#i have dozens of them in my country too. 'the president is the new moses' oh go fuck yourself pls

[linusbenjamin]

Person of Interest | 3.03 'Lady Killer'

[multipleservicelisting]

Millions Flock to Telegram and Signal as Fears Grow Over Big Tech

Neeraj Agrawal, a spokesman for a cryptocurrency think tank, has typically used the encrypted messaging app Signal to chat with privacy-minded colleagues and peers. So he was surprised on Monday when the app alerted him to two new users: Mom and Dad.

“Signal still had a subversive shine to it,” said Mr. Agrawal, 32. “Now my parents are on it.”

On Telegram, another encrypted messaging app, Gavin McInnes, founder of the far-right Proud Boys group, had just announced his return. “Man, I haven’t posted here in a while,” he wrote on Sunday. “I’ll be posting regularly.”

And on Twitter, Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur, also weighed in last week with a two-word endorsement: “Use Signal.”

Over the past week, tens of millions of people have downloaded Signal and Telegram, making them the two hottest apps in the world. Signal allows messages to be sent with “end-to-end encryption,” meaning no one but the sender and receiver can read its contents. Telegram offers some encrypted messaging options, but is largely popular for its group-based chat rooms where people can discuss a variety of subjects.

Their sudden jump in popularity was spurred by a series of events last week that stoked growing anxiety over some of the big tech companies and their communication apps, like WhatsApp, which Facebook owns. Tech companies including Facebook and Twitter removed thousands of far-right accounts — including President Trump’s — after the storming of the Capitol. Amazon, Apple and Google also cut off support for Parler, a social network popular with Mr. Trump’s fans. In response, conservatives sought out new apps where they could communicate.

At the same time, privacy worries rose over WhatsApp, which last week reminded users in a pop-up notification that it shares some of their data with its parent company. The notification set off a wave of anxiety, fueled by viral chain messages that falsely claimed that Facebook could read WhatsApp messages.

The result was a mass migration that, if it lasts, could weaken the power of Facebook and other big tech companies. On Tuesday, Telegram said it added more than 25 million users over the previous three days, pushing it to over 500 million users. Signal added nearly 1.3 million users on Monday alone, after averaging just 50,000 downloads a day last year, according to estimates from Apptopia, an app-data firm.

“We’ve had surges of downloads before,” said Pavel Durov, Telegram’s chief executive, in a message on the app on Tuesday. “But this time is different.”

Carl Woog, a spokesman for WhatsApp, said that users’ privacy settings had not changed and that rumors about what data is shared were largely unfounded.

“What’s not changing is that private messages to friends and family, including group chats, will be protected by end-to-end encryption so that we cannot see them,” he said.

The rise of Telegram and Signal could inflame the debate over encryption, which helps protect the privacy of people’s digital communications but can stymie the authorities in crime investigations because conversations are hidden.

Any move to the apps by far-right groups in particular has worried U.S. authorities, some of whom are trying to track the planning for what may become violent rallies on or ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. next week.

“The proliferation of the encrypted platforms, where law enforcement can’t even monitor the rhetoric, does allow groups that have an ill intent to plan behind the curtain,” said Louis Grever, head of the Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies.

Capitol Riot Fallout

Updated 

Jan. 13, 2021, 9:36 p.m. ET

Telegram has been particularly popular for those on the far right because it mimics social media. So after Facebook and Twitter limited Mr. Trump on their services last week and other companies began pulling their support from Parler, far-right groups on Parler and other fringe social networks posted links to new Telegram channels and urged people to join them there.

In the four hours after Parler went offline on Monday, one Proud Boys group on Telegram gained over 4,000 new followers.

“Don’t trust Big tech,” read a message on one Proud Boys group on Parler. “We will need to find safer spaces.”

On Signal, a Florida-based militia group said on Monday that it was organizing its chats in small, city-by-city groups limited to a few dozen people each, according to messages seen by The New York Times. They warned one another not to let in anyone they did not personally know, to avoid law enforcement officials spying on their chats.

The flood of users to Telegram, which is based in Dubai, and Signal, which is based in Silicon Valley, goes far beyond just the American far right. Mr. Durov said that 94 percent of Telegram’s 25 million new users came from Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa.

Most of Signal’s new user adoption is coming from outside the United States. As of Wednesday, the company said it was the No. 1 app in 70 countries on iOS devices and in 45 countries on Android devices, with India being one of the biggest areas of new user growth. For both Signal and Telegram, new installations came from users in Indonesia, Mexico, Brazil and dozens of other countries, data from Apptopia shows.

Fears over WhatsApp’s privacy policies have driven Telegram and Signal’s popularity. While there was no meaningful change to how WhatsApp handles users’ data, people immediately interpreted the app’s privacy notification last week to mean that it was infiltrating all kinds of personal information — like personal chat logs and voice calls — and sharing that data with businesses.

WhatsApp quickly said people were mistaken and that it could not see anything inside of encrypted chats and calls. But it was too late.

“The whole world now seems to understand that Facebook is not building apps for them, Facebook is building apps for their data,” said Moxie Marlinspike, the founder and chief executive of Signal. “It took this one small catalyst to push everyone over the edge of making a change.”

The fervor has been such that on Tuesday, Moses Tsali, a Los Angeles rapper, released a music video for his song, “Hit Me On Signal.” And Mr. Musk’s endorsement of Signal last week sent publicly traded shares of Signal Advance Inc., a small medical device maker, soaring from a roughly $50 million market value to more than $3 billion. (The company has no relation to the messaging app.)

Some world leaders have also urged people to join them on the apps. On Sunday, the Twitter account of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico talked about his new group on Telegram. By Wednesday, it had nearly 100,000 members.

Eli Sapir, Apptopia’s chief executive, said that while people’s concerns over Facebook’s data collection were fair, WhatsApp actually uses more secure encryption than Telegram. “It’s like going from something high in sugar to corn syrup,” he said, adding that Signal was the most secure of the three.

Meyi Alabi, 18, a student in Ibadan, Nigeria, said she was surprised this week when her mother invited her to join Signal. Her mother had downloaded the app upon urging from a friend worried about WhatsApp.

“I was in shock because she got it before me,” she said. “We usually tell our parents about the new apps. Now all of a sudden we’re the ones getting informed.”

Mr. Agrawal, the cryptocurrency worker, said his parents had long been active in several WhatsApp group chats with college friends and relatives back in India. He said they told him they joined Signal to follow many of those chats that were moving there, because some of the participants were worried about WhatsApp’s new policy.

He said he knew the dangers of the WhatsApp policy were overstated but that much of the public doesn’t understand how their data is being handled.

“They hear those key things — data sharing, Facebook, privacy,” Mr. Agrawal said, “and that’s enough for them to say, I got to get off this.”

from Multiple Service Listing https://ift.tt/3sqDMtB

[thisdaynews]

Even if Roe is upheld, abortion opponents are winning

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/even-if-roe-is-upheld-abortion-opponents-are-winning/

Even if Roe is upheld, abortion opponents are winning

Demonstrators gather during a protest vigil outside of the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Carol Whitehill Moses Center in January. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images

health care

A drip, drip, drip of state restrictions has made abortion harder to obtain.

Abortion is still legal in the United States, but for women in vast swaths of the country it’s a right in name only.

Six states are down to only one abortion clinic; by the end of this week, Missouri could have zero. Some women seeking abortions have to travel long distances, and face mandatory waiting periods or examinations. On top of that, a new wave of restrictive laws, or outright bans, is rippling across GOP-led states like Alabama and Georgia.

Story Continued Below

Both sides of the abortion battle are focused on the future ofRoe v. Wade,but opponents have already won the ground game over the past decade, chipping away at abortion access.

The Supreme Court’s new conservative majority, about to wrap up its first term, has not yet taken up a case challengingRoe.Just this week it declined to reinstate an Indiana law, signed by Mike Pence when he was governor, that would have banned abortion on the basis of gender, race or fetal disability. But that’s no guarantee the court won’t take another look at the landmark 1973 abortion rights ruling.

But even without the high court, GOP-backed laws have added restrictions and obstacles, whittling away access. Since the start of the Trump administration, hostility to abortion in general and Planned Parenthood in particular has only intensified in statehouses around the country.

“We celebrate freedom in America. But I believe that my choice ends when another life begins,” Louisiana state Rep. Valarie Hodges said just before a fetal “heartbeat” abortion bill passed there.

Years of piecemeal state laws have left their mark. Mandatory waiting periods, travel, missed work and lost wages all make getting an abortion more expensive and more difficult, particularly for low-income women. Doctors and clinic staff have to face protesters, threats, proliferating regulations and draining legal challenges; clinics have closed. In remote parts of the midwest and south, women may have to travel more than 300 miles to end a pregnancy.

“This is a moment of seeing how all of these laws fly in the face of medicine and science and go against what we in the medical profession know, which is that any restriction on medical care by politicians will endanger people’s health,” Planned Parenthood President Leana Wen, a physician herself, said in an interview.

It’s intensified of late. Republicans in Alabama and other states have raced to enact laws that would almost completely ban abortion, sometimes without exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape or incest. Eight states have enacted laws which, if allowed to go into effect, would ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat can be detected, as early as the sixth week of pregnancy, when many women don’t even know they are pregnant. (Missouri’s variant is eight weeks.) Alabama has gone even further, granting “personhood” and legal rights from conception.

Those laws may eventually reach the Supreme Court and testRoe,the 1973 decision that recognized women’s right to abortion. But those statutes aren’t what’s crimping access nationwide right now. That’s happened through a drip, drip, drip of lower-profile efforts that have created obstacles for pregnant women and led to a dwindling supply of doctors trained and willing to perform abortions.

Many of those laws were promoted as attempts to make abortion safer — though courts often disagreed and threw them out as unconstitutional barriers. Now, abortion opponents are openly talking about ending the practice altogether.

“The strategy used to be death by a thousand cuts,” said Colleen McNicholas, a physician based in St. Louis who also provides abortions in Kansas and Oklahoma. “They’re no longer pretending things are to promote the health and well-being of women, which is what we used to hear all the time. Now they’re being very bold and upfront.”

“It doesn’t change the fact that for many Americans, particularly for women in the middle [of the country] and the South, abortion is inaccessible,” she added.

Data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports abortion rights, shows that 788 clinics in the U.S. provided abortion services in 2014 — a drop of 51 clinics over three years. Since 2013about 20 clinics have closed just in Texas.

Further, one in five women would have to travel at least 43 miles to get to a clinic, according to a Guttmacher analysis from October 2017. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming, at least half of the women between 15 and 44 years old lived more than 90 miles from a clinic.

Six states — Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia — have only one clinic left that performs abortions, according to a recent analysis from Planned Parenthood and Guttmacher. Lawmakers in many of those states have pursued limits in when abortion can be allowed — such as fetal heartbeat laws or 15-week bans, though the laws have been blocked in court. Four of those states have also passed so-called trigger laws that would ban abortion immediately should the Supreme Court overturnRoe.

In Missouri, the sole clinic, which is in St. Louis, could close this week. On the surface, it’s a dispute with the state health department over licensing, safety and regulation, but the showdown comes just days after state lawmakers passed a ban on abortion after eight weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

“States have been marching down this path for a number of years. The restrictions that have passed previously have set the stage for the bans this year,” said Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher’s senior state issues manager. “It’s counseling, it’s waiting periods, it’s abortion coverage in your health plan. It’s limits on abortion providers, such as unnecessary clinic regulations.”

“Missouri is the first and other states could be next,” Planned Parenthood’s Wen said on a recent call with reporters.

The ramifications of the anti-abortion movement’s sustained assault against Planned Parenthood are perhaps no clearer than in Texas, where lawmakers have passed dozens of restrictive laws, including mandatory ultrasounds, waiting periods and state funding restrictions.

The Supreme Court overturned another set of Texas restrictions in 2016 — but not before about 20 clinics shut down, many of which were never able to reopen. Providers retired, staff found other jobs and clinics had to start from scratch to get licensed and staff up. “All of those things take time and a significant amount of money,” said Kari White, an associate professor in Health Care Organization and Policy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and an investigator with the Texas Policy Evaluation Project.

Even though Texas permits abortions until 20 weeks — itself a cut-off point that conflicts withRoe v. Wade, although it hasn’t yet come to the Supreme Court — abortion access has sharply declined. That scenario is likely to play out in other conservative states, even if they don’t go as far as Georgia or Alabama.

More than half of Texas’ 41 abortion clinics closed or stopped performing abortions after the state passed legislation, TX HB2 (132), in 2013 that bundled several onerous restrictions, according to research from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project. The average distance a woman had to travel one way for an abortion jumped to 35 miles from 15 miles. In rural parts of the state, drives of 100 miles or more to access care are not uncommon, according to the group.

The evaluation project found that while the number of abortions overall declined after the Texas law went into effect, the number of second-trimester abortions rose as women were forced to wait and travel longer distances. Currently only about 22 abortion providers, mostly in urban areas, are operating in Texas, a state with roughly 6.3 million women of reproductive age.

Low-income women are disproportionately affected by abortion restrictions, said Kamyon Conner, executive director of the Texas Equal Access Fund, which helps women who can’t afford an abortion, which costs between $500 and $10,000 dollars depending on the point in pregnancy. The nonprofit was part of a group that challenged dozens of Texas abortion restrictions in court.

Calls to the group’s hotline have tripled over the past few years to 6,000 in 2018, but it only funded about 1,000 women last year, she said. Some of those women are undocumented immigrants, some are incarcerated and others have children but cannot afford to raise more.

Other costs mount — both in money and time, Conner said. Because Texas has a 24-hour waiting period between an initial consult and the abortion, women miss work and may have to pay for hotel rooms.

“There are fewer clinics to provide the services,” said Conner. “The few clinics that are left are in very high demand.”

Telemedicine could plug some gaps in care for women seeking abortion medication, instead of a surgical abortion. But there too access varies widely by geography. Some states ban telemedicine-facilitated abortions. Elsewhere, providers are using video-chat technology to dispense the medication. Seventeen states require licensed abortion providers to be physically present when administering abortion medication, which effectively is a ban on telemedicine, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Abortion medication is approved for use up to ten weeks into pregnancy, but under current FDA rules can only be dispensed at certain medical facilities, including abortion clinics.

Alternatives are being tested. In one FDA-reviewed study, clinicians can mail abortion medication directly to patients after a video chat. Study participants can go to any clinic for their screening and ultrasound, send the results to a participating abortion provider, and then video chat with that provider. If appropriate, the provider can decide to dispense the medication to the patient’s address, and the patient can take it at home.

Under this system, women don’t have to travel several hours just to pick up the abortion pills, Erica Chong, director of Gynuity Health Projects, told POLITICO. The Gynuity study has enrolled about 360 people across eight states since 2016; it builds on recent research concluding that telemedicine-facilitated medical abortions are just as safe for patients as the ones administered in-person.

Because it’s been reviewed by the FDA, the Gynuity trial is exempt from the dispensation limitation. The study operates in Maine, New York, New Mexico, Hawaii, Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Georgia. Gynuity’s trial in Georgia began a few weeks ago, shortly before the state passed its “fetal heartbeat” law.

“With a lot of these bans, there’s going to be a long legal battle,” Chong said, explaining that she didn’t expect the new Georgia law, which bans abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected at about six weeks, to affect the study in that state just yet. But she noted that the recent spate of early abortion bans have alarmed patients, who are unsure whether their appointments are still legal.

Gynuity’s goal is to convince the FDA that dispensing abortion medication directly to women’s homes, or even to retail pharmacies, is safe and effective, and that restrictions on its dispensation should be eased, Chong said.

Outside the Gynuity trial, some providers across the country let patients drive to the facility closest to them and video chat a clinician located at another site. Planned Parenthood, for instance, lets patients in 14 states virtually consult with clinicians based elsewhere. Yet in many cases, the clinician must watch the patient ingest the pill on screen to comply with federal restrictions limiting where the medication can be dispensed. Women might still have to travel across state lines to access these services — and many don’t even realize these options exist.

“How’s a woman in Alabama going to know to go to a Georgia clinic to find services?” Chong said.

Read More

[alfiehsmith]

On Harvey Weinstein, the Sexual Harassment Uprising, and Social Mutation

According to the comic series, “X-Men”, mutants aren’t freaks of nature or random malfunctions in genetic replication; rather, they are an evolutionary leap forward. The process of evolution normally takes millions and millions of generations, but mutants are humans whose genetic structure has already reached that point. The underlying implication here is that humans will eventually evolve into creatures possessing those abilities.

Throughout human history, social evolution has witnessed ‘mutations’, where social evolution is not gradual, but sudden and radical. The Bible hints at one such episode with Moses and the Pharaoh. Human history has recorded such incidents as well. These usually occur during the rise of an empire (such as the Mongols in the mid-Middle Ages, who curtailed Russian development for 200 years) or at the collapse of an empire (such as the fall of Rome in the 6th century CE, when Western Europe fell to the Barbarians). In cases like these, social evolution has ‘mutated’, becoming something so radically different from what it was that the new model is hardly recognised, and even feared and hated, by the old.

In the last 200 or so years, we’ve seen several instances of social mutation (as opposed to social evolution): the criminalisation of slavery, where it was decided that humans who weren’t white are still human and are therefore entitled to certain inalienable human rights; the abolishment of slavery in the US, where a country so polarised on the notion of human servitude went to war with itself, the result being the decision that blacks in America were people, not property; the women’s suffrage movement, where it was decided that women are just as intellectually and socially capable as men, and therefore should be allowed to vote; and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, when the world realised that people who weren’t white, heterosexual, and/or male were just as important and just as valued as everyone else, and were therefore entitled to all the rights and privileges afforded all human beings. These are all cases of social and societal ‘mutation’, where society has made a tremendous - and usually, very violent - leap forward.

And now we come to the latest point to witness a social mutation. Over the last 24 months, dozens of high-profile men have been accused of sexual inappropriateness, sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and even rape. Many of them have been proven true, if not through mounting evidence than through their own admission of guilt. This has thrown the celebrity world into a tailspin. As the drumhead rolls on, more and more men who thought themselves untouchable are learning exactly what ‘touchable’ means. Heads are rolling - a good thing, too - but there is a problem.

This social mutation will be, in my opinion, the most challenging one ever faced by the human race. It will be far more challenging than the civil rights movement, the emancipation of women, or even the American Civil War.

The problem is that there are several obstacles standing in the way. The first one is the same one for any attempt at social change: the people who currently enjoy power and are vehemently opposed to change because it means the end of their reign. Since before Christ, white males have enjoyed the luxury of having a monopoly on power, and over the last 2 000+ years, and vindictively and bitterly watched the erosion of that power. That doesn’t mean they didn’t try every trick in the book to keep that from happening. Today, the power the white, wealthy male has is a rancid skeleton of the mighty beast it once was, but they’re damned well going to defend that skeleton with gnashed teeth til the day they die. These days, they have to go about it in sneakier ways: tax havens, lobbying politicians, and even gerrymandering (which is illegal, but they do it anyway).

This obstacle, as I said, is common to any social change. What is not common is the resistance to change not just by the oppressors, but by the oppressed. Despite this aggressive - and righteous, I might add - attack on the objectification of women, it would be naïve to think there aren’t women out there who use sex to get what they want. They aren’t the majority; wouldn’t even say they compose half the female population. But there are enough to make a case for themselves. Those women use it to get deals and breaks on things, for career advancement, and so on. There are, undoubtedly, even women who use the concept of female objectification as their sole means of self-sustenance. For them, the abolition of the objectification of women would be disastrous; the one Trump card they have in life (see what I did there?) can no longer be played. There are also women who engage in re-victimising other women. They argue that a woman who was raped played a contributing part to the act because she wore clothes which were too revealing, flirted or even “led him on”, or (as people like the current Vice-President would have you believe) was just out hanging out with guys. So the victims are shut down not from misogynistic men, but misogynistic women (which, apparently, is a thing). I’ll never forget one woman going on record as saying she’d “rather be grabbed by the pussy than governed by one.”

This is different from other moments of social mutation. Black men and women didn’t come forward and say they’d love to remain as slaves. Fairly certain the LGBT+ community didn’t fight against the idea of tolerance and acceptance.

Sadly, these two obstacles are only part of the problem, although they are front-and-center on the stage. The third - and most potent - obstacle comes from behind the curtain. It comes from the underlying paradigm behind these two other obstacles: sexual harassment isn’t all that bad.

This notion, ingrained into the minds of men and women for countless generations, across countless cultures and religions, and manifested in countless actions and inactions, is by far the most daunting opponent to this social mutation. So entrenched into our society and our psyche is this attitude that it may very well derail the movement currently underway. When the debate about the slave trade was hot, no one used, as a defense of the practice, the argument that buying and selling blacks so that they could spend their entire lives performing low-skill, repetitive, back-breaking labour for no compensation at all wasn’t all that bad. They argued it would be bad for trade, for the economy, for the society as a whole, but never for the blacks. The same goes for the LGBT+ community, for women, for Natives, and so on. Members of society - women as well as men - are finding it difficult to change their mindset because the actual impact sexual harassment has, has not fully taken form in their minds.

So why is it not supposedly all that bad? There are so many arguments - far too many - to dismiss it. The first one is taught to us before we can walk. For generations, women and men have been raised with the notion of men being providers and hunters. Man strong. Man fight. Man make money for family. Man take care of woman. Concurrently, women are taught to look for a man who can do these things, and to allow him to do them. (As a small example, ask as many of your female friends if they have ever asked a man out on a date. The responses might surprise you.) And this is okay, we’re taught. A man should protect his woman. (Notice the possessive tone of that last sentence?) Fight to obtain her, and jealously guard her against other men who would want her for their own. A man who is either unable or unwilling to pursue the object of his affection is labeled by any number of names, none of which are compliments. “So what if I was a little too aggressive? That’s how I flirt!” “Women like men who come on strong.” So on, and so on. (And, as stated earlier, there are lots of women who do.)

The second argument stems from the first: it’s just flirting. Where’s the line between flirting and sexual inappropriateness? Is there such a line, meaning can it be universally agreed that everything up to point ‘x’ is flirting, and everything beyond is harassment? We may not agree on the answer to that, but we can agree that there are too many conflicting responses to establish a cut-off point. This grey area is where most of the men accused of sexual harassment get into trouble. Some, like Weinstein, went well beyond any reasonable measure of appropriate contact, but most of the cases I’ve heard so far have been rationalised by the idea the assailant didn’t honestly think what he was doing was wrong. (Remember Trump‘s “locker room talk” ‘apology’?)

The third is the look-but-don’t-touch attitude, the idea that, as long as a man doesn’t actually touch a woman, he’s safe. Catcalling, leering, etc. is fine because there’s no physical harm to the woman. It’s especially alright if she doesn’t even know it’s happening. American society is wrestling with its conscience over the premise that words are just words. As long as we maintain that maxim, that what we say or how we act is fine as long as the recipient of those words or actions is unaware, then the socio-sexual revolution we’re looking for won’t ever get off the ground.

These arguments, plus many more, all lead to the conclusion that we don’t need to stop objectifying and sexualising women because objectifying and sexualising women isn’t that big a deal. The apathy against this mutation, this revolution, is far more entrenched, far more widespread, and - worst of all - far more easily justifiable in the minds of the perpetrators or would-be perpetrators because they don’t see it as a big enough problem to warrant fundamental change. “It’s not like we’re chaining women nude and forcing them to have sex.”

If any progress is to be made, this paradigm needs to be ripped up by the root.

[jameypants1-blog]

Reading Makes A Country Great MY PET GOAT Emergency 911 The Terror War begins Ignorance is Bliss stand Proud and United rally around the Flag cross your heart swear to Sacrifice thank the least among you for their military home invasion mass murder Service keeping Authority placated rock the Vote respect the Law and State's Finest army of police who serve and protect them, Respect the Honor and Authority of the blind justice arbitrated by ritual black robed Judges and the prejudiced juries of peers any skilled Liar can persuade to Verdict The educated are educated to Accept The Free are not Brave enough to Resist Swear to tell the Truth so help you God is an Obscenity and offensive to a populace bursting with the enlightenment of Science, the premise that Flesh is the Origin of Species and Intelligence a side effect of gas Love thy Leader Hate thy neighbor Kill and chain thy neighbor Earn your Keep Pay your Taxes Death is certain It is not the size of the horn but how it's used that betrays best gets praised for elite public service Performance How fortunate it is for leaders that men do not think, Hitler intimated, forthcoming as any candidate for Office who smiles kissing maggot babies and shaking fools hands telling each in line thanks for their support couldn't do this without them Hell hides behind details and simpering political correctness, kind words expressing best intentions the enemies of which are branded crazy and evil and dealt with. How fortunate men do not think. Lest leaders and the Hell they maintain be naked by Light of the Truth. You can handle the Truth. You can be brave and free. It's these so called elite who can't. Never ask what they can do for you or you for them. Don't give up your food stamps just yet they trade for drugs just don't Serve them, Loyalty to them is so universal I am ignored and insulted. In Contempt. That's the price of Love. Let's change that. Perception is reality is their constant refrain. It is not. Reality is this fraction of a single percent of the population is a basket of deplorables in perpetual conspiracy to violate and ruin every human being on Earth. It's shocking and horrific but people can handle the Truth. Here is Wisdom: Had a customer tonight guy in his sixties cropped back hair going gray one of those Freddy Mercury mustaches adopted by law enforcement to remind everyone they're tops cocksuckers not pigs bc pigs don't have mustaches. he was wearing a black tshirt and jeans, never seen him before, recognize most of the customers, we have the same regulars rotating through for the most part. He came in right after I did, like my second grill order after clocking in. Gave me the stinkeye, and instead of going to sit in the dining room until his order was called he stayed in the lobby, got behind the Pepsi ketchup fridge by register, from the nose up visible over the fridgetop. I was on second flip before I noticed him again, glaring at me still. Eye contact, rage in his eyes. Made his burgers to perfection, ignoring him but for sidelong peeks to see if he still there; he was still there looking pissed off. I strongly suspect him to have been involved with lie enforcement, that or ive got one of those faces brings out the hate in frustrated Dom bondage specialists. kept my face expressionless, sent the burgers out and he left not long after. Felt the loathing in the air leave with him. He hates me for my freedom, like to put me in cuffs and bugger me into some Respect for his Authority lavished from God unto Moses unto the Chosen People, the Elite, who gifted us all with the world's two biggest religions Islam and Christianity to refer to in the establishent of State, Islamic States still widely fundamentalist in extrapolations and ammendments to the fundamentals Law, even today stones striking pleading girls in the face until the glistening bone pulp shows, eyeball popped out shattered socket debt paid for her adultry of being raped by a man she wasn't married to, lacivious temptress women not tolerated, kept virtuous by Ordained killers sanctimonious witless butchers in judicious black robes black masks, love and peace delegates, spread the beautiful religion into Eastern Europe and jerusalm, effective Evangelical technique of the option to submit you are the slave of Allah, either submit or get your head looped off. Beautiful religion. The castles of Europe erected to fortify against the sacred Islamic state conquering all of Elite Europe, price of doing Business, business of giving people the business, keep them stoneage and in check until final act, today thousands of Muslim migrants fleeing Syria region where isis, the royal president, Russia and the United States are mass murdering the population in alternating sweeps all claiming success against the terrorists who are any one of the four mass destroyers depending on which regions fake news one watches, the cities in ruins, the people still left sparse and debilitated, the dregs, hundreds of thousands more turning sections of Germany France great Britain etc into ghettos, young girls being raped in public parks, a seven yo girl in France gang raped in Germany lone German teens stalked in the streets by packs of Muslim youth and beaten half to death teens boasting they will take multiple wives across region have dozens of children each and breed out the natives, conquer Europe with their cocks now that the dear leaders of the region had welcomed them in. Beautiful religion. on their knees five times a day to take a facefull of dirt groveling praises toward the black cube in Mecca which Abraham built and shat inside marking the turf, holy kabba, over ten feet tall and ten feet wide the wonder of the Islamic world which one day all of Islamic Europe shall pilgrimage to link arms and dance ring around the cubicle singing and shouting trampling each other then setting off across hard desert terrain, many every haj die along the route hail Allah that the prophet Mahomet, may he rest in stink took wandering the sand ocean from sand dune to sand valley to sand mount where pilgrims collapse into the sand and commune with Allah catching spiderwebs of shade from the spray of spindly limbed trees rising several feet high here and there, terrain as beautiful as Islam itself and straight to Judgement for those sun dried brain fried dead before completing the last leg of the blessed trudge to the sacrificial slaughter barns where depending on what slaves of Allah can afford to slice the throat of a variety of animals await blood ritual, goats camels sheep sand chickens and coming soon pigs once the half breed desert princes of Frankfurt introuce fat juicy pork weenies into the Islamic diet, blonde haired blue eyed pink bellied pigs recognized to be far too majestic to be interbred with Jews, fine swine imported from outside the East where the scruffy big snout kosher breed forages in feral packs, hear them oinking Hebrew and Yiddish gibberish rooting in alley trash like dogs, dirtiest animals in all of creation, howling and squealing together during crawl in place borg prayers tuned in to Abraham's outhouse ever amid ring around the square dancing, stumbling, trampled underfoot weaklings hoe down haj stop in the stadium built around the squat edifice that thousands may sit and cheer rendering inaudible the tinny prayers from around the globe every couple hours, dogs howling offended every prayer, kick the snarling curs at risk of losing toes and sandles get tangled up in black man dress and fall down surrounded by curly tailed rabbi and black dogs foaming at the mouth eyes rolling from echoes of lalalalalalalala eeeeeek eeeeeeek eeeeeeek barnyardesque broadcasts from loud speakers leading the haj hails between free time to marry and divorce multiple times a day and trade goats for girls to marry and divorce trade back for chickens or a dozen eggs if she's missing ears tip of her nose or digits from administering divine law rehabilitation mutilations, sometimes new divorcees only fetch a bucket of fertile shit, hobbled hunchback prolapsed asshole tounge sliced into fork for her hissing disobedience to swallow the donkey load of bountiful seed diligently fed her everyday in lieu of lunch meanwhile back at the last stop of holy haj long walk baby animals and ton tall spitting camels shriek and wail, hawk lunger loads of camel snot pink with slashed throat blood spew onto the walls, slick spots on the straw, bled out into tubs and running down beards drank in hot clotted toasts to Allah who the sacrificed animals were stacked like cordwood into earthen pits and burned to appease blessings to all and to all a good time at the hotel after parties where newly married couples meet, consumate, get divorced and the just single ladies reintroduced to next end of haj celebratent to be smitten and fallen in love until the boredom of domestic life after orgasm left him dissatisfied with this woman who used to be useful but went back to the singles mixer sore and cooperative awaiting true love perhaps next bus in full of blood spattered fresh inducties into the walkabout God's country for days purification event everyone owed it themselves to do at least once a lifetime to truly get the most out of Islam the impending new religion of the well served everywhere from Africa to Piccadilly square, to be renamed Mahomet Kaba King Boulevard erected in the center of the square a scale replica of the Kaba with Mahomet himself weilding scrimtar of faith from head to toe dressed in black mounted upon his goat horse chimera Pegasus thingy reared up like a reindeer representing the flight taken to heaven to lead the prayer circle in heaven where all had deferred to him to lead the prayer circle of Prophets in Allah's den, Jesus fresh as the Daisy he'd been since the day he'd cleverly avoided crucifixion by Jerry curling his big black bushy beard and sneaking out of town on his gf's ass while another fellow, whose beard was styled similarly to his and who had assembled a small crowd outside town to demonstrate a new stain removal product for even the toughest stains like days caked Hersey splats from loincloths see comes right out and with the herbal infused formula eliminates some of the stench of urine baked in since pissing it in a wine induced stupor earlier that afternoon as jews were known to do between assuming their posts begging for pennies outside the bank, that guy had looked and sounded like the upstart they were looking for and after his miracle product failed to impress the honorable pontus Pilate with any supernatural stain removal properties except when applied to soiled underpants, a demonstration he didn't need to see twice since his underpants indeed came out clean the first attempt, hardly a miracle but in a good mood since his ass felt and smelled so fresh after the man who kept persisting I am not the Jew you were looking for I'm just an alchemist with a revolutionary new product for removing stains the secret formula is just leavening soda and grapeseed pumice mixed with water and lavender leaves ofc it's not a miracle I am not the king of the universe I've never even met the guy no one does but he doesn't travel alone with a bucket of my new secret formula removing shit stains from underwear, he's a stand up magician or something, heard there's strippers too, Im just a humble asshole freshener your honor and feeling magnanimous floral fragrance of his anus clinging to the finger he scratched along his craft to sniff while contemplating opens the honorable Pilate said let's let these Jews outside demanding their picked pockets wallets and jewelery back stolen by the whores and at least a dozen confidence men known to be traveling with this wanted man who said fuck the centurions fuck the flag fuck hannaka fuck Elysian fields fuck the Senate fuck caesaer fuck Rome fuck caiphus fuck the Torah fuck yo mama and fuck all of you cringing sex slave submissives bending over and getting fucked everyday to earn wheat penny Caesars that aren't worth a tin shit except for your belief in Caesar says, Caesar says hail Caesar I say fuck Caesar render unto casear these piles of Caesars ugly cunt lips embossed nickles and dimes and shove em up Caesars ass let him go pawn these pieces of shit off on some other idiots bc we're Jews brothers and sisters and Jews don't need no stinking sick economy sicker fools who'd diminish themselves by going along with this madness, Caesar is a paper god you drunks this money charade is just a game and your the losers for playing so fuck him fuck Rome and fuck all these fake ass God's and curly tailed shit eating elites got us all playing along counting stacks of worthless legal tender whoopty Doo what caesar says and fuck his court of whimsy and don't bend over only ever acquire what he gives you and dont obey every stupid lie he tells you is the law, tell him to take this Nation of lies and the shiney lie sanctioned house chips he rode in on and shove it up his ass bc if you don't you'll all be spending your lives sucking Satan's cock doing as Satan says and get paid in Satan tokens worth your life loyalty and labors and in return a flag to admire and fight for a song of the murder glory of this shithole to cross your hearts and sing that all who hear it know how unified and proud you are and you'll be paid to with every Betrayal his crown can afford to give you now that you've given him lives to spend. Have a free flag coffin shroud a medal of Honor for service unto Casear human sacrife pin and a bedpan full of shiney Benjamin's to spend at super Caesars super savers everywhere Rome is maurading, hail Caesar full of grace give you nothing give him everything and that sumbitch drugged the watered down wine him and his whores and degenerates robbed us and fuck yes that's him I recognize the beard kill him set Barbarossa free and so despite insisting he was not their King nor a crook the wrong man was crucified that day and Jesus told this straight to Mahomet so you know it's true bc Mahomet word is gold then Jesus said I am the slave of Allah and Mo he's instructed me to let his biggest ho Mo lead the ass in the air prayers from now on bc I'm always broke have never tipped a red Satan cent to tithe and insist that Allah sound a dry heave so does every single thing you said Mo so you're deffo the man to lead prayer to that bullshitters bullshit, guess it keep you busy long enough not to butcher or mutilate anyone for five minutes at least. Raise your Voice be offended by this beastial religion we're diminished under by these sneering aristocrats who practice it, they're the crew can't handle the Truth. Lies are all they got. Be eloquent. Knowing and not choosing a side is just a mess. I bring you. Pallid incompotence hanging from a mic stand. Prime example of why there's no having it both ways. Fuck it 🌊 https://g.co/kgs/ACnHqS

[itsnelkabelka]

Speech: Queen's Birthday Party 2017 in Singapore

Ms Indranee Rajah, Senior Minister of State for Law and Finance, Members of Parliament Mr Ang Wei Neng and Ms Cheryl Chan, Chief of Army Maj Gen Melvyn Ong, distinguished guests, your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen on behalf of my wife, Anne, and myself it is my honour and pleasure to welcome you all to Eden Hall this evening to celebrate the 91th birthday of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

This year is The Queen’s Sapphire Jubilee, that is 65 years since she acceded to the throne to be become our Head of State and Head of the Commonwealth. And even in her 92nd year, she continues to fulfil a schedule that would exhaust many people years younger than her a reflection of her steadfast commitment to the people of the United Kingdom and of the Commonwealth.

On behalf of the British community here in Singapore, I want to express our admiration and gratitude to Her Majesty and to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who celebrated his 96th birthday last week and we wish him a speedy recovery.

In challenging times such as our country has experienced recently with the terrorist attacks in London and Manchester and the dreadful fire last week in west London there is no doubt that the British people find comfort and reassurance in the enduring strength and stability of our institutions, which The Royal Family embodies. And The Royal Family’s particular attachment to Singapore has been among the highlights in our bilateral relationship over the last 12 months.

In November last year, HRH The Princess Royal visited Singapore for the conference of the Royal Agricultural Society of the Commonwealth meeting several Ministers and supporting two charities, the Mission for Seafarers and Riding for the Disabled.

Earlier this month, HRH Prince Harry helped dispel some of the stigma that still surrounds people living with HIV/AIDS and with mental health issues when he met some remarkable young Singaporeans, committed volunteers and their supporters here at Eden Hall and he was delighted to take part in an iftar at Jamiyah’s Children’s home in Geylang.

And just last week, HRH The Duke of York represented The Queen at the Commonwealth Science Conference. While in Singapore he called on President Tan and ESM Goh Chok Tong, met young Singaporean entrepreneurs, and hosted the first Singapore edition of his highly successful Pitch@Palace initiative.

Of course the last 12 months has seen major changes in the United Kingdom. It is almost a year to the day since the people of Britain decided that we should leave the European Union and forge a different path for our country. No one is pretending that the negotiations on which we are now embarked will be easy there will be ups and downs along the way but our shared values, our shared commitment to free trade and tackling global economic and security challenges our shared belief in the rules-based international system make me confident that although the nature of our relationship with Europe will change, close cooperation with our neighbours will certainly continue.

And the United Kingdom’s engagement with East Asia, and with Singapore in particular, will continue to strengthen too. Visits from the Chief of the Defence Staff and the First Sea Lord have underlined the close relationship between our armed forces. Our new British Defence Staff Asia Pacific has opened in Singapore. Our exchanges on cyber-security are deepening and our economic relationship continues to grow. Dyson opened a fantastic new Research and Development Centre here in March. GIC made a huge investment in student accommodation in the UK. Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang and International Trade Secretary Liam Fox signed a revised Economic and Business Partnership in February. The Scottish Secretary, David Mundell, promoted great Scottish food and beverages.

Deputy Prime Minister Tharman was in London in January and returns this month And in May Senior Minister of State Sim Ann took part in the meeting of Commonwealth Trade Ministers. And on almost a weekly basis, officials are travelling in one direction or the other as the network of cooperation thickens.

In science and research, Singapore has probably more collaborations with researchers in the UK than with any other country. Our first Science and Innovation Strategic Dialogue in January identified new areas for cooperation. The UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser has come to Singapore twice in the last year and in the last two weeks we have seen dozens of the UK’s top scientists here for the Commonwealth Science Conference and global gatherings of life scientists.

But this evening, we have chosen to celebrate great British design. You can hardly have missed the example of great industrial design from JCB over there. The cars on display from Jaguar Landrover are the last word in elegance and engineering. And around the house you will see examples of great British architectural design and an amazing virtual reality experience from Blippar in our Imagination Room. These reflect our uncanny ability to blend technology with creativity to make products that are useful and beautiful. Because it’s not Apple’s technology that sells. Anyone can do that. It’s Sir Jony Ive’s stunning designs.

Each year it is a pleasure for us to welcome so many friends and partners to the Queen’s Birthday Party. I want to thank you for the enormous contribution you make to enhancing links between Britain and Singapore and promoting UK interests here. Particular thanks are due to our colleagues at the British Chamber of Commerce for their tremendous work in supporting British business in Singapore. And I take this opportunity to recognise the work of Brigitte Holtschneider, who is stepping down after ten years as Chief Executive. At the British Club, Sean Boyle will also be leaving after several years as General Manager and it was my honour to be able to present him earlier this year with the British Empire Medal. The British Association too continues to do great work. And there’s one other group of special guests I would like to recognise this evening. Yesterday was the red carpet opening at Marina Bay Sands of the Downton Abbey Experience. An opportunity for you all to experience firsthand life at Downton Abbey. For the next few weeks you can walk through recreations of some of the rooms up and downstairs from the world famous TV series and then enjoy some great British produce in the special tearoom.

And joining us here tonight are some of Britain’s most distinguished actors from the cast: Jim Carter, Phyllis Logan, Laura Carmichael, Kevin Doyle, Michael Fox, and Sophie Shearer. You may know them better as Carson, Mrs Hughes, Lady Edith, Mr Mosely, Parker and Daisy. Thank you for joining us this evening.

Senior Minister of State, Mr Ang, Ms Chan, Maj Gen Ong, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to close by thanking the people who have worked so hard to prepare this evening’s event. First, our many very generous sponsors, they are listed in your programmes and I hope you are enjoying the delicious food and beverages that several of them are providing from England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The Gurkha Pipes and Drums, and the Singapore National Cadet Corps Command Band. The Corps of Drums of the 1st Battalion Welsh Guards. Niall McWilliam, some of whose paintings are displayed around the house. I want to thank my colleagues at the High Commission and the British Council and above all, thanks to all of your for helping us to celebrate Her Majesty’s 91st Birthday this evening. Finally, thank you to Ms Joanna Paul who will now perform the National Anthem of the Republic of Singapore and shortly thereafter of the United Kingdom.

View photos from the event here.

from Announcements on GOV.UK http://ift.tt/2t1bmtK via IFTTT

[creativesage]

San Francisco Chronicle Staff Report:

President  Trump released his federal budget proposal last week, part of which announced plans to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities for a savings of $298 million.

Here are reactions from local organizations that benefit from funding provided by the endowments:

[Click to jump to a category: Art | Dance | Film | Literature | Music | Theater | Other ]

ART

“When government invests in art and culture — as it does through the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities — it pays back in dividends. Not only in concrete ways, like jobs and tourism dollars, but in ways that are difficult to fully quantify, ways that are perhaps more important: an enlightened and creative public, a better understanding of our fellow human beings, and a world that can be more nurturing for children — and inspiring for those who care for them.

“For many years, the NEA and NEH have underwritten dozens of transformational projects at the Asian Art Museum. All of them have helped us offer deeply meaningful experiences to you, the public, experiences that spark connections across cultures and time, igniting curiosity, conversation and creativity. We thank the NEA and NEH — and you! — for investing in the museum and similar institutions, large and small, all over the country. Our nation is stronger because of these investments.”

— Jay Xu, director, Asian Art Museum

                  “It’s very early in the budget process. It is clear, however, that the proposed cuts would have a significant negative impact on research in medicine and health, technology, the environment, the humanities and social sciences and many other fields. Our long-standing national investment in research is why America is a global leader in innovation. That research and innovation has created jobs and boosted the economy here in the Silicon Valley and nationwide.”

— E.J. Miranda, senior director of media relations, Stanford University

“The arts and humanities are core to the heart and soul of what it means to be an American and, indeed, a global citizen. Museums offer arts and humanities programs for every age and demographic, and these programs allow us to share our stories, express our creativity, connect to our neighbors and expand our understanding of the world and of ourselves. Beyond their value to our minds and spirits, arts and humanities organizations provide jobs to millions of people across the country.

“The federal budget process is a protracted one and, over the next few months, the budget will be developed and reviewed by both houses of Congress. At this time, we are urging Congress, where there has been strong bipartisan support for many years for the NEA and NEH, to continue funding these agencies. Should these agencies come under serious threat within the House of Representatives or Senate, we will alert (Oakland Museum of California) members and other constituencies and ask for (their) direct assistance in speaking to our legislators about the importance of the arts and culture to our community and to our vibrant democracy.”

— Lori Fogarty, director, Oakland Museum of California

“The support of the NEA, NEH and (Institute of Museum and Library Services)  is fundamental to the success of SFMOMA and to all Bay Area museums and cultural organizations. Collectively, we strive to foster creativity, embrace new ways of seeing the world, and maintain art as a vital and meaningful part of public life. … With our goal to develop and inspire the next generation of art lovers and museum-goers, support of the NEA, NEH and IMLS is more important than ever.”

— Neal Benezra, director, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

“Becoming a NEA grantee is a mark of excellence and is important for securing exhibition funds overall. NEA grants are prestigious, with award decisions made by an expert panel of peers in the museum field, and the application process is known to be both rigorous and competitive. Past exhibitions to receive NEA support include: ‘Ed Ruscha and the Great American West,’ ‘Jewel City: Art from San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition,’ ‘Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection,’ and ‘Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years.’ Current and upcoming exhibitions include: ‘Monet: The Early Years’ and ‘Stuart Davis: In Full Swing.’”

— Miriam Newcomer, director of public relations, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco

“I join with countless others who understand the unquestionable value of the arts to our lives, our communities and our society, in taking a firm stand against the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and other federal agencies that provide critical support to the cultural richness of our nation.”

— Lawrence Rinder, director, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive

DANCE

“We are an incredible, diverse group of people, and art gives expression to that. If we’ve ever received benefit from or enjoyed a play, film, song, dance performance, art exhibit, or piece of innovative design; chances are that someone along the way was funded by NEA. This should be a nonpartisan issue.”

— Karim Baer, executive director, Alonzo King Lines  Ballet

“If I could have a conversation with Mr. Trump, I would say, ‘I reject your invitation to a face at the window view of the decline of American culture, civility, and most common kinds of courtesy.’ We celebrate opening the door of education to children, creating and sharing culture, having open, frank, honest discussions on our public airways. America overcomes, so, it will survive you. And yes there is something here to fear, but the loss of support is not the worst. I plan to keep my mind and mouth open because our silence is someone else’s masterpiece.”

— Robert Moses, choreographer, artistic director and founder of Robert Moses Kin

“Will we make arrangements if the NEA funding goes away? Certainly. We will have to borrow from some other pocket. Maybe we will have to rethink a grand project or two. I’m not too worried. I have done this art thing on a shoestring before. Will programs suffer? Yes, they will. Still, I am optimistic. I think some kick-ass art is going to happen in the next few years. Our voices are needed and we will shout to the rooftops.”

— Joe Goode, artistic director, Joe Goode Performance Group

“This is a perilous blow to our country’s support of culture and ultimately to the soul of what makes us a civil society. If you’re pro-jobs, then you’re pro-arts too.”

— Brenda Way, artistic director and founder of ODC dance

“Removing support from our vital arts organizations is a hammer’s blow to the nation’s medulla oblongata and a declaration of darkness.”

— Alonzo King, artistic director, Alonzo King Lines  Ballet

“I grew up in a rural area of the country, and I don’t think I would have had exposure to the arts without the NEA’s support of organizations that came through that area. The impact on the country is what’s really a concern here. It’s like 0.02 percent of the federal budget — it’s not a way to solve any sort of budget problems. It’s hard to see it as anything other than symbolic.”

— Glenn McCoy, executive director of San Francisco Ballet

FILM

“I can’t think of a film I’ve worked on or a work of art I’ve enjoyed over the last 20 years that didn’t benefit from the support of the NEA and its sister agencies, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Forget the rhetoric of make America great again — American art is what makes our nation great already and beloved around the world.”

— Laurie Coyle, Bay Area filmmaker

“The proposed cutting of both the NEA and NEH is unprecedented and chilling. The pipeline of independent artists that feeds one of the U.S.’s biggest industries — film — will be gravely impacted. At (Mill Valley Film Festival), we have had NEA funding that has helped us support underserved populations and has helped us use our work in film to address needs that might otherwise go unaddressed. It’s been crucial, both a lifeline and a huge validation for the work.”

— Zoe Elton, director of programming, Mill Valley Film Festival

“It would be a sad day to see the demise of the NEA, not only for Frameline, but for the U.S as a whole, which is known globally for its artistic endeavors. A country that chooses not to support its arts, denies a place its soul.”

— Frances Wallace, executive director, Frameline film festival

“Cutting the NEA and NEH sends a message that arts and education, and those working in these fields, are not valued in our society — that they are nonessential, which couldn’t be more wrongheaded. Art fuels our imagination, passion, exploration, and has the ability to bind people from different backgrounds and perspectives together in a common humanity.”

— Stacey Wisnia, executive director, San Francisco Silent Film Festival

“When we talk about the value of arts and culture to society, we’re talking about an intangible. We create work that we hope has a positive effect on people’s lives, but there’s no real way to measure the impact or success of our creative work. I like to think that as a society and a people, we understand that arts and culture have  a wider, more measurable impact on our economy, health and over all well-being.”

— Will Parrinello, producer/director Mill Valley Film Group

“To deny the full potential of a child’s imagination or to suggest that people living in certain communities have less need of cultural sustenance as a trade-off against spending on tanks and bombs can only be characterized as morally repugnant. We join with the myriad other cultural organizations to oppose this terrible proposal.”

— Noah Cowan, executive director of SFFilm

“My current film, ‘Forever, Chinatown,’ about an 82-year-old Chinese American artist who makes miniature models of his loved ones’ rooms in S.F.’s Chinatown, never would’ve been completed if it weren’t for NEA and NEH supported foundations.

Arts and artists have existed before NEA. We’ll continue to exist if these brutal cuts go through, and I’m motivated and inspired by Angela Davis’ quote, ‘In times of dread, artists must never choose to remain silent.’”

— James Q. Chan, Bay Area filmmaker

“The NEA has been a generous supporter of the Jewish Film Institute’s San Francisco Jewish Film Festival for 25 of our 37 years, giving almost a half a million in funding since 1988. While JFI is fortunate in that the NEA funding does not account for a large percentage of our annual budget, our organization is committed to supporting filmmakers and presenters of all sizes around the country, many of whom rely on the NEA’s support to continue their programs.”

— Lexi Leban, executive director of the Jewish Film Institute, presenter of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival

“I want to be petulant and compare numbers, pointing out Trump’s decadent spending on Mar-a-Lago and his ‘Great Wall.’ But I can’t help but feel as though  all this money is being allocated to symbols and gestures, with the NEA cuts being a huge middle finger to the ‘artsy-fartsy liberal elites.’ What’s ironic is that the artists on the coasts are probably going to feel this sting the least, seeing as how we have more private donors than non-coastal areas.

— H.P. Mendoza, Bay Area filmmaker

LITERATURE

“The National Endowment for the Arts provides essential services, not only to artists, but to the millions of people in this nation who are nourished daily by the artistic production the NEA makes possible. Just as the new Republican health care plan threatens the physical health of this nation, the proposal to eliminate the NEA exposes this administration’s utter disregard for the nation’s cultural health and vitality, and is, quite simply, a disaster.”

— Carolina De Robertis, author of the novels “The Gods of Tango,” “Perla” and “The Invisible Mountain”

“One postage stamp of funding per person per year: a multiplying sustenance for jazz players and painters; playwrights and actors; novelists and translators; filmmakers and dance troupes; performance poets and page poets; scholars of the blues, of trains, of words scratched into the walls of Angel Island; cultural programs and centers in every state and of every kind. Art is not a luxury, and it is not dispensable. It is the oxygen of the mind, spirit and heart, the work table on which new thought and feeling are hammered into being. The NEA’s grants are often small, but they are seed beds of the possible, creating the kinds of futures that can only open when the not yet envisioned, not yet made, not yet discovered are invited in.”

— Jane Hirshfield, author of eight poetry collections, including, most recently, “The Beauty”

“My 2016 NEA fellowship was a godsend: it helped me finish a novel I’d been working on for almost nine years, and provided a jolt of confidence I sorely needed. The NEA is a lifeline for artists and arts organizations. Are we really going to cut an institution that does so much for the arts, and for less than the cost of a single F-35 warplane?”

— R.O. Kwon, author of the forthcoming novel “Heroics”

“I still remember where I was when I heard that I had gotten an NEA fellowship (in the parking lot of a supermarket outside Palo Alto), and I still remember how I felt, that warm sense of relief and validation and permission to write. I don’t know if I would have been able to finish my first book if it wasn’t for the NEA. And it breaks my heart to think of all the novels and stories and poems that might not be written if our tiny arts agency is sacrificed to make way for a 20-foot stretch of a useless and hateful wall.”

— Michael David Lukas, author of the novel “The Oracle of Stamboul”

“My NEA grant came at a time when I had published one book, was raising two small children, and wondered if I would ever write again. The grant not only allowed me to take time away from work to write that next book, but gave me encouragement that there were readers out there who wanted to hear what I would say. In addition to the way that the grant so generously bolsters individual writers, I’ve been grateful to the NEA for as long as I can remember for allowing my favorite small publishers, theater companies and galleries to produce the work that has inspired and changed me as a writer and human.”

— Rachel Richardson, author of the poetry collections “Hundred-Year Wave” and “Copperhead”

“When I got the call about my NEA grant, I was sitting in the office of the homeless youth organization where I worked. I was passionate about the organization, but I had a hard time surviving — let alone writing — in that situation, and had to juggle three other freelance jobs to pay rent. The NEA grant enabled me to leave my full-time job for a year, and just write. A week after leaving my job, I took a six-week residency at an arts colony. The first story I wrote there was about homelessness. It netted me $1,000, which I immediately donated to the organization where I used to work. The NEA made that gesture possible, too. Basically, this gift enabled me to stop writing nonprofit grants — which many qualified people can do well — and start writing about poverty in a way that’s unique to what I’ve witnessed, and that will hopefully change some hearts and minds.”

— Suzanne Rivecca, author of the story collection “Death Is Not an Option”

MUSIC

“The National Endowment for the Arts provides meaningful support not just to the San Francisco Symphony, but to countless and diverse arts organizations of all sizes around the Bay Area and around the country. The arts allow us to communicate, to heal, to learn, they tell our story and make us come together for shared experiences. Losing the NEA would be losing part of that identity.”

— Brent Assink, executive director, San Francisco Symphony

“The NEA is a critical expression of the federal government’s belief in the role of arts in society. To imagine it abolished is to imagine a void in the cultural landscape of America and, for us at (San Francisco Opera), a galling backward step in the support and affirmation of some of our most vanguard work. Culture defines humanity, and the federal government plays a unique role in upholding the public good of culture.”

— Matthew Shilvock, general director, San Francisco Opera

“The NEA’s support of major residencies connecting the arts and artists deeply with our communities has been transformative. And just as important as funding, the NEA’s presence on the national stage is of fundamental importance, as is the vote of confidence that accompanies its support. The NEA makes an important statement about who we are as a nation.”

— Matías Tarnopolsky, artistic and executive director of Cal Performances

“It would be devastating to Kronos and the entire field to lose NEA funding. The arts is an ecosystem, and the NEA is a vital part of it. Some of our most important colleagues and partners receive ongoing funding from the NEA, and that support enables those institutions to engage with us and hundreds of other artists. The loss of the NEA would create a domino effect across the country, and ultimately, audiences and communities would feel the loss.”

— Janet Cowperthwaite, managing director, Kronos Quartet

“Any cuts to the NEA would be a major blow because its grants serve as seed for matching donations from many other funding sources. In 2017, Kitka has received $25,000 for its programs, and we’ve relied on major funding from the NEA every year for quite some time. The elimination of the agency is terrifying to contemplate.”

— Shira Cion, executive artistic director, Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble

“Like arts nonprofits, we need every source of support we can find in order to continue to offer work at the highest quality. My personal feeling is that, in addition to being a national disgrace, the loss of the NEA would significantly impact the sustainability of smaller, more grassroots arts organizations that struggle to survive in rural areas.”

— Melanie Smith, president of San Francisco Performances

“Chanticleer receives $55,000 annually from the NEA, which is about 0.02 percent of our annual budget. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but there will be a moment when $50,000 is 50 too many for us to find elsewhere. The NEA influences and supports the whole ecosystem in which we function.”

— Christine Bullin, president and general director of Chanticleer

“We don’t get much funding from the NEA — $10,000 a year on a budget that ranges from  $3.2 million to  $4.4 million — but for us, the issue is more a philosophical one. Civilized nations and peoples believe the arts are integral to our daily lives. Certainly this is the case in most industrialized countries outside the U.S.”

— Courtney Beck, executive director, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra & Chorale

“The loss of this funding is really a loss for the community. NEA funding has been vital to Stern Grove Festival’s mission of making the performing arts accessible, and admission-free, to everyone. Since the festival relies on nearly 100 percent contributed revenue and raises almost $3 million each year, every bit of support helps.”

— Monica Ware, interim executive director, Stern Grove Festival

“The proposed elimination of the NEA is absolutely wrong. The NEA supports music festivals, community theaters, jazz trios, chamber orchestras, poetry slams and ballet in all 50 states. The NEA supports international cultural exchanges, promoting friendship and peace via the arts. The NEA is our tax dollars at their  best work — and not a lot of tax dollars at that. Instead of eliminating the NEA, we should be quadrupling its budget. We need a secretary of arts and culture at the Cabinet level. I am not holding my breath.”

— Linda Lucero, artistic/executive director, Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

“Funding from the NEA validates that we are respected and important part not only of the Sonoma County cultural foot print, but an important jazz presenting institution in this nation. Without the funding from the NEA our programing would suffer, making it harder to attract an audience, causing less income from ticket sales. It would also mean that many people in Sonoma County would be robbed of  access to Jazz Masters and upcoming jazz musicians.”

— Jessica Felix, artistic/executive director, Healdsburg Jazz Festival

THEATER

“NEA grants have been the cornerstone of our annual New Works Initiative, helping us develop hundreds of new plays and musicals that have enhanced our lives here, around the country and around the world. Great civilizations are known for the arts they treasure and preserve. I fear ours may be remembered for the arts it abandoned and scorned.”

— Robert Kelley, artistic director of TheatreWorks, the flagship theater company in Silicon Valley

“It is unthinkable that with the stroke of a pen, so much damage could be done to one of the most vital and necessary sectors of American life, a sector that provides jobs, community and meaning to the entire country. The irony is, almost every American when polled says that attending or making art gives meaning to their lives.”

— Carey Perloff, artistic director of American Conservatory Theater, the largest theater company in the Bay Area

“The NEA is a model federal agency, providing enormous impact across the country, in every congressional district, with a very modest budget. In San Francisco alone, 90 organizations last year received a total of $2.5 million dollars in direct grants. Those awards are especially important for small- and medium-size arts groups who use the renown of NEA funding to attract far more support from local and private sources. Typically each NEA grant is multiplied eight times over with private and local funds. The loss of NEA funding would hit small arts groups the hardest, many right here in the Bay Area.”

— Brad Erickson, executive director of Theatre Bay Area, a nonprofit serving theater companies and artists throughout the Bay Area

“In reality, the NEA has never had the budget it deserves. This past year the NEA budget was $147 million, and the SF Giants baseball team paid approximately $165 million on team salaries. There seems to be a large discrepancy about where our priorities are. To me, it’s not so much about the money, which does hurt, a lot; it’s about the symbolism and the message this president and his administration are sending. They are telling us that the arts mean nothing and are not worthy of any support.”

— Lisa Steindler, artistic director of Z Space

“Before the establishment of the NEA in 1965, there was virtually no access to culture outside major metropolitan areas. There were maybe 20 theaters across the entire country. I fear that without the leadership of the federal government, philanthropy for culture will quickly decline, and the country will be poorer for it.”

— Susie Medak, managing director, Berkeley Repertory Theatre

“The elimination of NEA seed money for theater is a job killer. Not just for the actors and musicians onstage, or the writers and creative teams who create the material. Live theater also provides jobs for people behind the scenes, like the stage managers and crew; and the people in front of the house, like ushers, box office and concession staff as well as those who have administrative jobs. Live theater means work for those down the block: the wait staff in the restaurant, the bartenders, the taxi drivers and the parking lot attendants, to name only a few. All of these are jobs that can’t be outsourced.”

— Kate Shindle, president of Actors’ Equity Association, the labor union representing professional actors and stage managers in the United States, as well as the star of “Fun Home,” which played at the Curran this year

“A NEA grant is a membership card to the national arts community. It’s a privilege. The NEA is more than a funding body; it is a facilitator of community empowerment and creative expression. Many people may not know this, but state and local arts agencies receive funding from the NEA as well. So by eliminating the NEA, you cut a major source of revenue for the California Arts Council and the San Francisco Arts Commission. … Given how small the NEA’s budget is in the context of the overall U.S. budget, it really begs the question: Why would a president want to eliminate it? If it’s not a financial decision, then what is it all about? In my cynical view, it’s a tactic to distract the population from the shortcomings of the administration.”

— Torange Yeghiazarian, founding artistic director of Golden Thread Productions, the first theater company in the United States that’s dedicated to plays about the Middle East

“The cutting of arts funding in this country is really a devastation. For the population that we serve, that funding provides … arts that they would never receive otherwise. In mainstream schools, art is being cut. But certainly for youth in detention, there’s no offering of that at all, unless it’s coming from outside agencies who come with their own funding and bring that in. For our students, the playwriting program is the springboard program to an academic study hall. That is the power of the arts: It often can be used as a springboard to other successes.”

— Robin Sohnen, executive director and founder of Each One Reach One, a nonprofit in South San Francisco which serves incarcerated youth through theater and tutoring

“The smaller theaters, such as Crowded Fire, support the most vulnerable among us ... the artists creating new forms, the trailblazers, the innovators and the interrogators. The signal being sent from the highest office in the land is that the creative arts are extra, a bonus, not essential.”

— Mina Morita and Tiffany Cothran, artistic director and managing director, respectively, of Crowded Fire, a tiny, San Francisco company that produces daring new plays

“The NEA funding that we receive at Marin Theatre Company is almost always targeted to doing a new American play, in most circumstances by an emerging American playwright. With (a recent production of) ‘Native Son,’ part of the reason that was important was we brought (playwright) Nambi (E. Kelley) in to work on the draft after the world premiere. Very few foundations will give you funding to work on a new play after its premiere; the NEA will. It also allowed us to do a lot of community engagement around the play, in Marin City and San Rafael, in San Francisco and Oakland.”

— Jasson Minadakis, artistic director, Mill Valley’s Marin Theatre Company, a major regional theater

“Support from the NEA is not only about the dollars and cents. It’s about our government acknowledging and supporting the power of art to expand our humanity and compassion for one another and the creativity that is alive in each of us as citizens. Losing the NEA will cause irreparable damage to the creative vibrancy of our wonderfully diverse country, and we plan on doing everything in our power to prevent that from happening.”

— Loretta Greco, artistic director, San Francisco’s Magic Theatre

“Take away the NEA, and it’s not going to close Berkeley Rep or ACT, but it pushes Lorraine Hansberry Theatre closer to going out of business. In the past, I knew the threat was there, but I never felt it was going to come to fruition. I’m terrified that it’s going to happen this time. We’d better keep our fingers crossed, but we’ve also got to get out of the chair and do what each of us individually can. We’ve got to light a fire under our legislators and hope they can fight the good fight.”

— Steven Anthony Jones, artistic director, Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, a 35-year-old company in San Francisco that produces work by, for and about black audiences and audiences of color

OTHER

“The Exploratorium has always intertwined science and art as complementary ways of exploring the world around us. Because we believe both are integral to the development of inspired and enlightened communities, we’re deeply concerned about the impact that these recent budget cuts will have on our country’s scientists, artists and educators, as well as the organizations that work to sustain them. In addition to being a recipient of support from the NEA and NEH, the Exploratoirum has received funding from the (Institute of Museum and Library Services), which is also threatened. While we’re not yet sure what the impact on these crucial institutions will be, their elimination would be a fundamental blow to the creative and scholarly fabric of the country. The Exploratorium remains dedicated to its vision of a world in which people are empowered to think for themselves and can confidently ask questions, and question answers, in order to better understand the world around them. We are grateful to the many and diverse voices that continue to contribute to our work. In an environment that may be hostile to science and art, our work and our mission grow more vital and important than ever.”

— Chris Flink, executive director, Exploratorium

“(Bay Area Video Coalition) turns 41 this year, and for 39 of those years, at least one of our media arts programs has been funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. BAVC has also launched projects that are being used by libraries, archives and museums around the world through the support of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and we’ve had funding for a variety of programs supporting youth and others over the last decade from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Each of these programs supports emerging artists, young artists, small arts organizations and those they serve — hundreds each year and many thousands over multiple years. Projects that have led emerging filmmakers to creating Academy Award nominated films, award winning multimedia projects and to national broadcast.

“Needless to say, it is disheartening to hear that the very existence of each of these integral funding entities is under threat in the newly proposed budget. BAVC has a diversity of funding streams, and if funding for programs like our National MediaMaker Fellows program, Preservation Access Program, and QCTools project is cut due to the elimination of these federal funders, hundreds of librarians, archivists, artists, youth, scholars and their work will be immediately impacted. For example, we will literally lose the documentation of media art, performances and seminal historical moments in our cultural history if BAVC’s Preservation Access Program funding from the NEA is cut.  This is one of the only programs in the country that provides deeply discounted services for tape-based media preservation to arts-related organizations, archives and artists. These tapes are rapidly deteriorating, and without this program, this history and these works will be gone forever.”

— Carol Varney, Executive Director, Bay Area Video Coalition

“Receiving a grant from the NEA this year is bittersweet. We’re grateful of course for the funding ... but we’re disappointed to receive it at such a fraught political time, in which our political leaders openly devalue the contributions both of the arts and of Muslims to this country.

This is the precisely the time when cultural work is necessary, and our Muslim American cultural producers are most important. Artists in our IC3 pilot use comedy, film, art and poetry to inspire, inform, and activate compassion and insight in people. And its cultural events help cut through the noise and negativity that surrounds the image of Muslims. ... In the last months alone, it’s the arts that have drawn hundreds of non-Muslims into this Islamic space for the first time. For some of us, cultural work is about engaging the multiple communities we’re part of, giving something back to the larger culture while resisting the largely negative and monolithic portrayal of Muslims. Funding like grants from the NEA allow us to do this, while also putting dollars into the local economy. Without these funds this pilot project is not possible.”

— Raeshma Razvi, project director at IC3: Incubating Creativity, Culture & Civic Engagement, a series of project incubations for local Muslim-American artists that result in public events at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at the San Francisco Chronicle, and to view all of the images.]

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For our special campaign to save the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, PBS, and NPR, we are including several posts this month about these essential agencies of the U.S. government, which are in immediate danger of being eliminated. Please call your Senators and Congressional Representatives immediately to let them know how much the arts mean to you and others in your community, and to help save them!

   ~ Cathryn Hrudicka