#in the other one the mansons could be like. organized crime or something

[dannyphantomiscool]

Arcane AU... either a full-on AU where events take place in the Undercity with Piltover, or just an alternate history where Amity Perk like. fell into a chasm a century ago or something and This happened

[astrologycharts242]

Twitter lied about tumblr being good when it comes to astrology !!!

Maybe it's because I'm on a high level so the average user won't see things from my lenses. I honestly see a lot of things that I don't even feel comfortable talking about because I don't want to be rude. Things like stealing other people's posts without giving the other person credit or at least show who they got the post from.

Secondly there is a cult like following here on tumblr. Even the daily bloggers (when I say bloggers I mean posters), are in a cult like following. No it isn't a Charles Manson kinda cult. It's people forming a coalition to segregate others who are really good at astrology from getting recognition. It's similar to like what katt Williams was talking about with Kevin Hart and stuff.

For example this cult like following only likes for people to be caught or stuck in a drift when it comes to astrology. They don't like for others to know the truth about astrology. Instead they rather appease people to their level of knowledge when it comes to astrology. This means if someone else comes along they'll try to push that individual away.

One of the ways they do this is by stealing content or ideas so they get the views and not the original creator 😀. Every app does this regarding astrology but it's like organized crime here on Tumblr.

You see this a lot in those observation posts. Man they don't be observing nothing. They just say something crazy or delusional for engagement. A random example is Mars in Aries makes someone lazy. It sounds crazy right? Now if you question that they aren't open for a dialogue or a true blog of discussion, WHICH TUMBLR IS ACTUALLY INTENDED FOR

Another way they do it is by taking what somebody else has said. Then make their own Tumblr post regarding it. Yet you wouldn't find the original content creator because the ones with big followings on here actually do it so they push away the new astrology bloggers.

By doing this it deceives people into thinking only they are good at astrology or their interpretation is correct. Now the people who only observe content would only support and give them money no joke. I see this like crazy I even try to support and be kind. Then when I see what happens to me I get angry and you can see I lash out or vent on social media. When in actuality I'm a really nice guy I even giveaway free astrology information. I did it for years on Reddit nowadays I do so on twitter.

It's like a gang or something idk hopefully others can catch on to this. I used to wonder why people would put copyright in their posts or say things like do not steal. I could go on forever but I don't want to expose anybody. It's just weird seeing how I say something then a few days later someone has the exact same thing that I said. Yet their explanation has no context or makes any sense.

Once I came on Tumblr now bloggers could suddenly use sidereal and tropical simultaneously 😂😂. Man I can't make this crap up

[samgirl98]

Sister Cities

“What now,” asked the citizens of Gotham City as green portals opened randomly.

They had just suffered a severe earthquake. Well, all of New Jersey and New York did, but their government had abandoned them. They had asked for help and had received excuses.

“We’re short on money,” they said, “We can send some medical aid but not much more.”

“But we’re hungry,” they cried out, “we’re homeless!”

“We’re sorry,” was all they received back.

 After all, why should they fork out money for such a hellhole anyway? In a city so ridden in crime, what was the point of helping?

Who cared if thousands died? Who cared if thousands upon thousands more ended up homeless? So, the Gothamites were stuck taking care of themselves. There was only so much Bruce Wayne could do. Even the rogues helped when they could (barring the Joker. Thankfully, he was still in Arkham, which was mostly intact.)

Ivy used her plants to keep the infrastructure from falling or becoming more damaged. Victor Fries, aka Mr. Freeze, kept people cool in the middle of the hot summer days. Electricity was still out for many people.

Oswald Cobblepot used his money to help open temporary shelters and allowed people to stay in his lounge.

Goons and gang members worked alongside paramedics. The Riddler was seen handing out clothing and food alongside Red Hood. Unfortunately, after the first two weeks, supplies were running low.

They tried the government again to be met with more excuses.

It was the middle of the day when the portals opened.

What was it this time? An alien invasion, a new maniac trying to take advantage of the chaos? They didn’t expect a bunch of people and trucks to come out of the green swirls. They were more surprised by the glowing floating entities.

If you asked the average Gothamite who their sister city was, they would answer with, “We have a sister city?”

Over the years, as Gotham City grew bigger and bigger, they forgot there was a little city in Illinois that considered them their sister. Amity Park was only remembered as one of the most obscure bits of trivia pulled out during serious pub quizzes. The sign ‘sister city to Amity Park’ had long since been taken off from the welcome sign by vandals and never replaced.

Amity Park never forgot.

Amity Park also knew what it felt like to be screwed over by the government. (They hated the GIW.)

When they heard what happened in Gotham City and that the government wasn’t helping, well, what better way to say ‘fuck you’ to the government than by being a good neighbor to the city they had abandoned?

The Gothamites were ready to fight these new intruders when a boy with white hair and glowing green eyes spoke up.

“Citizens of Gotham City, my name is Phantom. I am the hero of Amity Park, your sister city. We also know what it feels like to have the government abandon us during our time of need, so, with your permission, we come here with aid.”

They had been suspicious at first, but they desperately needed the help. So, they reluctantly agreed, waiting for the other shoe to drop and for their new saviors to turn out to be villains trying to mind-control them or something.

Batman warned Phantom that if he or any of the spirits turned on Gotham, he would bring a war to their doorsteps like they’d never seen before.

It never happened.

The Amity Parkers and their, ahem, ghosts helped the Gothamites with food, rebuilding, and other aid.

The Fentons, an eccentric family with crazy ideas that shouldn’t help but did, brought new technological advancements that helped bring power to the city. It had the extra bonus of being clean and sustainable, getting Poison Ivy to love their way of working.

Samantha Manson helped Ivy with plants and rebuilding parks. She had a similar ability to Poison Ivy, if a bit weaker.  

Tucker Foley and Technus used their abilities to bring back lights and other electronics that helped run the city.

Danny Fenton helped organize teenagers from both Amity Park and Gotham to help the ghosts rebuild buildings when they could or give out necessities to those who couldn’t go to the set-up checkpoints.

Phantom helped direct the ghosts so their talents could be used where they were mostly needed.

Bruce Wayne didn’t know what to think of the Fentons at first. He was highly suspicious of these people who wanted to ‘help’ his city. Eventually, Maddie Fenton got tired of being interrogated and told Bruce they would help Gotham whether he wanted them to or not. He backed off after being yelled at by a small red-haired woman.

(His children laughed at him that night. He sulked for the remainder of the week.)

The ghosts never got tired, so they worked around the clock building infrastructure and roads. It helped that the ghosts seemed to love building so the Gothamites didn’t feel like they were taking advantage.

A ghost, simply known as the Lunch Lady, helped cook huge amounts of food to help feed those who had no way to feed themselves. When she wasn’t feeding people, the Amity Parkers would bring casseroles to help sustain the city. The people of Gotham welcomed the food.

Soon, the Amity Parkers and their ghosts were a welcomed and loved part of Gotham City.

When the GIW came warning the Gothamites that the ghosts were evil and would turn on them, the Gothamites booed them and chased them out of the city, endearing them to the Amity Parkers even more. Even Batman and his brood helped chase the agents wearing white suits out of their city. They didn’t return.

Eventually, Gotham was back on its feet quicker than they thought possible, thanks to their sister city. The mayor thanked the Amity Parkers, and Phantom was invited to join the Justice League.

It was a bittersweet day when the green portals closed and the Amity Parkers returned home. They weren’t needed anymore, but the Gothamites would miss their saviors.

From then on, Gotham never forgot about Amity Park. And if the Spirit of Gotham kept in touch with Phantom, the protector of Amity Park, well, that was her right.

Not my best work, but I hope you guys like it

Dp x dc prompt/idea:

So you guys know the idea of sister towns/cities right? Like Boring Oregon & Dull Scotland are considered sister/paired towns because of their names are in the same vibe and people think it's funny.

Now consider: Amity Park & Gotham are sister cities, and have been for ages. Since before they were even cities, some say before they were even towns. Both being created by folks of the magical persuasion (though in different veins).

Now over time it's something that people - more so in Gotham, that grew and grew and grew, forgetting some of the "smaller" history along the way - don't think about much any more. A plaque beneath Amity Park's welcome sign. A bit of obscure trivia that gets pulled out in the more serious pub quizzes in Gotham. Nothing that's top of mind to anybody these days, what with Amity's ghosts and Gotham's...well, everything.

At least, it wasn't top of mind until the earthquake hit and the government cut the ailing city off from the rest of the world.

Amity Park has had it's fair share of the US government fucking them over, it took ages to drive out the GIW and for Amity Park to find peace with their undead neighbors and Phantom - their own Ghost King - that called their little city home.

So the people of Amity Park, deeply suspicious and untrusting of the government, used to disasters well beyond the scope of what normal cities are accustomed to facing and stuffed full of Midwestern politeness and a strong sense of duty to help their neighbors - no matter how far away - does what the rest of the world refuses to do.

They come together and do everything they can to help.

The people in the ruins and wreckage of Gotham are not anywhere near prepared for bright green glowing portals to start popping open all over the place. They are even less prepared for those portals to have a strange mix of glowing, flying entities and determined midwesterners brandishing emergency supplies and warm casseroles. But hey, it's not like anyone else in the world seems to give a damn if Gotham lives or dies, and these Amity Park folks seem like their kid of people.

[redrobin-detective]

Ok, I’ve tried and tried and tried to write this fic because I see it so clearly in my mind but it’s just not going no matter what I do. But I don’t want the idea to die with me. The closest this came to being written was exile which was an attempt to bleed out some of the energy of this au.

Anyway, so it starts off vaguely similar to canon only more aggressive. There had been underlying tension between ghosts and humans for a while, the dead jealous/angry at the living for disrespecting them. The successful creation of the Fenton ghost portal (and another halfa) was considered an act of war and so the ghosts responded in kind. So basically all of S1 occurs fairly close to canon except ghost attacks are more violent and have increasingly more consequences as time passes. Also the attacks aren’t just in Amity Park with ghosts becoming a worldwide issue but Amity is a focal point. Regular people know the ghosts hate them though they don’t know why. Phantom is very much a controversial figure as he is a ghost but also clearly is fighting off the more violent ghosts. 

One day, not long after the events of Control Freaks, Amity Park wakes up to find three of their own are gone. Danny Fenton, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley are nowhere to be found. There’s a massive manhunt, the parents go on TV and beg for information but they cannot be found. Curiously enough, town hero Phantom was also missing. There’s some evidence they left of their own volition so the Mansons and Foleys eventually relent that the kids fled on their own. The Fentons are 100% certain the kids were stolen/killed by ghosts as a statement. And the fact that Phantom went missing around the same time means he was the one who killed them. Jazz knows Danny was Phantom but had no idea what was going on and knew her parents wouldn’t listen she just, kept quiet and privately tried to piece together what happened. 

Three years pass and finally it looks like the Ecto War is coming to a close. Young, naive ghosts attempted to raise Pariah Dark in a bid to win. It went disastrously but Phantom (who was periodically spotted around the world, deep in the worst battles of the war) and group of loyal allies subdued the king. By the law of ghosts, Phantom was named heir apparent and he declared that the fighting would stop. Humans and ghosts would have to negotiate and co-exist in peace. But he’s not king yet, no he needs to be crowned at the place where it began, Amity Park’s Fenton portal (”where it all began” has a double meaning of the beginning of the war but also symbolically where Phantom began as Kings assume the crown where their living life ended to show their abandonment of their first life and the commitment to their second). Amity is NOT happy to hear that their former hero is coming home.

Amity has been through the wringer, ghost attacks got pretty bad. The Fenton’s throw themselves into their work to cancel out the grief, they create a group of ghost hunters nicknamed the Reds (for their red blood, ghosts are nicknamed Greens) to control the threat. Valerie heads the young adult division and is considered one of the best, she drops out of school to devote herself to it full time. Oh also her dad is now the Mayor as most have died or didn’t want the job. There are still people who like Phantom and see him as a hero (a lot of Casper Kids) but it’s generally an unpopular opinion in town. Maddie and Jack are ready to obliterate the ghost that took their son’s life the moment he’s within city limits. It’s a powder keg ready to blow. It all comes to a head when Phantom and his entourage arrive.

First off, Phantom looks very different, much less human looking than when he left. He’s clearly aged like a normal teen but his eyes look much, much older.  His skin is dead white with a blue tinge to it from his ice core and his aura is super cold. His hair is longer and is very misty that kind of swirls around him and his has fangs and claws. When he’s deep in battle or his obsession, his sclera turn black and he looks scary af. His entourage is ghosts who have sworn loyalty to him, who he picked up along the way after battling beside them for 3 years. Fright Knight, Skulker and Frostbite are recognizable allies. They are not happy that their future King is back in Amity (secretly fearing they’ll lose him once more to his human life). J&M have a shot and are going for the kill when they see something that shocks them; Sam and Tucker are in Phantom’s entourage.

There had been whispers that Phantom interacted with humans, that humans were in his inner circle but this is something else together. And so are Sam and Tucker. Sam is Phantom’s General, she is talented and collected and half feral. She used to be a pacifist but the trials of war and understanding that peace sometimes needs to be fought for made her compromise. She’s covered in scars and an extremely talented fighter. She’s missing her right hand up to her forearm, she can form a ‘phantom limb’ (basically borrowing ectoplasm from her future ghost) to do some things with some powers. Tucker is the support, he uses human and ghost tech to organize, weaponize and generally keep things running. He’s covered in homemade tech (shields and weapons and computers) and he rarely removes. Both he and Sam have kinda forgotten how to interact with and really BE human after so long among the dead. They had attempted to conceal themselves but they had forgotten how strong parental love and recognition is. J&M want to know about Danny, the teens don’t know how to respond but assure them he’s alive. Phantom can’t bring himself to look at them.

This is where I start to lose track of things but there will be parallels of Valerie/Maddie vs Sam as female warriors on opposite sides who are willing to go behind, possibly compromising the things important to them, for victory. Tucker will be contrasted against Jack/Jazz as the one making weapons but also generally keeping the human parts of the team mentally/physically afloat. *Severe* PTSD for all three of them. They’re also unnaturally codependent on each other, get super anxious when one of the trio is out of sight and sleep in a big cuddle pile. They will fucking Kill You if you look at one of them wrong. Vlad will be involved, he had been jailed for war crimes but convinced Walker to stage a coup to overthrow Danny and take the crown before he’s actually declared King and is too powerful. Vlad is more unhinged here, more ghost than human (a hint on what could happen to Danny if he’s not careful). He is eventually defeated but he sacrifices his life for ghost power which, in the end, is what makes him able to be beaten.

 There’s lots of ideas on what it means to be live or dead and where the divide really is, is it a heartbeat or it is how you choose to use your existence. On how duty shouldn’t mean you need to give up everything. Because Jack and Maddie believe that Phantom killed their son and, in a way, they’re right. Before they left, the ghost war had gotten so bad and the rumors of Dark being resurrected were going around. Amity attacks were at an all time high, people in their school were being killed just because Danny went there. He realized he had to choose between Fenton or Phantom and he chose to protect the world. He abandoned his human identity and went off to fight in war. Tried to convince Sam and Tucker to stay but they followed him through hell and back. Because Danny spends so much time as Phantom, Fenton is severely neglected. His long hair is cool and floaty as Phantom but is unkempt and stringy, hanging in his face as Fenton. He’s wan and underweight and looks like a walking corpse. He knows his human half will give out soon if he doesn’t give it more attention but he just can’t there’s too much to do, too many people to save.

It would end with Danny being outed to the town, not the world, just the town. Jack and Maddie need to recon with the fact that their boy DID leave of his own choice but only because their failure to protect him (from both the portal and ghosts) made him feel he had to take all this responsibility on his shoulders. Danny also has to recognize that he (and Sam/Tuck) can’t do all this on their own and they can trust and rely on the people around him. Phantom is crowned King but he decides Amity will be his base. The trio eat more, sleep some, catches up on school all the while continuing their duties as King and court. The ghosts also see that Phantom’s humanity isn’t a weakness but a strength and will bring peace to the Earth/Zone so they also take some of the burdens off his shoulder. 

Basically I load up heavily with angst at the beginning and end with all the love and comfort imaginable. I just can’t fucking figure out the middle and my motivation will not let me write this shit out. But I can’t let this AU die bc it fucking keeps me up at night.

[kemetic-dreams]

Possessed: Voodoo’s Origins and Influence from the Blues to Britney

Blissed-out, ecstatic union with our divine selves — we seek it at raves and rock concerts, and in the desert with the Burning Man. I try to get there when I’m jamming with my band — but I didn’t realize until I wrote The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu how much this longing relates to West African spirituality, and the Voodoo concept of possession.

Vodou (the proper Kreyol/Creole spelling of Voodoo) is a neo-African religion that evolved in the New World from the 6000-year-old West African religion Vodun. This was the religion of many slaves brought from West Africa to the Americas and the Caribbean.

Vodun was brutally repressed by slave-owners, yet its powerful beats, ethics and aesthetics endured. We owe our concepts of cool, soul and rock and roll to it.

The roots of rock are in a West African word for dance — rak. As Michael Ventura wrote in his important essay on rock music, “Hear that Long Snake Moan”:

The Voodoo rite of possession by the god became the standard of American performance in rock’n’roll. Elvis Presley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, James Brown, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, Jim Morrison, Johnny Rotten, Prince — they let themselves be possessed not by any god they could name but by the spirit they felt in the music. Their behavior in this possession was something Western society had never before tolerated.

Vodou possession is not the hokey demon-possession of zombie movies; it’s a state of union with the divine achieved through drumming, dancing and singing. It’s becoming “filled with the Holy Ghost” in the Pentecostal Christian tradition or attaining yogic bliss through the practice of kirtan, singing the names of God — Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna.

In the Yoruba culture of West Africa, being able to connect with one’s inner divinity is called coolness (itutu). In Yoruba morality, generosity indicates coolness and is the highest quality a person can exhibit. In American culture, we say that nice person is cool, or that a musician “has got soul.” We notice “Southern hospitality.”

The Trans-Atlantic slave trade carried these ideas to the New World, particularly as slavers burrowed inward from Senegambia on the West African coast to the Kingdom of Dahomey, a Vodun stronghold.

Dahomey spread across much of today’s Togo, Benin and Nigeria and was heavily involved in the slave trade. Vodun practitioners were shipped overseas by the thousands when the Fon people of Benin conquered their neighbors, the Ewe, in 1729. Many Fon were also kidnapped and traded into slavery in exchange for textiles, weapons, brass pots, Venetian beads and other European goods.

Vodun is a Fon-Ewe word meaning God or Great Spirit. This supreme creator was represented as the giant snake Dan carrying the universe in its coils. Today, in Haiti and American Vodou strongholds like New Orleans, Dan is worshiped as Damballah, the Grand Zombie (the Bantu word nzambi means God). He’s John Lee Hooker’s “Crawling Kingsnake”.

Branching off from this almighty God-force are spirit-gods called loa. During Vodou ceremonies, a loa may descend the center post of the temple to possess or “ride” a worshiper who has reached a sufficiently high state of consciousness. The morality implicit in this is stated in the Haitian proverb, “Great gods cannot ride little horses.”

Vodun practices like drumming were definitely noticed by nervous colonists who had imported fierce warriors and tribal priests to work their farms. After a deadly rebellion in the South Carolina colony in 1739, the colonists realized slaves were using talking drums to organize resistance. The Slave Act of 1740 in South Carolina barred slaves from using “drums, horns, or other loud instruments.” Other colonies followed suit with legislation like the severe Black Codes of Georgia.

Soon, religious repression was in full swing. Slaves caught praying were brutally penalized, as this excerpt from Peter Randolph’s “Slave Cabin to the Pulpit” recounts:

In some places, if the slaves are caught praying to God, they are whipped more than if they had committed a great crime. Sometimes, when a slave, on being whipped, calls upon God, he is forbidden to do so, under threat of having his throat cut, or brains blown out.

Vodun practitioners taken as slaves to plantations in Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, and Jamaica were also prohibited from practicing their religion. But enslaved Vodun priests arriving in the Catholic West Indies quickly grasped similarities between their tradition of appealing to loa to intercede with God, and Catholics praying to saints for intercession. By superimposing Catholic saints over the loa, slaves created the hybrid religions Santeria (saint worship) in the Spanish Islands, Vodou in Haiti and Candomblé in Brazil.

On Aug. 22, 1791, Haitian slaves revolted on a signal from Vodou priests, who consulted their oracle to determine which military strategies would succeed. The revolutionaries defeated Napoleon Bonaparte’s army and declared independence Jan. 1, 1804, establishing Haiti as the world’s first black republic. Freaked by a successful slave revolt, the United States and Western Europe slapped economic sanctions on Haiti, turning the prosperous colony into an impoverished state that could no longer sell the products of its fields.

In 1809, Vodou arrived in the United States en masse when Haitian slave owners who had fled to Cuba with their slaves were expelled. Most relocated from Cuba to New Orleans, nearly doubling the city’s size in one year. Today, 15 percent of New Orleans practices Vodou, and it’s popular in other U.S. cities with African and Haitian communities.

Among the arriving Haitians was Marie Laveau. She became the leader of New Orleans Vodou practitioners in 1820 when she was elected the human representative of the Grand Zombie. (Former White House Social Secretary Desirée Rogers is descended from Marie Laveau.)

Laveau kept a python named Zombi, and danced with it on her shoulders while presiding over ceremonies. This image was appropriated, with other Vodou nods, for Britney Spears’s “I’m a Slave 4 U” performance at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

The sensationalistic 1884 book Haiti or the Black Republic by Sir Spencer St. John, slammed Vodou as an evil cult, with gruesome descriptions of human sacrifice and black magic — some of which had been extracted from Vodou priests via torture. It became a popular source for the Hollywood screenwriters who began churning out voodoo horror flicks in the 1930s.

The first musician to bring pop-Voodoo imagery to the stage was Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, who would rise from a coffin onstage with a bone in his nose. Hawkins had intended for his hit record “I Put A Spell On You”  to be a soulful ballad. But once the producer “brought in ribs and chicken and got everybody drunk, we came out with this weird version,” Hawkins admitted, adding “I found out I could do more destroying a song and screaming it to death.” Hawkins kicked off the undead craze among rockers like Alice Cooper and Marilyn Manson.  

Meanwhile, despite the severe repression, Vodun practices crept into Southern black churches.  Descriptions of black Baptist church services in the late 1800s and early 1900s depict the congregation dancing in a circle in a “rock” or “ring shout” as they follow the deacon, who bears a standard.

It was the deacon’s job to whip parishioners into a frenzy of fainting and speaking in tongues called “rocking the church.” The concept of a deity “riding” with a worshiper transferred to these Christian churches, where the cry “Drop down chariot and let me ride!” was often heard, as well as “Ride on!” and “Ride on, King Jesus!” This became the solidarity shout, “Right on!”

Blues singers fronting big bands, like Joe Turner and Jimmy Rushing, copied the way church solo singers belted over the choir. The radio beamed this new “shouting blues” all over black America. It was picked up by country blues singers like Muddy Waters and T-Bone Walker, who had moved to Chicago and used it with their new electrified bands. These, in turn, inspired rockers like Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles and The Rolling Stones

Africans brought here as slaves carried with them incredibly strong aesthetic, ethical and cultural values that not only withstood the shock of their forced transplantation to the New World, but transformed and invigorated it. Their influence made us uniquely American. It’s why we respond to that Voodoo beat.

[violent-backed-starling]

An Essay For your Consideration

The Manson Family, Heaven’s Gate, The People’s Temple; all are fairly well-known cults. They are known because of what they did. They all made the news in the worst possible way. The Manson Family murdered innocents because their prophet commanded them to. Heaven’s Gate ended in a mass suicide. The People’s Temple ended with a mass murder/suicide. These are all traumatic and shocking events. It is because these are so well known and present in the public eye that these cults in particular have shaped the way people portray cults in the pieces of fiction they write. This is evident from The Order in the Silent Hill Series by Keiichiro Toyama to The Village by M. Night Shyamalan. The cults in the media are always dark, unhinged, or at the least upsetting to most people, which is why the viewer generally ends up rooting for the hero. In a particular fictional cult they express several of the above traits. In the 2019 horror comedy musical Black Friday, written by Matt and Nick Lang with music and lyrics by Jeff Blim, there is a cult that goes about the mall doing similar crimes. This kind of behavior is extreme. In general, cults while still awful and problematic in their own rights, do not go to such horrific lengths. The Wiggly cult in Black Friday has extreme behaviors, even by cult standards.

When the cult first formed in the mall in Black Friday it was not completely horrible, unhinged yes, but not completely irredeemable. Over the course of a few mere hours they turned to savage actions in order to get what they wanted. It started off with just burning down the Cinnabon in the mall as a “sacrifice to a dark god”. Their actions only escalated from there. The cult’s prophet, Linda Monroe, slit the throat of the manager at Toy Zone when he could not get her a Wiggly doll immediately, even though he tried to bargain with her saying that he could contact the manufacturer and get her a Wiggly doll. She later tried to have one of the cultists murder a teenage worker at Toy Zone, presumably for lying about having one of the Wiggly dolls. She lied about the Wiggly doll to protect her sister who carried it, unknowingly, in her backpack. The teen worker managed to escape and find help in the end, but she was supposed to be murdered. The cultists also ended up finding this worker’s sister and taking her back to Linda who threatened her with a knife when she found out the sister no longer had the Wiggly doll. She most likely would have been murdered by Linda if there had not been help coming from her sister. The cult eventually died in a fire when the whole mall burned down due to the Wiggly doll being set on fire, because they refused to leave the Wiggly doll that they had gotten ahold of and were fighting over who would be the new prophet since Linda had been shot and killed. The cultists literally burned alive instead of escaping because of their cult and them wanting to be the new prophet. That is an absolutely horrific and painful way to die. Them burning alive for their god is a prime example of extreme behavior. Even when it comes to the more extreme cults, they generally do not end up with cultists burning alive, voluntarily. This kind of behavior is why the Wiggly cult in Black Friday is not a regular cult.

Cults show up on the news on occasion. Those cults are generally more violent and upsetting because what they do or what they did has to be something awful to get them onto the news. NXIVM is a cult that has made headlines semi recently since they did awful things like brand women and make women give them blackmail materials so they could not leave the cult once they joined. This sounds bad and horrific and is only scratching the surface on what truly was going on, but they did not commit murder or mass suicide. This is also just one case, a case that made headlines no less. When it comes to the easily recognizable hallmarks of cults the ones that come to mind are the manipulation of their members, brainwashing, and the separation of members from their family and friends. Cults usually end up separating the members away from their family and friends in order to make them more vulnerable and likely to stay within the cult. The cults also sometimes take money from their followers who, believing that will be put to a good cause, give it to the leader. That money is usually used to benefit the leader of the cult in some unorthodox way, like buying a sports car or nice worldly possessions. While that sucks and no one should take advantage of people like that, it is still far better than murder. In Wiggly’s cult they were willing to kill for one of the Wiggly dolls. Their prophet wanted four of them, but not a single person in the cult had one until the end and when they finally got one it was Linda’s, no ifs, ands, or buts about it. The people that also were part of the cult had problems because that was how Wiggly ensnared them. They were part of the cult of comfort because of their own issues and wanted relief.  That is the same reason why many people joined NXIVM. Keith Raniere presented his cult as an MLM that sold courses for self improvement. In Black Friday Linda had an affair with her lawyer and desperately wanted to be adored. The other cultists had similar issues, one had recently lost a job, another was homeless and so on. This cult of comfort had people under its thumb believing in their new god, Wiggly.

There is also the issue where people blend the lines between cults and religions. The fact is that they do overlap in areas, and many cults are based upon being a religion. Thomas Robbins explains that the ways religions have become more cult like has affected the studies of the sociology of these religions. Then the other group that cults overlap with is political parties. There are a number of political cults as well. The Cult of Cheka in Russia is a big one. The public sees that “the FSB continues to promote a positive image of the Cheka in the public imagination”. This cult is pushed to be in the public eye and is supposed to be thought of as good. It is literally a government supported cult. That is because this is a secret police kind of deal. That implies that this lies on the more extreme side of cults as well, but that is the way most of the well known ones are. Wiggly’s cult has both of these aspects to it. Linda is Wiggly’s prophet because he is a dark god from another dimension, but the reason people love and believe in him is capitalism. Wiggly is not only an interdimensional being with the powers of a god, he is also the little dolls that were sold in the Toy Zone, and all over the USA. The commercial for those dolls promised relief from the woes of the world to his followers. They were convinced that this product would make everything better. That is why they were willing to burn with the doll rather than just letting it go.

Most cults that end do not do so by such tragic means but rather they just split apart or fizzle out on their own. Sometimes there are legal issues, but they are generally something smaller scale than murder, such as tax fraud, insurance fraud, etc. Those are still crimes and they are seriously wrong but not nearly as bad as killing someone. 

The time in a cult does affect the mental health of the individual. The ex-members of some organizations would say that they suffered from “cognitive deficiencies (e.g., memory, perception, decision-making, or information-processing deficits) and emotional impairments”. The separation from family and friends makes it harder for people to leave. The cults do, generally, let people leave though, and people do choose to leave. This is not the most common, but nor is it completely unexpected. While people who leave their cult do consider it to be rewarding, they also have problems afterwards. They can have physical issues, emotional issues, psychological issues, or some combination of them. These are regular cults, the more extreme variety could have one committing serious crimes like murdering, being an accomplice to murder, or straight up ending with them dead, whether by their own hands or not. Those people in Wiggly’s cult did not leave; they would rather die than leave their cult of comfort, so they did. 

The people that ended up in the cult in Black Friday were there because Wiggly and by extension Linda promised to fix the holes in their lives. They just blindly followed and believed her when it came to what Wiggly could and would do for them. They would not take responsibility for their own problems and try to solve them themself. The cultists wanted the fake promises of comfort Wiggly gave them rather than trying to fix them because it was easier to just rely on Wiggly. They wanted someone else to fix their problems like their failing marriage, losing their job, their messy divorce, losing custody of their kids, their dead wife, etc. This is something that probably drives real life people to join cults as well. Bad circumstances can have one turning to ill advised sources of comfort and relief. In some cases that ill advised source of relief could be cult. These are the kind of people that a real life cult would target to try to get them to join their ranks. These are people who might turn to a cult in times of trial which is exactly why a cult would try to convert them simply because they are easy targets. Even if the actions of Wiggly’s cult are extreme the member’s reasons for joining are ordinary and understandable. That gives this cult some sort of connection to a more realistic cult. The actions from this cult do align with some cults, namely The Manson Family and The People’s Church. 

The Manson Family was also a very extreme cult when it came down to it. The Manson family with the myriad of crimes they committed. Those crimes including murder, torture, hostage taking, the attempted assassination of the president and other lesser crimes like grand theft auto and forging a check from the treasury. The trial was no less disturbing with Charles Manson trying to represent himself and after a few days being found incapable of doing so. He also entered the courtroom with a cross carved into his forehead. Manson demanded to be allowed to testify and they agreed. He testified that he was a product of the criminal justice system since both his father and mother ended up in prison at some point. The court also ended up having members of the family testify and they told the truth of what Manson said and believed. They actually ended up testifying against Manson. The cult was following his orders and it was on his orders that they killed. They also believed what he was saying about Helter Skelter being a huge war of which the Family would come out on top of. Manson said that was the true meaning behind the Beatles song by the same name. The cult also had members afraid of Manson and they were scared to disobey so they did what was asked of them whether they wanted to or not. That kind of behavior from a cult is intense, extreme, and rare which is why it was in the public eye as much as it was. This is exactly the kind of cult behavior that Wiggly’s cult from Black Friday also expressed. They also had similar behavior to another cult, that cult being The People’s Temple.

The People’s Temple started out with good intentions, but ended up with a large amount of its members dead. It started as a genuine religion but changed for the darker as the leader, Jim Jones, started faking healings and doing drugs. The healings would bring in more people and more money and with that money eventually Jones started doing drugs which evidently caused him to change, personality wise. He started wearing his signature sunglasses at that point to hide the fact he would have been doing drugs. He eventually got so paranoid due to the drugs that he decided to start his own little paradise for his followers out in Guyana. He started a small village with cottages and called it Jonestown. Many of the followers flocked out there, but once they got there they were stuck. They did not have enough money to leave, Jones kept their passports in a locked box, and all of the mail coming in and out was monitored. Those combined conditions made it practically impossible for anyone to leave. Life in Jonestown was miserable; they did not have enough space or food for everyone. Eventually concerned family members were able to convince U. S. Congressman Leo Ryan to go check on Jonestown in 1978. He and a bunch of reporters visited on November 17th, 1978 and at first it was okay but Ryan invited the followers to leave with him. Jones got very upset at how many wanted to go and as a result one of his lieutenants attacked Ryan with a knife. He escaped without harm. Jones then ordered for Ryan and his companions to be killed. They were ambushed and murdered as they attempted to board planes to leave. Then Jones ordered everyone in the main pavilion where the older member and nurses injected the young with poisons and drank poisoned Kool Aid. That kind of thing is very extreme. It is uncommon and made the news. 

The extreme cults are rare and have radical ideas and views. Wiggly’s cult is extreme and so is The Manson Family and The People’s Temple. They are all alike in the committing murder area of cult behavior. They also promised to be the ones safe from the world and would be left alive when the apocalypse would come. Wiggly’s cult ended in suicide as did The People’s Church. That is an extreme reaction to the situation that was going on and there were far better options that just were not taken. Manson and Linda were alike in that they would delegate the murdering to someone else. Linda and Jones are alike in that they did actually get their hands dirty. Linda’s cult may have been fictional and had some serious supernatural elements, but it still reflected actual cults behaviors even if those behaviors were extreme and part of the one percent of cults.

[titusmoody]

2021 Q2 stuff

Games

Return of the Obra Dinn -- Very different. A great experience to play, it doesn’t use any typical “gamer” skills or knowledge. It also hit on a lot of my personally prefered sensibilities (stories self-contained to ships, non-linear storytelling, mysteries, and meticulous attention to detail)

Kentucky Route Zero -- Even more different. I’m glad I played it for the atmosphere, though it didn’t click with me the way Obra Dinn did. Extremely atmospheric and cool, but also has a strong academic curiosity to it.

DOOM (2016)-- Okay, we’re back to regular video games. Everything about this one seems very carefully crafted. I had a good, mindless time with this one.

Spider-Man -- Not as well-crafted as DOOM, but also less juvenile. I also had a good, mindless time with this one.

Metroid: Samus Returns -- Feels like Metroid. The moment-to-moment combat is different than Super Metriod and Fusion, which is a nice way to keep things from getting stale.

TV

Shadow and Bone -- Sometimes tropes exist because they make for good stories. This show was a good example of that.

Pani Poni Dash -- WTF Japan, in a good way

Princess Tutu -- Much like I felt about Cowboy Bebop, this show was very well-made and I had an easy time appreciating what it was doing, though in the end it’s not the kind of thing that’s really for me

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid -- Pleasant to watch, mostly lighthearted but could definitely have emotional moments here and there to keep you interested.

Kakegurui -- Shows like this are the reason anime fans are so self-depricating. It was thoroughly trashy, but I’d be lying if I said that the trashiness didn’t lead to a lot of fun.

Love, Chunibyo, and other Delusions -- An excellent comfort-watch. About a high-schooler trying to run away from his cringe-y middle school phase. I definitely have criticisms of it, but I’m also definitely going to watch it again.

Devilman Crybaby -- I swear, Masaaki Uasa takes the most overdone premises and portrays them in such bonkers ways that they become pretty cool. This isn’t one of the best examples of that, but it still works.

Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket -- Part of Gundam’s brand is that it shows the effect of wars on individuals. This is a great small-scale example of that. 

She-Ra -- It’s good. The plot kinda meanders and the backstory lore is presented confusingly/unclearly at times. But the central characters are good enough to carry at least a few seasons, and the secondary characters really elevate the whole thing. I was personally very fond of Scorpia as well as the way the writers used Entrapta both in the plot and as a character foil.

Chernobyl -- Second time watching this, it’s definitely a favorite. 

Movies

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again -- You already know what this is like and whether or not you enjoy the sort of thing it is. 

Moulin Rouge -- It’s hard to watch Mamma Mia without thinking of this one, so I watched it soon after.

Minari -- My personal reward for being fully vaccinated was to go to the movies by myself. This was a good movie, though overshadowed by the circumstances in which I saw it. I would’ve been very happy to be seeing anything.

My Fair Lady -- An iconic pop-culture touchstone. Not my favorite musical, for sure.

Interstellar -- This movie is in the odd position of currently being my favorite Christopher Nolan movie despite the fact that I don’t like it nearly as much as I liked either The Dark Knight or Memento when I saw those for the first time.

The Perfect Storm -- George Clooney, big wave.

Legally Blonde -- I didn’t hear the term “sitcom” until oddly late in life, and when I heard it, I assumed it meant movies like this where there aren’t a ton of jokes, but the characters are constantly in inherently funny situations. I don’t like this type of humor that much.

Jurassic Park -- A big “moral” of the movie was “don’t trust computers to do anything important” but today it’s hard not to get the message as “never underpay your system administrator” instead.

Apollo 13 -- Pretty good

ET -- I really didn’t like this movie and I don’t quite know what it doesn’t do that Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones do. Imminent danger seem to be part of it, but I don’t think that’s the whole picture.

The Day After Tomorrow -- *shrug* I had fun watching it

Pearl Harbor -- expected it to be bad, it was bad. It was definitely bad in interesting ways, and was almost good a lot of the time.

Die Hard -- I was looking for suspenseful movies with clear character motivation and this fit the description. It was good, though I didn’t like it quite as much as I hoped to.

Star Trek V -- Star Trek is often silly and I just can’t get on board with some of the silliness, like the last part of this movie.

Terminator 2 -- Yeah, I do like suspense. I don’t think I’ll look back on this as a favorite, but I was pretty into it. Moreso than Die Hard.

Cast Away -- Pretty good

Predator -- Somewhere between Die Hard and Terminator 2. I was a bit bored by the end, which ironically was the part that most closely resembled what I was looking for.

Braveheart -- I think romanticising medieval Europe is fun and cool. Unfortunately this movie has some creepy sexual hang-ups as well as rampant “no step on snek” energy that ruin the whole thing.

Redline -- Just a cool looking movie

State of Play -- I forgot the whole plot of this already, but I enjoyed it

Troy -- It’s not as bad as its reputation suggests, though the end does get really over-the-top cheesy

Demon Slayer -- I liked going to the movies by myself so much the first time that I did it again. This time it was in a much more full theater and I was one of very few people over 17. Fun action anime movie, though.

Gladiator -- I’m so disappointed that I didn’t connect to this movie, since over and over I felt like I was very close to loving it. I think the revenge motivation was what ultimately prevented me from really getting into it.

K-19: The Widowmaker -- Hell yeah, extremely tense submarine scenes, that’s exactly what I wanted.

The Manchurian Candidate (2004) -- The movie felt like it wanted its premise to feel plausible, but it really didn’t. Still pretty good, though

The Big Lebowski -- Still not a big fan of this one. 

The Naked Gun -- This confirms that my sense of humor has not gotten more refined since age 17 or so. I still thought this was pretty funny.

Dances With Wolves -- Mostly just boring. 

Angels and Demons -- Even at age 15 the book’s riddles and clues premise felt a bit too contrived. The movie has the additional disadvantage that verbal explanations are the most boring way to resolve questions, unlike books where words are all you have.

Chinatown -- Meh, a fine detective story but nothing really clicked with me. The director’s life is wild, though. He escaped the holocaust, had his pregnant wife murdered by the Manson family, and is currently a fugitive from justice for raping a 13 year old.

The Core -- Like The Perfect Storm, appealing in the “so bad it’s good” way.

Porco Rosso -- Think the type of character study of Kiki’s Delivery Service, but about a middle-aged man, so it doesn’t resonate with Miyazaki’s audience enough for many people to talk about it.

Uncut Gems -- My second time watching it, it’s definitely a favorite. Between this and A Serious Man, I seem to love extremely stressful movies about mediocre jewish men.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962) -- Interesting to compare/contrast with the other version. I like both

Galaxy Quest -- another movie that fits my personal definition of what “sitcom” should mean. Again, not my favorite type of humor

Fantastic Planet -- Looks like something between the animated sketches in Monty Python and Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Very weird, it personally really worked for me.

Scarface -- I think romanticising organized crime is fun and cool. 

In the Heights -- colorful, catchy, happy and fun. 

Books

The House in the Cerulean Sea -- a good comfort-read. very simplistic and a little clunky and amateur-ish, but ultimately pretty cute.

There There -- not a comfort-read at all. A super raw look at the modern life of a variety of Native American situations. Very harsh but also interesting.

Six of Crows -- Fine YA fantasy fluff.

[zoequeenz]

Won’t Get Fooled Again (Part 2)

MASTERLIST

PREVIOUS CHAPTER

3rd Person POV

At the hospital Reid and Gideon are questioning Mr.Clurman.

“What can you tell us about the package, Mr.Clurman?” Gideon asks.

“I thought I knew what it was. Pot for an orchid. I collect them. I ordered the pot through the mail.” he explains.

“Why didn’t you take it inside?” Gideon asks another question.

“It was for my office. I was going there anyway. Thought I’d take it with me. That’s the last thing I remember.” Mr. Clurman answered.

“You had an argument with Joe Reese. Do you remember that?” Gideon asks, continuing the questioning.

“Joe was there?” Mr.Clurman asks.

“He was angry, he accused you of blowin’ him off.” Gideon told him.

“Uh....” Mr. Clurman couldn’t remember.

“Any reason he’d want to hurt you?” Gideon asks instead of pressing further if he could remember him being there.

“Joe? No. I mean, He’s a confrontational guy, but if he wanted to kill me, he’d just beat me to death.” he told Gideon.

Mr.Clurman then exclaims in pain.

“A lot of people were angry about that deal fallin apart, and they were angry at you.”

Mr.Clurman looks at Gideon confused.

“I don’t know how does that make you feel?”

“I felt awful. I thought those condos would make a lot of money for a lot of people, myself included. I thought that geologist was legit. He didn’t even take samples. He scammed us.” he says defeated.

“All those investors who lost their money… Barbara.”

“Barbara Keller?” Gideon asks.

“The first victim.” Reid states.

“What about her?” Gideon asks Mr.Clurman.

“It’s just such a shame. Such a nice lady, you know?” Mr. Clurman answers.

“It was such an easy sale. Sometimes...I felt like I took advantage of her because she’s old and lonely. Now, she’s dead. Well… I feel terrible.”

“OW!” he exclaims. It was his foot. However, it wasn’t there anymore.

“I’ll get you some help.” Gideon says leaving.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Persephone Chase’s POV

After finding the tool box with what seemed to be filled with things to build a bomb, Hotch, Elle, and I went back in to look around the house. Elle was looking at some of the Clurman’s photos while Hotch and I were in the kitchen. Suddenly, Hotch’s phone rang.

From what little I could hear Clurman wasn’t the bomber. Just as Hotch hangs up Elle walks in with a photo.

“Look at this. This is their nephew in Texas. And according to Mrs.Clurman, he was staying with them for a month and left last week.” she tells us.

“Mercury switches are a little sophisticated for a twelve year old kid.” Hotch tells her.

“I’m not saying he’s the unsub, but boys his age like to blow stuff up.” Elle counters.

“I’ll call Morrison. He’ll contact local PD in Texas. He’ll pick up the kid and talk to him.” Hotch says.

Elle and I walk away as he calls Morrison.

“Kids these days are so odd.” I say and Elle laughs.

“I mean I don’t remember any of the boys I grew up with blowing stuff up.”

“Must be those video games.” Elle jokes.

We share a laugh. Elle’s starting to grow on me.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

3rd Person POV

As Morgan works on the bomb, Garcia sits playing a video game.

“You know, a watched bomb never assembles.” Garcia tells Morgan.

Morgan huffs in frustration “I’m down to the last few pieces, and for the life of me, I can’t figure out how they fit together or if they fit together.”

Garcia listens but still is playing her game.

“They might not even be a part of the bomb at all.” Morgan adds.

“What’s the big deal?” Garcia asks.

“You got most of it. I’d give you a B plus.”

Morgan laughs “Thanks.”

“The big deal is it could be part of his signature.”

“Ooh, signature, like a sign of the zodiac, that kinda thing?” Garcia asks.

“Yeah. Yeah, just like that.” Morgan responds jokingly.

“I was serious. I really wanted to learn that time.” Garcia says shoving Morgan.

“Signature’s the thing that they get off on, you know, like a flourish. You know, a certain kind of pipe, a certain mix of powders. Like the Unabomber, he always used something wood in his bombs.” he explains.

“I mean, I don’t know...I mean, these guys,they think they are artists or something, so they sign their work.”

“And you think by putting these last pieces together, you might find the signature?” Garcia asks.

“Yeah, and...see, sometimes the design itself is unique, so once we do put it all together, we can compare it to other exemplars in our evidence database and see if the bomb was built by somebody we may have already come across.” Morgan explains.

“What?”

“If there was another piece like this…”Garcia starts.

“No, I tried that. It doesn’t fit.” Morgan says.

“No, it could’ve been part of a longer rod that fit through the top and went all the way through.” Garcia finishes poking a wood rod through the rebuilt bomb. Morgan looks at her in shock.

“Tetris.” she says.

“Damn it.” Morgan sighs rubbing his face.

“What? Did I mess something up?” she asks worried.

“No. No, no, Garcia.” he answers.

“You nailed it. I know who built this bomb. The guy’s doing life in federal prison.”

Morgan moves to get up as Garcia stares at him in disbelief. He goes to the phone to dial Hotch.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Persephone Chase’s POV

Just as we were on the way back to the police department, Derek called Hotch and told him he knew who the bomber was. He also said he would send photos of the finished bomb to us so we could look at what we were dealing with. Just as we arrived so did Gideon and Spencer. We all met up before we got in so Hotch could fill Gideon in, I immediately went to Spencer. We didn’t say anything just smiled real big at each other and began to follow the rest of the team in. Sometimes, I didn’t need to say anything just being around him was good enough. We walked into a private office and Hotch got out a laptop.

“Morgan emailed these over. The three on the left are the bombs from yesterday. The one on the right’s from the evidence room at Quantico.” Hotch announces as we all crowd around the screen.

“They’re all identical. Made with steel reinforcement rods.” Spencer says.

“Adrian Bale.” Gideon announces.

“Who?” asks Detective Morrison.

“He held our agents in a standoff in Boston last year. He took out six agents and a hostage with one of his bombs.” Hotch explained.

“So you’re thinking he’s behind this?” Elle asks.

“Possibly.” Spencer answers.

“But, he’s in prison.” I add.

“He’s got kind of a cult following, like Charles Manson. It could just be a copycat.” Spencer adds.

“There’s one way to find out. Let’s put the screws to this guy.” Morrison says.

“ No, no, no. Bale’s too smart. If we want information from him, we have to handle him carefully, and even then you have to assume that road will lead nowhere.” Gideon tells us.

“You’re saying the connection to Bale doesn’t help us at all?” Morrison asks.

“No. I’m just saying let us handle Bale.” Gideon responds.

“Look, we just heard from local Texas PD. You were right about Clurman’s nephew. He admitted the bomb stuff was his, which is great for the Clurman’s, but it leaves us with zero suspects. So what do you suggest my men do now?” Morrison asks.

“Proceed from the profile.” Gideon says matter of factly.

“I didn’t know we had a profile.” Morrison says.

Gideon tells Morrison to round up his men. We all meet up in their bullpen to go over the profile. While Gideon paces, Hotch stands to the side, Elle stands to my left, and Spencer and I sit next to each other on a desk. It was nice to be next to him. We were so close but there was only maybe an inch between us. Maybe I could slowly move closer while Gideon is talking to touch shoulders. Goodness did I sound like a high schooler. But I can’t help it, he’s just too darn cute.

“When we’re dealing with a bomber we’re talking about someone who’s non-confrontational. If you bumped into him in a cafe, he’d apologize. Even if it wasn’t his fault.” Gideon starts.

“We would classify this bomber as highly organized based on the meticulous design of his bombs. It means above average intelligence. He probably has a skilled job, a trade, one that allows him to work alone. That’s how he was able to make a sophisticated device without raising suspicion. Furniture maker, jeweler, etcetera.” Hotch explains.

“Background in explosives?” asks Morrison.

“No, not necessarily. You’re thinking about a type that likes to blow things up. Gives them an emotional or sexual release. Death? Secondary.” Gideon explains.

“Then what’s this guy doing?” an officer asks.

“Murdering.” Gideon bluntly answers.

“Bombs? Just weapons. And these attacks, they are not random.”

“Well, how do you know that?” another officer questions.

“By process of elimination. We know bombers fall into a discreet number of categories according to motive. There’s the terrorist whose aim is to spread fear. We expect him to strike in a populous area like a subway. There’s the politically motivated bomber. He makes a statement by choosing a symbolic target like an abortion clinc. Then there’s our unsub. He made bombs designed to kill and he chose his victims specifically by placing the bombs at their stoops. That tells us he has a direct motive. Statistically, he bombs for profit or to conceal a crime.  And it tells us how we’re going to find him. Through the people he killed.” Hotch explained.

“Somewhere among the three victims, there is a direct motive. Keep digging.” Gideon says.

“Thanks.” Hotch says closing the meeting.

“If you have any questions, we’ll be around.”

Gideon then tells us he will be going to the prison to talk to Bale. Gideon asked Spencer to come with him. So as he was collecting his bag I said goodbye. Bale was an interesting man and what if he tried to hurt my Spency. I mean I doubt that Gideon would let him near the man but I was still worried.

“Be careful okay, I don’t know who I’m gonna have movie night Friday’s with.” I say to him.

“Don’t worry Percy. I’m a big boy. I’m also in the FBI in case you didn’t notice.” he responds.

I laugh “Whatever, stay safe. See ya when you get back.” I say then kiss his cheek quickly turning around and walking away to hide my blush. Hotch, Elle, JJ, and I all stay back to work on finding a suspect. We are sitting in a private board room to have a bit more quiet when JJ walks in.

“How we doing?” she asks.

“Frustrated.” Elle responds.

“I can’t see why anyone would want to kill a little old lady who collects cats and coins.”

“Unless somebody wanted the coins.” Hotch says.

“I spent a good chunk of my childhood looking for a 1994 penny worth thousands.”

We all stop and look at him. This was something I could maybe see Hotch doing. It was cute. When he realizes we’ve stopped working he looks up.

“Yes, I was a little bit of a nerd. Is that so surprising?” he asks.

I shake my head with a small smile as Elle says “Not to me.” as she gives JJ and I a look that says “not at all”. Then the phone rings. It's Derek with new information for us.

“Morgan?” Hotch asks.

“Yeah. I just got the lab results from the powder residues on the bombs. Ammonia nitrate, potassium chloride, and aluminum powder. Nobody uses that mixture, Hotch.” Derek explains.

“Nobody but Bale.” Hotch fires back.

“That’s right. And the closer I look at these things, the more they’re the same. Same weld pattern,  same switch assembly, same thread sizing. It’s weird, man.” Derek informs us.

“This guy’s not building bombs, he’s forging them. That’s the other reason I’m calling you. Bale wrote addresses on his packages in block letters with blue ink. I’m thinking our guy’s doing the same.”

“Ok. I’ll set up a press conference, make sure the public knows.” JJ says texting on her phone.

“Thanks, Morgan.” Hotch says hanging up.

Just as he was done with that call his phone rings and he steps away for a second while Elle and I continue to work.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

3rd Person POV at U.S. Penitentiary

Adrian Bale sits in his cell when his name is called. He has a visitor.

“You know why I’m here?” Gideon asks the man.

“This guy in Palm Beach, right?” Bale answers shrugging.

“The Palm Beach bomber. Somebody’s got to give him a better name.”

Gideon sighs “He uses your bombs, your designs.”

“Well, he should be careful. Those things are dangerous.” he says nonchalantly.

“Adrian...you can’t fool me.” Gideon says.

“If you’re involved in this in any way and you do not help me, I will make your life even worse than it is now.”

“Oh, but no, actually, I can fool you because I fooled you before. And now there’s another me out there, watching, waiting.” Bale responds.

NEXT CHAPTER

[chroniclesofamber]

THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER & History Lessons II

The first two books of Roger Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber — Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon — were written between 1967 and the early 1970s.  The Vietnam War cast a long shadow from the 1960s into the first years of the next decade.  In Nine Princes in Amber, for example, one of the most memorable episodes of action and conflict occurs in the seventh chapter:

“The sheets of light and heat flapped a steady, welling thunder as we ran, and the waves of warmth beat upon us, washed over us. Soon they were right there alongside us, and the trees blackened and the leaves flaked down, and some of the smaller trees began to sway.  For as far ahead as we could see, our way was an alley of fires…  We made it to the fork, though, beating out flames on our smoldering clothing, wiping ashes from our eyes…  We ran through burning grasses…  The interlocked branches of the trees overhead had become as the beams in a cathedral of fire…”

The Vietnam War was part of the nightly news back then.  Stories and images of napalm and agent orange falling upon the jungles of Southeast Asia were current at the time and the quote above would have resonated in the American consciousness.  But it was not just the horrors of war haunting America.  There was also civil unrest and a rebellious younger generation ready to take up arms against the old guard who had nourished the conflicts and tensions leading to the strife stretching from the ’60s into the ’70s.

After the baptism of fire experienced by narrator and main character Corwin — which concludes with the provident arrival of riflemen trained and led by him to defend Amber and position him as the kingdom’s effective ruler — he finds himself at the top of a society struggling with an uneasy and temporary peace.  Powerful foes have been unleashed upon the immortal city, and it looks like it may have been an inside job.  In fact, it may even be that Corwin himself has provided unintended assistance to the enemy.  This self-reflective attitude of examining one’s own role in the evils plaguing the world belonged very much to the troubling era which began with the assassination of President Kennedy and ended with the resignation of President Nixon.

SIGN OF THE UNICORN (1975)

History:  The longest gap between the publication of any of the books of The Chronicles of Amber:  three years.  An air of defeat hangs over America, as well as over places beyond.  The Club of Rome puts out its report “The Limits to Growth” and in 1974 the world population reaches four billion.  The Apollo 13 failure of 1970 has left its mark, followed by a decline in support for the program dooming the final three missions to cancellation.  Apollo 17 therefore sees the last men on the Moon in December of 1972, when one of the most popular photographs ever is taken — the iconic “Blue Marble” image of a nearly full Earth — and soon becomes an emblem of the environmental movement.  In contrast to the “Blue Marble,” in the summer of ’72 the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Napalm girl” photograph makes headlines, and less than a year later the last U.S. soldier leaves Vietnam subsequent to the Paris Peace Accords.  The war is over and the U.S. did not win it.

The war may be over, but deep problems remain — a description of the years during which Zelazny wrote Sign of the Unicorn, but also a description of the contents of the book itself.  “The Troubles” — as the conflict in Northern Ireland comes to be called — of the United Kingdom undergo a rapid escalation:  the British Army shoots dead 14 unarmed marchers on terrible Bloody Sunday; the British embassy in Dublin is burned down during rioting all over Ireland; bombs detonate in Whitehall and the Old Bailey; car bombs set by the Ulster Volunteer Force in Dublin and Monaghan kill 33 civilians and injure 300 others.

Meanwhile, a story just as big unfolds on the other side of the Atlantic:  Five White House operatives are arrested for the burglary of the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate Hotel.  Nixon orders special prosecutor Archibald Cox to be fired over his subpoena of recordings of incriminating White House conversations, but is eventually compelled by the Supreme Court to release the tapes.  Impeachment proceedings underway, the public and even members of the Republican Party against him, Nixon resigns in August of 1974 and the unelected Vice President, Gerald Ford, becomes President.  Likewise, Eric falls and Corwin steps in as the interim regent of an Amber reeling from war and internal strife, a state of affairs closely matching the condition of America as offered in Nixon’s resignation speech.

Lesson:  Corwin finds himself the target of an attempt to frame him for the murder of Caine, his brother Gérard pummels him in a fight and dangles him over a cliff, he is nearly stabbed to death in his suite only hours after Brand is knifed in similar fashion, in the misty city of ghosts known as Tir-na Nog’th he is attacked and comes perilously close to plummeting to his death.  In this context, the cautions of his sister Fiona regarding the dangers of wearing for too long the ultimate artifact of power, the Jewel of Judgment, take on new meaning.  She warns it can kill him.  The information possibly saves his life, as it persuades him to remove the Jewel when at the brink of death.  The lesson is bigger than that, however.  Corwin learns that power without knowledge or wisdom is dangerous and can be fatal, something which his brother Eric, as king, did not discover in time.

Journey:  It all begins with Corwin’s discovery of a crime and a corpse, which leads straight to his learning of Random’s attempt to rescue Brand from his tower.  And it ends with Corwin and Random, along with Ganelon, looking down upon the damaged Pattern (also the result of a crime, though they do not know that yet), just a day after Corwin’s meeting with a freshly rescued and recovered Brand.  Crimes call out for investigation and from the first pages of the first book Corwin has played the detective.  In the opening scene, Corwin has questions for Random and in the final scene he finally has some answers.  Now he knows from his interview with Brand that there was a conspiracy by the red-haired faction to seize Amber’s throne, that Dara is descended from Chaos and intended for that throne, that a game has been in progress where he has been but a useful knight and where the broken Pattern before him is the board upon which it has been played.

Watergate, Painful Endings...

...and Perhaps Resurrections — the Mid-’70s

“The sun was that great orb of molten gold we had seen earlier.  The sky was a deeper blue than that of Amber, and there were no clouds in it.  That sea was a matching blue, unspecked by sail or island.  I saw no birds, and I heard no sounds other than our own.  An enormous silence lay upon this place, this day.  In the bowl of my suddenly clear vision, the Pattern at last achieved its disposition upon the surface below.  I thought at first that it was inscribed in the rock, but as we drew nearer I saw that it was contained within it—gold-pink swirls, like veining in an exotic marble, natural-seeming despite the obvious purpose to the design… A dark, rough-edged smudge had obliterated an area of the section immediately beneath us, running from its outer rim to the center.”

Dark times are depicted in Sign of the Unicorn amidst the darkest days of the Seventies.  OPEC launches its oil embargo, soon doubling the price of crude, all just after the dollar has been devalued 10%.  A recession affecting most of the world ensues, and the oil crisis does not wind down until 1974.  Cults, destructive to themselves and often to others, appear in newspapers and on television.  The Manson Family is sentenced, the Symbionese Liberation Army abducts and brainwashes heiress Patty Hearst, the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult is founded near San Diego.

Violent groups on the radical left, however, are increasingly foiled and contained:  the Baader-Meinhof Red Army Faction is arrested; the Japanese Red Army, in decline after the Lod Airport attack, is defunct as an independent organization within a year of the attack; the Angry Brigade ends its run in a British courtroom. 

At the same time, the political left makes gains:  Labour’s Harold Wilson returns as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom; Helmut Schmidt of the Social Democratic Party becomes Chancellor of West Germany after a spy scandal brings down his predecessor; centrist Valéry Giscard d’Estaing succeeds Pompidou as President of France; the Carnation Revolution overthrows Portugal’s dictatorship and restores democracy; the Democratic Party logs historic victories in the House, Senate and state Governorships.  The Old Bailey sees the first woman serve as a judge, the U.S. Congress sends the ERA to the states for ratification, women are finally admitted to Dartmouth College, the FBI hires women as agents for the first time, equal pay for women is mandated in Australia — liberal politics enjoys a resurgence during this period.

Whether intentional or not, the revolutionary red-haired cabal of Amber mirrors the restless idealists of the times, violent and otherwise, hoping to institute change.  The overreach by forces on the right, responsible for the deaths of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King Jr., at last seems to come full circle with the resignation of Nixon and a national rejection of the authoritarian wielding of autocratic power.  As already suggested, the hubris Eric demonstrates (like Nixon) in crowning himself king and regularly resorting to the most dramatic powers of the Jewel of Judgment brings him to his death on the slopes of Kolvir.

Eric has died, yet while Corwin and Brand both tread recklessly close to death they instead return bearing valuable new information — and, in one case, an enchanted mechanical arm — introducing the theme of resurrection and restoration.  The Vietnam War at last is over, the crisis of the Nixon presidency has ended; the world is nowhere near out of the woods, but these events provide scope for respite and relief, and perhaps…hope?  Vietnam and Watergate have together represented a perpetual storm cloud over America, a weight upon the world.  The oil crisis has been harrowing, but soon leads directly to alternative energy R&D and long-needed improvements in automobiles.  The world is still beset with sweeping, deep-seated problems, and the clouds have not truly cleared, but rays of hope are breaking through to shine on both beautiful inspirations and stark realities, much as the brilliant sun of the real Amber illuminates the broken Pattern in the final scene of Sign of the Unicorn.

“‘Then—looking for congruence—that would be about where our own Pattern lies,’ [Random said as we regarded the oval area of smooth, level rock].

‘Yes,’ I said again.

‘And that blotted area is to the south, from whence comes the black road.’

I nodded slowly as the understanding arrived and forged itself into a certainty.

‘What does it mean?’ he asked.  ‘It seems to correspond to the true state of affairs, but beyond that I do not understand its significance.  Why have we been brought here and shown this thing?’

‘It does not correspond to the true state of affairs,’ I said.  ‘It is the true state of affairs.’”

[...to be continued in a future post...]

[the-penny-dreadfuls]

Long before the days when Casey Anthony, OJ Simpson, and the Manson family dominated headlines and captivated audiences with their lurid tales, there was the 1836 murder of a high end prostitute in New York City. It had all of the hallmarks of a hit crime novel: beauty, wealth, and a seemingly never ending supply of scandal. The case was highly documented within New York Newspapers and far beyond, down to every last gritty detail. It would pave the way for a newly forming type of journalism; tabloids, or known during that time period as “penny papers”. At the center of it all was Helen Jewett.

Before there was a Helen Jewett, there was Dorcas Dayen. Dorcas was born on October 18th, 1813 in Temple, Maine to a working class family. Her beginnings were humble, and her childhood marred by tragedy. At a young age, Dorcas lost her mother. Her father was an alcoholic, and had troubles providing care for his young daughter. After her father’s death, the girl was sent off to work at the age of twelve or thirteen. She found a place within the home of Chief Justice Nathan Weston of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, where she worked as a maid. Although she was considered to be an employee, Weston paid to have Dorcas educated. She was a quick learner, and excelled in her studies. Through this, she discovered a great joy in reading novels.

With each passing year, Dorcas grew into an attractive young woman. Her beauty and grace was of local legends. It was reported that she first became sexually active around the age of sixteen or seventeen. There are varying stories on how this happened. Some are thought it was young shop keeper or banker that first stole Dorcas’ heart. Many others went for a much more sensational tale. They speculated it was the Chief Justice, Nathan Weston, who was the first to seduce the teenager. The story was apparently widely known to the public. The pair insisted she was eighteen at the time. After Dorcas was dismissed from her duties at the Weston household, thus saving the judge from any repercussions or further public speculation. That was all fine and well for Dorcas. She was ready for a new, adventurous life.

Once she left the Weston home, Dorcas took up with a new lover. The relationship lasted a few months until she broke it off, and moved to Portland, Maine, where she found work in a brothel. Shortly after came another change. Dorcas decide to move on to Boston, and transformed herself into Helen Mar. Her Boston stint lasted up to six months before Helen was ready to move again. She found herself the perfect place; New York City. With another new home came another new name. Helen Mar was now known as Helen Jewett.

Contrary to the conservative standards at that time, Helen had no qualms about living a proactive lifestyle. She openly flaunted her sexuality, and relished in the attention men gave her. While in New York, Helen met Rosina Townsend, who gave the young woman a job in her luxury brothel as a courtesan. The brothel was located in downtown Manhattan, making it the ideal place to entice the best of New York. Her alluring beauty and charming personality won her a fine list of clients that consisted of the most prestigious and wealthy politicians, lawyers, and businessmen in the city. One of Helen’s favorite clients was a young man named Richard Robinson. At Townsen’s brothel he went by the name Frank Rivers to help hide his true identity, as it was commonly practised. The girls found him to be quite handsome, and gave him the nick name of “Pretty Frank”.

Jewett and Robinson began to spend time together outside of the brothel. When they were apart, they would write letters. Although the relationship seemed to be a happy one to Helen, Robinson decided to put an end to their relationship on April 7th, 1836. He greatly loathed Helen’s profession. He was considered to be an upstanding member of society, and so he told her that he needed to find another, more respectable woman to be with. Helen became furious. She threatened to publically humiliate Robinson if he left her. Three days later it would all come to a head.

It was an unusually cool April that year. A late snow storm had blown in during those first days of the month, but as the weekend approached it had grown warmer. There was a light drizzle Saturday evening, leaving the city in a cold and dreary state. In the early morning hours of Sunday, April 10th Rosina Townsen was woken by someone knocking on her door of her first floor bedroom. It was a man asking to be let out of the front entry way. It was a rule of Townsend to lock the front door at midnight, and any late-night customers who were not sleeping over had to be escorted out after by the woman they were with. This was to help prevent theft.

Without rising from her bed, Townsen shouted back, “Get your woman to let you out!”

At the 3 AM there was another loud knock, this time coming from outside the street door. Townsend got out of bed to see who was arriving at such an odd hour. She pulled back the curtains and looked out the window, which was facing the front steps. It was a regular customer. He claimed to have a scheduled appointment with Elizabeth Salters, one of the girls. Townsend allowed him to come in, and the customer disappeared upstairs to the second floor, where Salters’ room was located. As the man walked away, she noticed something out of place. There was supposed to be globe lamps sitting on a marble table at the end of the hallway. That night there was only one. She found it to be very peculiar, and being one to keep the safety of her girls a first priority, Townsend decided to investigate.

In the parlor she found the door to the backyard was left open. She went outside to see if anyone was there. It was a large area, with a garden, sitting area, and an outdoor privy. Townsend reasoned that it must be a customer or one of the girls had gone out to use the bathroom. She went back inside, locked the door, and decided to go upstairs to find who had taken the lamp. She checked the first bedroom, which was expectantly locked. She tried the door to the back east bedroom that belonged to Helen. It was unlocked. As Townsend pushed the door open, dark clouds of smoke came billowing out. Pandemonium began. Townsend began to run down the halls, knocking on all of the other doors to wake the girls and their clients.

“Fire!” she screamed.

Townsend’s cries were heard by two watchmen, who came quickly running to their aide. Many of the people inside had already made it out, safe. Rosina and a girl named Maria Stevens bravely faced the fire, and went in to save Helen. Once inside the bedroom, the two women found themselves in a scene of horror. The source of the fire was Helen’s bed. By the time they had arrived it had been reduced to a smoldering mess. Helen was still lying in her bed, dead. Part of her body had been badly charred, and her nightgown was reduced to nothing more than ash. Three large, deep gashes marked her forehead. Blood from the wounds had heavily soaked into her pillow. Someone had murdered Helen Jewett.

Jewett had a client that night, but the man was nowhere to be seen. He had arrived that even, wearing a dark cloak, and quickly upstairs to see his mistress. Both women recognized the man to be “Pretty Frank”, also known as Richard Robinson.

The cloak Robinson had been wearing was later found out side the brothel by the two watchmen. Nearby was a blood stained hatchet. A more thorough investigation of the body would reveal a deep cut leading down Helen’s neck, to the lower abdomen which sliced into several organs. Her lungs were clean of smoke, showing that she had died before being set on fire. The head wounds were ruled to be the cause of death, likely done by the hatchet that was found at the scene. Because of the lack of struggle and her seemingly peaceful expression, it was believed that Helen had died in her sleep.

Police promptly arrested Richard Robinson in the murder. They did all that they could to get a confession, but Robinson would not budge. He maintained his innocence. Robinson was confident that he would go free, and passed the time in jail by smoking. Investigators found the man’s lack of emotion to be disturbing. With that in mind, as well as all of their physical evidence, they believed they had the killer.

The trial was a whirlwind of madness. New York journalists fought to report on any bit of information related to Jewett or Robinson they could find. Nothing was too minuscule, and nothing had to be completely factual. Rosina Townsend, as well as anyone else who knew the two, offered interviews to any paper that would listen. During the trial, papers printed illustrations of court room action scenes, complete with dialogue from the lawyers and the defendant. Some issues included sinister drawings of how artists believed the crime occurred. The case was an absolute money maker. Soon, reporters from all over the states to flocked to New York to report on the scandalous case. This would be the first event of its kind.

From the start, the prosecutors were fighting an uphill battle. Prostitutes were considered to be one of the lowest rung of society. The defense claimed they could not be trusted, and because of this all of the testimony against Robinson that had come from Townsend and her girls was thrown out. The evidence of letters exchanged between Helen and Richard, as well as his diary was also now allowed in court. It took only half an hour for the jury to come back with a verdict. Richard Robinson was found not guilty of the murder of Helen Jewett.

After the trial, Robinson packed up and moved to down to Texas. He lived for two more years until he passed away from a fever. Helen Jewet’s case was never solved.

[alivingfire]

Ohmygod I love podcasts!!! Can you rec me some? It's hard to find good ones sometimes.

YES! I CAN! 

i’ve been knee deep in podcasts for about three months now, and i have, apparently, wide and varying interests, so i’ll put a little descriptor of each. also, i listen to podcasts on the Stitcher app, but i think all of these are on itunes if you prefer that, and i linked the websites if you want more info. 

DARK STUFF

my favorite murder - this is 100% my favorite podcast now, but the first time i listened to it, i had to switch it off. start from the newest episodes, get a feel for it, and then you can go back and start at episode one, which is still interesting but before the hosts really find their footing. basically, karen and georgia are two friends who love true crime, so they talk about their favorite weird murders and mysteries. it’s dark, but it’s also really funny (they’re both comedians) and i think they learned to really strike a balance between jokes and the serious stuff. they’re also super feminist – their sign-off at the end of each episode is “stay sexy, don’t get murdered.” 

someone knows something - canadian investigative journalist david ridgen tackles unsolved mysteries, one story per season. if you like documentaries, you’ll like how this podcast is set up. ridgen interviews witnesses, friends, families, police officers – basically everyone around the cases he’s looking into. it unfolds like a story and you really feel like you’re right in the middle of it. you don’t have to start at season one, but definitely start at episode one of whichever season you pick, because these are episodic and won’t make sense if you go backwards. 

lore - this podcast is SO GOOD, and it’s actually just been turned into a short miniseries on amazon prime that is incredibly creepy and well done. lore is written by a horror author, aaron mahnke, who takes you through the scariest stories and legends, and how they came to be part of our world. the first episode is about vampires, and it legitimately has such a twist ending that i screamed. if you like spooky, mythology and legend and history-based stuff, this is the best. 

LEARN STUFF

literature and history - think about your favorite dorky teacher who makes ridiculous jokes and is so. genuine about learning and teaching that you get interested in the subject because he’s so interested in the subject. now imagine that guy was a harvard professor who totally knows his shit and he starts a podcast. starting from the beginning of history, this guy takes you through the pieces of writing that have changed the world. he’s super soothing and i’ve already read a couple of books he recommended. definitely start at episode one for this one, chronology is important and he builds on each episode. 

no such thing as a fish - if you like dry british humor and trivia, this is the one you’ll want. the writers of the super famous british panel show QI (the show stephen fry hosted) talk about their favorite random facts that they discovered and researched that week. super funny, and you’re still learning. 

good night stories for rebel girls - if you are a strong woman or love strong women or want to someday be a strong woman, listen to this podcast. this is still relatively new, but the format is amazing: the writers and hosts turned the stories of real women throughout history into fairytales. incredibly inspiring, and you get to learn about awesome women you might have only vaguely heard of. 

nancy - the best lgbtq podcast you could ask for. lgbtq people, stories, histories, pop culture, and interviews that will absolutely have you bawling. this is an NPR podcast, so it’s interview-heavy, but the subjects are handled well and there’s no queer tragedy here, it’s all very hopeful and realistic without being pessimistic. 

ENTERTAINMENT STUFF

ID10T - this used to be called nerdist, and it’s hosted by chris hardwick, the guy who used to host @midnight on comedy central. basically, hardwick and either his cohosts or a famous person – as of this post, the last guest was antonio banderas – talk about ~~nerd things of the week: movies, comics, video games, tv shows, etc. etc. it’s basically just pop culture, at this point (because video games aren’t just for nerds anymore, kiddos), but what’s fun about it is that hardwick is incredibly unapologetic about absolutely loving the things he loves. it’s more fun to listen to this guy geek out about stuff than listening to other people find ways to criticize the things you love, i promise.  

gilmore guys - pretty much what it says on the tin - two guys watch gilmore girls and talk about each episode. you’re probably wondering why you would want to listen to some random guys talking about a show you (presumably) love, but they’re really careful to stay away from anything mansplain-y or judgmental. one of the guys, kevin, is a huge gilmore girls fan, and the other host, demi, is watching for the first time, so it’s interesting to hear their discussions, especially regarding race, homophobia, and a lot of other issues that the the show writers tiptoe around. definitely don’t start at season one for this show – it’s super rough and there’s even a little minute-long intro on the very first episode that says so. start at about season three, there’s not a lot you’ll miss and they’ve got a rhythm down by that point. 

STRAIGHT UP STORIES 

welcome to night vale - if you’ve been anywhere near podcasts or, tbh, tumblr, for the last few years, you’re probably at least slightly aware of WTNV. in all honesty, it lives up to the hype. it’s not scary so much as unsettling, very southwest gothic and supernatural. WNTV is the story of a strange town in the middle of the desert, told to you by cecil, the town’s local radio broadcaster. cecil tells you all about what’s going on in night vale, from the shadowy city council who sends monsters after people they disagree with, to the radio station’s cat floating in the bathroom, to old woman josie’s angels that hang out in her house. it’s interesting because, underneath all the unsettling creepiness, it’s super feminist, super pro-lgbtq rights, and super anti-authority/anti-establishment. if nothing else, cecil’s voice is one of the most soothing of all the podcast voices, and the quality of the writing and acting is superb from episode one. 

wooden overcoats - hands down one of the funniest dramedies i’ve ever seen or listened to. wooden overcoats is the story of a tiny british island, where brother and sister rudyard and antigone funn run the island’s only funeral home, at least until a guy named eric chapman moves his own funeral home in right across the street and ruins everything for them. everyone, from the mayor down to antigone herself, falls head over heels for chapman, and rudyard has to find a way to keep the family business running even though he’s not very good at his job and would prefer to do as little as possible. the voice acting is SUPERB, and i genuinely mean it’s hilarious, with lots of gallows humor and funny timing. 

the penumbra podcast - the penumbra is a hotel in the middle of nowhere, and every person staying there has a story. some of the stories are one-offs, and some of them, like the story of juno steel, space private eye, are recurring. it’s very old-timey radio style, lots of noir monologues and humphrey bogart-esque one-liners. some of the early episodes are rough, but they’ve actually gone back and re-recorded the juno steel ones, so they’ll be the best to start with. 

the bright sessions - do you like superheroes? do you like the dark side of superhero stories, where people with powers have to deal with being different and strange and emotional all while trying not to accidentally time travel or read someone else’s mind? this one’s for you. the bright sessions are therapy sessions between dr. bright and her patients, who are atypicals, or, basically, superheroes without the spandex. dr. bright helps her patients work on controlling their powers, all while a shady secret government organization watches overhead. you’ll want to start from episode one on this story, but you’ll probably immediately have a favorite patient. 

the bridge - another not so creepy, but more unsettling podcast. set in a slightly-different alternate universe where there’s a hundreds-of-miles-long bridge that stretches across the atlantic ocean from the united states to europe, you join a bored traffic reporter as she tells stories from other watch towers and stations along the bridge, which, after decades of use, is mostly abandoned. all the while, creepy stuff starts happening on her watch, and she and the other bridge employees have to figure out if they’re really in danger, or if they’ve been at sea too long. 

the truth - a lot like the penumbra podcast, the truth is a collection of short stories, acted out like actual movies. the first one caught and hooked me – what would’ve happened if apollo 11 didn’t land on the moon, and instead became the first space tragedy? the stories are (again, i have a pattern) dark but funny, and they’re incredibly creative. 

PODCASTS I HAVEN’T STARTED, BUT THAT ARE ON MY LIST: 

you must remember this - classic stories from the classic hollywood era, from marilyn monroe to charles manson and a lot more early stars we’ve completely forgotten about. 

wolf 359 - stories set in a space station floating out in the middle of nowhere, the crew of wolf 359 search for alien life and try not to die lightyears away from home. 

alice isn’t dead - made by the creators of welcome to night vale, so i’m sure this is good. alice is a truck driver who has to road trip around the country (and beyond) to find her missing wife.

the podcast history of our world - a lot like literature & history, this guy is just so excited to teach that he makes you excited to learn. he’s also really good about covering underrepresented people, which is more interesting than learning yet again about history from the side of colonizers.

EOS 10 - i have at least listed to the first episode of this, so i can confirm what everyone says: this is basically the show scrubs, set in space. a lot of doctors who think they know what they’re doing but are really on their own with no clue what to do.

heaven’s gate - more true crime! heaven’s gate was a cult that committed mass suicide in 1997. the host dives into the lives of the cult members to prove that anyone could’ve been caught up in the story.

if anyone has any recs, i’m happy to add to my list!

[diemetzgermeisterin]

Hannibal tag

Thank you for the tag @catatonicemotions what a fun tag! <3

Books, Movies, or T.V. show: T.V. show

Favorite Character: Absolutely Hannibal. No question about that. I’ve always been intrigued by serial killers and psychopaths and Hannibal is such an interesting one

Favorite moment of the entire franchise: The episode “Tome-wan” were Hannibal makes Mason feed his own face to Will’s dogs. The dude had it coming 

Favorite quote of the entire franchise: “With all my knowlegde and intrusion I could never entirely predict you. I can feed the caterpillar and I can whisper through the chrysalis, but what hatches, follows its own nature and is beyond me.”

Fight scene you’d want to see on NBC’s Hannibal: Honestly I would love to see Hannibal and Will fight. 

Alternative theme song to NBC’s Hannibal: Devour by Marilyn Manson. I always found the lyrics so fitting to them: “And I’ll love you, if you let me And I’ll love you, if you won’t make me starve”

Favorite book from the series: Red Dragon

Favorite movie from the series: Red Dragon

Favorite episode from NBC’s Hannibal: Season 1 episode 8 “Fromage”. I mean, the epic fight between Hannibal and Tobias and afterwards Hannibal saying to Will “I was worried you were dead” and then Will saying “I feel like I’ve dragged you into my world.” and  then Hannibal saying “ I got here on my own. But I appreciate the company.” and then the smiles and hearteyes 

Hannibal Season 4, yes or no: A BIG FUCKING YES

Alternative hobbies to replace Hannibal’s cannibalism: Maybe a healthier coping mechanism like, uhm… posting sad poetry on Tumblr

Alternative animals for Will to collect: Something smaller, so perhaps spiders or tiny bugs

Animal (mythical or real) you’d tattoo on your back like Francis Dolarhyde: Hmm, either a moth or an owl

What brought you into the fandom; books, movies, or T.V. series: My coworker forced me to watch the T.V. series and I sold my soul to this fandom shortly after. I had seen the movies, though its been years and I didnt really care for them other than Hannibal’s character, so I have to rewatch them soon

Least Favorite scene from the entire franchise: The moment Chilton got shot in the face by Miriam Lass. I felt so bad for him and I really love his character. Chilton deserved better

Add Clarice to NBC’s Hannibal, yes or no: As a love interest of Hannibal, no. I don’t really care for her, but that might be because I didnt enjoy the movies when I watched them years ago. 

Favorite killer of the week: Abel Gideon. I thought the tongue neck ties and organs tied to a tree were very funny

Hannibal invites you to a dinner party, you…: Go out and buy fancy clothes because I cant just show up to his house in the clothes I regularly wear haha

Your reaction to Mizumono (S2 finale): I had to rewatch it because I did not get what was happening when I watched it the first time and I was so suprised. Then when I rewatched it immediately after I started bawling my eyes out because the heartbreak was so apparant on Hannibal’s face and I just wanted them to be happy

Your reaction to The Wrath of The Lamb (S3 finale): I cried because it was just so beautiful. I felt so at peace with the ending. And can we talk about “Love Crime”?? That song took my breath away and has become one of my favorite songs ever

Im tagging: @madsmeetsmisha @whimsy-by-joja @active-imagination @fhimechan @chillychan @brokenfannibal @fancyoats

[artificialqueens]

orange is the new drag (group fic) - comeapart

a/n: the title is incredibly misleading this isn’t a oitnb au it’s just prisonfic. this is the kind of fic you shouldn’t read when you’re already sad. please read the warnings before reading. please leave feedback if you want to see more, because if it bombs i’ll just drop it and write something else haha

Rupaul Charles Federal Correctional Institution had a reputation. Between the few personal items the inmates were allowed and the standard issue grey and orange, it was the only talking point left. Everyone had different reputations, but there were a few that stood out, even between the similar groups of the prison blocks.

Danny Noriega was the baby of the B-Block. Nobody had figured out how he had managed to achieve universal likeability, but it was clear in the attention he got from others and even guards that he was one of the lucky ones, visible in eyes that hadn’t quite lost their colour yet. Sutan Amrull was essentially the Charles Manson of the B-Block; the cult leader with a following ready to brand the sign of the Gemini into their skin with whatever they could find. Willam Belli was the unofficial king of the B-Block; the only person who had dirt on every single inmate and was fucked with by no one. These reputations came with power, the kind that attracted people to follow at beck and call. These reputations drew crowds.

Manila Luzon had a different type of reputation.

“I heard that fag killed a guy,” tended to be the way conversations turned when he walked past.

“I heard he tried to hang his ex. Hung and quartered or some shit. That one is real crazy, you can see it in his eyes. Fucker would probably kill you and leave your guts on the floor for the next guy to come and see, damn tranny exhibitionist,” someone said, correcting the other. The story was always somewhere along the right lines, but it wasn’t ever correct. The ambiguity of the whole situation gave Manila a little power, because the crime had been planned. Manila was a perfectionist, which was something that his boy persona had always lacked in the best of situations.

The reality of the crime had been that Manila had killed his boyfriend after he admitted to cheating and attacking his sister. The cheating wouldn’t have phased him, but Manila was always big on family values, and didn’t hesitate to spike his drink the next day after supposedly making up with him, putting to use the knife skills that boy scouts had once taught him. Everyone loved a story, but Manila didn’t doubt that if people knew the truth that he would lose some of the protection the secrecy gave him.

What people did know was that he killed, and he had succeeded to the point he had almost been able to prove herself innocent. If she hadn’t been seen by her neighbour, she probably would’ve been walking on the other side, with nicer clothes than the uncomfortable greys she was so used to. For someone who was constantly referred to as a fag, he generated an impressive amount of fear, especially because nobody could really figure out what had actually happened. Inmates and guards both tended to keep a little distance, and even the inmates who could have beat him in a fight tended to give him space when he walked past.

That was okay for Manila, though. He spent most of his time in the library, when he wasn’t allowed to be in his cell, reading up on the donated textbooks that left little to the imagination. There was no point in reading fiction in a place that had an overwhelming feeling of death in the halls. It was probably more dangerous, either way. Everyone took it as just another coping mechanism, just like how they had taken the fact he had used to be a drag queen. It was safe.

He had managed to spend most of the first six months keeping entirely to himself, buried in books and his cell, without actually starting any conversation. When it finally happened, once the books were starting to get old, it was none other than Willam Belli.

It hadn’t been a surprise to anybody that Willam had made the first move. People had their stories, but Willam had worse, and the theories that floated behind him hung heavy in the air. He was the kind of crazy that nobody could really understand, or fuck with, and he was a genius. Manila thought they were actually more similar than he wanted to believe, but there was no way he was set to have the same reputation that Willam held, so he kept quiet.

Willam had walked into the library as if he owned the place, and he might as well have, sitting on the desk and kicking his feet up onto one of the nicer chairs and staring at Manila. He pulled the book from in front of him, picking it up and reading over the first line before looking down at him and raising his brows. “You need all this math to figure out where you hide the bodies, or is this for fun?”

When Manila looked up, Willam had a grin full of teeth that looked too nice to be real. If he didn’t have a reputation which Manila was pretty sure could get him killed he would’ve ignored him, but because he wasn’t stupid, he looked up and answered. “This is for fun. If I was going to hide bodies, wouldn’t I be reading about gardening?”

“Oh nurse, that’s sick. You buried the body?” Willam laughed, shaking his head before putting the book back down in front of Manila.

“Yes. What else are you supposed to do with a dead body?”

“There are rumours that you ate it,” Willam grinned wider, and Manila wanted to laugh purely on how ridiculous it sounded coming from him. Who asked questions like that? It wasn’t exactly a normal conversation topic, and it wasn’t comforting in the slightest.

“I don’t think there are many health benefits in eating internal organs. Sorry,” Manila said quietly, looking back down at the book and turning the page. “I’m sure you can find someone who’s into that, though. I’ve heard there are plenty of killers here.”

“I guess, but I’m interested in you. Did you like it?” Willam was either a genius or a complete idiot, and Manila hated that whatever he was playing was working on him.

At the time, killing had been the best and only possible option. It was okay, because it was protecting others. It was protecting his family and it was good because it was stopping someone dangerous going back into the world without any punishment for the torment they had caused on another living creature. At the time, he hadn’t thought of what came after, other than the feel of flesh splitting under gloved hands and knives.

Manila just shook his head. “It isn’t that simple.”

Willam took the answer for what it was, eyes not straying once from Manila. “You wanna kill anyone else? You wanna kill me?”

“No,” Manila answered. It was simple, because if anything happened like that ever again, he wasn’t going to stay to let the feelings manifest into violence and destruction. Instead, he would see a therapist, or get a pet cat or something. If he avoided situations where it seemed reasonable, there was less of a chance of wanting to kill again.

Willam seemed to be happy with the answer, and with the fact he hadn’t hesitated. He nodded, reaching to touch Manila’s hand. Manila pulled away, but Willam still had the same grin as before plastered on his face. “So, I’m going to go. But I have a proposition for you.”

“Okay, shoot.”

“If you see me around, and I nod at you, nod back, ‘kay? Don’t need any sissy fags thinking you’re neutral. You want to be on my team, ladyboy. I’ll owe you one.”

“What?”

“If I nod to you, you nod back.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“And that’s it?” Manila wasn’t buying it. Whatever Willam wanted, it was more than just nodding, and Manila wasn’t about to get in a war with the white supremacists for a favour from Willam Belli. Most of his vices weren’t the kind you could trade for in prison, anyway.

“That’s it. Man, for a killer, you’re fucking dumb. People are freaked out by you, ‘cause you killed a dude with one of those pocket-knives or whatever, or maybe you didn’t but everyone thinks you did. And if you look like you’re on my team, people will think I’m scarier by proxy. I need it before the next batch of inmates transfer.”

“Oh. I guess I can do that, okay.”

“Awesome. See you around, Luzon. And stop looking so sad. You didn’t hear it from me, but I hear Sutan has a soft spot for boys who look like girls. Maybe you want to get in on that.”

“Isn’t he like… A cult leader?”

“I didn’t know you were picky with your violent, fucked up felons. Take what you can get,” Willam rolled his eyes, getting to his feet before smiling at him and adding, “You’ll do fine if you don’t let yourself rot up here.”

That had been it for the next few months, until the new inmates slowly started to fill the empty bunks, and Willam came back with more of a reputation than before. Since then, he had started to talk to Sutan on occasion and had lost all three cellmates since, all of them scared of him, begging the guards to switch them out on account of whatever rumour Willam had told them.

He felt like a monster, but it let him keep the safety that came with being avoided by most and that was more than enough for him. He didn’t want to be near any of the fights, or any of the drug dealers, and the fact that they didn’t want to be around him either was comforting. He wanted to leave and go home earlier than he was sentenced to, and to live a life that wasn’t haunted by his bad decisions. Anything to improve his quality of life was the ideal.

That was, until he was allocated a new roommate with as much of a reputation out as Manila had in. He didn’t like the name Brian, and he definitely didn’t like that he had managed to adapt to life in a prison cell as quickly as he had. There was a hint of jealousy when he heard the name of the person Brian had dragged down with him, another queen, and Manila was either going to become Alaska’s best friend or her worst nightmare.

[fatgirlsguidetodating]

Blog: Love behind bars; online dating for prisoners.

Maybe I’m old fashioned. Maybe I’m crazy. Maybe I’m old. Maybe I’m boring. But I truly don’t get the desire to pick a criminal’s profile to correspond with on a dating site. But it happens. Regularly enough for there to be a few sites catering to this need. One of my tweets even had a response from one of those sites offering free subscription or something. I didn’t take them up on the offer. Hell if I struggle to find a normal decent guy on the dating apps and sites I’m currently using why would I then look for love in prisons?

Take the example of Canadian killer Dustin Hales. He killed his wife while the lady both he and his wife had been having a relationship with watched. He was found guilty and given a life sentence with 17 years non parole. Now he’s on one of the dating sites for women on the outside to write to men inside called “Canadian Inmates Connect.” The majority of men on the site are openly looking for love or- at least- conjugal visits.

When asked why she set the site up founder Melissa Fazzina said she thought it could help promote rehabilitation by allowing the inmates the chance to forge and nurture positive connections in the outside world. Those working in the field cautiously agree.

“Almost anything that can create a sense of community and belonging upon release, or even while you’re in there, increases the possibility of a safe reintegration—because often these guys are coming out with nothing and nobody.”

Catherine Latimer, the executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada, a non-profit organization that works with offenders and promotes just and humane responses to crime, echoes this sentiment: “They’re in prison as punishment, not for punishment. They have a right to communicate with people. They have a right to have family and friends on the outside,” she says. (1)

It should also pointed out that even without the websites this sort of thing happens and has done for a long time. Consider Charles Manson, for example, who almost married his long time pen pal/fiancee. In England notorious inmate Charles Bronson, serving a life sentence, married a lady who wrote to him. Serial killer Richard Ramirez, the so-called Night Stalker, who murdered and dismembered 13 people in the 1980s, had no trouble finding a bride. Doreen Lioy started writing to Ramirez after falling for his picture in the paper. They were married in 1996 in the prison waiting room. Ted Bundy, a rapist-murderer who was suspected of murdering 35 young women, attracted gangs of admiring groupies who sat patiently through his court cases. Even John Wayne Gacy - not the most eligible man, with a history of drugging, raping and murdering 30 young men in Chicago - ended up marrying a woman he met while awaiting the death penalty. Even Josef Fritzl, who imprisoned his daughter in a purpose built cellar as his sex slave for 24 years, received hundreds of letters.

The cliche of the prison bride as trailed trash with peroxide dyed hair and a cigarette hanging out her mouth with a vocabulary that consists mainly of swear words is actually misguided. Research has shown these women all come from different backgrounds, different socioeconomic classes, different professions, different levels of education. Some were married, some weren’t. Some had kids, some didn’t. Carlos the Jackal become engaged to his lawyer last year. The famous Glasgow hard man Jimmy Boyle married a psychiatrist he met in prison. But it does make us ask why?

From the research I’ve done quite often serial killers or those who have committed a crime- or crimes plural- are often inundated with “fan mail”. And often the letters are super sexually explicit, contain naked photos, and proposals of marriage. From what I can gather all too often the women want to try and understand the man behind the monster, perhaps even to help them find redemption. What makes someone do this? Are they lonely and in search of emotional dependence from a captive audience? Or manipulative sociopaths living vicariously through ‘celebrity’ prisoners? Are they turned on by the fame that these ‘celebrity’ prisoners gain? Do they have their own issues- psychological or otherwise- that makes these men attractive to them? Englishman Alex Cavendish, former inmate and currently a social anthropologist, cites a few reasons.

Major factors to consider are dependency and control. “Dependence works both ways - financial for many prisoners, particularly those who don’t have family ties, as well as emotional.” He explains. In describing the type of women who write to prisoners he says, "I’ll be honest and say that a fair few of the female correspondents are lonely women who often have body-image concerns (many of those whose photos I’ve seen tend to be overweight.) They feel perhaps that a prisoner is likely to be less judgmental and more appreciative of any support - emotional and/or financial.” Of course it’s not all about love. Many women (and men) choose to reach out simply to provide friendship and compassion to those behind bars. Their actions provide a much welcome lifeline, a window to the outside world. (2)

A book called "Women who love men who kill” author Sheila Isenberg examines the idea of prison lovers and it seems that my feelings of why are common. Family and friends, even strangers, genuinely are bewildered at why women would put themselves in such a complex situation. (2)

She also explains that most often these women are damaged- they’ve been hurt in the past; they’ve been sexually abused, psychologically, emotionally abused. So a relationship with a man in prison leaves the woman in control. He’s locked away, he can’t hurt you, you decide when to visit him, you even decide whether or not to accept his collect phone calls. So they feel safer. (3)

Issenberg cites an example of a British woman who has been engaged to several death-row inmates in the USA, all of whom have since been executed. Yet she, and many of these women, claim they didn’t specifically chose the course for themselves. Karen Richey’s partner, for instance, is on death row in Ohio. Karen says that she wasn’t looking for a love affair when she made contact with Kenny, a 38-year-old Scot: “My war cry is that I only wanted to be a pen pal. Kenny insists this is going to be on my grave stone.” (4)

There is a condition known as hybristophilia (often referred to as “Bonnie and Clyde syndrome) which Wikipedia defines as "a paraphilia in which sexual arousal, facilitation and attainment of sexual orgasm are responsive to and contingent upon being with a partner known to have committed an outrage, cheating, lying, known infidelities or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery. ” Don’t get me wrong- we all have had the bad boy phase at some point in our lives but I think this is taking it a bit too far.

The thing is though that the fantasy of these types of romances rarely matches the reality. For starters physical contact us obviously limited thus they often never progress past the courting stage. The men spend their days exercising or working in their prison jobs and in the evening writing letters to the women or trying to phone them. They are more compliant and attentive than they would be on the outside because the women send money, pay for their legal representation and afford them the tremendous parole advantage of a permanent address as well as the fact there are little female distractions whilst locked up.

Clinical Psychologist Dr Stuart Fischoff likens it thus; “The love object is almost irrelevant at this point. [The prisoner] is a dream lover, a phantom limb.” (2) Prison relationships therefore seem to retain the intoxicating elements of the “honeymoon period” of all relationships, where that first endorphin-flush of love always involves a degree of transference; whereby we all see our partners as we hope them to be, imagining that the love object embodies the qualities we crave. The excuses the women give for their partner’s alleged crimes operate as in all other relationships. They do what we all sometimes do when faced with negative information about loved ones: they refuse to believe it. They aren’t having to ask the men to pick up their dirty socks or put the toilet seat down.

When it comes to how these women dealt with the knowledge they were in love with someone who’d committed a terrible crime found ways to rationalise it or mitigate the crime and excuse it. For example: he didn’t really mean to be that murderer. In the course of interviewing women for her book Issenberg cited one woman who said, 'He was awkward and when the door hit him in the arm, the gun went off.’ And another one who said, 'His friends were all drinking and doing drugs and he got carried away and he didn’t mean to do it.’ (3)

So how do these dating sites for men behind bars work? Well they are like dating profiles on conventional dating sites. There’s a photograph, a short bio, hobbies and interests. The only difference in this part is the details of their incarceration. Again like conventional sites women pick the guy they like the look and sound of and start writing to them, building a rapport and hopefully a romantic relationship.

“Love a Prisoner” claims to have a “75% compatibility rating for those looking for their soul mate” – including inmates on death row. “Our mission is to give inmates a sense of hopefulness by connecting them to people on the ‘outside world’,” the website states. (5)

The forums on "Write a prisoner” give insight into what the women are looking for. They include things such as chatty prisoners, ones who don’t ask for money, and ones who haven’t committed sex crimes. The women have also slammed claims they are “groupies” of men who have committed vile acts. (5)

“Meet-an-Inmate” claims to be ranked #1 among prison pen pal websites and has been helping inmates connect with the outside world since 1988. They claim it’s a free, easy way to brighten up an inmates day but stress they are NOT a dating service. (6) However despite this romantic feelings can- and do- develop. There have been quite a few marriages from the site over the years. The founder, Arlen Bischke, explained that many prisoners get cut off from their family and friends so correspondence can really brighten their day. (7)

Christian Science Monitor reported that the online prisoner dating industry has grown from humble beginnings. Leading sites now boast “between 7,000 and 10,000 ads” and ABC News claim there are over a dozen major prisoner dating sites now. (7)

In conclusion I must admit to a certain fascination with true crime. I’ve got two shelves on my bookshelf dedicated to the genre after having discovered it during my undergrad legal degree and then my postgrad in criminology, as well as my time working in prosecution and the courts for the government. Shows about true crimes fascinate me. I devoured “making a murderer” (and read Jereme Butings book about that and the illusion of justice for indigent defendants which is pretty much the same in Australia these days given legal aid cuts mean cases are means tested and if they don’t think there’s a chance of winning they won’t take it purely because of lack of resources) and am loving “murder uncovered.” I’ve read a heap of books on Ivan Milat, Julian Knight, Bradley Murdoch and the infamous “underbelly” underworld crime spree. But would I then think to myself okay I’m going to write to these guilty criminals and maybe start some kind of friendship that could perhaps grow into a relationship? Hell no I don’t. (NB: I don’t believe that Steve Avery of MAM fame was guilty but that’s beside the point here.) I have no desire to want to correspond with killers, with men who will likely die in prison, let alone try and fall in love with them! Not only would it be an unequal and strange relationship but there would be no point. Plus the little fact that I don’t get turned on by men who could kill another human being with scant regard, or no regard, for the sanctity of life and the pain and suffering it would consequently create. And though I’ve really tried to understand the women who do this while researching and writing this blog post, and whilst I even partly understand some of the reasoning in bits, I just don’t get it. Love behind bars is just not for me.

Fatgirl.

Sources:

(1) https://www.vice.com/en_au/article/inside-the-matchmaking-service-for-murderers-rapists-and-violent-offenders

(2) https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/dating-a-prisoner-what-attracts-people-on-the-outside-to-fall-in-love-with-convicted-criminals-10326587.html%3Famp

(3) https://www.google.com.au/amp/attn-google-amp.herokuapp.com/stories/6268/why-women-fall-in-love-prison-inmates

(4) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/13/gender.uk

(5) https://www.google.com.au/amp/s/www.thesun.co.uk/living/2907384/women-who-send-love-letters-to-prisoners-reveal-what-they-look-for-in-a-jailbird-pen-pal/amp/

(6) http://www.meet-an-inmate.com/

(7) http://thegrio.com/2011/12/20/online-sites-for-dating-men-in-prison-1/

Other sources:

https://www.google.com.au/amp/jezebel.com/5755106/women-who-marry-prisoners-arent-just-crazy-ladies/amp

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/10665003/Murderous-love-Why-are-so-many-women-aroused-by-serial-killers.html

http://m.topix.com/forum/city/cape-girardeau-mo/TPEUTFH8HOOU5H9AF

Sites to meet prisoners (if you’re brave enough….)

http://www.conjugalharmony.com/

http://loveaprisoner.com/

https://www.prisondatingsite.com/

http://www.femaleprisonpals.com/

http://www.writeaprisoner.com/

http://www.prisonpenpals.net/

[lindyhunt]

Why Are We so Obsessed With Cults Right Now?

As a child of the ’90s, I was first exposed to our collective train-wreck-like fascination with cults in the spring of 1997, when 39 members of Heaven’s Gate took their own lives in San Diego, believing it would get them onto an alien spacecraft. And growing up in Quebec, I’d often hear about the high-profile publicity stunts of Raelians, whose followers believe that life on earth was scientif­ically engineered by an extraterrestrial species named the Elohim. The free-love-minded Raelians would distribute condoms at the entrance to high schools, claim to have cloned the first full human being and organize internships that taught the fundamentals of a cosmic and orgasm-inducing meditation technique.

Having what’s arguably the world’s largest UFO-based religion in my own backyard—the Raelian movement set up its world embassy UFOland compound just outside Valcourt, Que.—made me wonder about the kinds of people who relinquish some of their critical-thinking faculties in the hopes of achieving a greater sense of purpose and belonging. Lawrence Wright, author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, argues that all humans are vulnerable but cult adherents are particularly reliant on absolutes. “I’ve always been interested in religions and why people believe one idea rather than another,” he explains in the documentary based on his book. “I’ve studied Jonestown and radical Islam; there are often good-hearted people, idealistic but full of a kind of crushing certainty that eliminates doubt.”

“I’ve studied Jonestown and radical Islam; there are often good-hearted people, idealistic but full of a kind of crushing certainty that eliminates doubt.”

From the terrifying desert commune of the Manson Family to the spiritual rehabilitation of A-list celebs drawn to Scientology, pop culture has long been obsessed with the plight of those willing to blindly subscribe to a fringe ideology. And lately the topic of cults seems to be beckoning our attention at every turn, with Netflix’s much-talked-about true crime series Wild Wild Country, about the controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; Hulu’s fictional cult drama The Path; “I Admit,” R. Kelly’s 19-minute R&B response to allegations that he ran a sex cult; and the impending high-profile trials of the members of NXIVM, another sex cult in upstate New York, now linked to Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman and Smallville actress Allison Mack. That’s without mentioning American Horror Story’s cult-themed seventh season and HBO’s Rapture-esque The Leftovers, which features Liv Tyler as part of a chain-smoking, blasé-looking all-white-clad cult known as the Guilty Remnant.

So why this sudden spike in cultish entertainment? Commenting on Wild Wild Country’s recent Emmy nods and broader cultural resonance, executive producer Mark Duplass told Deadline that he loves how viewers are able to identify with the series’s niche religious movement, given that “nobody in this country is identifying with anyone right now who doesn’t believe exactly as they do.” And he has a point. The rapid polarization of political discourse in the United States and also abroad is making people less inclined to feel any empathy for those with differing world views and more likely to retreat even further into their extremist enclaves.

The rapid polarization of political discourse in the United States and also abroad is making people less inclined to feel any empathy for those with differing world views and more likely to retreat even further into their extremist enclaves.

Take, for instance, the viral video of a New York City lawyer threatening to call immigration on employees and customers for speaking Spanish at a Fresh Kitchen. Or that of a Black Lives Matter Toronto organizer calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “white supremacist terrorist” at an anti-Islamophobia rally shortly after the Quebec City mosque attack. On the surface, these two news items couldn’t be more different: One shows an unwarranted tirade initiated by a racist client; the other, like-minded members of a community coming together to express their anger. Nevertheless, both seem symptomatic of what happens when people stop engaging in dialogue and resort to shouting matches. And, ultimately, could chanting mantras such as “Lock her up” at Republican rallies and gratuitously calling people out using immutable identity markers stand as modern iterations of cultlike behaviour? Wearing oversized capes and attending clandestine retreats in secluded forests might not be so popular in 2018, but punishing those whose perspectives are deemed heret­ical to a movement appears to be all the rage at both ends of the political spectrum.

Of course, the Trump cult is way scary. First and foremost because even fellow Republicans and the president’s own son seem to acknowledge he’s running a cult. Take Trump Jr.’s answer to Republican senator Bob Corker’s remark that the GOP is fast devolving into a cult: “If it’s a cult, it’s because they like what my father is doing.” When someone from Trump’s own party dares to contradict his version of reality—like when Senator Marco Rubio was chastised on Fox News for not following the president’s lead in recognizing the “talent” of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un—you have to wonder how many other party members are holding back for fear of being excommunicated. As a head of state, when your supporters and the media outright reject any interpretation of reality that contradicts what you’ve said, you have to congratulate yourself for taking a page out of the cult playbook.

As a head of state, when your supporters and the media outright reject any interpretation of reality that contradicts what you’ve said, you have to congratulate yourself for taking a page out of the cult playbook.

While in no way comparable to the fear mongering and sheer verbal (if not outright physical) violence of the alt-right, the damage being done at the other end of the spectrum can also be pernicious. While it’s entirely justified to ban hate speech targeting marginalized groups, it’s quite another to discourage people from expressing ideas considered uncomfortable or unresolved. The dangers of groupthink apply to the left as well, and it has contributed to making Trump’s ascent so spectacular.

When controversial speakers such as British polemicist Milo Yiannopoulos are prevented from speaking at public events (thereby shutting down the possibility of challenging their short-sighted world views), when trigger warnings are issued at Cambridge University to flag “potentially distressing topics” in Shakespeare’s plays and when British broadcaster Cathy Newman spends a half-hour trying to shame Toronto psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson for his impassioned contempt of postmodernism instead of unpacking what he actually says, you realize just how contained the algorithmic bubbles we live in can be.

“In order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive,” Peterson tells Newman when questioned about his right to offend. On that matter, I’m with him, as the opposite—censoring your ideas out of a fear that they may appear “divisive,” to borrow a word Newman repeatedly uses during the interview—might resemble something akin to The Handmaid’s Tale’s totalitarian Republic of Gilead.

Among the many markers of cultlike behaviour identified by the American Family Foundation, you’ll find leaders using guilt to control their members and an overarching “us versus them” mentality. Left- and right-wingers alike could be accused of such manipulative tactics. Peterson’s dismissal of anthropology and sociology classes as “indoctrination cults,” for instance, merely reinforces caricatures about left-wing activists instead of framing his critique in shades of grey. But it’s hard to rise above the current phenom of 24/7 preaching and online information cocoons, where followers chase enlightenment by binge-watching hours of content on YouTube or social media platforms that will conveniently validate their world views. That’s behind Peterson’s rapidly ascending popularity but also that of figureheads of much graver concern: conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars platform or even the sophisticated propaganda of ISIS—one of the most successful cults when it comes to online recruitment and self-radicalization.

It’s hard to rise above the current phenom of 24/7 preaching and online information cocoons, where followers chase enlightenment by binge-watching hours of content on YouTube or social media platforms that will conveniently validate their world views.

So what to make of our renewed interest in cults, and should we be concerned about the seemingly insurmountable divisions we face? I’m a firm believer in the power of the fifth estate to take gurus, spiritual leaders and assorted extremists to task on their most dubious claims. I’ll never forget when Rael—birth name Claude Vorilhon, self-described “gardener of our consciousness”—appeared on Quebec’s top-rated talk show Tout le monde en parle in 2004 with his topknot of hair to promote a Playboy spread featuring three topless females from his so-called Order of Angels.

The pull-no-punches TV panel picked apart the guru’s outlandish call to create a geniocracy as well as his boldfaced claim that he had used women’s wombs for cloning experiments. Once that TV appearance was over (it’s still regularly cited in media circles nearly 15 years later) and the man’s wonky assertions had been debunked, few people could claim with a straight face that they subscribed to Raelianism, and the movement eventually had to put its UFO compound up for sale. Think of it: A single entertainment talk show played a pivotal role in challenging the mind-manipulation techniques of a prominent international cult. I’m guessing that that media appearance didn’t help with its recruitment efforts.

As the first NXIVM trial gets underway and Trump continues to confound what many expect of world leaders in the 21st century, we have to remember to think critically about claims being made at either end of the political spectrum. In a world that seems like such a messy minefield, where the potential to be shamed or silenced for having an independent thought seems so great, we must remember to be courageous, speak up and, in the wise words of one great Canadian heartland rocker, keep on rockin’ in the free world.

[succorcreek]

White Supremacy: Cult and Culture Taught by the Psychopathic Politician We talked lots here about the similarities of White supremacy groups and ideologies alt right Churches leaders and leadership alt right politicians and our metaphors: vampires mobsters gangsters pirates White supremacy groups are on the rise. Many leaders of those groups note their new public appearances march validation boldness and member increase has come from one source: the words of hate and alt right views of one man Donald Trump. How can this be? See the Genocide tab above for information on the psychopath's propaganda. As you imagine the images deeds and words of this groups you've seen currently and portrayed in recent history look at these checklists: These are one and the same: psychopaths cult leaders alt right politicians alt right religious figures church leaderships and doctrines white supremacy groups and the list of traits lizards reptiles: There is an incredible commonness among Psychopaths psychopathy and cultic churches and cult church leadership/leaders The group displays excessively zealous and unquestioning commitment to its leader and (whether he is alive or dead) regards his belief system ideology and practices as the Truth as law. Weekends and evenings are to be spent on church activities classes or prescribed like "community acts of cleaning up the parks" Questioning doubt and dissent are discouraged or even punished including public announcement on a radio talk show or official excommunication. The church leader or leadership has the True Word or Message from God or has the only correct interpretation of the Bible or scriptures. All outside of this is wrong sin condemned etc. The leadership dictates or else cons in a "loving parent role with guidance and castigation" in a sometimes in great detail how members should think act and feel (for example members must get permission to date or date church members or marry only church members (early marriage is common) change jobs marry or leaders prescribe what types of clothes to wear where to live whether or not to have children how to discipline children and so forth). Propaganda and linguistics are used in the con and mesmerizing of members. Key words could include: You are part of the in group and they are part of the out group. Fear mongering is used and timed by the leadership or leader. While the person looks like a nice "grandfatherly elder" the reality is that the use of fear to control and motivate is more key than positive motivation. Bias is generated against others: For instance in my area I've known many LDS Mormons willing to cheat me or overcharge me for an item while giving their own members the real price or a discount. But this is not just me but a trait taught to them: the lesser or "out group" is less deserving which is all non-Mormons. While the LDS Church implores them to be honest this is a given of all of them: If you can benefit from the $ of the non-Mormons do so. Don't talk about it or boast about it but be quiet and do it because it's the culture. When the Church talks about honesty this underlying hidden culture is AOK. This is a sense of entitlement even when others are not treated fairly. There is also an allowed trickery to get converts: When you attend the free Bible Study it deviates from that topic and becomes only testimonies of Mormon member's conversion and why you should convert. This is acted out on daily by LDS but others of all cult church groups. And this is also acted out as the LDS Church seeks to influence the Laws in Idaho and Utah as well as preferential treatment by the federal government. The Church denies all of this including ongoing denial of: 1. Church history by those historians excommunicated as recently as summer 2017 2. the $ and property ownership of the church 3. political and social violence against others including attempted takeovers of the Utah territory takeover of Idaho legislature and the denial of the Mountain Meadow Massacre killing of 80 non-Mormon women and children by throat slitting 4. Racism misogyny to the level of white woman slavery and a culture of White Male Dominance and Entitlement. Entitlement is privilege money jobs sexual etc. 5. a distorted true history the repression of that history a fear of that true history excommunication of historians or those who reveal the history and the Mormon Church: keeping that history hidden in secret vaults in Salt Lake City. 6. keeping church rituals a secret that only the "worthy" can know about though in the last 2 years those have been posted on Youtube (search LDS Church Secret Temple rituals). The group is elitist even if in a false humility sort of way claiming a special exalted status for itself its leader(s) and members (for example the leader church or leadership is considered the Messianic or a Messiah a special being an avatar or the group and/or the leader is on a special mission to save humanity). Messages may be claimed comes direct from God to the leadership or pastor. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality which may cause conflict but is taught children and adults. It is deeply ingrained. In lesser ways we see this on the school playground where a Mormon child feels entitled to feel good about them self because of their faith and tells others they're just a bit less. But it's said subtly. Cults in a greater sense: Incite Violence via the Psychopath's process: Take from others soul esteem value respect goods income And cause member's to act out whether an alt right Christian throws rocks at gays or a Manson Family Cult member kills innocent people for fun. See our videos on this: how bias in and out groups and genocide is created in the Genocide tab above. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members' participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example lying to family or friends or collecting money for bogus charities). The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion. Subservience to the leader or group requires members to cut ties with non-church family and friends and radically alter the personal goals and activities they had before joining the group. As with some churches like the LDS church there is a false "tolerance and inclusion of non church family members". You include them in picnics and family dinners you talk to them as though respecting them but it's a ruse. It is following a church guideline and not "genuine" because of the innate feeling of superiority the church member has. Superiority Trumps Inclusion and Tolerance Proselytizing Trumps Respect and Genuineness The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members to bring in more money Churches can only exist with new members that do the work but most importantly give $. Members and $ are about the same commodity. Successful churches or cult leaders can pull together resources Shame Fear A "Special Doctrine" to sell people Get members get money Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities. Members are encouraged or required to primarily live and/or socialize only with other group members. The most loyal members (the "true believers") feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group. This is a composite of website information but is generally accepted as the features of cults and public domain information. Other cult info is at many websites including http://bit.ly/2gPtWBk Can you name the 20 characteristics that Lizard People and Political Psychopaths share in common? Here is part of that list: 1. lack of compassion something missing in brain and personality 2. eats flesh 3. uses intimidation 4. attacks and loves that and lives for that 5. beyond attacks and getting food has no other life 6. seems as many say "not of this planet" alien 7. humans are in danger 8. teeth made to shred 9. predators raptors 10. no tears 11. no full range of emotions 12. plans and conspires mostly to kill and feed (type in the search bar to right "lizard" for articles and videos on lizard people) "Dark Disorder". What is Dark Disorder?? What are the Goals of the Psychopath? Below is a summary from the books by Dr. BunchTools and Resources to Fend off Pirates and Takers in your life A. Also Called: Psychopathy Dark Spectrum Disorder B. Also called the Dark Evil Triad of Dangerous Narcissism Psychopathy including political psychopaths up to world dictators Dictator Genocide of "glib" Machiavellianism Is a Brain Personality Disorder we simplify to "Psychopath Spectrum Disorder" for those will all traits. And if you fully look they have all traits. We often shorten this term to just PSYCHOPATH See 1300 explaining articles and 11 books at http://bit.ly/2yk4qIi 3% of Population converts minions via propaganda con and fear Includes and they may be the same: dangerous narcissism psychopathic leaders and glib Machiavellians Found World Wide and in History Many with gravitate to positions of leadership in governments and business Those not in leadership: many abusive fathers 60% of prison felons committers of 9 of 10 crimes Only 1 of 10 are women There are people with the disorder but there are also groups and organizations who "behave" this way. Primary Key Traits: Lack of Compassion for others humans environment Greed: seeks gold babes adoration bling rare cars Regressed Age 17 Teen Boy Goals Ideals Language Damage to Others via deceit/lies/con Uses others professing loyalty up front then discards or blames Selects and trains victims controls by the Cycle of Victim Abuse Traits of can be found in early childhood if you look hard skilled pathological liars cons use of deceit has an "actor's personna" no full range of emotions lacks tears of grief sadness masters at bully and war strategies: divide conquer rule and take the goodies those with the most anger and rage from childhood may become direct killers uses propaganda and many methods to manipulation followers (minions) and can create psychopathy-like and bully narcissist minions (see Genocide tab above) childhood traits: use and abuse of others mental of physical harm siblings/animals/parents torture school bully or school snob using mental toture anger rage obsessiveness vengeful egocentric egoistic self-centered: can't see outside these circles Find all 20 of these in catalog here:The Dark Disorder people are right next to you: Books and Kindle 1. Traits of these can be identified in behavior but Dark Disorders have con/deceit/lie/distraction abilities fooling MOST others. They use an Actor Persona to accomplish this learned from early childhood. "I'm so nice good caring." 2. Traits can also be seen in Brain Scans: Lacking of areas of compassion bonding intimacy healthy parenting or lovers concern for environment or the marginalized rationality full range of emotions especially loss/grief and tears. Because Dark Disorder forms in early childhood the person is as adult ONLY these characteristics. Exacerbated brain areas dedicated to: impulsiveness as a norm lack of rationality anger / rage episodes revenge possessiveness pathological lying / con / skilled deceit ADD/ADHD age regressed 17-year-old boy thinking/behavior/ideals self focus / self absorbed uses people selects and grooms victims then "throws under bus" partners are sexual or "status" objects gets "high" on revenge/attacks/aggression brain and skills dedicated to war-like strategies to take and amass goodies (bling babes accolades trophies properties gold rare cars mansions etc.). Mythomania: drives causes to control and take with a story he believes in. (see articles Mythomania). Many with gravitate to positions of leadership in governments and business (may represent then 20% in government business leadership (or bullies) and 10% of abusive or conning religious / organization leaders Those not in leadership roles: 60% Prison Felons have and 9 of 10 crimes committed by Dark Disorder (we shorten to term "psychopaths") Terms related in society: Russian Oligarchy Dictators Kim Jong-un Alt Right White Supremacists ISIS Gun Lobbies anti-environment and industry regulations of Koch Brothers including ALEC Metaphoric and mythical guiding archetypes and stories: Vampires werewolves pirates sirens "lizard people" and other topics in our site banner 2 Key movies demonstrating Dark Disorder and it's dangerous outcome: 1. Movie Judge Roy Cohn Dark Disorder who was the spiritual father of Donald Trump (see 10 articles on Cohn) 2. Avatar Because there is Lack of Compassion: Others are used or killed in real or symbolic ways: 1. used then "thrown under the bus" 2. used for sex then denigrated in pubic media to prevent her from releasing information and cause confusion 3. Justified killing hangings mob rule genocide of any "lesser" or "evil group" 4. Death by Marginalization 5. Soul Genocide 6. the Planet is only an object to be used nature and species do not matter for today or tomorrow There are hundreds of posts here on the Goals of the Psychopath and these are discussed at length in each of the books on narcissism and psychopathy in the catalog tab above because knowing the goals of the psychopath is KEY to any understanding or dealing with. And the goals of psychopaths are all the same: 1. While it looks like I'm a leader savior helper or concerned that is a shallow ruse or actor's skill to hide my true motives and goals. 2. Anything I do only serves me in the long run: I ME MY MINE 3. Any friendship or contact is only something I use: all will be tossed away when they no longer serve my needs or some plan for PR or getting something 4. "Greenhorn Psychopaths" like to show off their goodies but aged psychopaths like to hide it from view from the public so they don't know how much was amassed. These goodies all came about from "stealing from the poor to give to the rich" through such lifestyles like the oligarchs Russian oligarchs. (in the topic cloud: theft stealing stealing from the poor gold bling mansions cars oligarch Russian oligarchy The Goals then of the age regressed 17 year old are common to each and are GREED and SERVES me only 1. wealth 2. bling 3. and competition with other psychopathic dictators or psychopathic moguls like the Koch Brothers: I have a better rare car collection than Putin does This might be a typical list if it were the teen boy of 17 narcissist and psychopath to become. 1. fast cars mine is better than my friends who all have $$$$ cars 2. babes arm candy: look at me look what I got 3. cash 4. bling gold plus a Ferrari watch or collection of 5. luxury jeans and other clothes 6. addrenalin events and socially connected parties 7. attention of others: the James Dean bad boy 8. style look the behavior hair etc of that James Dean 9. likely smokes cigarettes for that bad boy style 10. low reading skills low academic interest few outside hobbies or interest 11. may get a pug or pitbull if it's a popular thing but bonding with the pet is negligent 12. was a social bully sexual use of others for own need 13. takes risks impulsive and may have list of minor crimes with police or schools There are more angry abusive and aggressive types too: 14. rage fights assaults 15. petty crime theft break and enter 16. ongoing bullying starting gangs torture (and early childhood abuse and torture of school kids siblings and even parents and animals) 17. angry destruction of property spraying people with bleach in squirt guns poisoning trickery stealing money or extracting a protection payment 18. having sex then "kiss and tell" boast to others may have fathered children and abandons 19. may have been jailed 20. and it you add to this meth use a lifetime criminal may be in the making: prison childhood alcohol use or teen daily drinking all sorts of dangerous types may generate later due to child/teen brain development damage (for examples of this see the topic cloud for movies on The Kray Brothers: killers Citizen Cohn: evil spiritual father for Donald Trump Greed I get I steal all for me What others would you add? Please add those to the comment box below.....Thanks 1. wealth as judged by land ownership multiple mansions buildings 2. Gold in any form but ingots gold investment bars and gold coins count. Anything trimmed or decorated in real gold (not gold foil) counts. Note: silver and platinum don't count: this is an ancient greed related to 4000 human years of experience with gold as the "wealth standard". 3. luxury goods such as.....and this is not a joke the golden toilet or hand carved wood decor in a home (see Ukraine mansion and Greed in the topic cloud below). 4. Babes most with breast implants serving two purposes: a. use as beauty "arm ornaments" "arm candy": look at me what I got b. uses as sexual contacts or potential sexual contacts (but note the actual sexual prowess of the 17 year old boy boaster or psychopath is questionable and mostly talk: many narcissists and psychopaths experience their rarest feelings of inadequacy during sex and some may have erectile or other sexual performance problems (premature or delayed ejaculation) or low libido though they state they're some sexual "juggernaut". 5. Bling: the finest watch pen High end luxury goods rarest booze not just gourmet foods but rare foods 6. servants or servile aids (at one time called "slaves and butlers") 7. rare and sometimes stolen goods: famous paintings pottery dinosaur bones rare gems 8. rare cars boats jets 9. finest of occasions and vacation spots: Monte Carlo Aspen St. Moritz etc. What others would you suggest for 10-20 based on what you know about psychopathic dictators? Please add below. Thanks! Psychopaths Pirates Vampires and more: Here are some posts of interest and send this summary of Dark Disorder to your friends or social media: You are reading now What is "Dark Disorder" and for more:100 tools for your defense Did you see these critical bully topics?Bully and marginalize women Puerto Rico and othersBully Smirks Requring a response from youReasons for the Trump Sstorms recentlyTrump staging war against own people and natureWhat Military Strategies Does Trump use? Well all of these from both Miltary History and Military Science Bait and Bleed military tacticsHere are some topics with a full series of postsposts on the brain as a part of Dark DisorderYour own inner Lizard and Donald Trump Lizard King How we all can sign on to hate....and genocide. 5 short PBS Clips on Brain Trump Planned Attack on NFL Kneelers for Diversion/chaos/distractionTrump arrests protestors for his birthdayTrump uses Shitstorms Tweestorms for... Run flee tell others! 300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive: Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books Kindle Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs Psychopaths Pirates Vampires and more: Run flee tell others! 300 topics on this listed below in the Cloud Archive: Click Here: Catalog of 100 Books Kindle Hypnosis Binaural Subliminal CDs church cults cult of white authoritarianism cults psychopaths modeling and teaching psychopathy racists white male entitlement and privelege white supremacists #trumpbully #stopbully #trumpmentalhealth http://bit.ly/2rZ1vSp

White Supremacy: Cul