#if it were explicitly offensive in that regard i would not be recommending it at all obv

[spirk-trek]

Your tags on the snw post... You're right and you should say it!!!

With all the shit I've seen about it online was really surprised how much I actually liked snw, it's really a solid show. Yeah the chapel/spock romance is questionable but they did so many things right and really captured the spirit of the TOS (it being a good mix of serious and whimsical)

yes!!! so much whimsy!!!

i actually feel guilty about not voicing my compliments as loudly as my complaints. i'd hate to be the reason someone doesn't at least give it a chance. i think i'll make a post about some of the parallels to tos that i thought were particularly clever/well done before season three comes out :) also, the new characters are great!

[teaveetamer]

It's okay if butwhatifidothis risks leading people to harass Captain Flash by going over his fic but it's not okay if Raxis does the same to reynaattheend?

Okay I feel like I want to get one thing out of the way before I go into this.

BWIIDT agreed to remove parts of the old reviews that were particularly rude or offensive if they were pointed out to her, something that was literally promised to the MODS of the Edelstan discord server (who claimed to have a direct line of communication to Cap).

So the guy literally had a chance to air his grievances with the posts and have the parts he didn’t like removed within reason, and we never got any examples of things to ask her to remove. So either she’s not as rude as people make her out to be, or they never actually cared about her critiques and haven’t bothered reading them, even when handed the literal opportunity to edit things out they didn’t like.

Additionally BWIIDT has said that she would be willing to remove all the postings completely if the guy would just hear her criticisms and learn from them, so he could better handle the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic. Of which there is a lot.

I don’t know how you could possibly compromise more without just straight up being a door mat and pretending like this white man never had any issues with the way he wrote race and women.

Anyway as for why I view these as two completely different situations that are not really comparable IMO:

1) Cap’s fic is/was at the time literally being shoved at people. We were told to read it to “understand canon better”.

This isn’t just me saying this. I remember around the time before/slightly after BWIIDT started giving her criticisms of the fic I was seeing it getting recommended to a bunch of people. There were people on various social media sites complaining about the Edel crowd shoving the fic down their throats. I had it recommended to me on some different platforms, etc.

And that’s not just fans of the fics’ perception. Cap himself has stated that he views the fic as meta commentary on the game/discussion of canon, not just a fun little fic he did. And he’s happy people view it as essential for understanding canon.

As far as I’m aware, Reyna’s fic has never had that sort of culture around it, nor has she wanted it to have that kind of impact on fandom. I’m pretty sure she’s even explicitly stated that she KNOWS it’s not always aligned with canon and she doesn’t care, because it’s just a fun little project for her.

2) As far as I’m aware, BWIIDT never linked to Cap’s fic? I don’t even think she gave the title of it at first, it’s just that most people figured out what fic she was talking about BECAUSE of the aforementioned it getting shoved down everyone’s throats. But I wasn’t really following her in the beginning so I don’t remember, I’m sure she can reblog this posting if she wants and further clarify.

Raxy has literally been linking to Reyna’s fic on every posting and spelling out the full name of the fics and the author. Given his followers’ propensity for harassment (which he claims to not support) he really should have known better. He wasn’t “risking” sending her harassment it was basically a foregone conclusion.

He definitely should have taken all of the links down and stopped linking or naming the author or fic after it became clear people were literally going and harassing her, using his posts and material to throw at her. But as far as I’m aware he hasn’t done ANY of that.

3) I know from talking with BWIIDT since Raxy started harassing everyone here that she wasn’t going to bother with Cap’s fic originally, but then the annoying fans shoving it down people’s throats + she noticed a lot of very problematic handling of race that she wanted to talk about in greater depth = her discussing the fic at length.

I haven’t read through Raxy’s criticisms, but I feel like there’s a BIG difference between a woman of color pointing out the problems regarding race and gender in a fic (written by a white man) that’s being recommended to everyone as ESSENTIAL FOR UNDERSTANDING THE GAME vs. Some Guy Who Doesn’t Like A Random Fic

Additionally, I don’t really feel like it’s my place to tell her to shut up because, uh, it just feels kind of gross to tell her to just not be mad about the way the white guy is butchering the biracial experience when she’s a biracial woman and I’m not? Which again, very different from telling a 35 year old cishet white guy who is acting like a dick about anime chess to be less of a dick about anime chess.

4) And again, I also know for a fact that BWIIDT is just interested in critiquing/venting about the fic, and would be willing to stop making postings about it if Cap actually bothered to read the critiques and learn from the mistakes he’s made regarding the racism, sexism, homophobia, etc. in his fic.

But like, he keeps doubling down on it insisting that because he grew up next to a reservation and he has one queer woman doing his beta reading there could never be any problems with his handling of any of these sensitive topics, so he doesn’t need to listen to any of us ever, and people are still touting it as essential for understanding canon, and he’s still okay with that, sooooooo ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It’s VERY different from what Raxy is doing, which is basically just calling Reyna’s fics “cringe” and “not canon” from the snippets I’ve seen. He’s also blasting them over LITERALLY every social media platform he has for some godforsaken reason. Which like. If your goal was just to critique the fic why are you posting that shut EVERYWHERE?

5) I really don’t think Raxy is that bothered by the criticisms of Cap’s fic. He harasses people regardless of if they’ve talked about Cap or his fic, and after his aborted attempt to drum up harassment against BWIIDT on GameFaqs he came to Tumblr and started begging her to “do his fic next”

Like honestly I don’t even know what goes on in that guy’s head. Weird ass behavior. I really don’t care what he has going on, it’d just be nice if he’d act like the 35 year old he actually is and quit being so petty and childish.

Even if you think what BWIIDT did with Cap’s fic is wrong, why would it EVER be acceptable to drag an uninvolved third party into the mix and bash their fic and send them harassment as “retaliation”? Reina has nothing to do with this. She doesn’t even have fucking social media accounts outside of AO3. I know because I literally left her a comment to warn her about this clown and she told me.

What BWIIDT has done with Cap’s fic is admittedly a bit of a grey area, but ultimately I fall on the side of “whatever” with it because of the notoriety and influence on fandom fans of the fic desperately want it to have, and because of just how problematic elements of it are for various communities.

I mean you can’t go reccing a fic as essential for understanding the game and shoving it down the entire fandoms’ collective throat and then expect it to be treated like a 14 year old’s silly self insert fic when the people you told to read it critique it with the gravitas you assigned to it.

If you wanna critique BWIIDT for what she did with Cap’s fic, or critique me or anyone else for interacting with her, or you just think my logic is stupid and you want to critique that, then that’s… fine? I’m an adult, I’m a person, I know there’s places I can grow. But I’m sick of people acting like it’s okay to be a shitty person just because you got your feelings hurt once, so now it’s okay to go making it everyone else’s problem. And I don’t know if it was your intention to defend the guy with this ask anon, but it’s definitely happened too damn much with this guy and the Edelgard fandom as a whole.

That was another thing that really fucked me off in that conversation with the Edelstan server mods. I had one of them acting like I run fucking Reddit and I’m somehow responsible for some trolls calling Edelgard fans Nazis four fucking years ago. You can bet your ass I would get crucified if I tried to shit talk some random ass Edeleth fic and tried to justify it with “but it’s ok cuz some Edelgard fans were mean to me once :(“. There’s a reason why the fic being touted as essential for understanding canon is the one getting critiques and not any of the THOUSANDS of other Edeleth fics in existence. Because no one fucking cares about fanfics when they aren’t getting shoved down your throat and touted as “essential”.

I mean fuck dude, I got called a fake queer and an r-slur and intentionally triggered with genocide bullshit and had people talking about killing me. Am I going around harassing random fic authors over it? No, cuz I’m a grown ass fucking adult and I know how to act like it, and I know that 99% of the people who write/have written Edeleth fics had absolutely nothing to do with that.

So if you’re justifying going after Reyna with “but BWIIDT was mean to Cap!” Then knock it off, Reyna has literally nothing to do with this and you’re being shitty by trying to drag her into it. If you just did this to spork a fic, then you’re currently being a dick over a fanfic for no reason and clearly it’s leading to the author being harassed.

@butwhatifidothis if you wanna add onto this feel free.

[autolenaphilia]

The Cybersix comics

So now i’ve read most Cybersix comics that are available in English scanlations. Mainly Pharmadan’s stuff. 

And it is very different from the cartoon adaptation previously reviewed here, very different indeed.

Anyway, the comics were created by Argentinian creators Carlos Trillo (scripts) and Carlos Meglia (art), in the early 1990s. And yes, i do think of them as Carlos & Carlos or the the two Carloses.

The premise is one i recognize from the cartoon adaptation. It is about the superhero Cybersix, a product of genetic engineering that has rebelled against her evil creator and fights the other products of his mad science, led by his clone son José.Her cover as a male literature school teacher named Adrian. She finds a friend in Lucas, the school’s biology teacher, with who she also sexual/romantic tension. Her allies include another product of the villain’s mad science, Data-7, who has the body of a panther and Julian, a street urchin she adopted.

But the approach the comic book source material took to this is very different. The cartoon tv show is meant for children, even if it is on the darker side for such things. The comic is clearly meant for adults, and has a transgressive attitude with lots of violence and sex. And it is still almost 30 years later very shocking and offensive, it certainly was to me and I still kinda liked it. The word “problematic” has been much abused, but it still applies.

You could compare it to something out of the 90s “dark age” of American super hero comics, but to me the tone reminded me of artistic, provocative and very sexualized European comics, like something out of Métal Hurlant.

I’m therefore going to leave the rest of this review under a cut. Also it is getting kinda long. This might be a good point to put out some content warnings, ignore them at your own risk.

Content warning:: Discussions of: violence, racism, nazism, racist caricatures, sexualization of women, prostitution mention and (most disturbingly) sexual themes involving underage people (ick)

(most of this applies to the comic if you decide to read it, it can be worth checking out, but replace “discussion” and “mention” with just depiction, so be prepared for that.)

For one thing, the villain is clearly a nazi scientist who escaped from Germany to South America after the war. He is even named Von Reichter (the cartoon goes with Von Richter). This gives the comic a strong political edge. I don’t know exactly how controversial Argentina’s former status as a haven for escaped Nazis is in that country. But it probably is very controversial. Taking that subject in a critical manner might very well have been a genuinely brave move on part of the creators.

There is also the violence you might expect from a superhero comic. José is a particularly brutal villain this time around. Although Cybersix is remarkably non-violent. When she draws the sustenance she needs vampire-like from Von Reichter’s creations, she avoids killing them.

Concerning Cybersix’s gender, the comic doesn’t have the ambiguity of the cartoon. This time, it’s clear what her gender identity is, Cybersix is a woman.

Her male identity is merely a disguise. Adrian Seidelman is a person who dies in a car accident who looks kinda like Cybersix, who has no legal status, and therefore she decides to steal his identity.

Cybersix remains an interesting character, but i frankly prefer the ambiguity of the cartoon.

Her questioning of her own humanity due to her origins was also in the comic and is a strong theme in her internal monologue here.

Interestingly from a gender perspective, she has this need to prove to herself that she is not just human, but specifically a woman.

II is hard to avoid the subject of sexuality when talking about this comic, for it is almost omnipresent here. Cybersix is a very sexualized character. Her costume design is far from the worst example in comics, but like so many superheroines still designed with titillation in mind.

I found it hilarious that the comic’s actual explanation for the costume is that Cybersix stole it from the wardrobe of a literal sex worker. (the reason Cybersix broke into her home is that she was actually a Von Reichter creation that had infiltrated human society).

But this comic goes beyond most american comics and actually shows Cybersix naked surprisingly often. Her relationship with Lucas gets fairly explicit. If you find the crop of these panels odd sometimes, it’s because I’m trying to avoid showing something that breaks tumblr guidelines.

But the sexualization of Cybersix is actually a minor problem. The nude panels of her are almost quaint, like watching an old movie from the 70s which doesn’t bother to cutaway when a couple gets undressed. It isn’t really that disturbing, especially compared to the creepy sexuality in the rest of the comic.

I didn’t mention Lori in my review of the cartoon. She is one of Adrian’s students who in the cartoon has a crush on him. That is kinda a disturbing theme in itself, but in the cartoon it is no big deal, because it is fairly toned down. In the comic, she is much, much worse.

She is obsessed with Adrian and very explicitly wants to have sex with him. Remember, Lori is a teenage schoolgirl. She also doesn’t care much for the concept of consent. For example, she mails Adrian her nudes unsolicited, and that is about the least worst thing she does. I’m not saying that isn’t terrible in itself, it is just that Lori does way worse things in this comic. You can understand this gets very uncomfortable to read about very quickly.

To be fair, while the trope of the sex-obsessed woman is often a male fantasy, it is very possible that Lori is supposed to be disturbing, rather than sexy. She is even drawn in a rather grotesque manner.

José is even worse. He has only the body of a child, but the mind of a man, including sexually. It isn’t nearly as prominent part of his character as it is with Lori, but this also becomes disgusting rather quickly, for obvious reasons. And then Lori and José meet and do it, oh my god. Although José’s sexuality is almost certainly meant to be creepy.

(because the world is full of people who can’t read properly I probably need to say: no, i don’t support pedophilia even if I think this comic also has its positive sides. Also, even though I can’t really speak for them and they have both passed away long ago, I’m pretty sure Carlos & Carlos didn’t support pedophilia either, if you can even call what horrors that go on in this comic that. Depiction in fiction doesn’t equal endorsement and all that.

This might be obvious from everything I written, but i have seen bad misreadings of what people write and the resulting misinformation spread so quickly on the internet, that writing out the obvious might be necessary. )

I must also talk about the depiction of race in this comic, which is odd. There are two important characters here, who are for lack of a better word, racialized.

One is a black man who saves Cybersix from Von Reichter when she was a child. She regards him as her father. The other is Miao Yashimoto, a Japanese private detective. His sister is kidnapped by Von Reichter, who forces Yashimoto to act against Cybersix, but he eventually becomes her ally.

Now describing them here, it doesn’t sound bad at all. That’s because their personality and role in the story isn’t the problem, it is how they are drawn. They, especially Yashimoto are very much racist caricatures. Yashimoto even has the stereotypical buckteeth. I won’t show you for obvious reasons, but you can always look up this comic yourself.

What is odd about this is that the intent clearly isn’t hateful. These are both heroic characters and the comic has a more or less explicit anti-racist message. A nazi is the villain for a reason. It is just that the creators clearly don’t realize the way Meglia drew these characters is not appropriate.

What is even weirder that Yashimoto was adapted into the cartoon, complete with buckteeth. And that was a show was made in Canada in 1999. Very strange.

Overall, the comic is very different from the cartoon and I have no idea why they picked this edgy adult comic as source material for.a tv show for children, but they did. It is surprisingly faithful to the comic in many ways. The premise is pretty much the same, only it is executed in a very different, child-friendly manner. I would argue that the cartoon is in many ways more enjoyable and accessible than the comic. The attempts of the comic to provoke its audience are often not successful, or maybe rather too successful.

As you can probably tell, my feelings on this comic are complex. I care not for the creepy sexuality or the hamfisted attempts to handle race. So I don’t know if I can recommend this comic. You do need a strong stomach for all this.  But despite all that, there is still much to like about this comic  The art is great; very evocative and atmospheric.

And the writing can be that too. Cybersix is still a great character. Her origin story, her existential angst and her difficult love story with Lucas are just as compelling if not more than in the cartoon.

Sadly, this comic is not widely available in English.The scanlations made or collected by Pharmadan is the most extensive and what I read so far. There is a person here on tumblr, who tried to continue scanlating them  but they seem to have fallen prey to tumblr’s asinine content rules.and doesn’t seem to have been able to go elsewhere yet.

I’ll leave you with my favourite panel from the comic:

[granpris]

Please listen for once.

Hello, I'm Granpris. I'm known as the current leader of Team Switched and the TS:Underswap project on Gamejolt. For several days drama has been going on on Tumblr, Gamejolt and wherever.

I'm quite sick of it having it cause me to become very ill recently and stressed, my team alike, due to the amount of false accusations and attacks directed towards me and my team.

I'm here today to debunk several popular claims and accusations that have been made towards our team, and hopefully end this mess. Please do not see this as an attack. I simply want to debunk some claims, as I’ve previously stated, and get my thoughts out there.

Before moving on to read my own post i highly recommend checking out the following posts as well for they also contain vital information and are a bit less opinionated than mine:

http://megaderping.tumblr.com/post/165903415711/regarding-the-drama-over-team-switched https://emeraldheck.tumblr.com/post/165910458062/hey-everyone-i-know-this-isnt-what-you-would https://gamejolt.com/games/undertale-underswap/160094/devlog/the-sans-dillema-jiagyb7p https://gamejolt.com/games/primus-underfell-official/249907/devlog/regarding-the-recent-team-switched-drama-mc9frvdb

- "You have/had a GoFundMe and have been scamming us for a year!"

No.

Back when the team was first founded, some members expressed wanting to put up a crowdfunding for the game, one having made a private page for it even. However, this was taken down, as it went against fangame policies. The same person later tried to get funding through Steam gifts, as receiving money directly wasn't allowed. However, none of this was ever shared with the team, and this member was booted off of the team. This project is free, and will always be free, no matter what. If we had a GoFundMe, Ko-fi, Kickstarter or anything of the sort, we would have likely been taken down ages ago, and we would have been called out for this way earlier. Long time fans can confirm we have not had any form of a crowdfunder.

- "This isn't Underswap! You're falsely advertising your game!"

Also no.

Underswap is a community owned AU now, meaning it has no set-in-stone owner and thus, everyone can do with it what they want. Not everyone has to stick with what has been introduced, and this was the case even before the original creators abandoned the AU.

The original creators had always encouraged different interpretations of the AU, even ones where personalities do not swap like with our project (As is clearly evident here). (I recommend right about now checking out Megaderping/Dorked’s post i linked earlier if you haven’t for it adds to what follows after this sentence.) 

And that's what it is! AN INTERPRETATION! I think this is something a lot of people misunderstand; it isn't meant to replace Underswap, or Blueberry, or Carrot, or anyone! This is just how we would've tackled the Underswap AU, using the base concept of characters having their roles swapped. If you don't like it, that's totally fine! If you don't like our designs, that's fine too! However, what isn't fine is making hate art, rant posts, and launching attacks and campaigns at us, all because we do not obey your every whim and make what YOU think our game should be, rather than allowing us to have the creative freedom this fandom has been given as well.

We have been very transparent about our project for well over a year now, having stated numerous times what our intentions are. We aren't doing personality swaps, we aren't going to have Sans be a sugar rushed childlike character wanting to be in the Royal Guard, nor will we have Papyrus be a lazy, honey chugging smoker, we won't have any of that. It isn't true to the characters so many of you and us fell in love with, and robs them of their character. We find it more interesting working with characters who retain their personalities in different scenarios rather than personality swapped characters who you can expect to just respond and act the same way towards situations as the character who had the role prior would have.

I find it honestly quite offensive when people tell us this is not Underswap, and that we aren't doing things how they were meant to be, when looking at Underswap's current state in hands of the fandom, that's exactly what's been done to it now. Underswap used to have a canon, and it was disrespected with people misrepresenting the AU and its characters, primarily Sans; he was made into a super smol, star eyed, sometimes if not permanently cat mouthed character with a personality nowhere close to either  Sans' or Papyrus'. There is nothing to their character besides just being and acting cute.

If you are looking at this from, let's say, a fanartist's perspective, that doesn't matter much. It's just a cute character you enjoy, right? Which is perfectly fine! However, try looking at Blueberry from the perspective of a writer, or a developer... you can not work with this. It's a flat, 1 dimensional character. They have barely any personality, and as previously stated, they're just meant to be cute. They aren't relatable or appealing at all. This is simply not something we want to work with.

I've gone on long enough here, so I'll end it off with something my co-worker and friend Kalin had to say:

We are trying to focus on making a game that tells the main story of Underswap. But let's just pretend all the unique art and music doesn't exist for a second. If we truly did it like that, we'd be telling the exact same story but all the names are switched and some objects and phrases would be switched around as well. Anything we could salvage out of that would be violating copyright of the original work, which Toby has explicitly stated before to not dis-encourage people from buying UNDERTALE, which would not only rob Toby of money, but also generally just be really disrespectful.

If you wanted Underswap to go the way it did, it would've been shut down by now.

Blueberry is only really meant to work in really short comic form or fan art. Our Sans, on the other hand, is written with more long-term stuff in mind; with the original Sans' character being placed in a different scenario, the outcome of the story can be different. Think of it like this: Would you rather have a game where you can predict everything that's going to happen, as in, Blueberry acting exactly like Papyrus, or would you rather play a game where you don't know what is going to happen?

- "One of your members used a ableist term to describe Blueberry and insult us!"

Yes, this member used an ableist term to describe Blueberry, and they are terribly sorry for it. However, he should not be the one getting hate. He showed me the message he was going to reply with containing the slur before he posted it, and I didn't point out the slur. If you have to be mad at someone, be mad at me. Do not get mad at them, and do not put my entire team in the same boat.

I, too, am sorry, for I approved the message knowing the term was used in it. It was unprofessional of me and I should have pointed it out when I could. I'm sorry for anyone offended by this.

HOWEVER.

It was never used to insult real people. The member used it to describe the current representation of Underswap or otherwise known as Blueberry Sans. No real person was meant to be targeted with the word.

- "You've been very rude to fans and have been bashing the fandom!"

Yes, this is somewhat true.

There have been occasions where some members have been kind of rude, and while I do not speak for them besides myself, we are sorry for our behaviour to some people. Working on a game for over one and a half years without any form of income and scraping for time to work on it, combined with other factors such as bad personal lives and impatient fans pushing for a demo/full release, may cause us to lash out sometimes. We're only human, after all.

As for bashing the fandom, this is also true to a degree.

Some of us, including myself, have been making several remarks towards the fandom and some of the people in it. I apologize for my part in that at least, for I can not speak for any of the others. I'm not going to try and justify my actions when it comes to this too much, but most of this originates from some things like Blueberry Sans that I've seen in the fandom and have a strong disliking towards. Yes, I apologize to the people I've possibly offended, but I shall not apologize for the bashing of any fictional AU characters and such. I am allowed an opinion on these things, and while I can be rude and extreme with this at times, which again I do apologize for to a degree, it is, nonetheless, an opinion. One of our members recently has gone a bit wild mocking several people and bothering them. I was not there when this happened as i was paying attention to our Tumblr at all times. Know, however, i do not approve what they did. I told them to stop and i hope that nothing more comes from this. I’m sorry for the long LONG post but I’ve been stressing out, throwing up, breaking down and whatnot because of this situation and needed to get my word out there. I just pray this drama can just end already because it’s not necessary at all and frankly quite petty.

[shirlleycoyle]

Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online

On July 17, 2014, the New York Police Department put Staten Island resident Eric Garner into a chokehold while apprehending him for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. Garner told police “I can’t breathe” 11 times before losing consciousness. Officers did not perform CPR on Garner, and neither did EMT when they arrived at the scene. Garner was pronounced dead in the hospital about an hour after the incident.

This week, exactly five years after Garner’s death, Mayor Bill de Blasio doubled down on his decision to not fire Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Garner in a chokehold. Pantaleo will also not be held criminally liable. The decision ignores repeated demands for justice from local residents and activists who have organized both in-person and en masse on social media.

That same day, the NYPD Twitter account tweeted about World Emoji Day.

Motherboard has obtained and is publishing an internal guide that may help explain the strategy behind that tweet, and the NYPD’s social media presence across platforms. Police are explicitly told to “be funny” by cracking jokes and using emojis, and to take “victory laps” by sharing evidence of arrests and confiscations. The documents note that the goal of NYPD social media accounts is to “build, and maintain trust between the Department and the communities it serves.”

The U.S. military, and police departments around the country, are known to follow a similar social media strategy. Law enforcement often uses social media to speak in a way that’s cheery and cutesy, belittling and heartless, or some combination of these things. The NYPD is no exception. In 2014, the NYPD tweeted a quote from A Few Good Men which, in the movie, was used to justify a murder. (They later deleted the tweet.) Earlier this year, it triumphantly tweeted about a “clean up” of a homeless encampment in the East Village.

Motherboard obtained seven slide presentations, which include examples of “funny” police tweets, Twitter dos and don’ts, and at one point, a slide is completely dedicated to displaying an image of YouTuber PewDiePie. Motherboard also obtained two “Operations Order” documents that spell out the department’s official social media goals and policies.

Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) put in charge of the NYPD’s social media accounts are explicitly instructed to be both friendly and feared. However, the NYPD has a poor record on civil liberties. A New York Department of Investigation (DOI) report shows that the NYPD has received almost 2,500 complaints of biased policing since 2014. The NYPD closed 1,918 of those complaints. Zero investigations have been issued. A Buzzfeed investigation released last year shows that between 2011 and 2015, hundreds of officers have committed severe acts of misconduct and violence and have been allowed to keep their jobs. This record complicates the way the NYPD presents itself on social media.

NYPD social media policies makes the department’s 119 Twitter feeds into a jarring mix of images: police posing with children, confiscated guns, missing or wanted people, and police dogs. Police want to tell people that they’re charming and approachable, but also powerful and sometimes frightening.

A document titled “Operations_Order_28,” dated June 2017, tells police that the goal of NYPD social media is to “build, and maintain trust” with city residents. Several documents instruct social media NCOs to post pictures of NYPD officers.

A slide presentation titled “Best_practices_prezi” instructs police to be “authentic and funny.” The slide notes that “(expectations are low…)” for humor.

“Funny tweets are more likely to be shared,” the slide presentation says. “Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say in any other public forum.”

“Funny” tweets are recommended because maximizing shares and engagement is recommended per NYPD policy. Operations Order 28 instructs officers to prioritize engagement.

“Develop innovative and informative social media messaging with the goal of cultivating public engagement,” the document reads.

Examples of funny tweets, according to “Best_practices_prezi,” include using a lot of emojis, making jokes about recent raids and arrests, and making joke-infused warnings about possible crimes.

Image: Screen grab from “best_practices_prezi.”

The presentation has a section in which officers are prompted to select a good tweet an a bad tweet. An example of a good tweet, according to the presentation is, “Officers just arrested a naked man in the bison paddock in GG Park. The bison seemed unimpressed.” Meanwhile, an example of a bad tweet is, “Between 11/30/13, 9pm and 12/01/13, 9:45 am on the 1900 block of Clement St, a suspect hopped the fence to the… [link]”

Police are also instructed to avoid making blunders on social media. A slide presentation titled “Twitter_mistakes_prezi” tells police, “Don’t make light of harsh situations,” and to sometimes seek second opinions. It also lists five rules of thumb for police.

Image: Screen grab from “twitter_mistakes_prezi.”

“What may seem inoffensive to you could be offensive to others in your community,” the slide presentation later warns. The examples of content that could be offensive to “others” in your community are outrightly racist.

Image: Screen grab from “twitter_mistakes_prezi.”

A slide presentation titled “Promotional_training_prezi” warns officers, “You are always in the public eye,” and displays the logos of WorldStar Hip Hop and Copwatch, platforms that are known to sometimes share images and videos of police violence and misconduct.

Other documents show that there is no basis of social media literacy required for NCOs that are interested in operating social media accounts.

“It’s not about computers,” the slide presentation says. “Previous knowledge is not required. Yes, it’s risky. But the good outweighs the bad.”

“Promotional_training_prezi” also notes that all “commanding officers and staff are trained” before getting access to social media accounts. Once trained, social media access is heavily delegated.

“How do we approve everything? WE DON’T!” one slide says.

“Promotional_training_prezi” also shows a side-by-side comparison of the social media landscape in 2012 and 2017. An entire slide in the presentation is dedicated to displaying an image of PewDiePie. In 2017, seemingly the same year the presentation was given, PewDiePie used a racial slur on his channel and directed users to an antisemitic channel (which he claims was accidental).

Image: Screen grab from “Promotional_training_prezi”.

The slide presentation also tells police, “AND DON’T FORGET YOUR VICTORY LAP!” This means that police are told to share results of certain investigations. In practice, this often means sharing images of confiscated guns or counterfeit items.

It’s reasonable for any public-facing entity to humanize their workforce. But the NYPD’s attempts to improve its public image with social media don’t address the public’s biggest concern: years of allegations of misconduct.

When reached by Motherboard for comment, an NYPD spokesperson said in an email that the goal of its social media presence is to let police “communicate directly with their residents, hear their concerns, and update them about Neighborhood Policing and public safety issues in real time.”

“Since 2014, the accounts have amassed over 1 million followers, have helped launch hundreds of community events, forged relationships, introduced residents to their own local officers, allowed us to gauge issues of concern from the public, as well as notify them in real time regarding emergencies,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “Use of social media accounts has also helped solve and prevent crimes through tips, awareness and community interaction.”

When asked about the DOI report, the NYPD referred Motherboard to a press release and added the following.

“I want to reaffirm that there is zero tolerance for bias in the NYPD,” an NYPD spokesperson said. “Bias is often tough to prove because you need to show intent. The OIG itself couldn’t conclusively prove bias in 888 cases that it reviewed. But that doesn’t mean the NYPD isn’t taking action.”

One slide presentation argues that social media use can help supplement traditional policing. A slide displays NYPD officers testifying about the impact of social media.

“People I never met before were able to share community concerns and comments,” NYPD Inspector Fausto Pichardo said, according to the presentation. “People would come up to me on the street and say ‘Hey! I follow you on Twitter!’ Before, I would have probably walked by them and they wouldn’t know I was the CO.”

���With social media I can engage my community at any time of the day from anywhere,” Detective Inspector Chris Morello said, according to the presentation. “I get messages from people in real time about what’s happening — they can now be my eyes and ears.”

But of course, NYPD officers also use more covert methods to supplement their policing. The NYPD has used Palantir, a powerful, secretive data aggregation tool that enables law enforcement to learn nearly everything about a person from a simple search query. The NYPD has also tested controversial predictive policing technology, which claims to be able to “forecast” crime by sending police to places where crime has already occurred. It has abused facial recognition technology by submitting celebrity look-alikes of subjects on camera in order to search for positive matches. It has fleets of drones, which have been deployed at events like the NYC Pride Parade, despite the fact that LGBTQ activists have resisted heavy police presence at Pride events.

According to the NYPD, social media is a way to “connect and engage with local businesses, residents, and other members of the community.” However, social media has never been a tool for the NYPD to be transparent about the activity that actively concerns and frightens New York residents. Trust can’t be extracted through tweets.

All of the documents that were used to inform this article are now public and viewable on Document Cloud.

Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online syndicated from https://triviaqaweb.wordpress.com/feed/

[eichy815]

Indecent Composure

Originally Published on June 29, 2014 on Eichy Says

Prudishness is making a comeback. And, at the same time, it's quickly going out-of-style.

In recent weeks, social media had been abuzz with the antics of Quintin L. Murphy, a graduating senior at Jack Britt High School in Fayetteville, North Carolina.  During his graduation ceremony, Murphy stripped down to nothing but a leopard-print Speedo as a prank upon accepting his diploma on-stage.

A police officer escorted him off the grounds, which I can understand.  His hijinks were funny and harmless, but not exactly "dignified" in the view of folks who treated the ceremony as a serious occasion.

The real kicker, however, was when Cumberland School District Superintendent Frank Till publicly announced that Murphy would not be receiving his diploma.  He will still technically be allowed to graduate, but his actual high school diploma is being indefinitely withheld.

So what's the problem, you may ask? It's just a symbolic piece of paper...and he's still considered a legitimate high school graduate.  Maybe so...but you could just as easily argue that the graduation ceremony itself was purely symbolic, as well – and that the parents or spectators who were so drastically offended by Murphy's prank should just "get over it."

Such puritanical actions from administrative-level mouthpieces are nothing new.

Also in North Carolina, Central Davidson High School (in the city of Lexington) graduating senior Violet Redwine was kicked off-campus during her last day of school (as a graduating senior), after school officials measured her dress and claimed it was violating the school's dress code by half an inch too short above the knees.

Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with a public school enforcing a reasonable dress code for students – except that, in Redwine's case, she had already worn that same dress to school on five previous occasions throughout the year.

If a school is going to enforce its dress code, it should do so all year round – not simply on "Senior Day" in order to make an example out of a student

Even though Redwine went home to change into different clothing (after they'd instructed her to), when she returned to the school she was then told that she'd receive detention for "tardiness."  Her parents advised their daughter to just stay home for the rest of the day.  And, as a gesture of support, Redwine's mother, Amy, wore that exact same dress to her daughter's graduation ceremony (while Violet donned a traditional-cap-and-gown).

Is it any coincidence that this "Violent Redwine Incident" occurred barely one week after the much-publicized "Quintin Murphy Incident" – only three counties apart?

Getting kicked out of one's last day of school – or being removed from one's graduation ceremony – might appear to be minor sanctions, in the greater scheme of things.  But it can lead to greater abuses of power from those in authority positions, as it clearly has in the past.

Earlier this year, fifteen-year-old Christian Adamek committed suicide after being publicly castigated by school officials in the aftermath of his September 27 streaking prank at Sparkman High School in Huntsville, Alabama.

As could be expected, Adamek faced disciplinary action from the school.  But all of that should have been handled completely in private.

Principal Mike Campbell gave a public interview where he stated that Adamek's behavior could result in the teenager having to register as a sex offender.  Campbell also confirmed for local media that the school district had recommended Adamek undergo a judicial hearing with the Madison County court system to explore any further formal charges that could have been filed against the teen.  

Yet, in the same interview, Campbell acknowledged how teens usually streak due to "losing a bet" or showing "school spirit."  The principal then followed that acknowledgment with the vague statement pertaining to how Adamek's conduct was "much more than a mere prank" and "totally different, something not related to that at all."

So if Campbell "wasn't at liberty" to divulge these super-secret details of this other awful and unspoken-of crime that Adamek allegedly committed, then why bother to give the interview at all?  If Adamek's prank was supposedly "much more than that" and posed such a great threat to public safety, then doesn't Campbell have a responsibility to inform the public about what mysterious-and-dastardly deed the adolescent did?

Or, if that wasn't really the case (regarding Adamek's offense), then why would Campbell agree to appearing in front of a news crew in the first place?  Why not just handle everything privately, within school walls (or, if the case legitimately warranted it, within the confines of juvenile court)?

The answer is clearly that Campbell, and probably his masters (and cronies) within the school administration, wanted to make an example out of the kid.

According to Adamek's sister, Danielle, her brother was facing expulsion for his prank.  Adamek also had a history of depression.  When an online petition called for Campbell's resignation, its creator was pressured by Adamek's parents to remove the petition from the Internet.  I would bet anything that Daniel and Angela Adamek made this request because the Adamek family was still grieving from their son's tragic death, and they very likely just didn't want to deal with anymore negative publicity.

However, all of this "media-scrubbing" and "backpedaling" being done to protect Campbell doesn't change the reality that Campbell's public statements could have very prominently contributed to the young man ultimately deciding to hang himself, rather than enduring a potential onslaught of legal excoriation (especially if he was suffering from depression or any other psychological conditions).  We'll never know, because Adamek took his own life – and more discrete steps could have been taken to prevent such a horrible outcome.

This is not to suggest there should never be consequences to one's actions.  Although I personally see nothing wrong with (non-aggressive forms of) public nudity, there were still more reasonable punishments that could have been doled out to Adamek.  

Community service.  Paying a monetary fine.  Having some extracurricular privileges revoked.  Or even making restitution for any property damage that was inflicted during the prank – although I'm assuming there was no actual property damage...otherwise, Principal Campbell would have bothered to explicitly mention that during his haphazard interviews with the local media.  Right?

What probably happened was that Campbell clumsily shot his mouth off in front of news cameras, out of some sense of prudishness and/or self-righteous indignation. It wouldn't surprise me if Campbell thought he was "protecting" the school's reputation by making an example out of Christian Adamek in order to discourage other students from engaging in similar pranks in the future.

And then, when those actions backfired (following Adamek's tragic suicide), the school administration "circled the wagons" in order to protect Campbell (who, they probably realized, had mishandled the situation in a premature, tactless fashion).

Is it any wonder why people have such cynical views toward bureaucratic school administrations and teacher's unions? Not that a majority of teachers or faculty members in the school district necessarily agreed with Campbell's verbal diarrhea...but it just goes to show how authority figures – be they in education or law enforcement – will jump to "protect their own," yet, allow justice for the "common people" to fall by the wayside.

Six years ago, the notorious "Pumpkin Run" in Boulder, Colorado made national headlines when twelve university students were arbitrarily arrested for "public indecency." The ritual involved local residents (usually college-aged) running naked with carved-out pumpkins over their heads as a way of blowing off steam around Halloween.

Silly and juvenile?  Sure – but relatively harmless, especially since it was done at night when young children were likely to be indoors or asleep (not that the nude human body, by itself, is something of which we should be teaching children to feel ashamed).

However, then-"Pumpkin Runner" Eric Rasmussen expressed, after his arrest, how he could understand the consequences for this mass prank resulting in community service or a monetary fine to the city.  But certainly not being forced to register as a sex offender.

Yet, more than 150 people participated in the "Pumpkin Run" that year...and only a dozen of them were randomly selected by local police for arrest.  Again, an inconsistent process where nonviolent citizens are "made an example out of"...in order to promote puritan "values."

In 2009, Boulder police chief Mark Beckner openly announced his intention to shut down future "Pumpkin Runs" indefinitely, even though the activity had been ignored by local authorities for the better part of a decade. He lambasted this event as a "free-for-all" that was getting out-of-hand.  

While some people would argue that Beckner was merely "doing his job," he clearly wasn't – since the tradition was nothing new, and police hadn't made "indecent exposure" arrests during the "Pumpkin Run's" previous ten year history. Even then-Mayor Matt Applebaum, who still vowed to support Beckner and Boulder's police department, admitted, "I'm a little old for it, but it could be pretty cool to be running around with a pumpkin on your head and not much else."

And Boulder has also hosted an annual Naked Bike Ride to promote energy independence.  So nudity in town, for select occasions, already had a precedent.

But the intent of sex offender laws is to stop those who engage in either sexual assault, the propositioning of minors, or full-fledged child molestation.  Colorado state law deems it to be a Class 1 misdemeanor for citizens to expose their genitals with perverse intent or under circumstances "likely to cause affront or alarm."

Yet, any intelligent person can see the difference, in terms of both intent and effect, between someone who sexually preys upon an innocent child versus someone who's blowing off steam by running around naked after dark.

Beckner was caving into the "complaints" of Boulder-area prudes by placing sex offender charges on the table against "Pumpkin Runners," rather than simply recommending community service or a monetary fine.  By fostering an environment where the punishment clearly doesn't fit the "crime," Beckner proved himself to be emblematic of precisely what is wrong with American society and our priorities as a culture.

Much like the University of Michigan's now-extinct "Naked Mile" (where arrested participants were also forced to register as sex offenders, under Michigan state law), the "Pumpkin Run" has basically faded from existence.  By abusing the sex offender registry – forcing nonviolent and non-predatory offenders to be included in it, when that clearly was never the intent of the registry – these fearless community "protectors" are trivializing those crimes perpetrated against victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault.

Campbell, Till, Beckner, and their ilk will claim they are simply following the letter of the law, and that their actions are supposedly being done to "protect" schools and neighborhoods. They feel that "bringing down the hammer" in this manner will ultimately dissuade others from engaging in raunchy pranks, and prevent their respective jurisdictions from gaining shameful reputations.  I'm sure they've convinced themselves that they are also preventing copious acts of assault, vandalism, and child abuse in the process.

What they are doing is actually resulting in the opposite – misplacing their wrath toward fun-loving pranksters, rather than directing it at actual rapists and pedophiles who continue to lurk unfettered in the shadows.

At the end of the day, I believe their underlying goal is to preserve systems of patronage and maintain bureaucratic privilege.  By keeping "us reckless whippersnappers" in our place, they hope to cultivate a Victorian-style "Nanny State" where people become subdued and sexually-repressed.

There's no doubt in my mind that such a "Nanny State" would foster an environment where federal, state, and local governments "encourage" (both officially and informally) the promotion of theocratic, overly-judgmental, culturally-conservative "values."

Anyone who doesn't want to endure (which, I truly believe, would be a majority of Americans) such a restrictive culture should speak out against bullies such as Campbell and Breckner – calling them out and "shaming" them for their mismanagement of discipline or law enforcement.

Maybe if they received a taste of their own medicine, they (and other like-minded authority figures who seek to maintain similar privilege statuses for themselves) would learn to get their priorities straight...rather than grandstanding as a method of pandering to a myriad of Culture Warriors.

[sandiegopsychicreaders]

Can You Be a Christian and a Psychic?

Yesterday was Easter and it is the greatest holiday in the Christian religion.  It celebrates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  So this bring me to a very common question.  Can you be a Christian and a psychic?  Personally, I am a Christian and I believe there are many other Christians out there with spiritual gifts.

I believe there are several people out there who look to God and have the right heart while giving a psychic reading.  They use their gifts to help others.  Of course there are always two sides of the coin.  There are those who practice witchcraft and use the occult to get their answers as well.  I highly suggest you avoid these people since demons will be giving them the answers.

A Great Debate

There is a raging debate over whether Christians can be — or should seek out — psychics. From whether reading horoscope is a sin to if psychic readings are demonic, there is a range of opinion on the topic. To begin, one would have to look at the biblical scriptures that has many Christians vehemently opposed to the practice of seeking psychics, numerology, tarot cards, palmistry, etc. There are a number of them that seem to point people away from consulting psychics, especially those who communicate with the dead. A few of the more popular ones are listed below.

But there are some people who believe that things discussed in the Bible back then, specifically in the Old Testament, do not apply to the society of today. For that reason, those people are more likely to support Christians seeking out other Christian psychics as long as the motives behind the help are pure and not about curses or black magic.

The Argument Against Psychics

Some of the scriptures explicitly state that sorcery, witchcraft and the other things that considered elements of the occult are off limits.

Old Testament Scriptures

“Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.” (NIV) Leviticus 19:31 “Men and women among you who act as mediums or psychics must be put to death by stoning. They are guilty of a capital offense.” (NLT) — Leviticus 20:27

“Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD, and because of these detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the LORD your God.” (NIV) — Deuteronomy 18:10-13

  New Testament Scriptures

“When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?” (NIV) — Isaiah 8:19

For many Christians, the Scriptures are clear on where the Bible stands regarding mediums, spiritual advisers and the like. The basis for this argument is that the Lord God said He is, in fact, the way for truth and light rather than seeking such information from a person, from a mortal individual. Other scriptures warn not to worship and revel in the lifting up of false idols or prophets, which is what other people may consider psychics, mediums, etc. to be.

But, as always, there are two sides for every debate.

  Prophets vs. Physics?

Some people argue that a psychic is nothing more than a prophet. After all, many prophets in the Bible were called forth with visions of God’s bidding. Jesus Christ himself performed miracles, they say, which some might call magic. But the difference is that those prophets freely admitted they used the power of God to bring forth the discernment.

Still there are even some Christians who are psychic who say their power does come from God as well. One woman wrote that her psychic experiences were a gift and she believed that using them brought her closer to God. They consider the talents to be miracles and they use them to help other people. Others believe that visiting psychics isn’t demonic at all because what causes something to be demonic is the way that the talents are used.

When it comes to whether Christians should seek out astrology, horoscopes or psychics, some people believe that because Christians are not using such columns to predict major events, the practice is harmless. Those same people also believe that as long as a person isn’t seeking dark magic intended to hurt someone, he or she is OK.

Christian Psychic: The bottom line

As with any debate, there are two sides to every story. There is a school of thought that believes psychics should not be sought out by Christians; however, there is another side that says being able to discern people’s emotions and help them sort out their problems is in fact a gift from God. Taking advantage of those gifts, for many Christians, is not averse to religious and spiritual beliefs.

Christians who are curious about seeking a relationship with a Christian psychic or continuing a current relationship with a Christian psychic should consult a spiritual leader is they have questions specific to their situation. Some Christians have a relationship with a psychic or regularly read their horoscopes for fun and they not feel badly about it. Ultimately, a person has to make his or her own decision regarding the best way to express their faith.

  Our Local San Diego Christian Church Recommendation.

If you are in the San Diego, CA area and looking for a great church home we recommend either Newbreak Christian Church in Ocean Beach or The Rock in Point Loma.  Both churches have a very strong community of believers and have a fantastic outreach program that supports the local community.

  The post Can You Be a Christian and a Psychic? appeared first on San Diego Psychic Readers - (888) 572-6999.

source http://psychicssandiego.com/christian-psychic/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christian-psychic

[killingthebuddha]

The State of Alabama recently executed a Muslim man after denying him the right to have the religious counselor of his choice, an imam, present at his death.

Alabama routinely allows a Christian chaplain to attend death row inmates at the moment of their executions. But in Domineque Ray’s case, his request to have an imam by his side as he died was rejected at the state level and then rejected again in a terse 5–4 decision by the Supreme Court (Dunn v. Ray). In the words of Justice Elena Kagan’s fiercely worded dissent, “to justify such religious discrimination, the State must show that its policy is narrowly tailored to a compelling interest. I have no doubt that prison security is an interest of that kind. But the State has offered no evidence to show that its wholesale prohibition on outside spiritual advisers is necessary to achieve that goal.”

Kagan’s exasperation is understandable because the case is preposterous. Ray did not contest his sentence. He merely asked for the bare minimum of time for his chosen spiritual advisor to receive the training necessary to formally attend at his death.

In the wake of Ray’s hasty execution, religious freedom advocates have followed Kagan in arguing that the decision amounts to the establishment of Christianity as a state religion. I agree with the critics. But the Court’s ruling does not just inscribe Christian majoritarianism into law. It also continues a longstanding practice of rendering America’s religious minorities invisible to the law. The anniversary of an earlier Supreme Court case involving Japanese American Buddhists aptly demonstrates this point.    

On February 21, 1927, the Supreme Court affirmed Japanese Americans’ right to educate their children in extracurricular Japanese language schools (Farrington v. Tokushige), in addition to the children’s attendance at the (English-speaking) locally operated public schools. Compared to the infamous 1944 Korematsu v. United States decision that found the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans constitutional, the relatively obscure February 1927 decision seems like a feel-good legal win for a wrongly vilified and widely misunderstood ethnic minority. But behind this apparent victory lies a complicated story regarding American religious freedom, Buddhism, and debates over immigration that sound eerily similar to contemporary controversies about travel bans, border walls, and executive orders.

Here is that background.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a huge number of Japanese laborers emigrated to Hawai`i. Japanese workers staffed the lucrative sugar industry there, earning paltry wages that allowed white sugar plantation owners to pocket enormous profits. Although a 1907 “Gentlemen’s Agreement” between the United States and Japan had curbed Japanese immigration as a way of assuaging white Americans’ fears about rapid demographic change, the practice of recruiting Japanese “picture brides” for male Japanese laborers contributed to a quickly swelling Hawai`i-born Japanese population. Since the American empire had officially incorporated the Territory of Hawai`i in 1900, birthright citizenship law guaranteed these second-generation Japanese (nisei) not only the right to vote, but also the right to own property.

When a flood of patriotic sentiment known as “Americanism” swept the United States during WWI, white landowners began claiming that nisei posed a dire threat to the delicate caste system of racial and religious difference that undergirded Hawai`i’s plantation economy. Equating Japanese “mikadoism” (emperor worship) with Buddhism and Buddhism with Japaneseness, these white elites argued that ideologically unassimilable nisei threatened whites’ fragile hold on Hawai`i’s valuable real estate. Because Hawai`i’s future prosperity demanded that Japanese Americans stay in their “proper” place as docile workers, they argued, Buddhism had to go.   

These fears about labor, religion, and American values erupted in local debates about education. In January 1919, College of Hawai`i Professor of Biology Vaughan MacCaughey argued that Buddhist-run Japanese language schools interfered with the crucial project of cultural assimilation: “The variety of Buddhism dominant in Hawai`i is medieval, ultra-superstitious and intensely Japanese. Mikado-worship and veneration of antique superstitions are prominent features of the system. Its inimical effects on the efforts of the public schools toward genuine Americanization are obvious, even upon cursory examination,” MacCaughey wrote in the education journal School and Society. “The ideals and political life of the United States depend ultimately and absolutely upon the Christian American home,” he continued. “True Americanization can not bloom in a Buddhist Oriental household. Hawai`i can not be American until she truly Christianizes her population, and makes dominant the Christian home.”

Little in MacCaughey’s published research suggests that he was an educational expert, although his ideas were generally consistent with the contemporaneous assimilation tactics of mainland Native American boarding schools that aimed to “kill the Indian … and save the man.” Despite his lack of expertise, Governor Charles J. McCarthy appointed MacCaughey as Superintendent of the Territorial Department of Instruction shortly after the School and Society piece appeared. MacCaughey immediately invited a team of experts from the Department of the Interior to survey the islands’ school system, with the objective of developing a rationale for eliminating the Buddhist-run language schools once and for all. Though the report’s torturous diction was infelicitous, MacCaughey must have been particularly happy with one line: “Although the commission recognizes the inherent right of every person in the United States to adopt any form of religious worship which he desires,” the authors intoned, “nevertheless it holds that the principle of religious freedom to which our country is unswervingly committed does not demand that practices and activities must be tolerated in the name of religion which make the task of training for the duties and responsibilities of American citizenship a well-nigh hopeless one. The commission, therefore, … [recommends] that all foreign-language schools be abolished.”  

Eliminating the schools outright was politically impractical in a territory where Japanese people held a degree of social clout even if they did not hold the reins of political power. The white-dominated territorial legislature got around this issue by establishing onerous restrictions on the schools that technically allowed them to exist but made it virtually impossible for them to operate. Teachers now had to pass an ideological purity test, parents had to pay an exorbitant annual tuition fee, and pupils were not allowed to register until they had received a minimum amount of “proper” patriotic education in Hawai`i’s English-language public schools.  

Even as these legislative changes made it difficult for schools to operate, Hawai`i’s white elites stirred up fears that Japanese language schools served as training camps for little insurgents who threatened not only Hawai`i, but mainland America as well. In November 1921, for example, former Governor McCarthy complained in the Los Angeles Times that Japanese people would soon supplant whites as the dominant landowners on the archipelago: “A Japanese boy born in Hawai`i and therefore an American citizen is … taught by his parents and also in the Japanese foreign language schools that his first duty is not to America but to Japan. This allegiance is doubly strong in that it is interwoven with and fostered by the national religion [that is, Buddhism] of which the Mikado in his heaven-born descent is the head.” A graphic included with McCarthy’s article depicted the archipelago’s shifting demographics by showing a Japanese laborer towering over other ethnicities, while a simple map of the Pacific showed how Hawai`i might serve as a forward base for a Japanese invasion of the American mainland.

The image comes from the November 6, 1921 issue of the Los Angeles Times.

To challenge the anti-Japanese offensive, prominent Honolulu-based Buddhist priest Imamura Yemyō wrote deftly argued tracts in both English and Japanese stressing that the American promise of religious freedom extended to Japanese Americans and guaranteed their right to maintain the language schools. In his 1921 Japanese-language tract On the American Spirit (Beikoku no seishin o ronzu), for example, Imamura acknowledged that the Constitution granted others the right to freely critique Buddhism, but he exhorted his readers to mobilize the American principle of religious freedom in fierce defense of their faith.

His readers listened. Led by Honolulu-based newspaperman Fred Kinzaburō Makino, with white attorney Joseph Lightfoot’s fees partially funded by Imamura’s own Buddhist sect, Japanese American parents of language school students filed a case against Governor Wallace R. Farrington in December 1922. The plaintiffs, led by one T. Tokushige, easily won their case at the Territorial Supreme Court and then again at the Ninth Circuit and federal Supreme Court. But the territorial and circuit courts bypassed the issue of religion entirely, focusing instead on the government’s “compelling interest” to maintain order on the islands. The Ninth Circuit court, for example, explicitly addressed the question of whether the territory’s “police power” (that is, the power to suppress potential insurrection) superseded citizens’ constitutional rights. It did not mention religion at all.     

When Japanese Americans finally won their case at the Supreme Court on February 21, 1927, they did so without the help of religious freedom. The court upheld Japanese Americans’ right to run language schools as they wished. But, in keeping with the decisions by the Territorial and Ninth Circuit courts, the Supreme Court ignored the religious animus that drove territorial education policy, reaffirming Japanese Americans’ place as second-class citizens who did not actually deserve religious freedom. Buddhists are generally not maligned today the way they were in the 1910s and 1920s, but it is easy to see similarities between this earlier case and our present moment. The Supreme Court’s tersely worded order this month refusing to temporarily stay Domineque Ray’s execution made no explicit reference to his religion. But the American ideals of religious freedom and disestablishment were clearly at stake. Although the historical circumstances of Dunn v. Ray and Farrington v. Tokushige are quite different, it is clear that the court’s silences and omissions concerning religion continue to relegate some American minorities to the hinterlands beyond the land of the free.

*

This essay is based on chapter three of the author’s Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan (University of Chicago Press, forthcoming April 2019).

[republicstandard]

Racial Profiles: Alt Skull Interview

In this edition of the Racial Profiles interview series, we had a chance to catch up with the infinitely re-spawning bane of the Twitter censors’ existence, Alt-Skull. You can follow him @whitepupper.

In ten words or less, describe your political persuasion.

I’m a White Nationalist.

How did you become “red-pilled”?

I have always held overtly right-wing beliefs, but there were many gaps in my knowledge which prevented me from recognizing some vital truths that I only discovered later in my political evolution. The first vote I ever cast was for Ross Perot. I was basically the only right winger at the liberal arts college I attended, but this was back in a time when Liberals and Conservatives could still be friends with one another. I was just viewed as having weird beliefs. I don’t imagine this sort of relationship is possible any longer in the current political climate. I’d always been racially aware, and understood there were real differences in our various peoples, but it was actually Gavin McInnes whom I have to thank for finally unlocking the secrets that the Jewish media machine is so successful in hiding from view. Though now I view him as a traitorous enemy to our people, there was a time when he was actually one of us.

My brother started sending me clips of Gavin talking openly about race in the most outrageous manner. Calling blacks nig-nogs and gays faggots, basically talking the way white men talk amongst one another privately and think inwardly, but we have been too cowed by the machine to suppress our natural instincts to call things what they really are. Around this time, Gavin started his show, The Gavin McInnes Show, on Anthony Cumia’s network. It was from this show that I was introduced to Alt-Right gateway figures such as Jared Taylor, John Derbyshire, Colin Flaherty, and also Sam Hyde and Richard Spencer. It was through the interviews on Gavin’s show that I was introduced to the concept of Race Realism and its fundamental premise of racial differences in IQ, time preference, and inclination toward criminality and violence. There was a moment I can distinctly remember, in an interview with Jared Taylor, that everything just clicked, and I realized the monumental amount of lies I’d been taught my entire life about “equality” and “fairness.”

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Later, after the creation of the Proud Boys and the establishment of its main Facebook page, erstwhile Alt Right figurehead and friend, Eli Mosley, answered my questions regarding the JQ. Up to that point, I’d always bought into all of the tropes we’re lied to about regarding our “greatest ally, the only democracy in the Middle East.” Led by the lies of Neo-Conservative Jews at the National Review among other such publications, I’d enthusiastically supported all of the disastrous wars in that region and thought Jews genuinely had our best interests in mind (little did I know how very much I had to learn). I enthusiastically accepted all of the other premises of the Alt-Right. I just couldn’t understand why all of these guys on the Alt-Right (who were all Proud Boys, keep this in mind) seemed to hate Jews so very much. I asked the question publicly, genuinely curious, and Eli took a lot of time out to kindly and patiently explain the JQ to me. In addition, he pointed me to Dr. Kevin MacDonald’s Culture of Critique. I was told just to read the introduction to start. Well, by the time I got through the story of Charles Lindbergh and how these Jews utterly destroyed his life for daring to oppose our entry into WWII, the final piece of the puzzle snapped into place. I was officially Alt-Right. Everything I’ve learned since then, and it has been a LOT, has only further affirmed and strengthened my belief that the Alt-Right is the ONLY political movement based upon the truth. And the good news is, we’re not going away. Indeed, we grow stronger every single day.

What figure has been the greatest influence on the development of your political beliefs?

It’s not a popular opinion in “polite society,” but I must say I’ve been most influenced by Adolf Hitler. If you’re not yet a member of the Alt-Right, you’ll probably be shocked and perhaps even horrified by that revelation, but you must understand that our educational system, our media apparatus, most major global corporations and the vast majority of our government has been overtaken by hyper-rich Jewish people with an unfathomable grudge against Hitler and his National Socialists; and they possess money and means to fabricate an alternate reality. The truth is that Hitler literally saved Western Europe from immediately falling to Soviet enslavement by Stalin’s army, which was the strongest in the entire world at that time and was amassed in offensive preparation along the European border. Stalin’s plan was to launch a massive offensive into Europe and Hitler’s preemptive attack was the only thing that could have stopped it. He forced Stalin to change his entire military and production infrastructure from offensive to defensive, giving Europe a chance to remain free. Unfortunately, instead of siding with him as they should have, most of Western Europe chose to side with true evil. Hitler’s love for his people, his pro-German volk policies, and his radical economic ideas changed Germany from one of the most destitute countries in the entire world to a world superpower in just ten years. Really think about how amazing that is. He used to tour the country unprotected in an open-topped Mercedes Benz and was loved by quite literally every German. Once you begin to learn the truth that has been hidden from you, you understand that everything you were ever taught about the history of your people was a bald-faced lie. It can make a man pretty angry to find this out. If anyone is interested in learning more about what truly happened in WWII I would highly recommend the book Germany’s War, by John Wear (Twitter acct @WearsWar) along with the works of David Irving.

Who or what are some others influences on you personally and/or politically?

I’m a Catholic who is very disappointed at the direction the Church has taken since Vatican II, and particularly since this installation of the current usurper Pope. I’m a HUGE fan of Eric Striker, Mike Enoch, Jazzhands McFeels, Marcus Halberstram, Sven, Alex and Jayoh, Ethnarch, and my buddies Spectre and Lauritz von Guildhausen. The entire lineup at therightstuff.biz is filled from top to bottom with tremendous people. And a message to any of you who listen to the podcasts but still don’t paycuck: You are missing premium content and I feel sorry for you.

Although I’ve always been political, I never really wanted to spend all my time doing this. I’m a fiction writer and to be honest I’ll be happy when we win this thing so I can spend more of my time on that. My literary heroes are Shakespeare, Melville, Faulkner, and McCarthy.

You are one of the original members of the Proud Boys. What premises were the Proud Boys originally founded on?

Although the Proud Boys did not call themselves specifically Alt Right, all of the original tenets of the group’s political identity were Alt Right, except perhaps regarding the JQ. When the group started, Race Realism was openly discussed and accepted. All of the original members were acutely aware of the problem of multiculturalism. To this clean living, a rejection of degeneracy, a rule forbidding masturbation and pornography, the veneration of the housewife and the elevation of the traditional family as an ideal. All of these were foundational principles and you can see how they overlap with those of the Alt-Right.

The Facebook page, over which Gavin had final say, was created as an explicitly free speech environment. Literally anything was allowed. The original group was teaming with guys who were either overtly Alt Right or guys like me, at the time, who’d just discovered the Alt-Right and felt like they’d found the father they’d been searching for their entire lives. The problem is that, because Gavin was a C-list celebrity, his creation of the group also attracted a lot of guys who were more interested in being a part of the cult of personality than they were interested in adhering to the actual moral tenets that originally defined the group. So when Gavin finally changed the direction of the group, there was a huge faction of these NPC types that just blindly agreed with anything he said, no matter how stupid or destructive.

How has that organization changed since its inception?

Well at some point, what happened was Gavin decided to vie for a cushy, high status, high pay job working at Fox News. He knew that in order to secure this position, he would have to clean up his image. That meant getting rid of all of the “racists” and “Nazis” in the group. There were a number of incidents in which his pronouncements and purges resulted in fairly extreme pushback from our guys. As you can imagine, Alt Right guys are NOT beholden to any leader who fails to adhere to our ideological standards. Gavin is a narcissist, so I think he just figured he could tell all of us what to do and we’d roll over and show our bellies. This is definitely not what happened, and it caused him much grief and irritation that he was unable to just decree what the Proud Boys would be about from one day to the next. One of his decrees, always couched in the weasel words of having been decided upon by “The Elders,” (there were no Elders, only his ego and ambition) is that there would no longer be any talk of Race Realism in any form whatsoever. After that he came after any criticism of Jewish power; unsurprising, being that he was working for Rebel Media at that time and his boss was the scheming Jew Ezra Levant. Each of these pronouncements was met with schismatic pushback from our side. I was kicked from the group twice by Gavin personally for voicing my vocal opposition at his taking what he’d promised us was a pro-White, pro-free speech, pro-truth group in the direction of GloboHomo “Conservatism,” in which homosexuals, transsexuals and based black guys in MAGA hats were elevated as the most important members of the Proud Boys and White men were no longer allowed to advocate for their own people.

There are still a ton of great guys in the Proud Boys. I’m still friends with many, many guys and I hold absolutely nothing against them. Indeed, many of them believe the same things we do and know all about everything the Alt-Right stands for, but because of the current political climate, are afraid to come out as explicitly in White solidarity as the Alt-Right does. That’s fine. I understand that. These are tough times and these guys are on our side and I will never abandon them. That said, not all of them are this based. Gavin invited a massive influx of NPC GloboHomo automatons in with his selfish actions, and these are the cringe fringe elements of the Proud Boys with which you may be familiar. The ones more concerned about fighting imaginary “Nazis” while us Nazis are the only ones standing between them and total Third World invasion of brown hordes who will gleefully set them and their families on fire after raping their wives and children. The Proud Boys could have been a real force to stand in solidarity with the Alt-Right and fight evil together effectively. The funniest thing about it is that it did not matter in the end. All of their cucking and signaling against so-called racism and Nazism only bought them about a year. Now they are in the exact same boat as us. With the recent arrest of these Proud Boys for defending themselves against some rich Antifa trust fund kids, expect RICO charges to come down on the group, possibly Gavin himself (there is an enormous amount of footage of him calling for actual gang violence) and expect Gavin to cave and either disavow or disband the group that paid him so much of their loyalty and, if nothing else, was willing to go out into the streets and fight for us.

How has Gavin changed, or do you believe he was always hiding this aspect of himself?

This is the thing that frustrates me the most about him. He had so much potential. HE KNOWS all of the things we know. He was our guy. He was not only woke to Race Realism and the Jewish Question, but he also had the rare ability to speak off the cuff about it in a hugely entertaining matter. He is the very reason I ended up where I did. He could have done so much more. And do you want to know what the funniest thing about all of this is? That cushy Fox News spot he wanted? They gave it to some 56% mongrel Affirmative Action hire former professional wrestler. Oh, the irony.

For those living under a rock, a “migrant caravan” of thousands of mestizos is headed toward the US border from Honduras through Guatemala and Mexico. These caravans don’t just magically appear—who is behind them?

Jewish NGOs most likely working with Mexican and Central American drug cartels. There is nothing organic about these caravans nor could there possibly be. It’s not possible for thousands of people to move across a 2000 mile stretch of land without significant supply trains providing food, water, medical services, and, in this case, transportation. They’re not walking or they would not arrive for many months. Those pictures you see are staged. These people are being transported here in trucks provided by these NGOs and cartels and they’re going to arrive, how conveniently, just in time for the mid-terms. My guess is that the ultimate goal is to force President Trump’s hand to the point that he must actually militarize the border and then, when he does, push things to further necessitate the use of deadly force to stop these “poor, defenseless people” and when that happens, use it to incite domestic and international outrage as if WE are the evil ones and not this invading army. We’ll see.

Can you explain to our readers who might not be familiar with or accepting of it what exactly the “Jewish Question” is and why they must understand it?

In short: Jews never feel comfortable in cohesive, racially homogeneous nations and are genetically compelled to constantly undermine, subvert and degenerate those societies. It's an ugly cycle because the more they do it, the more they are noticed doing so, and the higher the risk becomes of the very thing they so neurotically fear actually coming to pass. Eventually, it always does. This is the reason the worst thing you can call a Jew is Jew. This is why they've been expelled from over 1000 locations through history. Once you start looking into it, it really is hard to believe. The genetic aspect is a chicken and egg question. Do they exhibit extreme in-group preference and extreme negative out-group bias because they’ve been expelled from so many locations, or have they been expelled so many times because of their genetic inclination to parasitically prey upon their host nation? My guess is it’s the latter, but the reader will have to decide for himself. Again, I highly recommend Dr. Kevin MacDonald’s excellent book Culture of Critique for those interested in the historical and genetic proclivities of the Jews.

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Are you saying being expelled from over one thousand locations throughout history makes you a poor houseguest?

Well, let me just say this: If someone had been kicked out of the last 1030 apartments he’d rented, would you rent him a room?

Explain why -to your mind- the Alt-Right is the only logical home for any self-respecting white person.

The truth is, people cleave along racial lines. You may know a really nice, smart black person, but the majority of American blacks, particularly males, possess an IQ of around 85 and demonstrate an extremely elevated tendency toward violent criminal behavior. Study after study has demonstrated that multiculturalism brings with it the erosion of social trust and happiness, an increase in crime, and decreased social cohesion. Whites simply are not welcome in non-White communities, and we are constantly attempting to flee to areas that are more White, only to have governments (often at the behest of Jewish interest groups) force more non-Whites into areas deemed “too White,” via programs like bussing, Section 8 housing, Affirmative Action, the list goes on and on. The truth is, it’s only a matter of time before we will have no place left to flee to. When Whites become a hated minority in the countries their ancestors founded, countries which rightfully belong to us, they will suffer the same fate as the unfortunate White South Africans. Theft of their land, violence, genocide, and finally extinction. The Alt Right is the ONLY political group that exists explicitly to fight for the rights of Whites to retain their birthright and end forced forfeiture of our property, land, sons, and daughters to endless waves of non-Whites who demand infinite access to our wealth. It’s no accident that ONLY White nations are told they MUST open their doors to an unending stream of these needy people who contribute nothing to our nations, drain our welfare coffers, commit crime at an astronomically higher rate than do the native citizens, and finally just have no business being here for any other reason than that Jews decided this because it serves their interests.

How do you see this ending? Are we doomed or do we eventually win? If so, what does winning look like?

So much has changed in the last decade. If ten years ago I was told that transsexuals in demon costumes would be celebrated for reading homosexual propaganda to preschoolers in government-funded institutions, I honestly would have dismissed it as insane. I never would have believed there would be a “debate” over if a grown man who calls himself a woman could use the same public bathroom as an adolescent girl. Or that there would be streams of non-Whites the size of Roman legions flowing unopposed into our formerly sovereign nations. Or that the streets of Paris would begin to resemble those of Bangladesh. That the statues of the great White men who created the greatest civilization that has ever existed in the history of mankind would be torn down under the sigil of social justice for the made-up crime of “racism.” I never expected to begin to feel like an alien outsider surrounded by hostiles in the neighborhood I grew up safe and secure in.

The good news is, I’m not the only one feeling these emotions or thinking these thoughts. The White man is waking up, and the Alt-Right is here to offer him an alternative to the degenerate path to our own extinction that was the only road we were given for so many decades. Time is speeding up. We’ve witnessed massive changes in the past few years that none of us ever believed were possible. But all of those changes, all of this accelerationism virtually assures that enough White people are going to realize with alarm exactly what is happening to us, and why. And when they do, and I don’t think it will be long, you are going to witness a revolution on a scale heretofore unimaginable, that is going to drive all of the subversive, corrosive, evil elements from our nations in a more spectacular fashion than has ever been witnessed on the stage of written history. It will be a truly righteous correction. And from it will be born the revitalization of a healthy, creative, productive, thriving, happy White society. The White society that we always deserved. And the Alt-Right is going to lead that revolution.

Hail victory!

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Weekly Legislative Roundup 4/6/18

Welcome to the latest edition of NORML’s Weekly Legislative Roundup!

I first want to bring your attention to some key developments happening at the state level. Proponents of a 2018 medical cannabis ballot measure in Utah achieved a signature milestone last week, a representative from the Lt. Governor’s Office said that officials have already validated 117,000 signatures from registered voters — more than than the 113,000 necessary to qualify for the state ballot.

Also at the state level, The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs announced plans to solicit public comment on how marijuana is classified under state law and whether any change in its classification status is warranted. The Division will solicit comments during a series of public events, known as “informal conferences,” in Newark and Trenton later this month. The Division also will accept written submissions.

At a more local level, the Albuquerque, New Mexico City Council approved a proposal to decriminalize marijuana, Portland, Oregon is using $300,000 in marijuana tax revenue to fund a public education program about safe driving, and voters in Naturita and Berthoud, Colorado approved ballot measures allowing marijuana businesses to operate.

Following are the bills from around the country that we’ve tracked this week and as always, check http://norml.org/act for legislation pending in your state.

Don’t forget to sign up for our email list and we will keep you posted as these bills and more move through your home state legislature and at the federal level.

Your highness, Carly

Priority Alerts

Federal

End Prohibition: Representatives Tom Garrett (R-VA) and Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) have introduced bipartisan legislation, HR 1227, to exclude marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, thus leaving states the authority to regulate the plant how best they see fit.

The “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2017” eliminates federal criminal penalties for possessing and growing the plant. This legislation gives states the power and flexibility to establish their own marijuana policies free from federal interference.

Click here to e-mail your Representative and urge them to support this important legislation

Missouri

House Bill 1488 seeks to establish provisions regarding the legalization of marijuana as well as establish certain licensing requirements.

Update: HB 1488 will be heard by the House General Law Committee on 4/10 at 5 PM or upon adjournment (whichever is later) in House Hearing Room 5.

MO resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of legalization

New Hampshire

Senate Bill 388 is pending, to expand the state’s medical cannabis program. It already passed the full Senate last month.

The bill would authorize the Department of Health and Human Services to establish a second dispensary location in the geographic area that includes Carroll, Coos, and Grafton counties for therapeutic cannabis.

Update: The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee will hold a public hearing on SB 388 on 4/11 at 11am in LOB room 206.

NH resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of medical expansion

Tennessee

SB 1710 and HB 1749 would permit qualified patients to possess marijuana-infused oil products, as well as other non-herbal forms of cannabis, from state-licensed dispensaries. Both patients and physicians would be required to participate in a state registry.

Update: Senator Steve Dickerson, sponsor of SB 1710, killed the bill for this year due to the lack of support from the legislature, but HB 1749 is still scheduled to be heard by the House Health Committee on 4/10.

TN resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of medical marijuana extracts

California

Expungement Assembly Bill 1793 is pending, “to allow automatic expungement or reduction of a prior cannabis conviction for an act that is not a crime as of January 1, 2017, or for a crime that as of that date subject to a lesser sentence.

Update: The Assembly’s Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on AB 1793 on 4/17 at 9am.

CA resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of expunging past convictions

Employment Protections AB 2069, to strengthen employment rights for medical cannabis patients. The bill would explicitly bar employers from discriminating against workers solely because of their status as a medical cannabis patient, or due to testing positive for medical marijuana use on a workplace drug test.

Update: The Assembly’s Labor And Employment Committee will hold a hearing on AB 2069 on 4/18 at 1:30pm.

CA resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of employment protections for patients

Alaska

Senate Bill 184 prohibits the release of past records for any marijuana offense that is no longer defined as a crime under state law. The bill’s intent is to reduce barriers to employment for people who have been convicted of low-level marijuana possession crimes that would be legal under today’s laws, and to make it more likely that people convicted of only low-level crimes will become contributing members of society.

Update: SB 184 was approved by the Judiciary Committee and referred to the Finance Committee on 3/29.

AK resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of sealing past convictions

  Other Actions to Take

Hawaii

House Bill 2729 seeks to allow for out-of-state medical marijuana cardholders to access medical cannabis while visiting Hawaii. Other provisions in the bill prohibit employers from either discriminating against or taking punitive actions against employees solely based on their medical cannabis use or patient status. The bill already passed the full House last month.

Update: The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved HB 2729 with amendments on 4/6, and will now go before the full Senate.

HI resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of reciprocity

Oklahoma

Legislation is pending, HB 3468, to create the Oklahoma Cannabis Commission, contingent upon the results of State Question 788, the statewide ballot measure that would provide patients with regulated access to medical cannabis. NORML endorses State Question 788.

Should the voters decide in favor of SQ 788, the Oklahoma Cannabis Commission would serve to address any issues related to the medical marijuana program in Oklahoma and ensure the swift implementation of the provisions outlined in SQ 788.

OK resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of the Oklahoma Cannabis Commission

Georgia

House Bill 65 seeks to expand Georgia’s limited medical cannabidiol (CBD) law.

The measure would expand the pool of patients eligible to receive an authorization for CBD therapy to include those with post traumatic stress disorder and intractable pain. The bill also creates a study commission to review and make policy recommendations with regard to whether the state should provide in-state production and distribution of CBD products. Lawmakers failed to take action this session on separate legislation which sought to establish rules regulating CBD production and dispensing.

Update: HB 65 was approved by the House and Senate, and now awaits action from Gov. Nathan Deal.

GA resident? Click here to email Governor Deal in support of medical CBD expansion

Kansas

Legislation is pending, SB 282, to allow for the possession and retail sale of cannabidiol (CBD) products containing zero percent THC. Under this proposed legislation, Kansas citizens would not need to be a part of a patient registry or be diagnosed with a certain qualifying condition in order to legally possess or purchase CBD products. The bill was already passed unanimously by the Senate earlier this year, and the full House last week, with amendments.

Update: The Senate did not agree with the House’s proposed changes, so a conference committee of three members from each house were appointed to work out a version of the bill that will be satisfactory to both houses. The report from the Conference Committee is now available, and will require approval from both chambers.

KS resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of CBD sales

California

Senate Bill 930 seeks to assist financial institutions safely conduct transactions with licensed cannabis businesses.

SB 930 would allow financial institutions to work with licensed cannabis businesses to issue certified checks and conduct payroll for certified California employees, pay their state and local taxes and fees while lessening the burden on local government to collect and manage large sums of cash, pay their rent, and invest in California’s economy

Update: SB 930 will be heard by the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on 4/18 at 1:30pm in Room 112.

CA resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of banking access

Maryland

House Bill 698 seeks to expand the state’s nascent industrial hemp pilot program. The bill would “authorize and facilitate the research of industrial hemp and any aspect of growing, cultivating, harvesting, processing, manufacturing, transporting, marketing, or selling industrial hemp for agricultural, industrial, or commercial purposes.” It already passed the full House last month.

Update: HB 698 was unanimously approved by the Senate on 4/4, and will now go to Governor Larry Hogan for his signature or veto.

MD resident? Click here to email Governor Hogan in support of an industrial hemp pilot program

Missouri

Senate Bill 547 and House Bill 2034 seek to modify provisions relating to industrial hemp.

If passed, the bills would allow the Department of Agriculture to issue a registration or permit to growers and handlers of agricultural and industrial hemp. It would also create an industrial hemp agricultural pilot program to be implemented by the Department of Agriculture to study the growth, cultivation, and marketing of industrial hemp. Both bills have already passed their respective chambers.

Update: A hearing is scheduled for SB 547 in the House Agriculture Policy Committee on 4/10 at 12PM or upon conclusion of morning session-whichever is later in HR 1. HB 2034 is still pending in committee in the Senate.

MO resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of industrial hemp modifications

Iowa

Senate File 2398 seeks to establish The Iowa Industrial Hemp Act. The bill would allow the Department of Agriculture to establish a research pilot program that engages in the licensed cultivation, production, and marketing of industrial hemp.

Update: SF 2398 was unanimously approved by the Senate on 4/4, and now awaits action in the House.

IA resident? Click here to email your elected officials in support of industrial hemp research

That’s all for this week, check back next Friday for more legislative updates!

Source: http://blog.norml.org/2018/04/06/weekly-legislative-roundup-4-6-18/

Weekly Legislative Roundup 4/6/18 is republished from The Giggles N Dimples Blog

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