#i know its highly unlikely that this would still be applicable today

[juniemunie]

This post wouldn't leave my mind.

Error and Ink meeting before they completely become themselves is so....

ლ(ಥ益ಥლ) HHHHHHH

[lawbyrhys]

A Lesson in Constitutional Law: Amendments

I am going to keep this extremely brief, but I've noticed some confusion on this topic, and I believe every American should understand it. After all, it does affect each and every one of us. The topic at hand today is amendments: what exactly are they, and how do we add new ones?

We should all know this shit. Let's break it down.

What is an amendment? An amendment is a formal or official change made to a law, contract, constitution, or other legal document. For today, we will be focusing on amendments as they pertain to the United States Constitution. I won't go over all of them—this isn't a high school US History class—but we know the first ten are the Bill of Rights, so on and so forth. Anyway, let's actually talk about how they come to be into law in our country.

The process is called ratification. Article V of the Constitution of the United States outlines the strict procedures that must be followed in order to alter—amend—the Constitution and ratify those amendments into law. As outlined, an amendment must either be proposed by Congress with a two-thirds vote in both chambers, or it must be proposed by a state convention called by Congress upon the request of two-thirds of state legislatures. Then, to be determined by Congress, the amendment must then be ratified by either three-fourths of the fifty states or alternatively by a ratifying convention conducted in three-fourths of states.

It goes without saying that it is not a simple process to amend the US Constitution.

So that's the procedure, but how fast must it be done? Well, the Constitution is silent on this matter, and up until 1917, that was good enough. That is, until it came time to ratify the Eighteenth Amendment. Since then, there's almost always been deadlines of seven years; the exceptions being the Nineteenth Amendment and the pending Child Labor Amendment. These deadlines come either within the body of the amendment itself or in the joint resolution to the states. The countdown begins the day final action is taken in Congress and runs until the specified deadline runs out. An important note is that ratification may take place at any time within this window—even before a state has officially been notified. Even though there is no explicit language about deadlines, and the same goes for extensions to said deadlines, an extension may also be given by Congress when deemed necessary and applicable. A famously litigious example of this is the Equal Rights Amendment, or ERA, which still has yet to be ratified despite its century-long history of extensions and lawsuits.

Lastly, I'd like to briefly discuss why we don't see many amendments being ratified these days. To put it simply, it's because these strict procedures are still in place, as they should be, but the required number of states simply can't agree anymore. Take the ERA, for example—that amendment was introduced in 1923 and again in 1972, and has been through many an extension and lawsuit in its time, and even as of 2021, it failed to be ratified.

There is talk about Joe Biden's proposed amendment—"No One Is Above the Law Amendment"—that would do away with the recent SCOTUS Immunity Ruling and enshrine presidential prosecution for criminal wrongdoings while in office into the Constitution. While I support this on its face, I recognize how difficult it'll be to actually get it done. Why is that the case, though? For one, the conservative-controlled Congress would never agree to it before November. That said, even if Democrats did take control during the election, it is still extraordinarily difficult to get an amendment through, taking into account what all is required to do so. Do I think a liberal Congress could pass laws that are beneficial towards that final goal? Absolutely, assuming that Kamala Harris wins, I think that's likely. Would it be a Constitutional Amendment, though? I think that is highly, highly unlikely.

While there is more to this, as Constitutional law is extremely complex, I believe this brief to be a good enough educational tool for those of you who may not understand the ins-and-outs of the law, but should really know about our country and the procedures that keep it running.

I hope you learned something. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.

[rapeculturerealities]

Long before she decided to help others eat better by becoming a dietitian, Jessica Wilson learned that the profession was unlikely to offer much to people like her.

Growing up as a Black girl in a mostly white area of Sacramento, Calif., she was bullied for her size and subjected to unpleasant visits with dietitians, who taught portion control with the aid of unappetizing plastic models of green beans and chicken breasts.

In her dietetics program at the University of California, Davis, Ms. Wilson was the only Black student. A single day was devoted to what the curriculum called “ethnic diets.” “It was not, ‘These are interesting and awesome,’” she recalled. “It is, ‘These are why these diets are bad. Next class.’”

Mexican food was dismissed as greasy. Indian food was heavy. Ms. Wilson was taught to prescribe a bland “kale-and-quinoa” diet. When she started treating patients — including many who, like her, are people of color or identify as queer — she learned how much those identities informed their perspectives on health, and how little she’d been taught about that.

“It makes people feel so guilty for not being able to eat what Goop would recommend,” said Ms. Wilson, 38. “I was no longer able to use the tools that had been given to me in school with good conscience.”

As the coronavirus pandemic has made Americans more aware of their health and eating habits, many have turned to registered dietitians like Ms. Wilson (or to nutritionists, who are not always required to obtain a specific education or certification). Yet the advice they get can sometimes seem more tailored to some past era than to the motley, multicultural nation the United States is in 2020.

In recent years — and particularly in the last several months, amid the national discussion about race — many dietitians have begun speaking out and reimagining the practice in a more inclusive way, often without institutional support.

Today, Ms. Wilson counsels many people of color on eating a healthy diet based on the foods they grew up with and love. Hazel Ng, 48, who runs a private practice in Alhambra, Calif., has created handouts for her Chinese clients that showcase produce found in Asian grocery stores, like bitter melon and lychees

In June, Sherene Chou, 36, a dietitian with a private practice in Los Angeles, organized a group letter to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics — the largest and most powerful organization for food and nutrition professionals — outlining steps it should take to address systemic racism in the field, including antiracism training and more support for people of color. Leaders of numerous dietetics groups lent their support, signing the letter on behalf of 70,000 practitioners and students.

Many of these dietitians say the academy’s research, programs and articles ignore non-Western cuisines, or imply that they are unhealthy. They feel the profession places too much emphasis on consuming less and not enough on understanding individual eating habits. And, they add, it perpetuates an ideal of thinness and gender normativity that can exclude different body types and identities.

“It is a good-old-girls’ club where, as a person of color, you have to do so much to be invited,” said Jessica Jones, a dietitian in Richmond, Calif., and a founder of the inclusive dietetics website Food Heaven.

In response to these criticisms, the academy said it is working hard to broaden its ranks and resources to better reflect different cultures.

“Like other professions in health care and countless other fields, nutrition and dietetics has for many years experienced underrepresentation by persons of color in its membership and leadership ranks,” it said in a statement last week. “The academy knows change will not happen overnight. Still, we are making real progress that will create permanent change in our organization, our profession and our communities.”

The group is influential in setting the United States Department of Agriculture dietary guidelines that Americans are urged to follow; its members make up half of the 20-member committee that oversees those recommendations. In a July report, the committee acknowledged that the dietary approaches it studies don’t “qualitatively address cultural variations in intake patterns,” yet said the resulting guidelines allow a “tremendous amount of flexibility” that allows them to be tailored to an individual’s cultural and taste preferences.

The recipe database on MyPlate, the agriculture department’s healthy-eating website, includes 98 dishes classified as “American,” but just 28 “Asian” recipes and nine “Middle Eastern” ones. Though it lists 122 “Latin American/Hispanic” recipes, they include dishes like a “skinny pizza” made with tortillas. The Asian recipes include “Oriental Rice” and “Oriental Sweet and Sour Vegetables.”(A spokesman for the department said that “expanding the recipe database and other MyPlate consumer resources to reflect more diversity is one of our top priorities.”)

If the options seem narrow, they may begin with the narrowness of the profession. More than 71 percent of the nation’s roughly 106,000 registered dietitians are non-Hispanic white, according to the academy’s Commission on Dietetic Registration. Nearly 84 percent are women.

Entry requirements are steep: Practitioners must earn a degree from an accredited program, complete an internship (sometimes unpaid) or a supervised learning program, and pass a registration exam with a $200 entrance fee. Starting in 2024, a graduate degree will be required to take the exam.

“This is an expensive profession, with no guarantee that you are going to have a high salary,” said Lisa Sasson, a professor in the department of nutrition and food studies at New York University. She called the new graduate-degree mandate “unconscionable” and “an even greater barrier to people of color in our profession.”

The academy said that its charitable foundation provided more than $500,000 in scholarships and grants from 2017 to 2019 “for diverse individuals within the field,” and that those funds continue to grow.

Internships are highly competitive, and some even require the intern to pay. Alice Figueroa, 33, who runs a private practice in the East Village of Manhattan, said she struggled to afford food during her internship, even as she was advising others how to eat. Evelyn Crayton, 74, who was the academy’s first Black president, said many of the people in charge of matching students with internships are white, and may be more likely to select applicants who look like them.

Funding for dietetics programs at many historically Black colleges and universities, including Fort Valley State University and Grambling State University, has been cut since the 1970s. The number of Black dietitians fell by 18 percent, to 1,107, from 1998 to 2019, according to the academy’s Accreditation Council for Education in Nutrition and Dietetics.

Even when Dr. Crayton was president of the academy, in 2015 and 2016, she felt out of step with its other leaders. “I have heard that behind my back they called me an angry Black woman, because I raised questions,” she said. Her nominations of Black dietitians for leadership roles, she added, were frequently snubbed.

Told of her comments, the academy responded, “We were not aware of this until now, and we are very saddened to hear that Evelyn was subjected to these inexcusable statements. They do not reflect the academy’s core values and we are moving swiftly to investigate this matter.”

The profession’s exclusivity goes beyond race. Kai Iguchi, 28, a dietitian working at Rogers Behavioral Health in Oconomowoc, Wis., didn’t feel comfortable coming out as nonbinary to graduate-school classmates. “When the program itself as a culture is very cisgender, thin, white and female,” they said, “it is hard to be different and succeed.”

Mx. Iguchi said what they learned at school did little to address the unique problems that transgender and nonbinary clients face — being misgendered by their dietitians and family members, or feeling discomfort with overtly feminine imagery on health materials. Adult transgender people are also at high risk of developing eating disorders, according to a 2019 study by the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Even some dietitians who teach the standard curriculum find it wanting. “I have reached my limit with my textbook,” said Maya Feller, an adjunct professor in nutrition at New York University, adding that it doesn’t take into account social factors that often explain why people of color are disproportionally affected by health issues.

She said she was also unhappy with educational resources like MyPlate, which recommends meals like salmon, brown rice and broccoli, but not the curried chana and doubles served by her mother, who grew up in Trinidad. (After her interview for this article, Ms. Feller was hired as a consultant to help make MyPlate more inclusive.)

“If I saw that plate and then looked at my doubles, I would be like, ‘Well, my food is no good.’”

Ms. Feller, 43, tries instead to promote an “ongoing and consistent education around cultural humility” — not telling patients what they can’t eat, but considering the foods they have access to, and embracing, not stigmatizing, their cultural preferences.

It rankles Ryan Bad Heart Bull, 36, a Native American dietitian who works with the Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, S.D., that many of his peers praise the nutritional value of traditional Indigenous ingredients like salmon and bison, without understanding how federal government policies have made it harder for Native Americans to hunt and forage on their own land. To be ignorant of this cultural and historical context, “and then to turn around and say bison meat is one of the best meats you can eat and here are the ways you can incorporate it into your diet,” he said, “it is insulting and saddening.”

In 2019, he published a guide for the American Indian Cancer Foundation to educate Native cancer survivors about the nutritional value of their traditional foods.

Diksha Gautham, 27, a nutritionist in San Francisco, tells her mostly South Asian-American clientele that a healthy diet can include palak paneer and aloo tikki. As a child, she said, she harbored a blind perception that anything that wasn’t dry chicken and broccoli, including the dal and rice her mother cooked, “was bad for me.” No nutritional database she has encountered includes Indian ingredients, so she created her own guides to healthful Indian food.

A Toronto dietitian, Nazima Qureshi, 29, has self-published “The Healthy Ramadan Guide” with her husband, Belal Hafeez, a personal trainer. It includes meal plans that adhere to fasting guidelines, with recipes like stuffed dates and za’atar roasted chicken, and exercises to give people energy going into daily prayers.

Some of Dalina Soto’s Hispanic and Asian clients in the Philadelphia area have been told by other dietitians that they can’t eat white rice. “They shut down,” she said. “Either they go way to the extreme, where they are no longer eating any of their cultural foods, or the other side is, ‘I am just not going to manage my disease.’”

“My goal is to bring them in the middle,” said Ms. Soto, 32. She’ll suggest a salad alongside their rice and beans.

Still, many of these practitioners feel frustrated as they try to nudge the dietetic establishment toward change.

The profession is governed by the academy’s board. One subsidiary organization, the Commission on Dietetic Registration, sets professional requirements and fees; another, the Accreditation Council, certifies programs. Together, these entities and their majority-white leadership act as gatekeepers, their critics argue, limiting deep-rooted change.

The academy, which has about 100,000 members, funds research and hosts the largest annual conference for dietitians, the Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo. In 2016, it announced the Second Century Initiative, an effort to expand its reach and teachings around the globe.

The academy has had a diversity and inclusion committee since 1987. But, like all the academy’s committees, it is filled by volunteers. Teresa Turner, 37, a member from 2015 until May, said the academy offers the panel few “resources or benchmarks.” “Its only purpose,” Ms. Turner said, “is to make the academy look like they are doing something.”

The academy denied those assertions, saying the committee plays an active role, recommending strategies to recruit people from underrepresented groups to join the profession, and the academy, and promote their advancement.

A group that calls itself Audit the Academy (whose members include Ms. Turner, Ms. Figueroa and Ms. Chou) said the academy research it has seen is largely conducted by white dietitians studying nondiverse populations; if they study communities of color, they often do so from a white perspective. Members also see little representation of transgender and nonbinary people.

“If we are invisible in the research,” said Sand Chang, 42, an Oakland, Calif., psychologist who specializes in the transgender health and eating disorders, “we are going to be invisible in assessment and treatment.”

The academy, however, said it “offers materials, programs and educational opportunities to help its members provide care to a diverse array of clients,” including articles about treating transgender individuals.

In June, the organization responded to pressure from disaffected members by committing to developing action plans to address inequities in the profession. It has created a new Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group, and conducted virtual forums to hear the concerns of 126 randomly selected members.

Shannon Curtis, 30, a Houston dietitian who helped found a group called Dietitians for Change, attended one of the sessions. “Although it was empowering to know that we are not the only ones screaming about this,” she said, “it was kind of a waste of time, in my opinion, because I am not exactly confident that they will take this information and put it into an action plan they will actually act on.”

Other organizations have emerged to address the inequities in the profession, like Diversify Dietetics, founded in 2018 by Tamara Melton and Deanna Belleny. It offers resources like mentors and educational materials to help students of color pass the registration exam.

In response to criticisms that it is harder for nonwhite dietitians to succeed in the profession, the academy offered an interview with Kristen Gradney, a senior director at Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Hospital in Baton Rouge, La, and one of several registered dietitian nutritionists who speak on behalf of the academy.

Ms. Gradney, 40, said that while the academy “has really missed the mark” in preparing dietitians to deal with diverse populations, it is starting to make progress. Still, she said “true change” would probably not come from the academy, but from grass-roots initiatives like Diversify Dietetics, where she serves on the advisory board.

In 2018, Dr. Crayton, the academy’s past president, hosted a conference in Montgomery, Ala., where she lives, for World Critical Dietetics, an organization that champions a more inclusive approach to dietetics. Panels discussed the role that unconscious bias plays in education, and whether the registration exam was fair to all students.

Dr. Crayton took participants to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, in Selma, where in 1965, peaceful protesters marched for civil rights. “I could never have done that with the academy,” she said with a laugh. She said events like that could help pave a path toward sweeping change.

“I don’t know how to get to people’s hearts, but it is a heart thing,” she said. In a discipline that deals with such a deeply personal matter — one’s eating habits — “there has to be a change of heart, where people really feel empathy for groups who they are trying to include.”

[arcticdementor]

Civilization is collapsing, the revolutionary political crisis is approaching, but, worse than that Heartiste has stopped posting on game, and Roosh has turned tradcuck. So even though I have sworn this is not going to be a game blog, and my life has demonstrated times without number that no end of men are better qualified to post on game than I am, I guess I will have to step into the gap, at least a little bit.

The three magic words are not “I love you”

The three magic words are “You are mine”.

…

I have followed the Sixteen Commandments of Poon both instinctively, and through long and painful experience, long before Heartiste started blogging, and they are the greatest short summary of that small part of game that can be put into readily intelligible words.

Game, however is more readily intelligible if we understand it through the lens of Evolutionary Game Theory, which should be understood as a materialistic account of the spiritual truths of the first part of the Book of Genesis, Evolutionary Game theory being, for higher animals, primarily evolutionary psychology, evolutionary psychology being in large part the application of game theory in the context of natural selection, the moral consequences of material and effective causation, the Logos.

Evolutionary Game theory is an account in terms of material and effective causation, in terms of chance and necessity, the Book of Genesis tells us something about how the consequences of Evolutionary Game Theory are the Will of Gnon.

…

For about the cost of two dates, you can have a hooker, and it is not an adequate substitute. Hookers are only a marginal improvement over masturbation. What progressives offer men, a rotating series of hookups, is just not what most men want, as revealed by men’s actions.

…

Look at the typical male polyamorist. He is psychologically scarred and mentally crippled for life. Having a bunch of whores rather than owning a woman, or better, owning two women, just really sucks brutally. Those guys are traumatized for life.

It unmans men, as if every day a bully beat them up, and they could do nothing about the daily humiliation but suck it up. Just look at what it does to men. It would be kinder to cut their balls off, which is pretty much what progressives are planning to do to us.

The typical male polyamorist looks as if a fat blue haired feminist has been beating him up every day – indeed, he would probably love it if a fat blue haired feminist beat him up every day.

Whores are a marginal improvement on beating off to anime, and hookups a marginal improvement on whores. When men are reduced to such desperate straights, it totally crashes their testosterone and they buy an anime cuddle pillow and weep bitter tears upon it.

We are maladapted to watching the decline from the pool.

Roosh took the wrong redpill from realizing that banging sloots becomes unfufilling after a while. He wants a 50s family life as men generally do, but needs to realize its impossible without a restoration of some degree of de jure patriarchal authority.

A convincing claim to be backed by the supreme alpha, and a plausible willingness to carry out his will on adultery, adultery as defined in the Old Testament, serves as a substitute for de jure backing of patriarchal authority.

The Old Testament prescribes the death penalty for a man who sleeps with someone else’s wife or betrothed, and the death penalty for the woman if she consented. And who gets to carry out that penalty?

Well, that is not defined. In the time of judges, Israel was somewhat anarchic, so presumably the husband and his family and friends. In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon assumes that system, though he implies some regulatory restraints, so that continued to be the system under King Solomon.

That is the best system, because the state or the official priesthood monopolizing the killing of adulterers emasculates the husband, and thus makes adultery more likely.

…

Listen to Heartiste, but, as Roosh discovered, there are better lives than watching the decline. Heartiste speaks the truth, and an important truth, and everything he says is true and important, and unlike most of Satan’s servants should be listened to with attention, but when he truthfully tells you that that watching the decline from poolside is the easiest way, and the better way is hard and dangerous, and likely to end in terrible failure, he is telling a truth that serves his master.

…

You cannot make a housewife out of a ho in our current environment, because she will see you as weak compared to numerous pimps she has been with. However late eighteenth, early nineteenth century Australia had swift and total success in making ho’s into wives. When the elite shotgun married them off, they reacted as if abducted from the weaker tribe into the stronger tribe, and completely internalized the values of the stronger tribe – which required and expected respectable female behavior. Female virtue is more easily obtained if you are more manly than anyone she has been with previously and a bit scary than by searching for it. Of course, in today’s environment, you don’t have backing from your tribe, you have hostility from your tribe. This makes things far more difficult than in late eighteenth century Australia, but not impossibly so. You have backing from God.

…

The mating dance has not been accurately depicted in media since the sixties. (Though it is still accurately depicted in Communist Chinese media, but the Chinese are too alien, too different.)

If you don’t perform the mating dance correctly, will get nowhere fast. The dance is complimentary but asymmetric.

…

This is why, when you are trying to get a chicks attention, it never helps to something nice for her, even to rescue her from danger. Rescuing the damsel in distress is a trope for male viewers. In books and movies targeted at women, the male love interest never rescues the damsel, he endangers her. Negs work, asking her to do something for you works, commanding her works. Stuff that a man would find ridiculous or insulting, and would either make him angry or make him laugh at your pretensions, works.

Negs work astonishingly well, even if so lacking in wit that they are actually insults and would make a man bristle up.

I have actually rescued a chick from danger in real life, with entirely predictable results. Protecting people registers with men as strength, but not with women as strength. Endangering people, innocent people, including the woman herself, registers as strength. I know this from my personal life experience. If you doubt me, check out the love interests in books written by women for women. All women are like that.

…

You don’t plant trees on land you don’t own, and if you don’t have some land and plant some trees for your grandkids, it hurts.

Roissy truthfully tells us how to operate in defect/defect equilibrium with women. But the point is to achieve cooperate/cooperate equilibrium.

…

Female behavior that appears wicked, foolish, and self destructive to a man is entirely intelligible when we realize that the proud independent rapidly aging overweight barista with one hundred thousand dollars in college and credit card debt is unlikely to have children, and is likely to die alone and be eaten by her numerous cats, but if abducted by Islamic State and sold on the auction block naked and in chains would probably have seven children and twenty five grandchildren, and would die surrounded by loving family.

If a man is defeated, conquered and subdued, perhaps because his tribe and country is conquered and subdued, he is unlikely to reproduce. If a woman is defeated, conquered and subdued, she has escaped from defect/defect equilibrium, escaped from prisoner’s dilemma, and also been transferred from weak men and a weak tribe to strong men and a strong tribe, and is therefore likely to be highly successful in reproducing. As a result, women have no country, no tribe, and no ingroup. When they are daughters, they have their father’s tribe, when wives, their husband’s tribe. A woman without a father or a husband is a stateless person, and if a state piously declares her to be a citizen, the state is deluding itself, or deluding its actual citizens in order to commit treason against them.

Thus female behavior that is seemingly wicked, self destructive, and crazy, makes sense when looked at through the lens of Evolutionary Game Theory.

…

But there is no escape from shit tests. Mohammed had a large harem, absolute power, and it clear he had a hard time. This is a chronic problem with large harems, and empires frequently die of it, as is the Turkish empire did and the Chinese empires often did. Genghis Khan had no women problems, and neither did his sons, but his grandsons were lesser men than he. Women will find a way to shit test you.

[ryanmeft]

Movie Review: Motherless Brooklyn

The greatest villains of noir are never the central antagonists. The corrupt cops, the slimy businessmen, and the small time hoods and assassins typified by the genre’s heyday are of course all vital to the seedy underrealms these movies sink us into, but the true villain is always the world itself, and specifically the rotten and festering systems whose waste drips down and creates the conditions for battered, weary detectives and crooks with no hope in the first place. This was implied in most classic noir, but Edward Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn makes it explicit. It focuses on a man seen by others as a freak, trying to do a good thing in a city that exists because of bad things. He’s up against such a vital underpinning of his entire world that he might as well be trying to punch out the moon.

Lionel Essrog is not exactly the first person you might choose in such a fight, even if one overlooks his Tourette’s syndrome, which in the decidedly unenlightened 1950’s is unlikely. He’s one of several detectives working for the aging Frank Minna (Bruce Willis), whose particular skills would have been equally applicable on the other side of the law. Also under Minna, in a crew the older man pulled from the morass of an abusive orphanage and led through World War II, are the force-and-bluster tough guy Tony Vermonte (Bobby Cannavale), who has an interesting relationship with Minna’s widow (Leslie Mann); the sharp information-gathering Danny Fantl (Dallas Roberts); and the reserved and slightly bumbling Gilbert Coney (Ethan Suplee). The film opens with a terribly thrilling sequence in which Minna seems to be trying to make a deal with some underworld figures, and as one might expect the deal goes wrong, resulting in Minna’s eventual death.

Let’s take a moment and look at that sequence. It takes up the first half hour or so of the film, and it takes its time. Essrog, played by Norton, listens in for a signal from Minna, and you know something is going to go wrong. Yet where other movies might make that a quick and easy scene, Norton gets our hopes up that Minna might live, and it is genuinely affecting when he doesn’t, because of how much he clearly meant to our protagonist. This death is more than just a device to set off the plot of the film. It defines Lionel’s key character traits: loyalty to those he trusts, suspicion towards most everyone else, all of the wariness that a lifetime of being infantilized by others would give a man. His character is not defined by Tourette’s, which, for the record, is presented accurately as the repetition of tics and phrases rather than by the cliche and rare repeating of profanity. His photographic memory is a tool for detective work, but also a burden; imagine never forgetting anything, and if you’ve suffered at all in life you might realize that isn’t a superpower. He wears his boss’s old hat and coat, in tribute to the man rather than to try and be him. Lionel is a fully developed character, and not a gimmick. The film is patient with him and with the plot, the kind of patience lacking in modern films where audiences will sit for more than two hours only if computer effects are involved.

His case is no gimmick, either, but a fully developed and twisted web that goes, of course, up to the Very Top. The central question: why was Minna, ostensibly a licensed private eye, talking to mobsters as if they were dealing with each other? Lionel digs into this, and it becomes clear it involves the city’s powerful planning commissioner, Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin). He seems able to demand whatever he wants from the government, behaves like a Godfather instead of a public servant, and is involved in the demolition of slums. Ostensibly, the plan is to provide better housing for the mostly black residents, an assertion which is challenged by two people. The first is wary-but-idealistic housing activist Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), who develops a connection with Lionel that feels true and complex and not like an obligatory screenplay romance. Mbatha-Raw is a seriously undervalued actress, and here she represents the counter-culture of jazz, which was primarily African-American and seen as degenerate at the time. Her uncle Billy (Robert Wisdom) and cool-as-ice trumpet-playing friend (Michael K. Williams) have some level of insight into what exactly is happening to Brooklyn’s poor black population, and they become allies. It must be noted that scenes in nightclubs are handled perfectly, feeling like the close, crowded, smoky places that jazz clubs should be.

The second is a ragged man with a frantic voice named Paul (Willem Dafoe), who appears at meetings and angrily whips the crowd into frenzies against Moses. He lays out what crooked deals are going on, but encourages Lionel to be the one to stop it; he cannot, for reasons that will be revealed. I found him the most fascinating supporting character on the canvas, and a perfect role for Dafoe. In movies, most of the good-aligned characters we meet will eventually abandon all self-centered interests and heroically join the cause at great self-sacrifice. Film noir is decidedly unsuited to such sentiment, but in the old days often suffered from it nonetheless. Paul is the apotheosis of that: he is legitimately angry at the conspiracies he sees, but has been too hurt by his own failures to fix them in the past, and now wants to pass the buck so he does not have to suffer any more losses. In our heart of hearts, most of us know we are more like Paul.

Earlier I mentioned the look of the jazz world, but I must mention the look of the rest of the world, as well. Regular Mike Leigh cinematographer Dick Pope films a mid-century New York reproduced by production designer Beth Mickie, that is lost, where boat-sized cars rumble down narrow streets and dark shadows are hidden in the eaves of bridges and corners of doorways. Lionel is at one point invited to meet with Moses to strike a deal, and Moses’ office is as spacious as the rest of the city is not; in an excellent wide shot, he patrols this throne room as a king, passing judgments and decisions entirely as it pleases him. This is not a man who will fall like a typical movie crook, and indeed the film leaves open whether Lionel succeeds at all.

Norton, who is friends with novelist Jonathan Lethem, has, with the author’s consent, done what a filmmaker should: used the parts of the book that suit, and changed those that did not. Most notably, he has moved the 90’s setting (this project has been long gestating) to the 1950’s and wrapped up the plot in one of our great modern national stains, the New York housing discrimination that still affects the African-American community today. The parallels are both obvious and buried, and though Norton has discussed the connections between Moses and Donald Trump, this is not an overtly political picture. It is instead a deeply involving mystery with highly engaging characters and an intriguing world, that happens to have greater points under the surface for those who are looking.

Verdict: Highly Recommended

Note: I don’t use stars, but here are my possible verdicts.

Must-See

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Average

Not Recommended

Avoid like the Plague

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[hamtigers]

So for some reason I woke up today thinking about an RP community I used to be a part of for awhile years ago. So I just wanna give a shot out to anyone who used to be a part of the KH RP board Kingdoms Unleashed awhile back, especially before they shut it down and re-opened it. I tried to come back once after it reopened but I just... couldn’t stay inspired enough for threads with the character I returned on and the fact that they didn’t allow OCs anymore honestly killed a lot of the appeal in the forum for me. And during typing this I just noticed my bookmark for it still exists, but the board itself has been deleted. So I suppose I may as well delete the bookmark.

more specifics about my feelings (and info about the board for anyone uninvolved but curious) below the cut because I am going to ramble A LOT. Like... this post is gonna be hella long, so I’m sorry if read-mores don’t work on mobile still. Also sorry if this shows up in people’s searches since tumblr picks words out of the whole body and not just the tags.

I honestly feel like I’ve made a post like this once before in the past but I still... want to make it again, because I’m feeling incredibly nostalgic about it. Kingdoms Unleashed was a KH-centric RP board on proboards that I lucked out and got into very early on in its life thanks to @highly-radioactive-nerd stumbling across it. I know a few buds from the board also were mutuals on tumblr, but I don’t know how many of you guys still use this site. But anyway, the big draw of the board was that you could bring in characters from outside of KH as long as they “fit the feel” of kingdom hearts, which they ruled as being: from a disney property, from a videogame, from an anime/manga, or from a similiarly styled media(as the catchall for allowing characters from, say, avatar the last airbender in despite it being a western-made cartoon). This was before the big starwars and marvel mergers, which is funny to me because western superheroes were a given example of what wasn’t allowed. Every character (whether they were from KH or not) had to go through an application process, and it was the main way they screened for quality control in RP and so that they could make sure no one was bringing in any super overpowered characters (the quality bar wasn’t like, elitist or anything, you just had to show a basic grasp and consistency on the character’s personality and that you weren’t gonna post a bunch of one-liners) The minimum required activity level to keep a character was pretty lenient too, you just had to make sure you made a post like... somewhere around once or twice every two week period, with activity checks being made once a month? Unless you gave notice of an extended absence. (common reasons included travelling w/o internet access since smartphones weren’t common yet, computer problems, health reasons, and needing to study for classes and exams)

But on top of all this, they also allowed OCs and fan characters under some small stipulations. The big ones I remember are: -No keyblade wielders to avoid an over saturation of keyblades -No vastly overpowered characters. This applied to canon characters too though. Like... one person got to have a touhou character only because her powers got stripped down a lot and they had already proven themselves as a long time responsible RPer on the forum. -No pre-existing ties to canon characters. They could know OF someone if it made sense for their background! But they couldn’t have already met them personally. Anything that develops in character after that is free game of course, but if a canon character got dropped then picked up by someone else, they had no obligation to pick up where the previous player left off. This bullet point is gonna be super important in my later talking! -This is kind of a sub-thing of the last one, but nobodies also couldn’t (officially) join org-XIII under any circumstance.

 One of the GMs even admitted in the forum chat at one point that they were on the fence about allowing OCs to begin with, but they were glad they did because of the quality of OCs that got brought in.

The place ended up flourishing into a VERY healthy roleplay forum, with the  rare drama cases either being resolved or with the instigator getting thrown out if they didn’t settle down. My favorite part was that unlike other RP places I’ve been on, there wasn’t a massive posse schism or canon/OC schism. No, people RPed canon characters with OCs and fancharacters and characters from different games or anime constantly, to the point where several canon characters ended up in romantic relationships with peoples’ OCs.

I loved it. My characters never ended up among those dating canon characters, but it made me so genuinely happy to see a forum so openly embracing fan characters and OCs to that degree. I was used to people only wanting to facilitate ships they already had in their minds, or making fun on FC/canon ships in other places that it just genuinely made me happily astounded to see the forum grow into a place where that was common and other RPers would actually like... get invested in and follow these romances they weren’t a part of despite not knowing the OC.

I still occasionally wonder, however, if the forum’s overall activity hadn’t dwindled down, if I would have landed a ~dream ship~ with a canon character and my own fancharacter. A bunch of people had been recently bringing in FFIV characters (which is my fav FF not counting XIV) so I decided to take a chance on bringing in my fan character, Ayletta. This was shortly after I had lost inspiration for Rydia and dropped her so that another fan of the character could have her instead and hopefully do her more justice.  Ayletta is a physically disabled girl (can’t stand or walk for more than very short periods of time) that relies on her Chocobo to get around and dreams of having her own chocobo ranch. What didn’t get included in her profile or mentioned by me anywhere on forum was that I "secretly” ship her with Kain.

Guess who just happened to be the only person that joined my first thread I started as her was? I was immediately ecstatic, even more so when I saw how quickly they got along even with someone else controlling him. What really got me and left me wondering what ~could have been~ is what they included in his described thoughts, but not in his spoken words. The RPer drew parallels between Ayletta/her chocobo and Kain’s father/his dragon to the point where he immediately was in awe and respect of the bond between Ayletta and her bird. This was a facet I had never even realized or considered between them before then, and only added to the fuel of my own thoughts. The thread was fairly short lived, but there was definitely plans for them both to meet up again later on which unfortunately never got to happen.

[schraubd]

Federal Court: "Jewish" Isn't a Race Under Title VII

Last year, I wrote about a federal court opinion in Bonadona v. Louisiana College, addressing whether Jewishness is a "race" for purposes of Title VII litigation. The question rarely comes up, because Title VII also protects against religious discrimination, and so Jews suing on basis of antisemitism typically just use that as their statutory hook. But Bonadona involved a Jewish-born convert to Christianity, who was nonetheless allegedly denied a position at a Christian university on the basis of his "Jewish blood" (yes, that phrase exactly). So he couldn't claim religious discrimination -- he was Christian, just like his would-be employers -- but the reference to "Jewish blood" certainly smacks of an employer who viewed (and disparaged) Jewishness as a race. The decision last year concluded that Jewishness is, or at least could be, a race for Title VII purposes. But it was actually only a magistrate's recommendation, and a few days ago the district court judge apparently overruled that recommendation (via) and decided that Title VII categorically does not provide protections to Jews as a "race" because Jewishness was not understood to be a race in 1964 (I say apparently only because the court's opinion does not mention or discuss the magistrate's recommendation in any way). This lack of discussion is disappointing, since the magistrate's opinion raised some issues that I think are worthy of discussion but get no attention in the relatively sparse treatment offered by the district court. The latter's analysis begins and ends with (for what it's worth, uncited) declaration that Jewishness wasn't viewed as a race in 1964, and so consequently the statute could not have been intended to encompass Jews (at least, as a race). This distinguishes the Bonadona case from other precedents which found Jewishness was a race for the purpose of Section 1981 litigation -- Jewishness was seen as a race in the 1860s, but wasn't by the 1960s. To me, though, this analysis isn't persuasive, and smacks of a sort of vulgar textualism (what in the constitutional context is sometimes called "original expected applications originalism) that is just wrong as a matter of fundamental legal interpretation. The right question -- even from an originalist/textualist vantage -- isn't whether Jews were (by everyone? the majority? themselves?) viewed as a race in 1964 (or 1866). It's whether, under the prevailing understanding of "race" that would have dictated meaning in 1964, Jews are being viewed as a race now (either generally, or in the particular fact pattern at issue). For example, suppose that in the mid-1970s, a race of human mole people emerged from beneath the earth and sought to integrate into above-ground human society. Though they're biologically human, they have their own distinct customs and practices, and are physiologically distinguished by their dark blue skin. In the United States, they are quickly assimilated into normative American race politics (e.g., White supremacists hate them, some people are nervous about allowing them into their children's public schools, a network of stereotypes about them quickly entrenches itself, and so on). Are they a "race" for Title VII purposes? It'd be weird to answer "no" because in 1964, "moleman" (not yet having been discovered) wasn't recognized as a race. Rather, the question is, given what "race" was understood to have meant in 1964, whether the manner in which the mole people are being treated corresponds to a racial category. If the answer is "yes", then they're a race for purposes of the statute. If not, then they're not. The reason we have to stretch to a hypothetical about "mole people" is that it's quite hard, under prevailing contemporary understandings of race, to imagine a clear cut example of a new race being "discovered". In reality, while race is not a static concept, social groupings don't move into or out of the category all at once. In the case of Jews, for example, sometimes we've been viewed as a race and other times not, and even within a discrete time period some people have viewed us as a distinct race and others not. White supremacists today still discriminate against Jews on racial, not (just) religious, grounds, even though many other people do not view Jews as racially distinct. That was probably equally true in 1964. It seems very odd to say that discrimination that is both expressly described by the perpetrators and acutely experienced by the victims as occurring on racial grounds is nonetheless not on basis of "race" because ... what, exactly? Jews aren't "really" a race? There isn't a metaphysical  or biological reality to race, other than how it's performed -- the act of treating a group as racially distinct is all there is to race-ing a group. Consequently, I'd suggest that, at minimum Jews are a race for Title VII purposes in cases where the discriminatory treatment they experience is racialized. The markers of racialized treatment -- which I think had purchase in 1964 -- are things like viewing ones personal character or human value as dictated by one's biological ancestry, assuming sweeping similarities across a wide range of character traits based on perceived physiological or genetic similarity, viewing the group as one which has the potential to degrade or "pollute" the gene pool, perceiving membership in the group as per se (or at least highly suggestive) evidence for all individual members that they are congenitally incapable of integrating with others not-like-it, and so on. Admittedly this may not be amenable to being nailed down  with precision-- but that fuzziness is probably why Title VII doesn't attempt a definition of "race" (if it were as simple as "the groups that were generally classified as races in 1964", then the statute could have easily just given that list). To a large extent, when it comes to whether a particular group is being viewed as a race, "we know it when we see it". Does the above rule -- where one is a race when one's discriminatory treatment is racialized -- cover all cases of antisemitism? Not necessarily. Someone who refuses to hire a Jew because "they don't worship the same God I do" is engaging in religious discrimination, but that sort of statement does not on its own evince a view of Jews as a distinct racial group. One can imagine a range of cases that get grayer and grayer as you approach the middle, but refusing to hire someone because of their "Jewish blood" seems to sit pretty comfortable on the far side of the spectrum. And this, I think, represents a more faithful application of the original understanding of the word "race" in Title VII than the casual inquiry given by the District Court. It is unlikely that the drafters of the Civil Rights Act thought of themselves as protecting certain ahistorical and immutable categories of "races" that existed from the depths of antiquity and would persevere endlessly into the future. By 1964, when we had started abandoning the view of race as a biological reality and instead treated as a sociological category, a "race" for Title VII purposes is a group that is treated as a race in cases covered by the statute. via The Debate Link https://ift.tt/2MZh5v7

[bk-201-314]

Why is Turf Grass a Discourse?

Like, this is a thing actually happening right now on tumblr? Are we for real? This is hilarious only because otherwise it would be horrifying. 

When I first saw signs of the discourse on the nice green plant covering most of our yards I thought for sure it was a joke. We had already done this before and the results were not great *coughcough-as-the-increase-in-astroturf-in-cough-southern-United-States-would-show-cough*, we couldn’t possibly be doing this again, right? I was apparently very wrong as I saw more and more posts about it.

Grass and lawn owners were being called out, but why? People were left with many many questions I am sure; and as a Horticulture graduate in North America with a course of Turf Care under their belt, I’m hoping to make some clarifications for a few people.

The grass in most well-kept lawns on your average residential street today originated in Europe. Livestock grazing caused the grass there to begin to grow naturally shorter. This, in turn, became used as a defensive strategy for walled cities as the shorter grass surrounding them gave them a better line of site to approaching enemies. In the 17th century recreational grass came into use as formal open turf areas gained popularity with the rich for garden parties and polo matches. In the 18th century open space between gardens would be filled with turf in estates and parks, but still be grazed. That is until in 1830 when Edwin Budding invented the lawnmower.

Soon, turf grass came to the Americas during colonization and grew in popularity as cities established and then even more so when suburbia did after WWII.

This is where our issues begin. 

Under Anti-Grass or Anti-Lawn (or whatever the hell you want to call them) belief, today the modern lawn is an introduced species, therefore not entirely suited to our climates, therefore requiring more care. This seems especially true when they begin to discuss grass as a monoculture. Monocultures are mass plantings of a singular species as we see with many of our crops today and monocultures are notoriously known to struggle with pests and disease.

This seems to make a lot of sense to people who see grass as one singular species of which it is not. Many yards today are polystands. Meaning they consist of two or more species and often different cultivars of said species. You can go from one section of the yard to another and often find different species from one patch to the next. Polystands generally require less maintenance and are more resistant to pests and disease.

So why is there a belief that yards are monocultures? Three reasons: Sports, Sod, and People just not knowing any better.

Many sports fields are monocultures particularly golf courses as different grasses on your greens can impact the speed and movement of the ball. The golden child of sports grass is Agrostis stolonifera (Creeping Bentgrass) and in warmer climates, you’ll find Bermudagrass is the favourite. This is because Bentgrass is extremely aesthetically pleasing in both colour and texture. It also repairs itself quite well. Golf greens were considered the epitome of grass and therefore the desire of many a homeowner to the point where Creeping Bent was an extremely popular monoculture choice for residential yards at one time. That all changed when homeowners began to see how unrealistic the maintenance of these yards would be.

Agrostis stolonifera is the most high maintenance of the cold season grasses in North America.  It is not drought tolerant and requires syringing or misting on hot summer days. Active growing season means it can be cut almost daily and non-active seasons mean at least three times a week. It grows in so thick and is the highest thatch producer that it needs regular aeration and dethatching. This same thickness makes it very prone to disease which in turn would mean the use of pesticides. Creeping Bent is also a huge glutton with one of the highest fertilizer demands at 12-16 pounds of nitrogen per 1000ft per year with applications every 2-4 weeks.

Soon Bentgrass fell out of favour with residential owners but was replaced with Poa pratensis (Kentucky Bluegrass). The thing about Kentucky Blue was that it and its cultivars made up almost 100% of sod. Sod is a huge convenience, it gives you a yard instantly, but it is highly labour intensive to install, usually pretty expensive, and again it is mostly a monoculture.

So how are these residential monoculture plantings polystands today? We overseeded the crap out of our yards. See, those with sod often have a hard time caring for it and end up having to overseed any thin areas and those with Bentgrass yards knew it would be easier to throw more seed into the yard than to just tear it up. This works because most seed unless otherwise specified is sold in polystand mixtures. This is also extremely useful if you struggle with yard weeds. If you can, remove the weeds and as much of the root systems as possible by hand, then overseed. If you can get the grass to grow thick enough it will force out and prevent yard weeds.

Fun Fact: your yard and a lot of its weeds are both introduced species, but weeds like dandelions, clover, Henbit, and Creeping Charlie often provide the first food source for our pollinators.

Continuing with our anti-grassers vs. Introduced species, it seems that because our lawns are introduced that automatically makes them bad whether they’re polystands or not. Granted our modern turf grass is not the most environmentally friendly option when you compare it to our native perennial grasslands; with root structures many feet below the surface and ample food and habitat for pollinators and other wildlife, but our modern lawns are not the worst thing to have either *coughcough-astroturf-coughcough-concretejungles-cough*.

Our turf grass today does not require much maintenance after establishment, still produces large amounts of oxygen and increases air quality, still provides security via line of sight, still sequesters carbon dioxide, it still filters runoff and rainwater and recharges groundwater, it breaks down some pollutants, still reduces noise pollution, turf still provides food and habitat for insects and pollinators, it dissipates heat, and probably most effective is humans like it.  Humans often experience biophilia, we have a tendency to like other living things, nature, and green things in general.  Our need for our own plot of grass is theorized to come from encoded memories of African savannas. It seems strange until you realize that green is a calming colour for humans and reduces tension and specifically walking on grass barefoot releases an increase in endorphins and can lower stress up to 62%. Our modern day turf grass makes walking barefoot extremely practical. It is often softer, denser, and shorter to see obstacles.  

Overall, our turf grass isn’t a problem. Until it’s grown in areas where it shouldn’t be. Make sure you have the right species for your area, for your soil, for your yard’s amount of sunlight, and are planting it at the correct time (SPRING IS NOT THE SAME PLANTING TIME FOR EVERYTHING!). Remember that grass can go dormant and know when for your area so you don’t have to waste water on it.

Also, know that mosses are NOT options even if they’re native as they often are even more high maintenance than our European turf grasses. Yards turned into edible gardens are not always practical, any less maintenance, and depending on the crop choice can actually be damaging to the soil. Invasive ground-covers and garden plants should be a no-brainer, as in FUCK NO!

Those in arid regions should not have turf grass beyond their natural grasses. The water consumption of turf grass in these areas is absolutely out of control and people who live in these drought areas and insist on maintaining them are indeed selfish. You do not need and should not have grass. Xeriscaping removes the need for supplemental watering, is easy as hell, uses species native to your area, still looks fantastic, fulfills that human need for green life, is fairly inexpensive, and unlike astroturf and grass paint (yeah that’s a thing); that hold in heat, the native plants reduce heat in the surrounding area like grass would.

In Conclusion:

Don’t hate on turf grass or people who have turf grass. Instead, educate about the benefits of more naturalistic landscapes consisting of native species, offer hardier lower maintenance turf grass options for people and more effective polystands based on zones and the environment. Grass is not bad, people just don’t fully understand it or its requirements. It’s such a common thing that it is seen as something that must be of less value and less effort when instead it should be the opposite.

[laranjatoranjalaranja]

Aesthetics and History of Art: what is their role under fully-automated luxury communism?

Aesthetics has become unpopular among the left. Today, it is commonly associated with fascism and right-wing manipulative propaganda tactics. Walter Benjamin’s famous text about the modern reproduction of artworks can be credited with laying out a great part of the structure and terms of this discussion. In his work, what he calls the “aestheticisation of politics” is famously associated with fascism, while art, understood as a kind of aesthetics that has been politicised, is contrarily and positively associated with communism.

The main reason why this text acquired the cult status it has today, within the artworld, is because of the way in which it defines contemporary art as inherently revolutionary. Benjamin believes that, thanks to recent advances in its technological reproducibility, truly contemporary artworks were finally freed from old hierarchical ideas of originality, and thus acquired a new and enhanced political potential, particularly suitable for the communist political project.

Aesthetics, on the other hand, without the politisation that would turn it into art, becomes simply the domain of appearances, simulation, and spectacle in the Debordian sense. And this is where this theory starts to show its fragility. 

A closer look at Benjamin’s theory reveals it to be susceptible to the same criticism as Debord’s Society of the Spectacle. As Jacques Rancière has pointed out in The Emancipated Spectator, the separation between the simulated appearances that seduce the masses, and the true reality only accessible to some, is unfounded and misleading, despite being commonly understood to be a fact of life. 

The legitimacy of this separation depends on a thriving platonic idealism that often affects both right and left of the political spectrum and which is particularly prevalent in the Western world. According to this ideology, the mind and the body are hierarchically separated. While the mind is our reliable means of accessing the truth, the body is the deceiving realm of flawed sensorial perception which is completely unreliable unless previously subjected to correction by reason.

If we understand aesthetics in its broadest possible form, as simply that which relates to the senses, it inevitably falls into the suspicious second half of this division. But art can still be saved if it is not understood in aesthetic terms but as politicised aesthetics. The politicisation of aesthetics entails fighting ‘the spectacle’, by subjecting the ‘simulations’ our body perceives to the political ‘corrections’ of our intellectual reason.**

To further clarify why this kind of framework is flawed, it becomes useful to make a quick detour to the work of another author. In Pedagogy of The Oppressed, Paulo Freire defines praxis as a dialectical union between theory and practice. This means that, while our theory can, and should, inform our practice, this same practice also needs to inform our theory, thus making sure it matches our actual, lived reality. This means that the relationship between mind and body, theory and practice, reason and senses, is better understood as one of cooperation and mutual dependency than one of hierarchy and antagonism. It also means that aesthetics, broadly understood, plays an essential role in this dialectical process.

But, going back to Benjamin, I have said that the main reason his theory got so popular within the artworld is because of the revolutionary character he assigned to art. But this is not the only reason. Complementing this idea, we have a second one which relates to the phenomenon of demonization of aesthetics I mentioned in the very beginning. 

It is becoming increasingly hard to ignore the fact that the art faces serious, and inherent, issues and contradictions. The complementing aspect of what makes Benjamin’s argument appealing is that it allows us to keep our faith in art, while also feeling like we are targeting the problems that ‘threaten its purity and integrity’. These problems are thus presented as non-inherent, originating from external sources, and a great deal of what made this ‘outsourcing’ possible has been the use of aesthetics as a scapegoat for the issues affecting art in general.

Aesthetics has proven to be a particularly good fit for this. This is because if, on the one hand, some people felt suspicious towards art because they thought it was shallow, futile and even deceiving, we could argue, like Benjamin, that this was a problem of aesthetics and not art. Although this ‘futility’ argument is relatively common, it is not a very strong one (as I have tried to show when I mentioned Ranciere’s critique). A strong argument that can be directed against art, on the other hand, would be that it is a historical invention of the modern West, which means it has not always existed and, therefore, the usefulness of its continued existence becomes open for debate. But this critique too can be diverted towards aesthetics. 

In fact, aesthetics much more that art, was accused of being something made up in the 18th century by Western white males unaware of their privilege, to create rules that would validate what they thought of as beautiful and worthy of attention. Aesthetics, as a discipline, deserved all the criticism it got. More recently, the art market and the ‘artworld’, where also targets of a similar critique which, was also perfectly valid but, for some reason, continued to assume that all these things can be separated from art itself. As if art could ever have come to existence, and continue to exist, without them.

This criticism of aesthetics as an academic discipline, the art market or the artworld, is usually done using a leftist discourse. But critiques that extend to the notion of art itself are rare. 

Occasionally, more radical leftists will become interested in topics like art. And many of them do end up realising, half way through their own research, courses or degrees, that all these accusations often thrown at ‘aesthetics’ are just as applicable to our notion of art. Frequently, these people end up being the ones who are more dismissive and suspicious of our contemporary cultural institutions in general. They often believe that art, like most of our contemporary culture, can be categorised as ‘capitalist spectacle’, and therefore should be understood as a distraction to be ignored. 

These people can be easily convinced that art is a capitalist invention of the modern West. But the conclusion they draw from this is that the best thing to do is to dismiss all the things presented as art by our artistic institutions as capitalist distraction tactics, meant to divert our attention from the ‘real’ issues. What they fail to recognise, on the one hand, is that art is not a distraction to be ignored, but a weapon to be fought. And, on the other hand, they make the mistake of accepting the terms in which the capitalist artworld defines what aesthetics can be.

Capitalism knows well how to use aesthetics to its advantage. It has developed things like marketing and branding, as well as art, which are complex and highly effective techniques designed to work specifically to its own advantage. It knows how to tell the seductive and persuasive story of its own triumph and legitimacy. 

This left, on the other hand, has little more than outdated ideas of communist propaganda, which are literally from the last century. And this is because, today, the left often conceives of aesthetics as either evil or merely secondary. We haven’t taken any time to develop an alternative way to understand this other part of us, the one that is more connected to the senses and which is equally essential to understanding the world around us.

While part of what I will do here is question the validity of, and politics behind, our modern notion of art, I also want to argue that aesthetics is, actually, not necessarily susceptible to the same criticism. Unlike art, the artworld and the art market, the word aesthetics can have an older, broader meaning. Aesthetics, as that which simply relates to the senses, is not susceptible to the same criticism as its modern academic homonym, or as art, because it is not to be understood as a Human creation. It is not connected to any idea of ‘what it means to be Human’ or any ‘essence’ of Humanity. So, in this specific sense, aesthetics can be said to be an a-historical concept.

The prevailing platonic idealism I mentioned previously, leads people to prefer thinking in terms of Art and Humanity, rather than in terms of aesthetics, which would imply the recognition of a common ground, shared among us and all the other animals.

Aesthetic sensibility, understood in this way, is possessed by anyone and anything that simply possesses senses. From humans, to animals and maybe even other kinds of beings. While we can say that not all cultures have art because the concept of art is an invention of the West, we cannot say the same of things like aesthetics in this broad sense.***

Rather than dismissing aesthetics as a product of capitalism or a more or less futile thing to be dealt with ‘later’, we need to recognise that capitalism will thrive as long as it continues presenting itself as the best, or even the only, materially realistic, viable, alternative. No matter how many theories and manifestos the left has, as long we are not capable of presenting aesthetic alternatives to what capitalism has been imposing, none of it will feel, or even be, translatable to real life.

The left cannot go on pretending like aesthetics is a dispensable, secondary issue. Aesthetics is not a distraction, it is an essential part of how we experience our lives and therefore it too deserves a pride of place in our political agenda. Ignoring it will not make it irrelevant.

At this point, I have been studying History of Art in academia for 5 years, and it strikes me how, despite appearances, truly revolutionary History of Art barely exists. Despite the overwhelming number of so-called radical journals and other kinds of left-wing publications, most of it is actually liberal. What I mean by this is that most of the people who write for these publications seem to share a common goal: to free art from the elites’ domination (much like Benjamin). This is a liberal goal because it aims at reforming rather than revolutionising the existing system. It aims at saving art at all cost and it rules of even considering that its obvious and persisting problems might be inherent and that a possible solution would be to replace it with something radically different. Related to this, is another striking problem which is the prevailing assumption that art and the elites are separable to begin with.

I want to make it clear here that art cannot be understood (especially within academic contexts) as a human constant. Studying the history of art implies that art has a history and, therefore, a historical origin. Humans were not ‘artistic’ by nature, since the beginning of time. Art is a concept created by the modern West. There were no actual synonyms to the word Art in non-Western cultures and no one in Europe was even talking about such a thing until the 18th century (see Kristeller’s The Modern System of The Arts (pt. I and pt. II) and Shiner’s The Invention of Art*). 

It is irresponsible and anachronistic for Art historians to say or imply that art is something that humans have always done. This is an imperialistic tendency that we need to, not only distance ourselves from, but also actively fight against. And I stress actively fight against because these things I am writing about here have already been mentioned in academic publications from decades ago (Kristeller’s first article was published in 1951).

Since its creation, Art has existed to serve the capitalist elites (see Taylor’s Art, An Enemy of The People*). It was created by them, for them. To both serve and represent their interests. 

I say capitalist elites, specifically, because the works commissioned by the traditional nobility did not fit with our modern idea of art in their original contexts. The treasures of the French monarchy only became Art when the bourgeoisie took over and made them what they are today - the collection of an Art museum. These objects were stripped of their original meanings and functions and became targets of ‘disinterested contemplation’ and those who see this as a revolutionary triumph over an oppressive regime conveniently forget that the reality is more complex and the same thing was also done with foreign objects stolen by the French colonisers, shortly after.

Today, many people are still wondering why is Duchamp’s Fountain Art. The answer is, mainly, because this is what the elites behind our art institutions decided is art. The line between Art and non-Art is merely an institutional one. Art is an institutional system. And this is a system whose tables cannot simply be turned because, in order for Art to exist, it needs to distinguish itself from other modern categories like crafts and popular culture. The category of Art depends on this hierarchical distinction because, simply put, Art is High Culture.

This means that as long as art, as we understand it today, exists, there must also exist a privileged group that gets to draw the line between High and low culture. The cultural identity of these elites might change overtime, but their status as oppressors will always remain, within this structure. This is why the quest to ‘democratise’ art is merely reformist rather than revolutionary. 

I am not advocating for the burning of museums, Futurism style. I do think museums are important sources of information that should be free especially when they are public. What I am saying is that when these museums exhibit things that were not originally intended to be art as if they have always and unquestionably been so, they are making a serious mistake. They are silencing alternative narratives and disrespecting the people who created the objects they claim to be spreading knowledge about. They are suppressing aesthetic diversity, not promoting it.

Regarding contemporary Art museums and galleries, I think it would be fair to say that they are mostly bullshit. I make intentional efforts not to give any of my money to them (this also applies to academic Art Schools). I sometimes visit them, when they are free, because I want my opinions to be informed. I don’t usually pay for any tickets (they are usually even more expensive than regular museums anyway) nor do I let myself be troubled by those who believe I cannot be an expert on Art with a proper opinion, if I don’t go to all the ‘landmark’ cultural events. I try not to let art snobs like Jonathan Jones dictate which cultural events are or aren’t worthy of attention.

To conclude, History of Art as an academic discipline still has serious issues. Real History of Art should recognise that Art has a specific historical origin, and not treat it like a mysterious (mythical) part of ‘Human Nature’. 

To do leftist History of Art, nevertheless, we need to take this even one step further and study the consequences of the capitalist origins of this phenomenon and how it developed from there. The impacts of its structure, the way it works, how it legitimises itself, its weaknesses, all these should be analysed in ways that will allow this phenomenon to be coherently perceived through a left-wing lens, subsequently enabling us to imagine viable alternatives to the current Art system (Richard Sennett does something like this in his book The Craftsman. If you don’t feel like reading, he also explains it beautifully in his lectures on craftsmanship available on youtube).

Also, I feel like I should mention that the mythical treatment Art historians give their subject, either emphatically and intentionally or through the passive and implicit acceptance of this mythical definition, is probably one of the things that mostly contributes to the much criticised workings of our contemporary art market. Surely, one of the reasons why artworks are sold at such exorbitant prices is because what these people are buying is not just good looking paintings. These objects are being sold as the latest, most recent pieces in the important puzzle that is Human History. Once gathered all in the correct order, these pieces are thought to reveal what it means to be Human. The ‘History’ of Art I’ve been criticising here is largely responsible for the maintenance of this profitable myth, that has been giving the powerful disproportionate control over the narratives of our collective existences.

Notes:

* If you don’t have access to these texts via your public libraries, genesis online library should have it for free download, just click here and try following the links presented (they are forced to keep changing domains because certain people don’t like it when information is too accessible).

** I do believe there is something more to be said about this politicisation of aesthetics. I think it can be a very useful and interesting terminology, but it needs to be conceptualised outside of this limited ‘reality versus simulation’ framework.

*** Or, for example, of something like venal blood. All people and animals with venal blood can be said to have venal blood, despite understanding or not what this means. A culture which does not understand what we mean by ‘art’ today, cannot be said to have it (they will have other things, which they will understand in different terms, and which, I want to emphasise, are not of lesser value just because they won’t fit our ‘artistic model’).

[topfygad]

A guide for traveling Tajikistan (Tips + 3-week itinerary)

The ex-Soviet Republic of Tajikistan is a truly wild country that you don’t want to miss in your Silk Road journey.

Home to the Pamir range, one of highest mountain ranges in the world, the mountains of Tajikistan attract the most adventurous travelers, especially those wanting to drive the M-41, or Pamir Highway, an impressive road and architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest and most beautiful mountain scenery in Central Asia.

With tourism increasing year by year, the country is daily becoming more prepared to receive international travelers and, after spending 1 month in the country, I have this compiled this guide that contains all the tips needed for traveling to Tajikistan, plus a compelling 3-week itinerary.

Read: Ultimate guide to the Pamir Highway

    Visa Travel Insurance Best time to visit The country, the people and its culture Getting in Safety Scams and corruption Money Food and alcohol Transportation Useful books Internet and SIM Card Accommodation Itinerary More information

Total transparency! – If you like my website and found this post useful, remember that, if you buy any service through of my links, I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. These earnings help me maintain and keep Against the Compass going! Thanks

Do you know what a VPN is? A Virtual Private Network allows you to access blocked sites when you travel, as well as it lets you access content only available in your home country (like Netflix), plus it prevents hackers from stealing your personal data. Learn here why you should always use a VPN when you travel

  How to get a visa for visiting Tajikistan

Most likely, you can get an e-visa – Most nationalities can apply for an e-visa through the official portal, valid for any port of entry.

The visa costs 50USD, is valid for 45 days, single entry and takes 1 or 2 working days.

Double entry visa – If you want one, you will have to get it through the embassy. Most people who want a double entry visa do so because they want to travel the Afghan Corridor, accessible from Ishkashim.

If this is your case, these are the requirements:

1 Passport valid for at least 6 months of validity and with two empty pages

Passport copy and visa copy from the country you are applying from

2 Passport photos

US Dollars

I applied for one in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, and got it on the same day.

My double entry visa for visiting Tajikistan

GBAO Permit – The Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO) is the region located in the east of Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway and Wakhan Valley are. 

If you want to visit it, you must tick the GBAO checkbox in the application form. If you are applying at the embassy, make sure to tell them, so you get the extra stamp.

By the way, the GBAO permit costs an additional 20USD.

Read: 30 Tips for traveling to Kazakhstan

Trekking in GBAO – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Travel Insurance for Tajikistan

Eastern Tajikistan, where the Pamir Highway is, is a high altitude area, averaging around 4,000 meters above sea level.

You should know that, if you read the fine print, most insurance companies won’t cover you from 2500-3,000m and above, so you better check before you travel to Tajikistan. 

World Nomads, however, does provide cover, including their most basic policy, which already covers for trekking at 4,000m.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE QUOTE FROM WORLD NOMADS

If you want to know more options, read how to find the best backpacking insurance

  Best time to visit Tajikistan

If you plan to do some trekking in eastern Tajikistan, you should come in summer.

I remember being in Alichur, a small village in the Pamir Highway and one of the coldest places in Central Asia, and, in the morning, during August, it was -5ºC and there was a freezing, strong wind, so it felt even colder. 

Imagine the weather there during the rest of the year.

Me, at the top of Gumbezkul Pass. It was the month of August and it was absolutely freezing – Best things to do in Tajikistan

Nevertheless, the Pamir Highway is open all year long so, if you are self-driving, you can drive it at any time. Actually, my friend Joao Leitao from Nomad Revelations drove it in winter.

On the other hand, the Fann Mountains in west Tajikistan are at lower altitude, hence warmer, so they can be visited during spring and fall. 

I did the 7 lakes trek in September and it was particularly hot!

The Fann Mountains – Is travel to Tajikistan safe

  The country, the people and its culture

After the Soviet Union’s dissolution in 1991, Tajikistan went through a dark period of Civil War that lasted pretty much until 1997 and it was not only in 1999, that they formed an actual, stable government, even though Emomali Rahmon, who is still today President of Tajikistan today, had already been ruling from 1994.

It was one of the countries most affected by the Soviet Union’s breakdown, as all their economy and development depended on the Russians so, after getting their independence, the country went to ruin.

Murghab and all the Pamir highway is really poor – Should I travel to Tajikistan

That crisis can still be seen today, as this is clearly the least developed of all the Stans (not counting Turkmenistan), a country with high rates of unemployment, and the fact that most of their infrastructure is still from the Soviet Union times.

It is also the least Westernized country, also due to the fact they are far from Russia so, unlike Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, their cultural influence is not that visible, hence they have less international exposure.

Actually, after having some conversations with quite a few highly educated Tajiks in Dushanbe, I felt that they don’t really know anything about what is going on in the outside world.

A Soviet truck

They were people with very few Western values and no apparent ambition who asked me many times why I would ever want to travel to Tajikistan.

Moreover, Tajikistan is one of those fake democracies where elections are celebrated but there is only one political party, so the same President has been ruling since 1994.

There is no freedom of speech and I remember when my Australian friend, Sam, was talking to a local man for about half an hour at the main square in Dushanbe, a man in a suit came to ask what was going on and invited him to leave.

This means that, still today, the Government doesn’t like their citizens to get international exposure.

The Tajiks – Tajiks are a Persian ethnic group who live mainly in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but also in Xinjiang (China) and Uzbekistan.

Actually, nearly half of the total Tajik population live in Afghanistan.

Lovely Tajiks in Khujand – tRAVEL TO tAJIKISTAN

Nevertheless, you should know that, like all the Stans, Tajikistan is ethnically mixed and, actually, most of the people living in the Pamirs are Kyrgyz, whereas those in the Wakhan Valley are Wakhis, so if you want to meet the real Tajiks when you are traveling to Tajikistan, you will have to explore Dushanbe and the western part of the country.

Kyrgyz people from the Pamirs

Language – Tajik, which is a dialect of Persian (the language spoken in Iran and Afghanistan) is the official language. Russian is, of course, widely spoken among most people. English tends to be a problem across all the country. I recommend you learn some basic Russian before you visit Tajikistan. 

Religion – Tajiks are Suni Muslims but, like in all Central Asia, religion is not a very big deal. However, I felt that Tajiks were the most religious people in all Central Asia, especially those from the Fann Mountains. I remember that the men there never said hello or shook hands with my girlfriend.

Read: 65 Tips for traveling to Uzbekistan

Tajik women – Tajikistan travel guide

  How to travel to Tajikistan

Travel to Tajikistan by air

Traveling to Tajikistan by air is very easy, as there are many international flights connecting Dushanbe with Europe.

If you intend to travel the Pamir Highway, many people fly into Osh, the largest city in southern Kyrgyzstan and the beginning of the M-41 on the Kyrgyz side.

Travel to Tajikistan by land

Moreover, if you want to travel to Tajikistan by land, know that it shares a border with 4 countries and most of them have multiple border crossings. 

Kyrgyzstan – There are 6 border crossings and 4 of them are open to foreigners. The most obvious is the Kyzyl Art border crossing, which is the one that follows the Pamir Highway. For more information, read the latest Caravanistan updates.

Kyzyl Art pass: Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border – Tajikistan travel guide

Uzbekistan – There are 5 border crossings with Uzbekistan and all of them seem to be open. I personally crossed the one at Konibodom, that links Khujand with the Fergana Valley, but if you don’t plan to visit that region, it is not very convenient. The Oybek border crossing is the one that connects Khujand with Tashkent and Penjakent is the one that connects the Fann Mountains with Samarkand. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Afghanistan – You can cross at Ishkashim, the gate to the Wakhan Corridor and a very safe part of Afghanistan; or the border crossing south of Dushanbe, which is also open but leads to Kunduz, a not very safe part of Afghanistan. Both borders are open but, if you plan to travel back to Tajikistan, remember to have a double entry visa.

China – Apparently, Kulma Pass is open now, as long as you have a valid printed visa on your passport. For more information, check the latest updates on Caravanistan.

Kulma Pass leads directly to the Karakoram Highway that connects Kashgar with Islamabad in Pakistan. Read here the full guide.

Read: 75 Tips for traveling to Kyrgyzstan

Uzbekistan – Tajikistan border crossing

  Is it safe to travel to Tajikistan?

In summer 2018, 4 cyclists traveling across Tajikistan were murdered in Danghara, an area relatively close to Dushanbe. ISIS claimed the attack.

That accident triggered a big concern among many travelers and the Tajiks are concerned that it might affect their tourism negatively.

This unfortunate event, however, has been a one-off thing and I personally think that it shouldn’t affect your decision to travel to Tajikistan. A similar case happened in Morocco in December 2018 when 2 Scandinavian girls were killed and, so far, it doesn’t seem that tourism has been affected.

Aside from that, Tajikistan is a safe country with very low crime rates.

Tajiks are always friendly – Is traveling to Tajikistan safe

  Scams and corruption when visiting Tajikistan

I still remember being in the car with a homestay owner, on our way to Khujand, when he gave some money to a policeman after stopping at one checkpoint.

Why did you give him money? – I said

Oh, this is just the standard bribing procedure. If we don’t pay him, then he would try to find a reason to fine or arrest us. 

The corruption in Tajikistan is a well-known fact and some of these police officers also try to rip off foreigners but luckily, as tourists, there is not much they can do to you unless you are credulous and believe their lies.

Common scams include policemen telling you that there is a problem with your Tajik visa or making you pay an entrance fee to a place that, obviously, doesn’t require an entrance fee.

Dude, just think:

How the hell there is going to be something wrong with your visa? And also,where have you been where you need to purchase an entry ticket from a policeman?

Just say no and continue with your business.

Epic landscapes

  Money when you travel in Tajikistan

The official currency is the Tajik Somoni and, in February 2019, 1USD = 9.50SOM

ATMs and credit cards – You can find ATM’s in the big cities (not in the Pamir Highway).

How much does it cost to travel to Tajikistan

It really depends on where you go and, ultimately, how you travel the Pamir Highway.

Typically, meals cost something between 1 and 3USD and budget homestays around 10-15USD, which tends to include dinner and breakfast.

In Dushanbe, you can find dorms for 3-4USD and the local transportation ranges from 2 to 10USD, depending on where you go.

For all costs referred to the Pamir Highway, read my guide.

Read: 80 Tips for traveling to Iran

We were on a low budget, so we hitchhiked the entire Pamir Highway

  Food and alcohol when visiting Tajikistan.

Heads-up.

Like in all Central Asia, the food won’t be the highlight of your visit in Tajikistan. 

In the Pamirs and different homestays, you are likely to eat shorpo for every meal, which is a meat broth.

In local restaurants, you will just find things like shahslik, meat skewers; lagman, a noodle soup; manti, fatty meat dumplings; or plov, rice fried in lamb fat.

As per alcohol, as in all ex-Soviet countries, beer and especially vodka are found everywhere.

Lagman is the comodin dish. After eating 100 bowls of it across all Central Asia, I really hated it but since I like pasta a lot, I could handle it more than other dishes

  Transportation when you travel around Tajikistan

The below information refers to types of transportation in western Tajikistan, not the Pamir Highway. For this, read my guide to the Pamir Highway.

Marshrutkas – Marshrutkas is what former Soviet countries call their public minivans. They are really cheap and travel between most towns and cities.

Local shared taxis – Actually, we used more local shared taxis than marshrutkas and, as far as I could see, they are the most preferred option among locals.

Hitchhiking – Highly doable and easy! We actually had one of our most crazy hitchhiking experiences, when we spent more than 48 hours in a truck, on our way from Khorog to Dushanbe.

Traveling in a mini UAZ-452 – A classic Soviet van

  Books for traveling to Tajikistan

Tajikistan Travel Guide by Bradt – The most comprehensive travel guide to Tajikistan. I bought all the Bradt guides to Central Asia (e-Book format). They are, by far, the most insightful guides I have ever read recently.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Central Asia Travel Guide by Lonely Planet – I am not a fan of this guide, but if you are traveling to all the Stans and want to buy just one book, it is a good choice as well.

 CLICK HERE TO CHECK PRICES ON AMAZON

  Internet and mobile when traveling in Tajikistan

Wi-Fi – From Murghab to Khujand and Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi connection when you are traveling in Tajikistan is one of the worst I have ever seen. In Dushanbe, the Wi-Fi in my hostel was particularly bad and then every day I would go work to a fancy café and the internet was down every now and then. In the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley, Wi-Fi doesn’t exist.

SIM Card – 3G was just OK anywhere outside of the Pamir Highway. I bought MegaFon and, for a few Somonis, I got plenty of GBs.

  Accommodation in Tajikistan

Homestays – On the Pamir Highway, homestays are the way to go. I recommend you stay in random homestays, not in the popular ones. This way, the benefits will be spread more equally plus random homestays are cheaper.

Hostels – Hostels are popular, from Khorog to Dushanbe and Khujand. Click here to check all the available hostels in Tajikistan!

Hotels – In Khorog, Dushanbe, and Khujand you can find hotel options for mid-range travelers. Click here to check all the available hotels in Tajikistan!

Yurts – In the Pamirs, you can also find nomadic yurt camps where Kyrgyz nomads live.

A yurt camp somewhere in the Tajik Pamirs

  Traveling to Tajikistan – 3-week Itinerary

I traveled to Tajikistan from Kyrgyzstan via Kyzyl Art Pass and left through Uzbekistan at Konibodom, so this Tajikistan itinerary reflects the direction I took.

Map of the Tajikistan itinerary

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Pamir Highway (8-9 days) 

Built by the Soviets in 1930, the Pamir Highway is an architectural masterpiece that goes through some of the remotest landscapes you can ever imagine.

Officially, it starts in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) and ends in Afghanistan but the highest and most beautiful part of it lies in Tajikistan.

The following information is just a small summary.

For the full guide, read my 6,000-word guide to the Pamir Highway.

The stunning Pamir Highway – Tajikistan travel itinerary

How many days are needed for the Pamir Highway?

Well, it is really hard to say. We spent more than 2 weeks between the Pamir Highway and the Wakhan Valley but that is because we stopped in many places plus we also did a 3-day trek.

Normally, most people take a 5 or 7-day tour (starting from Osh), which also includes the Wakhan Valley, but, to be very honest, it is not enough to explore the side valleys, which is where the most stunning landscapes are.

Amazing road! – Tajikistan travel itinerary

If you don’t have the time, I get it but, if you do, here are all the places you need to stop at:

Karakul (1 night) – The first big settlement coming from Kyrgyzstan, Karakul has a very big lake and with some pretty cool snow-capped mountains at the background.

Murghab (2-3 nights) – Murghab is the main town on the M-41 and a base for visiting other places and valleys. We first stayed 2 nights because we waited for a festival and then we stayed a 3rd night after coming back from the trek.

The mosque in Murghab – Tajikistan itinerary

Gumbezkul Pass trek (2-3 nights) – If you have your own car, you can do this trek in 1 day but we did it in 3, cause we walked all the way from Murghab and spent one amazing night with some real nomads in the middle of nowhere. For more information, I wrote the full guide for Everything Everywhere: How to trek the Gumbezkul Pass.

Alichur  (1 night) – Very cool landscapes, yaks, trekking and Marco Polo sheep safaris.

Madyian Valley, close to Murghab – things to do in Tajikistan

Bulunkul (Stopover) – The coldest place in Central Asia is home to a beautiful lake. The trek from Alichur to here is a popular one. You can find a few homestays.

For most travelers, the Pamir Highway is, definitely, one of the best things to do in Tajikistan.

For more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Pamir Highway

The festival we attended in Murghab – Things to do in Tajikistan

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Wakhan Valley (3-4 days)

Many travelers tend to classify the Wakhan Valley as part of the Pamir Highway (M-41), which is completely wrong because they are 2 different places.

Actually, to reach the Wakhan Valley you need to leave the road and drive towards Afghanistan for several kilometers.

The Wakhan Valley

Anyways. The Wakhan Valley is one of my most favorite places in entire Central Asia and my most favorite place in my Tajikistan itinerary.

And the reason is that, besides being home to intriguing and jaw-dropping landscapes, the Wakhan is of great historical importance as the ancient border between North Asia and South Asia and on the remarkable Silk Road route, which can be seen in the many fortresses and other sites of cultural heritage there.

Moreover, in the 20th century, the Wakhan Valley marked the border between the Soviet Union and Afghanistan and the Soviet tanks came through here to invade Afghanistan in the 70s.

Today, the river you will go along during your whole journey, whose other side is in Afghanistan, is the main entry point for smuggling products, especially heroin, and, from the window of your car, you can wave and say hello at the many Afghans across the river, from whom you are separated by only a couple of meters.

Once again, this is a small summary, so for more information, don’t forget to check my guide to the Wakhan Valley in Tajikistan.

The views from Khaaka fortress – Left side is Afghanistan and right Tajikistan – Places to visit in Tajikistan

These are all the places we stopped at:

Langar (1 night) – The first big settlement you find is Langar.

We personally didn’t like Langar, as it is the only place in the Wakhan where the locals are very pushy in trying to promote their homestays, plus it is actually far from the river.

I recommend you continue for a few kilometers to Hisor, a more genuine village and with nicer views to actual Afghanistan.

Vrang (stop) – Vrang is another old village that has an ancient Buddhist temple. It is worth stopping for a few hours.

Yamchun (1 night) – The most striking fortress in the Wakhan, which stands with the Afghan Hindu Kush on its background.

Yamchun fortress – Places to visit in Tajikistan

It also has some famous hot springs called Baby Fatima that are believed to have some fertility benefits.

Namadgut (1 night) – There is nothing in particular to see here but travelers don’t tend to stop here, so it is quite untouched. That is why here we had the best cultural experience with a local woman who blessed us with her hospitality.

Kaakha Fortress – The second most famous fortress after Yamchun has also great views to Afghanistan.

Ishkashim (1 night) – The main town in the Wakhan Valley. It used to hold the Afghan market in no man’s land but it is temporarily closed. It is also the border to Afghanistan for those interested in doing the Afghan Wakhan corridor.

For more information, read my guide to the Wakhan Valley

Wakhi people – Best things to do in Tajikistan

  Tajikistan itinerary – Khorog (2 days)

After nearly two weeks of showering with buckets, using holes and bushes as toilets, exclusively eating shorpo and with no internet at all, getting to Khorog felt particularly good.

It is not a very big town but it has a good local market where you can buy many food items that were not available in the Pamir Highway, like cheese, and supermarkets with cold beer.

There is also an Indian restaurant that tends to be filled with travelers and a really good Tajik restaurant by the river, serving high quality grilled meat and other stuff.

Other than this, Khorog is a place to just chill, where we spent 4 days just catching up with work and filling our bellies with decent food.

By the way, the famous Afghan market takes place on Saturday.

Afghan people in the Afghan market of Khorog – A travel guide to Tajikistan

Where to stay in Khorog

Backpacker Hostel – Pamir Lodge – All right, it is a cool place and there is a friendly atmosphere. However, the hostel has the capacity for nearly 100 people and it only has two toilets and two showers, so when I came in August, it was very difficult to find them empty, apart from being quite dirty of course.

Backpacker Hostel – Hostel Do Nazarbayg – An alternative to Pamir lodge. You will find fewer backpackers but the location is much better and it is not that busy.

Click here to see the latest prices

Guest House – Riverside – A quieter, more homestay-style place.

Click here to see the latest prices

  The journey to Dushanbe – 1 day

The road to Dushanbe is a very long way.

Shared taxis take around 12 hours and cost 30USD. They leave from near the market but you need to be there early, 7am at most.

We arrived before 8am and there weren’t any marshrutkas or taxis left, so we decided to hitchhike and it took us 3 days, spending more than 48 hours in a truck.

The distance is only 518km but the road is really bad but beautiful and interesting as, again, it goes along the Afghan border for the most part of it.

The road from Dushanbe to Khorog: the left side is Afghanistan and the right Tajikistan

  Things to do in Tajikistan – Dushanbe (2 days)

The capital of Tajikistan is another place to chill for a few days while you collect some visas, like the Uzbek or Turkmen visas.

Well, not the Uzbek visa anymore, as from February 2019, they started issuing visas on arrival. Check my Uzbekistan travel guide for more information.

Dushanbe has cafés with real coffee, a variety of restaurants and a few pubs where to hang out at night.

What I liked about Dushanbe is that it was my first introduction to the real Tajikistan, as most people you meet in the eastern part are Kyrgyz, Wakhis or Pamir, so you will see a significant difference with the people living here, especially in the way women dress.

Don’t forget to check the main bazaar and the Rudaki Park, which holds the second tallest flagpole in the world

Where to stay in Dushanbe

Backpacker Hostel – Green House Hostel– We spent so many days here because the hostel was really comfortable. Comfy beds, a big kitchen and a living room with awesome couches.

Click here to see the latest prices

  Budget Guest House – Hello Dushanbe – If you want a less backpacker-friendly place, Hello Dushanbe may be slightly more expensive but the facilities are great. It has both private rooms and a dorm.

Click here to see the latest prices

Lovely Tajik women

  Hissor Fortress – Day trip from Dushanbe

If you are bored to be in Dushanbe, we also did a day trip to a fortress named Hissor, which was built by the Uzbeks in the 18th century, as this part of Tajikistan used to belong to the Emirate of Bukhara. The north was part of the Russian empire. 

All right, the fortress itself was boring, as it was overly refurbished, but we always like to get out of town, take a local marshrutka and just see other towns, so it was worth it only for this reason. 

How to get to Hissor fortress

From Dushanbe, you need to take a marshrutka to a town named Khisor. From there, take a taxi or hitchhike back to the fortress which is 4 or 5km away.

The fortress

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Penjakent and the Fann Mountains (3-4 days)

Once again, this is a small summary.

For all the information needed, read my guide to the Fann Mountains.

While they are not as stunning as the valleys around the Pamir Highway, the Fann Mountains are also very pretty and their main advantage is that, unlike the Pamirs, they are heavily populated and filled with several tiny villages where actual Tajik people live.

Tajiks from the Fanns

Therefore, visiting the Fann Mountains is a great opportunity to discover the real Tajik rural life, so different from anything you have seen during your Tajikistan itinerary. 

Most people come to the Fann Mountains to visit Iskanderkul lake but I recommend going to the area around Penjakent and doing the 7 Lakes Trek.

Trekking in the Fanns

The reason is that, although Iskanderkul is a beautiful lake, no people live there plus it is always busy with domestic tourists, which isn’t a bad thing, but you won’t see much of the local culture. 

On the other hand, the 7 Lakes trek starts in Penjakent and goes through several tiny villages where you can do homestays.

From Penjakent, we took a UAZ-452, the classic Soviet mini-van, and drove to a village named Rachnapollon.

That area is really off the beaten track, so the driver himself invited us to stay at his place, for free, but we decided to give him a generous tip because he had been feeding us. 

How to get to Penjakent

First, take a local shared taxi from Dushanbe to Penjakent, which costs 70TJS (8USD). It is a 230km journey.

In Penjakent, for just a few somonis, we got in the UAZ-452 to Rachnapollon, from where we started walking on the next day.

Remember to check my guide to the Fann Mountains

Random people during the trek

  Places to visit in Tajikistan – Khujand (2-3 days)

Khujand is the purest Tajikistan in its most genuine form and one of the oldest cities in Central Asia (2,500 years old). 

It is the second largest city in the country, a city with little international exposure that has kept its traditional values.

Most travelers use it as a mere transit point, as it is close to the closest border with Tashkent, but I recommend spending here two nights at least.

Arbob Palace Tajikistan

Things to do in Khujand

Don’t forget to check the traditional bazaar, one of those traditional bazaars where everybody asks for a photo and gives you free stuff; and all the mausoleums and historical buildings around the main square. The Arbob Palace is also worth checking out. 

Mosques in Khujand

Where to stay in Khujand

Budget Hostel – Somoni Hostel – The best choice for backpackers and a really cool hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Budget Hotel – Golden Apartments – The alternative to a backpacker hostel.

Click here to check the latest prices

Khujand’s bazaar

  More information for visiting Tajikistan

Here you can find all my articles and travel guides to Tajikistan

And here all my guides to Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan.

Traveling to Iran? Find all my articles here

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[triaconta-en]

Triaconta Weekly #90 | 13-09-2019

The following topics will be addressed in this weekly.

Bundles performance

All coins great and small

Market overview

Bundles Performance

This week’s number one coin is without a doubt Cosmos (+53% and big volume) but nobody can figure out why an announced Binance.us listing creates such a buzz. Second place is also a double digit gainer EOS (+11%). But sadly we see some double digit losers as well. Ethereum Classic (-11%) lost a part of its previous gains in the final week before it’s 12 September hardfork and Lisk (-12%) performed disappointingly reaching its lowest price of 2019.

The net effect on the Bundles was a flat performance this week, but with large differences between the currencies. Big 3 (-2%) was slightly down because of Bitcoin (-5%) returning yet again to $10k and only compensated by Ethereum (+2%) which seems to have found its bottom price for now. In the Top 30 (-0.7%) only as little as eight coins performed positively. In Penny Stock (-1%) the BitTorrent token (+12%) stole the show and with Cardano (+2%) another big drop for this Bundle was prevented. There is a shift towards a few altcoins, but not yet a general change.

All in all the market responds very positively to news of adoption and actual use-cases and negatively to struggle and conflict in a project team which could cause delays in development. Keep an eye out for this type of news if you are investing in single cryptocurrencies.

All coins great and small

What exactly are cryptocurrencies for? Where is my money actually going? We think it’s a good idea for you as an investor to know a little bit more about the cryptocurrencies you can invest in with Triaconta.

Stellar (XLM)

Stellar was founded by Jed McCaleb, who also founded another popular currency, the Ripple. In the beginning, Stellar even used the same protocol as Ripple. Like Ripple, Stellar is also intended to be a cross-border transfer and payment system that connects everyone quickly to each other at very low transaction costs. The main difference is that Ripple Labs is a for-profit commercial company and the Stellar Foundation is a non-profit charity that seeks to promote global access, financial inclusion, and financial education. The Stellar protocol, unlike the Ripple code, is fully open source.

Developing countries

Stellar’s primary focus is on developing countries and on bringing remittances, bank loans and other financial services to those who are still excluded from the services of the banks. No fees are charged to individuals or institutions for using the Stellar network. Each transaction requires only a fee of 10 stroops or 0.00001 lumens, currently around 1 millionth of a dollar. This focus however does not prevent one of the world’s largest asset management funds, Franklin Templeton, to tokenize a new moneymark fund on the Stellar blockchain. Check out the full story in our news section.

Stellar token

Stellar received an initial $3M funding from payment processor Stripe (in exchange for 2 billion lumens) and donations from organizations like BlackRock, Google and FastForward.

The project covers the operational costs of further development of the protocol by accepting tax-deductible public donations, and by using the 5 billion lumens (5%) reserved for this purpose at the start of the currency.

Stellar wants to be the email of money, and of course with the exception of spam. A required minimum balance of 20 lumens in your account is meant to prevent spam accounts. This minimum does not apply if you hold lumens on your Triaconta account.

Stellar inflation

Stellar does not use Proof of Stake like other cryptocurrencies and also does not use Proof of Work like Bitcoin or a dividend system like Neo with Gas. Stellar has an inflation rate of 1% per year. This fixed nominal inflation is distributed in the form of new tokens to all Lumens holders with more than 0.05% of the votes of other accounts in the network. So there is no block reward, and most transaction processing nodes in the Stellar network will be active applications of the Stellar blockchain. They don’t run a node for any other reason than to maintain the network they use themselves.

Decentralized exchange

A very important part of the Stellar blockchain is the built-in decentralized exchange. Through the lumens token a user can send every coin (crypto and fiat) to someone else and they can receive the value in every coin (crypto and fiat). The network automatically finds the best exchange rate.

Stellar and IBM

World Wire is a global payment system that connects banks via the Stellar network. It is developed by IBM and six international banks. Currently, the network is limited to two currencies: Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Stronghold USD, a stablecoin with underlying value in US dollars. It replaces the usual SWIFT network in a way that makes the entire “crypto” part invisible to the banks. Invisible but capable of switching real-time between different (crypto) currencies. A large reliable party like IBM makes it a little less stressful for the conservative banks to step into such a new technology.

Stellar or Ripple?

World wire looks a lot like Ripple, and that’s not a problem. The more banks become convinced that they can save money for themselves and their customers by joining a digital crypto network, the better. Some will choose Ripple for this, others will choose IBM and Stellar. The fact that many banking systems are already running on IBM machines does of course give World Wire a unique entrance to these companies.

How can I buy Stellar?

Stellar (XLM) is currently only available in our Top 30 Bundle. It contains 30 of the most popular cryptocurrencies and spreads your investment risk across all cryptocurrency categories. We are working on making more coins available as single cryptocurrencies.

Market overview

Smart move by Dash to partner with Lighthouse Cinemas in Nigeria, and let people who pay with Dash purchase movie tickets at a discount. Dash is really active all over the world. Part of the deal is that Dash gets to show a Dash commercial before the movie starts. So, when at Pathé cinemas?

A Californian politician has become the first elected official to use cryptocurrency to purchase cannabis in the United States. The purchase used Bitcoin Cash (BCH) for the Cannabis and Universal Dollar (a stable coin on Ethereum) for sales and city tax. A special bill allowing cash-free cannabis tax remittance is welcomed by local governments and cannabis shops. With 70% of the cannabis industry in California still being denied access to banks, it is often difficult and dangerous for these companies to pay their taxes in large cash deposits.

Dutchman Wietse Wind officially registered his XRP Community Fund as a foundation. You can now donate, comment and vote for suggestions on improving the use of XRP for payments. The XRP Community Fund is a non-profit organisation to support the development of tools / apps / integrations / plugins that make it easier to use XRP for (consumer/small business) payments. Brad Garlinghouse (CEO of Ripple) was interviewed on CNN today but was (of course) only asked about the price. It would have been epic if he had mentioned this little initiative of enthusiastic XRP developers. Every cryptocurrency project, even Ripple, needs lots of developers to move forward.

Watford FC, a major English football club that plays in the Premier League puts the Bitcoin logo on their shirts. That is exposure of BTC to hundreds of millions watching the league worldwide. But who is paying for this, since there is no Bitcoin company? Sportsbet.io is the primary shirt sponsor and this is their way of giving back and supporting the crypto community, which according to the betting firm’s head of marketing has always been highly supportive of them.

European Central Bank president Mario Draghi announced this week to resume quantitative easing and cut the deposit rate for banks holding euros at the central bank further to minus 0.5%. Negative interest rates and depreciating value of the Euro make an excellent case for plan B, Bitcoin!

[depressedbutstudying]

Introduction

Firstly, if you haven’t seen part one of my Notes Methodology post, you can check it out here. After you answer the question of “What should I study today?” using scoping methods, you can use active recall to ensure that the topics are thoroughly understood and stay in your memory longer. 

What is Active Recall?

Active recall describes practicing the actual retrieval of information from the brain’s memory storage, replicating the brain processes necessary to do well on any sort of exam, or in real life application. One of the major benefits to practicing active recall methods includes not only being prepared for multiple choice, true or false, and short answer exam questions but also being prepared for long essay questions and critical thinking questions as well. Active recall is most useful for non-math classes (except those that deal with history, memorization of theorems, etc.) 

One of the most common tools used in studying, flashcards, can be highly effective for cramming limited information and then dumping it, however, information learned using flashcards is unlikely to be transferred to long-term memory storage and then there is the hassle of creating the flashcards, whether physically or digitally. Flashcards are also not very accommodating to longer essay or short answer questions but rather fill in the blank or definition questions. The next most common method of studying or revision I see is the re-writing of notes. While re-writing notes can be efficient for note consolidation from multiple sources, such as lecture and textbook notes, into one document, it only aids in rememorizing information that you’ve already learned. Active recall works with notes to expose the holes in the information you already know, versus what you still need to know for your exams. 

Okay, So How Do I Practice Active Recall?

I will attach the same environmental chemistry scope that I used in part one of my notes methodology masterpost for scoping for reference. After completing those steps, you should have topics and subtopics that align with what you believe to be on your next examination. There are only two (2!) steps in my active recall method. 

Step One:

Write questions based off of your topics and subtopics. This step is pretty simple but needs to be done in a particular way in order to take advantage of the benefits of active recall. The most important part of creating active recall questions is to keep it as vague as possible while also considering the topic. An example of a good active recall question would be as follows: 

Topic: Tumblr 

Subtopic: Features 

Question: Describe the features available on Tumblr blogs. 

The open-ended nature of the question allows you to be able to fully exercise your ability to retrieve the information to answer the question in its entirety versus only having to retrieve a one-word answer on a multiple choice question. You do not need to write the answer to these questions down, rather just pretend that you’re teaching your topic to a five-year-old. 

Step Two:

Check your answers against your notes, textbooks, and other sources and revise as necessary. This is where the holes in your knowledge are exposed. In the example used above, if you weren’t able to recall the save draft feature on Tumblr but you know that it was super important to know, you need to practice that particular active recall question. Best part? You don’t have to worry about being too repetitive in either your question or answer m, because the question is so open-ended, so just try to push yourself to reframe your answer to keep the exercise of retrieval fresh. 

Conclusions

Using active recall as your main studying method cuts down on paper and extraneous steps like making flashcards while ensuring that you know more about the topic than you otherwise would, preparing your mind for any type of question that comes your way. You can read more about the active recall method here and watch a video about it here. 

_ x Happy Studying x_

[beinglibertarian]

Shortcuts & Delusions Special Edition: The Absurdity of Gary Johnson

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutly free that your very existance is an act of rebellion.” – Albert Camus

Obituary:

Libertarian satirist and vengeful deity Dillon Eliassen (spelled with an E for comedic purposes), whose work I sincerely admire, has died. Spiritually. Only spiritually. He is to be succeeded in spiritual death by a micronation of homeless people, his fellow members of the Fictitious Cement Workers’ Union, and Being Libertarian’s very own Editor-in-Chief Martin van Staden.

Dillon “The Jesuit” Eliassen (née Ottovordemgentschenfelde) was probably born on Christmas morning 1949, somewhere in Canada. Known for his youthful shenanigans, Dillon brought a smile to the faces of all who encountered him at San Quentin. While fighting for our freedom on the blood-soaked soil of Vietnam, Dillon gave birth to a mostly healthy yet premature appendix, and he named it me.

Let us begin.

Introduction:

Dillon left off with an in-depth analysis of ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome,’ a very real ‘condition’ that ‘I’ have personally heard firsthand accounts of on multiple occasions. This was a fitting place to conclude. The torch was not passed to me, but I am hereby picking it up off the ground, wiping the dirt and canine feces from its gleaming bronze exterior, and running with it in the exact opposite direction of any achievable goal.

I am Nathaniel Owen. If you don’t recognize my name, it’s because I am legitimately the least important person you’ve never heard of. I’m unknown for my efforts to bear the heaviness of the Imperial Antarctic Crown, and my occasional bouts of productive cyber-vigilantism. In 2014 I made a mistake, and today that mistake is Being Libertarian. They locked me in the CEO’s office until I pay for this crime.

Like my obvious relatives, Nathaniel Bacon, Nathaniel Branden, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, I am a revolutionary. I haven’t got a Che t-shirt, and I never attend the meetings. But like many communist tovarisch, I do have an iPhone. In the postmodern age, that’s a clever weapon to have! Climate scientists, for instance, have indicated that it’s really all the humble revolutionary needs these days. I am constantly confused as to the value of my executive role at Being Libertarian but remain the least confused as to why I maintain this position.

Today is my favorite day of the year, second only to New Year’s Eve. For me, today acts as a reminder of the closest thing I have ever encountered to universal truth; a realization that haunts, comforts, astounds and enchants me. Yesterday, we were but individuals rolling boulders up a hill. Today, we will try again to roll the boulders up that hill. Tomorrow, yet again, we will return to this habit. You have been doing this with me since the day you were born.

I like to count the number of seconds it takes the boulder to reach the bottom of the hill each sunset. In the morning, we will start over.

We Are All Sisyphus:

It’s quite pointless, analytically speaking. You probably don’t remember being born, nor were you an integral part in making that happen to you. No number of artifacts can preserve the complexity of an individual human being, and even if one could live immortally in the memory of others, time turns existential into the mythological.

The universe is dying. It will live scarcely longer than we will. You appear to have come into existence at random, in a time and place inherently foreign. As a child, you wander into a adulthood without happening on the answer key to any questions relating to how or why you exist in the first place. Much less, how or why the universe itself exists. A consequence of this is that We, The People tend to convince ourselves conveniently that the answers to such questions not only exist, but can be found in such subtle hiding places as your local political party, whatever holy book you were raised to read, your arbitrary interpretations of the signs and seasons presented to us by the light of the cosmos, or even in our own imaginations.

And we know because we can’t avoid knowing, that whatever facade we’ve sold ourselves is, in fact, still a facade even if we fall for it.

Every day spent living is a performative affirmation that something about you, even if you can’t figure out exactly what it is, still wants to find those answers. If this weren’t the case, the players of this game would be dropping like flies when they discover that there is no point in playing and no conceivable way to win and that eventually there will be no evidence that you ever played at all. In short, that life itself is highly unlikely to be worth the trouble.

Albert Camus, French philosopher, and journalist, was plagued with thoughts like those stated above. Camus became a constitutive inspiration of the Existentialist Movement (a tradition of philosophy asserting the importance of human experience in the appraisal and interpretation of ideas), partially during the Second World War, while serving in fierce defiance as the Editor-in-Chief of the French Resistance newspaper ‘Combat’ amidst the Nazi occupation of his homeland, and continuing this roll into the post-war world.

Though such matters in the realm of fundamentals and absolutes can be difficult to define, you may have wondered similar things about yourself, and perhaps continue to. Camus was particularly perturbed by the sheer fact that the universe itself and all that exists within it have no objective meaning or purpose. The rational insights we are both blessed and cursed with poke holes in all our mortally limited attempts to invent meaning of our own, and in the Modern Age, the old ideas of Abrahamic deities, universal truth, and inherent ethical rules, each of which having been rudimentary to the shaping and formation of modern society in some way, have been penetrated into philosophical Swiss cheese.

The Non-Aggression Principle is a rather useful little limerick when one doesn’t overthink it. But like all things implying morality, thinking it all the way through will lead you to fundamentals that cannot possibly be confirmed or denied. What, exactly, makes murder wrong? What about robbery? Or socialism? Or the unfairness of free markets? When all is said and done, is it really going to matter whether every little thing we chose to do was right, or wrong, or equitable, or unfair? At the top level, with capital crimes especially, it is not hard to find that the supermajority of humanity agrees on some basic ethical positions. But when applying these basics, they become more complicated. By the point that we are discussing the specific rights and wrongs of typical human behavior, no two people will find themselves in agreement on the application of what they may believe are universal, self-evident principles.

Camus asserted, rather poignantly, that suicide has always been an option. And the scariness, confusion, and uncertainty of existing in such an uncertain world have apparently not driven you to it. And why shouldn’t we die now? It all adds up to the same summary. Nothing is permanent. It’s very possible that nothing matters. Yet we, practically all of us, seem to be making the conscious choice each day to live on. It’s as though if we pull away some of that upstanding rationalism gifted to us during The Enlightenment, there is some other part of us playing such an integral role in our existence that it stabilizes and confirms our will to exist at all.

Camus was a hero in several ways, and today is his day. There are very few people who want to legalize murder, yet droves of people who wish to legalize marijuana, and to many hearty fundamentalists, these may be comparable issues. Sin is sin, oppression is oppression, and aggression is aggression. To many libertarians, and to what should be our collective shame, such things as unionizing the local labor force, stealing a sandwich from a street vendor, violently raping a helpless victim, and aborting the fetus conceived in such tragic circumstances are all comparably “aggressive,” and may not even be considered in terms outside of “aggression” regardless of how useful a new approach or perspective may be when considering such cases.

At the risk of losing all of my libertarian acquaintances, I will admit that once upon a time, I charged my iPhone (yes, my revolutionary weapon of choice) using a stranger’s charging cable without asking when he wasn’t around. I aggressed. I haven’t repented and I’m not sure my soul will be where yours will be on judgment day.

The point is, it makes so little difference whether we are right or wrong about what is “aggression” and what is not “aggression,” that it’s a wonder anybody even cares to discuss it for more than a few than a few minutes.

I do not care who builds the roads, or who decides what color to paint the bathrooms at Beacon Hill, or which Union and/or Confederate heroes/villains are memorialized in stone. I do not care to pay taxes of a meager nature. Of course, I will consistently support lower taxes; it’s my own self-interest at stake. I will not, however, declare that anyone who doesn’t concern themselves with it as deeply as myself to be a “sheep.” Sheep are blind followers. To the best of my knowledge, I have never met anyone who doesn’t fit that description, and yes, this includes myself. I’m no determinist, but I know that I know essentially nothing about the mechanics of what REALLY makes something moral or immoral. I also know that you don’t know either.

The universe you live in doesn’t care what you think. It doesn’t “care” in any way about anything, as far as we can tell. Clinging so staunchly to principles may as well be escapism from the dread and uncertainty of having existed in the first place. Cults operate by exploiting this inherent dread, and unlike the average man on the street who will immediately deny any experiences of being uncertain about his own existence, cults can see through this bullshit. The Liberty Movement should be no cult.

“The Absurd” is a boulder. Every second you live is an exercise in pointlessness. Searching for meaning, embracing the experience of uncertainty, and cracking a smile as your shoulders yet again shove that boulder up the hill… these are exercises in defiance. It is no coincidence that Albert Camus, espousing the conviction (or lack thereof) that no objective truth or purpose may ever be identified, was willing to put his life on the line to dignify and endorse the French Resistance Movement, and despite his eventual death in a car crash, his words live on.

We libertarians are the quintessentially anti-establishment political identity. When our fists are clenched around the chains of dogma and theoretical universal principles we may as well be chained to the same despotic foundation we’re trying to help others liberate themselves from. To think for one’s self, one must realize the degree to which the nuances and practicalities of the world we live in influence us. Peddling promises of applying some universal ethic that we, as representatives of the Liberty Movement, can’t even agree on the parameters of is no different than selling a religious experience; a method by which to keep the conscience clean, and supply some convenient, flimsy certainty that will never stand up to the scrutiny of the skeptical. If our universal truths were as permanent as they are constructed to be, we would never change our minds or opinions.

This rant will resume in 365.25 days when National Absurdity Day returns in all its glory, memento mori, and calendarial obscurity.

And speaking of scrutiny, I’m going to have to toss in a trigger warning. This isn’t even my first trigger warning. I’m a professional.

**TRIGGER WARNING** What you are about to read may cause severe bouts of Trump Derangement Syndrome. If you are a leftist, please do not read the following paragraphs while in close proximity to sharp objects. Symptoms may include blood shooting from the eyes, indecipherable screaming, close encounters of the fourth kind, and varying degrees of irritable face syndrome. Please notify a physician if you encounter itchiness of the spleen, cirrhosis of the autobiographical memory, or diarrhea of the oral cavity.

Why We MUST Defeat Gary Johnson You’re probably wondering about the guy in the title of this article who, thus far, has been absent from said article. In fact, he’s absent from things quite often, I’m told.

Gary Johnson is not a real libertarian. Why libertarians get starry-eyed in his presence is beyond me, with his espousal of blatant communism and acceptance of homonormative deconstructionist Islamomarxism. Johnson as a representative of libertarianism is a clear sign that the left is invading the liberty movement, further eroding private property norms and propping up support for the deep state agenda of the globalists.

Johnson has pretended to support unfettered free market capitalism, and even went as far as to insist that tearing down barriers of entry could give the average person better, fairer access to goods and services. “The model of the future is the sharing economy. It’s Uber. It’s Airbnb. I think it’s gonna be Uber everything.”

“Uber everything” sounds like a great idea until you take your morning Red Pill and see that this is just code for white genocide. Without a heterogenous government of the people, who will stop immigrants from driving Uber taco trucks and parking them on every street corner, forestalling traditional values and private property norms. Americans would lose their jobs, possibly to immigrants. Even libertarian heroine Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sees through Gary Johnson’s thin veneer of egalitarian lies!

He ran for president. Twice. On the second try, he broke every Libertarian Party presidential vote count record in the party’s history, surpassing even the likes of Our Lord and Savior Dr. Ron Earnet Paul. Mark my words, we will never forgive Gary Johnson for not being Ron Paul. His tax cuts were clearly a Democrat ruse to give spending power to the politically correct internationalist cabal of globalist elites like George Soros, Walt Disney, and Oliver Cromwell.

After making the Libertarian Party lose twice, Gary Johnson snuck in one more attack on libertarian legitimacy by losing in New Mexico in a Senate race where he only claimed 15.4% of the vote, singlehandedly handing victory over to communist Democrat Vladimir Len- I mean… Martin Heinrich (if that’s his real name).

Gary Johnson must be stopped. He cannot be allowed to run for office again, regardless of what degenerate socialist feminazis say about “free speech” and “democracy.” Democracy is a secret codeword known to the Fourth International for white genocide and subversion of private property norms. To Make America Great Again

, we must Physically Remove

this man that even the Democrats recognize as a tyrant. Socialists say that Gary Johnson is no threat to the system. This means Gary Johnson is probably a socialist (and a threat to the system the Founding Fathers put in place to protect our freedoms) because everything socialists say are lies.

What further evidence do you need? So far, I have used some of the most Red Pill buzzwords on the market, and even considered using “optics,” “LOLbertarian,” “SJW,” “libertine,” “postmodernism” and “open borders.” Libertarianism is an obvious right-wing ideology. We have standards, you know.

I won’t keep you here. Now that I’ve owned you with facts and logic, you are free to go.

Outro: Left intentionally long and with minimal editing, everything written above makes a single point that, in context, doesn’t mean anything. Most things, and probably all things, don’t mean anything. But that observation is no taskmaster; true freedom is the freedom to waste your time, and the time of others, in a way that is archetypically you. There are no strict parameters here. Drifting a little off the straight and narrow shouldn’t be cause for panic. If there was a takeaway in this article, I don’t know what it is. Perhaps there is a Gary Johnson in all of us, rolling a boulder up Mount Everest just to watch it roll back into the ravine, much like the Libertarian vote count will in 2020.

Do as thou wilt, and don’t overthink it.

Happy National Absurdity Day, comrades.

سُبْحَانَ اللہِ

The post Shortcuts & Delusions Special Edition: The Absurdity of Gary Johnson appeared first on Being Libertarian.

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[marlutterianae]

Magic and Elixirs. Elements of Viorg.

- Extracted from the Magal Archives -

Viorg is a land gifted with numerous peculiarities, anomalies and unique phenomena that can be considered both fantastical and marvelous, and yet so deadly and unpredictable. As scholars, it is difficult to keep up with many of the changes occuring in each part of our world, and beyond. But one thing is for certain. We can only be grateful to the various elements unique to this distorted place, which we’ve been able to harness and control for our benefit in order to secure our survival and outstand the overwhelming odds against our kind.

We call them Elements mainly because they have become crucial components of nature as we know it. Despite being considered as “unnatural” things in the eyes of the outsiders. It’s hard for said outsiders to accept what passes as normality in this world. Of course, some curious travelers, now inhabitants of the realms, have less of an issue with it than others.

The first and most important element to the entire continent are the elixirs. The origins of the first alchemical formulas trace back to the foundations of the ancient all powerful empire of Berelith. Used to create substances that granted humanity with an extended life, flourish awareness and break the limits of the mind. Different elixirs with new and marvelous effects in the body would soon follow. The old alchemists of Berelith worked together with the vicious demons for a strange mutual gain. The details and logistics behind this alliance are still under research and debate. As for the elixirs, it’s core component are well known to many. It is processed out of demon blood. But not just any blood, at first. It was a holy source, incomparable to anything on this planet. It was the sacred heart of a demonic deity. The one that cursed this land after crashing into it. Intact, still beating. A colossal super organ that seems to have a will of it’s own. Numerous discoveries would follow after that. Brand new formulas, that led to the development of more elixirs that gave humans more incredible physical and mental attributes.

This was a source of potentially infinite power for the Berelith empire, but after the catastrophe that destroy it completely at the hands of the demons, our ancestors from the tribe of Dorok managed to transport the Heart in a perilous journey across the entire continent. Many lives were lost in the process, but eventually the Heart was secured in the safety of the West, where we started building our mighty cities. The first of which was the impenetrable capital of Murgul, named after the ancient and forgotten term for “Heart”. The sacred source lies hidden in the deepest depths of the Royal Keep, even lower than the Magal Laboratories, in a special vault. The most treasured artifact in our possession. There it lies, guarded, far from any demon’s reach. And it is there where our experiments with elixirs carried on, continuing that legacy of Berelith. We did not only improve on the known formulas, but we started to look further than that. Every child of Dorok was granted with them. All of Viorg’s inhabitants have elixirs coursing through their veins. After all, t is impossible to survive in this land without resorting to them.

Murgul serves its purpose as the literal heart of the realm. Surrounded by numerous cities that need to be provided not only with crucial resources, tools and means to survive and defend themselves against the demons, but also their regular supply of elixirs. We are still working on perfecting the replenishment routes throughout all the sectors around the capital, in order to maintain order. The Guilds of Demon Slayers receive their regular supply, but also the newest inventions to aid in the fight. Elixirs that could provide unique attributes like sensorial and muscular enhancers, pain nullification, advance cell regeneration, amplifiers of intellectual capacities; among many, many other specialized uses. Perfectioning the known formulas, modifying them and creating more at a regular basis. It is a very tough task for the alchemists guilds, but one they are proud to be part of.

However, not all Elixirs are easily accessible as others, or easily provided to be more specific. The Prosperity Elixir, for example, is one which production seems to be the most laborious and complex, despite of how old the formula is; according to the archives. For this reason it can only be distributed across Murgul’s territory and no further. This of course led to the population of Murgul having their lives drastically extended, which altered their ways of living. Being in the most secured metropolis in the entire kingdom also contributes to this difference in lifestyles, unlike the cities around it, especially those further away from the capital, and closest to the Frontier diving Dorok and Berelith. Some discontent is expected from the citizens of these sectors, and led to the formation of prejudices and disdain against those that live and come from the capital, being considered imperious and weak, particularly for not even facing demon attacks as frequently as those from the distant sectors. And that their safe overly extended lives makes them apathetic to the problems of those that are not from Murgul.

Elixirs such as the Healing ones are easier to produce in mass, and have been continuously perfected throughout the years. It has the most versatile means of application. It can be conventionally drank or injected, depending on how fast the reaction is required. It can be distilled into a gaseous form and by supplied through breathing devices. As well as be condensed in spraying mechanisms for a more focused and immediate effect over specific wounds. The regenerative elixirs are one of the most important tools in demon slaying, and each guild has it’s branch of medical experts ready to assist, highly trained in the applications of these substances in the heat of battle.

But despite how miraculous these healing elixirs may appear, even capable of regrowing lost limbs entirely, there is one type of damage they are not able to remedy. And that is magical damage. Any sort of harm or wound produced by magical energy cannot be healed not even with the most advance of regenerative elixirs. The destructive effect magic has on organic tissue is still researched and speculated to this day, and even then the Wizards had concluded that only magic can bring back what was lost with magic. Which makes it even more complicated, considering that ‘healing magic’ is a rare phenomenon among Wizards, and even Witches, according to reports. They still look for individuals capable of performing this miraculous type of spell, but nothing has yet come out of the investigations.

For this very reason it is quite common to see anyone experienced with magic bearing grotesque and strange scars across their entire bodies. Signs of power overflowing, so to speak. Leaving marks in their bodies almost as grim reminders of what they are trying to control. Crippled by a magical explosion? Those limbs are lost forever. Blinded by magical sparks or a flashing spell? The eyes would end lifeless, and most probably will have to be removed, leaving only empty scarred sockets. Indeed, this only applies for organic material that was directly affected by magic. It must be clarified that if magic didn’t directly caused the burning or mutation of any organic material, the damage will remain natural, and therefore fixable by conventional means. Said, if you would be violently pushed by a magical force wave, resulting in the breaking of some bones; unless some of the magical radiation damaged your body, usually in the form of burning, rotting or melting, there is a chance to be well healed.

Magic is known as the second most important element present in Viorg. And rightfully so, originating from the very home dimension of the demons. The Orrnox. While a lot of information regarding magic is still quite complex and under investigation, it can be mention how we managed to control some of that energy not only through living catalyzers, being the Wizards, but also through advanced technology. Magic, in one of its most manipulable forms is that categorized as “Orrnix Energy”. A sort of meta plasma that can hold vast amounts of energy, emitting large amounts of supernatural heath. The applications for this state of the magical force are still under development, but some already theorize on it’s applications, like implement it in the creation of new weaponry, like concentrated plasma cannons or mechanized constructs controlled telepathically. Or even being capable of supplying entire cities with this energy, as well as emitting a force field around them. The possibilities appear to be endless, but they must be dealt with carefully, or else we would want to replicate a cataclysm similar to that of Berelith. And that must be absolutely avoided.

- - -

Magic systems! Yay. Half ironic cheering aside, this is my most detailed entry into this world yet, and how couldn’t it be? It’s about the two most important ELEMENTS of this world. Magic and the ever mentioned Elixirs. Considering that the prompt of today was Elements, I choose what “elements” are the most crucial in this world. This was a very fun one because I have so much to say on the matter, and you can tell. I’ll be deeply grateful if you go through the entire thing. Anyway, there is more to know about this world to come. Let’s get to it! 

[drop-and-pop-review]

Drop and Pop Review – Generate Income From Any Affiliate Offer With Ease

Drop and Pop Review

GENERATE INCOME FROM ANY AFFILIATE OFFER WITH EASE

Dear fellow online marketers out there,

Like many other new affiliate marketers, I had been trying to apply get rich quick schemes and strategies they they all didn’t work out. As you know, loopholes and quick fixes come and go on a monthly basis, and when they get closed down (which the do) you will have wasted time and probably money. What we are looking for is a real ‘ethical’ and evergreen business model to follow and make our online business and income grow bigger and bigger and knowing that it will still work in 5 years’ time.

The method I’m about to reveal in this review is designed to enable an ordinary person with zero tech skills, zero experience and just the change in their pocket to easily make hundreds of dollars every week from a simple ‘but unique’ little carrot & stick approach to marketing. The product is called: Drop and Pop .

A system without traffic is NOT a workable system. Inside  Drop and Pop you will find details on multiple traffic sources, all of which are simple and to the point. But the great thing is that traffic is immediately created and multiplied with the organic by product of activating Drop & Pop.

So with such brief information, are you eager yet to find out more about this profitable system?

WHAT IS Drop and Pop ?

The method I’m about to reveal; is designed to enable an ordinary person with zero tech skills, zero experience and just the change in their pocket to easily make hundreds of dollars every week from a simple ‘But Unique’ little Carrot & Stick approach to marketing.

And if you like what I show you, you too can *make money with this method before the end of this week.

In a nutshell, Drop and Pop is a complete and detailed system for generating consistent income from affiliate products without actually promoting specific affiliate products and one which can be easily adopted by anyone. That means it is totally Newbie Friendly.

Drop and Pop  is NOT Based on Theory. You can actually implement this simple system TODAY in just 1 – 2 hour (even if you’re a complete Newbie)… And make money in 12-24 hours… While simultaneously building a a real business which will generate income passively. You’ll kick yourself for not figuring this out for yourself.

Unlike so many other systems and so called training; Drop and Pop is a formula that will work for anyone (Even Newbies). It is easy to understand and apply, and it’s a system I personally use every week… so absolutely no theory.

It consists of: 5 Short ‘Basics’ Videos (Provided to help Newbies / set up basics)

Overview Full Copy [Training]

Details Page [Training]

Pre-Sell Post [Training]

Magnet – including 6 Magnet Sources [Training]

Traffic [Training]

Fast Start – Reference Guide

Once you have a Drop and Pop Project up and running your work is done and you can expect to make money as early as tomorrow, and then potentially for months, even years to come (Passively).

In fact, each time you do this not only will you make money, but you will also build an Evergreen business I.E your  Drop and Pop posts will begin to rank automatically on Google, Bing and Yahoo… this happens on autopilot, you don’t have to do any additional work for this to happen.

Drop and Pop has nothing to do with SEO or ranking sites. What you see in this Drop & Pop Review is simply a Bi-Product of the Drop and Pop  method. I.E. Many Drop & Pop posts quickly find their way onto Page 1 of Google Bing and Yahoo on Autopilot (You don’t have to do any additional work)

I can categorically state that Drop & Pop is very real. I have been using the very same process myself since November 2017 with astonishing results. So don’t hesitate to check the next parts of this Drop & Pop Review as I’ll show you how powerful it is!

Drop and Pop REVIEW OVERVIEW

Vendor Brendan Mace

Product Drop and Pop

Launch Date 2021-Aug-04

Launch Time 09:00 EST

Front-End Price $17

Bonuses >> CHECK MY ULTIMATE HUGE BONUSES <<

Refund YES, 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Product Type Traffic

Support Effective Response

Discount >> GET THE BEST DISCOUNT HERE <<

Recommended Highly Recommended

Skill Level Needed All Levels

ABOUT CREATOR

Drop & Pop has been created and developed by Brendan Mace. In my opinion, I would strongly recommend that Brendan’s products to online marketers who are looking for support.

He has been in this field for more than ten years, so he knows what it takes to be successful. There are many trending applications released by Brendan. Some of which have been favored by thousands of users such as Shotoku System, Set & Forget, You Gen Bots, etc.

Now, let’s look at the next part of this Drop & Pop Review and find out its features!

KEY FEATURES

Here are what you will get inside:

Full access to the Drop & Pop member area

Complete Drop & Pop Overview – Outlining the only system that enables anyone to profit from affiliate products without actually promoting them.

Copy the Free Organic Traffic we used to get 100s of views in hours… Sending this traffic also boosts site authority and engagement.

Developing & sourcing Magnets: Including using other people’s products freely and ethically (Yes it’s legal)… Follow this and find products to use in seconds.

Full Step-by-Step Process suitable for Newbies and seasoned Marketers alike.

The Secret Page: 20 – 30% of everyone who sees this page will result in you receiving commission from any affiliate product you like

Orientation Training Call

Drop & Pop Traffic… multi (newbie friendly) FREE traffic sources included so you can get started instantly without cost.

Access to the Facebook Mastermind Group

The Pre-Sell System: add this content to your blog (as detailed) and you WILL Make Money and build an evergreen business at the same time.

6 Videos covering the basic set up (designed for Newbies)

Let’s take a minute to recap the benefits come up with this training:

Drop & Pop is the only system available that enables anyone to generate income from affiliate products without actually promoting affiliate products… this is a unique system they developed for their own business.

This is system generates Pro-Active & Passive income once setup

Highly targeted, risk free traffic is the key to profiting online. Start with a budget of only $5 and you’re set… That’s it!

Can 100% be run part time (in fact, most people do just that!)

Many Drop & Pop Posts will also hit Google, Bing and Yahoo Page #1 without any additional work!

This is a tried-and-tested easy way to make money if done the right way!

Anyone can do this (even complete Newbies) and get awesome results, so it might as well be you!

It has the potential to make you money and build growing authority assets which generate income for years almost on autopilot.

No technical skills required at all, Drop & Pop is designed to be stupidly simple… All is laid out in an easy to follow system.

Very easily scalable and only invest more after you earn.

VISIT SALE PAGE

HONEST DROP & POP REVIEW – MY OPINION: IS IT REALLY PROFITABLE?

The Drop & Pop system will take you 1-2 hours per project (once your blog is set up)… Traffic is INSTANT (costing under 5 Cents per view). Do this Once, Twice, Three times per week… do it as often as you like. The more you do it the more money you will make both in the short term and Evergreen (Passively).

Drop & Pop is not about ranking in search engines, SEO or any of that boring, time consuming stuff. However based on phrase competition, popularity and engagement on your Drop & Pop posts some will rise to page #1 of Google, Bing and Yahoo on Autopilot… There is no additional work involved.

I can categorically state that Drop & Pop is very real. I have been using the very same process myself since January 2018 with astonishing results from earlybird acess of testing version.

Inside Drop & Pop you will find details on multiple traffic sources, all of which are simple and to the point. For Instant Impact I recommend combining the FREE methods with the $0.04 per view paid traffic source.

Experience is not a requirement. We’ve seen “green” beginners that have never tried to do anything else on the internet, and they still made substantial income with this method.

Drop & Pop is designed specifically to be ‘Low-Tech’ easy to understand and apply. The creators put Drop & Pop together for themselves in order to generate affiliate income without having to promote product after product. Once your Blog is set up (Training Included) each DROP & POP project will take 1-2 Hours.

Is this another Loophole?

Absolutely not… loopholes and quick fixes come and go on a monthly basis, and when they get closed down (which the do) you will have wasted time and probably money. Drop & Pop is a real ‘Ethical’ and Evergreen business model… Follow this system and your online business and income will grow bigger and bigger… and it will still work in 5 years’ time

The only downside I have found is that Drop & Pop is a business… and all business requires some investment. n this case, we are really minimizing the total amount of investment you will have to make here. There is no additional costs you need other than to activate the Drop & Pop system.

Traffic: I recommend you use the paid traffic option in combination with the free methods for instant traction… this traffic option can be started for $5 per project.

This is NOT another Empty Promise. Every day yet another product hits the market… It promises to make you $100 per day, you’ve seen them right?

They all promise to be unique, but in reality they are not and nearly always amount to the same thing – and you’re left disappointed. Drop & Pop is different, it’s unique… but most importantly; it works.

You will be getting my ultimate huge bonuses at the last section of this Drop & Pop Review!

HOW DROP & POP WORKS

Step 1: DROP a campaign into the software,

There’s over 100,000 to choose from. Remember: With Drop & Pop you never pre-sell or promote an affiliate product).

Step 2: POP your monetization.

All you have to do in this part is activate your monetization by adding your affiliate links. Drop & Pop works with ANY affiliate product. Monetize on the platform you prefer (we show you how to do this in less than a minute)

Step 3: Relax & Wait for Commissions.

We’ve seen real people from all over the world join and get results within TEN MINUTES of activating their first campaign. Now it’s YOUR TURN to give this a try.

WHO IS DROP & POP FOR?

This Newbie Friendly “No Experience Needed” 4-Step Income System Quickly And Easily Generates affiliate Income While Simultaneously building you an ethical, evergreen business which will continue to pay you passively… Each Drop & Pop Project will take you 1-2 hours.

Drop & Pop is designed for anyone who doesn’t have a PHD in computer science, & can’t get to grips with even more complicated software and so called systems. It’s for you if you simply want to build something uncomplicated which grows… and makes you more and more as it does.

It’s for you if you’re sick and tired of buying loophole after loophole only to find they stop working the minute you start.

Drop & Pop is designed for you, me and anyone else who thinks making money online has just become way too complicated. It’s Not Techy… it’s Not based around some shaky loophole which could stop working in the next 30 seconds… It’s Simple… It’s Evergreen… And It’s both Pro-Active & Passive at the same time.

DROP & POP OTOS AND PRICE

For a limited time, you can grab Drop & Pop OTOs with early bird discount price in these options below. Let’s pick the best suited options for you before this special offer gone!

Front-end: Drop & Pop PRO $16.41

OTO 1: Premium Edition $37.00

OTO 2: Done For You $97.00

OTO 3: Unlimited Leads $97.00

OTO 4: Unlimited Traffic Add-on $97.00

OTO 5: License Rights to EVERYTHING $67.00

Drop and Pop REVIEW CONCLUSION AND ULTIMATE HUGE BONUSES

Thank you so much for reading my Drop & Pop Review! I really hope it did help you with your buying decision. This system is coming out with many bonuses for the early bird. Take your action ASAP for the best deal.

REMEMBER! If you buy this product through my link, you can also get these huge bonuses (Please remember that these bonuses are not for the TRIAL or FREE versions):

VISIT SALE PAGE

You can have an opportunity to receive extra bonuses if you finish 2 steps below:

♦ Step 1: Order the product by Clicking here.

♦ Step 2: After your purchase goes through, email your receipt to me at alexhuynh.1110@gmail.com so I can confirm your purchase and email you information about how to access to your bonus material.

»»Theme Bonus Package««

»»Plugin Bonus Package««

»»General Bonus Package««

[drop-pop-review]

Drop & Pop Review – Generates Affiliate Income While Simultaneously Building You An Ethical, Evergreen Business

Have you failed to make any real money online? Don’t worry – I did too… I kept failing and failing & I grew tired of all the BS theory shared around.

The amount of FALSE information floating around back then was incredible & it still is. That’s when I decided to stop following poor, long-winded & outdated advice and do things differently…

Sick of Failing?

It’s all Pie in the Sky… none of it actually works. I’m sure you’ve tried this and you’ve tried that only to find out the whole thing was nothing more than a whole lot of ‘Pie in the Sky’ Theory.

You keep buying and hoping…

Trying and failing…

Over and over again

Does that sound about right… Yes?

Well, let’s fix that today… First things first, Let’s check all the details in my Drop & Pop Review below!

WHAT IS DROP & POP?

The method I’m about to reveal; is designed to enable an ordinary person with zero tech skills, zero experience and just the change in their pocket to easily make hundreds of dollars every week from a simple ‘But Unique’ little Carrot & Stick approach to marketing.

And if you like what I show you, you too can *make money with this method before the end of this week.

In a nutshell, Drop & Pop is a complete and detailed system for generating consistent income from affiliate products without actually promoting specific affiliate products and one which can be easily adopted by anyone. That means it is totally Newbie Friendly.

Drop & Pop is NOT Based on Theory. You can actually implement this simple system TODAY in just 1 – 2 hour (even if you’re a complete Newbie)… And make money in 12-24 hours… While simultaneously building a a real business which will generate income passively. You’ll kick yourself for not figuring this out for yourself.

Unlike so many other systems and so called training; Drop & Pop is a formula that will work for anyone (Even Newbies). It is easy to understand and apply, and it’s a system I personally use every week… so absolutely no theory.

It consists of: 5 Short ‘Basics’ Videos (Provided to help Newbies / set up basics)

Overview Full Copy [Training]

Details Page [Training]

Pre-Sell Post [Training]

Magnet – including 6 Magnet Sources [Training]

Traffic [Training]

Fast Start – Reference Guide

Once you have a Drop & Pop Project up and running your work is done and you can expect to make money as early as tomorrow, and then potentially for months, even years to come (Passively).

In fact, each time you do this not only will you make money, but you will also build an Evergreen business I.E your Drop & Pop posts will begin to rank automatically on Google, Bing and Yahoo… this happens on autopilot, you don’t have to do any additional work for this to happen.

Drop & Pop has nothing to do with SEO or ranking sites. What you see in this Drop & Pop Review is simply a Bi-Product of the DROP & POP method. I.E. Many Drop & Pop posts quickly find their way onto Page 1 of Google Bing and Yahoo on Autopilot (You don’t have to do any additional work)

I can categorically state that Drop & Pop is very real. I have been using the very same process myself since November 2017 with astonishing results. So don’t hesitate to check the next parts of this Drop & Pop Review as I’ll show you how powerful it is!

DROP & POP REVIEW OVERVIEW

Vendor Brendan Mace

Product Drop & Pop

Launch Date 2021-Aug-04

Launch Time 09:00 EST

Front-End Price $17

Bonuses >> CHECK MY ULTIMATE HUGE BONUSES <<

Refund YES, 30 Days Money-Back Guarantee

Product Type Traffic

Support Effective Response

Discount >> GET THE BEST DISCOUNT HERE <<

Recommended Highly Recommended

Skill Level Needed All Levels

ABOUT CREATOR

Drop & Pop has been created and developed by Brendan Mace. In my opinion, I would strongly recommend that Brendan’s products to online marketers who are looking for support.

He has been in this field for more than ten years, so he knows what it takes to be successful. There are many trending applications released by Brendan. Some of which have been favored by thousands of users such as Shotoku System, Set & Forget, You Gen Bots, etc.

Now, let’s look at the next part of this Drop & Pop Review and find out its features!

KEY FEATURES

Here are what you will get inside:

Full access to the Drop & Pop member area

Complete Drop & Pop Overview – Outlining the only system that enables anyone to profit from affiliate products without actually promoting them.

Copy the Free Organic Traffic we used to get 100s of views in hours… Sending this traffic also boosts site authority and engagement.

Developing & sourcing Magnets: Including using other people’s products freely and ethically (Yes it’s legal)… Follow this and find products to use in seconds.

Full Step-by-Step Process suitable for Newbies and seasoned Marketers alike.

The Secret Page: 20 – 30% of everyone who sees this page will result in you receiving commission from any affiliate product you like

Orientation Training Call

Drop & Pop Traffic… multi (newbie friendly) FREE traffic sources included so you can get started instantly without cost.

Access to the Facebook Mastermind Group

The Pre-Sell System: add this content to your blog (as detailed) and you WILL Make Money and build an evergreen business at the same time.

6 Videos covering the basic set up (designed for Newbies)

Let’s take a minute to recap the benefits come up with this training:

Drop & Pop is the only system available that enables anyone to generate income from affiliate products without actually promoting affiliate products… this is a unique system they developed for their own business.

This is system generates Pro-Active & Passive income once setup

Highly targeted, risk free traffic is the key to profiting online. Start with a budget of only $5 and you’re set… That’s it!

Can 100% be run part time (in fact, most people do just that!)

Many Drop & Pop Posts will also hit Google, Bing and Yahoo Page #1 without any additional work!

This is a tried-and-tested easy way to make money if done the right way!

Anyone can do this (even complete Newbies) and get awesome results, so it might as well be you!

It has the potential to make you money and build growing authority assets which generate income for years almost on autopilot.

No technical skills required at all, Drop & Pop is designed to be stupidly simple… All is laid out in an easy to follow system.

Very easily scalable and only invest more after you earn.

VISIT SALE PAGE

HONEST DROP & POP REVIEW – MY OPINION: IS IT REALLY PROFITABLE?

The Drop & Pop system will take you 1-2 hours per project (once your blog is set up)… Traffic is INSTANT (costing under 5 Cents per view). Do this Once, Twice, Three times per week… do it as often as you like. The more you do it the more money you will make both in the short term and Evergreen (Passively).

Drop & Pop is not about ranking in search engines, SEO or any of that boring, time consuming stuff. However based on phrase competition, popularity and engagement on your Drop & Pop posts some will rise to page #1 of Google, Bing and Yahoo on Autopilot… There is no additional work involved.

I can categorically state that Drop & Pop is very real. I have been using the very same process myself since January 2018 with astonishing results from earlybird acess of testing version.

Inside Drop & Pop you will find details on multiple traffic sources, all of which are simple and to the point. For Instant Impact I recommend combining the FREE methods with the $0.04 per view paid traffic source.

Experience is not a requirement. We’ve seen “green” beginners that have never tried to do anything else on the internet, and they still made substantial income with this method.

Drop & Pop is designed specifically to be ‘Low-Tech’ easy to understand and apply. The creators put Drop & Pop together for themselves in order to generate affiliate income without having to promote product after product. Once your Blog is set up (Training Included) each DROP & POP project will take 1-2 Hours.

Is this another Loophole?

Absolutely not… loopholes and quick fixes come and go on a monthly basis, and when they get closed down (which the do) you will have wasted time and probably money. Drop & Pop is a real ‘Ethical’ and Evergreen business model… Follow this system and your online business and income will grow bigger and bigger… and it will still work in 5 years’ time

The only downside I have found is that Drop & Pop is a business… and all business requires some investment. n this case, we are really minimizing the total amount of investment you will have to make here. There is no additional costs you need other than to activate the Drop & Pop system.

Traffic: I recommend you use the paid traffic option in combination with the free methods for instant traction… this traffic option can be started for $5 per project.

This is NOT another Empty Promise. Every day yet another product hits the market… It promises to make you $100 per day, you’ve seen them right?

They all promise to be unique, but in reality they are not and nearly always amount to the same thing – and you’re left disappointed. Drop & Pop is different, it’s unique… but most importantly; it works.

You will be getting my ultimate huge bonuses at the last section of this Drop & Pop Review!

HOW DROP & POP WORKS

Step 1: DROP a campaign into the software,

There’s over 100,000 to choose from. Remember: With Drop & Pop you never pre-sell or promote an affiliate product).

Step 2: POP your monetization.

All you have to do in this part is activate your monetization by adding your affiliate links. Drop & Pop works with ANY affiliate product. Monetize on the platform you prefer (we show you how to do this in less than a minute)

Step 3: Relax & Wait for Commissions.

We’ve seen real people from all over the world join and get results within TEN MINUTES of activating their first campaign. Now it’s YOUR TURN to give this a try.

WHO IS DROP & POP FOR?

This Newbie Friendly “No Experience Needed” 4-Step Income System Quickly And Easily Generates affiliate Income While Simultaneously building you an ethical, evergreen business which will continue to pay you passively… Each Drop & Pop Project will take you 1-2 hours.

Drop & Pop is designed for anyone who doesn’t have a PHD in computer science, & can’t get to grips with even more complicated software and so called systems. It’s for you if you simply want to build something uncomplicated which grows… and makes you more and more as it does.

It’s for you if you’re sick and tired of buying loophole after loophole only to find they stop working the minute you start.

Drop & Pop is designed for you, me and anyone else who thinks making money online has just become way too complicated. It’s Not Techy… it’s Not based around some shaky loophole which could stop working in the next 30 seconds… It’s Simple… It’s Evergreen… And It’s both Pro-Active & Passive at the same time.

DROP & POP OTOS AND PRICE

For a limited time, you can grab Drop & Pop OTOs with early bird discount price in these options below. Let’s pick the best suited options for you before this special offer gone!

Front-end: Drop & Pop PRO $16.41

OTO 1: Premium Edition $37.00

OTO 2: Done For You $97.00

OTO 3: Unlimited Leads $97.00

OTO 4: Unlimited Traffic Add-on $97.00

OTO 5: License Rights to EVERYTHING $67.00

DROP & POP REVIEW CONCLUSION AND ULTIMATE HUGE BONUSES

Thank you so much for reading my Drop & Pop Review! I really hope it did help you with your buying decision. This system is coming out with many bonuses for the early bird. Take your action ASAP for the best deal.

REMEMBER! If you buy this product through my link, you can also get these huge bonuses (Please remember that these bonuses are not for the TRIAL or FREE versions):

VISIT SALE PAGE

You can have an opportunity to receive extra bonuses if you finish 2 steps below:

♦ Step 1: Order the product by Clicking here.

♦ Step 2: After your purchase goes through, email your receipt to me at alexhuynh.1110@gmail.com so I can confirm your purchase and email you information about how to access to your bonus material.

»»Theme Bonus Package««

»»Plugin Bonus Package««

»»General Bonus Package««