and various sexual type powers from the most corrupted forms of sexuality that can drive people into the most malevolent and perverse acts of sexual corruption, evil and sin. Demon Lord Physiology: User with this ability either is or can transform into a Demon Lord of the highest caliber. They possess incredible supernatural power, unchallenged dominion over demons and minions, and tremendous supernatural abilities in both domains. On top of their gargantuan personal power, they usually rule over their own hellish kingdom and its legions of unholy horrors, making them some of the most dangerous threats to civilized communities and the world at large. Demon Physiology: The power to use the abilities of demons. Demonic Slayer Some may have an unstable personality, even mistaken for Possession. May be susceptible to ascending from disgrace. May have a hard time returning to normal. Weak against users of Angel Physiology or other holy powers. Reality Warping: User can create, shape and manipulate reality just by thinking about it; while weaker users are limited to what is already considered “real”, stronger ones can make changes from nothing. Depending on the power of a reality warper, they may alter something as tangible as physics and the universe to something inconceivable like logic. Game Manipulation: User can manipulate any kinds of game and their theories, from table-top games like board games, card games, dice games, wargames, RPGs to modern video games. They are masters at any games they play and can easily set up or change any rules as they wish, bring game materials into reality or vice versa, essentially treat everything they see as just a game, even reality. Claw Extension: The user is able to extend the length of their nails to varying degrees. In some cases, this creates a sort-of invisible edge, while in other cases, the nails stretch. Human Physiology: User with this ability either is or can transform into a Human. May also gain human weaknesses.

-Does that sound right? That’s powerful. But I can have a few more God mode powers tacked on, right? -Smirks-”

6. WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES? "Sometimes they are bluish green, sometimes they are purple. But a lot of the times they are a bright angry red!”

7. HAVE YOU EVER DYED YOUR HAIR? “Not really, but now that you bring it up, that could happen.”

8. DO YOU HAVE ANY FAMILY MEMBERS? “I wish I didn’t.”

9. DO YOU HAVE ANY PETS? "Imps, imps everywhere! ALL THE IMPS OF HELL! Darling things they are. Quite adorable.”

10. TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE. "My brothers and my father. And those who mistakenly underestimate me.”

11. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES OR ACTIVITIES YOU DO IN YOUR SPARE TIME? “ Fucking with people, that can be counted as a hobby, right? Yeah! Playing games, with those people is my favorite.”

12. HAVE YOU EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE?

"Oh yeeeass. I’ve hurt many people. It’s one of my favorite things. I’m the embodiment of Wrath, you should know. And Pain is a big part of Wrath.”

13. HAVE YOU EVER… KILLED ANYONE? " I’ve killed countless.”

14. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU? "I would be a Bull, or a Gorilla, or a Cat, Cheshire brand.”

15. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS. "Being alive.”

16. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE? “Ffffuuuuck No. That doesn’t make sense. I’m to great to have idols.”

17. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL? "Greysexual or Bisexual.”

18. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL? “ What the fuck is school? Is that those training camps the mortals like to send their mini me’s to, to be baby sat and taught nonsense for several hours a day? Never went. Great baby sitters club though. I’ve heard about all the baby sitters converting the children to Satanism and I really appreciate their perverse methods. Teach those little shits about the trigonometry and their abc’s, there going to need to learn how to read if want to impress me with their cooking, which is one way they are going to get out eternal damnation!”

19. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS SOMEDAY? “ Been there, done that! - Throws LoveCraft at Darius- The boy has yet to meet his new mom though. And maybe I’ll make some more spawns in the future.”

20. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANS? “ Of course I have fans. It’s been a very hot summer after all. And Hell is hotter, you know.”

21. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF? "Um, raincheck, I can’t really think of something i’ve truly been scared of.”

22. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR? “Something Purple, something black, usually a mix between a swaggering businessman and a jester.”

23. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE? "I can’t really fully love anyone. Unless I want to be poisoned and killed. Then yeah.”

24. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU? “Bard Class...Huh? Oh, I mean, I’m the highest class, I can literally have anything I want.”

25. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE? “So many fiends, so many. -What?...It’s friends? Oh! Hah, naah, I don’t have any friends. That’s lame, friends are lame.”

26. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE? "You throw it at people for personal amusement at their dismay.”

27. FAVORITE DRINK? "Warm Lemonade.”

29. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE? “ My bedroom.--SHUT THE FUCK UP DARIUS!-- You are going to be in Hell AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIKE IT!”

30. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE? “I’m interested in everyone. Especially a Hatter.”

31. WHAT’S YOUR DICK SIZE? " Any size I want it to be.”

32. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN? "The ocean, a lake is too small.”

33. WHAT’S YOUR ‘TYPE’? "I don’t care about types.”

34. ANY FETISHES? "Screams of pain and horror and the realization that Hell is someones new home.”

35. TOP OR BOTTOM? DOMINANT OR SUBMISSIVE? "Most often it’s top. And Dominant.”

36. CAMPING, OR INDOORS? "Indoors.”

37. ARE YOU WAITING FOR THIS INTERVIEW TO BE OVER?

"Oh, this was an interview? I didn’t even notice? There’s nothing more you want to ask me?”

#AsherStuff

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bluereimovies · 4 years ago

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The Clockwork Orange

I had recently watched the film A Clockwork Orange and the best way to explain this movie is just odd. I would rate this movie because I do not believe I will ever watch this film again. In the film we see Alex and his gang of teenage criminals go through the streets robbing and beating men along with raping women. I do not appreciate or feel it is needed to add such a thing as rape in a film and to depict it in the way this film did. In the film at 10:00-13:56 we see Alex and his gang beat a man and rape his wife. I feel that to add this and making it so graphic makes it very uncomfortable for the viewer to continue to watch. You would think after one rape scene there would not be another scene similar to this, yet again I am wrong. At 37:13-43:26 we see Alex and his group attempt again to take advantage of the older woman living in her home and luckily, they fail but unfortunately Alex kills the older woman after breaking into her home. The only good that happened was the gang goes against Alex after he treated them poorly and Dim hits Alex in the face with a glass bottle which makes Alex the only one present besides the woman when the police arrive. After he gets caught, we see him get sentenced to 14 years in prison and there he finds an interest in the bible. After this we see Alex get chosen for a treatment to become a better person.

The treatment had become torture to him because of him not being able to close his eyes while watching the horrible videos. The videos cause him to hate his favorite composer because this is the background music playing in the videos, he’s calls torture we see this at 1:16:33-1:18:47. The one thing Alex loves is the composer Ludwig Van Beethoven throughout the movie we see his love for Ludwig’s music along with other similar composers. The treatment caused Alex to become sick whenever he sees something violent or sexual or illegal go on along with music by Ludwig Van Beethoven. The idea of this is intelligent except it removes the actual human in a person because along with removing the want of violence and illegal acts it removes any happiness and thoughts in the person. We see what the treatment does to Alex at 1:31:07-1:31:29 that it causes him to become sick every time he tries to fight or defend himself. In this scene he had just come home and the guy who rents his room isn’t friendly and treats Alex very rudely, as Alex tries to hit Joe he begins to cough and almost get sick because the treatment makes him react that way when Alex attempts to be violent. Towards the end of the film, we see Alex end up at the house of the writer and the woman he raped. Since he had a mask on that night the writer does not realize who he is. The writer who we learned is named Frank recognizes him as the boy in the newspaper who received the treatment. He wants to help Alex and calls him a victim of the modern age because Frank doesn’t agree with the treatment they used on Alex. We see after this that Frank turns out to not be a good guy and tortures Alex with playing the 9th Symphony causing Alex to attempt to commit suicide. In the end of the film, we see at 2:02:17-2:02:46 that the treatment the government used is inhuman and is the reason for Alex’s attempted suicide. In the end of the film, we see Alex can begin to think of sexual things and is cured, he doesn’t get sick when he thinks of these things.

Alex in my opinion is a very disgusting person who deserved some of the things to happen to him, but nothing leading to him wanting to end his life. I do begin to have some sympathy for Alex later in the film because we see how defenseless he becomes because of the treatment. We see his defenselessness when in the film we see the two guys from him old gang as cops beat him up and drown him because of the past. I also feel bad for him because his parents don’t take him back after he returns from prison and treatment. The film itself is very odd and nothing you would expect. This movie reminds me in some ways of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, both of these are older very strange movies with very odd main characters. Both of these films are very unexpected and while watching The Clockwork Orange I began to think of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I do not believe that the film needed to put so many graphic scenes especially the rape scenes they showed. I do understand why many directors and writers put these scenes in, but for many it makes it hard to watch especially women who have been raped or who have been taken advantage of. The film also makes the rape in this film look very off, like it’s not that serious of an issue until later in the film. I have seen many other films have rape scenes, but they all showed the trauma caused to the character instead of just saying the woman died of shock. The woman could’ve died of shock but the way this film showed the rape scene it was in my opinion not shown as a serious matter and the fact that the film had multiple rape scenes continues to prove my point. Unfortunately, rape is a thing that happens often, and you see the trauma from it in people all the time, but people get punished for it. In this film Alex was not even punished for raping that woman, instead it was because he accidentally killed one.

#clockwork #orange

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weareinstrangetimes · 4 years ago

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This Day In History - Jan 20, 2021 | a work in progress...

Immediately after the inauguration of Joseph R Biden as the 46th President of The United States of America, the Republican Party, along with the right wing disinformation network and their allies abroad and whatever nook and cranny they can be found in will attempt to re-write history. They will point the finger of blame for everything they are responsible for including their complicity in the corruption, deceit, atrocities, breaking of all norms, denigrating the Constitution, insurrection and attempted sedition based on the lies and conspiracy theories by their nice leader and traitor-in-chief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A post from October with a lot of research, graphs, and links, topped with a video from Meidas Touch

The Trump Depression: The Economy Does Better Under the Democrats

One of the rare occasions when DJT has told the truth.

https://weareinstrangetimes.tumblr.com/post/633392690647711746/the-trump-depression-the-economy-does-better

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The National Debt.

Trump’s most enduring legacy could be the historic rise in the national debt

COVID-19

One Year, 400,000 Coronavirus Deaths: How the U.S. Guaranteed Its Own Failure

Cremation Limits Lifted In LA Due To 'Backlog' As COVID-19 Deaths Skyrocket

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I continuously see posts in FB, and shared from one person to another, in many edited forms, that are to be their “reminder” of where we are currently, for posterity. Most of them will have some personal points of fact in them such as the current price of gasoline in their area. Most of them contain the usual false or misleading talking points used by the GOP and the right wing disinformation circles. They aren’t outrageously nonsensical enough to have come from the duck pond people, so they mostly are just the usual disinformation from the Republicans. Case in point: Facebook post I am making this post so it will show back up as a future memory on my timeline:Today is Biden's Inauguration ...Gasoline is currently $2.17 per gallon in Checotah OK. Interest rates are 2.25% for a 30 year mortgage. The stock market closed at 31,188.38 +257.86 (0.83%) today even though we have been fighting COVID for 11 months. Our GDP growth for the 3rd Qtr was 33.1 percent. We had the best economy ever until COVID and it is recovering well. We have not had any new wars or conflicts in the last 4 years. North Korea has been under control and has not been testing any missiles. ISIS has not been heard from for over 3 years. The housing market is the strongest it has been in years. Homes have appreciated at an unbelievable rate and sell well. Wood prices are high with 2x2x8' going around $5.66/stud at Home Depot... And let’s not forget that peace deals in the Middle East were signed by 4 countries—unprecedented! Unemployment sits at 6.7% in spite of COVID.

Point - Counter Point

My reply: The 33% gain in GDP is true. That is still 10% below the Q1 level after the 31.4% drop in Q2. And even farther below the Q4 2019 level. The reason for the 33% gain from a 31.4% loss is due to the stimulus pumped into the economy from the Cares Act that Nancy Pelosi worked so hard on getting. https://www.brookings.edu/.../dont-let-flashy-3rd.../

Below is a running tracking of the GDP from 1947 to the latest data. There are two major drops in the GDP. One starting in Q3 2008, and another dramatic one beginning Q1 2020.

Reply to me: plus adding manufacturing that was outsourced to offshore manufacturing, lowering tax rates on business, and a multitude of other things. If you think this new stimulus bill they passed will benefit us we'll see since they seem more interested in sending money to other countries including enemies.

My Response:

Which manufacturing jobs were those? I know there has always been a lot of "talk" about it. Many corporations took advantage of their tax windfall to buy back their own stocks. Some who did upgrades added automation which resulted in loss of jobs for human workers, that robots could do. Some of those high profile corporations that were on display at the White House who gave out $1000 bonuses (to high ranking employees) laid workers off and scaled back which more than made up for it. Many CEOs and upper management received raises and very little went to the working class employees. There were a few companies that actually did increase wages and benefits to their employees, and Kudos to them. But I think they were in the minority.

The money going to foreign countries is not anything new and it was also included in the previous years budgets. It was part of the annual budget, in the defense portion, and was not part of the stimulus bill. They combined voting on them to try to get them both passed. The House voted on them separately and the Senate was to vote on the combined bill. The talking points are merely political, knowing full well that the majority of the population were not going to do any research.

N Korea? While exchanging love letters they were continuing their nuclear war head development under the cloud of a love affair. They had already perfected and tested their long range missiles within the last 4 years. Missiles that could reach the Western United States.

Peace treaties between non-warring countries? A nice political ploy. Bebe was returning the favor for the previous administration's help with his re-election. The two peoples still at odds are Israel and the Palestinians. The Palestinians were left out. The Palestinians want the same thing that Israel has always wanted and rightly so. Their own homeland/country and recognition on the world stage. The conflicts in that region, aside from with Iran, were with Qatar, (where we have a strategically shared air base and thousands of troops, and the other strategic partners in the region. Why? Because Jared Kushner got turned down when he was asking Qatar to bail out his failing 666 5th Ave property. It was revenge. So, that's like throwing gas on a pile of wood, lighting it, and then offering water to put the fire out. Those "peace treaties" were nothing more than normalization and cooperation agreements with some promised "deals" thrown in.

Point - Counter Point Another post being passed around in FB.

I've heard everyone else's hatred, rhetoric and blatant lies for the past four years, so now I'm expressing my opinion. If you don't like it, you know where the delete button is. Let me be clear, I'm not a Biden fan. I think he's corrupt, a liar, a racist fanatic, he's in bed with China and probably suffers dementia. He has done nothing to improve anything in his 47 year political career. But what has Trump done in the past 4 years?The ′′ arrogant ′′ in the White House negotiated four Middle East Peace Accords, something that 71 years of endless political intervention and war failed to produce.The White House ′′ buffoon ′′ is the first president to not involve us in an outside war since Eisenhower.The ′′ racist ′′ in the White House has had the biggest impact on the economy, bringing jobs and reducing unemployment among the black and Latina population of ANY other president. Never. Ever.The ′′ liar ′′ in the White House has exposed profound, widespread and long-standing corruption in the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Republican and Democratic parties.The White House ′′ White Supremacist ′′ turned NATO around and made them start paying their debts.The White House's ′′ dumb ′′ neutralized North Koreans and prevented them from sending missiles to Japan and threatening the Western US.The ′′ xenophobic ′′ in the White House changed our relationship with the Chinese, brought hundreds of businesses back to the US and revived the economy.This same ′′ clown ′′ reduced taxes, increased the standard deduction in his IRS statement from $ 12,500 to $ 24,400 for married couples and prompted the stock market to rise to record levels, positively impacting retirement accounts of tens of millions of citizens.The ′′ idiot ′′ in the White House accelerated the development of multiple COVID vaccines that are now available or will be soon. And yet we still don't have a vaccine for SARS, bird flu, ebola, or a number of diseases that emerged during previous administrations.The ′′ orange man ′′ in the White House rebuilt our military, which the Obama administration paralyzed and fired 214 key generals and admirals in their first year of term.Got it you don't like it. Many of you hate and despise him completely. How special of you. He is serving you and the WHOLE American people. What are you doing besides insulting him and laughing that he got the China virus Some of you even expected COVID to be the cause of her disappearance. (Ah, the left. The party of ′′ tolerance ′′Please re-educate me on what Biden has accomplished for America in his 47 years in office, as well as enriching the entire Biden family. BTW where's Hunter?I'll take the ′′ clown ′′ any day versus a corrupt, hypocritical, racist, fork-tongue liar. I want a strong leader who isn't afraid to kick butts when necessary. I don't need a father figure. I don't need a liar. That's what Hollywood, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, CBS and The New York Times are for.Call me dumb, racist, super diffuser or part of the basket of deplorables. I don't care!God bless Donald Trump, the best and least appreciated president in US history.

Reply:

Counterpoint part 1: I realize you are not the author of that post. I have seen this post re-posted many times in various forms here in FB including by friends and I didn't respond. But since this is my post I will. I have also seen it at a site where gamers, musicians, music enthusiasts and creative folks hang out. It did not originate from there. The origin I believe is in part anyway from the same conspiracy theorist group that also makes up wild and crazy claims of former heads of state and officials being arrested, that never are. And people dying, who are still alive. And a dead person secretly being alive and running a crusade, who is still dead. And pizza joints having basements with trafficking rings, that have no basements. And miracle cures for COVID that are not proven and can cause more damage if not used for what they were intended for, even if you have a really cool pillow and a clean aquarium. And, and, and ... 5G, windmills, George Soros, Bill Gates, Forest Gump, Mr. Magoo, and voodoo doctors doing it with little green men in their dreams.

Do they ever question why everything they believe is bunk? Do they ever get angry for being deceived? Do they ever feel foolish for looking foolish for posting such foolish nonsense? No. They just pass it off and wait for the next wild tale to spread and swear by.

There are those who praise so-called Peace Treaties between nations that are not at war, leaving out the 1 culture that is affected and wants their own sovereignty and homeland, in every one of those so called "peace treaties". They suggest he should get a Nobel Peace Prize, and some even think he has been awarded it because he puts a fake facsimile of the medal in some of his posts. Those "peace treaties" I don't think were any more than cooperation and normalization agreements, and in some cases containing agreements to make financial transactions.

The guy they tout as not having involved us in any wars has brought us very close to nuclear conflicts with his loud mouth and nasty tweets. The one guy who was the most imminent danger learned quickly that he could dupe the the mad Tweeter by giving him praise. In turn, he received what his father and grand father, also dictators before him, could never get from a U.S. President. What they got, with very little in return, was their most coveted prize, an audience with the Tweeter which gave them credibility and legitimacy in the eyes of their own subservient population. And they got an end to our annual readiness maneuvers with their Southern neighbor and our other strategic allies which was their second most coveted prize. Then while exchanging love letters with the mad Tweeter, they were able to secretly continue with their nuclear warhead development. And since they already have long range missile capability to reach the United States (tested during the mad Tweeter's reign) they are not only a major threat to our allies in the South Pacific, they are an imminent threat to the mainland U.S.

The "buffoon" (referenced in the list of fables) in question also abandoned our allies that were instrumental in fighting ISIL (who is not completely eliminated) leaving them to be threatened with genocide (our betrayed allies) by another despot whose country hosts real estate developments the mad Tweeter has his name on (Trump Towers), and another crazed dictator who has been guilty of genocide and using chemical weapons in his own country on his own citizens. Those allies were also guarding the prisons that the ISIL prisoners were housed in, and they were allowed to escape. In fact his claims of completely eliminating ISIL himself 100% can be debunked by his own State Department. https://www.factcheck.org/.../trumps-isis-claim-goes-to.../ That was in 2017 and 2018. So, if ISIL (ISIS) was 100% defeated by 2018, why were we still fighting them in late 2019? Trump walks back claim of defeating ‘100% of the ISIS caliphate’ https://www.rollcall.com/.../trump-walks-back-claim-of.../ The claims by the right wing propagandists and Trump regarding unemployment for Blacks, and Latinos can be corrected by simply doing some research. AP FACT CHECK: Trump on unemployment for blacks, Latinos https://apnews.com/article/e1afa3f19a054540a7c34ca193bdd9ae Quote from the fable: "The White House ′′ White Supremacist ′′ turned NATO around and made them start paying their debts." What he did was weaken our alliances, playing right in the hands of one of our most dangerous adversaries, the guy who helped him to get into office. Something he has done throughout his term. And, his alt-facts and those of the right wing deceivers are easily fact checked. FactChecking Trump’s NATO Remarks https://www.factcheck.org/.../factchecking-trumps-nato.../ Trump made many claims about bringing jobs back to the U.S. and creating new jobs. Many of those things he was taking credit for early on were things that were already in the works long before he was helped into the White House. 2017: https://www.factcheck.org/.../trump-jobs-returning.../ 2020: We can reshore manufacturing jobs, but Trump hasn’t done it https://www.epi.org/publica.../reshoring-manufacturing-jobs/

There are a lot of claims around the GOP tax cuts. Sure, the standard deduction was increased. So has the cost of living due to illegal trade wars and prices sky rocketing. And many deductions for those who itemized were eliminated. Many are still waiting for their "post cards" so they can file their taxes. Those who really benefitted were those who are not in a month to month struggle to make ends meet. The corporate tax cuts that the Trump and GOP promoters said would trickle down and benefit the working class family wage earners was not realized. Corporations used their GOP granted socialism to buy back their own stocks. And many of those who touted handing big bonuses out in turn laid other workers off or eliminated jobs which more than made up for it.

The stock market has been used by Trump and his mouthpieces as an economic indicator. While some people do benefit with returns on their retirement plans and stock portfolios, it is not a barometer of how working families are getting along, many who have to work multiple jobs just to pay rent and eat. And not everybody dabbles in the stock market. There have been ups and downs in the market. There was one period in March of 2020, where all gains in the market were wiped out back to February 2017. What happens in that type of situation? Those companies that can wrangle it buy back their own shares at lower prices which artificially gives the market another instant boost.

Counterpoint part 2:>>> Let's talk about infrastructure week. Still waiting on that one since February or March of 2017. We'll have to wait until real President-elect Joe Biden takes office.

How about Operation Warp Speed and vaccine development. Accelerated vaccine development is a good thing, and because there were decades of research behind it and technological advances it was possible to accomplish. Joe Biden even acknowledged Trump, or at least Operation Warp Speed as a positive move. We can at least give him credit for that, since he botched the response with delays, denial, disinformation, and creating a herd mentality to push back on safety and mitigation in order to recklessly reach herd immunity through infection and death.> It should be noted that the first vaccine that was approved was from Pfizer, and they did not participate in Operation Warp Speed where the others received funding. They funded themselves although Trump deceitfully takes credit. And those 20,000,000 vaccine doses that Trump, Pence and the Trump administration were promising by the end of December 2020? As of January 8th, 6.6 million initial doses have been administered according to NBC News MAP Covid-19 vaccination tracker across the U.S. https://www.nbcnews.com/.../map-covid-19-vaccination...

After Trump "wanted to play it down" the U.S. as of Friday, January 8 2021, has surpassed 22 million COVID-19 cases, with a record 269,420 new cases, and over 372,000 deaths (Jan 9). https://www.nbcnews.com/.../u-s-covid-19-cases-hit-22...

Trump and his enablers and apologists often talk about how he rebuilt the "depleted military" that he inherited from President Obama. As with most Trump claims, it is Mostly False. Quote from the fable: "The ′′ orange man ′′ in the White House rebuilt our military, which the Obama administration paralyzed and fired 214 key generals and admirals in their first year of term. "Regarding the firing of the Generals, I saw another figure, 197, that was posted in a publication for retired folks in The Villages in Florida. Others have said it first appeared in the alt-right fake news Breitbart site. As with most things that roll around like a marble in an empty box in the right wing disinformation arena things are just made up, or facts spun and twisted like a taffy pretzel. In 2010, President Obama did replace his top Afghanistan war commander, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal due to in-bickering in his national security team. He replaced McChrystal with his boss and mentor, Gen. David H. Petraeus. https://www.nytimes.com/.../24/us/politics/24mcchrystal.html There have been other firings, replacements, and retirements. Most absences are for good reason and there is no wholesale purging as the right wing conspiracy theorists would lead you to believe. https://skeptoid.com/.../24/president-obama-purge-military/ Quoted from Snopes: "The U.S. national defense budget was slightly reduced during Obama's second term, in large part due to efforts by Congress to limit government spending and the withdrawal of troops from the Middle East. "Who controlled both the House and Senate? The Republican Party. https://www.snopes.com/.../trump-inherit-depleted-military/ AP FACT CHECK: Trump's Overblown Boasts About Military, Vets https://www.usnews.com/.../ap-fact-check-trumps-overblown... General Michael Flynn was also fired in 2014 from his position as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama. Too many connections with RU it seems. And something I didn't previously know, was after he was fired he became a contributor to RT (government funded, Russia Today). https://themoscowproject.org/collusion/flynn-fired-dia/ I had always thought he was fired due to his overt Islamophobia which didn't sit well with some of our allies. He was advising Trump in 2016 on foreign policy and national security and subsequently during his campaign transition. Then he was appointed National Security Adviser in the administration (despite warnings not to), and he brought much of his baggage with him. It was discovered that he had previous contacts with the Russian Ambassador to the U.S. and was accused of trying to undermine U.S. policy. He was also accused of being a lobbyist for the same country where Trump's name is licensed on the Trump Towers Istanbul (that's 2 of them). All this while receiving classified briefings. He was fired or asked to resign just 3 weeks into Trump's term. https://apnews.com/article/ce90066b4e20483da79adf21910da0c7

Another quote from the fable list: "The buffoon in the White House has exposed the deep, widespread, and long-standing corruption in the FBI, the CIA, the NSA, and the Republican and Democratic parties." While there have been some procedural errors and some ethical issues, most of them are small compared with the real issues at hand. Now, the "buffoon" has not exposed anything. All the noise is to cover up and deflect from the corruption and high crimes and misdemeanors of said buffoon and his accomplices, enablers and apologists. That is the way the GOP does things.

"47 years" seems to be one of the fall backs when they run out of any other fables, or simply can't think of anything else to say. That would bring us back to 1973 making him 31 years old at that time. Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator representing Delaware from 1973 to 2009, re-elected several times. He was Vice President in the Obama Administration from 2009 to 2017, two full terms. He ran for president in 1988 and 2008.He has been on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In his early years he worked on consumer protection, environmental issues, and greater government accountability, arms control. He has worked as a public servant most of his adult life. He has probably done a lot more in his 47 years since being elected U.S. Senator than most people asking what he has done. While some of his views and policies in the past were controversial at the time, like most people, he has evolved and adapted to the changes in culture and public opinion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden...

The person who wrote the fable list states he will take the ′′ clown ′′ any day versus a corrupt, hypocritical, racist, fork-tongue liar. The Impeached "clown" in fact is all of the above and has been identified as a pathological liar and probably the most documented liar in history. The "clown" is also labeled as racist, corrupt, a con-artist, a xenophobe and a bigot among other things too numerous to list. Many people have said that. Also, unindicted co-conspirator, Individual 1, in crimes another person is serving prison time for. Individual 1 was only ‘not indicted’ due to Justice Department policies on not indicting a sitting president for crimes committed.

to be continued....

#national debt

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firefighterkingdom · 5 years ago

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#5 Washington St. Fire Fighters: Hit Hard Early During COVID-19 & Review

Today we have a treat with a special guest and fellow professional fire fighter Dennis Lawson from Washington State. Dennis is the president of the Washington State Council of Fire Fighters (WSCFF) and also a 33 year veteran of the fire service who has served in multiple roles over the years and brings tons of knowledge.

Dennis goes over some of the early COVID-19 reactions from Washington State who was hit hard early on, had some of the first U.S. deaths from the coronavirus, and had several fire fighters test positive. He goes over many topics from the public safety and view from a fire fighters perspective. And discusses some of what to look for going forward.

All right, welcome. This is Robert Sanchez, host of Firefighter Kingdom. Welcome back to the Firefighter Kingdom. We have a great person today, a friend of mine, definitely a person that’s well-educated in the fire service and the IFF, which we’re both proud union members of. I’m here with Dennis Lawson, president of Washington State Council of Firefighters in Washington State, a 33 year firefighter there in Washington. Dennis, glad to have you on here. It’s always an honor talking to you. Tell us a little bit about yourself, brother.

Dennis Lawson: Hey, Robert. Hey, thanks for extending the invitation. As you mentioned, I’ve got 33 years on the job, getting ready to start my 34th year. I’m currently a battalion chief here with Central Pierce Fire and Rescue just outside the city of Tacoma. Second generation firefighter, my dad worked for Tacoma Fire Local 31. My brother is down south in Vancouver, Washington. Married, couple of kids. Enjoy, really, the fire service a great deal. I spent most of my entire fire service life as part of my local, Local 726. Actually the year I got off probation is when I started in on my board, and I’ve been on my executive board for, well, I guess it’d be almost 33 years now, or getting ready to start my 33rd year. Held all the different positions concurrently like you described. State Council president, we represent right around 8,500 firefighters here in the state of Washington, 127 locals. Geographically we’ve got 11 executive board members and Secretary-Treasurer Greg Markley and myself are the two principal officers, and an office in Olympia, which is our state capitol. So a pleasure to be here. I hope that gives you a little idea of who I am.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, very nice. That’s a mile long of accomplishments there, man. I know you’re a great leader and Dennis, we definitely bleed IFF. We’re instructors with the IFF and it’s always nice seeing you. Welcome, Dennis. He’s also a fellow pep instructor with the IFF with me. We travel across the country. We have the luxury and the honor to teach firefighters all across the country. And I’m happy today, I was thinking of today as I was driving to work just how lucky to have you on today talking about Washington State and the early COVID-19 virus that hit your state. Early in February that it hit, more than it hit any of the other states throughout the United States. And Dennis, tell me, you’ve been a firefighter for going on 33 years, right?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. Yeah. Just getting ready to start my 34th year next week.

Robert Sanchez: Nice. Congratulations, man.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, thanks man.

Robert Sanchez: So I bet you’re anxious to retire, and I’m not sure if your wife is, she wants you home so much or not, but …

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. Thanks Robert. Yeah. She’ll probably agree with you on that.

Robert Sanchez: So I know you’re a hard working man, and glad to have you on, and I appreciate for being on with us today. Just being a friend and just having the honor to teach with you with the IFF, that’s why I brought you on, because I knew you’d be a person with a lot of knowledge on the early COVID 19 issue that happened. And not that you really wanted to, got thrown into your guys’s plate there in Washington state.

So in early February, I know you guys got hit pretty hard specific to the Kirkland fire department there. Tell me about it. When they got hit so hard, how did they deal with it? We all say we’re ready. We all prepare as firefighters. We all know the training we go through, and we come out of the Academy, we do all these trainings, we think we’re ready to go, but sometimes you get ready to go and you get hit in the face with a hammer sometimes and it just happens. You can’t prepare for everything.

Dennis Lawson: That’s exactly right. In fact, it was interesting because you mentioned Kirkland and really what happened was it was a Friday night, and before we actually got the, the news went bad. And Friday night we had planned to have a conference call with the general president and some leadership back at the IFF. And then before Saturday morning … And the Friday night conversation was going to take place was regarding the first death, what they described in the first US death, and it happened at a nursing home here in Kirkland, Washington. And before, it was about 3:00 AM, things went completely sideways because at that point in time, we started to put our firefighters in quarantine.

And I think just to make sure everybody understands, but we had a couple different words that we were not familiar with, quarantine and isolation. And quarantine was for those folks who were initially exposed, and isolation was for those folks then who had tested positive. And in Kirkland, Kirkland’s a progressive department, they got good leadership, they’ve got a really good strong union president, good fire department, good history, very active at the IFF level. And what was concerning to all of us was is that if it’s going to happen to Kirkland, it’s probably going to happen to a lot of other people. And so it really, like you said, slap in the face. It was definitely cold water put on us at 3:00 AM.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. And sometimes it’s one of those things where it’s not going to happen to me, or it’s not going to happen to us, and Kirkland seems like a fair sized department. I was looking at them online and stuff like that. And that just goes to show that it can happen to you. It happened to Kirkland. And so how did it, I don’t know if crippling is a correct word, but how did it cripple them? How many people in early February did they have have in quarantine?

Dennis Lawson: There you go.

Robert Sanchez: Can you hear me?

Dennis Lawson: You’re back on.

Robert Sanchez: Okay, Thanks.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I lost you for a couple of seconds.

Robert Sanchez: Sorry about that, technology now with COVID-19.

Dennis Lawson: You got a virus in your speaker.

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, I’m sure it is. Yeah. So we all talk about Kirkland, it’s not going to happen to us as a fairly decent sized department. But it did happen to Kirkland, just shows that it could happen to anybody. So how did they deal with it? Because how many, at the initial stage when they started getting infected, the firefighters, how many got infected and how many were in quarantine initially?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, initially about 17. And that number, and so that happened really quick like I mentioned. As soon as they had the death, they started to figure out … And again, progressive department, they were able to identify through tracking some of their run calls that they had been going to the same facility. And then all of a sudden they got the one death, and then they got another death, and they started looking. They started putting common denominator and that facility was the common denominator. Then they backtracked and started pulling the records up of who had responded there. And they put, initially I think was 16 or 17 people in quarantine right away. And for them, that’s pretty much a couple stations worth. And they actually took a station, they closed the station completely down and used that as a quarantine facility.

Robert Sanchez: Geez. Okay. That’s pretty crippling for a department that size. I can only imagine even the department that I work for, that would definitely, it would cause a lot of problems cause it puts a strain on the community. It puts a strain on firefighters. Talking to more people, on one of our other episodes in our podcast we talked about PTSD. We always talk about that, on the Dr. Rogers on here. And he happened to ask me, “How was it stressful being COVID, are they getting PTSD from it?” And I said, “Well, I’m sure eventually some firefighters may, but I think just the stress of knowing that you potentially have to respond to these calls and the stress of putting on masks and gowns and making sure you don’t have it and making sure your family’s not going to get it if you get it, that’s just adding stress to the job.

Dennis Lawson: Right. I think you touched on it pretty good. For the most part we come into the fire service with, I think a little bit of understanding that we potentially could have some exposures. At times the job can be very difficult. But we drew the line, I think most of us, and said that, how’s the family impacted? We don’t want to take what we’ve got, if we were exposed on a fire to a carcinogen, if we develop cancer as a firefighter, our family’s not going to get that because it’s not contagious. Right? But you get this virus, something like this where you could take home to your loved ones … And a lot of families, depending on where you are in our country, you may have multiple generations in a household. You could have grandkids and grandparents still living with people. And both of those are on the very high ends of that spectrum, older or maybe very, very young.

Dennis Lawson: So we, yeah, I think you’re right, Robert, I think that’s something PTSD hasn’t manifested yet in that right away. But I think down the road, it could. We’ve been really pumping out peer support groups, making sure that our members talk to each other, we keep an eye on each other. We’re tracking sick leave to make sure that, not for tracking sickly to see who’s using it, but more or less to see if we see any trends related to how people, a bad call, something went different for a day for somebody. So we’re doing those kinds of things.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. So as a great leader that they have in a state, they’re fortunate to have you, are they doing okay now in Kirkland? Obviously they’re being well taken care of, but are they recovering from the situation in February?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I think Kirkland again, they describe that epicenter, right? That was the initial hit. Everybody had it. But about 15 minutes west of Kirkland’s the city of Seattle, that’s our biggest city in our state. And they had a number of people who also who were in quarantine. Based on pure numbers, I think there’re around 950 members in their union. And I want to say somewhere around 30, 40 members of their department alone had testing positive. And so those are pretty good, those are high numbers. And some of the other departments on our east side of our state, we may have some combination departments, volunteer paid, and we get two positives out of a department of 10, and that can cripple that department.

Robert Sanchez: That’s a big hit. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, good. I’m glad to see they’re recovering from it. And I hate to say this, but I think the rest of the United States, especially fire department wise, and I know I was paying attention when you talked at our legislative conference and also when you had the kitchen table with with Harold Schaitberger, the general president, I was listening and I think we got a lot of information. I think I even called you about some issues we’re having here in New Mexico. And we learned from you guys. It’s sad that it came to hit you guys first, but that’s what firefighters do across the country is the brother and sisterhood, the men and women that work in the fire service across the country definitely came out and help each other out. And we learned from you guys and, and what you guys had to deal with. And-

Dennis Lawson: You mentioned the learning part, there was a couple of things we learned right away. One was that the IFF, you mentioned them. They put out that toolkit. And I think when I addressed the group back in DC on the legislative conference, I had glanced the tool kit, but I didn’t get into it. Quite honestly I was looking at something like, this is a virus that’s going to take place in China. It’s going to stay over there. It’s not going to manifest in the United States. Thinking that we’re so much above those things. And it really hit us all. So I think that, I don’t want to say apprehension, but it was just really just not the … I should’ve been much more aggressive. So that’s something I learned.

Dennis Lawson: The other thing that I’ve expressed to our executive board, and we have 11 board members in the state of Washington geographically placed out there, and we do a lot of really good things. But one thing that we were not really deeply entrenched in was our Department of Emergency Management. Because we do a lot of politics stuff, so we’re talking to the people we’re talking maybe to the County directors or executives, but we didn’t get into the Department of Emergency Management. We didn’t have anybody who was able to get into Department of Health, places like that where they’re making some decisions that really we should have labor voice at.

And so we really made a strong push in King County, and King County has King County Medic One, which is probably one of the best in the country. They always talk about how good they are, and they are very good. We were able to crack that right away and get labor involved. We had two of our board members that got onto a conference call really from that first week on. And they valued our input because we were really the people out on the streets, and it made a big difference. So a couple of real lessons learned, things that we would do different, things we’ve talked about already for gearing up what comes up next. Or if we get a resurgence of this virus, we have to be prepared at least in our state to continue to keep moving forward.

April 4th or so is when I think they talked about us hitting our peak. It was about a week before, maybe 10 days before they had anticipated. And we’ve done well, we flattened out as they described. That’s a word everybody wants to use. And I cautioned even our state, and we’ve talked about this, we have weekly conference calls for our board, is that flattening out doesn’t mean the virus is gone. It still means that people are getting sick. It’s just at a pace that it doesn’t overwhelm everything. And the unfortunate part is people still die. And really that’s the sad part because this is going to be around for a while for it.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. just the way it’s looking, I think just watching it and seeing of course the news and everything else, it just, it’s hard. Nobody’s been able to predict what it’s going to happen. We all, like myself, I thought it was just a flu virus, everybody’s in a panic. But even just being in the field and being on the firetruck, I see that it’s not a panic. Look what’s happening in New York. How do you explain that? So across the country, the numbers in some States aren’t as high, but how do you explain New York? How do you explain their morgues are full? They’re having to get trucks to put the body from people who are suffering, who passed away or expired from the COVID-19 virus. So, it’s real and it’s out there, but I’m just hoping that with the four stage plan that the States are having right now that it’s done correctly and we can work it out where it brings us from that curve.

Dennis Lawson: Right, right. I know in the state of Washington, I mentioned our four phases and part of that’s putting our state back in service, back to business. I’m not sure how you guys are doing down there. The economics here, a little concerning. We have municipal fire departments, and we have County fire departments, fire districts, and I work for a fire district. It’s basically, it’s a city, there’s counties, it’s a combination of a bunch of things. But I’ll use Seattle as an example. Their hotels are running at 20% occupancy, if that, right now. They canceled the entire Alaska cruise season, or at least up until probably late August. And so they won’t be running cruises out of there. Our airport’s probably at 10 or 15% capacity.

Dennis Lawson: This has completely crippled a lot of things. And so our municipalities who rely on tax dollars, really the sales, that’s going to be a significant problem for them as they move forward. And so we’ve talked about using our DVP, Mickey Walsh trying to get some of the same things we teach when we do our prep stuff in negotiation, starting to forecast using our municipal financial analysis, getting the IFF on board and making sure that we’re preparing our people. We’ve talked about, maybe it’s a really good time to maybe consider rolling contracts for one year instead of getting full blown into a deep contract negotiation and not knowing what the numbers look like as we move forward. I’d hate for our members to give up stuff and then things turn around rapidly. And on the other hand, I’d hate for us to say that we’re going to get something and then have to give it back.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. Yeah, so we’re having the same problem here. We have the city of Santa Fe, which is the capital of New Mexico, and the city firefighters, even the County firefighters in Santa Fe, they’re struggling because Santa Fe really relies on gross receipt tax, right? They rely on tourism. Tourism is huge in Santa Fe. And looking at the numbers, talking about MFAs again, we’re getting into that and we’re making sure to have a municipal financial analysis to see, do they have money? And they don’t have money. That’s there, we could see it.

Robert Sanchez: But yeah, so if we’re planning for the future and it’s definitely we’re going to have to be creative on contracts, and it is going to have to be a give and take in this situation, especially if we know exactly what the money is. And so it is concerning. We start coming into brown outs and layoffs and hopefully we can prevent pay cuts and cutting our benefits. And we just had a huge bill pass our last legislature, which is a funding our pension, which is good for firefighters. And here we are again, having to, hopefully it doesn’t come up and we have to deal with that.

Dennis Lawson: Right. So you mentioned legislation, how have you guys done on any presumptive type coverage or anything like that in your state?

Robert Sanchez: Well, so our legislature finished in February, mid February. So we didn’t get a chance to even work on that issue. But we did have an executive order, and we have a great governor, Michelle Lujan Grisham here in New Mexico, she’s pro firefighter a hundred percent. And so is our legislature, both our Senate and our House, but she came out with an executive order which basically says that per our presumptive bill that we already had in place, it basically explains to the municipalities and the counties that if they get this on duty, it’s going to be presumptive. It’s presumed that it happened on duty. So it swings a bigger hammer if you will, on that executive order. It’s not what we wanted, it’s not legislature, because like I said, our legislative session was over. But it’s something definitely we’re already in the works.

Robert Sanchez: I just got off a zoom call with my executive board of my presence in my state. And we talked about how important politics are now, right now at this time, because we’re going to have to get the right people in there that understand firefighting, would understand what we’ve done, firefighters and what we’re doing for them to make legislation that that helps us for presumptive issues. We all know, Dennis, that we can actually say right now, and I could say with confidence that we weren’t held up with these last couple of months because of the billionaires and the CEOs. We were held up because of the transit workers, the semi truck drivers, the factory workers, the firefighters, the healthcare workers, the police officers. So it’s the working men and women of the United States that kept us afloat, and they still are. So I’m happy to say that for sure.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I agree with you a hundred percent. Our governor, we have governor Jay Inslee, and he’s been very outspoken. Especially when this thing happened, of course Mike Pence, vice president of the United States flies out here and they have a conference call, and for the most part everything went pretty well. And then that information of course gets taken back to the White House, and unfortunately you hear that some comments made there probably aren’t appropriate from the White House regarding our governor. Our governor has done a good job for us. He’s very much been in our corner for a number of years. He was a former state, or I should say congressional member at one point in time, and he’s dialed in on our issues. And he did the same thing.

Dennis Lawson: He didn’t have an executive order, but he did, he put a policy down, policy directive through our state labor and industrial workers’ comp. And that’s the way, we’re same way as you are. Our legislative session had ended. We will go back. We have language right now that’s currently in place that says that infectious diseases. And we also have language in there that talks about respiratory, which COVID is very much a respiratory disease. And so we’re going to go ahead and firm these up as we go back in. We’ve got a board of, they call it a board of epidemiology, it’s our doctors that will be starting to work on this during the interim right now. So we’ve got a few things we’ve got to continue to work on, but I’m thankful that, like you said, we have good people, good support, and our governor, our House, our Senate as well.

Robert Sanchez: Very good. Yeah. So we’re lucky here in New Mexico. I hope other States learn from us and learn from you. We’re definitely learning from you now, all the information you’ve laid out in our legislative conference, just even being on the kitchen table with our general president. And I’ve been lucky to work with team district also. DVP [Lima’s 00:21:19] Doing great for us. We’ve had several zooms with probably 160, 70 participants, and it was real informative. And some of the information they got I know was from you and from your state. So I appreciate that.

Robert Sanchez: So I was just going to ask you, so would you change anything on the way that it happened? Obviously, we try to be prepared the most we can. Was there anything that you think that we could change that if we ever had another pandemic, in the fire service?

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I think like I mentioned, I think we have focused so hard on the political part of our state organization, working on our legislation, where I think we needed to be much more entrenched into our communities. And it doesn’t always have to be our executive boards from our state groups, but our local need to take, as an example, the city of Seattle, they have a Department of Emergency Management just for the city of Seattle. And I know president Stewart from up there was trying to do those things to have his members’ interests taken there, but that doesn’t happen in all the different cities. And so that’s one strong lesson we learned.

Dennis Lawson: The other one was just simply just to make sure that we have really good communication. And I think for the most part we did really well. We tried to reach out. When we talked to the IFF, we wanted one consistent message. We wanted the IFF message. We wanted the seventh district message, which coincided with our state message, because we knew right away if we start to go different ways, we’re going to have a problem with fracture, shows little signs of weakness. And then probably the other thing that if I was to do something different, maybe a little bit earlier on, maybe treat it like a fire incident where you actually have a command type system, command board. I took on probably more than I probably should have initially. I figured it took me about maybe 14 days to figure it out that this is not sustainable.

Robert Sanchez: Right. And we all would do that. As a leader, you’re going to do that.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. So I really realized on a couple of board members, our vice president, our secretary of treasure, and a couple of key board members, just, “Okay, can you do this?” We have a standing health and safety committee. And I really, I tasked him to do a lot of work and he did a really good job. Kevin is his name, fantastic guy to work with. Just those little things like that. So the delegation, because like you said, we all want to do those kinds of things and maintain a lot of our own work. So yeah, just little things. Maybe if I was probably, as we gear up, maybe just a little bit more attention to what the IFF is putting out, just because they know. Like I said, I saw it, I read it. I just didn’t think it was going to happen to us.

Robert Sanchez: Right. Yeah. We talked about that earlier. Do we ever think it’s going to happen to us? That’s a part of the issue that we have, is we have tons of resources out there, we have tons of information. But as firefighters, we’re constantly on training, and online training, and training in the field, and we just sometimes it becomes just a, we just do it and go with the flow and just do it. So I think that we need to start paying more attention to some of this stuff, even as far as wearing masks and gloves on duty on calls. We all knew we used to wear gloves, but we weren’t real religious in doing what we’re supposed to do in the first … We were supposed to be wearing gloves and face masks anyways on calls. But there’s a lot of times that we weren’t doing it. We lacked on it. So it definitely woke us up, gave us a wake up call.

Dennis Lawson: That’s a good point too, is the PPE part, is that I think it’s important for people to realize that the individuals in Kirkland had the appropriate gear on for the type of call. They got dispatched to a low blood sugar call, now how many of us would wear a gown, the whole bit? Right? Well, they get there and the person was, basically they were unconscious, unresponsive. So they had to begin CPR, and they didn’t have time to put all their gear on. That was one example. The other example was a patient that fell out of bed. Well, they fell out of bed because unfortunately, they had passed away. So they get there, they work on them.

Dennis Lawson: But I think from the fire service standpoint, maybe we need to look a little bit different. Instead of N95 masks, maybe we should go to a different mask that has cartridges like an APR. We went to those things early on, so everybody has issued an APR. A little bit more money, but the cartridges are good for a very long period of time. You decon them, they’re quicker to get back in service than most anything else. And so I think that would be helpful. Just, what are we wearing? Is the type of gear that we wear on an EMS call, is that appropriate? Does a gown give us the best protection? So I think those are the kinds of things, and I’m glad Pat Morrison from the IFF and a few, Jim [Brinkly 00:26:07] And a few other people are just, they’re starting to look into those different things.

Robert Sanchez: Well, that’s good. Yeah. I think that definitely when this is, hopefully it ends and we get a vaccine or something to help us out with. But I think we’re going to come up with these ideas, what’s better, what worked and what didn’t. We’re all going to learn from our own mistakes unfortunately, but that’s just the way life is in general. Right?

Robert Sanchez: So just one last thing, so how’s the firefighters out there as far as mentally? Are they holding together, or have you seen any difference? I know we talked about the stress of them.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah. I think for the most part, again, the unknown is the worst part, right?

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely.

Dennis Lawson: You go to a fire call and you got it in front of you, and you pull your line, whether you’re fire tack or you’re doing exposure or whatever it is, you got something you know what you’re dealing with. This one, you just don’t know. And I think for the most part, you know how a firehouse can be. I think a lot of times you can feel the dynamics, you can feel when there’s tension in the air in a fire station. And some of that is because people are just not really sure what’s going on.

Dennis Lawson: And like I said, we’ve utilized our peer support, support teams, to make sure that they’re reaching out, talking to people, putting things out. We actually started in different organizations, mine included, brought back a safety week a little bit earlier. So we had, because just some time to make sure people are staying really focused on themselves. Our call volume’s down. I’m not sure about you guys, but we’re down about 20% here. And I think that is because people don’t want to go to the hospital right now, because I think they’re fearful that they go to the hospital they’ll catch a virus from somebody already there.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely.

Dennis Lawson: And so, yeah. Is that what you’ve experienced as well?

Robert Sanchez: Yeah, definitely the call volume is down. And I think, yeah, they’re staying home, whereas most people are, and taking it serious. And yeah, I think that we do, when we respond to calls a lot of them are, they’re saying, “I don’t want to go to the hospital because I don’t want to catch COVID, or coronavirus.” And that makes a lot of sense. So I think that also shows that sometimes maybe not everybody needs to go to the hospital like they think they should, because they’re totally fine after that.

Dennis Lawson: We’ve been saying that for a long time.

Robert Sanchez: And don’t get me wrong, it’s an honor for me to be a firefighter, but sometimes we got to definitely look, is this something that I really need to go to the hospital for? Because it was really causing a huge backlog in some of our hospitals here in Albuquerque, New Mexico. But I think people are realizing now that maybe they don’t need to go to the hospital all the time.

Dennis Lawson: I think you’re right. I think you’re right on that. Yeah.

Robert Sanchez: But definitely, I just wanted to thank you. I know you have a family with career firefighters. Your brother and your father is also a firefighter, were firefighters, are retired, right?

Dennis Lawson: My brother is active down in Vancouver. My dad was Local 31 in Tacoma. He passed away. It’s been a number of years now.

Robert Sanchez: I’m sorry.

Dennis Lawson: It’s okay. He was a tiller man for years. Some good fire calls. I’ve got great memories of hanging out at the fire station when I was really little, going down there and playing basketball with all the guys, and doing those kinds of things. And then he moved up, he went into the Fire Marshall’s office and retired as the Fire Marshall for department.

Robert Sanchez: Very cool man. So you come from a line of firefighters. And your brother’s in Canada, right, being a firefighter?

Dennis Lawson: No, Vancouver, Washington.

Robert Sanchez: Oh, Vancouver, Washington. Okay. My apologies. So that’s nice, man. Well, thanks Dennis. It’s always been a pleasure. I like talking to you every time we talk, we have a good conversation, and I miss having a beer with you, man. And when you see we’re instructing, and we’ll get back together when we start being instructors again, the United States, hopefully we start traveling.

Dennis Lawson: Yeah, I’m hoping that the IFF convention still goes off.

Robert Sanchez: Me too.

Dennis Lawson: I’m not sure what that’s going to look like or how we’re going to do it, but I’m sure if we get back there together, it’d be nice to dip a beer and say hi to ya.

Robert Sanchez: Absolutely. Yeah. And you’re always welcome in New Mexico. Come and have a beer. Hope you and your family’s doing well.

Dennis Lawson: You too buddy.

Robert Sanchez: And thanks again for the information. We definitely learned something.

Dennis Lawson: Let me know if I can give you something, I’m more than happy to share it.

Robert Sanchez: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Dennis Lawson: All right buddy. You take care.

Robert Sanchez: You too. All right. So signing off, that’s it for Firefighter Kingdom. Thanks for being in the Kingdom, firefighters and community. Thank you Dennis for the being on the podcast, it’s always an honor having you on here. A leader like yourself, educating firefighters across the nation. And again, thanks to Vince Trujillo. He’s the mastermind behind everything. He makes me look good. I know it’s a hard job. Again, signing off. Thanks again, Dennis.

Dennis Lawson: All right. Thank you.

The post #5 Washington St. Fire Fighters: Hit Hard Early During COVID-19 & Review appeared first on FireFighter Kingdom.

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thisismydesignhannibal · 8 years ago

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Get To Know Me Followers

Rules | Answer the 20 questions and tag 20 amazing followers you’d like to get to know better!

I'm gonna do this all at once Fannibals!

I've been tagged by some lovely Fannibals in some fun "getting to know you better" posts, but they've all been slightly different…so I thought I'd just combine all my answers into one monster-post.

Tagged by the lovelies: @fannibalmonica @hannibalnuxvomica @victorineb @whenever-possible-eat-the-rude @accio-sodium @nothing-here-is-vegetarian I feel like there were others too…but I can't find them. Tumblr is the devil.

Tagging a bunch of folks I’d love to know better, but I’m always interested in getting to know my fellow Fannibals, so I’d love ANYONE to chime in: @jadegreenworks @zacharybosch @theseavoices @purplesocrates @warpedchyld @avegetariancannibal @disraeligearsgoestumblin @devereauxsdisease @pka42 @sepia-ink @allionne @lecteronthelam @desperatelyseekingcannibals @wrathofthestag @slashyrogue @vulcanplomeeksoup @graham-muffin @he-s-dead-jim @whimsy-by-joja @kellucydar @hisvoicebrokemyheart @iamdragoonthegreat @azuresky2011 @avidreadr2004 @lovecrimecat @ishipthemsogoddamnhard @iamdragoonthegreat @camilleflyingrotten @existingcharactersdiehorribly @aviran007 @sirenja-and-the-stag @damnslippyplanet @redfivewritingby @hannigrammatic @byk23 @cinabre

Feel free to ignore me if you’ve been tagged already, or send me a link to your answers :)

name | Cheryl

nicknames | NONE! For some reason I defy nicknaming…nothing has ever stuck…my friends called me Lippy in back in High School for about a month (I had/have authority issues :P) but that's it.

favorite season | Probably Spring, but Autumn would be a really close second favorite book | The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss and the Maddadam Trilogy by Margaret Attwood are all amazing series. I also have a very soft spot for Jane Austin and Oscar Wilde. The Road by Cormac McCarthy is a masterpiece. It's very hard to choose, I read a lot. favorite flower | Orchids or Peonies (I think their relationship with ants is utterly fascinating) favorite scent | citrus or eucalyptus favorite color | yellow favorite animal | cats or horses…I find their personalities oddly similar coffee, tea, or hot cocoa | TEA all the way! Specifically Earl Grey (Twinings), although I recently bought some Hannibal themed tea here that is giving the Twinings a run for its money. average sleep hours | 7-8

Hogwarts house: Ravenclaw

cat or dog person | I grew up with dogs but now I am a proud cat mom of 3. favorite fictional character | Hannibal Lecter. Will Graham is very very close second. Lestat de Lioncourt, Arya Stark, Roland Deschain, Elizabeth Bennet... Impossible to choose. I could write an entire post just on this. number of blankets you sleep with | Right now a light duvet and a light blanket. In the summer, just a sheet.

dream trip | Italy (Florence and Venice are at the top) I recently fulfilled my dream trip to Paris and Arles :)

Dream Job | Writer, but I work in the Environmental Sector and like that too. blog created | September 2016 number of followers | 1170 (I have no idea how that happened, and I didn't have time to do a 1000 follower appreciation post! I promise to do one at 1500!)

Why I made a Tumblr | after watching Hannibal for the millionth time and starting to write fanfics for myself, I got tired of being in a vacuum. I decided to deny my typical instinct to only lurk and decided to jump into the fandom. I haven't looked back and it's been immensely gratifying to meet all the endlessly talented and supportive Fannibals out there. I should have got on sooner!

Some More Questions from @fannibalmonica 's tag :)

1. Are you named after someone?  My mom swears my dad chose Cheryl after some model that was big in the 70's or something. My dad denies it ;P

2. When was the last time you cried?  I don't cry too easily at serious things…probably when my cat had to go for emergency surgery. BUT I cry super easily at dumb things, like marching bands or people singing in unison. I cry easily at movies…just did watching Logan. I get teary every time I hear the music from Mizumono (which they just had to go and make the menu music for the Season 2 Blu-ray!)

3. Do you like your handwriting? Meh…I write like someone with multiple personalities. My writing will look 10 different ways on the same page on the same day. Maybe that means something…don't know.

4. What is your favorite lunch meat? I don't eat meat. Well, seafood sometimes but I haven't eaten land meat for 18 years.

5. Do you have kids?  No and I don't want them. Not a fan.

6. If you were another person, would you be friends with you? Probably. I like to think I'm easy to talk to and I'm pretty open which is something I appreciate in others…but I'm also an introvert (ambivert?!) so I give people space and can sit in quiet. I don't know…don't all introverts think they would rather spend time with themselves?

7. Do you use sarcasm?  never

8. Do you still have your tonsils? Yes

9. Would you bungee jump? Nope. I'm ok with maintaining my very reasonable aversion to throwing myself from bridges thanks.

10. What is your favorite kind of cereal? Cereal isn't my favourite…maybe Special K?

11. Do you untie your shoes when you take them off?  Generally not if I don't have to. I rarely have shoes with laces now that I think about it…

12. Do you think you’re a strong person?  THAT is a loaded question. Not as strong as I'd like to be, but stronger than many. I've been through some stuff in life that felled others around me. I don't know.

13. What is your favorite ice cream? I don't really like ice cream much (I know, I know) but I guess Black Cherry.

14. What is the first thing you notice about people? Rudeness. Intelligence. Whether I think they're genuine or not.

15. What is the least favorite physical thing you like about yourself? This sentence doesn't make sense. I try my best not to think about that stuff. My body works right now…I'm currently healthy.

16. What color pants and shoes are you wearing now? Blue jeans and tan brown shoes.

17. What are you listening to right now? My cats yowling annoyingly and my BF trying to get them to shut the hell up for once.

18. If you were a crayon, what color would you be?  If I was a crayon I'd prefer to be an "ugly" colour so people wouldn't use me.

19. Favorite smell?  Horses (same same @fannibalmonica )

20. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?  Pretty sure the only people I speak to on the phone anymore is my Mom/Dad. Doesn't everyone just text now? And see each other in person?

21. Favorite sport to watch? Equestrian sports (same same again @fannibalmonica )

22. Hair color?  Blond.

23. Eye color?  Brown…someone told me once that having naturally blonde hair and brown eyes is a somewhat unusual genetic combination. They might have just been hitting on me though….any geneticists out there able to confirm?

24. Do you wear contacts?  No.

25. Favorite food to eat?  Chinese noodles. Vietnamese Noodles. Thai Noodles. I like noodles :)

26. Scary movies or comedy?  Hmmm. I like dark movies and even slasher movies but I don't like "jump out and surprise you with creepiness" movies…I don't startle well. I love dark/quirky/sad comedies.

27. Last movie you watched? I just watched Logan…and Gattaca from the 90's (it held up)

28. What color of shirt are you wearing?  multicolour (brown/yellow) sweater

29. Summer or winter? Summer.

30. Hugs or kisses? Both. Always both. Well …depends on the kiss ;P

31. What book are you currently reading?  American Gods, I’ve gotta finish that again before the TV show starts @emotionally-gutted-by-hannibal @fannibalmonica *stealing your answers because SAME SAME*

32. Who do you miss right now?  My city is getting REALLY expensive and lots of people have had to move away in recent years. Some of my best friends now live way out of town :(

33. What is on your mouse pad?  I don’t have one.

34. What is the last TV program you watched? Other than my obsessive re-watching of Hannibal? Um, I went back to watch United States of Tara (another sad 3rd season cancellation, but so worth a watch)

35. What is the best sound?  Mads Mikkelsen’s voice (same same @fannibalmonica!)

36. Rolling Stones or The Beatles?  Stooges! Bowie! Velvet Underground!

37. What is the furthest you have ever traveled?  From Canada to Cambodia (via Tokyo)

38. Do you have a special talent? I feel like this calls for a cleverness I'm not sure I can muster after all these questions ;P How about maintaining professionalism at work when all I want to do is tell people they're entitled assholes who don't know anything about anything? My utter inability to spend more than a minute or two NOT thinking about Hannibal? Making excuses to myself about the stuff I'm not doing that I should be doing? Seriously though, I think I'm kind. I'd say my empathy is probably the best thing about me, even though it can be stressful for me (remind you of anyone Fannibals?)

39. Where were you born? Toronto, Canada

#fannibals #followers #getting to know me #getting to know you #fun stuff #hannibal

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biofunmy · 5 years ago

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Polyamory Works for Them – The New York Times

The Look

Having multiple partners can mean more pleasure, but it’s not always easy.

Photographs by Yael Malka

Text by Alice Hines

Produced by Eve Lyons

Through a half-century of sexual upheaval, monogamy has been a curious stalwart.

The tradition of having a single sexual partner is among the only sexual practices liberals and conservatives rarely disagree about. Its blandness belies mysterious origins: Scientists have yet to conclude why prairie voles, much less people, prefer to bond in long-term pairs.

Yet in certain concrete burrows, monogamy’s inverse is on the rise. Jade Marks, a 26-year-old artist and herbalist in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, recalled a recent post by a friend on Instagram: “Are there any other queers out there who are monogamous?”

That feeling may have something to do with the immediate environment. Most weekends in New York, a smattering of events cater to the non-monogamous. There are lecture series, workshops and discussion groups. There are cocktail hours and meet-and-greets. And there are, of course, parties.

On a recent Saturday night in Crown Heights, an angelic gatekeeper in a pastel harness did her best to assure a reporter that she wouldn’t be a total buzz kill at a private party of 200 mostly straight, mostly non-monogamous New Yorkers. “Just watching is O.K.!” she said outside the site, a loft lit like an infrared sauna. “Have a good time! Stay hydrated! And always ask for consent!”

Inside were some of the happiest-looking sober adults ever seen after 2 a.m. “It’s like ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ meets a Gaspar Noé film,” said a Scandinavian digital artist and recent Brooklyn transplant. He and his girlfriend were attending for the first time; they had read about the party, called NSFW, on the internet.

NSFW caters to the 25-to-35 age bracket, has an all-black dress code and is made up of 60 percent women, according to its founder, Daniel Saynt. Its application for membership requires a social media profile link (“It’s very curated,” Mr. Saynt said) and responses to open-ended and check-box questions (“ultimate fantasy” is a short answer; optional boxes to check include “hedonist,” “daddy” and “label-less”). That may sound like the precursor to a job interview, but the point is to ensure that the needs of attendees are met. Wouldn’t it be nice if other clubs worked that way?

“I don’t think that polyamory is somehow more evolved than monogamy,” said Zhana Vrangalova, a sex researcher who will teach an online course for couples and individuals seeking to open their relationships this fall. “But it should be an option. People should have more options.”

That was a maxim for the two dozen non-monogamous people interviewed for this article. The subjects, who represent a range of ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities and professions, agreed on this: For them, more partners means more exploration and more pleasure.

Consensual or ethical non-monogamy is an umbrella term that encompasses various relationship models, including polyamory, open relationships, sexual encounters with more than two people and swinging. Polyamorists are interested in exploring long-term relationships with multiple people. Swingers tend to be older couples opening their marriages recreationally.

According to a 2014 Chapman University survey, 5 percent of American relationships identify themselves as non-monogamous. In a more recent survey of single adults in the United States, in 2017, one-fifth of respondents said they would try some form of non-monogamy at some point in their lifetime.

In major cities, there are plenty of ways for non-monogamous and polycurious people to meet, among them apps, dinners, friends, blind dates and parties. In New York, organized sex parties include Chemistry, which requires a Q. and A. application and photo, but doesn’t screen for a particular look; NYC Inferno, a gay play party that mostly attracts cisgender men but is open to queer, trans and nonbinary people (Playhouse, a spinoff event, revolves around trans guys); Skirt Club, a members-only club for bisexual women; and Wonderland, which welcomes everyone as long as they bring a buddy who will vouch for them, and are committed to fantastical dress codes (“Ancients vs. Aliens,” “Dungeons and Drag Queens”).

Now a cottage industry of coaches and educators has cropped up to help polyamorous partners strive for compersion, the happy-for-you alternative to jealousy. Effy Blue, a relationship coach in Brooklyn, works with all of the following: triads, or three people in a committed relationship together; individuals seeking to transparently date multiple lovers simultaneously; partners who each have intimate friends, all of whom are close; and clients cultivating long-term relationships with someone who already has a primary partner.

“There is no single model that suits everyone,” Ms. Blue said. She also wrote a book on play-party etiquette. “Consent is the cornerstone of any well-produced, healthy and fun sex party,” she said. “This makes it safer and more fun than an average nightclub on any given day.”

Ella Quinlan, a 27-year-old event planner, said she knows hundreds of peers on the East and West Coasts practicing their own flavors of non-monogamy. In her own relationship with Lawrence Blume, a 55-year-old tech investor, Ms. Quinlan’s goal is to enhance what is conventionally beloved about monogamy, she said.

“We want to show people that it’s actually possible to be in a long-term, healthy, satisfying, deeply rooted and connected emotional relationship with somebody — and do this,” Mr. Blume said.

It’s not always easy. “There’s a lot of talking, and it takes a lot of work,” said Jade Marks. When Jade began exploring non-monogamy with Tourmaline, Jade’s primary partner, the pair quickly realized they had different expectations: Jade wanted casual encounters, while Tourmaline preferred sustained relationships with multiple people.

It took a lengthy negotiating period. Boundaries helped: Jade and Tourmaline established safe sex guidelines, and a rule of not bringing any partners to the apartment they share, though Jade said they have “a clause” for unexpected encounters.

Some emotions come with the territory. “A lot of us grew up with few of examples of what supportive queer, trans or non-monogamous relationships look like,” Tourmaline said. Among the couple’s queer and trans peers, non-monogamy can sometimes seem compulsory. “It’s O.K. to feel jealous,” Jade said. “It’s O.K. for this to be hard.”

Karen Ambert, 35, met Kenneth Play, a 38-year-old sex educator, three years ago on an art bus that was touring their neighborhood of Bushwick. Two years later, Mr. Play introduced Ms. Ambert, an emergency-room physician, to the man who became her second boyfriend, Geronimo Frias, the co-owner of a parkour gym.

It’s not technically a triad, but a V, as the relationship configuration is known in the poly community. Mr. Play and Mr. Frias don’t date each other, but they do date other people. (Mr. Play employs an assistant, in part to help book his rotating cast.)

Polyamorous for most of her adult life, Ms. Ambert hid it from her colleagues in medical school and residency. “I was always worrying about the next step. How will this impact my education and career?” she said. But recently she has grown more comfortable in her professional standing, and felt ready to come out about her love life too.

Mr. Frias was sitting on a couch at the home of Mr. Play with Ms. Ambert wedged in the middle, basking in the gaze of four adoring eyes.

Sexual repression is at the root of the wider public stigma about non-monogamy, said Narjesi Tragic, an environmental science student in Queens.

But that’s rapidly changing along with “tolerance of different kinds of lifestyles, traditions, religions,” said Orion Starbreeze, Narjesi’s metamour (both date Tiana North, a professional dominatrix and dog trainer, but not each other).

“We’re returning to that nomadic sharing of partners and resources,” Ms. North said. “There’s ride shares, there’s house shares, bike shares — we’re in a sharing generation now.”

Which, for some, is easier to intellectualize than practice. “The biggest obstacle to free love is the emotion we call jealousy,” the sex educators Janet W. Hardy and Dossie Easton write in the 1997 edition of their book “The Ethical Slut,” which introduced many Americans to the concept of non-monogamy.

One morning, I Skyped with Na’Im Najieb, a 33-year-old author, and Tyomi Morgan, 31, who is a sexuality coach. The two of them have been in an open marriage for a year and a half, and they recommend the use of mindfulness techniques to overcome jealousy.

“Is this really my partner separating from me?” Ms. Morgan said she asks herself when feelings of insecurity arise. “Or am I struggling my own abandonment issues, and needing to clearly express to Na’Im what affirmation I need to receive?”

Instead of jealousy, Ms. Morgan said she tries to think about gratitude and send messages like, “I was thinking about how much I appreciate you,” rather than, “Where are you?” and “Who are you with?”

Ms. Ambert, Mr. Play and Mr. Frias are all members of Hacienda, an intentional sex-positive community in Bushwick. (Mr. Play is a founder .)

Hacienda Villa, one of four locations, is an unassuming brick rowhouse across from an auto-body shop. Below the open concept kitchen-living room where 14 roommates have house meetings about chores, is a basement where events like Learn to Love Oral Sex: Tips from a Real Sex Worker (open to the public) and Second-Base Brunch (members only) are held.

“There’s a lot of sex problems in the world, like harassment,” Mr. Play said of the community’s mission. “We’re trying to engineer a way to coexist and celebrate sex without harming each other.”

He, Ms. Ambert, and Mr. Frias were currently in the process of contemplating a practice new to many of their open-minded friends and acquaintances: raising children.

“We’re in an extremely happy situation, and yet with a future that’s uncertain,” said Mr. Frias, 41, who is discussing starting a family with Ms. Ambert. “Being married and having kids in a V, I don’t know anyone else personally who’s done it.”

The idea was spurred during a conversation between Mr. Play and Ms. Ambert. It started much like any couple’s might, with Ms. Ambert saying she wanted children sooner rather than later, and Mr. Play hesitating.

Then Mr. Frias was in the picture. Like Ms. Ambert, he, too, wants children.

It was precisely her quality of “accepting people exactly as they are,” without trying to curtail their individual desires, that makes talk of such a long-term commitment possible, he said. “I’m not trying to change anything about her, and she’s not trying to change anything about me,” he added.

And those are just the emotional perks, said Mr. Play, who is coming around to the idea of helping raise children who aren’t his own. “Three incomes. Three parents. No one feels like they’re drowning in responsibility,” he said. “And the kid, surrounded by more loving adults.”

“I think this is really beneficial — a good life hack.”

Yael Malka is a photographer and artist raised in the Bronx and now based in Brooklyn. Alice Hines is a writer in New York City.

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austenmarriage · 6 years ago

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New Post has been published on Austen Marriage

New Post has been published on http://austenmarriage.com/1425-2/

Survey of Janeites, Thoughts on the Results

In 2008, the Jane Austen Society of North America took a survey of its membership about Austen’s characters. I’ve come across the results several times. I thought I’d recap them here and offer a few thoughts of my own.

Fully one-third of Janeites read three or more of Austen’s books in a year. Eleven percent read all six every year. By far (53 percent), Pride and Prejudice is the most popular book. Next is Persuasion (28 percent). Though it’s also my second favorite, most of my Janeite friends, plus several academics I respect, prefer Emma. I assume Persuasion carries the day because mature readers like the story of a mature woman having her “second spring.”

From Persuasion it’s a big drop down to Emma at 7 percent. Because of the popularity of the movie(s) made of Sense and Sensibility (especially Emma Thompson’s 1995 version, which set off the current Austen stampede), I was a little short of stunned that this book was so far down the list at 5 percent. I guess readers are more discerning than movie viewers; or, perhaps, the movie overcomes some of the book’s weaknesses.

Dragging their petticoats through the mud are Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey at 4 percent each. I admire a lot of things about MP, especially the large cast of characters, but I don’t think Austen quite pulls off the multiple story lines. I always felt that Northanger was a nice first try, though I’ve gained more respect for it in recent close readings. When Austen gets away from the Gothic schtick, the writing in NA is, to me, better than that in S&S. I suggest that S&S was a more complete story in its original form of a novel-in-letters but that Austen did little in the way of revision beyond converting it to a direct narrative. On the other hand, NA seems much “younger” in some ways and limited by the Gothic framing device. Yet in other places, the writing is far crisper and more advanced than what seems to be the slightly more old-fashioned form in S&S.

Here’s a shock: The favorite heroine was Elizabeth Bennet (58 percent) over Anne Elliot (24 percent). Liz is the only heroine who goes toe to toe with every antagonist. I often wonder why Austen never came back to a similar strong lead character. No one else gets more votes than Elinor Dashwood’s 7 percent. Emma Woodhouse, whom I thought would poll higher, gets only 5 percent. Emma is strong, but she was born into a superior position. I feel a certain bemusement that Fanny Price would slightly outpoll Catherine Moreland, 3 percent to 2 percent. Fanny may have ramrod moral fiber, but Catherine’s a whole lot more interesting. Janeites feel no sympathy for the sensibility-laden Marianne Dashwood at 1 percent.

No surprise, either, for favorite hero: Fitzwilliam Darcy, 51 percent. Given the strong second position of Persuasion, it’s surprising that only 17 percent voted for Frederick Wentworth. I would have picked George Knightley as my leading man, but he polled only 14 percent. I guess a man’s being perceptive, kind, and hard-working doesn’t do it for the ladies (96 percent of survey respondents were female). Henry Tilney manages 10 percent and Colonel Brandon, 5 percent. I like Henry’s sense of humor, but he also does a lot of mansplaining to the ladies. I’m not sure I want to meet the 1 percent each who voted for Edward Ferrars and Edmund Bertram as the leading males. Austen must have liked them, but there’s no reason for anyone else to. I’ll qualify that by pointing out Edmund’s kindness to Fanny early on. But he’s oblivious to her feelings when it matters. His purloining of her horse for Mary Crawford is downright cruel. Edmund seems to marry Fanny because she’s the only female within sight at the end.

In the category of favorite bad boys, the top three were predictable: 33 percent chose Wickham; 28 percent, Willoughby; and 16 percent, Crawford. The rest of the list is puzzling. Frank Churchill, who polled 10 percent, is not a bad boy in the sense of an evil person with superficial charm. He’s an honest charmer and insensitive jerk. Flirting with another woman to disguise an engagement is not in the same league as seducing young women. William Elliot, on the other hand, is manifestly evil, yet he pulled fewer votes at 7 percent. Six percent went for General Tilney, who’s not a charmer or a boy. The General is nasty stuff, but Austen leavens him subtly by showing his continuing grief for his late wife. Catherine Morland misunderstands this as guilt over his having done away with her.

Here’s a survey question I’d have never thought of: Worst Parents. Sir Walter Elliot of Persuasion is the runaway winner at 54 percent. It’s sad to see Mansfield Park get all the other votes: 16 percent for Mr. and Mrs. Price and 15 percent for Sir Thomas and Lady Bertram.

I take exception to the votes against Sir Thomas. He takes in Fanny (and later her sister), he helps her brother get into the Navy and even pays to outfit him. It’s true that Sir Thomas angrily banishes Fanny to Portsmouth for rejecting Henry Crawford. But Sir Thomas doesn’t know she loves Edmund. He fears she is giving up a good man in Crawford and possibly the best offer she may ever receive. He thinks she’s being obstinate when she’s being true to her own beliefs. Fanny’s unpleasant stay at Portsmouth does teach her to appreciate Mansfield Park. Her absence, meanwhile, teaches Sir Thomas to appreciate Fanny.

Another fun category was four comic characters who delight us. P&P brings home the prize here, with Mrs. Bennet at 74 percent and Mr. Collins at 70 percent. The other two were Admiral Croft at 56 percent and Miss Bates at 50.

It’s understandable for Mrs. Bennet to lead the list. Being crass, she’s unintentionally funny. But she has also, I think, received more bad press than she deserves. Austen gives both sides of the story with her synopsis: “She was a woman of mean understanding, little information, and uncertain temper. When she was discontented, she fancied herself nervous. The business of her life was to get her daughters married.”

Unlike her husband, who seems content with whatever may happen with his brood, Mrs. Bennet is desperate to see them settled in a decent home. She lacks the natural joy of Jane or the intelligence and class of Liz, but she’s trying to take care of her children the only way she knows how. We sympathize, even as we chuckle.

Admiral Croft is more than a funny guy. He’s astute enough to let Anne Elliot know that she’ll have another chance at Captain Wentworth: The Admiral’s wife, Sophy, is inviting him to Bath. Scene from the 1995 Persuasion movie directed by Roger Michell.

The Admiral is another puzzler. He has his amusing moments. He can navigate a 74-gun battleship around the world but can’t manage a one-horse gig on a country lane. Yet he is not a comic character. He’s a very wise one. Along, no doubt, with his wife, Sophy, Admiral Croft is a shrewd observer of people. His conversation with Anne Elliot on the streets of Bath is not that of a man oblivious to her situation but one very much aware of her feelings for Wentworth, and his for her. He lets Anne know she’ll get another shot at her man:

“Poor Frederick!” said he at last. “Now he must begin all over again with somebody else. I think we must get him to Bath. Sophy must write, and beg him to come to Bath. Here are pretty girls enough, I am sure. Do not you think, Miss Elliot, we had better try to get him to Bath?”

I have no idea if JASNA plans to update the survey. It’d be interesting to see if the responses have changed significantly over the last decade. About 4,500 people participated, a huge turnout. Janeites love their Austen characters, and love to offer their views on them.

—

The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen, which traces love from a charming courtship through the richness and complexity of marriage and concludes with a test of the heroine’s courage and moral convictions, is now complete and available from Amazon and Jane Austen Books.

#Emma #Emma Thompson #Jane Austen #JASNA #Mansfield Park #Northanger Abbey #Persuasion #Pride and Prejudice #Sense and Sensibility #The Marriage of Miss Jane Austen

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sizzlingcrusadebouquetfan-blog · 6 years ago

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hey im 17 years old, and got the money together for my first bike. i went down to the dealership and was about to buy the bike when i found out insurance cost like 4k for full coverage. i want full coverage but dont wanna pay through the nose for it. i have not owned a bike before and i really want one, but im not sure if i can aford to. so my question is does anyone know what i should do to resolve my problem? preferably recomendations of good insurance comannys. thanks so much""

""My brother stole my car and I don't have Insurance, what do I do now?""

My brother took my car while I was at a BBQ, He was slightly intoxicated and had his 8 year old daughter in the back seat, He ended up hitting a parked truck on the road, less than a half mile from my house. My whole right side of my car is gone, My mirror, antenna, side columns, head light, right side of my bumper, and my A frame of my SUV is broken, I couldn't drive it as if i tried my right tire would of popped off. I had to get it towed. My SUV is a 2006 Jeep liberty. I don't have insurance on it right now, although I had an insurance card before i got it canceled, which state's I'm still covered until October 3rd. (which i showed the cop) My dad thinks that my car will just be totaled. I owe more than $12,000 on this car. The truck he hit also has severe damage to the back left tail light and broken his A frame in the back as well. The cops were called and luckily the cop that came was really nice and waited for me to get to the scene. He cited my brother for failure to control and my brother got really lucky he didn't get a ride to the police station. My brother just got a DUI less than 2 weeks ago. My dad said that the money for my car and the guy's truck to be fixed is going to come out of my pocket. I am only 19 I do not want to be in debt, this was my first car. I'm pissed at my brother and he has decided he is not going to go to court and he's going to run so it's all going to be my responsibility since my brother is a dummy. What do I do? Do i call and get my insurance reinstated and hope they cover it or do i just pay it out of my pocket? I didn't have insurance on that car as I have not been driving it since i just moved back to Ohio from Arizona 3 months ago. Honest answers PLEASE! I'm in over my head.""

Would you get Uninsured Insurance coverage in this case?

Car worth: $2000 (KBB) Annual driving: 4000 miles Uninsured Insurance Liability ($15k/$30k): $100 (a year) Uninsured Insurance Collision (up to $3500): $50 (a year) Not going to get comp/collision since it's only worth $2000. My insurance company is requesting that I sign a UI waiver since I initially said no to UI. So I'm not sure now. Just liability is costing me $700 a year (even with good driver discount) so getting UI would add $150 to it so was wondering if it's really worth it or not.

Car insurance pay out?

Sombody hit my car the insurance wants to pay the value of the car. I can not get another car with the small amout of the pay out

Can you buy car insurance and then remove it two days later?

I wanted to go on a trip by myself but I need insurance... But it costs 2000 dollars a year...so can I get it and after the trip get rid of it? I'm only driving two days. Never again. What will happen after I get rid of the insurance?

Texas Roadhouse health insurance?

I was told working full time here I'd get free health insurance. Does anyone know if this is true? :)

""Hi fellow seniors, do you have household insurance?

With so many thefts of late and now mass flooding in and around the UK I hear so many cases of people being out of pocket as they're uninsured. Thankfully hubby and I can just about afford to pay it and so far so good we haven't needed to make any claims. With insurance costs at a premium I wonder just how many of you can afford it?

Whats the cheapest car insurance for teen?

Hi I'm getting my drivers license in two weeks I don't have a car still trying to find one. I'm 17 I live in Hollywood,fl and I'm just trying to find out the cheapest insurance for me. So if you can help me and tell me who has the best policy for teens full coverage and or liability for the cheapest price. Also I didn't Go to driving school""

Do you know how much your health insurance premium will be going up?

I just received a newsletter from my health insurance company with these items: Health Insurer Fee to be phased in starting 2014: There will be a Health Insurance Provider Fee on premiums charged by health insurers. Some plans will be exempt, for example: Medicare, Medicaid, etc. It is estimated this will add at least 3 percent to insurance premiums. Congress anticipates $455 billion savings from cuts to both Medicare and Medicaid. Providers and healthcare facilities are expected to cost-shift expenses to commercial plans. The U.S. faces a shortage of primary care physicians (40,000 in the next decade), Oncologist (3,000 to 4000 already today), Nephrologists and -- perhaps the most scary -- Nurses (300,000) in the future according to one study. These figures do not account for the demand created by health care reform. So, we have a ways to go before we have reached our goal of affordable healthcare for every American. The Affordable Care Act is a good start toward that goal. What is the Affordable Care Act? .""

How much would car insurance be for a 17 year old on a volkswagen golf 1.9 GTI?

like the min price?

How much does car insurance cost?

I just bought a 2007 toyota corolla and I'm putting the insurance in my moms name. She's gonna list me on her policy, around how much do you think it will cost to register this car? I don't want an exact amount just ideal price. It's a 2007 toyota corolla s""

Insurance Help?

hello guys/girls well i just bought a car and is under my name (only). My dad haves a car also and he haves insurance on it. I was wondering if is possible for my dad too add me and my car to his insurance?

How hard is it for police to verify that you REALLY do have car insurance?

With all the different companies that offer insurance, how would a police officer know if if the insurance card is a fake or not or if the policy number is real during a traffic stop?""

Car insurance?

i am 17 and have been driving about a year and a half i go to marine boot camp in july is there any way i can cancel my insurance and keep my license until i get done with all my training. Live in North Carolina

How much is the fine for driving with no car insurance in Ontario?

Where to find cheap insurance in ontario?

I'm turning 22 had a Kawasaki Ninja 250R as a starter bike and looking to upgrade to something bigger. I have a clean record but any online quote I get for a bike 600cc or higher results in $10,000/year or higher in insurance. I see guys my age riding around all the time on R6s and CBR600RRs and I don't understand it. Am I missing something? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.""

How much is insurance for a 2004 Nissan Maxima?

I'm 16 and this is my first car. I'm going to get liability and was wondering how much it's going to cost every month ? Thanks

Help! Being sued for auto accident and my liability was too low. What can happen?

I just received notice from my insurance co that I am being sued for an accident that I was at fault in last summer. At the time, there were no injuries reported and we each were able to drive away. It was a very low speed accident and I was allowed to take a driving class in lieu of a ticket. Now I get notice that I am being sued for $100,000. My liability limits were only $25,000. The insurance company is asking for more info and said they will provide an attorney, but since I would be liable for $75,000, should I retain my own attorney? Should I be worried? Also I was just about to sell my home (has very little equity by the way). Am I still allowed to sell once I am served? What happens if they win? Will they attach my wages? I have no assets. Thanks so much for any help! I am about to have a nervous breakdown!!!""

Malpractice Insurance?

How much do Cardiothoracic surgeons have to pay in malpractice insurance. Are there certain rates for different specialties?

Is $40.00 a month cheap for Full Coverage Insurance 2012 Kawasaki Ninja 250?

How much would petrol and insurance cost in the UK?

Basically my friend and I are spending about 3 months in the UK and are thinking about buying a car so we can get into the city. We intend to share it and both have licenses but never owned cars before. We could split a car costing about 400 pounds but I was wondering whether it would be worth it? We intend to live just outside of London and work in the city. If we carpool into town eveyrday about how much would petrol and insurance cost us? My friend might keep the car when he goes off to uni.

globe life insurance

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-can-you-get-car-insurance-estimate-dont-own-never-isaiah-anderson/"

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5raysofsunshine · 8 years ago

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100 This or That Questions: My Replies!

Thanks anon for wanting me to answer them all! Hope my answers didn’t disappoint! Also, if anyone has questions for me, I’m down to answer them!

1. Coffee or tea? - Depends on the occasion, but I’ve been trying to be more of a tea person. 2. Black and white or color? - Damn, umm... I’d have to go with Black and White. #classic 3. Drawings or paintings? - I can’t personally paint for shit, but I can sketch. But I enjoy looking at paintings and watching the process of it being done. Then again, I love all kinds of art mediums (I go to art school soooo). 4. Dresses or skirts? - Dresses for sure, even though I don’t ever wear them. That way you don’t have to worry about trying to find a nice shirt to go with the skirt, since you know, a dress is one whole piece of clothing. 5. Books or movies? - Books, duh. Literature is lit my dude. 6. Pepsi or Coke? - Raised with Pepsi, but slowly transitioning to Coke. 7. Chinese or Italian? - Both, I haven’t had Chinese food in forever though so I’m leaning more towards that right now. 8. Early bird or night owl? - Night Owl for sure, especially as of late. 9. Chocolate or vanilla? - Raised vanilla, but slowly transitioning to Chocolate. 10. Introvert or extrovert? - Both, I’m constantly going back and forth. 11. Hugs or kisses? - Depends on the person. 12. Hunting or fishing? - Neither? 13. Winter or summer? - WINTER ALL THE WAY 14. Spring or fall? - FALL ALL THE WAY 15. Rural or urban? - Raised rural, slightly becoming more urbanized, but honestly don’t really care. 16. PC or Mac? - PC, I don’t know how Apple Products work. 17. Tan or pale? - Pale, though I appreciate being tan right now. 18. Cake or pie? - Cake cake cake cake cake cake cake!!! 19. Ice cream or yogurt? - Ice Cream, for sure. 20. Ketchup or mustard? - Depends on what it’s going on. 21. Sweet pickles or dill pickles? - Dill pickles, duh. 22. Comedy or mystery? - Comedy, unless the mystery is more like a psychological thriller where you think you know what’s going on but then you’re figuring out new things as you go and you’re all confused at the end? ‘Cause those are my faves. 23. Boots or sandals? - Boots, 112%. 24. Silver or gold? - Silver, goes better with my skin tone. 25. Pop or Rock? - Both? 26. Dancing or singing? - If I absolutely had to choose between the two, I think I’d pick singing over dancing. Done both for years, but singing is more important to me. 27. Checkers or chess? - Chess, used to play with my dad all the time. I suck, but I’ve slowly gotten better (I think). 28. Board games or video games? - Board Games! #classic 29. Wine or beer? - Depends on the occasion, and I can’t really pick since I haven’t had either in a while. 30. Freckles or dimples? - Freckles! I love my own and I love them on other people (freckled shoulders are my weakness). 31. Honey mustard or BBQ sauce? - Damn, gonna have to go with BBQ sauce. 32. Body weight exercises or lifting weights? - Both and neither at the same time. Wish I could do them, but I can’t because I’m feeble and I don’t have time. 33. Baseball or basketball? - Both? Baseball for pitching, Basketball for just shooting baskets. Don’t really care about the sports in general. 34. Crossword puzzles or sudokus? - Crossword Puzzles! Used to do Sudoku when I was younger, but I’m so bad with numbers. 35. Facial hair or clean shaven? - In my past experiences with men, a little scruff isn’t bad, but can’t deal with actual beard. Bugs me too much. 36. Crushed ice or cubed ice? - Crushed, duh. 37. Skiing or snowboarding? - Both and Neither? Never done either, and I think both are interesting but I ain’t down. 38. Smile or game face? - Both? Depends on the occasion/person? 39. Bracelet or necklace? - Bracelet for sure, but also I’m more of a ring person in general. 40. Fruit or vegetables? - Both! But fruits are much more preferred. 41. Sausage or bacon? - Damn, that’s a tough one... Both! I can’t pick! 42. Scrambled or fried? - Scrambled, with a shit ton of cheese mixed in. 43. Dark chocolate or white chocolate? - Neither, Milk Chocolate all the way. 44. Tattoos or piercings? - Tattoos, duh. 45. Antique or brand new? - Depends, but I think I’m probably more of a modern/contemporary person, so Brand New. 46. Dress up or dress down? - Dress up, I wanna look nice. I hate wearing sweats in public, it makes me feel weird. 47. Cowboys or aliens? - Cowboys. Sorry Aliens, but I ain’t down in being abducted. 48. Cats or dogs? - DOGS DOGS DOGS DOGS but also cats, I don’t discriminate against cute fluffy friends. 49. Pancakes or waffles? - Both, but also neither. I prefer French Toast. 50. Bond or Bourne? - Bond, duh! 51. Sci-Fi or fantasy? - Honestly? Neither. 52. Numbers or letters? - Letters, duh! I’m a writer, what did you expect me to pick? 53. Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings? Harry Potter, I’ve never enjoyed the Lord of the Rings series and I don’t think I ever will. Sorry to disappoint. 54. Fair or theme park? - Fair, because food and games. Don’t care about rides. 55. Money or fame? - What’s the difference? Ha, kidding. Fame, I like it when people notice me and I want to inspire others like how others inspire me. 56. Washing dishes or doing laundry? - I love doing laundry, but it seems as though I always do dishes and never have time for laundry. It makes me sad. 57. Snakes or sharks? - Sharks!!! 58. Orange juice or apple juice? - Orange juice is bae. 59. Sunrise or sunset? - Hmm, honestly I prefer sunrise. I’m just never awake for it anymore. 60. Slacker or over-achiever? - Slacker, sadly. I am a major procrastinator and I’m also super lazy. So fun. 61. Pen or pencil? - Raised using pencils, but now I prefer pens. But only like specific pens that I know work really well. 62. Peanut butter or jelly? - Peanut Butter, 112%. 63. Grammys or Oscars? - Grammys, the outfits are always so interesting and the performances are killer. 64. Detailed or abstract? - Detailed, for sure. 65. Multiple choice questions or essay questions? - Multiple Choice! Who the hell actually prefers Essay Questions??? 66. Adventurous or cautious? - A little bit of both, depends on the occasion and how my mental state is. 67. Saver or spender? - Spender, sadly. I keep trying to save, but then I find new things to spend money on. 68. Glasses or contacts? - Glasses, even though I don’t wear mine regularly. 69. Laptop or desktop? - Laptops are practical, but there’s something about working on a desktop that makes me feel so nostalgic and more professional. 70. Classic or modern? - Depends on what we’re talking about here. 71. Personal chef or personal fitness trainer? - Personal Fitness Trainer, I wanna be able to make my own food and then be able to get into shape. 72. Internet or cell phone? - That’s a really stupid question, I need both to survive. Haha. 73. Call or text? - Depends on the situation, but probably Text since it’s more convenient? 74. Curly hair or straight hair? - Curls are so cute and I love it when my waves are more curly ugh it’s wonderful. 75. Shower in the morning or shower in the evening? - Neither, I shower in the afternoons. 76. Spicy or mild? - Mild, I can’t handle much heat. Which is sad, because I’m Half Mexican and I can’t keep up with that side of the family. 77. Marvel or DC? - Honestly, both but I’m leaning more towards DC. 78. Paying a mortgage or paying rent? Idk man, I have yet to pay either. 79. Sky dive or bungee jump? - NEITHER OH MY GOD NO NO NO NO NO 80. Oreos or Chips Ahoy? - Chips Ahoy, for sure. 81. Jello or pudding? - Jello, especially if they’re Jello Shots. ;) 82. Truth or dare? - Truth, I am a coward. Though usually, if I’m being dared to do something, it involves kissing other people (once had a round where I kissed like 4-5 girls in the same night). Ahh, memories. 83. Roller coaster or Ferris wheel? - NEITHER BUT ESPECIALLY NOT A FUCKING ROLLER COASTER NO NO NO NO NO 84. Leather or denim? - Both, but I actually prefer denim. It’s weird. 85. Stripes or solids? - Solids, duh. 86. Bagels or muffins? - Damn, I love them both! Oooh, but a chocolate chip muffin sounds sooooo good right now! 87. Whole wheat or white? Neither, Sourdough all the way. 88. Beads or pearls? Pearls. #classic 89. Hardwood or carpet? - Hardwood, 112%. 90. Bright colors or neutral tones? - Neutral tones, for sure. 91. Be older than you are or younger than you are? - Huh, I’m not sure. I’d say older because drinking legally, but that means more responsibilities. I think I’d have to go with younger, since it gives me more time to plan and figure out adult things before I have to actually do adult things. 92. Raisins or nuts? - Nuts, especially Cashews. 93. Picnic or nice restaurant? - Picnic!!! That’s like my dream date. 94. Black leather or brown leather? - Both! 95. Long hair or short hair? - Long hair, even though it’s annoying to take care of sometimes. 96. “Ready, aim, fire” or “Ready, fire, aim”? - What the hell kind of question is that? The first one? 97. Fiction or non-fiction? Non-Fiction, because 1) I write it all the time (I like writing about my love life and stuff), and 2) I like learning about other people’s personal lives. 98. Smoking or non-smoking? - Smoking, since I smoke both cigarettes and weed (not so proud of the cigs, but weed is great). 99. Think before you talk or talk before you think? - Oh boy I wish I could think before I talk, that would save me from causing so much trouble. 100. Asking questions or answering questions? - I love being asked questions, because it helps me believe that people are actually interested in getting to know me. So if you all ever have any questions for me, feel free to ask away!

#ask me things #send me things #tumblr asks #questions #replies to questions #enjoy #anon asks #this took forever #now i have to go take a quick shower before being responsible

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cover32-yahoopartner-blog · 8 years ago

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Why I’ll probably root for the Los Angeles Chargers – Eventually

I am a native of San Diego and a current resident, yet would never claim to be the biggest or most knowledgeable Chargers fan. I was born in San Diego, raised in Seattle, live in San Diego again now as an early 40-something, and follow both the Seattle Seahawks and the Chargers. I love them both, and people tell me all the time that I’m not allowed to do that. Hey, honey badger don’t care. So I am not some Chargers super fan who double mortgaged his condominium to have season tickets. However, I genuinely love the team and our city.

Yet I have a love-hate relationship with San Diego. I agree with Nick Canepa of the Union Tribune when he says that he cannot hate on the decision to leave town, only the way the owner and team have treated the fan base. The city is at least equally at fault in our loss. For that reason, I want to discuss whether our love for the city and hatred of a flawed man should preclude us, as a fan base, from rooting for the Chargers on television. Or *gasp* driving up to a game.

Let’s start with Dean. Mr. Dean Spanos has long disregarded the fan base and individual season ticket owners. I have a friend, a prominent business owner in Ramona, who has been a season ticket holder for 35 years. During the stadium negotiations, she typed a two-page letter described as “heart felt” to the Chargers about her family’s tradition as Charger fans and how they hoped the Chargers would stay. She never received any response. If they don’t care about a 35-year season ticket holder, they don’t care about any of us. Yet we knew that all along. There are tales galore of just how ham-handed and lacking in grace or charisma Dean Spanos really is.

The only thing the exit-stage-left of the team changes is where they’ll play. We clearly never loved the team because of the owner. We loved it in spite of him.

I have followed the listless pursuit of a new stadium for the San Diego Chargers for each of its 15 or so years. From half-hearted mentions of potential stadium sites in Escondido, Oceanside, or the South Bay to more promising yet conspicuously incomplete plans to develop the Qualcomm site at a hefty profit if the city would just fork over the free land.

The city, for its part, never had true leadership in the mid-2000s when this thing was really deep-sixed. Current mayor Kevin Faulconer’s role could be analyzed multiple ways. I feel as though he was protecting himself more than he was trying, but he also protected the city by giving the issue its proper place and being prudent in the process. He didn’t get it done in a fairly limited time frame, but the team suffered some of its most disappointing and frustrating seasons during that time period and the fan base was hardly rabid. Most would give him credit for the fact he wasn’t falling over himself to placate an out of touch billionaire and a team the fans weren’t showing up in droves to support.

The climate now is simply much different after a major recession, which Spanos has simply never wrapped his thin skinned head around. I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve never seen a truly competent effort by the team or the city to get a stadium built. It’s the city’s fault, but Spanos could have helped the situation by at least speaking sincerely – publicly – on the topic and by putting something on the line.

As Alex Reimer wrote in a Forbes article on the fumbled stadium talks and while comparing Spanos and Rams owner Stan Kroenke:

“It’s much easier to be in the driver’s seat when you put your money where your mouth is.”

Self-financing $350-500 million toward a stadium is a pretty reasonable ask for a billionaire whose family paid $70 million for their stake in ownership of the team in 1984, and whose family’s net worth has risen into the billions primarily on its value. Part of that value was earned on the backs and shoulders of the workers who buy their season tickets with hard-earned cash. The fact that Spanos was so cheap in the stadium pursuit shows he may have been unable to plunk down money for a stadium in San Diego. Yet people with ties like one would assume a billionaire to have can get things done. They can partner up. Right? Well, not necessarily.

Part of the reason the Chargers struggled to get a stadium built or failed to get the city interested was a lack of rapport. They stuck it to the city whenever possible. Like the ticket guarantee. Like strategizing on ticket prices to best take advantage of said ticket guarantee. Instead of operating in the best possible faith and honoring the city as a partner, they were profiteering. One gets the feeling if we humans were capable of swallowing gobs of cash, Spanos would literally come running up and squeeze it out of us if he could. And that has persisted through the very end, as he continued tightening screws on demands he foisted upon us rather than creatively solving problems. One has to imagine that potential business partners see him the same way.

AROUND COVER32

Mailbag: What to expect this weekend

Preview:: How will this exciting weekend play out?

Awards:: cover32’s end-of-season awards

Regardless of how wealthy Spanos and family could have been without the Chargers, San Diego and its citizenry are the reason he’s where he is today. That’s why the platitudes leveled at the city on the way out the door are so enraging.

Most of us never liked Spanos and he certainly didn’t like us back. We don’t expect our billionaire team owners to be particularly pleasant, but it’s nice if they’re sincere and have a genuine appreciation for the fan base that makes the team viable. The recent actions and final decision to move are what’s going to turn disinterest, or dislike, into outright hate. See Modell, Arthur.

And even though it might be fun, we can’t even guarantee we’ll watch them fail from afar. Let me be clear: I think it’s likely they will. It’s said the fish rots from the head down, and without exception, winning NFL teams are those with the best owners. Still, it’s hard to fail at making money in the NFL. The Los Angeles Chargers will likely dress up in more powdered (if you will) blue uniforms that are some of the best in sports, and have a name and overall brand that is at least subjectively more interesting than the Rams. They’ve also got a chance to outperform the Rams over the next few seasons.

From a purely financial standpoint, we have no clue whether this was a good decision for Spanos. I think this is going to be ugly a times, and I think they will struggle at the gate, but there’s no way to know that. We’ve all heard that moving the Chargers to Los Angeles magically imbues them with another 33 percent in sheer value, but I don’t think anyone will pay for something that others aren’t paying to watch.

So it might fail. And if it does, I’ll laugh long and hard.

Yet the truth is, rooting for Los Angeles teams is not a completely foreign concept to San Diegans. My grandfather and my father rooted for sports teams in L.A. and did so wholeheartedly. I never heard something like, “well, the Lakers are good but I’m not really a fan because they don’t play here and I hate Los Angeles.” They were big time fans of certain Los Angeles sports teams. Like it or not, many of us will eventually support the Chargers again. Especially if they’re good.

It hurts right now. Stings like hell. Yet the reality is, we’ll continue to see bolts on cars. We’ll continue to watch them on television. It won’t be the same numbers. I’m not saying you, dear reader, will support them, I’m saying a percentage will. I haven’t decided where I stand yet. If I could lay this 100% at the feet of Spanos, I would make that guarantee. However, the personal actions of Spanos only confirm what I knew about Spanos when I first moved here in 2000, thanks to people like Lee Hacksaw Hamilton. He told me, point blank, what a scumbag we were dealing with over the radio waves. I never considered not following the team because it was owned by a scumbag. Literally nothing has changed. That’s why I expect that once I get over the pain of “losing” a team I almost always watched on television, I expect I’ll probably take interest and follow them again in some regard. I love football, I love the uniforms, I love the history, and I love watching some of the players.

I was fewer than 20 years old when I had my enlightenment of what athletes and pro sports should mean to me. It was my younger brother’s birthday, his favorite player was going to be in town, and I knew where the visiting team was going to be staying. I waited at least an hour and a half until the Toronto Raptors arrived at their hotel. Waiting in front of the unloading area, I asked Damon Stoudamire for an autograph on a basketball card for my little brother as he got off the bus. He walked right past me mumbling about how coach didn’t want him to sign autographs. I was the only person waiting for the bus and the guy didn’t even take off his headphones. Up until then, I had no idea what pro sports was about. In fact, I wanted to write about them until that day.

Pro sports is a pure cash exchange. Money for entertainment. So Spanos may be a dick. Most of these people probably are, athletes included. It’s purely about the on-field entertainment. And that has always been worth it to me on some level. If we can’t have nice things here, some of us will take the opportunity to enjoy those nice things elsewhere. Thanks, San Diego.

Thanks to Dean, the way the team could be most valuable is if he sells it. If the Chargers were in Los Angeles and had new (read: competent) ownership, they would maximize the San Diego market to the south, advertising the new ownership and brand as they try and compete for market share in L.A. And assuming some knowhow and wherewithal, they would be best positioned to possibly look into the San Diego market again if things aren’t so peachy in L.A. People want to forgive, and that’s easiest when those at fault vacate the premises. He’ll be richly rewarded if he does so, and we all know what drives Spanos.

The post Why I’ll probably root for the Los Angeles Chargers – Eventually appeared first on Cover32.

#_uuid:4d5c04f3-8cf0-3eda-b4a2-8de1c2a531dc #_lmsid:a0Vd000000DIJnLEAX #_author:Cover32 Staff #_revsp:cover32_362