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go-redgirl · 4 years ago

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Trump’s New Supreme Court List Includes Diverse Array of Conservative All-stars

President Donald Trump released a list of 20 potential Supreme Court nominees on Wednesday as a supplement to his original list, which he produced during the 2016 presidential campaign.

At the time, Trump said that he would be adding names to the list — a promise he renewed earlier this year. Wednesday’s list marks the fulfillment of that promise.

Here is the new list, with a brief summary of the nominees’ qualifications.

Bridget Bade: Bade, 55, was confirmed to the Ninth Circuit last year. She earned her law degree from the University of Arizona and has worked as a federal prosecutor, an attorney in private practice, and a U.S. magistrate judge. She has a background in environmental law. The White House summarized her qualifications for the Ninth Circuit in 2018:

Prior to her appointment to the bench in 2012, she served for six years as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Arizona, handling both civil and appellate matters. Prior to joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Judge Bade spent a year as special counsel in the Phoenix office of Steptoe & Johnson, LLP. Before joining Steptoe, she was a shareholder at Beshears Wallwork Bellamy, where her practice focused on complex civil litigation, including the representation of parties in environmental, intellectual property, commercial, and class action litigation.

Before entering private practice, Judge Bade served for four years in the Attorney General’s Honors Program as a trial attorney in the Environmental Torts Section within the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice. Upon graduation from law school, Judge Bade served as a law clerk to Judge Edith H. Jones of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Judge Bade earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Arizona State University, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D., cum laude, from Arizona State University’s Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, where she served as an articles editor of the Arizona State Law Journal.

Daniel Cameron: Cameron, 34, became the first African American ever elected to the office of Kentucky Attorney General in 2019, and was also the first Republican elected to that post in 70 years. He is a supporter of Black Voices for Trump, and delivered a well-received speech at the Republican National Convention last month. He said:

I think often about my ancestors who struggled for freedom. And as I think of those giants and their broad shoulders, I also think about Joe Biden, who says, if you aren’t voting for me, “you ain’t black.” Who argued that Republicans would put us “back in chains.” Who says there is no “diversity” of thought in the Black community.

Mr. Vice President look at me, I am Black. We are not all the same, sir. I am not in chains. My mind is my own. And you can’t tell me how to vote because of the color of my skin.

Cameron is currently investigating the death of Breonna Taylor, one of the iconic victims of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Tom Cotton: Cotton, 43, is currently serving his second term as a U.S. Senator from Arkansas. A conservative Republican, he has frequently been considered for senior, Cabinet-level positions, including Secretary of Defense. He graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and worked in private legal practice before joining the U.S. Army infantry. He served one combat tour each in Afghanistan and Iraq, and also served in the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery. He is considered one of the leading intellectual and political lights driving the contemporary Republican Party.

Paul Clement: Clement, 54, served as Solicitor General of the United States and is currently in private practice. His bio at the Kirkland & Ellis LLP, where he is a partner, reports:

He has argued over 100 cases before the United States Supreme Court, including McConnell v. FEC, Tennessee v. Lane, United States v. Booker, MGM v. Grokster, ABC v. Aereo, Hobby Lobby v. Burwell, Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, and Rucho v. Common Cause. Paul has argued more Supreme Court cases since 2000 than any lawyer in or out of government. He has also argued many important cases in the lower courts, including Walker v. Cheney, United States v. Moussaoui, and NFL v. Brady.

Clement clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. He also teaches at Georgetown University Law School.

Ted Cruz: Cruz, 49, is currently serving his second term as a U.S. Senator from Texas. He was Trump’s main rival for the Republican Party nomination in 2016 and is widely recognized as a leading conservative voice in national politics.

He graduated from Princeton University and Harvard Law School, and worked for the U.S. Department of Justice. As the Solicitor General of Texas, he argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He also taught law at the University of Texas-Austin. He has previously been discussed as a potential Supreme Court nominee. As a Cuban-American, he would also potentially bring additional ethnic diversity to the Court.

Stuart Kyle Duncan: Duncan, 48, was confirmed to the Fifth Circuit in 2018. He is known as a conservative legal “champion.” According to his biography at the Federalist Society:

Judge Duncan received his B.A. from Louisiana State University in 1994, his J.D. from the Paul M. Hebert Law Center at Louisiana State University in 1997, and his LL.M. from Columbia Law School in 2004.

After graduating from law school, he clerked for Louisiana-based Circuit Judge John Malcolm Duhé Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

From 2008–2012, Duncan served as Appellate Chief for Louisiana’s Attorney General’s office. From 2012–2014, he served as general counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. From 2004-2008, he was an assistant professor of law at the University of Mississippi School of Law.

Before becoming a judge, Duncan practiced at the Washington, D.C. firm of Schaerr Duncan LLP, where he was a founding partner.

He was appointed by President Trump to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on May 1, 2018.

Duncan recently ruled against Planned Parenthood clinics being open during coronavirus lockdowns in Texas.

Steven Engel: Engel, 46, is the current United States Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. According to a profile at AllGov.com:

Engel is from Port Washington, New York, and graduated from Paul Schreiber High School in 1992.

His mother, JoAnn, taught at Yeshiva Har Torah, a middle school in Bayside, New York. His father, Mark, was the president of Langsam Property Services Corporation in the Bronx.

He went on to Harvard, where he wrote a regular column for the Harvard Crimson, and earned an A.B. in 1996.

He then went to Cambridge, earning an M.Phil. in 1997. Engel then moved on to Yale Law School and earned his J.D. in 2000. While there, he was the essays editor of the Yale Law Journal.

He subsequently clerked for a year each with two distinguished jurists: Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal, then Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Engel left government with the rest of the Bush administration and became a partner at the Dechart law firm in Washington. He represented Republican governors in U.S. vs. Texas, in which those governors fought the implementation of Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, an Obama program to delay some deportations of undocumented immigrants. He also represented those challenging the individual mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act and a financial services company in a suit brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Engel clerked for Justice Anthony Kennedy — an important consideration, as both of Trump’s previous appointees have been former Kennedy clerks. He was briefly embroiled in the impeachment controversy when he wrote a “secret memo” arguing that the White House did not need to turn over the “whistleblower” complaint to the House Intelligence Committee because the president was not formally a member of the intelligence community.

Noel Francisco: Francisco, 51, is the first Asian American to serve as U.S. Solicitor General. The White House provided his biography in 2017:

Prior to joining the Justice Department, he was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Jones Day, where he was the chair of the Firm’s Government Regulation Practice.

While at Jones Day, he appeared several times before the Supreme Court, including in McDonnell v. United States, which involved the meaning of “official act” under federal bribery statutes; Zubik v. Burwell, which involved the application of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act to regulations addressing insurance coverage for contraception; and NLRB v. Noel Canning, which involved the Constitution’s recess appointment power.

He has also argued numerous cases in lower federal and State courts on a wide range of constitutional, civil, and criminal matters.

From 2001 to 2003, Mr. Francisco served as Associate Counsel to the President, and from 2003 to 2005 he served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Counsel.

Mr. Francisco was raised in Oswego, NY. He received his B.A. with honors in 1991 from the University of Chicago. He received his J.D. with high honors in 1996 from the University of Chicago Law School. After law school, Mr. Francisco served as a law clerk for Judge J. Michael Luttig of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Francisco recently stepped down as Solicitor General earlier this summer.

Josh Hawley: Hawley, 40, is currently serving his first term as a U.S. Senator from Missouri. He graduated from Stanford University and Yale Law School. He clerked for Chief Justice John Roberts. He has worked in private legal practice and for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. He has also taught law at the University of Missouri. A conservative stalwart, he recently opposed Congress’s attempt to force the renaming of U.S. Army bases named for Confederate military leaders. His U.S. Senate bio adds more:

As Attorney General, he fought the Washington overreach threatening farms and family businesses, including the Waters of the United States Rule and the Clean Power Plan.

Senator Hawley has also taken on big opioid manufacturers, challenging their unethical marketing practices that helped create an epidemic of opioid abuse.

He cracked down on human trafficking in Missouri, leading the largest anti-trafficking bust in Missouri history.

And he stood up to big tech, launching investigations of the most powerful companies in the world—Google and Facebook—to protect Missourians, their data, and the First Amendment.

He has reportedly suggested he would decline nomination, to continue serving as a U.S. Senator.

James Ho: Ho, 47, was confirmed to the Fifth Circuit in 2017. His White House biography at the time read:

Jim Ho is currently a partner in the Dallas office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he serves as co-chair of the firm’s appellate and constitutional law practice group.

Before joining the firm, Mr. Ho served as Solicitor General of Texas in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas.

Before relocating to Texas, Mr. Ho served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and as Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator John Cornyn on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Mr. Ho also served in the U.S. Department of Justice, first as a special assistant to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, and then as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel.

Upon graduation from law school, Mr. Ho served as a law clerk to Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He earned a B.A. in Public Policy, with honors, from Stanford University and a J.D., with high honors, from the University of Chicago Law School.

Ho recently won praise from left-leaning legal pundits for admonishing a lawyer, in the footnote of an opinion, for making what he considered a homophobic argument.

Gregory Katsas: Katsas, 56, was confirmed to the D.C. Circuit in 2017.

He worked for the Trump White House from the outset, as the Associated Press noted at the time: “Katsas has worked on some of the president’s most contentious decisions, including his executive orders restricting travel for citizens of predominantly Muslim countries and his decision to end a program protecting some young immigrants from deportation.”

The White House provided a biography when he was nominated:

Prior to joining the White House Counsel’s Office, Mr. Katsas was a partner at Jones Day, where he specialized in civil and appellate litigation.

He has argued more than 75 appeals, including cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and every Federal appellate court.

From 2001 to 2009, Mr. Katsas served in many senior positions in the U.S. Department of Justice, including Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division and Acting Associate Attorney General.

In 2009, he was awarded the Edmund Randolph award for outstanding service, the highest award bestowed by the Department.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Katsas served as a law clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas, both at the District of Columbia Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, and to Judge Edward Becker of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Mr. Katsas earned his A.B. from Princeton University and his J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he was an executive editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Katsas was a dissenting judge in the Mazars case over the House of Representatives’ effort to obtain President Trump’s tax records; his view was vindicated by the final Supreme Court decision.

Barbara Lagoa: Lagoa, 52, was confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit in 2019. Earlier that year, Gov. Ron DeSantis had appointed her to the Florida Supreme Court, the first Latina to hold that position. Her Florida Supreme Court biography noted:

Justice Barbara Lagoa was born in Miami, Florida.

She received her Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1989 from Florida International University where she majored in English and was a member of the Phi Kappa Phi honor society.

Justice Lagoa received her Juris Doctor from Columbia University School of Law in 1992, where she served as an Associate Editor of the Columbia Law Review. She is fluent in English and Spanish.

On January 9, 2019, she became the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban American woman appointed to serve on the Florida Supreme Court. Prior to her appointment by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Florida Supreme Court, Governor Jeb Bush appointed her in June of 2006 to serve on the Third District Court of Appeal. At that court, she became the first Hispanic woman and the first Cuban American woman appointed to serve on the Third District Court of Appeal.

On January 1, 2019, she became the first Hispanic female Chief Judge of the Third District Court of Appeal.

Prior to joining the bench, Justice Lagoa practiced in both the civil and criminal arenas.

Her civil practice at Greenberg Traurig focused on general and complex commercial litigation, particularly the areas of employment discrimination, business torts, securities litigation, construction litigation, and insurance coverage disputes.

In 2003, she joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida as an Assistant United States Attorney, where she worked in the Civil, Major Crimes and Appellate Sections.

As an Assistant United States Attorney, she tried numerous criminal jury trials, including drug conspiracies and Hobbs Act violations. She also handled a significant number of appeals.

Peter Phipps: Phipps, 47, was confirmed to the Third Circuit in 2018. He has risen quickly through the judicial ranks under President Trump, having first been appointed to the federal bench for the Western District of Pennsylvania that same year. According to his White House biography in 2018:

Before taking the bench, Judge Phipps served as Senior Trial Counsel in the Federal Programs Branch of the Department of Justice’s Civil Division.

During his 14-year tenure at the Justice Department, Judge Phipps litigated some of the most significant cases implicating the interests of the United States and received numerous awards and commendations, including the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award.

Earlier in his career, Judge Phipps spent three years as an associate at Jones Day, where his practice focused on civil litigation.

He also served as a law clerk to Judge R. Guy Cole, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Mr. Phipps earned both a B.S. and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Dayton and earned his J.D. from Stanford Law School, where he served as the Managing Editor of the Stanford Law & Policy Review.

Gay rights activists opposed Phipps’s appointment to the Third Circuit because he refused to say that he would automatically honor a transgender litigant’s choice of pronoun, preferring instead to consult the judicial record first.

Sarah Pitlyk:

Pitlyk, 43, was confirmed in 2019 as a federal district judge for the Eastern District of Missouri. Her White House biography at the time stated:

Sarah Pitlyk is a Special Counsel at the Thomas More Society, where her practice focuses on constitutional and civil rights litigation.

Before joining the Thomas More Society, Ms. Pitlyk worked at Clark & Sauer LLC, a civil litigation firm in St. Louis, Missouri, and was an associate at Covington & Burling LLP in Washington, D.C. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Pitlyk served as a law clerk to then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

Ms. Pitlyk earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Boston College, M.A.’s from Georgetown University and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.

Allison Jones Rushing:

Rushing, 38, was confirmed to the Fourth Circuit in 2019. Her White House biography at the time read:

A native North Carolinian, Allison Rushing is a partner with Williams and Connolly LLP. There, her practice focuses on appellate matters, constitutional issues, and regulatory challenges.

Ms. Rushing is widely viewed as one of the best young appellate lawyers in the country: Legal 500 has praised Ms. Rushing for her “excellent writing advocacy skills,”

The National Law Journal has recognized her stellar oral advocacy in the Federal courts of appeals, and Super Lawyers has recognized her as one of its “Rising Stars.”

Ms. Rushing has argued before Federal courts of appeals and state appellate courts, in addition to briefing cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Upon graduation from law school, Ms. Rushing clerked for then-Judge Neil Gorsuch on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, then-Chief Judge David Sentelle on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States.

Ms. Rushing earned her B.A., summa cum laude, from Wake Forest University, where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and her J.D., magna cum laude, from Duke University School of Law, where she served as executive editor of the Duke Law Journal.

Rushing was opposed by the left because of her work for Christian legal non-profit organizations on cases such as Masterpiece Cakeshop.

Kate Todd: Todd is currently the Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy Counsel to the President. Her biography at the Federalist Society reads:

Prior to her service in the White House, Todd was a partner in the appellate, litigation, and communications practices of the firm Wiley, Rein & Fielding, in Washington, D.C. She represented businesses in federal and state litigation and regulatory matters and helped them develop and execute national, multiforum legal strategies.

Todd serves as a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States. She also teaches the law of federal courts at The George Washington University Law School, and taught constitutional law at Cornell University’s Washington program.

Todd clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas.

Lawrence VanDyke: VanDyke, 47, was confirmed to the Ninth Circuit in 2019.

His biography, as provided by the White House at the time, read:

Lawrence VanDyke currently serves as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division at the Department of Justice.

From 2015 to 2019, Mr. VanDyke served as the Nevada Solicitor General, where he served as the State’s top appellate attorney and litigated numerous cases on behalf of the State of Nevada in the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Nevada Supreme Court, and State and Federal district courts.

Before his service in Nevada, Mr. VanDyke served as the Solicitor General of Montana, where he litigated many of that State’s most consequential cases.

Mr. VanDyke also worked in private practice with Gibson Dunn and Crutcher LLP. Upon graduation from law school, Mr. VanDyke served as a law clerk to Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Mr. VanDyke earned his B.S., with highest honors, from Montana State University and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where he served as an Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, who is Trump’s Democratic opponent in 2020, has not yet released a list of his choices.

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exposed-likeanerve-blog1 · 5 years ago

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hey, i'm noel, and i’m so excited to be here with an intro for bruce&hulk. information for bruce is given in normal text. information for hulk is given in italics. please ask on here or on discord if you’ve got questions about my boys, or want to plot!!

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┉ Given / Birth Name : Robert Bruce Banner | Hulk ┉ Nickname / Preferred Name : Bruce, Doctor Banner | Hulk ┉ Alias(es) : Bruce Roberts, Bob Danner, Bruce Bancroft, Bruce Green, David Bixby, Robert Baker, and many more | Hulky, Jade Jaws, Green-genes, The Other Guy ┉ Birthdate / Age : December 18, 1969 [ 49 years old ] | April 16, 2005 [ 14 years old ] ┉ Place of Birth : Dayton, Ohio, USA | A secret military facility, USA ┉ Current Location : On the run | On the run ┉ Gender Identity : Male | No concept of gender ┉ Sexual / Romantic Orientation : Demi/demi | No concept of orientation ┉ Ethnicity / Race / Cultural Heritage: Korean-American | Genetically-altered human ┉ Marital Status : Single | N/A ┉ Occupation : Nuclear Physicist (former), Mechanic (former), Janitor (former), Avenger (former), Fugitive, Doctor | Monster (maybe) ┉ Religious Beliefs : If God exists, he hates me | What is God ┉ Education : 7 degrees total, including Ph.Ds in Radiophysics, Biochemistry, and Nuclear Physics, and an MD | No formal schooling

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┉ Height : 5 feet, 10 inches [ 1.778 meters ] | Approximately 8 feet [ 2.4384 meters ] ┉ Weight : 128 lbs [ 58 kg ] | Approximately 1,400 lbs ┉ Body Type / Build : Runner’s build | Hypermuscular ┉ Eye Color : Brown | Green ┉ Hair Color / Texture : Black, fine, straight | Blackish Green, coarse, straight ┉ Recognizable Features / Scars : None | None ┉ Speech Patterns / Accent : Midwestern American | Omits most pronouns, prefers nonverbal communication ┉ Languages Spoken : English, Portuguese, Hindi, Kikanda, Russian, Korean | English, in his own way ┉ Powers / Skills / Abilities : Genius, Regenerative Healing Factor, Transformation | Enhanced strength, speed and endurance, regenerative healing factor, radioactive, abilities increase with increased anger ┉ Weaknesses : Transforms into Hulk, otherwise possesses most typical weaknesses of unenhanced humans. | Vulnerable to radiation draining, adamantium and vibranium blades (at lower levels of anger), adrenaline suppression, magic, and extremely powerful telepathy. Can be ‘disarmed’ and forced to become Banner by some trusted individuals. ┉ Overall Health : Average | Above average

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┉ Order of Birth : Firstborn | Firstborn ┉ Number of Siblings : Only child | Only child ┉ Father’s Status + Relationship : Brian Banner, abusive asshole, deceased | No parents ┉ Mother’s Status + Relationship : Rebecca Banner, failed protector, deceased | No parents ┉ Other Family’s Status + Relationship : Susan Drake-Banner, aunt and foster mother, tried her best; Elaine Banner-Walters, estranged aunt; Jennifer Walters, cousin, Bruce’s favorite | She-Hulk, blood-sister ┉ Important Connections: Betty Ross, ex-girlfriend, love of his life; Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, ex-boss, asshole; Tony Stark, benefactor, friend | Abomination, nemesis ┉ Loyalty / Affiliation : The Avengers | The Avengers (limited)

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┉ MBTI : ISTP | INFJ ┉ Hobbies : Learning, reading, most intellectual pursuits, classical music | Smash? ┉ Bad Habits : Self-isolation, self-doubt, forgetting to eat regularly | Smash ┉ Three Positive Traits : Creative, brilliant, resourceful | Loyal, perceptive, frank ┉ Three Negative Traits : Secretive, negative, obsessive | Aggressive, mistrusting, uncommunicative ┉ Moral Alignment : Neutral Good | Chaotic Neutral

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┉ One Song : Cotton - The Mountain Goats | The Mother We Share - Chvrches ┉ One Quote / Piece of Art : “Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking, “I am falling to the floor crying,” but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it — you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well.” - Richard Silken | Picasso’s ‘Guernica’ ┉ One Fear : Loss of control | Being hurt ┉ One Strength : Analytical thinking | Reading people ┉ One Object : A well-worn English-foreign language dictionary | A bird’s nest, broken, on the ground ┉ One Place : A cemetery in the Midwest somewhere | An unexplored patch of jungle ┉ One Food : Chamomile tea | Coffee cherries ┉ One Scent : Disinfectant | Freshly-turned earth

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People always talk about the Hulk like it was something that happened to Bruce, something that came along and ruined the life of the brilliant young scientist with the promising career as a military contractor.

People are wrong.

The Hulk was never something that happened to him. It was always a part of him, as long as he could remember. As long as his father had been a part of his life, there had been that voice in the back of his mind, all the rage and screaming that he could never, ever let out, pushed down and stuffed away until it became its own person, and fed a steady diet of fear and anger. It only got worse after his mother’s murder at his father’s hands, a murder for which he was never punished.

He tried. Of course he tried. He wanted so badly to be something other than the monster, whether it was the bright young man his Aunt Susan told him he was or the model student his professors expected. Anything. Publicly, he went from being the troubled youth who’d tried, though admittedly not very hard, to blow up his primary school, to being the prodigy with the bright future of scientific discovery ahead of him, but privately, the eventual creation of the Hulk only brought forth what he’d always known he was - a monster, just like dear old Dad.

Whether he was on the run or working in the lab with Tony Stark, that knowledge had always been at the back of his mind, and it was what eventually sent him back on the road. After Sokovia, he couldn’t bring himself to stay with the Avengers, couldn’t just be another liability. His decision was borne out when he heard about the Sokovia Accords - and, more specifically, the general that would now be responsible for leading his friends. There was no way he was putting the Other Guy in the hands of Thaddeus Ross. But at the same time, he still doubted he could do any good for those of his friends that were taking a stand against the Accords. Revolutionaries needed a Hulk almost as much as they needed a physicist. Maybe less.

But he couldn’t stay away. He’d never been very good at turning away from someone who could make him forget, even just for a little while, that he was the real monster, the Doctor Frankenstein to the beast with the stitches and bolts. He was always going to be drawn back.

#united task 001 #united intro #abuse tw #child abuse tw #death tw #[[ !!! i'm so excited!

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luckyspike · 5 years ago

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Adventures in America, Ch. 7 - The Mix-Up Kid

In which the storm chasers enjoy the delights of a Waffle House

Adam learns Warlock’s birthday

And a storm brews ahead

Yes, figuratively, but also literally. This is a tornado-chasing fanfiction, honestly. Did you think I wouldn’t actually put a tornado in the damn thing?

Start from the beginning: ch. 1 | ch. 2 | ch. 3 | ch. 4 | ch. 5 | ch. 6

or follow this link to my fanfiction tag

Adam could have whooped when Noel informed him and Lucky that they wouldn’t be meeting in the lobby until eight the next morning. “There’s gonna be storms, probably to the northeast, but it’ll be afternoon by the looks of it. Get some sleep tonight, boys, an’ we can meet up for a late breakfast and decide where we’re headed.”

They didn’t unpack much - pajamas, toothbrushes, and that was about it. Adam took a hot shower, quick as he could, and when he got out, he found Lucky laying on top of his covers, earbuds in, face-timing with a friend. Adam gave him a thumbs-up - his turn for the shower if he wanted it - and settled onto his own bed, pulling his phone out and making sure he was connected to the wifi before he texted his parents to see if they were awake - they hadn’t been, but they were so eager to hear from him that they took his call, voices thick with sleep but happy nonetheless. He could hear Dog snoring on their bed in the background.

They were happy to talk to him. They were glad to hear he was having fun, and reminded him to be careful and stay safe. He told them about Lucky, and Noel and Rachael, and everything he’d learned so far. “It sounds like a good experience,” Arthur Young said. “Just ah … you do know when the tornadoes are coming, don’t you?”

“I mean, largely. They can be unpredictable.” He heard his mother make a worried noise. “No, mum, but like, they have this program called Baron, it’s running all the time, and it shows radar and gives warnings, and Rachael and Noel have been doing this for ages, so they’re really good at it too. And careful.” He considered telling them about the safety precautions Noel had reviewed earlier, but considered that the things he had warned them against might actually be more alarming than the safety instructions that followed, and he decided to leave it out. “Anyway, you don’t need to worry, promise. How’s things at home?”

“All well and good,” his mother replied. “We miss you of course, and Dog misses you - he was sniffing around in your room the day you left - but Anathema said she’d have a word with him and he’s settled down since then.” He heard the dog’s collar jingle as his mother, or father maybe, presumably gave him a scritch behind the ears. “He’s a very good boy.”

Adam grinned at the unmistakable sound of a small dog’s tail wagging so hard it was beating against the bed cover. “Aw, yeah. Give him a hug for me, yeah?”

“Of course, love. Arthur, hug Dog, would you? He’s closer to you.” Adam’s mother yawned, drowning out some of the grumbles in the background and the sounds of more happy tail-wagging. “Have you spoken to your friends? Oh, and Anathema and Newt asked about you this afternoon.”

“Not yet, figured it’s kind of late. I’ll send an email.” He yawned as well, prompted by his mother. “Maybe in the morning. You can tell them I’m good though, if you see anybody.” He yawned again. “Sorry, I’m kind of beat.”

“Jet lag,” his father answered sagely. “You ought to get some rest then, Adam.”

“You guys too,” the boy added earnestly. “Sorry to call so early - I’m all messed up with the time zones -”

“No, Adam, we’ve been waiting to hear from you.” He smiled, and the slight ache of homesickness that had settled in his chest as soon as he’d boarded the plane lifted a little at the warmth in her voice. “Text anytime, love, and we’ll talk if we can.” She blew a kiss into the phone. “But get some rest for now, alright? Sleep well, and let us know how tomorrow goes!”

“Will do, Mum, Dad. Talk to you guys later. Lots of love.” He ended the call, and sat back against the pillows, continuing to tap on his phone, sending the video of the hail storm off to the group and his sister. To his surprise, Pep texted back almost immediately, sending a message of ‘Dude what!’. He paused. Then he called.

“Hey storm rider!” she answered. “What’s up, Adam? Cool video!”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Hah. What are you doing up?”

“Driving in to London with the girls later today, and I couldn’t sleep. Hopefully Addie is willing to drive because I’m going to be napping.” She yawned. “So how’s America?”

“Crazy.” He laughed. “I went to Dunkin Donuts this morning.”

“Mm. America runs on Dunkin, I’m told. You meet anyone cool?”

“Well, the people I’m with are really cool.” She made a curious little noise. “So there’s Noel and Rachael, the guides - I told you about them. They’re super nice. And I think between the two of them they might know everything about weather. We drove for like, 11 hours today, and you know we only went through two entire states?”

“Wow.”

“And I napped for part of it but a lot of it they were teaching us stuff … Man, Pep, there’s so much.” He scrubbed his face with his hand. “I know you guys always made fun of me for how much I talk about weather sometimes, but honestly I don’t know like … anything.”

“Well, maybe not compared to the experts,” she teased. “But compared to me and Brian and Wensley you know way more than any of us.” She coughed. “So who’s ‘us’ on your trip? There’s another student?”

“Oh! Yeah. He’s cool.” Adam heard the shower shut off, and wondered how much he should really say. “He’s American, but he lived in London for a while, he said. You know, I think his dad might have even worked at the air base?”

“No,” Pepper laughed. “No way. Only you, Adam, would find the one American in the entire world who even knows about Tadfield and grew up in London. And of course he’s obsessed with weather. You should find out if he lived in Tadfield at any point, like when he was a baby or something.”

Adam considered it. “Nah,” he said at length.”What’re the odds?” He yawned, as Lucky stepped out of the bathroom, dressed only in boxers, scrubbing his hair dry with a towel. “I’m sure we’ll talk about it at some point.”

“You’d better. Tired?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, me too.” He heard the sound of sheets and pillows being pushed around. “Might try to get a couple hours before I have to go.”

“‘M gonna go to sleep too.” He let his eyes drift closed. “Jet lag’s brutal.”

“I bet. And all that time in the car probably didn’t help.” She yawned again. “Can you send us more videos tomorrow?”

“If I see anything, yeah.”

“You think you might?”

“Dunno. Everything’s supposed to happen in the afternoon, so we’re gonna wait to see what the morning looks like.”

“Well. Send us stuff even if you don’t see anything. Send us videos of weird Americans.”

“Yeah, okay. Talk to you later, Pep.” He hung up the phone, laughing while he did so.

Lucky flopped into his own bed, yanking the covers up over himself. “Friends?”

“Yeah, back home. Pepper.”

“Isn’t England like … six hours ahead of us?”

“Yeah.” Adam shrugged. “I dunno, she said she was up. Figured I’d give her a call.” He grinned at his phone, before locking the screen and plugging it in to charge. “I sent the gang a video of the hail. Most of them prob’ly never seen hail that big before.”

“Yeah, that was wild.” He folded his hands behind his head. “Hope we get a tornado tomorrow.”

“That’d be cool.” He sighed. “Pep told me to send more videos. Said if there wasn’t anything interesting in the weather I could send her videos of crazy Americans.”

Lucky laughed. “I’ll act extra crazy tomorrow if we don’t get any weather. You can send her a video.”

“I’m not sure she’d count you since you grew up in London.”

“Nah, only until I was eleven, and even then other than the like … the housekeepers and the gardner, everyone was American. Well, except Nanny. But she was Scottish.” He shrugged. “Then my dad got reassigned back to the States and I’ve lived stateside ever since. So I’m pretty American.”

“Eleven?” Adam asked, pointedly not opening his eyes. “Huh.”

“Yeah it was weird.” Lucky yawned. “There was this whole thing in the middle east and then boom, back to America, no more England. Honestly, I think my mom was just sick of random diplomatic trips. I’ll tell you about it some time, that whole trip to the middle east was so weird.”

“Yeah,” Adam replied, faintly, feigning fatigue. “Yeah, gotta remember to tell me about it. Never been to the middle east.”

“You’re not missing anything. Avocado farms and weird professors and that’s about it, far as I remember.” He shut the light off, and rolled over, away from Adam. “G’night, dude.”

“Night,” said Adam, on autopilot. Minutes later, he heard quiet snoring, and all the better, because his mind was racing.

Most eighteen-year-old boys are, by nature, not particularly introspective. They may be bright, the may be clever, they may be well-educated and top of their class and very high-achieving, but it’s the rare boy who is capable of reflecting on all of the information presented to him, reconciling it with what he already knows, and then reaching accurate, logical conclusions that may be distressing to him. Often, denial worms its way in early, and until the correct answer knocks the boy in question directly on the head, the powerful lure of denial will always draw him away, convince him that another conclusion is more likely, or more desirable.

Adam Young, though, was not most eighteen-year-old boys. To start, he was the Antichrist, even if he’d turned his back on that years ago and preferred not to think of himself in those terms. Further, he was quietly introspective, a trait he’d developed due to, well, being the Antichrist, and always, in spite of himself, watching his own thoughts for hints of Not Being Adam. Messing About. Antichristly things, essentially.

That could be to his advantage even now, though. And right now, his mind was cranking into overdrive, combing through what he knew. Warlock Dowling - father might have worked in Tadfield, was working in England when Warlock - Lucky - was born, Lucky was raised in England. Satanist nanny and monk gardner. Random trip to the middle east when he was eleven, followed by a sudden departure from London, never to return to the UK again. Or the middle east, come to think of it.

Adam wondered if he had stayed in touch with anybody from London. Particularly, the nanny and the gardner.

It all sounded very suspicious.

“We would have been with you from the beginning, you know, but there was a mix-up,” Aziraphale had told him once, years ago. Adam remembered that he’d gone to Aziraphale crying - it happened sometimes, more then but still these days, blessedly rarely - about what he’d done in the few brief hours when he really was the Antichrist. The things he might have brought about. The fate he and the world had so narrowly avoided. “We would have loved to be with you.” Adam remembered how the angel had hugged him, stroked his hair, dried his tears. “It was an unfair burden to lay at your feet, Adam, and Crowley and I always wanted to help but … there was a mistake. Best laid plans, and all that. It doesn’t undo what was done, and I am frightfully sorry about the lead-up, the way we treated - or didn’t treat - you, but know that had we known, we would have been there. But Adam, even then, you were brilliant. You are brilliant.”

There was a mix-up.

Warlock Dowling snored gently.

The next morning dawned hot and humid. Lucky and Adam woke with the alarm around nine, and lazily set about getting ready for the day. Adam checked his phone to find messages from his friends about the hail storm (“don’t let those brain you,” from his sister and, “dude what if it hits you,” from Brian), replied when he felt it was indicated, and pulled on a pair of shorts and an old t-shirt. Lucky was ready to go shortly after, and they stepped out of the motel room and into the air. Lucky made a noise of disgust.

“Talk about humid.”

“Ugh, yeah,” Adam agreed, trying to ignore how his t-shirt was already sticking to his skin, even though he’d only just come outside. “Good storm weather though, yeah?”

“Should be. I’m sure we’ll get a look at the radar over breakfast.” He rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get us a tornado today, huh?”

“Or some serious hail,” Adam agreed. A part of him - a large part of him - wanted to say sod it to the weather and have a serious talk with Lucky about his upbringing, his birth, his life to that point. How old was Lucky? They were roughly the same age, Adam knew that, but they could easily be a year or so apart, and all of the stuff that sounded suspiciously occult might have just been a coincidence. After all, it was all relatively easy to explain, in the harsh light and oppressive humidity of the Oklahoma day: American diplomat posted at a British airbase, family moved to the nearest metropolitan area, lived there for years, made a brief foray to the middle east - and America was so involved there around that time, Adam remembered, that that was hardly unusual - and then returned to America. Unusual, certainly, but not … occult. And having a diplomat for a father wasn’t exactly commonplace, so even then a bit of unusual-ness could be forgiven.

The Scottish Satanist nanny, though, reared her presence in his mind. The monk gardner. Good and evil.

Adam shook his head, when he realized that Lucky was speaking to him. They’d walked to the truck together while Adam thought and, on autopilot, he had set his stuff in the bed of the truck and closed the gate. Noel and Rachael were nowhere to be seen, not yet, but Adam thought he heard them talking on the other side of the motel. “Huh?” he said, looking to Lucky.

“Nothing,” the other boy shrugged. “Just talking about the radar. All this moisture and warmth - if we have any cold air from the northwest at all, we run a really good chance of catching a storm today.”

“Yup.” Adam leaned back against the truck and looked around the parking lot idly, arms crossed over his chest in spite of the heat. He met eyes with a stranger - a businessman, by the looks of him, dressed all in brown, with neatly-combed salt-and-pepper hair - that was sitting on the trunk of his rental car, reading a book. The two exchanged taut smiles, and the stranger returned to his book. “Hopefully out in the middle of nowhere, where we can get a good luck without too much people an’ stuff being around.”

“Yeah, that’d be ideal.” Lucky waved to Noel and Rachael as they approached. “Hey guys!”

Rachael raised her thermos in greeting. “Morning morning! You guys ready to hit it? The radar looks pretty good.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yep.” Adam opened the back gate of the truck for her, and she tossed her bag in. “You hungry? I’m starving. Hop in, we’re gonna hit the Waffle House and go over the game plan.”

“No Dunkin?” Lucky looked surprised.

“Gonna mix it up today, get exciting.” Noel snickered. “And also she has her own bag that she used to brew a pot in the room earlier this morning, so she’s already fueled-up.” He dropped his voice to a stage whisper. “She’s an addict, guys, I’m telling you.”

The boys laughed, while Rachael pointed out, “There’s worse things. Alright, load up, we have a storm to talk about, and I want some waffles!”

The Waffle House was such a uniquely American experience that Adam started taking video almost as soon as they entered. From the way the entire restaurant greeted them as they walked in, to the waiter’s accent, to the menu itself, he sent all of the snaps to his friends. There was no reply, not when it was so early in England, but he looked forward to the messages that would probably come through later, after everyone was up.

He tucked into a truly massive waffle and two eggs for breakfast, topped with a few strips of crispy bacon. It tasted exactly like he’d imagined it would, and he devoured it with gusto, finishing before Rachael even got through her second cup of coffee. Noel, still working at his omelet, pulled his laptop out of his bag and handed it over the table to Adam. “Check out the radar, Adam, and see what you think. There’s some really interesting stuff shaping up; let me know where you think it might be.”

Adam cracked the computer open. Next to him, Lucky studied the screen intently with dark eyes while Adam poked the cursor around the radar screen, randomly at first, and then slowly in a more organized fashion, tracing fronts and pressure systems, gradually hovering more consistently over a spot in mid-Kansas. Lucky nodded, never speaking, when he agreed, pointing at times. Across the table, Noel and Rachael shared companionable silence, Rachael with her coffee cradled in her hands and Noel slowly working at his omelet.

“Ready to show your work?” Rachael gestured to Adam to turn the laptop around, after he and Lucky had exchanged a few words and seemed to settle on a location. “Let’s see it.”

“I think,” Adam said slowly, pointing to the screen, “the best shot of anything happening is going to be right around here.”

“Hey!” Rachael grinned broadly. “Nice job, guys!”

“Yeah?” They exchanged a high-five. “Yeah!”

“Maybe a little more east,” Noel added, after he’d swallowed his last bite of omelet. “But really good for day two! What made you settle on that area?”

Adam and Warlock traded off explanation duties as Rachael settled up with the waiter, she and Noel adding information and correcting them as needed. In the truck, they settled in, Rachael in the driver’s seat for the first leg, and set course for Kansas. There wouldn’t be as much lecturing today, Noel assured them, and although Adam was eager to learn, he was truthfully a little grateful for the break. As they drove across the plains, he and Lucky put their headphones in, Adam listening to his downloaded playlist of tried-and-true favorites while he took video of the blue skies and white clouds, saving them to send later, when he could get to wi-fi. Around nine, he did get a text from Aziraphale - Crowley’s phone, of course, but the grammar and punctuation gave the angel away - bidding him to stay safe and out of trouble. He smiled, faintly, and settled back in the seat to watch the landscape drift by.

Lunch was sandwiches from a little deli they passed on their way through a town for gas. Adam savored the turkey and cheese in the back of the truck, Noel informing them that the time would be tight for the afternoon storms and they couldn’t afford a proper stop. He must have drifted off after he ate, because the next time he woke it was because Rachael had nudged his knee. She pointed to the screen of her laptop, excited. Adam leaned in. “Look at this,” she said, excited. Adam nudged Lucky, who had likewise drifted asleep with his headphones in, and ignored the muzzy noises the other boy made as he woke. “See the body of it there? It’s been holding steady for the last hour.”

Adam squinted. “Is that a hook echo?” He pointed to a part of the screen. Rachael, thoughtful, turned the screen to look. “Ah, no! But it might be an elephant trunk-type signature …” She studied it for a few seconds. “We’ll keep an eye on it. You awake, Lucky?”

“Mm yeah.” Still blinking the sleep from his eyes, Lucky unbuckled his belt, the better to lean forward and study the computer.

“Check out the base velocity data.” She changed views, and both boys blinked. “Do you know what you’re looking at?”

“Not … really.” Adam cocked his head. “Something about the wind speed in relation to the radar site?”

“I think I’ve seen it before,” Lucky chimed in. “Is it … wait. Green away and red toward? Or red away? Or is it speed …”

Rachael shook her head. “Not quite, but you guys are already ahead of the game - a lot of chasers your age don’t know anything about base velocity until after their first chase. So Lucky, it’s red away, and green toward.” She pointed to the screen. “Doesn’t really have anything to do with the speed of the winds, just how they’re moving in relation to the weather station. So when we’re looking for rotation, obviously, we want to see red and green really close to each other, right?”

“Makes sense,” Lucky agreed.

“So look here.” She pointed. “Now this stuff up here -” she twitched her hand to gesture vaguely at a scattering of red amongst green, “- I think is just artefact but this, this looks concentrated. See that?”

Adam and Lucky exchanged a look. “Like, it’s the dot, right?” Adam guessed.

“More or less.” Rachael flipped back to the regular radar view. “But you see how it correlates to a high-precipitation area? Means there’s probably a mesocyclone in there.” She clenched and unclenched her fingers, excited. “We might get a tornado today, guys. Definitely a lot of lightning, if the precipitation holds together.”

“How far out are we?” Lucky asked, shifting anxiously in his seat.

Noel answered this time. “Probably an hour or two. We should start seeing some more interesting clouds soon. Keep your eyes peeled.”

Adam and Lucky settled back, each looking out of their own window, while Rachael and Noel talked about something else - photography, something with Rachael’s lightning set-up - in the front seat.

“Have you ever seen a tornado?” Adam asked Lucky, as he craned his neck to see more to the front of the truck.

“Oh, yeah! Not up close, but one time in Virginia there was a little one and I could see it from the back yard. It didn’t last very long, but it was really cool. You?”

Adam thought about the tornado in Tadfield, when he was eleven. “Nah,” he said, stuffing the memory away. “Been in a few bigger storms, but you know … England.”

“Yeah, really severe weather isn’t really a big thing over there, huh? They get tornados though sometimes. I think.”

“Really little ones usually, yeah,” Adam agreed. “They don’t last long, normally, or do much damage.”

“I know another chaser from England,” Noel chimed in as he drove. “He comes over for the season every year. We were talking about it one time, he said that England has the second-most tornadoes per land area in the world.”

“Seriously?” Adam blinked.

“Yeah, but it’s a small area.” Lucky frowned. “And they’re not big?”

“No,” Noel agreed. “Not usually. He lives right in what he calls England’s tornado alley.” He laughed. “A little southwest from London I think he said? I can’t remember the name of the town. Most of the twisters there are around 95MPH wind speed, so they’re not really that powerful, but he told me he chases over there sometimes, if he’s home when they’re around. He showed me a few photos.”

“It was pretty cool - you don’t really think about tornadoes in England,” Rachael chipped in, absently. “Where in England is Tadfield, Adam?”

“Northwest of London,” he answered, using the city as a reference point. “About, oh, two hour drive I think, usually.” He did not add that most of the recent times he traveled to and from London by car, the car was being driven by a demon, and travel time was therefore significantly reduced. “It’s not a big village at all. Biggest thing there is the air base, and even that’s pretty small now. Population-wise, anyway. It’s mostly computers.”

“I think that’s why my dad got reassigned to London,” Lucky said thoughtfully. “Plus, you know, diplomat. London made more sense I guess.”

“Yeah it would do.” Adam looked sidelong at the other boy. Lucky didn’t notice, staring out of the window. “So you were born in London?”

“No, actually. It’s kind of a crazy story - my parents were supposed to fly in to the air base together, but my mom ended up having to go alone for a few days because there was something with the president? I dunno, Dad never actually said what it was. But anyway Mom flew in and then like, went into labor while she was staying at the air base waiting for him, so I ended up being born there.” He shook his head.

“Oh.” Born at the air base. Adam could have laughed with the relief of it. Another thought occurred to him. “Aren’t pregnant women not supposed to fly, though?”

“I dunno, probably.” He shrugged. “I guess when the president says go, you go.” He snorted. “And then, so like, she’s at the air base, but then she said they didn’t have a doctor that knew how to deliver babies? So she had to go to this weird hospital with nuns to have me. Worked out in the end, Dad got there after I was born and we went to the place in London like they’d planned.”

Weird hospital with nuns. The words echoed in Adam’s ears, in between the pounding rush of his own heartbeat. Weird nuns. Satanic nuns, maybe? How do you ask if someone was born in a hospital full of Satanic nuns?

“Wild story,” said Rachael from the front seat, but as far as Adam was concerned, she might have been a thousand miles away. “See the clouds up ahead?”

“Supercell!” he heard Lucky say, distantly, and the other boy - the other boy who was born in a weird hospital with nuns, to a politically-connected family, and then raised by a satanic nanny and had a monk for a gardener, and then went to the middle east when he was eleven - leaned forward to start chattering on with Rachael and Noel. About storms.

Adam loved weather, but at the moment, nothing could be further from his mind.

“When’s your birthday?” he blurted out, stopping the other three mid-conversation. And then he blinked, realizing what he’d done, as Rachael and Lucky looked to him, puzzled. “Sorry, never mind, wasn’t paying attention.” He forced a weak smile.

“August 23. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Adam lied, immediately turning to look out the window. “Wow, check out that cell!”

“... Yeah. It’s big.” Lucky looked over to Rachael, who had raised her eyebrows questioningly. Even Noel was glancing curiously between the two students in the rearview mirror. Lucky shrugged at Rachael, the universal ‘I have no idea’ gesture. “You alright, Adam? Really?”

“Fine.” We have the same birthday, born in a weird hospital with nuns, we’re probably the same age, they thought I was him, they thought he was it, it was him, it was this guy …

“Nerves are totally normal,” Noel said a little more quietly, not taking his eyes off the road, or the storm cell ahead. “Don’t worry - we’re gonna get plenty of videos if anything happens, but we’ll keep our distance. It’s early still - by the time we’re five weeks in you’re gonna wanna drive the truck yourself.”

It was him, he was the mix-up, it was - And then Adam stopped himself, because some part of him realized that this wasn’t productive, he wouldn’t change or alter anything with this line of thinking, and furthermore, he was in the back of a truck which was headed straight for what looked, on radar, to be a supercell with significant tornadic potential. “No, it’s fine,” he insisted, with a shake of his head. “No, I’m sorry. Sorry, really, I think I’m just still a little messed up from the time change, but I’m fine. Seriously,” he added, when Rachael and Lucky looked to him, radiating concern and curiosity. “Let’s do it - I’m so ready.”

Rachael watched his face for another minute and then made a decision, apparently, because she nodded ever-so-slightly, and turned back to her laptop, maneuvering it so the two in the back seat could have a better view of the screen. “Good, because you see that on radar?”

“Hook artefact,” Lucky breathed, as Adam watched the picture twist on the screen, the red blob at the center of the storm leaving a trail to the southwest that was just so slightly starting to curve north-easterly.

“I think so. Let’s take a look at the base velocity.” As she switched views she grinned, and Adam saw what she was moving to point toward right away. “See it?”

“Mesocyclone?” Adam asked, eyes wide, insisting his brain focus on the task at hand. There would be plenty of time to really process the fact that he was sitting with the other Antichrist - the not-Antichrist, the mix-up kid - and hunting tornadoes with him later.

“I think so.” Rachael looked up, out of the windshield, and the students followed her gaze. Ahead, the clouds towered, gray and ominous and piled on top of one another, all the way up to the stratosphere. “Looks good for a tornado, guys.” A bolt of lightning shot through the clouds, illuminating pockets and curves. “Let’s get it.”

Now with Chapter 8!

#good omens #good omens fanfic #good omens fanfiction #adam young #warlock dowling #aziraphale #crowley #the one where they go to america #i wish i didn't enjoy fanfiction so much #the love song to storm chasing via fanfic that no one ever asked for

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theliberaltony · 6 years ago

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via FiveThirtyEight

The 2020 Democratic primary is really an electoral story. Nothing the candidates say about policy on the campaign trail will become law during the campaign.1 But the language of presidential primaries is not electoral — candidates tend not to say, “people of The Left, vote for me, I’m very liberal” or, “Democrats, pick me; sure, I’m progressive, but I’m not so progressive that it ruins my appeal with Republican-leaning independents in the Midwest.”

Instead, the language of presidential primaries is largely one of policy. Sen. Elizabeth Warren proposes a tax on wealth over $50 million and defends that policy on its merits. She doesn’t say out loud the real, immediate goal of the proposal for her — wooing liberal Democratic primary voters concerned about growing income inequality.

The 2020 candidates are likely to talk a lot about policy over the next year — it’s basically how you run for president. And you should pay attention to what they say, but not for the reasons you might think. Here’s a guide to the “policy primary,” with some thoughts from academics and one-time advisers to presidential candidates.2

1. Most importantly, policy proposals matter because the winning candidate will try to implement them as president.

There is a common view that candidates just promise whatever it takes to win and then abandon all those pledges once in office. But political science research has shown over and over again that politicians, including presidents, try to implement their campaign promises, even the more outlandish ones. We just had a record-long partial government shutdown over a campaign pledge that President Trump has unsuccessfully tried to implement — the border wall.3

So, all else being equal, you can expect follow-through from whoever is elected president on many of the policies he or she put forth during the campaign.

2. Even so, pay more attention to broad goals than fine print.

During the 2008 Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama both came up with proposals to vastly increase the number of Americans with health insurance. They disagreed on the how: Clinton said a comprehensive new health insurance law should require everyone to have insurance or pay a fine; Obama had no such mandate. You know how this turned out — the law now known as Obamacare included an individual mandate.4 Somewhat similarly, during the 2016 race, Trump’s campaign named 21 people that he would consider appointing to the U.S. Supreme Court. Eventual Trump nominee and now Justice Brett Kavanaugh was not among the 21.

That said, one of the 21 was Neil Gorsuch. And the overall group was full of white, male and fairly conservative legal figures — the exact kind of people Trump has appointed to the Supreme Court and lower courts as president.

“One big takeaway from my research is that the ‘policy primary’ gives us less information about the specifics of the plans that might be on the agenda than it does about what issues are likely to be at the top of the agenda,” said Philip Rocco, a political scientist professor at Marquette University who specializes in research on the policymaking process, in an e-mail message.

Looking forward, therefore, I think it’s safe to assume the Democratic candidates running on Medicare-for-all, if elected, will at the very least push for some kind of program in which uninsured Americans can enroll in a public plan along the lines of Medicare. It’s likely Warren will try to implement some kind of new tax on the very wealthy if she is elected.

3. Rank-and-file voters probably aren’t choosing candidates based on their policy plans.

Generally, “the differences on issues [among candidates] in primaries are not huge,” said Elaine Kamarck, who was a top policy adviser to Al Gore during his 2000 presidential run. So most voters probably will not be able to assess subtle differences on policy issues among the 2020 Democratic contenders. After all, political scientists have found American voters broadly know little about politics and policy.

However, Kamarck argued that voters are often well-informed and passionate about issues that particularly affect their regions or states. So a Democratic primary candidate might do poorly in the primaries in Kentucky or West Virginia if he or she has a plan that voters in those states think will severely harm the coal industry.

4. But the policy plans tell voters about a candidate’s priorities and values — and that probably does matter electorally.

“People are not voting for a package of policy preferences, they’re voting for an individual, and the policies or issues help mark out the kind of person they are,” Mark Schmitt, who was a policy adviser on Bill Bradley’s campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2000, said in an e-mail message.

So a candidate like Warren or Bernie Sanders with proposals to vastly increase taxes on the wealthy is communicating to voters a persona — “fighting for the little guy,” “taking on the establishment” — that might resonate with voters who are liberal or anti-establishment, even if these voters don’t really know much about, say, marginal tax rates.

Lee Drutman, a scholar at the think tank New America, concluded based on polling data that 2016 Democratic primary voters who preferred Sanders were not significantly more liberal on policy issues than those who backed Hillary Clinton. (Sanders himself certainly was to the left of Clinton.) Instead, voters’ views of the American political system and whether they thought it was fundamentally “rigged” was a strong predictor of which candidate they supported. More anti-establishment Democrats strongly preferred Sanders. That is probably, in part, because his policy proposals, like a single-payer health care system, communicated a break from the more establishment politics of Clinton.

5. Policy details matter to important groups that can offer endorsements — and those endorsements can matter electorally.

In 2016, the National Nurses Association backed Sanders over Clinton, and this wasn’t much of a surprise. The NNA has long pushed for single-payer health care, and Sanders favored that idea and Clinton did not. In making its endorsement, NAA’s leadership specifically noted Sanders’s support of single-payer and his opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Obama-era trade agreement that Clinton did not oppose as forcefully as Sanders.

So specific issue stands do really matter to key activist groups making endorsements. And that can make an impact electorally. Unions, for example, can organize their members to back candidates. When a Democratic candidate comes out with an education policy plan, that may be an appeal to parents, but it is also likely signaling to teacher unions, a powerful, organized liberal constituency in some states.

“Activists do pay attention” to specific policy ideas and stances, said Andrew Dowdle, a political science professor at the University of Arkansas who has written extensively about the presidential nomination process.

6. Pay more attention to the “flop” than the “flip.”

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been criticized for supporting overly punitive approaches to criminal justice in the past, Cory Booker for promoting charter schools, Kirsten Gillibrand for backing conservative immigration legislation, Sanders for opposing some gun control measures earlier in his career. I could go on. The Democratic Party has moved decidedly to the left in recent years, so many of the 2020 presidential candidates have, in their past, violated some of the party’s new tenets.

Scrutinizing candidate’s past records is a big part of any nomination contest. But it may not be a particularly useful exercise in predicting what these candidates would do on policy if elected president. (Note the emphasis on policy — Bill Clinton’s philandering and Trump’s lying before entering office were fairly useful predictors of what came later.)

These candidates are politicians, after all. They probably were taking stands in the past that reflected a mix of conviction and political expediency. Biden likely believed that the “crime bill” he sponsored in 1994 (and is now slammed as helping lead to the over-incarceration of African-Americans) was good policy (it was endorsed by a lot of black political leaders too). I suspect he also thought the legislation was in the political mainstream, helping him to rise up the ranks of the Democratic Party.

David Karol, an expert on the presidential nomination process who teaches at the University of Maryland, told me these “flip-flops” by candidates are often explained by their changing constituencies. He referred specifically to Gillibrand, who was first elected in 2006 in a relatively moderate district in upstate New York before becoming the senator for the entire state, which is fairly liberal-leaning.

“It’s hard to know whether the politician ‘really’ believed in their position at Time 1 or Time 2,” Karol said.

Either way, Democratic elected officials have moved away from a tough-on-crime approach and the party’s voters are now very pro-immigration . I have no doubt a President Biden would govern on criminal justice policy more like how he sounds in 2019 than he did in 1994, and that a President Gillibrand would be more pro-immigration than Candidate Gillibrand in 2006.

The obvious example here is Trump, who took some fairly liberal stands in earlier phases of his life but has generally followed GOP orthodoxy as president, as he promised to do on many issues during his 2016 campaign.

President Ronald “Reagan’s promises on abortion were far better predictors of his policies than his more pro-choice past as California’s governor were. Al Gore was pro-gun and anti-abortion at one point in his career when it made sense for a white southern Democrat to be so. But his campaign promises were better predictors,” Seth Masket, a University of Denver political scientist who is currently writing a book about presidential primaries, said in an e-mail message.

So the bottom line: Take what the presidential candidates are saying on the campaign trail seriously and literally. But more seriously than literally.

#IFTTT #FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Perry Bacon Jr.

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ourworldofenergy · 4 years ago

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More Interesting Energy Stories that you Might Have Missed

Guest blog by Mr. R. U. Cirius: Here are some interesting and somewhat offbeat energy stories that haven’t gotten much media attention that OWOE readers might have missed.

New Cryptocrude

The government of Venezuela, which has been unable to get inflation in the country under control (see new 200,000 Bolivar note worth 0.1 cents), has come up with a new idea on how to monetize their oil resource wealth – they are planning to introduce a variation of a cryptocurrency in the form of digitized oil. Venezuela is purported to have the largest oil reserves in the world, 304 billion barrels, which is just ahead of Saudi Arabia at 298 billion barrels. Unfortunately, most of this is extra-heavy oil that is very difficult and expensive to produce, and the mismanagement by the government has led to a precipitous drop in production over the last decade. The solution: don’t try to produce the oil, sell it virtually while it is still in the ground. Make the money now without having to do any work and leave the messy details on how to produce heavy oil to someone else.

The idea has garnered interest from Canada, another country with large heavy oil deposits that has also struggled with developing its resources, which has been in discussions with the Venezuelan government to do a joint cryptocrude offering that would include the tar sands oil in Alberta.

Avian Turbines

Birds, while an important part of our ecosystem, may not be used to their full potential. People are beginning to ask “could we be utilizing them more?” One company, Birdines, is looking for creative ways to do so. They have been exploring the concept of attaching a small wind turbine onto birds on long flight paths to harness a bit of wind energy.

While it might not seem like a bird could produce very much energy, with multiple flocks Birdines has shown that they could produce a sufficient amount of energy to run their production facility. The big challenge is how to harness that energy. They are working on a number of ideas ranging from wireless transmission to small batteries. As a first step, they are planning to place test turbines on a number of birds at the start of their migration, track the levels of energy generated during flight, and send collectors to bring back equipment for further evaluation. (See Fig. 1.) Engineers have worked tirelessly to ensure that these wind turbines will not affect the birds’ flight or safety. In fact, one interesting finding from their studies is that the turbines actually make the birds more attractive to their mates, which has helped get PETA onboard as a supporter of the effort. Over time, as their design becomes more widely used, they are predicting that it will be possible to power companies all over the world along the flight paths of these migratory birds.

Fig. 1 – Avian Turbine (image by Birdines)

Young Aspiring Female Engineer Merges Robotics and AI

California has its fair share of geniuses but they seem to congregate in the entertainment industries. However, at one dedicated technical high school, Ms. Noel Hayley, an aspiring engineer, has been turning heads with her research and independent school projects. She’s won several competitions for engineering challenges including building bridges out of popsicle sticks, producing energy from ocean currents, etc. But more recently she has turned her intellectual curiosity and technical prowess to robotics and AI.

Building robots using 3-D printing technology has been straightforward enough, but the AI part has presented a number of challenges. Most surprising, one day, in the lab, while listening to a radio segment with Bill Nye and Justin Trudeau (the Prime Minister of Canada), the robotic arm she was working on took on an unorthodox pose (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2 – Robotic Arm Malfunction

“I haven’t been able to figure out why this happened. I ran some more experiments with other speakers – the arm behaved properly,” said Ms. Hayley. “Then I ran a different speech by the PM and the same malfunction occurred. Again and again, every time that I played a speech by the PM of Canada, the robot defaulted to this position.” Although Ms. Hayley was dumbfounded as to this behavior, she started getting requests form Canadians for copies of the robot arm, “as is”. Ms. Hayley is still working on developing the robot for oil and gas work, but in the meantime has started a side business selling copies of the malfunctioning robot to folks in Canada. “For some reason, they especially like these in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Newfoundland.”

Bio Power to the Rescue!

For some years now, scientists and keepers at the Tennessee Aquarium have been using an electric eel to power the lights of a Christmas tree. Researchers at Tennessee Tech and Oak Mound National Laboratory have now taken that one step further and believe that they can harness sufficient power from eels for long distance trucking and that the whole system can be biology-based and totally carbon neutral. One huge benefit is the elimination of recharge time during long hauls. Since eels eat virtually anything that can fit in their mouths, the EEL-V driver needs to only stop for a meal or bathroom break, throw a bucket of small fish, shrimp, fly larvae, or any other protein source into the tank and get right back on the road. A photo showing the EEL-V prototype during road tests is shown in Fig. 3 in which the first module contains eels in water, which generate power to propel the truck down the road. The second module is the actual cargo trailer.

Fig. 3 – EEL-V

Organic Storage of Renewable Energy

About a year ago, researchers at a Texas university announced a breakthrough in energy storage that combines solar gathering with thermal release. In the year since, numerous other research initiatives have focused on such molecular solar thermal storage systems. One such promising technology is being developed by Dr. Yudun Phul Mi, research lead at the Coshocton Institute for Carbon Research (CICR). Dr. Mi has announced a novel means of energy storage and quotes: “Renewable energy is great. It’s clean and there is enough of it to power the world. The problem is that it’s intermittent.” Dr. Mi continues, “We’ve developed a novel means to store renewable energy using organic, plant based starches as feedstock.” According to Dr. Mi and his colleagues, the process of storing energy in starches is simple, and it would also be possible to capture atmospheric carbon into the new material. The key breakthrough that has eluded many researchers has been how to compactly store the new energy-dense material. “Our team,” Dr. Mi continues, “realized that arranging the starches in layers and then subjecting them to pressure and temperature would yield a semi-solid.” In simplest terms, see Fig. 4.

Fig. 4 – Renewable Energy Storage Using Starches

When asked about the energy storage potential, Dr. Mi explained that it was about 24 MJ / kg and that it would store energy for many years. “On a larger scale, we could even bury it for future populations to unearth as needed in 10, 100, or even 1000 years in the future. Of course, we still have to figure out how to burn it without emitting the carbon dioxide and other pollutants back into the atmosphere.” Additional research is being undertaken at CICR to determine whether the process could be modified to yield liquid energy stores that could then be pumped into underground reservoirs or porous sand deposits.

Harvesting the Energy from Crop Circles

Professor Emeritus Albus Dumblebee at HST (Hoagmoles School of Technology) in Edinburgh, UK, who has spent most of his career researching crop circles has developed a new concept for harvesting energy from these circles. Despite claims from some that the circles are created by alien visitors to the earth and from others that such phenomena are hoaxes, Professor Dumblebee believed that there was a more natural basis for the circles. After extensive research and excavation at a number of circles in the UK, he reported that he had found a highly concentrated radioactive source buried under several of these circles. Laboratory testing of these sources shows that they emit a pulsating spherical radiation field and that the perimeter of the crop circle coincides with the location where the peak energy pulse intersects the surface of the earth. Thus, the larger the point radiation source and the shallower it is buried, the larger the manifestation of the crop circle.

With this new understanding of how the crop circles are made, he has developed the concept of a large-scale partial-sphere flux capacitor (see Fig. 5). The partial-sphere flux capacitor will fit exactly on the crop circle which will allow it to capture the radioactive energy from each pulse generated by the buried radioactive source. Professor Dumblebee is currently working on the mechanism to convert the captured radioactive energy into electricity and feed it into the electrical grid. He believes that a field of 5 typical crop circles can generate enough electricity to displace approximately 100MW of conventional fossil fuel driven power plants, thus helping the world move toward a fossil fuel free future.

Fig. 5 – 2D Representation of 3D Flux Capacitor (credit Muller, et.al., and Dr. Emmett Brown)

Canadian Researchers Make Major Renewable Energy Breakthrough

Research from the Cape and the Rock have made a significant breakthrough in renewable power efficiency from wind and wave. At a press conference to reveal their breakthrough, team members summarized the technology as combining a bunny hug or doeskin with a vi-co. “We had many smattes over many chiffes, subsisting at times on bines and jam-busters when we sure g’awn witcha. There was no takitish.” Said another researcher about the team effort, “Lashins tof till I was rawny, but we kept the jinkers out of there so we wouldn’t be huffed: Soon enough it was full flye duckish.” Canadian government officials on hand were like buckle bunnies with new gotch: It was skookum tickety-boo. Research will be published in the upcoming quarterly journal of Timmies.

More Interesting Energy Stories that you Might Have Missed was originally published on OurWorldofEnergy

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typologycentral · 7 years ago

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Death by Thesis

I first encountered my trickster before I knew anything about Jung. I was studying comparative literature in graduate school, which meant studying languages and literatures, ancient and modern. Many of my peers were bilingual or trilingual from birth, so I felt disadvantaged from the start. All of us, however, were in awe of one Professor Ulrich K. Goldschmidt (anglicized to Goldsmith), a German émigré who had fled the Nazis and who spoke numerous languages, both living and dead—we could never figure out how many because he kept surprising us with new ones. I had the dubious distinction of being his guinea pig in my cadre of grad students, having foolishly volunteered to give the first oral report in his class. The reason that I volunteered was not a good one: I couldn’t stand the silence that greeted the professor’s question, “Who will go first?” This was the classic extravert’s mistake, and I paid for it. My topic was rhetoric, which the ancient Greeks raised to a high art so that eventually it became synonymous with verbal manipulation. I was a wordsmith. I had made my way through school with verbal manipulation. I thought I knew the topic well.I gave my report on Day Two of my grad school career. Goldsmith debated every word that came out of my mouth, accusing me of using terms imprecisely. I was from then on notorious as the example of How Not to Succeed in Grad School. This and my language handicap made me decide not to bother with a doctorate but to take a master’s degree and run. To leave with a master’s required writing a thesis. Goldsmith’s known areas of expertise were Germanic, Slavic, Nordic, and East European languages, so I decided it would be prudent to stick to western European topics for my thesis. I consulted a professor who had given a seminar on satire, asking her to suggest novels in, say, France, Spain, or Italy. She suggested looking at Rabelais and Cervantes. Only two authors, I thought. How hard can that be? I promptly submitted the proposal, assuming she would be my advisor. To my horror, I was told that Cervantes was one of Goldsmith’s areas of expertise, and “Wasn’t I lucky to have such an expert for a thesis advisor?” This was the early warning sign for me that something trickster was afoot. I was learning, like Oedipus, that you meet your destiny on the road you take to avoid it. Cervantes’ Don Quixote is 940 pages long—a book of tales forever unfinished and unfinishable. John Beebe (2009) has an essay on the hero and the post-heroic attitude in Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Early in the essay he describes how he was invited to give a talk at a Congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology to be held in Spain, and how it seemed apt to give the talk on Quixote, Spain’s most famous contribution to literature. The trouble is, Beebe observes, then he had to read the thing. As he put it: “I discovered that if I was to have a paper to include in the advance proceedings of the Congress, I was going to have to start to write about the massive novel even before my reading of it was complete” (p. 4). Beebe observed in a footnote that, “Frustration might even be described as the archetypal field that emanates from the novel itself” (n. 29, p. 21). “Frustration” is an understatement. Once I got into La Mancha myself, I thought I would never get out. And this was only one of my focus texts. The other was equally gargantuan and is, in fact, the source of that word in our language: Rabelais’ Gargantua and Pantagruel. This verbal monstrosity is actually a series of five novels. Don Quixote comprises two very long ones. I had to read all of them in the original languages, the sixteenth-century versions of Spanish and French. These two masterpieces spawned my own permanently-in-progress unfinishable work. Both of them, I now realize, epitomize trickster works of literature, seducing and abandoning the reader, and turning the world upside down. And my own trickster was clearly at work here: I had tried to take the easy way out of grad school and now I was faced with an avalanche of work. Here, I must admit, Dr. Goldsmith was inordinately helpful. I had to meet with him to officially launch my research, and at that meeting he suggested that I focus on the topic of judgment and pointed me to a critical chapter on this topic in each work. The topic did not interest me much, but I was so intimidated by him that I did not resist. That turned out to be fortunate, because he had handed me a bite-sized, digestible chunk out of a huge torrent of words. The Jungian connotations of Goldsmith’s name have not escaped my notice. Moreover, Goldsmith’s suggested topic held even more Jungian irony, though I did not realize it until years later: Judgment is one of the two categories of Jung’s mental processes, the other being perception. It is a central theme of Jung’s (1921/1971) Psychological Types that we must balance our use of perception with judgment, and vice versa. This plays out in our personality type in our dominant and auxiliary functions: one is a perceiving function, the other a judging function. When we over-rely on one or the other, trouble occurs. I was going to discover something that Goldsmith probably knew intuitively—that I had a dearth of judgment and an oversupply of perception. My dominant function was a perceiving function, and it was much more fun than my auxiliary judging function. As I was to discover, it would be a judging function that would send me into a tailspin with this project. I spent more than a year doing research on judgment, judging, and judges, without understanding the first thing about the topic. These were the pre-computer days, and I collected a huge stack of four-by-six note cards containing my research results covering 400 years of literary criticism and thousands of pages of source text. Some people are afraid of flying; others are afraid of heights. I have a paperwork phobia. My worst nightmares involve a visit from the IRS asking for receipts. So, creating and maintaining my archive of notes was an agonizing task. This is fairly typical of individuals of my personality type, ENFP, though I’m a bit extreme on the subject. It relates to the inferior function of ENFPs (see Fig. 1). The inferior function, the fourth function, is the site of our inferiority complex, so each personality type has a weakness around the fourth function. My inferior function, introverted sensation (Si), is the mental process we use to record, to recall, and to archive our recollections. When introverted sensation is in the inferior position, our recall is not good. Mark Twain described well how Si inferior manifests for my type, when he made the following comment in his old age: “When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not.” (Mark Twain is thought by some to have had ENTP preferences, a type that also has introverted sensing as an inferior function.) When introverted sensation is our fourth and most primitive conscious function, we don’t remember things well and we don’t even know we don’t remember them; we confabulate. If forced to remember things, we get bored. The psyche knows our points of resistance and will take us there unerringly. My psyche led me to blindly choose a subject guaranteed to trigger my paperwork phobia, my inferiority complex, my animus. To have to spend a year in one’s inferior function is like a yearlong time-out for a toddler. I got so bored and desperate with my inferior introverted sensing (Si) function, required to gather and document the data, that I spent many hours asleep in the library. I could have asked Dr. Goldsmith for help, or maybe a mercy killing, but I was too proud to admit difficulty. I had arrived in grad school in a state of unconscious incompetence, to use Noel Burch’s term from his “Conscious Competence Ladder.” According to Burch’s analysis, an individual in training must progress from the stage of unconscious incompetence to a stage of conscious incompetence if he is to learn anything. Those who resist becoming consciously incompetent get stuck on the first rung of the ladder forever. My grueling Day-Two experience in Dr. Goldsmith’s class was his effort to move me out of my state of unconscious incompetence to a state of conscious incompetence—to show me the limits of my knowledge so that I could actually learn something. This movement is always a humbling experience, and those who do not endure it humbly are ripe for trickster reversals. The thesis research in the library was tedious and laborious, but working in my inferior function was nothing compared to what came next—being plunged into an unconscious place: my trickster function. Our unconscious functions are not just uncomfortable; they sometimes seem not even to exist—until they rear their ugly heads in a neurosis. Being plunged into our less conscious functions resembles that old joke about high school: long periods of excruciating boredom punctuated by brief moments of abject terror. When I had dragged myself through every available research source, there was nothing left to do but write. The trouble was, I was drowning in theories. I normally began a paper by organizing the ideas into neat categories, then arranging them into a logical sequence. But now, whenever I tried to organize the stack of note cards, I could not decide on a sequence. The whole thing seemed so circular that I couldn’t find the beginning. I would decide on a starting point and spend an entire day trying to organize the cards appropriately, promising to write the next day. I kept redefining the thesis statement, continually reconsidering it from different angles. Sequencing is the operational forte of introverted sensation, my baby function. If I had slept a lot in the library during the research phase, I was now nearly comatose. I couldn’t maintain the required concentration long enough to sit, let alone write. Each morning, I would see that my previous day’s decision was wrong, and I would reconsider the thesis statement again and re-organize the whole thing once more. The hypothesis was a moving target that I never hit. Jung would have noted that Goldsmith’s critique of my first oral report—my imprecise use of terms—pointed to inadequate introverted thinking (Ti). Introverted thinking is the function we use when constructing theories to make sense of something, and so it must be engaged in academic research, which aims to create new knowledge. As Beebe put it, the Ti function “reflect[s] on whether a particular construction … accord[s] with the conviction of inner truth” (2017, p. 31). Introverted thinking seeks ever greater precision in expressing that truth. According to Beebe’s eight-function/eight-archetype model, introverted thinking falls in the seventh position for my type, the trickster position. Introverted thinking is a judging function, but if undeveloped it may fail to reach a judgment and simply circle the drain. I did not know then that this is often how trickster Ti manifests: continually redefining, refining, and going in circles to the point of total confusion. I spent about six weeks stuck in this “paralysis by over-analysis.” I couldn’t move forward and I couldn’t go back. I was stuck in a trickster’s double bind. I was trying to write about judgment, but I was completely unable to muster a judgment. Eventually, I reached the point of being unable to face those note cards. I put them out of mind for a while. And that’s when disaster struck: I lost them. All 300 cards. My inner trickster had helpfully rescued me from the odious research cards by rendering me unconscious while it threw them away, thus ridding me of a loathsome task. I spent several days searching the campus for that gigantic stack of note cards, wrapped with elastic bands. I looked in all my usual haunts: classrooms, library carrels, favorite café tables. I even asked the campus janitors to look for them. The cards were gone. A thousand references, quotations, and page numbers had succumbed to the second law of thermodynamics. I went into shock. The shock was followed by humiliation. The loss was a painful confirmation of my inferiority in the realm of record keeping, memory, and all the other details for which introverted sensation is known. It seemed to corroborate my bottom-of-the-class status. I told no one about the event, not even my closest friends, but endured it silently and alone. I suspected that my psyche had played some kind of grotesque trick on me, the kind that Pantagruel and Gargantua are known for. I had morphed into the buffoons Rabelais satirized. I had become Sancho Panza and Don Quixote in one, the butt of all of Cervantes’ jokes. A huge lesson seemed to loom nearby, though I could not see what it was. My mind seemed to have disappeared along with my research. For a while, I thought I had no choice but to drop out of grad school. Finally, after days of depression, I understood that I had one other option, though not a pleasant one: I could try to re-write from memory everything that had been on those cards. This meant going back into my inferior Si again! Though memory would never be my strong suit, the previous six to eight weeks of doing nothing other than shuffle the cards like Sisyphus in Vegas had had some effect. And so, in a big hurry to get everything out while I could still recall it, I threw the words onto the page as fast as I could, writing in longhand on lined paper. I wrote like a fiend. Of course, there were no references, no sources, and no footnotes. I couldn’t bother with anything as trivial as accuracy at this juncture. I was in a race against the growing black hole of forgetfulness in my mind. I didn’t care if the logic was circular, I didn’t care whether I was writing from the beginning point or not, and I didn’t care that Goldsmith would assassinate every word. Terrified of stopping lest I forget it all, I simply regurgitated everything I could recall. When I drew a blank on a topic, I didn’t brake to look it up; my dominant extraverted intuition (Ne) just made something up. And this is when something peculiar began to happen: These space-fillers were often jokes, puns, or other odd tidbits that seemed to come straight out of my unconscious because they were so unlike me. Maybe my Ne dominant took me into my 8th or demonic function, extraverted sensation (Se); extraverted sensation can be a great joker and storyteller. My conscious mind told me this would not qualify as “academic discourse.” Academe requires gravitas, my inner critic argued. These jokes will get you thrown out of the department. “Good!” I snapped back at myself. “Let them throw me out! That would be an improvement of my life!” In retrospect, I see that the new Ne ideas and the crazy Se jokes that popped out played an important role in the process: They kept me from getting bored with the Ti writing style and falling asleep again. I even grew curious to see what would come out of my pen next. Beebe (1981) has compared possession by the trickster archetype to bipolar disorder (pp. 24-37), a comparison I can understand after my brief episode of dealing with the trickster. I had gone from depression to mania during my trickster crisis, albeit these were not clinical or pathological states. Nonetheless, I feel sympathy for those who suffer bipolar episodes. In my trickster episode, I began to sound logical, cohesive, and authoritative to myself. I was writing fluently in an academic-sounding mode that resembled introverted thinking (if you squinted your eyes), although the trickster energy around my seventh function made it feel like a huge fraud of pretend research. Still, I was in love with my flights of fantasy, and I cackled like a hyena at them. I didn’t realize it, but those jokes were signs of an emerging trickster. The trickster is a prankster who doesn’t take anything too seriously. Thus, in sabotaging me, my trickster severed the grip of my paralysis. It liberated me. It was still tricking me (with delusions of grandeur), but I was at least enjoying the trick. I was now conscious of being a trickster. Eventually, to my surprise, I had a complete first draft. All I needed were references—no big thing when you’re in the manic phase. I airily breezed back to the library, re-researched the whole thing, and tried to retrofit the data to what I had written—the opposite of standard research procedure. Of course, the data did not fit. Remarkably, this did not alarm me. It seems that once I had jettisoned perfectionism, I was completely unfazed by the grossest imperfections. I had reached a stage of acceptance of my incompetence. Moreover, I was curious to see what I would find, rummaging in the black hole of my mind. I did not realize it, but I was starting to access the data-collecting mode of my Si inferior in a constructive way. Introverted sensation verifies accuracy in a fact-checking way, and my Si function began to lure me toward accuracy. I enjoyed the library work this time through. Far from falling asleep, I couldn’t stop working. I was salivating to discover what the evidence actually showed, as opposed to what I had confabulated. I corrected the first draft to accommodate the evidence I uncovered, reversing some hypotheses and modifying others if the data so directed. More importantly, as I revised the thesis, I could easily engage introverted thinking (Ti)—defining, refining, and analyzing—without becoming paralyzed. Finally, at the end of the academic year, it was done—under the deadline. I delivered it to Goldsmith’s office at about 5:00 p.m. one afternoon. He raised an eyebrow and said without a smile that he would get back to me. It suddenly occurred to me that I had probably committed a huge faux pas in the academic process: After our first meeting, I had not spoken a word to my advisor. It had been a full year since we had met the first time. I believe now that his restraint and withholding of unsolicited advice allowed me the space to discover my own thought process and to develop my own voice. This is what introverted thinking needs in order to find expression. It operates independently of the collective voice that guides extraverted thinking. I went to bed that night with peace of mind. I expected that Goldsmith would hate my thesis and would nitpick every line, and that I would have to spend months revising. I didn’t care. I had passed out of the stage of Good Student that had been my chief persona for many years and was now willing to be Mediocre Student if that was my fate. This is what Goldsmith had been trying to teach us smart-alecks in the first place: You can’t learn if you don’t know how ignorant you are. Goldsmith surprised me by calling at 9:00 a.m. the next morning—only hours after I’d dropped off the manuscript. This could not be good. I steeled myself to hear Mr. Punctual tell me of some major flaw in the manuscript that had prevented him from even reading it. Maybe I had used the wrong format and would have to re-type all 200 pages. To my shock, he told me that he had stayed up all night reading my thesis, unable to put it down. I was stunned to hear him say that he had “laughed and laughed” all the way through: He loved the jokes! Who knew Goldsmith had a sense of humor? Then he said in his punctilious, Germanic, back-handed-compliment way, “Even zough you completed your thesis in order to leave viss a master’s, I must insist zat you stay for a PhD. Viss just some additional vork, you can turn zis into a doctoral thesis.” It’s lucky he could not see my face over the phone. The last thing I could stomach was more Cervantes and Rabelais. But, surprisingly, I did want to stay in the program and write a doctoral thesis, and I knew the topic I wanted to write about: Twelfth-century chivalric romance, the source of Don Quixote’s mania. (This would require me to learn some new languages, medieval ones, but nothing looks impossible once you give up your ideals of perfection.) Like the hidalgo, I was infected by romantic notions, but unlike Quixote, I had grown aware of the hidden satire within those naïve romances—and within my own life. In writing my master’s thesis about two master satirists, I had stumbled onto enantiodromia in both literature and life. Jung defines this term as follows: “In the philosophy of Heraclitus it [enantiodromia] is used to designate the play of opposites in the course of events—the view that everything that exists turns into its opposite” (1921/1971, ¶ 708). I had transformed from being a prolific writer able to write about anything whether I understood it or not to being a blocked writer unable to form a single sentence. My doctoral thesis was a quest to understand whatever it was in my psyche that had emptied my mind and disappeared my master’s thesis research. Beebe (2014) offered a succinct solution to the problem of enantiodromia: “By letting go of our expectations, we will find that some of our expectations will be met.” He was pointing out that the American addiction to mastery is a poison. We have to relinquish our determination to develop competence in all things in order to have satisfaction in anything. Perfection is static. It imprisons the psyche. Growth and progress are imperfect, so when we aim for perfection, as we always do, the psyche must sometimes trick us into relinquishing it in order to grow. By forcing me to confront my imperfection, my psyche led me along a circuitous route that involved completing two theses in order to get a PhD. Dr. Goldsmith became my friend and staunch supporter. He even gave me private tutoring in German and art history. I think of him now as I think of Jung: a demanding but caring guide, one who, like Jung, never presumed to tell someone what to do but merely pointed out inconsistencies with reality. It was no accident that I had chosen rhetoric as my first topic in his class, and no accident that he saw the appeal it held for me, the ability to persuade others through word-weapons—a classic example of unconscious trickster introverted thinking. His detachment and relentless truthfulness broke me of my addiction to that most primitive definition of rhetoric and my insatiable need for approval. Pleasing others had motivated me for so long that I had nothing to replace it when it was pulled away. Losing that as a motivation, I had to develop my own internal motivation. If no one was going to applaud, then who was I performing for and why? That was my real crisis. The thesis was only the form it took. Beebe (2009) said of Quixote and his companion Sancho Panza, “As their own haplessness dawns on them, they see the realistic limits of a life lived to perpetuate the myth” (p. 17). I had tried to perpetuate my own heroic myth of child prodigy. My pseudo-self had to die in order for a more whole, more mature self to evolve. This death helped me escape the box I had inhabited for so long. I had to give up trying to be who I thought I should be in order to become more of who I really was. To state this in the terminology of the eight-function model, I had to give up the simplicity of my eternal child function (tertiary extraverted thinking), and be mature enough to access the complexity of my trickster function (introverted thinking in the seventh position). Beebe made a radical proposal when he suggested that the trickster and not the senex is oppositional toward the eternal child, an idea he first explored in his 1981 essay on the trickster. His eight-function model’s tenet that the seventh trickster function shadows the third eternal child function implies that we must surrender the innocence of the child in order to access our trickster defenses. The eternal child archetype and the trickster archetype are connected by a quality of youthfulness, but while the former is innocent and pure, the latter’s duplicity means it cannot be pure. The trickster is the dark embodiment of the creativity of the eternal child, and to access that creativity requires surrendering the halo of the divine child with its infantile omnipotence. It is the eternal child’s omnipotence that blocks anima integration, for the anima function is the site of our inferiority complex. According to Beebe, we have to make the descent into the underbelly of the psyche and get our hands dirty with the trickster before we can integrate the anima/animus. My extraverted thinking eternal child likes to play with ideas generated by my dominant extraverted intuition, putting them into piles and moving them around like chess pieces. I had gotten stuck in that game board of my mind, eternally reorganizing the note cards. Surrendering the puella aeterna Te function to access my trickster Ti function meant relinquishing the perfection of the illusory world of play that the eternal child believes is hers by right. Accepting the trickster within means acknowledging our own tendency to be deceitful about our incapacity. The eternal child would rather withdraw from the field than admit imperfection, let alone deal with it. The trickster lives in the nether world of the borderlands where purity cannot exist. We need to find a way to give expression to both archetypes, and we all tend to prefer the eternal child and the function it carries, as Lenore Thomson’s (1998) work on the tertiary has shown. If we do not voluntarily acknowledge our trickster, it may force us to surrender control. Grappling with the trickster is painful but rewarding; it enables us to accept our anima/animus, the seat of our inferiority, and to be re-animated by it. The trickster destroys us to save us. --- References: Beebe. J. (1981). The trickster in art. San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, 2(2), 21-54. Beebe, J. (2004/2017). Understanding consciousness through the theory of psychological types. In Energies and patterns in psychological type: The reservoir of consciousness (pp. 19-50). London, UK: Routledge. (Reprinted from J. Cambray & L. Carter, Eds., Analytical psychology: Contemporary perspectives in Jungian analysis, 2004, pp. 83-115, Hove, UK: Brunner-Routledge). Beebe, J. (July 23, 2009). The memory of the Hero and the emergence of the post-Heroic attitude. Congress of the International Association for Analytical Psychology held in Barcelona, Spain, August 29-September 3, 2004, Barcelona. Reprinted on IAAP site, Spring, 78, Politics and the American Soul. Beebe, J. (August 7-8, 2014). Selected topics in psychological type [workshop]. Sponsored by Type Resources. Jung, C. G. (1921/1971). Psychological types (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). In H. Read et al. (Series Eds.), The collected works of C.G. Jung (Vol. 6, pp. 330-407). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Retrieved from http://www.proquest.com Thomson, L. (1998). Personality type: An owner’s manual. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications. Images: Adrian-Nilsson, G. (1929). Shadows, twilight. Retrieved from wikiart.org Bortnyik, S. (1921). The lamplighter. Retrieved from wikiart.org Hartley, M. (1939). Sustained comedy. Retrieved from wikiart.org Hokusai, K. (date unknown). Carp leaping up a cascade. Retrieved from wikiart.org Kandinsky, W. (1941). Untitled. Retrieved from wikiart.org Lewis, B. (date unknown). Trickster. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org Masson, A. (1942). The sand crab. Retrieved from wikiart.org Picasso, P. (1904). Woman with raven. Retrieved from wikiart.org The post Death by Thesis appeared first on Personality Type in Depth. RSS Feed - Link To Personality Type In Depth Article https://www.typologycentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95196&goto=newpost&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

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usergallaghers · 7 years ago

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‘Shameless’ Season 8: Trump’s America, Sobriety and a New Frank?

(x)

When Showtime’s “Shameless” returns for its eighth season, the South Side of Chicago is going to be feeling the changes from the new presidential administration – most specifically in the form of anti-immigration ICE raids that hit businesses like Patsy’s Pies where Fiona (Emmy Rossum), Lip (Jeremy Allen White), and Veronica (Shanola Hampton) are working.

“We live in a world in which everybody is talking about what’s happening,” says executive producer John Wells. “I have very liberal tendencies, but the one thing you can say about what is happening is it’s started a conversation. There is a conversation in America about ‘Who are we? Who do we want to be? How did we get so separate? Why are we not talking to each other?’ And we try and go right at it.”

Though “Shameless” has always told its stories through a satirical, skewed lens, at its heart it has focused on a group of siblings just trying to raise themselves and get by in a world with limited financial means. In a way, that has been a mirror for America as a whole. As Wells put it at PaleyFest’s Fall TV Preview, “The reality is that it is very difficult in America to bring yourself up by your bootstraps. We have an American mythology of meritocracy, but that meritocracy has become more and more difficult. It doesn’t function the way that we’d like to pretend that it functions.”

The Gallaghers have fought and clawed for seven seasons to try to climb up from the bottom of society, and this eighth season promises to continue that pattern. The question of whether you can “unshackle yourself from a lifetime of certain kinds of behavior” Wells says is a central theme to the eighth season. “A lot of Fiona’s story this year – and Lip and Frank’s, too – is about trying to better yourself and how much pressure there is and how difficult it is to actually do that.”

But the Gallagher clan is still struggling to deal with the death of their mother, Monica (Chloe Webb), who they buried in the seventh season finale. Her presence will still loom large over many of them, most notably Frank (William H. Macy), who spent the immediate days after her death smoking his cut of the meth she left her family — a dubious inheritance for all of them. With one rock left, the show finds him in the season eight premiere ready to let go of his period of mourning and move on to make amends with all whom he’s wronged and actually make something of his life.

“I don’t want to frighten you, but Frank shaves,” Macy tells Variety. “He has a credit card; he buys a car; he gets a job. But he’s been so loaded for so long, he’s a little bit crazy when he first comes back. And he is devastated by the loss of Monica. The ghost of Monica will live on and on and on, especially for Frank.”

The ghost of Monica will also live on for Ian (Cameron Monaghan), who shared a bond with his mother given their bi-polar disorder. Out of all of the Gallagher kids, he was not only the one who seemed to understand Monica best but also genuinely care for her. “Ian is struggling. He’s sort of surprised by it, but she was sort of his touchstone, and they were very close at times,” Wells says. “It reverberates for Ian throughout the course of the season. The death of a parent, even an estranged parent, sets off a lot of waves. There’s a lot of things you can’t say that you wish you had said and things you wish had happened that you can’t experience now.”

But don’t expect all of the Gallaghers to be wallowing in grief. Past seasons have seen them engaging in various degrees of destructive behavior to distract from their situation, but now they’ve all grown up enough to learn the best thing is to actually prioritize taking care of themselves. For Fiona, this comes in the form of fixing up the apartment building she bought to rent out units. “It’s a big learning curve for her, but I think she’s really finding her footing as an adult. We’re seeing a more mature Fiona,” Rossum says.

And while Fiona buried her inherited bag of meth in her mother’s casket last season, the rest of the kids give theirs to Carl (Ethan Cutkosky) to sell. Lip “invests [the windfall] in himself – literally and figuratively,” White says. “He gives it to Professor Youens [Alan Rosenberg] to pay him back for putting him in rehab. This year really is about Lip trying to get healthy and get a handle on his disease. School and education and his love life are taking a backseat to his sobriety.”

That ends up pulling him apart from his siblings, who are all attempting to move on with their lives in their own ways. “I think all of the characters at this point have all grown up so much that while in the middle of the show, they really relied on one another,” says White, “now they’re all getting to the point where they have to be a healthy sort of selfish where they take care of themselves first, ahead of the others.”

Having “gotten the hang” of motherhood, Debbie (Emma Kenney) is juggling multiple jobs and welding classes so she can potentially join a union and give her child a more stable life. “This season she’s determined and motivated. She’s a responsible person, and she’s putting all of that into being the best mother possible,” Kenney says.

So they’re all swearing off significant others – for now. Despite wanting to rekindle with Sierra (Ruby Modine), Lip has to have at least six months of sobriety under him before he can think of a relationship, and Ian is still single after running out on Trevor (Elliot Fletcher) to briefly rekindle his relationship with Mickey (Noel Fisher), who fled to Mexico as a fugitive. (“He’s still in Mexico,” Wells says of Mickey’s whereabouts this season.) Fiona also swears off casual hook-ups. “She’s going to have to find a different kind of relationship with a very different person,” Rossum says.

But despite the Gallaghers being distracted with their own issues, Wells notes that the core of the show will always be the family. “When the kids were growing up, there were these moments of the family holding onto each other just for survival so they don’t drown, but then they reach an age where they could take care of themselves and should take responsibility for themselves, so it becomes a question of ‘How much do you separate?'” he says. “Uniquely in these kinds of families, the survival instinct to be together is really strong. They’ve survived together, and being in the foxhole bond is great.”

#shameless #shameless season 8 #cameron monaghan #emmy rossum #william h macy #emma kenney #jeremy allen white #ethan cutkosky

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vinayv224 · 5 years ago

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Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

Supreme Court hears DACA case; Bolivian president resigns and seeks asylum in Mexico.

Vox Sentences is your daily digest for what’s happening in the world. Sign up for the Vox Sentences newsletter, delivered straight to your inbox Monday through Friday, or view the Vox Sentences archive for past editions.

DACA hangs in the balance with SCOTUS case

Supreme Court justices seemed to be leaning toward allowing President Trump to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program at oral arguments Tuesday. [NBC News / Pete Williams]

While oral arguments don’t always give the complete picture, the five conservative justices on the court seemed likely to back the Trump administration’s attempt to end the protections President Obama afforded to around 700,000 young immigrants. [Bloomberg / Greg Stohr]

Solicitor General Noel Francisco, representing the Department of Homeland Security, told the court that the department took issue with the broad category of people protected from deportation. [Washington Post / Robert Barnes]

Just hours before the Supreme Court hearing, Trump tweeted a disparaging statement about DACA recipients. [Vox / Aaron Rupar]

It’s the third major immigration fight to reach the Supreme Court under Trump. [USA Today / Richard Wolf]

”DACA has changed my life and protected my family: It has allowed me to go back to school, start my career, and feel safe,” wrote Martín Batalla Vidal, who sued the Trump administration over its push to end the program. [Vox / Martín Batalla Vidal]

Morales is off to Mexico

Bolivian President Evo Morales fled to Mexico for political asylum following his resignation only a day earlier in the face of accusations of vote tampering and protests. [Remezcla / Raquel Reichard]

Morales departed Bolivia in a Mexican government plane while the military forces took to the streets to put down unrest in La Paz. [Reuters / Gram Slattery, Monica Machicao and Daniel Ramos]

When he arrived in Mexico City, Morales promised that “the struggle continues” and made references to returning to Bolivia at some point. [Al Jazeera]

Yascha Mounk argues that the allegations of Morales’s vote tampering pushed citizens to act, after the president had tried for a fourth term in office. [The Atlantic / Yascha Mounk]

The New York Times editorial board writes that while Morales is gone, the problems that brought Bolivians into the streets aren’t. [New York Times]

Miscellaneous

Alex Trebek had an emotional moment when a contestant used Final Jeopardy to express the widely felt fondness for the retiring host. [Slate / Matthew Dessem]

Supreme Court will allow case brought against a gun manufacturer by Sandy Hook mass shooting survivor and advocates to continue. [Politico]

Orders from their commander to download an information app may have made soldiers a risk to their intelligence unit. [Washington Post / Alex Horton]

One writer who decided to ditch his smartphone feels it has helped him become more present and mindful. [Digital Trends / Shubham Agarwal]

Climate change lawsuit numbers are only rising. [Vox / Umair Irfan]

Verbatim

“According to the law, even if you do it once, you’re committing a crime. So riders’ immediate reaction to the authorities calling them criminals is to feel that the system is incompetent.” [Professor Graham Currie of Australia’s Monash University explains why fare evasion is such a big problem and sensitive subject]

Watch this: China’s fight with the NBA, explained

All it took was one tweet to set a very expensive fight in motion. [YouTube / Mac Schneider]

10 lessons for Disney, Apple, and all the new streaming companies trying to take down Netflix

A Republican memo details the party’s impeachment inquiry defenses. They aren’t very strong.

The best case for and against a fracking ban

Why is SMS texting a mess? Fixing it is harder than you think.

How should billionaires spend their money to fight climate change? I asked 9 experts.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/34Uo9hf

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cabinboy100 · 7 years ago

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BABY DRIVER: Edgar Eggs!

Edgar Eggs—They're kind of like what people call Easter Eggs in other films, but with a quality that's distinctly Wrightian. Or perhaps forthWright? What follows is a collection of notes and details from the film—references, motifs, callbacks, and connections—narrative, filmmaking, and personal—inserted and/or found (or imagined by me =) in the perfectly timed rhythmic clockwork beauty that is BABY DRIVER.

Please note that my memory for quotes is tres imperfect these days. I may present some dialogue in quotes or screenplay-ish format, but it's best-of-my-recollection, and the result is likely paraphrased.

Now entering SPOILER CITY…

The Octane Shuffle

On his Octane run after the first heist, Baby musicals his way down the road to "Harlem Shuffle." As he roughly follows the song's instructions, the song is backed up by the city itself, its lyrics presented in graffiti art, spray paint, and signs in Baby's environment. And it's not just static. In at least one instance, the graffiti on his way back from Octane is different, added to, compared to the graffiti on his way to Octane. A piece of wall that echoes "Right" the first time, also tells him "Shake Shake" the second.

Also, on the way to Octane, along with Baby’s “Harlem Shuffle” track syncing with graffiti and posted words in the environment, we see Baby match poses with a mural of a guy looking up to the sky and play “air horn” in front of a show window featuring a trumpet.

Also also, on the way to Octane we overhear a guy on the phone telling someone that they're late. On the way back from Octane he passes the same guy dressing down the other guy in person about having to be on time.

Just before leaving Octane, a girl across the street catches his eye, right in front of a graffiti'd heart. It’s our Muse, Debora, but Baby doesn’t know that yet. By the time he exits the coffee shop, seconds later and heading in the same direction as her, she's mysteriously disappeared. On his way back to the Healey, he dodges a face-to-face with a policeman, two-steps around a sandwich board doomsayer telling him that he must save himself from sin, and when crossing the street, a police car just passes him by before turning on its siren. Signs and portents.

I wonder…Could the lyrics to “Harlem Shuffle” be a map to one of the getaway scenes? Or the acts and plot of the entire film…? Certainly can’t put it past Professor Wright =)

Baby makes another Octane run after the armored truck heist, considerably less joyful, and for us, abridged. Along with the change in the cover of "Harlem Shuffle" it's a great barometer of a downward, darkward, trend in Baby's crime-adjacent fortunes.

What's on the Telly?

When Baby flips thru channels at home w/Joe early on, I was hit with some deja view to the channel-hopping in SHAUN OF THE DEAD which connects clips from different shows to create a message about what's actually going on before our heroes quite suss it out. That's not quite what happens here, but the apparently random snippets of content do end up being (1) useful and (2) meaningful.

1. Useful?

If we pay attention, we learn that Baby doesn't just electronically remix (Kid Koala!) the samples of the people in his neighborhood that he records on his microcassette recorder. He also does it conversationally. When he finds himself at a loss for original words, he verbally samples/replays dialogue—from art and life—that he's stored on his personal hard drive. So, on the TV, we see Alfalfa of THE LITTLE RASCALS squeaking out "You Are So Beautiful." These are the words that seem to uncontrollably fall from his lips soon after meeting Debora. On the TV, we see John Krasinski holding Meryl Streep in some farewell moment in I-don't-know-the-movie, no-doubt-cheekily announcing, "They grow up so fast, don't they?" When casing the post office with Nephew Samm, that's what Baby says to cover up his flub of a guess at the boy's age…

TELLER: How old is he? BABY: Four. SAMM: I'm eight. BABY: They grow up so fast, don't they?

On the TV, we see Mike telling Sulley in MONSTERS, INC, "You and I are a team. Nothing is more important than our friendship." Later, this is what Baby tells Doc to reassure him of his loyalty and commitment to him. The clips are tools that Baby adds to his inventory for later use. They also serve as a Wrightian map of events to come.

It's not just media Baby remixes, tho. He pulls from life, too. In the elevator down after the first heist, he hears Darling approve of Buddy's post-heist celebration plan…"That's the finest wining and dining of all the wines and dines in town." And that's how he describes Bacchanalia when he suggests it to Debora for their first date. Of course, the suggestion itself is a Buddy sample.

I've gotta wonder if Edgar Wright is a fan of a particular sketch from THE CAROL BURNETT SHOW, with Alan Alda as guest. It was an immediate favorite when I saw it as a kid. Alda plays a fellow on a date who seems to be quite the charmer, saying all the right things. I forget if the date was at her place or maybe they show up there at the end of the night, but once she turns on the TV, we learn that most of what he's said to her have been lines from the movies. I think he denies it for a while, but when he finally breaks down into an emotional confession, a few seconds later, we hear that very same confession in the dialogue of a movie of the week. Genius.

It's probably very telling that that sketch should burn itself into my brain, eh? =)

2. Meaningful?

At the end of this series of channel flipping clips, we land on coverage of a bullfight. We see a matador stepping around a skewered but still strutting bull. We hear, and see via cc, the announcer…"The bull still stands.” In the moment, that seems to be a comment on the conversation between Baby and Joe. Baby has just told him, "One more job and I'm done." Joe tells him that he doesn't want anyone to get hurt, so Baby promises that he'll make sure nothing will happen to him. Joe explains that it's not himself he's worried about, a concern which somehow sails over his high-altitude head.

However, before we cut to the next scene, the bullfight announcer continues…"The bull still stands…Bloodied, but not defeated. Gaston could not finish him on horseback and now must try his luck on foot." To different degrees, this predicts what happens to Baby after the post office robbery and also in his finale duel with Buddy in the parking garage. Post-post office, after skewering Bats, Baby (and Buddy and Darling) have to abandon their steed and escape on foot.

By the way, the meaning behind the name "Gaston" can be stranger or guest.

Later, when it’s down to Baby and Debora vs. Buddy, they start car-v-car (the red Challenger and the police cruiser), but Baby tells Debora they have to get out of the car so that he can end this, and although he does that just to get into a different car, the final confrontation has all of the players on their feet. Well, y'know, until they’re not any more.

I think the second time we see Baby or Joe channel-hopping at home, Noel Fielding appears on screen for a few seconds. On my first screening, I thought it was a clip from THE MIGHTY BOOSH, but now I realize that it’s from the video for Mint Royale’s “Blue Song,” which Wright directed. It was sort of an early short form riff of his full-blown BABY DRIVER concept—a wheelman waiting on his crew to the sound—and duration—of a favorite song of the right length. A very fun watch and listen.

Speaking of Prophecy…

I covered this in my "BABY DRIVER: What's in a name?" post, but I think it's worth mentioning again for anyone who's going back for more. Pay attention to what Griff says about and tells Baby in his little tirade after the heist. I'm fairly certain every bit of it is true or will be proven true by the end of the film. Baby *does* think himself, if not better than, then outside and apart from, the crews that he works with. He can't be in crime and not be a little criminal. He will have blood on his hands.

His closing remark is something like…

GRIFF: Gotta hand it to ya, Totem Pole. I don't know if you're brave as shit or scared shitless, but you're gonna have to figure it out…Which one are you?

Courageous or cowardly? Baby himself doesn't know, partly because he probably hasn't thought about it, partly because he hasn't put himself in a place where that's truly been tested, but it will.

Actually, now that I think about it, on that matter, Griff is not right. It's not either-or, because Baby is both scared shitless *and* brave as shit. That’s kind of the point.

Bo's Diner and the Laundromat…

Thinking about Bo’s Diner's decor theme and wall art…The big long wall has a mural of a couple in a convertible heading down Route 66, apparently a replica of postcard art that Debora later sends to Baby while he's in jail.

Soon after Debora and Baby first speak at Bo's, she excuses herself and tells him to feel free to ask her any questions he might have. When he calls after her to do just that and ask about the "Baby" song she's singing, we see her turn back to look at him with that wall mural as the backdrop, a premix of the moment when they hit the road together, first in Baby's vision, then in reality, five years later.

How about the laundromat's decor theme and wall art? Space-y, featuring rockets and rows of laundry machines against a field of stars. Something fun to note: at whatever hour it is Debora and Baby hit the 'mat, everyone's drying their clothes in loads of red, blue, and yellow—popping primaries. A perfect musical film backdrop to their subliminal dance number. =)

Does Baby ever actually eat, drink, or order anything at Bo's?

Where is Bo’s Diner? If ever in the area, gotta go—gotta go!

I wonder if the decor in the diner and laundromat was redone for the movie, or was left as magically found?

We see Baby dial up Bo’s Diner before he leaves to take Joe to safety—555-1270. I think that was it. December 1970? Does that line up with a significant birthday or cinematic event?

What it *does* line up with is a car part—a Steeda Mustang Pedal Kit, Manual! =)

The Rainbow Connection…

POSTAL WORKER: Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain, but you can’t have a rainbow without a little rain.

This after saying she’s working “9 to 5, just like Dolly.”

It’s a sweet connect to the rain that falls the next day, the day of the post office heist, and the rainbow that appears five years later when Deb picks up Miles on his release from prison, ready to drive west on 20 in a car they can’t afford with a plan they don’t have.

I guess that’s romantic? Sounds like a lot of stress to me. =)

A slight stretch, but a little more “rain” falls during the parking garage duel, when the sprinklers kick in.

It may also be a callback to Debora's first anonymous and unacknowledged appearance in the film, during Baby's first "Harlem Shuffle" to Octane. A headphoned Debora (who's not yet looking like a zeb-o-ra) passes Octane on the other side of the street. When Baby spots her, she crosses directly in front of a graffiti'd heart sitting on rainbows, sync'd of course to a nice beat or sting in the music. I *think* they're rainbows below the heart. Something to look for on my next screening.

Also, kind of walking the long way around, a figurative-to-literal connection to Paul Williams!

Dolly Parton -> imparter of Rainbow wisdom -> “The Rainbow Connection” -> written by Paul Williams.

An Educated Guess From an Uneducated Man…

Bats at Bo’s does a "reading" of Buddy and Darling. He calls Buddy out as an ex-Wall Street schmuck who played harder than he worked, running up debt that would "make a white man blush." He left behind a wife and maybe kid to run off with his favorite stripper and crime it up in a world of "three things—money, sex, drugs, and action…Oh, shit! That's four."

When he boils it down, he explains that Buddy and Darling rob banks to support a drug habit. Bats does drugs to support a bank robbing habit. They’re on vacation; he’s at work.

The look on Buddy's face tells me that Bats is spot-on. BTW, Jon Hamm kills in this film! =)

Buddy's got nothing to say, so Darling takes this opp to respond for both of them, explaining that Bats may think he's the crazy one in the crew, the wild card, but he's never seen Buddy when he's been pushed. "When he sees red, you won't see anything but black…" Darling's explicit warning for Bats actually predicts Buddy's relentless pursuit of revenge on Baby for her death.

Walter Hill Connections…

Walter Hill is the director of the 1978 getaway driver flick, THE DRIVER (and THE WARRIORS and 48 HOURS). I've only just recently seen THE DRIVER for the first time and it is definitely the godfather of dozens of heist and chase films I've seen over the years. It's uncanny how I recognize it now in the DNA of the likes of HEAT, THE ITALIAN JOB, and DRIVE. Kind of a missing link between LE SAMOURAI and RONIN. Edgar Wright acknowledges the film's huge inspiration on him and his filmmaking and he pays his respects in a couple of sweet ways in BABY DRIVER.

If you sit through the credits (and you should—these people made the film you just watched!) you'll see that Walter Hill played the court ASL translator for Baby's foster dad, Joe. He does not appear on screen. We only hear his voice as Joe signs…

JOE: He's got a good heart. Always has. Always will.

A minute or so later, we learn that Baby's been sentenced to a minimum of 5 years in jail, and we see him serving his time as prisoner number 28071978. That's 28-07-1978, aka the 28th of July, 1978, the original release date of Walter Hill's THE DRIVER!

Note that I did not pull that out of my wazoo. Seeing that number on screen, knowing it’s Edgar Wright at the helm, I just had a feeling, so went googling for info about THE DRIVER to uncover that connection.

Falcon Driver?

Oh, man! Who is responsible for Baby’s wardrobe? For half if not most of the film, he is strategically yet uncannily decked out in duds that scream “Han Solo” to me. I’m talking A NEW HOPE—black vest over white shirt with dark pants.

(Baby’s taste in clothes—as well as his backstory and talents—inspired this BABY DRIVER: Nerf Herder mashup… =)

After the film, I was told that our Baby, Ansel Elgort, had been on the short list for the young Han Solo film. I honestly had no idea as I did and do my best to block that sort of “news” as much as possible when it comes to films I’m looking forward to.

Was this Wright, Elgort, or another member or members of the crew expressing their support for HANsel? I have no idea how the timelines of young Solo casting and BABY DRIVER shooting line up. But if the decision was made before shooting, maybe Ansel’s turn as Baby becomes a kind of what-could-have-been/what-you-missed strutting? =)

When I heard about the LEGO MOVIE directors being dismissed from the project, I thought that maybe they’d seen BABY DRIVER and realized that Edgar Wright had already made the movie—what’s the point now? =)

And in the Hollywood minute before Ron Howard was announced, I wondered if maybe BABY DRIVER might possibly be the perfect proof of capabilities for Wright as the new director. Alas—*sigh*—not to be.

I wonder just what the heck happened with Disney/Marvel/ANT-MAN and Wright.

Musicians in BABY DRIVER…

When Baby delivers his coupe de grace in the parking garage…

BABY: Fuck you, Buddy.

A perfect phrase and sentiment all on its own, but me being me, I do also wonder if he's paraphrasing Elvis—FYB vs TCB?

When Baby does speak more than a couple of syllables, his southern drawl definitely vibes Elvis for me. And although we don't hear his voice when he's lip syncing to the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s “Bellbottoms” in the opening heist, he’s definitely channeling Elvis hard in the moment. Or channeling Jon Spencer channeling Elvis. In any case, the impression is made, and it stays with me.

Who gives Baby his mail in jail? Whoever it is has a very unique look—maybe costumed in an ill-fitting uniform?—a Sam Elliot mustache, and a distinctive voice. In the in-order-of-appearance credits, I didn't see him, expecting to find "prison guard" at the end of the list, after "judge." Later, on the twitters, I saw a tweet asking Edgar Wright who Jon Spencer played, and a reply that explained he was the prison guard! Yeah, I do not know my music or musicians very well, so never could've called that on my own. What a perfect cameo, though, right?

I can thank the end credits for informing me that Doc likes to hang out at Bacchanalia with Big Boi and Killer Mike (of Run the Jewels), two artists who contributed "Chase Me" to the movie's soundtrack.

Note that a lot of the above appeared in earlier posts here and here, but this rambling above is the most developed crazy talk (so far).

I've got some more half—well, more like quarter—baked thoughts, but will let them cook a while yet before posting. Don’t wanna give anyone blog salmonella. After all, these *are* made with eggs.

*groan*

If you’re interested in seeing some BABY DRIVER fan art poster designs inspired by Edgar Eggs, click here. =)

All you need is one killer track…

Keep on keepin' on~

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thechasefiles · 6 years ago

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The Chase Files Daily Newscap 2/5/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Tuesday 5th February 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

A ‘SUGARCOATING’ SOCIETY – A former Principal of Codrington College is charging that Barbadians have a tendency to avoid the truth about the issues plaguing the society. “We need not to close our eyes to the reality because we are developing a culture of sugar-coating things rather than facing them. We do not want to admit that they are there, and we find some way to make them look good,” Canon Noel Titus said, adding that it was time for Barbadians to take the proverbial wool from their eyes and realize what is happening in Barbados with the current spate of murders. “We are often in denial saying that this can happen in Trinidad, Jamaica or Guyana but not in Barbados. Recently, we have had to face the truth – nine murders in 31 days. If we go on at the same rate throughout the year, we would have more than 100 murders. I pray we do not have any more right now,” he told the congregation at St Matthias Church on Sunday. The senior priest in the Anglican church joined with Minister of Elder Affairs and People Empowerment Cynthia Forde and agreed that three days of prayer allow Barbadians to be conscious of what is wrong in our society and what needs to be rectified. According to Canon Titus if Barbadians continue to follow the norms and customs which are popular, we would develop a spineless society. “If we continue to nurture [a society] where people do things just because everyone is doing it, then, in the end, we will develop a spineless society,” he told the congregation. Titus, said as with Jesus Christ in Luke 4 when he returned to his birthplace at Nazareth to speak and those in the synagogue wanted to hurl him off a cliff, people today do not like to hear the truth. The priest said that one of the major problems in society was that persons were afraid of offending other people by speaking the truth. “One good reason is that we are still, what they say a ‘class-conscious people’. We do not feel that we should say things to offend certain persons and that is not something that affects the wider society, it affects the church,” he said. Canon Titus said christians must follow Jesus’ example and not be afraid to stand for what is right. “When we read the story in the Gospel let us take note of the fact that Jesus stood up. He did not look behind him to see who was supporting him. He wasn’t listening to hear whose voice would come to his assistance. He did what he was supposed to do and I believe that he is calling upon us to do what we have to do. Jesus is calling us at this time, to be honest.” Titus told the congregation. (BT)

MINISTER TELLS ACADEMICS JOIN THE FIGHT TO SAVE YOUNG MEN – The University of the West Indies’ (UWI) Cave Hill Campus is being called upon to rally its intellectual resources to help guide the country’s at-risk men away from crime. Minister of Entrepreneurship, Small Business and Commerce was reacting to January’s unprecedented spate of violence, which claimed the lives of nine people and which this weekend prompted some Barbadians to launch a season of prayer. Amid promises from the country’s law enforcement and political leaders of a firm response to the country’s social problems, Minister Sutherland was adamant that academic institutions also had a role to play in the fight. “Your role must be to mentor these young men and with the help of the village elders, guide in the development of their soft skills, to allow them not only to eek out a daily living, but to help them to develop legitimate business enterprises,” he said. Sutherland was addressing high-ranking UWI officials on Monday morning at the official signing of a memorandum of understanding between the university and Pitchlt Caribbean for the facilitation of new business development and entrepreneurial courses. “I can readily identify the need for our academic institutions to meaningfully embrace our young people, especially our at-risk male youths, who live in the catchment communities of the University of the West Indies,” he said, adding that in his opinion men were most troubled. “Males are challenged in this country and if you continue to look around at what is happening today, it’s not the females, it’s the males. Hence my deliberate mention of the males, and the need to rescue the males. “Room must be found to engage the ideas and innovations of our disadvantaged youth, including our males who are not wired to conform to the status quo and who, if left unchecked, will use their creative energies for less than desired, productive national outcomes and we continue to see that,” he said. Sutherland added that while many of Barbados’s at-risk youth may not necessarily thrive within a formal university environment, the university population had an obligation to find meaningful ways to engage surrounding communities. “Please note that I am in no way suggesting that these persons be brought onto campus in breach of the university admission policy or into any unfamiliar environment where intimidation would render them incapable of surviving. I am in no way suggesting that, but rather as academics raised by the village yourself and like myself, it is my view that you have a national responsibility to give back to your own and to develop these communities through relevant lifelong interventions,” he said. (BT)

BUSINESS BOOST – Barbados’ largest tertiary institution is answering the call for students to be equipped with the tools necessary to become businesses owners as more government retrenchment looms. The University of the West Indies’ Cave Hill campus is in the process of rolling out a number of programmes to help undergraduate, postgraduate and lifelong learners with the development of their own enterprises after graduation. Pro Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the institution, Professor Eudine Barriteau revealed this during the official signing of a memorandum of understanding today between UWI and LUMIN Consulting – an initiative which will assist business startups through online, face-to-face and blended short courses and certificate programmes. Baritteau also disclosed that the UWI has committed itself to developing the entrepreneurial skills of Barbadians, particularly victims of government’s on-going retrenchment exercise under the Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation (BERT) programme. This assistance came through the Student Entrepreneurial Empowerment Development (SEED) initiative. “SEED responded to the national layoffs with an Entrepreneurs’ Clinic held during the Campus Research Week and Open Day. The clinic was well subscribed, and some of the persons counselled have joined the SEED programme this year. Plans are in train to stage additional clinics across the island this year,” she said. Professor Barriteau further disclosed that the center for professional development and lifelong learning would be rolling out three courses to help “unlock the potential of Caribbean Entrepreneurs . . . by providing opportunities to enhance their skills or learn new ones.” Among the courses identified for delivery in the near future include The Lean Startup for the Caribbean Entrepreneur, Investor Readiness for Caribbean Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneurial Finance. “Together, these account for the most immediate needs of a new business owner who is ready to take his or her product or service to the market,” she said, adding that “While much uncertainty looms in this economic climate, there is still a great opportunity for growth.” Minister of Small Business, Entrepreneurship and Commerce, Dwight Sutherland endorsed the move, noting that the region’s economic development was heavily reliant on the promotion of entrepreneurship. “We must pursue this type of training as a proactive and deliberate response to the current economic crisis in which this country has found itself, thus providing opportunity for the disenfranchised worker to reset his or her effort to pursue their dream,” he said. Sutherland was extremely vocal about the need for education, which positioned ordinary citizens to be business owners as opposed to just employees. “Entrepreneurial education generally puts emphasis on imagination, creativity and risk acceptance in business, unlike the traditional educational view where greater emphasis is placed on quantitative techniques, rather than the development of creative skills. “The goals of entrepreneurial education, among others must therefore be to promote the entrepreneur’s personal knowledge, enhance his or her ability to distinguish business opportunities and to develop his or her core knowledge and skillset capacity in order to create effective and flexible business solutions for our many at-risk small businesses; and there are many,” he added. Sutherland also stressed the need for the education process to “help the learners to learn how to learn.” “In understanding that learners need to appreciate by way of observation the reflection of the learning processes, especially since learners must make decisions, it is imperative that they are informed about how to obtain knowledge, how to reconstruct it and how to use this knowledge to make critical decisions for self, for business and more importantly for country.” Professor Barriteau further revealed that the Cave Hill campus was swiftly adapting to new trends in technology and would be rolling out two new courses in blockchain technology. While the two postgraduate courses are still pending approval from the board of graduate studies, these were on stream to be delivered in the second semester of the 2019/2020 academic year as electives in the Master of Science in Information Technology programme. “These courses, Introduction to blockchain I and Blockchain Applied will not only take students through the history of blockchain but will also focus on its applicability and the steps toward building their own applications,” she said. Barriteau added that the campus was swiftly improving its status as a smart campus. “Our smart campus app has already revolutionized the way how we communicate with staff and students. By the end of the student registration period last year, over 40% of the students enrolled were actively using the app. “So as you can see ladies and gentlemen, the University is at the vanguard of innovation in the region. We are therefore pleased to assist in unlocking the potential of Caribbean entrepreneurs,” she said. (BT)

CHINESE DONATE IT EQUIPMENT – The Chinese Government has made a donation of technology equipment to Barbados. This morning, the Government of the People’s Republic of China handed over 45 laptops, 35 desktops, and 10 tablets produced by top Chinese IT companies, to Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson. The majority of the equipment would be going to the Government Industrial School. During the handing over ceremony which took place at the Chinese Embassy this morning, on the Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve, Ambassador Yan Xiusheng said the equipment could support capacity building, help Barbadians catch up with the rapid development of today’s digital world and bridge the digital gap with more and easier access to internet and advanced technology. The Ambassador also said that China and Barbados have always remained friends and close partnership since the establishment of diplomatic relations 42 years ago, and noted that in recent years, the level of friendly relationships between China and Barbados was reaching its best period in history in all aspects. “In the meantime, China always stands ready to provide necessary assistance for the economic and social development of Barbados under the framework of the South-South cooperation. In 2017 China provided teaching equipment valued 30 million RMB to Barbados’ schools to help improve the quality of education offered to Barbadian children. “Besides, from our own experience, China understands that agriculture and food security are the most critical issues for development. Therefore, China funded two agricultural projects in Barbados, with the amount of 45 million BDS,” he said. Ambassador Xiusheng also indicated that this year the People’s Republic of China would celebrate its 70th birthday. He said 70 years after its founding, China achieved many development miracles and now it was entering a new era under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party and H.E. President Xi Jinping. “In the new era, Chinese people will continue to work hard to build a better life and realize the Chinese dream of national rejuvenation. And the Barbadian government, led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley, is also pioneering the Economic Recovery and Transformation plan, with the aim to boost a stronger and more sustainable economy in Barbados. “China is looking forward to the success of Barbados Economic Recovery and Transformation plan and stands ready to help the Barbadian government and people to fulfill their agenda,” the Ambassador said. Meanwhile, Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson who thanked the Embassy for the equipment said that the donation was a extention to a monetary presentation the Embassy made to assist with information technology education in schools. Hinkson said today’s donation was important and would allow residents of the GIS to be able to keep with the technological advancements of the global village. “At the click of a button you can access anything, any information in the world. You can correspond and communicate with anyone here in Barbados, from China. We totally appreciate this donation Ambassador, which would assist some of the most vulnerable young persons in our society to access information technology, to learn to use it, to be comfortable with it, to gain more knowledge, and to be able to be useful citizens after they leave,” Hinkson said. (DN)

NOT BUSINESS AS USUAL AT LIAT – A major shake-up is coming for struggling regional airline LIAT, as main shareholder governments await a detailed report on the airline’s operations. The pending changes which could determine the airline’s fate are expected in a matter of months. Among the changes will be the implementation of a performance index to help determine promotion and pay increases, possibly a new funding model and amendments to the labour laws in Antigua and Barbuda, where the airline is currently based. While it is still early to say if Barbados, the majority shareholder, would cut back on its contribution to the air carrier, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds gave Barbados TODAY a strong indication that there had to be some changes to how the airline was being subsidized. Antigua and Barbuda, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Dominica are other major shareholders in the airline. “I think that this is a discussion that the region has to have. The analogy has been used by some people that the way in which LIAT operates is a little bit unfair because several are benefiting but few are contributing, and that is in the context of the member states. So you don’t want them to be sipping milk through the fence via a long straw. We all have to be at the table together,” said Symmonds. “What we want to do, however, is to give all member states of the region an opportunity to rethink their involvement in aviation in the Caribbean. LIAT is working for all of us but we all have to pool some resources now to see how best we can get it to go forward. Obviously, as the principal shareholder, given the reality of Barbados’ economic situation we cannot continue to function in the way in which we did let us say 20 years ago or 15 or ten years ago. So we have got to rethink it and we are trying to do it by taking the rest of the region along with us,” he explained. It was in October last year that majority shareholder governments and their representatives from Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada met in a high-level meeting in Kingstown. Following the prime ministerial and ministerial meetings, LIAT was mandated to carry out a review of various aspects of its operations and provide a detailed report by the start of this year so that some critical decisions could be taken. However, still awaiting that full report, Symmonds told Barbados TODAY he was satisfied that the meeting was a “positive one” and member states “left on the same page”. “The message really was, you can’t continue to simply rely on Government subsidies but you have to become more competitive and more efficient operationally across the board,” said Symmonds. This is not the first time that the cash-strapped airline had to rethink its operations. Back in 2014 it had embarked on a 100-day restructuring programme that officials said would help to solve some of its issues including cutting unprofitable routes and putting pressure on non-shareholder governments to get on board. However, there has been very little movement to date. But Symmonds gave the assurance that the last meeting was not just another talk shop. “We have given LIAT some instructions that they are suppose to get back to us on. Issues such as the salary increases that they pay their staff. We wanted to have a principle of performance indexes built into the operation of LIAT. So to continue in LIAT from henceforth what we want to have is people’s promotion and their salary structures and so on, being indexed to the performance level of the individual holding the office, and that is across the board in LIAT,” explained Symmonds. Up to October 2016, when officials again started to examine the organizational structure of the airline, it hired close to 670 people despite a budget for only 630, and operated more than 570 flights to 18 destinations per week. With approximately 14 labour movements impacting on the airline across the region, Symmonds said it was hoped that the unions would “go back to their constituent members and get them to understand that “this is no longer going to be business as usual”. “We are going to need to have a commitment on the part of the union, first of all, to look at salary structures. Secondly, to look at the performance indexing criteria and also of course, to be able to look at the general operation structure of LIAT,” said Symmonds, who represented Barbados at the last meeting. “The way in which we roster and operate as pilots, as stewardesses, et cetera, the maintenance and repair operations, all of those things are strongly controlled by the unions. We need to have those operations brought into the 21st century and treat them not as an area of absolute strength for labour, but to make it more competitive so that the way in which the business called aviation functions around the world would apply to LIAT, because LIAT has lived in my view, in a very sheltered environment for a long time,” he indicated. He also pointed out that a part of the shake-up would include changes in the labour law in Antigua and Barbuda. He told Barbados TODAY that as a result of the labour legislation there, a “peculiar” relationship had developed between labour and the airline, and there was a “variance” when matched up against other destinations. “So those are things we had to look at. I do not as yet have a report in my hand that tells me there has been considerable progress on any of those fronts . . . They are a work in progress. We left it relatively open-ended,” said Symmonds, while indicating that he still expected a report “soon”. (BT)

UNION PUTS THE BRAKES ON TOURISM BODY’S PLANS – The Mia Mottley Administration has been forced to suspend the Cabinet-approved disbandment of the Barbados Tourism Product Authority (BTPA), just days before it was scheduled to take effect. The functions of the BTPA were to be officially transferred to the Barbados Tourism Marketing Incorporated (BTMI) today, thereby creating a single entity for the marketing and development of this country’s tourism. The transition and reorganization process was also expected to result in an undisclosed number of employees from both entities being sent home. But, upset at the manner in which the process was done, the employees’ bargaining agent, the Barbados Workers’ Union (BWU), would have none of it. So following an exchange of correspondence between chairman of the state enterprise Sunil Chatrani and General Secretary of the BWU Senator Toni Moore, (copies of which are in the possession of Barbados TODAY), the tourism body was forced to inform its staff on Friday that the redundancies and transition have been put on hold, pending the outcome of discussions with the union. This development was sparked by a letter dated January 24, 2019 from BTMI chairman Chatrani to Senator Moore informing her that they would be putting staff from both entities on the breadline on that date. “The execution of the Cabinet decision and the process of transition and reorganization will commence, and resultantly, there will be position redundancies in both entities and transfer of officers from the BTPA to the BTMI effective the 4th February, 2019,” the correspondence read in part. The chairman also asked Senator Moore for the union’s support in the matter “as we work together to ensure that this process is executed in the most sensitive and efficient manner”. He told her that the board was therefore inviting her to meet at a mutually convenient time, so that the “necessary updates can be provided”. But the BWU boss was not amused. And in reply some five days later, Senator Moore not only described the chairman’s letter as a low blow, but demanded an apology from the Government agency. “This is not the time for platitudes or cynical requests to execute anyone or anything in a sensitive or an efficient manner. Frankly, an apology is in order. You have then to approach this matter in a manner dictated by mutual respect and by your need to follow our agreed protocols,” the union leader insisted. In his reply the following day, Chatrani told Senator Moore the board had reviewed her concerns “and express sincere apologies that we were unable to engage with you prior to, or immediately after the Cabinet’s decision”. He said there were factors which did not permit this and the transition committee of the board was inviting her to a meeting on Friday, February 1 “where the necessary discussions can be had with respect to the caption [transition] and your concerns raised”. The tourism body head went on to say he strongly believe both parties could work together in the best interest of the employees and the nation. But in correspondence dated January 31, 2019, the BWU General Secretary told the BTMI Chairman that the union was not prepared to participate in any “token and rushed” meetings to achieve a last-minute deal before the proposed implementation date of Monday, February 4, 2019. “Instead, we stand ready to meet with in the absence of any predetermined expectations on your part, that February 4, 2019 will materialize as you have contemplated up until now,” Senator Moore wrote. She said the BWU would have been available to meet today at 10 a.m. where the union would go prepared to receive a presentation of the state agency’s proposal to restructure. The BWU boss also informed the BTMI head that she would expect some discussion would follow his presentation. A check this afternoon with the union revealed that that meeting is now scheduled for Thursday at 2 p.m. Because of the pending meeting, the BWU boss has told the Chatrani it could not now go ahead with the transition and redundancies today to prejudice the discussions. It was immediately following that letter that the chairman informed the staff in a memorandum dated Friday, February 1, “The transition process will not be completed on the 4th February, 2019.” He informed the staff that the date has been revised to take account of discussions with the union. The chairman was unavailable for comment. (BT)

VALUE-DRIVEN TOURISM – With Barbados’ tourism product a little more expensive as a result of recent taxes, Minister of Tourism Kerrie Symmonds is giving the assurance that careful and vigorous work is being undertaken so the destination could offer better value for money. Pointing to some measures that have already been put in place by the eight-month-old Mia Mottley-led administration to reinvigorate the tourism industry, Symmonds told Barbados TODAY he was aware that while tourist arrival numbers have been robust the spend is not where it should be. He said while it was critical that the offerings be refreshed, a holistic approach was needed. “So we are looking at a number of the existing attractions in Barbados, trying to identify areas where they can be strengthened or refreshed and then we are trying to build out green-field attractions,” he said on Wednesday while attending the Caribbean Travel Marketplace in Montego Bay, Jamaica. “It has to be a value-for-money proposition in Barbados. When people are going to pay a premium fare to come to Barbados they want to get a premium experience. You can’t put a five-star stamp on something and then offer them a two or three-star product. “So there are a number of issues we have to get absolutely right in Barbados and those are not necessarily tourism industry issues but they are supportive issues – things like the little spike in crime that we had over the course of the last few weeks and the reluctance of people to ensure they properly dispose of garbage and have an efficient system of collection and so on. Those are the things I think can create a negative impression and hurt the product even more than the prices,” he explained. As part of $1.2 billion austerity package announced last year, Government imposed a number of new taxes on the tourism sector. Chief among them was a US$70 Airline Travel and Development fee for trips to extra-regional destinations and a US$35 fee for travel within the Caribbean. A range of hotel room taxes from US$2.50 to US$10 per night have also been implemented and a ten per cent tax on shared accommodation such as Airbnb. The latest Central Bank report indicated that despite a 2.8 per cent increase in long-stay visitor arrivals, tourism output fell by 1.6 per cent last year, from 2.2 per cent in 2017, due to a decline in the length of stay and less tourist spend. Symmonds’ comments came on Wednesday afternoon just as the Central Bank was giving its economic review for 2018. He said while people were generally prepared to spend premium dollars to come to Barbados because of the reputation it has for safety and friendliness, he insisted that Barbados must give value for money if the country is to earn more from the industry. “My position on the tourism industry is that I have wanted to have it re-thought for a while, and that process is in train,” he said, as he highlighted the establishment of the new National Cruise Development Commission and ongoing upgrades at the Grantley Adams International Airport. Symmonds said he was yet to do a review of the revenue intake from the taxes, which took effect October last year. However, he said his ministry has been observing the reaction from the various markets. The tourism minister said while there was a shockwave initially with some believing that Barbados was pricing itself out the competition, that response did not match up with the record number of visitors this winter season so far and the future bookings. However, pointing out that it was not a clear-cut situation, Symmonds explained that while some markets including Canada, were performing well generally, there were some areas within the market where there was “increased price sensitivity”. “So that is something that I have sat down with the marketing team and discussed and we are looking at ways in which we can try to counteract that. All in all, I don’t think that we are having an exceptionally difficult time as a result of the tax imposition,” he said. Congratulating CEO of the Elegant Hotels Group Sunil Chatrani and others who received awards during the Caribbean Travel Marketplace this week, Symmonds said his wish was that the Elegant Hotels model would be replicated among the Intimate Hotels group. This group represents about 50 boutique hotel properties across the island. “They are going to be branded as a Barbadian product called Intimate Hotels, and certainly the intention is to have a variety of experiences under one brand in a similar way. Those discussions have begun and I think we are making some useful progress in that regard,” disclosed Symmonds, who was not in a position to give an update on the proposed Hyatt Centric project or Sam Lords Castle development. “Similarly, in so far as the hotel-related attractions are concerned, we are looking at areas for redevelopment and re-imagination of the concept so that entertainment areas like St Lawrence Gap and Second Street, Holetown are areas where I think we are going to be focusing on in 2019, with a view to trying to make them as cutting edge as possible in terms of the experience. So a lot of planning has gone into the latter part of 2018 and I think we are now at the stage where we are about to start the execution of some of those plans,” he said. (BT)

TALMA CALLS FOR COHESIVENESS IN TOURISM – Prominent Barbadian windsurfer, Brian Talma, is demanding tourism stakeholders and investors think outside the box as it relates to beach tourism. Speaking to Barbados TODAY shortly after the conclusion of Waterman Festival 2019 which featured two days of competition in water and beach sports, the owner of DeAction Surf Shop contended that developers ought to develop existing hot spots rather than venture into unchartered territory. “Throughout Barbados we need to develop different places. We do not invest in a place that is already developed,” Talma stressed. The veteran surfer argued that there were a number of beaches that could be further developed and further invested in for water sports activities aside from the popular Silver Rock in Silver Sands, Christ Church. “What these people need to do is to go and develop Long Beach. Long Beach is a very good place to go and do kite surfing. The reason nobody is there is because it is barren. When I came here 30 years ago it was barren too and I spent my money my sweat to develop what you see here today. This didn’t happen magically, it took 30 years of hard work,” Talma emphasized. Talma believed that the island’s tourism product was declining. He argued the various branches of the tourism sector worked in isolation, which did not help the promotion of the island’s numerous services. “We are not well connected,” Talma said while adding, “we need the tour operators to bring the tours here [Silver Rock Beach]. Whilst acknowledging that his business has been affected by the sargassum and the ongoing petition against his business because of the positioning of beach chairs and umbrellas, Talma told Barbados TODAY he wishes to promote organic tourism which incorporates the community and the commercial businesses in the area. “My vision is not only about the sea, but it is also about the people. My vision is way past what we are doing here in Barbados when it comes to tourism,” commented Talma. (BT)

LANDFILL SHAME – Some people are still rummaging for food and ancillary items at the Mangrove Landfill. A NATION team witnessed several people fervently digging through the garbage after it was deposited at the St Thomas national dump on Saturday. Janice Jones, acting general manager of the Sanitation Service Authority (SSA), which has responsibility for the facility, told the NATION yesterday: “This problem had surfaced from around 1997. Over time some of the fencing has become broken. We call in the police when we witness the theft of items from the landfill. But as soon as they see the police they run away – only to return after they leave.” At least six people were seen scurrying from the area as soon as security was called in, only to return as soon as they left. One of the men scavenging said: “I get regular checks and I safe. I ain’t out there robbing nobody. I ain’t got no bacteria on me. I hey hustling hard for what I want.” (DN)

OUTDATED LAW – Government is looking at reducing the offences for which teenagers may be confined to the Government Industrial School (GIS). According to Minister of Home Affairs Edmund Hinkson, outdated legislation that forces magistrates to send young adults who run into trouble with the law to the Industrial School for a minimum of three years, and a maximum of five years, is currently being reviewed. “We know that these children invariably come from the lower social economic class of our society. We know that the law that informs this aspect of our society are two pieces of legislation, one in 1926 and one in 1930. “In other words, both of them almost 100 years old now. We are actively looking to modernize this legislation, to reduce the offences for which our young people, not yet adults, will be confined to these schools because of infractions with the law,” Hinkson said. “We are in the process of reviewing a draft bill to bring to Cabinet and hopefully thereafter to bring to Parliament within the first half of this year because we owe it to our children,” he added. The minister, who spoke about the need to re-evaluate the pieces of legislation, as he delivered remarks at the handing over ceremony of technological devices from the Chinese Embassy to Government, said there was also a need to provide opportunities for children who have passed through the Industrial School, to have a chance at succeeding at life. “We know that a lot of Barbadians are sometimes uncharitable, and stigmatize young people because they might have been confined at an early age. The stigma travels with them, in a lot of cases for a large part, or for the rest of their lives. We have as a society to get rid of that thought and that psychological position, and to realize that everyone deserves a second chance,” he said. “It may not have been their fault, for instance, as a girl you are wandering in the night time. It may be that someone, and we know this for a fact, may be interfering with them at home, sexually, a stepfather, an uncle, and therefore they are on the road. “Why therefore should they be picked up and confined for a minimum of three years, which is what the law says right now, even though some magistrates sensibly vary that. “Or a maximum of five years in an institution because of that, rather than society looking at the reasons for wandering, and trying to deal with the core element of it. Why should children who may have psychological issues, or psychiatric issues, be so confined, rather than let’s look at the reasons that may have caused them to be the way they are?” The minister also said that the strengthening of the Probation Department was also being looked at, in addition to the island’s education policy as it relates to ensuring it caters to the residents of the GIS. “I have spoken with the Minister of Education Santia Bradshaw, in terms of seeing what our two ministries can do to enhance the educational opportunities of the girls and boys of the Government Industrial School,” Hinkson said. (BT)

DO THE RIGHT THING – Social activist Sharmane Roland-Bowen says she feels violated by Government’s decision to engage former Commissioner of Police Darwin Dottin as a consultant on crime. Roland-Bowen, who is president of the Barbados Road Safety Association, said she was not motivated by vengeance but wanted closure on one of the most unsavoury periods of her life. Roland-Bowen is the widow of late detective Inspector Anderson Bowen who more than a decade ago blew the whistle on the Royal Barbados Police Force for allegedly engaging in illegal wiretapping. Roland-Bowen, a born-again Christian, told Barbados TODAY that she wanted justice. She said there was an abundance of evidence that illegal wiretapping had been conducted in Barbados and if the head of the force at the time was denying it then it meant her late husband was a liar, as well as everyone else who had spoken out about it. She said her husband had a civil suit before the Supreme Court with respect to illegal wiretapping at their home but he had died before the case’s completion. “After Anderson died, as his executor I did not continue the lawsuit because Mr Dottin was removed from the force by the Police Service Commission and that brought some measure of closure for me. But now the Government has brought him back and I feel violated, I feel as though I have been raped. This is not about Anderson anymore because he is gone, this is about me wanting justice and closure. “I picture in my mind officers sitting and listening to my most intimate conversations with my late husband, with my sisters, personal things out there. I am no criminal and I should not have been subjected to my home being bugged,” she lamented. In that civil suit to which she referred, her late husband indicated 12 instances of wiretapping in his affidavit. He also alleged in his court document that Dottin played taped recordings to him while in the commissioner’s office at Central Police Station. In Dottin’s response affidavit to the Supreme Court he did not deny the charges related to the wiretapping but linked the alleged action to national security. In that affidavit, Dottin stated: “With respect to the tape-recorded conversations referred to in paragraphs 22 to 32 of the applicant’s affidavit, I have formed the opinion that it is not in the public interest to disclose these as I believe that such disclosure would cause real damage in relation to the security of the island of Barbados.” In a probe carried out by the Police Service Commission and a subsequent report dated June 10, 2013, it was revealed that then-Assistant Superintendent Lila Boyce, née Strickland, corroborated Inspector Bowen’s allegations stating that she was present when “the Commissioner manipulated his laptop computer and played a recording of a telephone conversation between Inspector Bowen and another person”. Boyce said nothing in the conversation on the recording implicated Bowen in anything unlawful. Two Special Branch officers Sergeant Paul Lynch and Constable Erwin Bradshaw also gave sworn evidence that they had engaged in wiretapping on the instructions of Dottin. Lynch indicated there was a secret section of their operations called “political”. Among those tapped, the officers reported, were magistrates, members of the Police Service Commission, senior police officers including then Deputy Commissioner Bertie Hinds and the driver of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur. The Police Service Commission has indicated that it is in possession of some of these illegal recordings. A visibly aggrieved Roland-Bowen told Barbados TODAY that the police force was there to uphold the law and that if it wanted to carry out any such surveillance action it should be done within the law and not outside of it. She said there were people in the country who knew an injustice had been done but would pretend or act as though nothing had occurred. She stressed that she was not political and had spoken out when the Democratic Labour Party “was doing nonsense” in Barbados and believed that the current Government had now miss-stepped with Dottin. “I am calling a spade a spade. We must not allow politics and friendships to come before justice. That is wrong. This system has let me down. I need closure, by talking to the media, I am releasing some of what I am now feeling. I don’t think innocent people should be subjected to this. You cannot reward wrong,” she said. Roland-Bowen added she believed the pressure of being suspended in December 2005 for almost five years from a job he loved after going public with what was happening in the police force had contributed to her husband’s death. At that time Bowen called publicly on Dottin to quit in the interest of the organisation and the general public. Bowen was later exonerated and reinstated in 2010 but assigned as the provost officer at Central Station responsible for menial tasks which had never before been assigned to such a high-ranking officer. “He was one of the best detectives in the force, a street cop and he loved his job. But his suspension bothered him and he always studied it, complained of constant headaches, his pressure was very high, and he would sometimes ask me to put my hands on his forehead when it pained him. I believe this entire episode helped kill my husband and made me a widow prematurely,” she said. (BT)

FISHING FOR A DEAL – The contentious issue of Barbadian fishermen being arrested for fishing illegally in Trinidad and Tobago’s waters is being thrashed out at the prime ministerial level. Minister of the Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs Kirk Humphrey said the matter was receiving the “personal attention” of Prime Minister Mia Mottley who is engaging Trinidad and Tobago’s leadership to find a solution. “The Prime Minister has taken a personal interest in resolving the issue,” Humphrey said at the weekend. He was at the Argentine Embassy where Government and the embassy, in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, unveiled a fish silage project designed to maximise the economic potential of the fishing industry. Humphrey reported “quite positive” discussions between the two governments so far with regard to the fishing controversy: “We are pretty sure that we will come to some resolution on the matter very shortly.” However, he issued a caution to Barbadian fishermen about straying into other people’s fishing space: “We have to recognise that sovereign waters are sovereign waters and when you drift into somebody else’s waters, there is the potential for something to happen.” (DN)

PLUG FOR ‘SOLDIERS TO COPS’ – Former Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite is backing Opposition Senator Caswell Franklyn’s idea of converting soldiers into police officers in order to fill the current shortage in the constabulary. At the same time, Brathwaite is echoing Franklyn’s recent suggestion that whichever Barbados Defence Force (BDF) soldiers were chosen, they would have to be retrained as police officers. “The training is different . . . and we have to be very careful that we don’t do that carte blanche. The training of a soldier is completely different to that of a police officer,” the former Attorney General told Barbados TODAY. He recalled that his former Democratic Labour Party (DLP) administration had discussed how it could have one platform of training, so it would be easy for someone to transition from one organization to the other. “It might be easier for a police to transition to the Defence Force at a particular senior level. But at the junior level, you are talking different types of training; and I don’t think it would be in the best interest of Barbados for us to automatically go in that direction,” he warned. “Certainly you would have to do some retraining in terms of the soldiers,” the former AG added. He said it was for that reason the soldiers always accompanied the police whenever it came to policing duties and they were utilised. In putting forward the idea as a crime-fighting tool nearly three weeks ago, the Opposition senator and trade union leader told Barbados TODAY it made no sense spending more than $60 million in taxpayers money every year on an army that was not necessary in its present form. “The police force needs manpower. Crime is escalating and you ain’t got no more police. Right now we have a totally useless defence force that is not necessary. I am not saying send them all home. I am saying, redeploy them…just use the Defence Force as it used to be in the past . . . when it was the Barbados Regiment . . . for ceremonial occasions. Right now they are spending $60 something million dollars on the Defence Force a year,” Franklyn said. He said the fact that twice a year the Governor General signs an order allowing the army to assist the police, meant there was need for additional law enforcers. “Deploy them as police officers and let them do some useful work, rather than keeping them up there drilling and tending their uniform and shining their boots. They are not serving any useful purpose right now. There is no need for them,” the senator declared. “The Defence Force needs to be downsized. Some of those people can be made police officers with the necessary training and that will help with the crime situation,” he stressed. (BT)

LIMBO – Almost two years after his death, fingernail clippings belonging to Corey Antonio Best, which were taken by police and handed over to experts at the Forensic Sciences Centre (FSC) have yet to be analyzed. Senior forensic scientist at the FSC Len Sehntawali made the disclosure this morning as he gave evidence at the inquiry into Best’s unnatural death in the Coroner’s Court located at Cane Garden, St Thomas. The 33-year-old Best, formerly of Hopefield, Charnocks, Christ Church, was found hanging around 3 a.m. on April 13, 2017, in a cell at Oistins Police Station where he was in custody. Sehntawali told Coroner Manila Renee that he received two items from Police Constable Wayne Griffith on May 9, 2017, bearing the marks “Corey Antonio Best”; a sealed brown paper bag containing a blue jeans pants and a sealed evidence bag containing fingernail clippings. “The fingernail clippings were retained for further analysis,” the expert told the court, in the presence of the deceased’s mother, girlfriend and other family members. However, Sehntawali explained that he did not conduct any analysis on the fingernail clippings himself but passed it on to the DNA section of the FSC for analysis. He said he was still waiting on that section to inform him of the readiness to examine the fingernail clippings, 21 months after Best’s death. “So what is the hold-up?” asked the Coroner. “This is 2019 . . . you had it since 2017.” “Ma’am I do trace evidence, not DNA,” Sehntawali responded, before telling the court that the head of that department would be better able to answer that question. He gave the assurance, though, that the integrity of the samples would remain uncompromised “for years . . . as long as they remained frozen”. In relation to the blue jeans pants which officers alleged the deceased man used to hang himself, Sehntawali said his examination found no traces of blood. “The long blue jeans was received with the left and right leg regions tied in a loose knot. This pants was relatively clean and tested negative for the presence of human blood,” he said. Under cross-examination by Best’s family attorney Tristan Elcock, the forensic expert explained that macroscopic testing, which is a visual test with the use of a lighted lens was conducted on the clothing. He said a microscopic test, as well as a biological test, were also conducted on the pants. Sehntawali further explained that biological testing was limited to human blood. “If skin is there then blood would be there . . . my macroscopic test revealed that the pants was relatively clean . . . there were no other stains,” he added. He, however, explained that he had done tests in the past where blood was found, for example on rope “In this case, the material presented for analysis was soft and would affect the absence or presence of blood as [it] was not as abrasive as rope,” the forensic scientist said. Also taking the stand today was forensic analyst Michelle McComie, who disclosed that she was given a phial containing blood from the Royal Barbados Police Force bearing the distinguishing marks ‘Corey Antonio Best’, which was tested. McComie said the blood was negative for ethanol as well as 11 other drugs including cocaine and “presumptively positive for THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol ) or marijuana at a level of 52.73 ml. “This is considered a positive result [as] the minimum is 50 ml,” McComie explained. Acting Assistant Superintendent of Police Dale Stephen who was in charge of the Southern Division at the time of the incident, also gave evidence. Coroner Renee adjourned the inquest until Thursday when the court will make a site visit to the Oistins Police Station were Best was found hanging. (BT)

SHELL SHOCK – Police have recovered more than 120 shells from the scene of one shooting incident. This was revealed by Attorney General Dale Marshall, as he reiterated that not only Government, but every individual must play a part in arresting the scourge of rising gunplay and violence in the country. He was speaking during the video launch of an anti-violence song on Saturday evening in Melrose, St Thomas. Marshall, under whose portfolio the Royal Barbados Police Force now falls, was responding to a call from resident Elderson Smith to tighten the borders. They were at the Cloudy Chill Spot, for the launch of Open Ya Eyes featuring Joe Cloudy and Aja. “The police officers told me recently in a street, a very short street, shorter than 45 metres, they picked up over 100 spent shells in one night,” he said without naming the community. (DN)

“PARTY” SMOKER MUST PAY – A Christ Church youth was fined $1 000 in two months for unlawfully having 0.7 grammes of cannabis on February 3, 2019. He is Jeremy Anson Jones, of Brewster Road, Worthing View, Christ Church, who pleaded guilty to the offence in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant. In apologising to the court, the mechanic said “I was in possession of marijuana. I did not want to be here,” adding that he only smoked at parties. He returns to court on April 4, 2019. (BT)

ACCUSED OWNS UP TO HIS PART IN DOMESTIC DISPUTE – A retiree will return to court today to hand in his passport after pleading guilty to assault. Thelma Lee Warren Jr., 69, of 21A Apartment 6, Joyce Mason Avenue, Jackson, St Michael, appeared in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant, charged with assaulting Stencha Augustin of No. 78, Crystal Heights, St James on February 2, 2019. According to Prosecutor, S/Sgt. Cameron Gibbons, the two were in a relationship for two years and she usually visited his home. On the day of the incident, Augustin, who also smoked marijuana and used cocaine, visited Warren’s home and he accused her of stealing US$700 from him. The prosecutor said that as a result, the two were involved in a dispute and Warren struck her in the face and placed a rope around her neck and beat her about the body. Eventually Augustin freed herself and reported the matter to the police. The medical record was unavailable and the magistrate adjourned the hearing until February 13, 2019. (BT)

REMAIN HONEST – On her first day back on the Bench after holiday, a Bridgetown magistrate reminded young attorneys not to “mix your clients’ money with yours”. Welcoming the staff and attorneys-at-law this morning Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant of the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court sounded the reminder, warning, “You’ve spent five years studying hard, take back the profession where it ought to be,” she added. Her comments came following reports of the recent disbarment of an attorney-at-law. Among the cases coming before her today was one involving a first-time offender who uses marijuana daily, but who said he’s going to try to stop. Laron Rudolph Junior Marshall, of 15J Crest View Terrace, Eden Lodge, St Michael, told Magistrate Cuffy-Sargeant in the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court where he pleaded guilty to unlawfully having five grams of cannabis on February 2, 2019. Marshall apologised to the court and his family and he was ordered to complete 80 hours of community service and was grant bail in the sum of $1 500. He will return to court on April 5, 2019. (BT)

POLICE OFFER TIPS TO KEEP YOUR CHILDREN, CARS SAFE – Car Safety Tips: The Royal Barbados Police Force is reminding drivers and vehicle owners to exercise care when leaving their vehicle unattended. Remember this: Don’t leave valuables in your car in plain view, this practice makes you and your vehicle an automatic target as the item creates an easy target of opportunity for the would be thief. If you must leave valuables such as your handbag in your car while out and about, place those items out of sight. Before leaving your vehicle, place these items in your trunk or other secure compartment that can be locked. Motorcyclist secure your vehicle by placing an additional lock on your vehicle and if your motorcycle comes equipped with a lock box or side pans secure your valuables in these or take them with you. Children and Strangers: Parents and guardians take note; ensure that your children or wards are educated about the dangers of taking rides from strangers. Ensure that your child knows who will be collecting them from school or any other activity they attend. If there is a change ensure that you communicate with the School or entity that your child is attending to ensure that they are aware of any changes to your regular routine. If for some reason you are unable to communicate this information in a timely manner, ensure that your child has a failsafe for example a special word that you share with them that helps them identify the person who is picking them up as someone safe. Lastly always reinforce they should never take rides from strangers and if approached by any stranger in an inappropriate manner to report it to a responsible adult they trust. (BT)

ST KITTS AND NEVIS PATRIOTS FRANCHISE SOLD TO CITY SPORTS – The St Kitts and Nevis Patriots franchise, part of the Hero Caribbean Premier League (CPL), has been purchased by City Sports, Hong Kong - part of the City Group of companies. City Sports are not new to cricket franchise ownership. They own City Kaitak in the Hong Kong T20 Blitz as well as being the former owners of the Bloem City Blazers, a team who were scheduled to step out in Cricket South Africa’s now defunct Global T20 League. The company is headed by Sushil Kumar and Naren Kunder who are based in Hong Kong. Kumar has investments in event management, information technology, food and beverage and sports management. Kunder has business interests in the garments industry, stationary and electronics. The Patriots team has been part of the CPL since 2015, finishing as runners-up in 2017 and in third place in 2018. The current team is led by Chris Gayle who has been at the forefront of the team’s success during his two years as captain. Chairman of City Sports, Sushil Kumar said: “We at City Sports are elated to be a part of the Hero CPL and having acquired the St Kitts and Nevis franchise we want to become part of the local community through the game of cricket. We want to promote the spirit of true sportsmanship and fair play, while at the same time creating a unique identity through our focus on performance and development.” “With a total economic impact for the Hero CPL 2018 being in excess of US$127million, we are looking to bring a greater economic impact to St Kitts and Nevis in 2019 and beyond. We are also hoping our investment into the St Kitts and Nevis franchise is a catalyst to further investment into the country and growth of its economy,” Kumar added. The former owner of the Patriots, Dr Uday Nayak, said: “As a firm believer in St Kitts and Nevis I will be continuing my investment in Kayanjet, We feel we have taken the Patriots as far as we can, and it is time for us to hand it over to more experienced hands. We are delighted to have found new owners like City Sports who have a history of investing in cricket and want to take the franchise forward. We wish them all the best for the future.” Pete Russell, COO of Hero CPL, said: "We have been delighted with the way that the St Kitts & Nevis Patriots franchise has grown since they first joined the league in 2015 and we are certain that the City Group can take the team forward to even greater success. This investment shows the high regard in which the CPL is held around the world and how the tournament continues to go from strength to strength. "St Kitts and Nevis has always been a big part of CPL since we first had games there in 2014 and we look forward to that continuing for years to come. We would like to express our thanks to Dr Uday Nayak, Mohammad Ansari and their team for the amazing job they have done with the Patriots over the years.” (DN)

APPEAL IT – A former England captain and Test cricket’s second highest wicket-taker have joined a chorus of criticism over a one-match suspension imposed on West Indies captain Jason Holder. The International Cricket Council (ICC) yesterday confirmed Holder’s suspension and a 40 per cent fine on his match fee after West Indies were found to have maintained a slow over rate during a crushing ten-wicket victory inside three days in the second Test in Antigua. The suspension, imposed by ICC match referee Jeff Crowe, after West Indies were ruled to be two overs short of their target after time allowances were taken into consideration, has irked former England captain Michael Vaughan and former Australia leg-spinner Shane Warne. In a post on Twitter, Warne, who took 708 wickets in 145 Tests during in an illustrious career, urged Holder to appeal the decision. “The Test didn’t go three days. Can you please appeal this @JaseHolder98! What a ridiculous decision. Where’s the common sense here? “P.S. Congrats on a wonderful series win too. “International cricket needs a strong Windies team and hopefully this is just the start,” Warne wrote. After Holder responded by saying “thank you”, Warne offered further support in another tweet. (DN)

DISGRACED! – Defending champions Weymouth Wales are back on top of zone one standings while Clayton’s Kola Tonic Notre Dame’s misery continues as they were pummelled 12-0 by Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme in the Barbados Football Association’s Premiership last night. Played at the Wildey St Michael AstroTurf, Wales now on 17 points took over the number one spot ahead of University of the West Indies Blackbird (15) who lost 2-0 against Paradise in the opening out-of-zone match yesterday afternoon. Senior national midfielders Akeel Applewhaite and Jomo Harris in the fifth and 88th minutes were the goal scorers for the Dover-based Paradise team in what was a physical game. Shamari Mark of UWI and Mario Williams of Paradise were both red carded in the 65th minute for aggressive behaviour towards each other. That loss by the UWI side in the opening match against Paradise allowed the two-time reigning league champions (Wales) to capitalize in the second match of the evening against Youth Milan. Wales went ahead through attacking midfielder Romario Harewood when he outpaced the one-man defence from 25-yards and took a shot inside the 18-yard box that was beautifully slotted into the right far post of the goal bar in the 18th minute. It did not take long for Wales to worm their way past Youth Milan’s defence yet again thanks to midfielders Rico Graham and Hadan Holligan who were like the engines that kept things flowing and six minutes later the men in green went ahead 2-0 before half-time. (BT)

BDFSP IN 12-0 ROMP – It was a football match with a cricket score. Omani Leacock scored a hat-trick as the Barbados Defence Force Sports Programme (BDFSP) inflicted the heaviest defeat of the season when they used all the weapons in their arsenal to hammer Notre Dameby a massive 12-0 margin. Playing at the Barbados Football Association (BFA) Wildey Turf, the Dames, who have struggled in the Premier League ever since former coach Renaldo “Pewe” Gilkes stepped away from the job, were off to a nightmare start in the final game of the triple-header. No sooner had referee Andrew Herbert blown the whistle to start play, Dames goalkeeper Shakib Kellman was taking the ball out of the back of his net. BDFSP wing-back Rashad Smith, who was deployed further forward on the night, did well down the left side to beat a defender before crossing the ball into the box in time for Antonio Arthur, at the back post, to make the score 1-0. The Dames, led by a frontline that includes national forwards Dishon “Eto’o” Howell and Zeco Edmee along with Dwayne Mars, weathered what proved to be a goal storm for the next 21 minutes before the BDFSP struck again. (DN)

LAST MEETING FOR CRITERION REFERENCED TEST TOMORROW – Parents and guardians are reminded that the final meetings on the Criterion Referenced Test and National Assessment will take place tomorrow, Tuesday, February 5, at 5 p.m. The venues are The Ellerslie School, Black Rock, St Michael; St John’s Primary School, Glebe Land, St John; and the Lester Vaughan School, Cane Garden, St Thomas. The test assesses pupils in Infants B, Class 2 and Class 3. (BGIS)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 329 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

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oselatra · 8 years ago

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Their home, too

Rasha Alzahabi is one of thousands of Arkansans whose families have been impacted by President Trump's travel ban.

On Sunday, Jan. 29, a last-minute protest organized by opponents of President Trump's ban on travel from seven majority-Muslim countries drew about a thousand people to the steps of the Arkansas Capitol. It was a large crowd for Little Rock and an especially impressive turnout considering many of those present had just assembled twice in the past week — a rally for reproductive rights had taken place at the Capitol the previous day and the Women's March for Arkansas a week before that. But while those actions were driven by anxiety over what the new president might do, this one was fueled by outrage over what he actually did with his newfound authority.

In December 2015, in the wake of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., by a self-radicalized married couple with sympathies to the so-called Islamic State, Trump the candidate promised supporters he would bar all Muslims from entering the United States. (One of the pair was an American-born citizen; the other was from Pakistan.) A little over a year later, on Jan. 27, Trump the commander-in-chief signed an order that kept citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries — Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and Yemen — from traveling to the U.S. for 90 days. The order also suspended refugee admissions from any country for 120 days — except for refugees from suffering, war-ravaged Syria, who were banned indefinitely. The language in the order was so broad, and so legally porous, that even lawful permanent residents of the U.S. (that is, green card holders) from the seven targeted nations were initially barred from re-entry. Chaos erupted at international airports across the U.S. as the order went into effect, receding only when the ban was halted by a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge James Robart of Seattle on Feb. 3. The Trump administration appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which last week declined to stay Robart's restraining order; the case is ongoing.

Amid the turmoil, Arkansas has felt even further removed from national politics than usual. Because Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport receives only domestic flights, Little Rock saw no dramatic moments like those at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City, where protests spontaneously erupted outside the terminal at which customs officials detained incoming travelers. However, to the thousands of Muslims who call Arkansas home, Trump's travel ban is anything but distant: It has upended hopes of reunifying families, disrupted travel plans and sent a wave of fear and uncertainty through the Muslim-American community, even with the order temporarily blocked.

Rasha Alzahabi, 31, is a lawyer and natural-born U.S. citizen whose parents immigrated to Michigan from Damascus, Syria, in the 1980s. Her husband, a cardiologist at Little Rock's John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, came to the U.S. from Aleppo in 2001 and is now an American citizen as well. They have lived in Arkansas for over three years and are raising four children in Little Rock.

"My father- and mother-in-law live with us; they're Syrian citizens," Alzahabi said. "They're legal permanent residents here, but, as you know, the executive order was so sweeping that it included denying legal permanent residents entry to the United States." Although the White House later backtracked and said the order should not be interpreted to mean green card holders were barred, the Trump administration did not change the language of the order itself. Should a court allow the travel ban to be revived, then whom exactly it affects could change with a whim of the president. That means Alzahabi's in-laws could potentially find themselves locked out of their adopted country if they travel overseas to visit family. "With what's going on in Syria, they haven't been able to visit in some time, but they have traveled to see my brother- and sister-in-law in other countries. My brother-in-law lives in Saudi Arabia. They were able to see my sister-in-law — who does live in Syria — in Lebanon last year." Now, she said, "Frankly, we're not comfortable with them traveling, given what's been going on, because we're concerned they may not be allowed re-entry to the United States, which is their home now. We really don't know what's going to happen. If legal permanent residents were being blocked from their own homes, then anything is possible."

Meanwhile, her brother-in-law's hopes of one day joining the family in the U.S. are diminishing. American immigration policy contains a "family preference system" that allows siblings of citizens to seek a green card, but it's not easy to get in the door — and the Trump administration wants to make it harder. Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican who has allied himself closely with Trump, recently introduced legislation in Congress that would eliminate adult siblings of U.S. citizens from the family preference system altogether.

"There's a long line for brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens as it stands — 12 or 13 years," Alzahabi said. "But [Syrian] brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens were one group that the Obama administration had identified as maybe getting priority in being able to settle in the United States as refugees, and my brother-in-law had applied for that program. He was just in the very preliminary steps of meeting with the United Nations folks [to seek refugee status] when this executive order was handed down. It doesn't seem likely that that's going to go anywhere." If reinstated, the travel ban would also prevent him from taking a trip to visit his family in Arkansas: "He's obtained a visitor visa to the U.S. on a number of occasions and came and visited us here. The way it's going, it doesn't seem like he'd be able to get a visa anytime soon."

It is difficult to estimate how many people in Arkansas are affected by the travel ban, but as Alzahabi's example illustrates, its shadow stretches well beyond those individuals directly denied entry to the U.S. Arkansas is home to Syrians, Yemenis, Iranians and Iraqis, most of whom are concentrated in Central and Northwest Arkansas and many of whom work in medical fields. There are not significant numbers of people from Somalia, Sudan or Libya living in the state, although there is a sizable community of Somalis and Sudanese just across the state line from Benton County in the southwestern Missouri town of Noel, drawn to the region by jobs in the poultry industry.

Soon after the order was implemented, University of Arkansas Chancellor Joseph Steinmetz issued a statement saying the Fayetteville campus included "well over 100 people from these affected countries [who] currently hold visas to study, visit and work in the U.S." The university told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Jan. 31 that two Iranian students visiting family back home were prevented from returning to the UA and resuming their studies. (Mohsen Dadashi, the president of the university's Iranian Student Association, said the two students were able to get back to Arkansas in the past week, thanks to the travel ban's being halted.) A spokesman for the University of Arkansas at Little Rock said there were 55 students at the school from the seven countries listed in the executive order. The Arkansas State University system said three students and two faculty members were from countries listed in the order, and the University of Central Arkansas said it had two students from the affected countries.

Alzahabi said the climate created by the executive order also affects Muslims whose families are not from one of the seven countries. "The executive order does say other countries may be added to the list," she noted. "I know other members of our community, people who are permanent residents, who have canceled travel plans because ... they are worried that their country will be added to the list and they won't be able to come back home. Everybody is concerned, even if they're not from those seven countries. You could say everyone is impacted, because ... everybody felt that it was a Muslim ban."

Trump insisted that his executive order "is not a Muslim ban, as the media is falsely reporting. This is not about religion — this is about terror and keeping our country safe. There are over 40 different countries worldwide that are majority Muslim that are not affected by this order." Yet Trump's previous statements undermine that claim. Alzahabi said the courts likely must confront the question of whether the ban is an intentional effort to discriminate on the basis of religion.

The 9th Circuit, Alzahabi noted, "didn't get too much into the establishment clause stuff, about religion, but it did kind of touch upon the fact that you can look beyond the language of the order in deciding whether there was a discriminatory effect. The president did say that he wanted a Muslim ban during his campaign. ... Rudy Giuliani, who worked with him on his campaign, came out and said Trump approached him and said, 'What's a legal way to do a Muslim ban?' So even though the language [in the executive order] doesn't talk about Muslims, and not all Muslims in the entire universe are banned ... you can still look beyond the language of the order. ... If the whole point was to ban Muslims from entering, that would be unconstitutional."

Dr. Mahmoud Hassanein is the imam at the Islamic Center of Little Rock, where Alzahabi is a member. Before taking the post at the ICLR a year and a half ago, Hassanein was an assistant professor of Islamic studies in English at Al-Azhar University in Cairo. He received his Ph.D. in comparative religions at Durham University in the United Kingdom.

"People have a lot of concerns ... because they don't know what's going on," he said. "I'm Egyptian. Egypt is not among the countries that are in the ban. ... But people say, 'Who knows, maybe Egypt could be added?' Maybe Pakistan — nobody knows. In such a situation, you can find rumors everywhere." Because of the uncertainty, some members of his congregation are even avoiding domestic flights, he said, despite his efforts to assuage their worst fears. "I personally believe in the American values, and I believe that America will remain American — welcoming all people regardless of their faith or their color or these things. ... But some people are getting their luggage, their things packed, they say, 'OK, we're going to leave anytime.' So many people, they don't feel comfortable.

"What I'm trying to tell people is that we support this country. We love it. And we're going to do our best to keep it strong and united. I have so many very strong relations with churches — with Christian, Jewish friends. ... I think things will be OK."

In the past few weeks, Hassanein said, the ICLR has received a steady stream of emails and flowers and cards from non-Muslims expressing friendship and solidarity. In a wall-mounted box prominently displayed in the prayer area of the mosque, the imam has mounted some of these well-wishes for congregants and visitors alike to see: evidence that tolerance across faiths and cultures can prevail. "As an American and a Christian, know that you are loved and supported by so many in our community," reads one.

"We are so sorry that you and your family are facing an atmosphere of hate and discrimination," another says. "My family will stand with you and support you. You do not deserve to be treated badly. You are our neighbors and friends, and we value your contributions to the Little Rock community."

The ICLR holds open houses every Friday afternoon to welcome visitors. "We receive delegates, groups from churches, Temple B'Nai Israel ... so I would say we've gotten very good feedback," Hassanein said. "I was invited just yesterday evening by the Second Presbyterian Church to deliver a lecture there ... so a lot of people now are interested to know what Islam is, which might be something good." He was especially heartened by the show of support at the rally at the state Capitol after the travel ban was first announced. "The most amazing thing about the rally was that the majority of the people were not Muslims," he said.

Alzahabi said she was also encouraged by the turnout at the Jan. 28 rally, and hoped for greater contact between Muslims and others. "I think that people who have interacted with Muslims will have a more positive view of Muslims, as opposed to people who don't know any Muslims and all they're getting is what they see in the media. You almost can't blame them for having an anti-Muslim sentiment."

Her own experience with encountering prejudice has been fairly minor, she said. "There's been isolated incidents where someone might make a comment ... but overall, I think most Americans are not racist and they're not bigots," Alzahabi said. "I've worked in the legal field, and oftentimes I was the only Muslim woman attorney I knew. I wear this scarf, and I've appeared in courtrooms in Wisconsin, and I worked in Indiana, and I never felt that being a Muslim held me back or that anybody bothered me. Sometimes it's hard to tell — you might get passed over by one employee because you are a minority, but there are others that want more diversity and may recruit you because you are a minority. So I think it's a mixed bag, and I always look at the positive side of things. ... There are incidents where you see racism and discrimination rear its ugly head ... but I have faith in the American people that hopefully we're going to overcome this and see past that kind of hateful and divisive rhetoric."

Nonetheless, the fact remains that Americans are anxious about the threat of terrorism and many conflate Muslims in general with violence committed by some in the name of Islam — something that most Muslim-Americans fiercely condemn. "No religion allows for the taking of life ... people of all religions commit evil acts," Alzahabi said. "Islam is a lot more similar to Christianity and Judaism than most of the American population realizes. It comes from that same tradition — we believe in Jesus as a prophet [and] the Ten Commandments. ... And it's unfortunate that we even have to go there and make that clear, but because of this rhetoric and what people see on the news, they've come to believe that there's a holy war, when that's not the case at all. I think it's simply politicians using that to push their agendas forward."

Yet paranoid rhetoric against Islam finds fertile ground in much of Arkansas. Last week, the state House of Representatives approved a bill by Rep. Brandt Smith (R-Jonesboro) that seeks to declare "American laws for American courts" and is motivated by the supposed threat of Sharia — the canonical law of Islam — creeping into the American judicial system. Although Smith could give no examples of Sharia being used in an Arkansas court, he said his bill was necessary as a preemptive measure considering demographic changes in the U.S.

Some immigrants "tend to group in small enclaves and they feel comfortable among their own people," Smith warned the House Judiciary committee on Feb. 2. "What happens is there will be some elder, some leader arise out of the group who says, 'We're here, but we're still going to run our lives based on law from our originating country,' and that puts some people who wanted freedom at risk of running afoul against their own people group after they arrive in our country."

Hassanein testified against the bill at the time, given that it seemed motivated by hostility toward Islam. But, he told the Times, it will have no real effect if it becomes statute. "I don't think it will at all ... because if a Muslim is here in America, he should abide by American laws. The word 'Sharia' has been misinterpreted in so many ways." Despite the enthusiasm among some Republican legislators for indulging Islamophobic symbolism, the imam's sentiments are backed up by Republican Governor Hutchinson, who said last week that the anti-Sharia bill was unnecessary. "I'm searching for a reason for that legislation. I've been in courts, I've litigated all over the country and here in Arkansas, and I just have not identified that as a problem," Hutchinson told a reporter when asked about HB 1041. (The measure is now awaiting consideration by the state Senate.)

Hassanein said, "What people need to do is know what Islam is and who are Muslims. Muslims are not violent people or looking for violence. On the contrary, the word 'Islam' itself, it means 'peace.' " He referenced the Jan. 29 terrorist attack at a mosque in Quebec City, Canada, in which a French-Canadian student killed six people at prayer and critically wounded five more; that atrocity should not be blamed on Christians or Christianity, he emphasized. "Evil is everywhere," the imam said. "I love my Christian friends ... and I read the Bible and I know the verses, and nothing there calls for violence. So if someone is committing a crime, it's unfair to refer to his religion. He's an evil person; leave the religion aside."

He asked the Times to end this article with a single sentence: "The Muslims here love this country, love Americans, and they are working day and night for the well-being, the progress, the development of America in general."

Their home, too

#Their home #too

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