#it was national overdose awareness day. and boy was i aware of the overdoses !!!

[disengaged]

nightmare shift today

[strwbrymoonchild]

The Albums That Got Us Through 2020

We’ll save you the soliloquy, and get right to it: (skip to the bottom for the full playlist)

LaChelle’s Picks

Overture x Gaidaa

“Sonically, this album was very cathartic. Gaidaa’s songwriting is so imaginative and authentic, and I really love it when her voice hits those lush lower notes, her tone is like butter.”

Favorite tracks: Falling higher, Still Water, I Like Trouble

2. Rose in The Dark x Cleo Sol

“The timeless musicality and vocals are very reminiscent of some of my favorite classic soul artists like Angela Bofill, and Patrice Rushen but sound refreshing all the same. I would love to hear this project live but you know... COVID.”

Favorite tracks: When I’m In Your Arms, Why Don’t You, Rose in The Dark

3 & 4. Untiled (Black is) / Untitled (Rise) x Sault

“I can’t think of any projects more timely for this year than these two albums. They spoke to Black pain, weariness, and resilience in a way that felt mores insightful than preachy. A lot of the drums used on this project had an ancestral feel to them and the use of strings was extremely effective in giving it cinematic energy. The interludes also spoke to the difficult emotions many Black people grappled with this year while maintaining a musically rich sound.”

Favorite Tracks: Hard Life, Wildfires, Sorry Ain’t Enough, Why We Cry Why We Die, Free, Uncomfortable

5. The Angel You Don’t Know x Amaarae

“I first discovered Amaarae as a featured artist on one of my favorite music submissions of the year ‘NASA’ by Rvdical The Kid. I became entrenched upon my first listen to her first full-length project which is a mixture of afro-fusion, R&B, electronic, alté, and alternative hip hop. I love her animated voice and how effortlessly she glides over the track. I enjoy artists who can fuse multiple genres together and make them sound like a whole new sound”

Favorite Tracks: Fancy, Feel A Way, Céline

6. Last Year Was Weird, Vol 2. x Tkay Maidza

“This album had a lot of surprises on it. It’s a mixture of fun-loving R&B, raging nu-metal, and 808 thumping house tracks. While there’s not much fusion in the array of genres, I appreciate her ability to showcase her eclectic range.”

Favorite tracks: Shook, 24K, Don’t Call Again

7. Honey For Wounds x Ego Ella May

“This is a great self-love soundtrack. The pensiveness of this album is tempered by Ego Ella May’s jazzy vocals and even-keeled instrumentation. A very relaxing vibe to listen to during downtime or moments of solitude.”

Favorite tracks: Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys, Table For One, Song For Bobby

8. Jaguar x Victoria Monét

“This album is oozing with sensuality, sexuality, and confidence. I love the lush vocal arrangements and the production which taps into nostalgia without being lazy or gimmicky. If you're feeling insecure, put on some lingerie, pour a glass of wine, turn this album on and you'll be feeling like a Savage Fenty brand ambassador”

Favorite tracks: Moment, Touch Me, Go There With You

9. Extra, Extra! x Lou Phelps

“ My boyfriend who is a Kaytranada fanboy put me onto this album. Haven’t heard a hip hop EP with such a fun, laid back like this in a minute. Lou’s big bro Kaytranada came through with the dancey vibes but you also get a bit of that classic boom bap energy that an old head like me loves”

Favorite tracks: Party in LA, Nike Shoe Box, Smiling

Dorian’s Picks

Pulp (Director’s Cut) x Ambré

"Ambré takes you deep into her world with sounds of a sweet lullaby, and a pulp garden full of hallucinating trips on a journey towards discovering love, vulnerability, and purpose. Overdosing on ‘Pulp’ has become a nightly ritual for me, no surprise as to why Ambré is my top artist of 2020."

Favorite tracks: free drugs, LUCIADA(EGODEATH), gucci slides

2. A Written Testimony x Jay Electronica

Jay Electronica's debut album, once heralded a myth by many, has finally seen the light of day, 10 years later. It sounds godly, rich in ancestral wisdom, paralleled with classic Hov features throughout. This album to me raps a soulful tune of Black enlightenment, and feels like a really lavish ode to the Nation of Islam.

Favorite tracks: Universal Soldier, Flux Capacitor, The Blinding

3. In Search of Lost Time x Protoje

"The Jamaican OG delivers a sonically wise lesson on life, what it means to live in our truths and light in search of happiness and prosperity as a free spirit. This album at many times served as a soundtrack to my life, a saving grace from my own insecurities and struggles amidst a very unsettling year."

Favorite tracks: In Bloom, Deliverance, Like Royalty

4. I Shine, U Shine x RIMON

"Amsterdam-based artist RIMON delivered a sonically pleasing project shortlisted with a blend of melancholy neo-soul/R&B influenced melodies. This project evokes raw relatable emotions and centers the beauty of the imperfect for full display. With each listen the lyrics pierced my heart and filled my memory of love lost and love found."

Favorite tracks: Out Of My Way, Got My Back, Downtown

5. Note to Self x Jah9

"Jah9's Note to Self, is a call to channel your divine form. Reggae has long been a genre that speaks to a higher force and existence. With the wild year we experienced, this project served as a guideline on how to battle those inner demons and live life to your fullest potential through faith."

Favorite tracks: Love Has Found I, Ma'at, New Race

6. SuperGood x Duckwrth

"The title is self-explanatory. Duckwrth gave us all that we deserved and dropped a bomb ass feel-good record. SuperGood gave me all the contemporary neo-funk grooves I've come to love about Duckwrth. Listening to this project made it easy to tune out all the noise of 2020 and just dance my sorrows away."

Favorite tracks: Quick, Coming Closer, Super Bounce

7. B7 x Brandy

"Brandy, now indie and seasoned in the industry, answers to no one and that's made clear with her experimental R&B sounds on B7. This project is fearless and sounds so different from previous Brandy albums, but delivers in that same angelic aesthetic and powerhouse vocals we've come to love. B7 is criminally underrated in my opinion and will stand the test of time. "

Favorite tracks: Rather Be, Borderline, Say Something

8. It Is What It Is x Thundercat

"Thundercat delivers another soothing jazzy-bassline record. This album feels cathartic, experiential in a sense, almost as if I'm listening to a score from an intergalactic movie set in some futuristic utopia. Best enjoyed with a spliff and/or glass of wine."

Favorite tracks: Black Qualls, DragonBall Durag, Unrequited Love

9. The ExPerience x Lila Iké

"This captivating debut EP from rising reggae siren Lila Iké will make anyone a believer. Her journey is compelling, spiritually guided, a modern tale of romance - the highs and lows of navigating young love. The way Lila belts out these reggae-R&B infused chunes pon ya head top is mesmerizing and sets the standard for Jamaica's new generation"

Favorite tracks: Forget Me, Where I'm Coming From, Thy Will

10. grae x Moses Sumney

“‘grae’, a two part album, explores the complexities of identity. Moses Sumney never quite submits to the boundaries society aims to box us in. ‘grae’ is undefined in sound, Moses gracefully flows from one end of the artistic spectrum to another without landing anywhere too long. What I love most about listening to this album besides Mose's falsetto is the high level of self-awareness, the screams of escapism, and determination to exist in free agency. "

Favorite tracks: Cut Me, Polly, Lucky Me

Rachel’s Picks

Instrospection x UMI

“After another year with no new SZA album, discovering UMI was a godsend. Her voice has that same angelic raspiness and lyrics that sit with you long after the first listen. What sets her and this record apart is how UMI’s lyrics recognize her own faults and the faults of others in a way that is so graceful that it never comes across as self-deprecating or accusatory. Listening to Introspection, you can’t help but introspect your life the way UMI does on this album.”

Favorite tracks: Introspection, Open Up, Pretty Girl hi!

2. Girlhood x Girlhood

“This electropop duo’s vocalist, Tessa Cavanna, has a voice reminiscent of the late artists Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones, and with their neo-soul, 90’s inspired sound being so colorful, it’s impossible to get sick of listening to this album.”

Favorite tracks: Keep On, It Might Take a Woman, My Boy

3. Who Cares? x Abby Jasmine

“Released during the reclusive days of stay-at-home orders, Jasmine’s tracks on her sophomore album made me nostalgic for parties that were once filled with smoke, close friends, and good music. Her brutally honest lyrics, progressive production, and her overall confidence were comforting during a year of instability and empty dancefloors.”

Favorite tracks: Stay With Me, Artificial Lover, Groovy

4. Texas Sun x Khruangbin & Leon Bridges

“Two Texan artists came together and were able to use Bridge’s soulful and textured tone and the fluidity of the psychedelic-funk trio Khruangbin's sound, to create a desolate Texas landscape. Listening to the EP feels like driving with all the windows rolled down, feeling the sun’s heat on your skin.”

Favorite tracks: Texas Sun, Midnight, C-Side

5. They Call Me Disco x Ric Wilson & Terrace Martin

“In a year of so much grief, it is refreshing to hear music that sounds like it was as fun to make as it was to listen to. Wilson and Martin’s rhythmically dynamic collaboration prefaced a summer filled with social media’s fascination and nostalgia for the glittery freeness of the 70’s while still fitting into their respective genres of hip-hop and R&B.”

Favorite track: Don’t Kill the Wave, Move Like This, Chicago Bae

Lionnal’s Picks

Dinner Party x Terrace Martin, Robert Glasper. 9th Wonder, & Kamasi Washington

"These Four legendary musicians came together and gave us an album full of beautiful vocals over smooth, jazzy, soul instrumentals."

Favorite tracks: Freeze Tag, LUV U, Love You Bad

2. Burden of Proof x Benny The Butcher

"This album feels like a vintage east coast rap album. Hit-Boy’s luxury production matched with Benny’s grimey delivery is everything a classic rap fan would ever need."

Favorite tracks: One Way Flight, Burden of Proof, War Paint

3. Sin Miedo x Kali Uchis

"I didn’t know how I would take to an album primarily in Spanish, but Kali’s intoxicating and seductive vibe still found a way to draw me in."

Favorite tracks: Telepatia, //aguardiente y limón %ᵕ‿‿ᵕ%, Quiero Sentirme Bien

4. Fuck The World x Brent Fayaiz

"Brent Faiyaz’s personality is what makes this album so great. His cool and confident approach to tracks make for a unique spin on modern R&B and it’s honestly very refreshing."

Favorite tracks: Clouded, Been Away, Let Me Know

LISTEN TO THE FULL PLAYLIST BELOW

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[whizerald-blog]

wizzherlad Medical History

Click here 

The Maryland Fletcher Bulldogs player is a young with standard aptitudes and a ton of insistence. This season, he scored more than 100 objectives in the adjacent challenge.Whizzeraldews An astonishing tally perhaps made intensely stunning when you discover Jasper is six years of age. You "can't get this demonstrate everywhere a ball out of his hands," according to his father, Adam Linacre. "When he was around two years old, I used to play with him inside the house and kind of worked out a little while later he had this coordination that I couldn't believe he had," Mr Linacre said.

 Ordinary whizz-kid has a staggering futureNatural whizz-kid has a sublime futurectures: Jonathan Carroll I'd toss a ball distinguishable all around and he'd kind of volley it and kick it back to me. You could essentially tell from when he was little that he had incredible coordination." While Jasper's opponents this season would surely have been made aware of his capacities, his basic target scoring achievement has not gone unnoticed by football scouts either.

 He played in an under-8's joined NSW/ACT Barcelona Academy side in a state of-beginning style rivalry at Brisbane all amid that time's end. The side finished third in the test, resulting to winning an exchange support. Despite being brilliantly underneath the age cut-off, he was picked in the side in the wake of taking off to a planning camp at Warners Bay earlier this year.The camp came after Jasper had been joined FCBEscola Sydney, a Barcelona Football school. Mr Linacre said his family were contemplating the school, yet Jasper would be a bit of an Edgeworth Eagles overhaul program one year from now. Newcastle and Lake Macquarie are all around tended to at the FFA National Youth Championships For Boys which started in Coffs Harbor on Monday.

 More than 600 of the country's best energetic male footballers in the 13 and 14 Years divisions are esteeming the five-day rivalry. Reegan Clark, Blake Robinson and Bailey Newton (Lambton); Samuel Jackson, Wil Southcombe (Hamilton Olympic); Mason King, Nate Deamer (Broadmeadow); Jordan Baylis, Jake Callen (Edgeworth); Yue Han  (Charlestown City); Max Middleby (Valentine) are in the Northern NSW 13's.Harrison Lambley and Killian McCarthy (Broadmeadow); Lachlan Newton, Kai Karaka and Lachlan Griffiths (Hamilton Olympic); Ben Conway, Joey Smith, Riley Byrn, Finn Oakley-McLean (Edgeworth) are amidst the 14's. These titles make a brute degree of shots and pathways for the young male players to be seen by the FFA Technical Staff for future prospecting conceivable outcomes," Northern NSW Football CEO David Eland said

 Pill testing is starting at now a reality (''Ecstasy overdoses cases hit new high'', January 15). The catch is: it is simply open to those censured for a drug offense. Police are required to give declaration that a particular substance seized is in created truth an unlawful substance. The revelation of examination gives the faulted (and the court) with an all out once-wrapped up.

 Programming building understudy and movement whizz Ieuan Higgs said he couldn't believe it when the Space Agency rang to express that he had won their satellite test and would leave with £7,500. The 20-year-old, who experienced youth in Chippenham and went to Hardenhuish School, entered the UK Space Agency's SatelLife Challenge to develop an instrument which would help improve life on Earth.

 Mr Higgs, who goes to the University of Reading, put hours investigating his idea which would empower specialists and originators to outline after some time in urban zones using prominent satellite data. I was so staggered when they uncovered to me I had won," he said.I am unfathomably happy regardless as I said toward the start of the year that I should need to profit at any rate much as could be typical from my time while I am on game-plan.

[jedipiff]

1/4/2019 Late Night Article Diving

There's an article saying that most Americans still prefer to watch TV for news rather than be reading it. Well I would like to say I enjoy both, I have found myself reading late night articles more than ever. I guess it was cause I was fascinated with a piece on The Miracle At Tham Luang, when a whole team of soccer players and their coach got trapped on an afternoon trip through a cave. When a sudden rain onset hit a week sooner than planned, the water was overfilled with water and they were forced to seek safety wherever they could while trying not to battle the constant thought of that they all could die down there. The team was called Moo Pa, which is also translated to Forest Pigs or the Wild Boars. They recieved great advice from their mentor Coach Ek, who had trained to be a buddhist monk and guided them with his teachings.

Many people tried to work on their rescue and one person lost their life trying to set up oxygen tanks so that they could be taken out of the cave safely. While he did this, his own oxygen tank ran out and he wasn't able to make it back from the journey inbetween. Saman Gunan was his name and he was a retired Thai Seal who eagerly journeyed to this land on his choice to try to help rescue these boys. He didn't try, he more than succeeded and I wanted to start my piece off commeorating his bravery. So if anyone is interested in reading more about this inspiring and terrifying story, the best article I have read describing it can be found here https://www.gq.com/story/thai-cave-rescue-miracle-at-tham-luang by Sean Flynn a GQ correspondent.

=

On another random note, the U.S. Government is in a current state of shutdown over President Trump not getting a 5 $ billion funding to build The Wall. The Senate Democrats have rejected his proposal and Trump now plans to hold the government in lockdown for quite a long period of time he has announced. While this is a current issue going on, I do find it frustrating the government has to do this cause in the meantime I guess many National Parks and Zoos, along with many other residencies go into states of despair and disarray. Some officials will stay on has emergency personnel, but a large majority of the staff won't be there during this period of time.

A surprising one I learned tonight that many may not know, is that the US National Coast guard also goes without pay during this tme. I was reading a post about many disgruntled families, that wondered why they had to be affected out of all the military branches to have to suffer this. They weren't discrediting any other ones, they just said they do it for the love of the country as welll and it was very disheartening to them to be treated this way. I merely just wanted to touch upon the subject, though I will try to hold my frightening political views at bay. Radical, eccentric, a man that cares about the state of the world though that is actively trying to keep his mind more open to the ideas going on around him.

It was on another post that I was diving through Facebook, and I found a girl around my age which is 25 that was posting about the state of Global warming and climate change. There were several older relatives of her that were bewildered at the concept, and I didn't want to frown harshly upon it. They did not know what it was but it still raised my awareness that perphaps the older generation, may not have the exact knowledge of some of the things that we do now. Sure, using Alexa or switching to Netflix on your Smarttv might be easy to you, but to some parents that sounds like some voodoo magic.

I never commented though the girl was throuhoghly explainging to her family that we has a population were causing destruction to the earth. All our gases, fuels, land dumps and numerous other things would all be culminating to stuff that while may not seem like it's affecting us that much around you, is causing many changes throughout the World whether you realize it or not. The thought seems scary, I mean even the act of just using solar energy or switching how you maybe use water, to add more filters and purifiers can sound like some crazy traps to some folk. I don't know, I guess even with all this new technology I'm just saying that somehow we still remain blind.

On another thing, the future of the robot is seemingly coming to dawn upon us sooner than probably humans could have ever realized. Here we are now, where factories and many companies are using robots to help with their daily jobs. In a warehouse of Amazon recently one of the automated robots recently opened a car of bear repellenant spray and sent many hospital workers to the hospital. One of them even in critical condition. Now I'm not calling this the end of the world, but the fact that incidents like this are already happening is just making me already imagining what can of worms are going to be opened. I'm not hating on this future, I'm just saying with great strides in technology there will be many kinks and problems that you have to try to work out. Not everything goes perfect, and I am sure they try their best to make sure their workers are safe, I'm not trying to point that type of finger.

It's just the day a bot autofunctions and crushes a human like a soda can, with his body mangled and looking like a sack of fruit what will the world say. Well damn, does that mean my Xbox One S won't be delivered on time for Christmas then?

========

I'm still ever opposed to reading books through Ebooks or Kindle, any type of thing like a tablet or whatever. It's just when I want to sit down and dive into a world outside of this, the last thing I want to have to do is by diving into the internet world first. I was thinkng recently of a teacher I had in high school who whenever there was a book fair, would always go down looking for first edition books. One had said he liked collecting them they were more rare and to he said some could be quite valuable, ever since after that I always liked to try to keep my eye out for them to.

In my room I have several bookcases filled with many of my favorite stories and tales. In the past I used to be quite religious at one point and would drop off many bibles and other religious books at book centers or free libraries for them to be taken to be read. I would donate my fantasy books or horror ones I didn't like to, but I had gone through a period where I might have caught a religious fervor. I was for a period selling Bibles though, so it would make sense that eventually some of the text maybe would speak to me on some level.

One of these nights while dropping off the books at a free public library in Salem, Massachusetts I discovered one of the best books I have ever found. It was a book about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, who is one of my favorite people to read about in history. It was written in an embellished epic kind of way, one where you get taken through the role of John Wilkes Booth his killer and what led in a dramatic fashion up to what the writer felt was all different motives and ways he went about killing old Abe. I never actually got around to finishing this book, but at the time I went to a small cafe nearby and find myself diving through it. It's a riveting tale, with a really unique way of going about that whole event that I really enjoyed the way they wrote it.

The book was called Manhunt The 12-Day Chase For Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.

It's a great read even if you have heard the story a million times, you never had it told like this.

So at this note, I want to just relax and spend some time watching a show on HBO called Deadwood. An American Western largely all done by David Milch, it shows the gritty and insane side of life that may have been during that period of time. There's a great cast of actors on it and the setting and atmosphere are brutally done. Even the characters I want to like, the times they live in and the way they think make me wanna hate them sometimes. Though I see resemblances of the characters in the show to people now, I suppose time holds no difference between ignorance and disgust. You'll find a woman, who seems disabled and can't walk and no one even pays her a glimpse of mind. Even the doctors back then utterly cruel, and maybe some people get all the greatest doctor care but there's still issues and shit like that today. But she walks through the whole town and not even anyone bats an eye, but her resolve to fix her legs and fit in hit me in the feels. I have to keep watching just to see what she'll do, she wants to try leg braces to try to fix her ailment, but the doctor says it's one that she was born with and cant be undone. I can't say, I have seen miracles, but I'll let the show tell this story's narrative of her ordeal.

That's just one instance, and there's also a priest that is slowly losing his mind and suffering what seems like strokes and seizures. I'm not sure, I've only watched a few episodes but each episode gets sadder than the last watching his descent. He's becoming so fucked in the head, but I know it's not his fault. So there's that, if anyone likes Red Dead Redemption 2 or Westworld, than they might be interested in this. Not that it's anything like really either of those, this show is it's own style but it's very graceful in the way it's depicted.

I also realize that one of my sweetest joys is getting that 50 % off holiday candy at pharmacies after it's marked down. There's nothing like having a big bag of hershey kisses for only a few dollars. Most definetely chocolate causes an overdose of love in my brain.

[carolinemillerbooks]

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/social-concerns/its-snowing-in-gilead/

It's Snowing In Gilead

During the second impeachment hearing for Donald Trump, a woman with a sense of irony shared this line from George Orwell’s novel, 1984 on her Facebook page. The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.  The quote garnered many “likes” but I was unable to resist commenting that Orwell’s remark is an example of how art captures life. For a third time in our nation’s history, Americans are polarized about the future of democracy.   The first was 1776 when leaders argued about establishing it, and again in 1865 when people fought to preserve it. Small skirmishes have flared in modern times. We survived the challenges of McCarthyism (1940-50) with its litmus test for what it meant to be a patriot. Two decades later, the John Birch Society (1970s) fomented similar debate and created a “seed bank,” some say, for today’s political right.  January 6, 2021, we faced an insurrection at the U. S. Capitol led by ultraconservatives and, which, in the minds of a majority of voters,  the 45th President instigated.   Our founding fathers foresaw and warned against internal dangers to democracy, aware it was vulnerable to human foibles. Even so, they took the risk and established a government for the people and by the people, hoping it would endure because citizens would cherish their right to the pursuit of happiness. For 245 years, the experiment endured. Yet in the last 4,   Donald Trump has stripped from our eyes the illusion that we are one nation and shown us, instead, a country still broken by a Civil War and as tribal as the Biblical clans of Gilead. I refer to that ancient place because, during the impeachment hearings, I paused to refresh my spirit in a book, Gilead by Marilynne Robinson.  In 2005, it won the Pulitzer prize and I’d found it in a bookstore on a sale several weeks ago.  I regret my delay in taking it up. The story is about an elderly, small-town preacher with a weak heart, a young wife, and a six-year-old son.  With death hovering, he begins a memoir so his child will know something of his heritage. The account is about three generations of preachers: the boy’s great grandfather, grandfather, and his dad. Though devoted to their calling, the Gospels beckoned each to take a different path. The great grandfather decided to join the war against slavery.  His son became a pacifist. The third spent his youth negotiating between his warring his elders. As he writes, the father’s memories reveal other inner turmoil. One is the grudge he feels toward a godchild who bears his name and who has returned to Gilead as a man in his forties. The preacher senses the prodigal’s unease and, at first, suspects the man covets his attractive wife. Later, he discovers his error. But the truth brings him no relief and plunges him into deeper sorrow. In Biblical terms, Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity. Robinson’s book, which explores this theme, is the first of a trilogy. I doubt  I will read the other two.  The cycle of pain and redemption followed by more pain cuts too near the bone.  Gilead is many places On my Facebook page, I track the tragedy of a young woman, widowed and with two children. Her story unfolds like haunting stills from a film reel.   A husband dies unexpectedly.   The wife and her charges are inconsolable. She is alone, having lost her mother’s support long ago. Her friends don’t know why.  They write on her page leaving messages to console her. Later, she lets slip her husband died of a drug overdose.  A few kind words mark her page a second time. Later, still, she confesses her children are no longer with her.  They’ve been removed a distance of 30 miles to foster care. On assigned days, she may visit them if her urine sample is negative. She makes the return trip of 60 miles as often as she can.  I doubt she is watching the impeachment hearings. As I gaze out my window, wondering if my Facebook friend will outrun her depression, the impeachment verdict hits the news. Trump has been acquitted. Outside, crows gather in the street. Indifferent to the judgment, they concentrate on survival.  I see them as black holes in the landscape. Snow is falling on  Gilead.  

[darkblueiguess]

Yusif Jones I couldn’t agree wirh you more and I know my Aunt Debbie would back you on this one 100% ...Sarah honey ...I know your friends may believe in certain policies.. but these policies damn sure were not the you were raised ... Trump is not about hate .. he is about Love and If you would do the real research on him and the real research on Biden .. I guarantee you .. you would be a Trump supporter ... 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 #StopTheSteal #theraceisover #TrumpLandSlide

Are we talking about how we were all raised? You know there are people who pick up books and newspapers to develop a mind of their own? Angie, honey. This scared, pathetic, orange, corrupt little fool you call your president; spreads hate, has it out for black and hispanic Americans, denies science and experts, and encourages violence. He has collected several sexual assault accusations. You’re all steamed up about a joke of a silver spooned mouthed daddy’s boy who has abused his power and has pushed this country into a state of decay. Police brutality, ripping migrant families apart, millions of cases of covid due to his sheer ignorance and pure disbelief for science and experts. Overfilled ICU units where your son couldn’t get his stomach pumped for overdosing if he needed to. Trump is a cruel, racist, chauvinistic, homophobic piece of trash filled with lies and so are the people who kneel before him. He won’t hold himself accountable for any amount of the mess he has made. No, my mother and I didn’t agree when it came to red and blue. My mother has told me time and time again how proud she is of me for having my own thoughts, opinions and ideas. Trump and his failure to sincerely run the nation goes far beyond politics. It’s a BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS issue and to him, you and your family are just a poot in the wind. I’m sure MY mother would agree. I don’t know who your friends are and what they tell you to believe. I do know that everything you post needs a fact check before being deemed false. If you turn off fox entertainment for once and pull from more than one biased source, I’m pretty sure you’d be as terrified of trump as we all are. Or maybe you’re made of stone. I don’t know. I do know Biden’s son would be proud of him. Trump is a hateful, dirty old bitch who slanders the dead, just as you did. Notice how I didn’t mention anything about YOUR dead mother?

#soreloser

#counteveryvote

#biden2020

#partysover

#fuckoff

🤙🏻🤙🏽🤙🏾🤙🏿🗳

❤️💛💚💙💜

You are such a puppet. So hot and sweaty over a fascist. You sound like every trump defender ever. ‘Prove it, show me, I’ll wait.’ You’re a big girl with plenty of time. I’m not doing the dirty work, look it up yourself. Take the blind fold off and look LITERALLY ANYWHERE. You’re so unwilling to perceive anything going on around you because you’re so star struck by an orange turd anyway. You wouldn’t know the truth if it was banging at your door. If you paid attention to something other than fox and proud boys Instagram then maybe you wouldn’t be as backwards as your amoral tv show host. A healthy conversation doesn’t include slandering my dead mother, telling me I’m brain washed then claiming you just want a word with me. Tell me.. are you used to using the term liberal as a slur? Do you tell everyone who doesn’t agree with you that you feel sorry for them? I couldn’t give a shit less whether you’re nice to me at my place of work or not. Do you think me disagreeing with you is mean? Do you wanna lock me up? Indict me? Thank god that I will never see things the way you do. It’s about time someone rocked your little world and let you in on what your swine of a ‘leader’ is really all about. My great grandmother was an immigrant from Mexico. To trump, she was ‘illegal’. There is no ‘our family’. There is no inner circle that you could try to include me in to make it seem like we were ever ‘in this together’. Yeah, I’d say we have very different views. You’re face down in a pile of lies and you’re eating it up. You show your face on here just to express your obsession with a misogynistic, child rapist, bankrupt twit that has our nation in ruins. Quite frankly Angelina, I’m appalled by your choice of president. Nice to finally hear from you. Worry about your own children, we got this.

I keep seeing Trump is a racist on this post yet all of my friends who are actually African American do not think this way. Have you researched the Platinum Plan?

Also, you say Trump is responsible for 200k deaths, yet when he was faced with this virus and he started making changes the democrats were saying he was overreacting. Nancy Pelosi was LIVE is China at the exact same time saying “come on down to China”! There story changes when they need it to fit whatever agenda they have at the moment.

**go back and look at the timeline**

Turn OFF the mainstream media, they have an agenda as well! They are truly lying to you.

I am proud to be an American and I love my Flag and my family.

I am not a rich white girl who has had everything handed to her. I am a single Mother of 2 beautiful little children and I have been able to do more for me and my children in the last 2 years than I ever have before and I do thank Trump for a lot of that.

Trumps America, where healthcare care and basic human amenities for black Americans is considered an unheard of gratuity. A luxury. It’s a shame. And so close to Election Day too. I’m sure there’s no hidden agenda there. When trump was made aware of the virus, he remained in denial to this day. Forcing the economy to stay open at an attempt to stay afloat in hopes of locking in that second term for his own selfish motive. I said there are millions of covid cases. No one in this post dropped the number of deaths from covid, but at least you know that number. How’s that for a leader? As long as it doesn’t directly affect you, you’re content with whatever that walking pork chop does and says. Talk about privilege. It’s very ironic and classy of you to mention your 2 black friends as ammunition to try to convince me that trump isn’t racist. He changes the rules as he goes, whining and crying all the way down.

[paulbenedictblog]

%news%

New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Bbc news Coronavirus: el costo humano de la desinformación del virus

Bbc news

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Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption A protester's signal casts doubt on the existence of coronavirus during an illustration in California in early Could doubtless well perhaps

A BBC crew tracking coronavirus misinformation has found hyperlinks to assaults, arsons and deaths. And experts assert the opportunity of indirect damage precipitated by rumours, conspiracy theories and unsuitable health data will likely be grand bigger.

"We thought the federal government was utilizing it to distract us," says Brian Lee Hitchens, "or it was to invent with 5G. So we didn't be aware the foundations or seek lend a hand sooner."

Brian, 46, is talking by phone from his health facility mattress in Florida. His wife is severely ill - sedated, on a ventilator in an adjacent ward.

"The wrestle that they've been having is alongside side her lungs," he says, divulge wobbling. "They're infected. Her body honest will not be responding."

After studying on-line conspiracy theories, they thought the illness was a hoax - or, a minimal of, no worse than flu. But then in early Could doubtless well perhaps, the couple caught Covid-19.

"And now I realise that coronavirus is surely not fraudulent," he says, working out of breath. "Or not it is available and or not it is spreading."

Image copyright Brian Lee hitchens

Image caption Brian Lee Hitchens thought the virus was a hoax - until he and his wife caught it

Bbc news Harmful misinformation

A BBC crew has been tracking the human toll of coronavirus misinformation. We have investigated dozens of circumstances - some beforehand unreported - talking to the folks affected and clinical authorities in an are trying to take a look at the experiences.

The outcomes hold spread through the enviornment.

On-line rumours led to mob assaults in India and mass poisonings in Iran. Telecommunications engineers had been threatened and attacked and make contact with masts had been place alight within the UK and diversified worldwide locations - all due to conspiracy theories.

And in Arizona, a pair mistakenly thought a bottle of fish tank cleaner contained a preventative treatment.

Bbc news Poisoned by cleansing products

It was gradual March when Wanda and Gary Lenius started to listen to about hydroxychloroquine.

The couple noticed a the same-sounding ingredient on the designate of an frail bottle that was lying around their house in Phoenix.

Hydroxychloroquine would possibly well well hold doubtless to wrestle the virus - nonetheless as research continues, it remains unproven. On Monday, the World Health Organisationhalted its employ in trialsafter a contemporary examine advised it would possibly well if truth be told elevate the likelihood of patients loss of life from Covid-19.

Hypothesis about its effectiveness started circulating on-line in China in gradual January. Media organisations, alongside side Chinese language divulge retailers, tweeted out frail research where it was tested as an anti-viral treatment.

Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption President Trump says he has been taking hydroxychloroquine

Then a French physician claimed encouraging outcomes. Even supposing doubt was later solid on that examine, interest in hydroxychloroquine surged. It was talked about, with a quantity of degrees of scepticism, by a diversity of media retailers and influential folks alongside side Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

It also found its plan into White Home press briefings - and President Trump's Twitter feed.

"What invent you hold to lose?" he acknowledged on 3 April. "Snatch it." In mid-Could doubtless well perhaps, he went additional - saying that he'd beenfollowing his hold recommendation. Each comment resulted in nice spikes in social media chatter in regards to the drug, primarily based on data from on-line monitoring software program CrowdTangle.

Overdoses of the drug are rare, nonetheless the distress produced by the pandemic has pushed folks to coarse measures.

In Nigeria, health facility admissions from hydroxychloroquine poisoning provoked Lagos divulge health officers to warn folks against utilizing the drug.

And in early March, a 43-one year-frail Vietnamese man was admitted to a poison control health center in Hanoi after taking a nice dose of chloroquine. He was crimson, trembling and unable to view straight. The health center's director, Dr Nguyen Trung Nguyen, acknowledged the person was lucky he purchased treatment mercurial - or else he would possibly well well hold died.

Gary Lenius was not so fortunate. The cleaner he and Wanda gulped down contained a traipse chemical, and was poisonous.

Internal minutes, each and each started feeling dizzy and sizzling. They vomited and struggled to breathe. Gary died, and Wanda was hospitalised.

Wanda later defined why the couple drank the concoction.

"Trump saved saying it was slightly grand a treatment," she acknowledged.

Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption President Donald Trump speaks at a on a typical basis press briefing in regards to the pandemic

Bbc news Alcohol poisoning

In Iran, authorities assert hundreds hold died from alcohol poisoning after viral rumours about its healing outcomes.

The total was build apart at 796 by the discontinue of April by Kambiz Soltaninejad, an legit from Iran's Correct Remedy Organisation, who acknowledged it was the of "fraudulent news on social media."

The truth leisurely the volume is gloomy in a nation where alcohol is banned in Iran and bootleg moonshine is routinely wicked.

On the other hand on this case, BBC journalists did stumble on rumours of the supposed "treatment" spreading on the messaging app Telegram earlier than the legit announcement.

Shayan Sardarizadeh of BBC Monitoring's disinformation crew notes that the announcement was doubtless embarrassing to the Iranian authorities and, if something, the volume will likely be an underestimate.

In one case we verified, a 5-one year-frail boy went blind after his folks plied him with unlawful booze in an are trying to wrestle the illness.

"We know that unsuitable data can ruin lives," says Clare Milne, deputy editor of UK truth-checking organisation Full Reality. "There would possibly be such nice doubtless for damage."

Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption Iranian officers, alongside side President Hassan Rouhani, meet to chat in regards to the coronavirus pandemic

Bbc news 'My buddy ate soap'

President Trump has speculated on slightly a few diversified remedies beside hydroxychloroquine. In gradual April, he opined thatultraviolet rays would possibly well neutralise the virus.

"And then I stumble on the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a blueprint we are in a position to invent something like that, by injection within or nearly a cleansing?"

Trump later acknowledged his feedback had been sarcastic. But some American citizens didn't stumble on it that plan, and poison control hotlines purchased calls asking in regards to the recommendation. Officers at one in Kansas acknowledged they heard from somebody who acknowledged his buddy swallowed disinfectant soap after the president's briefing.

Image copyright Getty Shots

Dr Duncan Maru, a doctor at Elmhurst Sanatorium in Original York, says his colleagues hold handled patients who hold become acutely ill after ingesting disinfectant.

"These ingestions would possibly well hold long-time interval consequences, like cancers and gastrointestinal bleeding," he says.

Image caption Dr Duncan Maru heads for a health facility shift treating coronavirus patients

Bbc news Arsons, assaults and conspiracies

Social networks hold also been fertile ground for conspiracy theories. One particular coronavirus-associated one - there are hundreds circulating on-line - has resulted in arsons and assaults.

Across the UK, more than 70 phone masts had been vandalised due to unsuitable rumours that 5G mobile phone technology is somehow to blame for the virus.

Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption A mobile phone mast was place on fire in Huddersfield in April

In April, Dylan Farrell, an engineer for Openreach, was riding his van in Thurmaston come Leicester. It had been a protracted day and he was occupied with what he would possibly well well hold for tea as he pulled up to a roundabout. That's when he started to listen to shouting.

First and well-known, he thought it was directed at somebody else. But when he heard "5G!" being screamed by his passenger side window, he realised the shouting was supposed for him.

"You can hold received no morals!" a person shouted. "5G is killing us all!"

Image copyright Dylan Farrell

Image caption Dylan Farrell was abused by a person shouting about 5G conspiracy theories

"I assemble not hold any doubt he would hold tried to earn within and bodily attack me had I not locked the doorways straight," Dylan says. "It was so shocking."

He drove away mercurial. There had been no arrests in connection with the incident.

"We hold considered slightly a few conspiracies which had been on-line for a truly very long time now about 5G," says Claire Milne of Full Reality. "Those hold developed to be linked to the quiet coronavirus."

Image caption A person carrying a "Voice No to 5G T-shirt" who attended an anti-lockdown divulge in central London in Could doubtless well perhaps. He was not interested by the violent assaults against telecoms workers

Bbc news Racial tensions and violent assaults

In March, WHO Director Overall Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the pandemic would lead to a flare up of a "unpleasant enemy".

He was relating to racism against folks from Asia and China, nonetheless the virus has exacerbated tensions in quite quite a bit of worldwide locations.

In April, three Muslim males had been violently attacked in separate incidents in Delhi. They had been overwhelmed up after rumours circulated that Muslims had been spreading the virus.

In Sisai, a little village in japanese India, rival gangs clashed. It came after an attack on a Muslim boy, yet again linked to unsuitable rumours suggesting Muslims had been spreading illness. One younger man lost his life and each other was seriously injured.

Image copyright Getty Shots

Image caption Muslim males pray in entrance of closed retailers in Original Delhi during Ramadan. Many Muslims in India fright they've been unfairly discriminated against through the pandemic

Fraudulent experiences hold circulated within ethnic communities as smartly. In Bradford, England, rumours circulated thatnon-white patients had been being left to die.

And in Indore, a metropolis in west-central India, doctors on a mission to trace down somebody who would possibly well well had been exposed to the virus had been attacked with stones. Deceptive WhatsApp movies claimed that healthy Muslims had been being taken away by health care workers and injected with the virus.

Two doctors had been left with severe injuries after the incident in early April.

Bbc news Seriously ill from conspiracies

On-line disinformation can hold verbalize consequences, and social media platforms equivalent to Fb acknowledged they'll grab away coronavirus posts that pose an instantaneous threat.

But it undoubtedly can even hold indirect or delayed outcomes.

"I'm hoping she pulls by," says Brian Lee Hitchens, the affected person in Florida who received sucked in by coronavirus conspiracy theories. "But if I invent lose her, she'll be in an even bigger self-discipline."

Image copyright Brian Lee Hitchens

Image caption Brian outdated to take into consideration conspiracy theories about coronavirus

Brian and his wife didn't hold one firm belief in regards to the illness - as a replace they oscillated between thinking that the virus was a hoax, linked to 5G, or a gentle nonetheless delicate ailment.

So they carried on as in type in spite of legit warnings. Brian went to work as a taxi driver in his self-discipline of beginning of Jupiter. He went purchasing and picked up his wife's medications. Despite his wife's sleep apnoea and asthma, he didn't bother with social distancing or carrying a canopy.

Image copyright Fb

Image caption Brian and his wife at a birthday party earlier than the pandemic

Catching the virus introduced Brian support to actuality. He grew to become to social media, this time to warn folks off of misinformation and conspiracy theories.

Consultants assert posts like Brian's will likely be more helpful in combating conspiracies than news articles and truth checks.

"Indubitably one of many absolute best techniques of making an are trying to factual the story," says Full Reality's Claire Milne, "is by getting the person that made the usual claim to invent it themselves."

Bbc news 'We lose so many lives due to misinformation'

Brian's will likely be an coarse case, nonetheless with the sheer quantity of data circulating -the WHO has known as it an "infodemic"- many replace folks had been misled by what they read on-line.

They are usually not killing themselves by taking fraudulent remedies. Instead, they're reducing their possibilities of survival by not thinking coronavirus is steady or severe.

On an surprisingly frigid Friday in Could doubtless well perhaps, two males of their forties arrived at an emergency health facility within the Original York borough of Queens. They had been roommates, working long shifts and sharing a single mattress, and each and each had been seriously ill.

Internal hours, Dr Rajeev Fernando saw one die in entrance of his eyes. The diversified was placed on a ventilator.

Image copyright Dr Rajeev Fernando

Image caption Dr Rajeev Fernando working at an emergency health facility place up in Original York

Dr Fernando asked the males why they hadn't reach to health facility sooner. They defined to him that they read someplace on-line that the virus wasn't very severe.

"They are trying replace therapies," Dr Fernando says. "They contemplate right here's honest just like the flu."

The males had been in at-possibility groups - nonetheless Dr Fernando believes they would possibly hold fared better within the occasion that they'd not current the deceptive recommendation and sought lend a hand sooner.

Media playback is unsupported to your instrument

Media caption"Fallacious news" can spread like a scourge

Professor Martin Marshall, chair of the Royal Faculty of Overall Practitioners, says he and his colleagues within the UK hold considered patients taking pointers from posts they stumble on on-line - alongside side keeping their breath in an are trying to "diagnose" themselves or thinking that drinking sizzling drinks will wrestle off the virus. Some hold cited President Trump's statements about disinfectant.

Dr Maru, the physician at Original York's Elmhurst Sanatorium, calls the numbers who hold doubtless delayed treatment "staggering."

He knows of neighbours who hold caught the illness and died because they believed that social distancing is ineffective or that coronavirus is a hoax. And he says that he and his colleagues use precious time making an are trying to debunk misinformation after they'll be treating patients.

Image caption Anti-5G graffiti in Original York Metropolis

But as he spoke on the phone, exhausted and making ready to reach support to Elmhurst for every other shift, Dr Maru was also like a flash to shift the blame some distance from the patients themselves.

"Misinformation is a structural train," he says. "Blaming somebody for ingesting bleach or for staying at house and loss of life is equivalent to blaming somebody who's strolling down the road and will get hit by a below the impact of alcohol driver."

In response to the wave of misinformation, social media companies hold drawn up quiet guidelines. In an announcement, Fb acknowledged: "We assemble not allow inaccurate misinformation and hold removed hundreds of hundreds of posts alongside side unsuitable remedies, claims that coronavirus doesn't exist, that or not it is precipitated by 5G or that social distancing is ineffective." The firm also says it has build apart warning labels on 90 million objects of enlighten material.

YouTube says it would not allow enlighten material promoting unpleasant so-known as remedies and has quite a bit of policies against Covid-19 misinformation, alongside side disputing the existence of the illness or suggesting that it is precipitated by 5G.

Bbc news What lies ahead

But as research continues correct into a coronavirus vaccine, many anti-vaccination and conspiracy-minded groups and accounts hold considered their numbers swell. They pose a doubtless health threat - albeit not an instantaneous possibility.

What some doctors we spoke to fright basically the most is that the advance of a coronavirus vaccine - something that is susceptible to be a human achievement for the ages - will likely be completely undermined by misinformation.

Image caption Protesters promoting conspiracies about vaccines and 5G aid a divulge in St James's Park, London in Could doubtless well perhaps.

The future is upsetting, clinical examiners assert, due to what they're seeing factual now.

"We lose so many lives. They reach in very gradual," says Dr Fernando in Original York. He's honest performed a night shift, and today on Skype, a maintaining hide dangles from his ears. "And we honest peek them die in entrance of our eyes."

Brian, the coronavirus affected person in Florida, has a message for the those that quiet take into consideration within the conspiracy theories he counseled honest a few days within the past.

"Make not be foolish like I was," he says, "and the same factor would possibly well not happen to you love it came about to me and my wife."

With reporting by Khue Luu Binh, Flora Carmichael, Alistair Coleman, Shruti Menon, Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh, and a BBC Persian journalist.

Is there a fable we wants to be investigating?Electronic mail Marianna

Advise us on Twitter@BBCtrendingor onFb.

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[achraf1149]

14 BOOKS TOTALLY WORTH THE HYPE

I love hyped books. Whenever could be a} new book abuzz around that everyone's demand is a should scan, I am unable to wait to urge my hands thereon and check it out for myself. however generally they do not perpetually live up to the hype; as each true book slut is aware of, that is such a bummer. Here are eighteen books wholly well worth the promotional material. We've scanned all and they've received our hyped-up seal of approval. you'll be able to dive into these rest assured that you are sure a good read!

I love, love, love hyped books. Whenever there’s a brand new book abuzz around that everyone’s demand could be a should scan, I can’t wait to urge my hands thereon and check it out for myself. however generally they don’t perpetually live up to the promotional material and as each true book slut is aware of, that’s such a bummer.

Here are eighteen books wholly well worth the promotional material. We’ve scanned all and they’ve received our hyped-up seal of approval. you'll be able to dive into these rest assured that you’re sure a good read!

Just a heads up, this post contains affiliate links—that means that I buy a tiny low commission of any sales made of the links below, however, the worth is that the same for you whether or not you buy via my link or directly from Amazon 🙂

1. the foremost FUN we tend to EVER HAD

AUTHOR: Claire Lombardo

GENRE: up to date Fiction | Family adventure story | returning old-time

SUMMARY: the foremost Fun we tend to Ever Had is that the story of the Sorensons—a Chicago-based family with four adult daughters, Wendy, Violet, Mugil liza and Gracie, and their still-madly-in-love oldsters, Marilyn and David.

The Sorensons perpetually assumed their family’s issues were pretty run-of-the-mill—potential torrid romances, serious overdoses, and personality disorder kids. however, once a long-buried secret emerges, the complete family needs to question “normal” they extremely ar.

Diving into the gritty, and infrequently dark, histories of every loved one, this book is an associate degree interesting story of the pain we tend to bring back those that love the US the foremost.

2. stuff you SAVE during a fireplace

AUTHOR: Katherine Center

GENRE: up to date Fiction | Romance

SUMMARY: stuff you Save during a fireplace is that the story of scented wattle, a feminine shielder United Nations agency prides herself on her ability to remain calm within the face of catastrophe, because of her rough and unemotional behavior. however once scented wattle accidentally lets her feelings get the higher of her, associate degree uncharacteristic moment changes the flight of her entire career, aka, her entire life.

In a moment of force, scented wattle agrees to depart her beloved capital of Texas, TX fireplace station—and home—to move to the capital of Massachusetts to require care of her poorly, and semi-estranged, mother.

Cassie believes she’ll be simply fine in her new male-dominated, non-progressive atmosphere attributable to her ability to follow the foundations. Thankfully, her previous fireman armed her with everything she must understand her new job—never allow them to see you cry, be stronger than everybody, and never, ever get entangled with a fellow shielder.

She’s got it within the bag—she’ll straightforward be her sometimes hardcore, rule-abiding self times 1,000,000. that's till she encounters The Rookie—another recruit United Nations agency stirs one thing in her she’s ne'er knowledgeable before. Before she even understands what happens, all her rules—and all her control—has gone right out the window.

3. MRS. EVERYTHING

AUTHOR: Jennifer Weiner

GENRE: Historical Fiction | returning old-time | LGBTQ

SUMMARY: Mrs. Everything is that the story of Jo and Bethie playwright, 2 sisters returning old-time within the ’50s and ’60s. Growing up, Jo and Bethie got on well, despite their variations. Jo was flashy, smart in class and harboring a secret that caused her to create significant walls around herself. Bethie was girly, felt alive within the center of a stage and would visit any length to appear the part of the glamorous star she believed she was meant to be.

But as time passes, Jo and Bethie grow apart.

Jo finds herself conformist to any or all the ideals and expectations of girls in trendy society, despite her earlier waster years. when fighting therefore laborious to remain out of the kitchen utensil mildew, pure exhaustion leads her to fall right within the middle of it.

Bethie finds herself lost, virtually and figuratively. when devastating and traumatic expertise, Bethie wanders the planet, sleeping on park benches, feeding no matter food she will be able to realize and roaming farther and farther removed from the idyllic life she’d perpetually wished.

But because the sisters become older they each begin to understand that there’s ne'er a time once one should stop trying—it’s perpetually potential to alter your circumstances. rather than property, their lives happen to them, they finally understand that it’s their responsibility to mildew their experiences into the lives they honestly wish.

4. the nice ALONE

AUTHOR: Kristin Hannah

GENRE: Historical Fiction | returning old-time

SUMMARY: the nice Alone is that the story of the Allbrights, a family on a perpetual seek for happiness. Leni, a sensible and lonely lady, is at the constant mercy of her parents—her broken prisoner of war father and her naive and over-trusting mother.

When Leni’s father, Ernt, uproots and moves the family to yet one more location, he’s convinced this point is different—Alaska’s the solution to any or all their issues.

Unprepared and unequipped, the Allbrights realize solace within the individuals of AK United Nations agency teach them how their new and wild home and share theirs provides.

Although Leni and her mother find out how to safeguard themselves from the hazards lurking outside their little wood cabin, they can’t find out the way to share what’s within their home, notably, Ernt’s demons.

Ernt’s temper turns volatile and out of management every winter because the cold and dark ascend, threatening to destroy everything Leni and her mother have found, and built, in Alaska.

5. huge very little LIES

AUTHOR: Liane Moriarty

GENRE: up to date Fiction

SUMMARY: In huge very little Lies, things don't seem to be as calm and innocent in the residential area state capital as they appear. when a dramatic and eventful college trifle night, somebody has aroused dead.

The book flashes back to 6 months before the murder, once young mother Jane and her son Ziggy initial move to the city. Jane is taken below the wing of Madeline, a lady United Nations agency is aware of everything regarding everybody. Jane quickly becomes a part of her cluster, growing getting ready to Madeline and her attractive succor Celeste.

As their friendships grow, Jane learns that she’s not the sole one who’s haunted by personal demons—Madeline and Celeste’s lives ar even additional tormented than her own.

6. GONE GIRL

AUTHOR: Gillian Flynn

GENRE: Psychological adventure story

SUMMARY: In Gone lady, Amy Dunne has gone missing. because of the investigating progress, it becomes additional and additional evidence that her husband, Nick Dunne, could have had an outsized half in her disappearance.

The story is told from alternating perspectives—Nick’s gift day account and Amy’s diary chronicling the year leading up to her disappearance.

Getting a glimpse into Amy’s diary lets the US fall loving along with her sweetness, straightforward quality, and humor. however the Amy we expect we all know presently becomes way more complicated than we tend to may have ever anticipated.

7. wherever THE CRAWDADS SING

AUTHOR: Delia Owens

GENRE: up to date Fiction

SUMMARY: wherever the Crawdads Sing could be a coming-of-age story a couple of ladies named Kya Clark United Nations agency grows up within the marsh of the North geographic region.

Left by her mother once she was solely six, her brothers and sisters the years following, then eventually her father, she has no selection however to work out the way to do life utterly secluded and on her own.

Despite solely getting to college in the future in her entire life, Kya is sensible and sensitive. She has sharp insights regarding the planet and other people. She’s been abandoned, ridiculed, and on the receiving finish of prejudices no one—especially a child—should be got to endure, however, she’s still fascinated by life.

Kya could be a sensible character United Nations agency can soften your heart. And simply once you suppose you’re getting down to perceive her, she throws you for a loop when loop.

8. a lady is not any MAN

AUTHOR: Etaf Rum

GENRE: up to date Fiction

SUMMARY: during a lady is not any Man, 3 generations of Arab-American girls tell their story, one thing that’s ne'er been exhausted their culture before.

Fareeda is that the family matriarch, running the family in Brooklyn, big apple when she and her husband shake Palestine, their horrific motherland. Fareeda could be a disciplinarian for tradition and name, ensuring to let her new relative-in-law Isra acumen a lot of she’s property the family down by solely transfer baby women into the planet and no boys.

Isra moves to the borough from Palestine once she marries Fareeda’s son Adam in associate degree organized wedding. Eager at the concept of a brand new beginning in America and freedom to be her person, Isra’s hopes are destroyed once she quickly discovers that America is hard as dyspneal as Palestine, however, currently, she’s encircled by strangers move as a family.

Deya, Isra’s female offspring, has approached the age wherever she’s meeting with suitors, however, despite her gran Fareeda’s urging, she objects to the wedding and solely needs to line her specialize in school. once a mysterious alien shows up trying to find her, Deya begins to grasp why she feels therefore rebellious and what her past recollections extremely mean.

9. flower JONES & THE SIX

AUTHOR: Taylor Jenkins Reid

GENRE: Historical Fiction

SUMMARY: flower Jones & The Six is that the story of however one in all the foremost disreputable rock n’ roll teams rose to final fame within the ’70s.

Of course, it’s jam-choked with sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll, however at its heart could be a tender story of sacrifice, love, and loss.

The Six was a rock n’ roll band United Nations agency was creating awe-inspiring music and having a good time doing it. flower Jones was an attractive and wild lady, partying her method through the glamorous world of Nineteen Sixties Hollywood.

When a music producer realizes that the mixture of flower Jones and also the Six could be a formula for warranted success, nobody says no to the smell of potential fame.

It seems the producer was right. once flower Jones joins The Six, they become the foremost far-famed dance band of that age. however, with fame comes responsibility they aren’t equipped to handle. The cluster lands up cacophonic up at the peak of their fame. And nobody is aware of specifically why, until now.

10. we tend to WERE LIARS

AUTHOR: E. Lockhart

GENRE: Young Adult Fiction | Psychological adventure story

SUMMARY: we tend to Were Liars is that the story of Cady, a really unhappy and broken lady. She’s conjointly sick, forced to remain home, sick-abed and within the dark, to wear down the enfeebling headaches she’s been obtaining since that summer.

The story shuffles back and forth between Cady’s gift day and a past summer spent within the Northeast along with her family several years before. Cady now not partakes in her family’s decadent summers spent on their island, her gramps, her mother, and each of her aunts every with their mansions.

As Cady’s story of that summer is told, we tend to learn of her love for her cousins and an in-depth family friend, the cluster deemed the “The Liars”.

During that summer, the Liars devise an idea to interrupt down the grand rule of Cady’s gramps. Except, the set up doesn’t go something as they hoped. And worst of all—Cady can’t bear in mind any of it.

11. ELEANOR OLIPHANT is FINE

AUTHOR: Gail Honeyman

GENRE: up to date Fiction

SUMMARY: Eleanor Oliphant is Fine is that the story of a socially awkward woman, on the face of it mediocre, and stuck during a life-sucking routine.

But because the book goes on, Eleanor starts to reveal her quippy {and extremely|and terribly|and intensely} humourous temperament and her strange—and very interesting—views on life and other people.

Moved by the concept of potential love, Eleanor starts to interrupt out of her routine. In doing, therefore, she gains such a lot quite she could’ve ever anticipated. however, shaking up her everyday routine conjointly stirs up a number of her past and brings it to the surface.

The characters during this story are unbelievably crafted and multi-dimensional and also the pace and also the anticipation of the approaching plot ar even as amazing!

12. 3 girls

AUTHOR: Lisa Taddeo

GENRE: prose | Human sex

SUMMARY: 3 girls is that the prose account of 3 completely different Yankee women’s sex lives—Maggie, Lina, and Sloane.

Maggie’s story follows her from her high school days to the current, the six years between tied along by an equivalent torturing event—an illicit affair along with her married teacher once she was seventeen. Maggie has spent her entire life feeling lost and broken, till she gets a style of hope brought on by the eye of Aaron, additional unremarkably referred to as a man. Knoebel, her teacher. Desperate for his love, Maggie agrees to stay their relationship a secret, solely human activity with him through secret conferences and cloak-and-dagger encounters. however once Aaron suddenly takes his love away, cutting her aloof from her salvation, she can’t recover. Six years when their affair, Maggie decides to press carnal abuse charges. She takes him to court, her “troubled” word against his Teacher of the Year one.

Lina’s story conjointly begins in highschool wherever she meets a fellow schoolfellow United Nations agency appears to be everything she’s unreal a man can be. however once Lina is raped by 3 boys in one night, the atrocious rumors that follow cause her dream boy to run away. Years later, on the face of it through fate, she runs into him on Facebook. By currently Lina could be an old mother of 2 and married to a person United Nations agency shrinks away at her bit, feat her life sexless and mirthless. Through desperation, she reignites the candle she perpetually controls for her past man, hanging up an exhilarating and illicit extracurricular affair.

Lastly, we've got Sloane, a lady United Nations agency appears to own it all. She’s thin, beautiful, rich, and co-owns a thriving eating house along with her husband United Nations agency adores her. although everything in Sloane’s world appears pristine and wholesome, what happens in her marital relationship is something, however. Her husband, Richard, likes to see Sloane have sex with different men, explanation pleasure from selecting his wife’s partners then looking at as they create love ahead of him.

13. THE KISS QUOTIENT

AUTHOR: Helen of Troy Hoang

GENRE: up to date Fiction | Romance

SUMMARY: The Kiss Quotient could be a gender-swap version of Pretty lady. Stella, an associate degree unfit lady with a giant brain and a good larger heart, hires archangel, knowledgeable male-escort, to show her how of the chamber.

Of course, it’s not as straightforward as that. Despite Stella’s rigorous lesson plans, she begins to fall for him. And not simply fall—obsess.

But archangel has some problems with his own—he incorporates a treacherous past and is continually living below the worry that he may be turning into his father, a very, terribly dangerous man.

This is a horny and fun amorous story that’s distinctive and refreshing.

14. to any or all THE BOYS I’VE adored BEFORE

AUTHOR: Jenny Han dynasty

GENRE: Young Adult Fiction | Romance

SUMMARY: to any or all the Boys I’ve adored Before is that the story of Lara Jean and also the love she’s unbrokenly buried deep during baggage.

Each time Lara Jeans falls loving, rather than confessing her feelings to the boy at the opposite finish, she writes an earnest letter. She pours her soul onto the page, then tucks the letter safely away, knowing it'll ne'er to be seen once more. Except, somehow, all of her letters realize their thanks to their never-intended recipients.

While mortifying, the general public reveals of her feelings wouldn’t be that dangerous, except that her sister’s freshly ex-boyfriend taunt received one.

To save face and take a look at to revive a number of her dignity, Lara Jean makes wear down Peter K., the school’s resident matinee idol.

As Lara Jean and Peter move their pretend relationship, she starts to understand perhaps she doesn’t have the sentiments for taunt she thought she had. And Peter isn’t in any respect like she thought he was.

[serpent-energy]

My Immediate, Bewildered, Emotionally Charged: Post-Election 2016 REACTION (through quite expressive language)

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Post-Election Feelings; Who is Needy?

Can We Divide The Greedy?

Written by Sean Kadagian

Scattered, yet Organized

Hollow, yet always,

is there a prize.

--

This massive, omnipotent, and the great: Economic Wheel--which I capitalize by the way due to its obvious and vast, and clearly apparent greatness-- in which America has created, ever and perpetually being moved in every direction, visible in waves with its motion being dictated by this invisible hand that feeds on pettiness, classism, and greed--its movement has been rapid and inconsistent and now the country divides. We stand, we move, in divided patterns. Static interrupted vibrations to feel across the lands.

Protests in masses of White because the "minorities" know there's no use and worse has happened to them so the whining Whites march in anger because their apparent, and only other possible, savior, Hillary Clinton-- the rigid, two-faced, emmy-award-winning politician who lost to none other but a reality-TV star with one of the weirdest haircuts and owner of the strangest most ridiculous faces to have ever been politically behold. Which would you want? I'd rather a blind date show up and see what they got.

Is this the best America has to offer? Some people say it is. That they grew up in American families, being taught at a young age American values and what to aspire to. But it isn't. It's not the best we got and to think so is naive and ignorant. We have better. But the money isn't in better. At least it wasn't during this political race and the multiple comical debates that so many people had to watch as the dutiful and informed Americans they are. And we were all left with the most appaulling two options in history.

Bullying and ripping on eachother is what America saw their two presidential candidates doing on stage for hours when we were supposed to get down to what's going on in our country. I, for one, am a recovering heroin junky, addict, whatever--among (of course) many many other things. It's been a little over a year since I've been off the junk, but I lost five years of my life to it including multiple overdoses. During the presidential race, I maybe heard mention of it...I don't know, I can probably count it on one hand. And I'd really have to think about it and if they even mentioned it five, loud and clear times.

And I'm not being selfish. It's an epidemic. Each candidate coined it this actual term unveiling the gravity of the situation. Even the current and momentarily remaining president, Barrack Obama said this probably the clearest and most seemingly heartfelt. He sure he is good at what he does though...Who knows if it really is a concern of his, or the others that can really, actually change the current status-quo pertaining to the epidemic. But, and again, like I already said, I can count on one hand how many times it's been mentioned in combination of all three people.

Addicts are dying to a drug many do not fear anymore because once painkillers (opiates and opioids) began becoming more regulated, and OxyContin went off the market not too long after it got sued for originally and initially stating that their drug, which is essentially so close to the feeling of heroin that many call it "pharmaceutical heroin", is not addictive. They got sued hundreds of millions of dollars. Did they care? Of course not. They must be showering in their hundred dollar bills daily. Profiting off the deaths and terrible addictions to what many people originally addicted to Oxys and other painkillers switched to, and with little fear, like I had--heroin.

My greatest problem, which also inludes a kind of question, is I want to know exactly how Wall Street is proffiting off the opium being manufactured to heroin and many millions of pharmaceutical opioids and opiates, sent across seas from Afghanistan (mainly), as well as Mexico? How much are they proffiting and do they feel any remorse or guilt? Or is money really the most addictive and destructive creation man ever gave birth to? I blame money. But I also blame the psychopaths and sociopaths walking around Wall Street proffiting off screwing so many people over.

I still struggle with temptations, because, as we all know, heroin is heroin. And heroin always fixes things. Temporarily of course, but it also grabs you by the crotch after that first shot.

Do they want a youth dying out to an epidemic the government is literally completely to fault here? Sure, some doctors were crooked and would take certain favors in order to write out extra scripts to people, as Florida became known as not too many years ago, the Pill Mill.

It's known. So sure, it's an epidemic. But what do we do?

Do we revert to things like eastern philosophical approaches like meditation, finding our true selves and some peace within, as well as the practice of mindfulness? It's an idea. It's a start. It's an approach. And it's being done with some success. But when an ex junky is truly uncomfortable, out comes the voice tempting one to reach for the syringe one more time. Just to feel okay.

Or is the reason because our society doesn't offer much hope to our youth as they grow to teenagers and struggle with their identities and existential questions, like Do I fit into this society? And then into their early twenties...

With so much competition...With such an overwhelming number in our nation's populus...it sure gets a little bit crowded and just a tad overwhelming up in here...

When a friend wants you to try something saying it makes you feel better and you already don't feel comfortable in your own skin, what is your first instinct? I was a curious cat. And boy did it help. And then ruin...everything. The amount of tears and worry my family had gone through during my days of active addiction is heart-breaking.

And now...

Now, readjusting and re-entering a society that was already one that angered me before my addiction because of its size, intimidation in the amount of people doing what I wish to do...I feel like I lost out on years of learning. And although I'm not particularly an unintelligent person, I have lost years of chances to learn and harnass life skills which I lack and am only now learning

This entry of feelings through words was, at first thought, going to be about the nation and its clear divide because of the election results. But instead I brought up a problem that I went through and am still dealing with, because my learning takes place almost everyday. And this is happening in every single state of our great goddamn America.

--

Donald Trump said a lot of words. A lot of things he wants to not exist anymore. One of which, is the drugs that come through the border like it's water through a siv. He wants that to be eliminated. So many things, to me, it seems he doesn't understand. Although I do, and seemingly always get the feeling that he just says things for shock value and for votes...also for division and exitement. We must remember, he was a reality television star, as I mentioned somewhere in the beginning. He's a show-man who, out of mass division and disagreement and lack of seeing things through one lense instead of way-too-many, became the elected president to take office in January.

He talked about rebuilding America's infrastructure. That's a thought. His 100 Day Plan sounds completely naive and unreachable. I don't know what will happen...but as I merely mentioned one problem pertaining to the heroin epidemic, though a terribly horrific, and worst of all-- realistic problem--other problems such as the now-clearer-than-ever: systemic racism that is evident where minorities live and where and how whites live.

Yes our country is still segregated, and if you don't think so, just take a walk around some inner cities and then take a drive through a suburbia where upper-middle-class whites live. It's just a visual. Most of the time, visuals don't lie. They just tell. The actual blunt truth in so many ways is hard to accept at one's core and then still walk around with a kind of lightness and have empathy for all of mankind. I certainly don't. Though I am moreso than not, a highly sympathetic and understanding, and (well, I'd like to think so) a person than tries to embody and radiate kindness and benevolence.

Working like ants in a farm and buzzing bees to their flowers and back to their nest for more and more honey. How much money can we stack before we can say we've done it?We've reached the final level and now we can explore this world for what it really is, and not what the American media and national blue-tube shining artificial light and colors and loud dialogues demeaning other people, all trying to one up eachother--tells you.

I wish to lift you up.

I see colors, sure. The color of one's skin I am speaking of now, of course . But I know, as it is a fact, that we are all human beings. Really...period. One species. The only difference between I, a considered white person, and another person with black skin (just for this example), is our backgrounds and where we came from. Which is vast. Sure. But my background and where I came from can vary greatly from just another white person's. To have this in the forefront's of our collective conscience is important. To blame, maybe, just the American government. The whole lot. Maybe, no definitely, the god damn mother fucking media. God, it's really starting to just sound like a dirty, scummy word. "Telling you the truth, but of course, only how we see it!" Should be most of their slogans with a white man's face smiling a fake-white, fake-inviting smile.

Usually I get along with all different colors, ethnicities, races, and hopefully the aliens that I'm  waiting for to come down and show me something exciting and meaningful.

What I'm trying to say is, as long as you wish and remain aware of the energy and vibrations (vibes) you are giving off to others, more often than not, the reaction from the opposite person you are interacting with will be that of, nothing more, than a human. True humanness is openness, benevolence, a hint of curiosity, and hopefully a sure feeling of kindness.

If my openness and kindness in turn breaks through the possible shell that another person had to create as a protection to the brutalities and hard-to-handle emotions that any pill could barely touch....if I can break through that wall--a wall in which we all have in one form or another...it's just adaptation to our surroundings...But yes! If I can break that wall, there is nothing like your good vibes being reciprocated with enthusiasm and comfort by the opposite person.

"Come play over here, man. What's your name by the way?" he said with some excitement and curiosity.

"I'm Sean. You follow the Knicks?" I replied with a kind of joy resulting from the clear fact that I'd just broken through a seemingly hard-shelled-wearing human being.

Another human being's shell they created over time for safety to outside stimuli eventually becomes one of familiarity, therefore, comfortability. We like what we know. To open up and break that kind of shield from the discovered dangers of the world, it's a scary process. Makes me wonder why something like romance isn't being preached and put on a pedastal for being one of the most wonderful things in the world anymore.

My journey is to become naked. Metaphorically of course. I can get literally naked anytime I want... Anyway, point is, my aim--my long, elongated aim--is to shed myself and rid myself of my hardened and old and, in spots, witheringshell. Like a turtle that just needs to get out. Maybe then they could run fast. Maybe then I'd be laughing last.

All I know is that I blame Society. There. I said it. Well, typed it.

I blame Society.

Oh, how you raised me!

The fear and the letdown from childhood to the years of my confusing teens.

Excitement to letdown. My creative creations and of how they lay around in the thousands all around my entire life. Poetry. Short stories. Writings, songs, broken instruments, and instruments needing tuning.

So I hope.

I hope because wishing is childish. Look at what happened to my Santa Clause. Sure I don't blame my parents, but maybe Society could've dropped that fairytale decades ago...start raising some realists instead of people still believing that that Utopia we've all daydreamed and drempt of at one point or another throughout our lives still could happen if only people just tried a little harder. Perfection is a myth, yet we are driven, and we are driven, and we are set to be constantly driven, and I think sooner or later we'll be driving straight into these god damn brick walls like drunken fools. Just right into them. Fucking....

Crash.

--

So crash the Market! Erase those irritating, really, meaningless and useless numbers and abbreviations rolling by constantly at the bottom of the screen. Maybe some sexy french girl speaking in english with her seductive accent in a smokey, breathey voice will tell us: "A new era is coming. We must, and we are now starting, as you see: completely eliminate all that is meaningless, useless, loveless...drenched with countless people trying to get one up on eachother...forever attempting this endless climb up a ladder wrongly labeled success...Paradise is in meditation in the most basic form of the word. You now must become aware of your surroundings, your body, others, and how you act towards and around others. Today is the first day of the rest of your life."

If I truly heard something like this I wouldn't give a shit what hi-tech anarchist group hacked the whole thing and gave and laid out this kick-ass short and sexy interrupted speech. I'd be psyched. Ecstatic probably. Do you think you would you agree with enthusiasm as well? Also, maybe, with a kind of exhaustion and some word like finally banging around the outer-layers of your mind?

Are you waiting for something to be done to change these ways that really are so immature and beneath our growth--and when bringing up how long humans have been on this planet, and more specifically pertaining to us: how long America has been a nation--don't you think we should be a little further a long than we are? Just a tad? Not technologically. Referring to products and all the useless fun stuff that's sold in our country while other human beings across seas are starving to death every few seconds....I'm reffering to all that....we're good on that part. So good it's sickening. The fact is: so much of what is in our country is outdated and must be updated with not profit in mind, but of betterment for the entire country. Until a movement in government begins and makes any progress regardless of how slow it is, it's clear that all the fun -isms will remain engrained into our country's way of life. Classism and racism am I hinting towards especially. Sexism...that's a whole 'nother horse. I'll just leave that over here for now...

And Art is scattered in the airs of the internet and searching for reads, views, likes, acceptance, appreciation, and of course, somebody saying: A job well done Bucko. Do you like my face? Maybe soon they'll have reconstructive facial surgery for people just simply discontent with the appearance of their own face, disregarding any actual injury.

But that's how bad power--and the lack thereof--can make somebody. In this instance I am pertaining this reference to the many people in power truly, actually dictating how the millions inside their nation lives. Okay, maybe not dictating because what they're really doing is merely perpetuating a system that's been in place for almost close to a century now. The only positive I see with Donald Trump becoming president and taking office in January of 2017 (what a laugh even writing that out) is that there's no doubt he will create much needed tension and create an exciting kind of friction within the government, and congress. Tell you what, I'll be watching the news everyday once he's president. I can't imagine a more hysterical and perfect man to run the country. He's the epitome of our country really if you think about it. In two big ways. Self-absorbed, pretends to be somebody he's not. I'm not even sure who or what the guy is really about...besides himself I mean. I'm no doctor or nothin', but if I were, I think it'd be a safe to assume that our soon-to-be president Donald Trump might just be a sociopath. Sure is a funny one though. As long as you don't take this thing too seriously that is.

How much more self-absorbed do you think we can really become as a nation? The media, the just so awesome five-minute long commercials on TVwhile I'm just trying to watch Old School and let my brain melt a little bit (meanwhile I'm being told if only only ONLY I had some odd-word for a pillow that I'd dream of the most beautifully seductively enticing naked women in HD, or something better than HD they were saying...I don't know...they're really all just words to me)--and the many billboards throughout the cities and highways all across the country. Yes, you, whoever is reading these lonely, probably overly-extended words trying too hard to get you to understand that...never mind...the writer is of no importance here....I am only, and innocently, wondering, how often do you feel less than because of how often one in America is told by these things (the media, comwmercials, billboards, filtered news stations) that without many certain products, their attraction to the rest of mankind...to the rest of humanity, is nil to lesss than. Hideous. Prozac nation, right?

If one were to think abstractly for a second, yet with a simple lense on, that all humans need is sleep, food, and sex, then one can let go of all the materialistic American bullshit and maybe go on a hike and close your eyes in the sun and tell yourself as long as I can neutralize all the hectic westernized false-needs by false-claims like a burn on one's skin with the right ointment, you must tell yourself that it's okay. That once that thought--that it's okay--makes its way to the very depths of your mind and becomes, in the future, part of your foundational structure in your consciousness and even subconscious, then you will find contentment. Then you will know what peace is. It's transcendental. It's transformational. It's enlightening. To grab, grab, grab, or just lazily watch what's on TV, the individual is feeding their psyche too much negative stimulation. It creates a path for us of shallowness unless we question what is and wha is being presented by the millions and zillions. I believe Trump as President may actually spark this to happen more across the seas of people in the country. I don't believe the average American accepts everything that funny man with a sick hairdoe says. When one disagrees with something, it's either because they have the actual knowledge and know it to be false, or they just feel it deep at their core that they're getting jerked around--then they either wonder why and search for the truth, or if their an apathetic old bloke, they do what apathetic people do: they don't care.

So I ask only you: How much more can they make us American people feel less than whole and perfect, even in our imperfections? You know most none of the crap being advertised to "better our hollow and meaningless lives" is something your average--or any-- actually needs?

You ever think they'll let us be? My creativity is dwindling and I've been forgetting to read. A real statistic for no one to see. Is that how you might possibly feel? Hold on, I have another thought. I'll be right back. Just wait on the dot.

--

Of that which I disagree and don't approve of, I find a deep-seeded kind of resentment inside of me...sometimes lazily and apathetically it lives, and sometimes quite dramatically, and at times seemingly tragically-- it screams. All aimed towards the terribly angering act and overall facade that our government puts on and wears like a designer robe, exposing some terrible truths sporadically, but then tying the belt around the waist and once again recoiling into itself to hide all the things that normal citizens "just wouldn't understand" (in a demeaning voice just like how it'd sound).

I also blame quite seriously and heavily our American society as a whole--if you couldn't already strongly tell.

Yes. Fact.

And this was just a quick entry into a computer that actually baffles me most of the time in all my honesty to give, which brings in itself a kind of embarassment and slight shame that I, a "first-world", white American male of 24 years old, am quite technologically retarded pertaining to all the new phones and new computers that put out their new updates and (at times, so they hope) aesthetically more pleasing devices. It's all just confusing to the point of pointlessness. Settle down guys. Maybe go work on the holograum idea or something or other boys. All these contraptions being manipulated and sold to thinking they are far more superior to the prior device that came out only six or so goddamned prior to this one! At second thought...I don't believe I should feel any type of less for not staying up to date on the countless updates these corporate devices keep putting out. Instead I just don't buy into every new... New, if that makes any sense. I used to like shiny Pokemon cards when I was a kid. But I'm not a kid anymore. I'm fine with what I got. So move on with your whole "You are less if you do not buy and consume and become our latest piece of trash truly pointless product". Because if you have the last couple, I'd skip the next few.

See, I'm not here to prove much more than a feeling of frustration and confusion through language and hopefully some interesting clarity. Okay, now flash back to me talking about my not so bright days of breathing my old, wretched Junky air. I lost five years to my heroin addiction, and even had to be revived once. Basically, and I'll say it again for reiiteration, I lost out on learning the ways and tricks to this world and this cunningly, and oh so deceiving: Planet Earth while most others not sticking needles in their bodies advanced and adapted as they did. All I'm saying is I'm trying in a country that seems to be breaking stalemate and coming out of the closet a little bit in terms of all the skeletons that are just standing there like zombies, now with the doors open, we see them, but my wonder is Now what?

So,

If America is the captain of this planet, and does influence through numerous, simply countless things such as (the easy and known ones:) music, movies, our media, and especially pertaining to what we allow other nations to know, and more specifically: what we allow other nations as well as our own to think...

Oh yes, so if we are the Influence...the ones to Look At when the shit hits the fan...if we are the preached endlessly to be Saviors of this world... Then we must start looking within our own country. We must start looking at the faces of the youth. Ages eighteen to twenty five or something or other. Interview. Ask questions. The right Questions. I can gaurantee all the debates on police brutality and the past killings and (most-likely) future killings to come, as well as the sexy topic of "Gun Control", will be idiotically debated back and forth by people that either know the massive amount of stupidity behind their claims, or we just allow dumbasses for average Americans--many of whom pick a news channel and stay with it and either agree, disagree, get mad at, or fall apathetically into a depression about--those Americans are listening to humans much less than a real...

Human...

Being.

It's all choice.

And many are content with the ladder floating around somewhere inside their noggins, aiming to take that next step towards (corporate) ascension and please the God that will be pleased with their job.

And then there are the thinkers. The searchers. The creative types. Could be left brains, or might be right brain people. I forget. Who cares anyway?

Thing is, the disconnection from those many Americans who come back from a shitty day of work doing something they hate, turn on the news and the perfectly blushed faces with too white of teeth--and they are arguing at random how the whites of the middle class and lower are being forgotten and how it became that way and why they are dissatisfied with their lives, and the person that flicks this on...it only heavily and seriously validates his feelings. So why wouldn't this person eventually vote for someone like Donald Trump? The liar, actor, masoginist, childish man with an odd bleached yellow hair cap...the man who spoke to struggling whites of that calibar during his stops in American towns and cities for talks. That's only one reason some voted for Trump. Not that I can sit here all day and just name the many reasons people voted for him besides discontentment, which branches out to many theories.

As I mentioned, segregation by race, and by class, which, and without any kind of humor, seems to mainly (and not-so-curiously) be those of color: black, brown, whatever...if you're not pure, we won't give you different bathrooms, but your living conditions are going to be shit and your schools are going to be and going to remain a joke offering that close to non-existent chance to excel and go to college and see what one of your stature can make of yourself....No. Most end up in jail from selling drugs, getting caught with drugs, trying to make it in the Hip-Hop scene here in America, or practice practice practice the game of basketball till one can shoot with their eyes closed. Stephen Curry is now the bar that has been raised and set and idolized and instead of philosophers or lawyers or other people with like-jobs, most blacks, and even hispanics, have idols that are more often than not, sports players, and/or rappers. A philosopher or lawyer or doctor won't lay out a possible path for success in packed living conditions and the only dreams seemingly possible is sports or music because of the many that have made it of their "color". How so insanely petty when I type the word out...color. Well, many of them aim for those goals. Is that odd? It's logical. I get it. And most of the time, as I said, me, the one writing all this rubbish out, is a (technically) man with white skin...I'm White...it's how we currently label eachother. It makes sense, again, yes, sure-- but it separates.

Will we ever just look at eachother as human beings?

Is kindness looked at as a weakness and is hardness a characteristic of the stereotypical Male in America? Do many wish to hold onto that coldness and hectic spiraling thoughts that must fester inside their being and psyche?

I gave it up. I had to. I still judge at times. Hopefully judge is the wrong word for it. I don't know. All I know is that when I go into Manhattan I see so many people trying to be people. Wearing designer clothes and big, you know, those too-big kinds of arrogant looking sunglasses? I see girls looking at me in my peripherals and when I look they quickly look away. I question why a lot. And also wonder if the beautiful girls I see in the city that I wish I could just take and bring into my life and see what might happen, if they really have an interesting personality and possibly even a fascinating past..but most I just walk past and see in incriments of five seconds or less and then they're gone.

We're all trying to be somebody during one's years in the 20s. I'm twenty-four and I probably wear a new mask every couple weeks. Maybe less. Sometimes it's every other day.

Who should I be today?

If I pretend everything will be just dandy will it snow so we can build snowmen together with bundles of joy in our hearts?! Oh, and bring a carrot for the nose!

I just want to grow. Grow inside a society that constantly feels too hard for me.

I have things to say.

And I love making strangers smile.

I think if you can make another person smile or laugh throughout your day then you made a positive contribution to mankind and just made their day a little more worth while.

It's a tough life. Of that is for sure.

But it's the ride and the waves!

Still learning to behave.

Oh, and you think Osama was really hiding in a cave....?

Words to dissect,

I think I'll go give this brain a rest before Trump comes out and builds us all Trump Tents instead of my cozy, cozy bed....

So Good Rest for now,

my friend of only friends...

For it's always the beginning.

And then it's the end.

oh yes, and we work!

as busy ants and busy bees pollinating their flowers for their honey-comb hives on the trees.

for peace

one day,

We will find it

And if not all of us before I close my eyes for my final time here,

Then I will leave blessed.

Blessed to have known that such a life of Duality exists,

for if one does not know the lower, darker vibrating energies that cause fear and discomfort-- then one will never know the pure beauty, joy, and ecstasy of life;

I'm in love with the Yins and the Yangs.

So just hold me close, for my bed is only so big.

Now I'm thinking of something of greatnes and purpose.

Oh yes, in my heart of only one hearts...I know

I will find you.

Oh yes, here I come

And if this does anything for your comfort due to all my prior words trying to make sense of a confusing American time, I'll say it, for it is nothing less than the truth

Yes I promise,

that one day in the future,

nearing the end

we'll all just float away....you and me, together, all of us

Like all the atoms and tiny molecules that we all are

We will cease to be

and just

disappear

in mid-air

Evaporate,

The Final Scare.

[life-love-and-alcohol]

Fic prompt/request! Yuuri working in a post office, sorting hundreds of fan mail/love letters to someone called Victor Nikiforov who also constantly orders packages from pet store online and picks them up weekly... Yuuri would rather die than admit anyone he has his address memorized

Hello!! Thank you so much for requesting this, best idea ever *cries*. I don’t really know how post offices work tbh, so if I messed up then I’m so sorry XD you can point out my ignorance MORE UNDER THE CUT (if you are on mobile I’m so sorry, maybe you can try copying the link into your browser), or read it at my AO3 account: http://archiveofourown.org/users/justmeandmysillystuff :D 

One could naturally assume that working at a post office wasprobably the most boring, monotonous job on earth: just checking names and addresses,sorting packages, and delivering letters from grannies that lived less than tenblocks away from each other. There could be nothing more tedious and uninterestingthan that, right? Such a dreary life a post office employee must have, right?Wrong. So wrong. Just ask Yuuri Katsuki and he’ll tell you otherwise. Two years of experience, three daily coffees, the acquired ability to look atsomeone in the eye and tell them “your package got lost in Singapore”, andabout fifty stamps memorized. All of that, for the miserable wedge of a public worker,which was barely enough to pay for his rent and the bread and the cream cheese insidehis fridge. If that wasn’t intense, then he didn’t know what it was (maybe “miserable”was the word he was looking for). It wasn’t as bad, honestly. He was just easily-stressed. Taking out the wholefinancial kind of mailing, it was actually interesting to check what peoplesent. From pen-friends to wedding invitations, and his favorite bunch ofletters that came in every December starting with “Dear Santa”, there wasalways something fun to go through. His co-worker and friend Phichit was alwaysthere to laugh at the dramatic break-up mails. There was especially aparticular guy with quite a ridiculous surname who wrote weekly letters to acertain “Anya” who never really answered back. Phichit liked to joke sayingthat the woman was probably dead already and that the guy was just delirious,but Yuuri didn’t think so. He had read other love-struck fan-mail before, andhad learnt that love could really make people stupid. The best part of the job though, was the stuff some other people ordered online.Seriously, he had seen some weird shit. Including that woman who ordered about three garden gnomes on the same month,and that guy who asked his brother who lived in Colombia to send him oneSPECIFIC brand of beans weekly. Not to mention the sex toys. Boy, the amount ofdildos he had delivered. Phichit insisted it wasn’t humanly possible someone couldprobably stick that anywhere, but thelabel said “the only limit was imagination” so he really was in no place toquestion it. It was always really funny whenever someone ordered sex toys.Dildo days were good days. However, those weren’t nearly Yuuri’s favorite orders. There was a certain someone who did way too many purchases of pet suppliesonline. And by too many,  it meant TOOMANY. Being a dog owner himself, Yuuri knew no pet could possibly need so manychewing toys, about three different little beds, and an entire fun-size wardrobe.How much money could someone actually waste on that? He had kept wondering forweeks. It was expensive, it was ridiculous, and it was impossible to ignore. But even more impossible, was to ignore the buyer. The first time he ever saw him, he almost choked on his second daily coffee. Phichithad been absent for the day, so he had the double amount of work, and he wascertainly not waiting for that time of the day when people got out of theirrespective jobs and actually had time to worry about their mail. It was barelypast midday, and they rarely got a long queue waiting at those hours, so he wasn’tpanicking yet. He was sorting some packages out, separating national frominternational, and way too busy to acknowledge the world around him. It wasonly natural he only noticed a client had walked in once his long, pale fingerswere already drumming against the counter expectantly, and Yuuri almost jumpedout of his skin as soon as he saw that handsome, foreign man with the fancyhaircut. Now, to say he was attractive was an understandment. But just how attractive could someone possiblybe?? That face was, under Yuuri’s criteria, impossible. It broke any kind of measurementlimits he could have ever thought about. He had long lashes, shiny silver hair,and his eyes were the bluest shade of blue he had ever witnessed. And hissmile, damn, his smile! It lit up thegloomy post office like a lighthouse! Yuuri would have to say sorry to whoever ordered that British brand ofbiscuits, since he was currently crushing the package in his hands. “Good afternoon!” His accent, for fuck’s sake “Could you check if my packagecame in yet, please?” He was thankful he actually worked in autopilot by then, since he knew hewouldn’t have been able to answer otherwise. “Oh, ehm…sure. What’s your name, sir?” “Nikiforov. Viktor Nikiforov” Viktor Nikiforov.Suddenly everything made much more sense. For the past months, Yuuri had had to deliver a scary amount of head-over-heelslove letters; all directed to someone whose name was, ironically, Viktor damnNikiforov. When they first started coming he didn’t understand. Who was thatperson, and how had he seemingly started his own religion within a few weeks?People messaged him with such devotion he had at first thought “Nikiforov” wassome kind of parish club; but after he read a few letters, he understood he wasnothing but the town’s new heartache. It was odd for someone to cause such acommotion, really hard to believe.But that early afternoon, with that flawless, porcelain angel face staring athim from across the counter, Yuuri had been enlightened. And he couldn’tbelieve he had been able to keep his hands from writing a letter himself. After that day, in which he clumsily handed him his packaged sparkly feedingbowl and made him sign the papers, Viktor started to reappear at the officevery frequently. He became one of the regular characters that came at certaindays and at a certain hour to retire a certain kind of mail, and he awoke onthe poor public employee a certain kind of reaction. Whenever he saw someonehad ordered something from “EverythingForYoutPet.com”, Phichit could hear himhumming happily as he sorted the letters, since he knew that meant Viktor wouldeventually come to pick it up. It was always the same: almost once a week an absurd chew toy or some expensivecanine shampoo would arrive. At around 3 PM, he would hear the door opening,and the sweet sing-song of a polite “Good afternoon, Yuuri!” would make himmess up with a package or two. He would always gift him the kindest ofheart-shaped smiles, he would try to initiate gracious small talks that Yuuriwas far too shy to properly follow, and he would be very nice and thankfulabout the service, even if his order wasn’t delivered on time. Was that maneven real? Yuuri was seriously beginning to question it. Maybe he was just ahallucination from an overdose of caffeine.But it couldn’t have been a hallucination, not when he actually heard the soundof the closing door echoing so clearly through the post office every time heleft. And not when it truthfully hurt so much to see him go. Also, Phichit could also see him…so he couldn’t have just been a mirage. Hisfriend could see him enough to consider him a teasing matter and would alwayselbow Yuuri mockingly whenever the man came around. However, one day things turned out to be rather different. Yuuri knew something was wrong as soon as he heard the door opening. Itscreeched, doing that old wooden noise it always did when opened, since no oneever cared to oil it. It never did that noise when it was Viktor walking inthough. Almost as if the door knew, as if it were aware of who it was grantingaccess to, and decided to act as politely as the man itself. Yet, that day it did creak. And loudly. 

Secondly, there wasthe look on his face: dark bags under his pretty eyes, his hair a mess, and adrop of swear daring to cross his glorious forehead. And thirdly, there wasno: “Good afternoon, Yuuri” as he walked in.“Did my packagecome in yet?” He leaned over the counter, sighing heavily, and pinchingthe bridge of his nose.“Package?”Yuuri would obviously remember if a package for him had arrived. But he checkedanyways, just in case, and for the man not to notice he actually was receivingespecial attention “Uhm, no, sorry. We have no mail for you”The look on his facecaused physical pain to the sight.“Are yousure?” He insisted, trying to keep his voice neutral, but it was actuallyon the tight rope between anger and cracking. When he saw Yuuri nodding inconfirmation, he sunk his head between his hands “Oh no…what am I goingto do now??“ Yuuri didn’t quiteunderstand the calamity of the situation. For what he could tell, the manordered nothing but useless accessories for his dog. What could possibly havehim so upset?? "Don’t worry, ifit got lost they won’t take so long to find it…maybe around a week”What had been adesperate soothing attempt, ending up having quite the opposite effect. And thepained gasp the news squeezed out from his pretty heart-shaped mouth was themost devastating noise Yuuri had ever heard. Even worse than the screeching ofthe door.“One week?? Ican’t wait one week!” He exclaimed, covering his mouth “My dog issick and I ordered some foreign medicine they don’t sell here…he needs totake it now! Please, if there’s anything you can do to speed up the process, Ibeg you! I’ll pay anything!”Yuuri stood still,struck by empathy right into the core, seeing himself and his Vicchan reflectedon the man’s eyes. God, if something ever happened to his own dog he didn’tknow what he would do. He adored his pet, he would probably sail sky and earthin the search for that package. And he suddenly felt miserable for being just auseless, boring post office worker.Speechless, since hereally didn’t have any words of consolation that weren’t actually lies, hewalked to the office’s computer to try to check if there was any data of thepackage’s location on the archive. He searched for Viktor’s name, and found thedocument of the order but no clue on where the package was at. It just said ithad been “delivered”. Yuuri bit his lip, notknowing what to say to a heartbroken fellow dog owner, when he suddenly noticedsomething. “Themedicine…” He whispered, eyes fixed on the screen, rereading thedescription of the order “That medicine!!”“Uh??”Viktor didn’t understand.“I have thatmedicine at home!! I ordered it a few years ago when my own dog was sick!”He exclaimed, smiling in a way he had forgotten he could, and turning on thelights on Viktor’s eyes again “I still have half of it at home!" "For real??”The man clapped his hands, almost as a silent pray, and Yuuri could see himmouth a thanks god under his breath.“Yes, come on! Ilive two blocks away!” He grabbed him by the sleeve of his coat, pullinghim out of the post office, barely remembering to warn his co-worker before heleft “Phichit, cover me! I’ll be right back!!" Viktor ran rightbehind him, following him around the chilly streets of the city, finding thehold of his determinate hand to be the only source of heat. By the time theyreached the small apartment, both their breaths were heaving and their nosesred and sticky, and Yuuri’s fingers were so numb he could barely hold his keys.He opened the door andrushed inside, emptying his whole cabinet in one single movement, while Vicchanstared at him confusedly from aloof. "Is it thisone??” he held a small blue box out for Viktor, and he swore his eyes werealmost watery.“Oh my god, yesit is!” He exclaimed. But instead of reaching out to hold the medicine, heheld Yuuri in a tight hug instead “Thank you so, so much!! You are anangel!!!" It was only then, withboth the cold he still carried from the street and the worry slowly meltingwithin the embrace, that he realized what he had actually done. Had he really left hiswork shift, pulled a client out from the office, and took him all the way tohis apartment…to save his dog? Well, totally worthit.But it was only thenthat the embarrassment began to sink in. So, when Viktor brokethe hug and gifted him a big, thankful smile, Yuuri’s face was so hot he heatedup the entire apartment.“You didn’t haveto hurry so much, we could have waited till your shift ended” The manlaughed gently, beautifully, melodically, as it couldn’t have been any otherway “But thank you, it means a lot”Yeah, it meant Yuuriwanted to burry himself alive 100km underground. Love, indeed, madepeople stupid.

The next day, or rather thenext night, since it was already late in the evening and Yuuri was leaving thepost office, he said goodbye to Phichit at the door and got mentally ready toface the two blocks of coldness he would have to walk. He was wearing a thickcoat and gloves and a hat, but it didn’t seem to be enough, since everyminuscule patch of skin he couldn’t fully cover, was mercilessly bitten by the icywinter’s wind, and it had poor Yuuri shivering as he stood into the cold.

He was barely two steps outside, when he heard the bark of a dog and it madehim turn his head to the side instinctively. There, standing in the cold, andwearing a colorful striped sweater on top of its already fluffy fur, was arather big poodle staring at him and wiggling his tail.

Yuuri didn’t recognize the dog, since he had never seen it before (even thoughit kind of looked like Vicchan), but he did recognize the sweater. He had seenit in the extended catalogue of “EverythingForYourPet.com”, and he hadpersonally written the address and the name of the person who ordered it in theform, less than a month ago.

“Yuuri!” Viktor called out for him, looking as wonderful as always, with hisshiny hair hidden beneath a red hat that matched his flushed nose and cheeks, andinsisting on giving Yuuri tachycardia with that lovely smile of his.

“Oh, Viktor” He greeted back, bowing his head, turning to look at the dog thatwas now curiously sniffing his shoes “I see he’s feeling better”

“He is! The vet said I should walk him more, that exercise will help”

“I see…” That explained the dog’s presence, but it kind of didn’t explain his “Whatare you doing here though, did you order something again? I’m sorry but I can’tcheck right now, we are already closed”

Viktor kept staring at him with an arched brow for a few seconds, as ifmisunderstandments were contagious, and he couldn’t understand that Yuuri didn’tunderstand. But after he saw the genuine confusion on his big eyes, poppingfrom between the dense wool of his hat and his scarf like headlights, he decidedhe wanted to pull his leg a little bit.

“Oh, what a shame…I really had an important thing to send” He faked a pout, notbeing really good at acting, but Yuuri being even worst at grasping hints.

“Oh no, for real??” He blinked, trying to keep his eye’s moist safe from thebrute cold “I can’t open the office, I don’t have the key…Are you in such ahurry? Can’t it wait till tomorrow morning?”

“Hmm, I’m afraid no, it can’t”

“I’m so sorry! Ahg, we just closed! If you had only come two minutes earlierthen…”

“Don’t worry, Yuuri” He chuckled, and a puff of white smoke drew itself on thefreezing air “I don’t need the post office to send it”

“You don’t?” Yuuri frowned, puzzled “I don’t understand…what do you need todeliver so urgently?”

“This”

Before Yuuri could comment he was empty-handed, Viktor had leaned in and haduncovered his mouth from the thick scarf, only to warm it with his own lipsinstead.

It was short, short and chaste, and their lips were dry and cracked from thecold, but it was enough to have Yuuri’s body temperature raising a whole bunchof degrees, and for his heart to beat so fast in his ears he couldn’t even listento Viktor’s words as he spoke next. But he did read his lips:

“Sent” He smirked “Thank you for your services”

Yuuri thought of all the letters, all the dozens of people who had declaredtheir fanatical love to that man, and the amount of times he had debated to writeone himself. But he thought it stupid, he thought he would just toss it away,and he’d become just one more of all the people Phichit made fun of. He hadspent hours writing, crossing out, rewriting…all to crumple the piece of paperinto a ball and throw it away in the end. Deciding there was nothing he couldgive that man that could possibly express what he felt whenever he walked intothe post office.

Apparently, half a bottle of medicine for canines had been enough.

“Is…is this because of the medicine?” He stuttered, looking at him indisbelief.

“No” Viktor giggled, fixing his hat for him “It’s because of your kindness.Would you like to come home for dinner? I don’t live far away, I live at…”

“Yeah, I know where you live” He didn’t realize just how creepy that soundeduntil he had put it in words “I MEAN, I KNOW YOUR ADRESS BECAUSE OF THEPACKAGES! I DIDN’T STALK YOU, I SWEAR”

This time, Viktor openly laughed, causing Makkachin to bark merrily too as hewiggled his tail, and Yuuri thought he had never been so close to crying outfrom mere embarrassment.

“I see…” Viktor took his gloved hand in his, smiling fondly and rolling hiseyes “I was planning to guide you” He said, pointing at their intertwined hands“But it seems you don’t need me to do that”

Yuuri bit his lip, deciding he had already humiliated himself to a point of noreturn and there was no use in holding back.

“We can pretend I do” He whispered, squeezing his hand.

Viktor didn’t need to be asked twice.

And so they walked hand in hand, with a very much excited Makkachin jumpingaround, towards that familiar address that Yuuri had only dreamt about outside fromall the packages and letters. 

yes, this is eteranal, I know, and Im sorry 

[cbdhn-blog]

The Pros and Cons of CBD and the Parents Who Use It

The Pros and Cons of CBD and the Parents Who Use It

Paul started taking CBD to be a better father. The New Jersey dad of two's high-pressure, high-rewards job was taking a toll. Work days left him feeling depleted and on edge. He'd get home wired and checked out, feeling like it was impossible to be patient with his boys.

“You go from one job to the next,” he said. “You go to work all day and come home to a five and a seven year old and they were at their job all day - school - and now they want to turn it up and rage.”

Paul hoped the hemp-derived product, which is said to reduce anxiety, would help him find the peace of mind he needed to be present in those moments of high-energy family time. So, on a work trip, he ducked into a store with a tie-dye banner and walked out with $40 worth of CBD gummies.

A few months later, he says he's noticed modest gains. He brings less work stress homeand stops channeling that anxiety onto his children. “I feel less inclined to give as many fucks about what they are doing and not helicopter dad as much,” he said. “I try to go with the flow.”

The hemp extract Cannabidiol, or CBD, is everywhere these days. You can find CBD-infused versions of candies, lattes, beer, bath bombs, lotions, lubes, and pretty much every product you can think of. These items aren't sitting past the beaded curtain in head shops, either. They're available online, at corner stores, and high-end boutiques. CBD will only become more ever-present. According to the cannabis industry analysis company New Frontier, the CBD market is expected to grow by 700 percent into a $2 billion industry by 2022.

These numbers are easy to understand. CBD supposedly aids sleep, relieves pain, and reduces stress. The plant-based compound also isn't habit forming and low-key enough to take around family or kids. It's becoming more and more of an option for those who want to de-stress or at the least not let their anxieties rub off on their loved ones. It's no surprise then that parents are among the most avid consumers. Hell, the only way to tailor CBD more to modern dads is to include a Beastie Boys playlist and tips for fantasy football with every purchase. But is it worth the hype? 

***

Researchers have been aware of Cannabidiol since the late 18th century when it was the first of the more than 60 natural cannabinoid compounds. Scientists were able to synthesize it as early as the mid '60s. Like all cannabinoids, CBD is derived from hemp plant resins. Unlike its more famous fellow marijuana-derived chemical compound Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), however, CBD doesn't get you stoned. Instead, it has a calming effect.

While CBD has been used to help fight seizures and chronic pain, it's the anxiety-battling properties and lack of brain-fog that have become its big, bold selling point. A 2013 study found evidence that CBD alleviates anxiety by increasing prefrontal cortex activation and lowering activity in the amygdala, the two areas of the brain involved in anxiety while activating CB1 receptors to restore balance to GABA and glutamate levels, further reducing anxiety. THC also binds with CB1 receptors, but activates the brain's dopamine reward system while also interfering with brain mechanisms that regulate mood, memory, appetite, pain, cognition, and emotions.

  Hell, the only way to tailor CBD more to modern dads is to include a Beastie Boys playlist and tips for fantasy football with every purchase.

  “If THC is the Beyonce of cannabinoids, then CBD is the Adele,” Pittsburgh functional medicine practitioner Will Cole said. “Both you are your grandma will love it as CBD oil doesn't contain the same cannabinoids that are considered psychoactive.”

CBD does have it's concerns, however. Longstanding prohibitions on studying marijuana have only loosened recently and not entirely. For example, researchers can only study marijuana grown at the University of Mississippi, which grows marijuana under contract with the National Institute on Drug Abuse. With restrictions hampering research into hemp products overall and CBD being relatively new, researchers, while armed with convincing theories, don't yet know exactly how it operates in the brain and body.

Then there's also the issue of legality. CBD is available in most parts of the United States, but its legal status is somewhat murky. States have varying degrees of restriction. In the 10 states with legal marijuana, CBD is legal as well. Some states, like New York, allow commercial sales. Alabama, however restricts CBD use to medical purposes only. Georgia, meanwhile, only permits it to be prescribed to people with conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, and seizure disorders.

  The farm bill released by the FDA in December legalized non-THC hemp products across the board. While that should include CBD, some legal experts suggest that it may not. Nonetheless, the bill should be good news for CBD users, as it permits states to decide on laws about CBD sales and it differentiates hemp-derived products from marijuana and therefore removes CBD from the DEA's list of controlled substances.

Despite some gray areas, CBD has crossed some hurdles. A World Health Organization report on CBD determined it was safe when taken on its own but suggested that problems could arise when CBD is taken with other drugs. 

  “If THC is the Beyonce of cannabinoids, then CBD is the Adele.”

  Dr. Rachna Patel, a medical cannabis specialist and a leading expert on CBD, added that, while CBD isn't addictive or life-threatening, moderation is key. “If you take it too often [for pain relief] it's going to make your pain worse, believe it or not,” she said. Like other cannabinoids, CBD has a biphasic effect, meaning low and high doses can produce opposite results. And while someone can't overdose from CBD, taking too much leads to a bad time.

“You could feel dizzy. You could feel really groggy, you could feel really lethargic,” she said. “You're just not going to overall feel good.”

Still, by all measures, CBD seems like it was synthesized precisely for our high-stress, burn out-prone times. In fact, there's some persuasive evidence that use is high among those with kids. Dr. Patel, for instance, has found that while CBD cuts across ages, it peaks with people between 40 and 60.

“That's when humans in general start to experience a lot of pain,” Patel said. “Their body is starting to wear down on them.”

Knowing all this, why wouldn't stressed-out parents want to give CBD a try? 

***

While CBD sounds ideal for dads in theory, in practice the results seem mixed. The CBD-users with whom I spoke were reserved in their praise. Still, the consensus wasn't dismissive - the phrase “it's worth a shot” appeared just as often.

Sean, a father of one from Chicago bought a pack of CBD gummies after a friend recommended them. He enjoys the effect and says he likes the idea of popping one after a particularly long day at the office. “I wouldn't say that it's a major change; it just settles me a bit. It's nice to feel that calm and be in a good headspace for my family when I had a bad day,” he says. “It's easy to bring that stress home.”

Sean added that, around his family, he feels more comfortable popping one than he does drinking a few beers. “There's something more PG about it,” he says. “Either way, it's an occasional thing.”  (Sean was quick to add that he keeps his gummies in the locked glove compartment of his car so his toddler won't accidentally stumble upon them.)

  “It's kind of the equivalent of drinking non-alcoholic beer without knowing it's not alcoholic,”

  For some dads, however, CBD's effect is too close to that of THC. Tom, a father of two from Jersey, tried CBD when he sprained his back. While it didn't help his pain, as a regular marijuana user, it reminded him enough of smoking pot to be a disappointing and confusing tease.

“It's kind of the equivalent of drinking non-alcoholic beer without knowing it's not alcoholic,” he said. “It's not alcoholic but there's this weird psychological effect that [makes you think] you'd feel stoned even though there's nothing.”

CBD, then, may be a little counter-intuitive for anybody who first smoked marijuana after being promised it would blow their mind. That's why so many tried marijuana in the first place. If CBD doesn't induce giggling fits or make music seem transcendently face-melting, what's the point?

But many dads taking CBD aren't looking to get high. They know what marijuana's like and have generally positive feelings about it. They're looking for calm or relief from pain.

Dan, a dad of two from California, said his local coffee joint serves a cold brew with CBD. “It's a pretty good way to get hyper and de-stressed at the same time,” he said. “Wouldn't say it's life changing exactly, but it does seem good for anxiety and a bit of calm.”

Dan said he felt the advertised calm of CBD but added that “honestly it's hard to sort out whether it's a placebo or not.”

  “Alarmingly, a number of CBD products have contained toxic substances like the synthetic marijuana Spice and dextromethorphan, the ingredient in Robitussin that causes “robo tripping.”

  Chris, a New York City father of two, is a long-time CBD user. He searched out the substance several years ago after a health food store employee recommended it for his sciatica back pain.

“I wanted to feel relaxed and get my muscles to relax,” Chris said. “I didn't necessarily need to be stoned. I didn't need the euphoria necessarily. I just needed the sedation.”

CBD didn't cure his back pain but it made it far more bearable. As it did so, it also turned down the volume on his anxiety.

“I was like, Wow, okay,” he said. “I'm sedated a little bit. It's not like I'm taking a valium, but I certainly feel the edge has been taken off.”

Despite his positive experience, Chris said it's not a cure for pain, but rather a tool for managing it. Dr. Patel said this was typical for people who treat pain with CBD.

“If you're in severe pain, don't expect the CBD oil to just poof, and magically get rid of it overnight,” she said. “It'll drop down realistically, mild to moderate levels.”

***

It's a common concern to try CBD and find it doesn't do anything at all. I don't have to travel far for an example. My personal CBD experience was underwhelming. I bought a vial of oil from a smoke shop to help my lower back pain. It didn't have an effect and I ended up turning instead to my usual regimen of bourbon, heat pads, and Aleve.

When I told Dr. Patel CBD didn't work for me, she suggested that the product I took may not have contained CBD at all. The FDA has only approved one CBD product for medical use, the epilepsy seizure drug Epidiolex. Otherwise, CBD is unregulated and unpredictable. A 2017 JAMA study tested 84 CBD products and found that only about a third of them accurately reflected the CBD it contained. The Food and Drug Administration has warned several CBD companies about mislabeling their products. Alarmingly, a number of CBD products have contained toxic substances like the synthetic marijuana Spice and dextromethorphan, the ingredient in Robitussin that causes “robo tripping.”

  “I was like, Wow, okay. I'm sedated a little bit. It's not like I'm taking a valium, but I certainly feel the edge has been taken off.”

  Of course, CBD products are an unregulated market with wild west rules. People have to be very discerning about what products they choose but there's scant information to go on. Chris said he quality controls by buying CBD products made from certified organic hemp. Patel said the best indicator for CBD quality is if the packaging states the product has been laboratory tested by a third-party, independent state-licensed lab. Otherwise, there's no guarantee that the ingredients of a CBD product aren't just something you already have in your kitchen.

“The amount of CBD can vary,” Patel said. “But it's important to know the exact amount because there have been some products that the FDA has found where they had little-to-no CBD in them. You don't want to be paying ridiculous amounts of money for a one-to-two ounce bottle of basically vegetable oil.”

Buyers definitely want the product to have some CBD, but getting more specific about dosage is elusive. There's no not a one size fits all correct dose. Effective dosages seem to vary from person to person, with bodyweight driving much of the variance.

Still, CBD offers a salve for some. After using it for three months, Paul bought into the CBD hype and would recommended it to dads trying to carve out some calm. He thought it was helping but suspected there might be a placebo effect at play, particularly when he considered the unscientific methodology he used for his CBD experiments.

“To be fair, most nights there is a cold eight-percent 16 oz craft IPA making its way into my dad bod as well,” he said.

via: 

Adam Bulger Fatherly January 11, 2019 https://www.fatherly.com/love-money/cbd-pros-cons-anxiety-parents/

[livinginlandmarketing]

The Instagram accounts belonged to “fentanyl_top” and “mass_chemical_drugs” — the 21st century cyber street corners teens visit when looking for an escape, a high, a party.

Alexander Neville (Courtesy Neville family)

Amy Neville found those via her smart, curious, 14-year-old son Alex’s account after his death. He bought what he thought was oxycontin from an online dealer and died in his Aliso Viejo bedroom after ingesting what turned out to be fentanyl — a cheap synthetic opioid up to 100 times more powerful than morphine.

The grief-stricken Neville reported the accounts to Instagram — and was stunned when they weren’t immediately removed. They “likely” didn’t go against Instagram’s community guidelines, automated responses said.

It has been nearly a year since Alex died, Today, those particular accounts have vanished. But dozens more like them have popped up on Instagram, on Snapchat and on other social media sites, with names riffing on fentanyl, oxycontin and all manner of illegal drugs — just a click or two away.

“These social media sites are the kids’ playground. We have to make the playground safe,” said Neville. “In the ideal world, the platforms would find these accounts and shut them down. If it’s illegal offline, it needs to be illegal online. Seems like a no-brainer to me, but when there’s billions and billions of dollars at stake, I guess things are different.

“We need to do something,” she said. “People are dying every single day.”

Nationwide protests

On Friday, June 4, protesters demanding that social media giants do more to curb deadly drug sales on their platforms will gather at the Santa Monica headquarters of Snapchat, at the Chinese Pavilion in downtown Riverside and at more than 30 cities across the nation, from Oregon to Ohio and New York to Florida.

Athena Zepeda of Riverside County died of fentanyl poisoning on November 7, 2020. She was 20 years old. (Courtesy Victoria Antunez)

It’s the work of volunteers and more than 40 parent-driven nonprofits like the Alexander Neville Foundation and the Association of People Against Lethal Drugs, many of whom are working to stiffen criminal penalties for peddling fentanyl. These are poisoning deaths, not drug overdoses, they say, and need to be treated that way.

“My sister was 20 years old. She died Nov. 7, 2020, after taking a quarter of what she thought was a Xanax, but turned out to be pure fentanyl,” said Victoria Antunez of Riverside.

“People are getting away with selling these deadly pills, and getting away with it because there is no law in California yet. We have to shift people’s ways of thinking and the stigma on death and drugs. It is fentanyl poisoning, not overdose, because each one of the people that we are representing during this rally was blindsided into thinking they were taking something which would’ve been harmless, but because of the fentanyl, they ended up dying.”

Antunez’s sister, Athena Zepeda, was herself an Instagram influencer and an MMA fighter. “Never spoke a bad word about anybody, was always the life of the party and the go-to person for anything,” Antunez said. “We miss her so much.”

Before Athena’s death, the family knew nothing about fentanyl, Antunez said. Now, they’ve connected with more than 100 families in the Riverside area whose lives have been affected by it.

“It is truly an epidemic!” she said.

In February, relationship therapist and TV host Laura Berman’s 16-year-old son Samuel died in his room after taking what was supposed to be Xanax or Percocet, bought from someone he connected with on Snapchat. “My beautiful boy is gone,” she tweeted. “My heart is completely shattered and I am not sure how to keep breathing.”

Taking steps

The list of arrests tied to drug sales on social media is long, including “dealers” busted in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Indiana  and here in California. Dealers connecting with teens on social media has been documented in countries around the globe.

Media giants say they’ve stepped up their games — and will be doing more.

“For us, nothing is more important than the safety of Snapchatters and we strictly prohibit using Snapchat for drug transactions,” said a company spokesperson by email.

“Drug-related content and activity is firmly against our community guidelines, we aggressively enforce against these violations, and support law enforcement investigations. We try to be as proactive as possible in detecting, preventing and acting on this type of abuse, and are constantly improving our own technology and tools to fight drug dealers and illegal drugs.

“We are also working with parents and safety experts on efforts to raise awareness with Snapchatters about the dangers of fentanyl and other illegal drugs.”

The company said it’s working with experts to further improve its work, including getting regular updates on new terminology, symbols and emojis used to represent and promote drugs; using machine learning tools to improve its ability to find and stop drug transactions; and partnering with dozens of non-profits and “safety partners” in its “Trusted Flagger Program,” which provides them a secure way to report content that violates guidelines and expedites critical safety issues.

Images courtesy Amy Neville

Snapchat recently rolled out a new feature, “Friend Check Up,” reminding Snapchatters to review their friend list to make sure they actually know their contacts, and the company also works with law enforcement to support investigations and can preserve relevant content, the spokesperson said.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, echoed Snapchat.

“We do not allow the sale of illicit drugs on Instagram. It is against our policies to buy, sell or trade non-medical or pharmaceutical drugs on our platform,” a spokesperson said by email.

“We have been focusing on this area for some time, and we are working hard to ensure we keep illicit drug sales off Instagram, while surfacing the communities of support that help those struggling with addiction. We know we have more to do in this area, but we will continue to work with experts and invest in people and technology to keep our community safe.”

Instagram will continue investing in technology to keep illicit drug sales off the platform and connect people with help and resources, the company said. That includes “proactive detection” — tools that can spot images of drugs and signals of intent to sell, such as the posting of phone numbers, prices and user names for other social media accounts.

It also launched a “Get Help Feature,” directing people attempting to purchase illegal substances to the SAMHSA national helpline. But addiction is an issue that affects families throughout the nation and world; no company or government organization can address it alone; and bad actors continually update their tactics and terminology to avoid detection, the company said.

Not enough

Some 90,000 people died of drug overdoses in the 12 months that ended in October, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control — a spike of 30% in a single year, and the highest tally ever.

Officials say that’s because cheap fentanyl is being dressed up to look like real pharmaceuticals — and is killing people.

Berman has been using her platform to push for a law creating “drug-induced homicide,” which was tabled this year, and to push social media companies to allow parents to track their children’s accounts.

“Currently, #TikTok and #Snapchat do not allow parents to protect their kids on their apps, because they prevent parents from using third-party software to monitor when their child is exposed to dangerous content,” Berman tweeted on June 1.

“These apps are essential to help protect our children…. We have a real opportunity to make the world a safer place for this next generation.”

Eden Neville holds a photo of her brother Alexander with their parents Aaron and Amy at a park near their house in Aliso Viejo in 2020. Alexander Neville died on June 23, 2020. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Parents and kids need to understand that fentanyl is out there, in everything, and that a single pill can kill, said Neville, Alex’s mom.

“This is shaping up to be our deadliest summer,” she said. “I know we’re not going to shut down Snapchat on June 4. But it’s important that Snapchat hear from those of us who have wanted to get loud for a while.”

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-on June 02, 2021 at 10:12AM by Teri Sforza

[opioidjusticeteam]

Oxycontin Birth Defects Lawsuit

Oxycontin Birth Defects Lawsuit

Oxycontin birth defects lawsuit offers hope to mothers of NAS babies

An Oxycontin birth defects lawsuit has offered mothers like Colorado’s Shelly Whittaker something that’s been hard to find over a dozen years of struggling with the ups and downs of raising three sons born with the condition caused by opioid exposure in the womb known as NAS: Hope.

Her doctors never told Whittaker – who began taking OxyContin, the Purdue Pharma-manufactured opioid painkiller, for lupus and rheumatoid arthritis in 2007, after her daughter was born and before she became pregnant with her first son – about the increased risk of birth defects.

And no one mentioned Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS, when the boy was born with symptoms such as high-pitched crying, tremors and convulsions, diarrhea, vomiting, and difficulty swallowing. “We took him to the doctor, and I said, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong,’” Whittaker recalled. “They said, ‘He’s fine – we don’t know what it is.’”

But things weren’t fine. Her second son experienced many of the same difficulties at birth, and so did a third son – even though by then there was growing awareness of the addictive nature of Oxycontin and Whittaker had been placed on a different medication, Subutex. As Whittaker, now 38, watches her three sons grow, the boys continue to experience developmental and behavioral problems, and have trouble keeping up in school.

Last year, Whittaker read on social media about an Oxycontin birth defects lawsuit, and she decided to sign on as a plaintiff. She sees legal action against the maker of OxyContin, Purdue Pharma, and other leading drugmakers and distributors as a way to get help for struggling families — as well as some manner of justice.

Like other mothers of children with NAS, Whittaker said there’s a whole array of unmet needs for these kids. “I would love for them to have some help with their schooling,” she said. “There’s no school in my community that helps children who’ve been falling behind.”

NAS babies are a hidden crisis in America

Shelly Whittaker is hardly alone. Our team of lawyers is representing hundreds of mothers like her in the OxyContin birth defects lawsuit that is currently pending. In researching the case, we’ve come to discover that there are literally hundreds of thousands of NAS babies growing up in America – far more than the government has acknowledged. These children and their families need medical help, other assistance, and better information.

Here’s the background: OxyContin and other opioid painkillers were introduced into the U.S. market in the 1990s by big pharmaceutical companies and aggressively marketed to doctors as a cure-all for the pain caused by numerous ailments. Unbeknownst to the American public, these large drugmakers learned fairly quickly that their new medications were highly addictive – warnings that were ignored in the face of billions of dollars in profits.

The result has been the largest drug-addiction crisis in the history of this country. Much of the opioid-abuse epidemic began with medications that were legally prescribed such as OxyContin, Percocet, and Vicodin, although over time many users moved into illegal street drugs such as heroin and fentanyl (which is also sometimes prescribed). Although opioid use peaked around 2012, the latest government statistics still find 58 opioid prescriptions for every 100 citizens. The toll has been enormous. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 47,600 overdose deaths related to opioids in America during 2017, the last year for which records were available. That’s nearly as many Americans who died in the entirety of the Vietnam War.

The opioid crisis has become front-page news in many American cities, but information about mothers who used opioids during their pregnancies and their babies has lagged. Unfortunately, America’s doctors were slow to make what today seems like a strong connection between opioid exposure in the womb and birth defects such as club foot, spina bifida, heart defects, cleft palate, hydrocephalus, esophageal atresia, gastroschisis, anorectal atresia, or diaphragmatic hernia.

That’s in addition to the most common adverse outcome: NAS, which causes symptoms such as body shakes, excessive crying or yawns, feeding problems, diarrhea, sleeping problems, fever, or runny noses. As these children grow, many experience behavioral problems, cognitive delays, mental or motor deficits, or attention-deficit disorder (ADD).

The number of American children – and families – affected had been grossly undercounted. The current working government number of about 29,500 NAS births in 2018 falls far short of the real total. Based on information that about one-in-three pregnant women in America — or roughly 1.3 million out of the 3.8 million women who gave birth — were given a prescription for opioid painkillers, our team has estimated that a baby with serious problems related to opioid exposure is born somewhere in the United States every 19 minutes.

A conservative estimate is that this results in roughly 250,000 births every year of children with some level of NAS that will require the type of specialized treatment that we are seeking. That’s more than eight times the government’s figure.

‘None of this is my fault’

One of the hundreds of thousands of American parents who knows the trauma of raising a child exposed to opioids in the womb is Jennifer Scully, a 42-year-old career nurse who lives in upstate New York.

Scully says she’s gotten used to the phone calls from the school attended by her 5-year-old daughter from teachers and staff who don’t understand the seizures occasionally experienced by her child, in which she would stare blankly into space for a minute or two, unresponsive to adults. To Scully, the seizures are one more problem – on top of her small size, limited vocabulary, and delayed potty training – that she connects with opioid exposure.

“Because I’m a nurse, I pay a lot more attention to things,” she says. But the career health-care professional trusted her doctors in 2014 when she unexpectedly became pregnant while under treatment for both the aftermath of a broken back and breast cancer, which is why she was on a drug regimen that included OxyContin.

“They said, ‘We’re not taking you off and besides, it won’t affect the baby,” Scully recalls. Instead, her newborn daughter spent five days in the hospital coping with the symptoms of NAS, including tremors and high-pitched crying. When they finally left the hospital, doctors insisted the worst that Scully would have to deal with would be an occasionally cranky baby – a gross underestimation of the developmental problems her daughter has faced.

Like Whittaker, Scully joined the OxyContin birth defects lawsuit shortly after she read about it on social media. She said she agree with the ambitious goals of the legal action: Long-term health care and a medical monitoring fund for children exposed to opioids in the womb. She says the big pharmaceutical firms “need to be held responsible for what they’ve done. I expected a healthy child. None of this is my fault.”

The legal fight for opioid justice

Over the course of 2019, a series of class-action lawsuits were filed on behalf of opioid-exposed children in a number of states. Our legal team has been working hard to get children born to prescription opioid-dependent-and-using mothers recognized as their own legal class within the national opioid litigation, which is currently before U.S. District Court Judge Daniel A. Polster in Cleveland.

Our efforts are linked closely to the ongoing complex negotiations – involving big pharmaceutical companies and a number of states and localities hoping to recover their costs for dealing with the opioid crisis – aimed at a comprehensive settlement. Late in 2019, the OxyContin manufacturer at the center of the crisis, Purdue Pharma, filed for bankruptcy and floated a tentative settlement of its liability in the range of $10-12 billion.

Our lawyers have argued that the proposed Purdue Pharma deal doesn’t go far enough, and that it allows the founders and largest owners of the firm, the Sackler family, to keep too much of their wealth. But our biggest concern about both the Purdue Pharma deal and the related, more universal settlement talks is that those most in need – hundreds of thousands of kids whose childhood has been disrupted – will get shut out.

Most of our attorneys are very familiar with the landmark settlement in the late 1990s with Big Tobacco, in which the major cigarette makers coughed up millions of dollars that were largely paid out to a coalition of states and other localities — similar to today’s opioid talks. Most of these cash-strapped government entities merely absorbed the money into their general budgets. Very few dollars went toward smoking-cessation programs, or toward the massive health problems that have been caused by smoking.

On behalf of Shelly Whittaker, Jennifer Scully and the thousands of other families stung by the opioid crisis, we desperately want things to be different this time around. The money we are seeking on behalf of the kids, as part of any comprehensive settlement with Big Pharma, would go toward meeting their extensive long-term needs. That includes the medical monitoring fund and collecting data helping doctors understand the scope of the problem and best practices.

The good news is that there is still time for new plaintiffs to join our OxyContin birth defects lawsuit, but that time is also growing short. If your child was exposed to opioid painkillers during pregnancy, join us and our fight for a settlement that will actually benefit families and the communities where they live. Too many parents have suffered in silence for too long. We are fighting for justice and a better future, and we would like you to be part of it.

The post Oxycontin Birth Defects Lawsuit appeared first on Opioid Justice Team.

from Opioid Justice Team https://opioidjusticeteam.com/oxycontin-birth-defects-lawsuit/

[soulpapoincognito]

In this episode of The Soul.Papo.In.Cogneto podcast I go into the headlines and lesser known or talked about articles from the past few weeks. So since I skipped last week with a soul Papo sessions, this one is extra juicy. Like Doja Cat As always you can reach me @soulpapo on most social media’s. And you can always become a producer of the show by visiting https://www.patreon.com/soulpapo or cashapp! God bless y’all #iCame https://soundcloud.com/arizonasoulpodcast/the-spic-podcast-ep83-florida-f-ery

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/02/766454839/amber-guyger-ex-officer-who-killed-man-in-his-apartment-given-10-years-in-prison

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/03/766866875/brandt-jeans-act-of-grace-toward-his-brother-s-killer-sparks-a-debate-over-forgi

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49885833

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/virginia-doctor-who-prescribed-more-500-000-opioid-doses-sentenced-n1062136

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/15-year-old-died-protecting-family-home-5-year-old-n1060656

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-woman-consumed-columbine-oklahoma-city-arrested-two-dozen-pipe-n1062491

https://www.foxnews.com/us/florida-woman-drives-car-into-tree-after-telling-four-kids-to-remove-seat-belts-the-devil-cant-hurt-you

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49924581 https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/6-year-old-boy-arizona-dies-after-father-tries-perform-n1060711

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/fiske-elementary-school-chicago-accused-of-kicking-9-year-old-out-into-the-cold-reporting-him-missing-lawsuit/

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-sues-fertility-clinic-for-more-than-5-million-after-discovering-he-has-17-additional-children/

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/01/730386096/federal-judge-rules-in-favor-of-harvard-in-admissions-case

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/bernie-sanders-78-canceled-events-notice-hospitalized/story?id=66003850

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/02/766083651/gandhi-is-deeply-revered-but-his-attitudes-on-race-and-sex-are-under-scrutiny

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mahatma-gandhi-ashes-stolen-portrait-defaced-india-150th-birthday-lawmaker-says-today-2019-10-04/

https://www.npr.org/2019/10/04/767107796/at-least-42-dead-after-days-of-violent-protests-in-iraq

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ne84pd/ive-never-been-professionally-lonelier-than-i-was-at-a-wework

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/universal-basic-income-data-show-how-people-spent-the-500-a-month-they-got-for-free/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/2019/10/02/youve-got-365-days-to-get-a-new-different-better-id-if-you-want-to-board-a-flight-and-go-somewhere/#70a4d32c727d

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/30/765699885/nothing-lasts-forever-21-discovers-another-clothing-chain-files-for-bankruptcy

https://www.slashfilm.com/samuel-l-jackson-alexa/

https://www.wired.com/story/google-maps-incognito-mode/

https://www.gamesradar.com/wendys-the-fast-food-place-has-a-tabletop-rpg-where-frozen-beef-is-the-enemy/

https://www.theverge.com/tldr/2019/10/3/20897496/my-little-pony-magic-the-gathering-crossover-cards-extra-life-charity

https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/04/health/paralyzed-man-robotic-suit-intl-scli/index.html

https://www.express.co.uk/news/science/1180261/oumuamua-news-new-scientist-live-space-aliens-anomaly-nasa-esa-latest

https://phys.org/news/2019-09-planet-primodial-black-hole.html

first ever image of the cosmic web reveals the gassy highway that connects the universe https://www.livescience.com/cosmic-web-hydrogen-filament-photo.html

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/10/03/twin-birth-rate-at-lowest-level-in-decade-and-thats-a-good-thing-doctors-say/23826054/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9uZXdzLmdvb2dsZS5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAANku8FK4wqGQbRrewUDqPC9yOl1Jb1_E-3vkqlSZ9sF4RqS92h_ZxVQqulV9lQGC9u_sGGQPp2MKth3h-Klg33Bykd53LVVfw3jKJsPxpgzIFf8F2QajGTSgNUlHS_1hiHrmPmhXgHK9lwBRz6Wo11SBtCkr-3F1k1hrnCl6IXV5

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/drug-overdose-deaths-10-people-die-in-26-hours-franklin-county-ohio/

https://nypost.com/2019/10/01/16-students-hospitalized-after-they-were-mistakenly-given-insulin-shots-at-school/

october is national breast cancer awareness month https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/october-is-national-breast-cancer-awareness-month/sl-AAIfrl4

mathew “beyonce daddy” knowles is battling breast cancer https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/beyonc-dad-mathew-knowles-breast-195819218.html

https://www.aol.com/article/entertainment/2019/10/02/angelina-jolie-felt-brad-pitt-pressured-her-to-get-married/23825380/ . https://www.nbcnews.com/pop-culture/celebrity/clueless-actress-stacey-dash-arrested-domestic-battery-charge-florida-n1060396

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/robert-de-niro-sued-gender-

https://hollywoodlife.com/2019/10/04/justin-bieber-disses-peta-kittens-cats-message/

[rolandfontana]

America’s Drug Problem Hits Home for North Carolina’s Cherokee Tribe

Samantha Brawley got hooked on painkillers after high school, an addiction that stole nearly a decade and cost her most of the savings that were supposed to help improve her life.

Finding her next Percocet, and the next, was easy on the Qualla Boundary, the Cherokee reservation home to roughly 8,000 people in the Great Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina.

“I began taking two or three a day for a year, maybe two years,” said Brawley, 30, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

“Then it was as many as I could afford. I’ve done 10 a day.”

Samantha Brawley, a member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, right, hugs a woman who was celebrating a milestone in her addiction recovery during a peer support group at Webster Baptist Church in Sylva last year. Photo by Travis Long/ TLONG@NEWSOBSERVER.COM

She says she’s been off drugs for two years now. Today, Brawley helps lead a drug-recovery program in hopes of reducing overdose deaths from prescription drugs and heroin.

The Qualla Boundary was one of 10 locations across the country identified last year as a “high intensity drug trafficking area” by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. In September, federal authorities arrested 76 people and seized opioids valued at more than $1 million during a raid on the reservation.

The number of patients diagnosed with a drug-related condition at Cherokee Indian Hospital increased 300 percent between 2012 and 2018, according to hospital spokesperson Sheyashe Littledave. Last year, more than 4,500 patients received such a diagnosis.

Now the tribe has joined a federal lawsuit that accuses several drug makers of contributing to the opioid epidemic through corrupt practices, such as shipping too many drugs into the region.

Drug companies are responsible for reporting suspicious orders of opioids to federal officials, said Chief Richard Sneed.

Drug Firm ‘Complicity’

“There’s complicity in this national epidemic because the drug companies were not doing what they were supposed to do,” Sneed said. “By not reporting the predatory numbers it led to more people becoming addicted.”

The plaintiffs want the drug companies to pay for the economic burdens opioids have caused — medical care for addicts and babies born to drug-dependent mothers, counseling and increased needs for law enforcement.

When the U.S. government ordered the Cherokee tribe from its western North Carolina land in the 1830s as part of the Trail of Tears, thousands were forced to march to Oklahoma, where they formed the Cherokee Nation.

Roughly 800 Native Americans stayed behind on the 56,000-acre Qualla Boundary and became known as the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Now the tribe’s 16,000 members — many of whom live outside the reservation — make up the largest federally recognized tribe east of the Mississippi River.

Many tribal members live along the banks of the Ocanaluftee River, or in coves and valleys of the mountains. Motorists can see fog rising like steam from the river while driving along curving, narrow roads dotted with flea markets and military surplus stores. In the summer, roadside signs tout watermelons, peaches, strawberries and tribal wares.

It can be hard to imagine that a place so rich in history has become saturated with drugs.

The tribe’s crisis mirrors a larger epidemic: More than 46,000 people in the United States died of opioid-related overdoses in 2017, more than double the number in 2007, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

In North Carolina, fatal overdoses increased more than 22 percent in 2017 compared to the prior year, marking the largest jump of any state except Indiana, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Western North Carolina has been hit particularly hard by opioids. An eight-county region that includes the Qualla Boundary saw 17.7 unintentional overdose deaths per 100,000 people between 2012 and 2016, state statistics show. That compares to 12.2 overdose deaths per 100,000 people statewide.

Using revenue generated by Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians has spent millions on medical facilities in an effort to combat opioids.

Tribal leaders opened an $80 million hospital in 2015 and a $16 million residential treatment center last year called Kanvwotiyi, or “a place they go to be healed,” said Casey Cooper, chief executive officer of the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority.

Meanwhile, the tribe’s old hospital building is being transformed into a “crisis stabilization unit” that is expected to open next year for patients with mental-health issues and members who need immediate detox services.

Brawley shows the NARCAN nasal sprays and Fentanyl test strips that she carries while traveling in and around the Cherokee Indian Reservation where she offers support to people struggling with addiction. Ten percent of the tribe’s members received a substance-abuse diagnosis in 2012, the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority reported in 2017/ Photo by Travis Long/News & Observer

In 2017, after learning that more than 600 people living in the Qualla Boundary had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C, tribal leaders approved a syringe-exchange program. More than 300 people are enrolled, Sneed said.

“There are so many different areas,” Cooper said. “The opioid crisis has really motivated tribal leaders to invest in the best health and treatment services.”

Sneed said the tribe in 2002 took over the administration of health care from the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Service and created the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority.

“It has worked out tremendously,” said Sneed, adding that the decision was especially important because North Carolina lawmakers have so far declined to take part in the federal expansion of Medicaid. “We found the resources to take care of our people.”

‘Perfect Storm of Addiction’

Tribal leaders say they became aware of the opioid issue about a decade ago when members started dying from prescription drug overdoses. As tighter industry controls were put in place to make prescription drugs less accessible, many people turned to heroin.

“It was a perfect storm of addiction,” Sneed said. “Many of our members became addicted by legal prescriptions. … This is a small, tight-knit community. One death impacts the entire community.”

The tribe noticed a spike in overdoses in the months when per-capita payments were dispersed, said Jeffrey Long, a tribal member who works with the Western North Carolina AIDS project. Adult members of the tribe can receive between $5,000 and $7,000 each December and June, their share of revenues generated by the casino.

When many people received payments last June, Long said, “we had a cook-out to give people something to do, somewhere to come, so they won’t get their first fix.”

Children also get money, which is put in a trust. Until about five years ago, the money was handed out in a lump sum when they earned a high school diploma or turned 18, said Mike McConnell, interim attorney general for the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. Now the funds are distributed in increments at age 18, 21 and 25.

“The tribe determined that was probably not the wisest thing to do,” McConnell said about the single large payment. He added, “Hopefully, people can make wise choices with the money given them.”

Brawley estimates that about half of the $60,000 she received when she turned 18 went to drugs.

Attorneys for the tribe filed a complaint January 2018 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. The lawsuit claimed that drug companies conspired to target the tribe through deceptive marketing practices and persuaded doctors to prescribe highly addictive painkillers.

The tribe’s lawsuit became part of the National Prescription Opiate Litigation, which includes more than 400 federal lawsuits filed by cities, counties and Native American tribes against the largest opioid manufacturers, companies that distribute opioids and pharmacy chains that sell them.

More than 50 North Carolina counties and several cities — including, Fayetteville, Wilmington and Winston-Salem — are listed as plaintiffs in the litigation, according to the state attorney general’s office. The case will be heard in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio.

N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, who has made the opioid crisis a focus for his office, is helping to lead the case. Stein said he wants to crack down on those who are responsible for fueling the epidemic — not only in the streets, but also in boardrooms.

In late 2017, Stein filed lawsuits against against drug manufacturer Insys Therapeutics, Inc. alleging the company fraudulently marketed a spray form of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is about 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Months later, Stein sued drug manufacturer Purdue Pharma, which makes the painkiller OxyContin.

“We want to hold drug traffickers accountable,” Stein said, “but we also believe in corporate accountability.”

 ‘Praying for a Miracle’

One afternoon in late August, Brawley sat along the banks of Soco Creek in front of her friend’s home high up in the mountains. Dressed in jeans, with a silken blue and pink shawl wrapped around her shoulders, she talked about how opioids have affected her community.

“So let’s see, right now over 15 people I knew personally have died from overdoses,” she said. “One boy died last week. He was 15. That same day we celebrated a recovery, we buried a person on the reservation. The same day we had a recovery rally in July, we buried a girl who had died from opiate use — heroin. She was like 21.”

Brawley said she quit drugs when she got pregnant by her dealer.

“I had been praying for a miracle and I got pregnant,” she said. “And my grandmother had been praying for a miracle. She knew I wasn’t going to stop for … these treatment centers. And I got pregnant and I believe to this day that it was my grandmother who spoke that truth. I have this beautiful child who saved my life.”

Liam was born in 2014. When Brawley relapsed just before her son’s first birthday, she sought treatment at the Mary Benson House, a year-long program in Asheville where children can stay with their mothers. She completed the program in nine months.

“Having your child there gives you a sense of motivation and more determination to do something different,” she said.

Brawley now works as a peer support specialist with Meridian Behavioral Health, an outpatient service in Sylva. Each day she visits clients who are still addicted. She relies on Suboxone to beat back her own cravings, and she said Dec. 30 marked two years of sobriety.

Tribal member Charles Beam, 24, said he was in his late teens when he became addicted to opioids and alcohol. He said he’s been off drugs for more than three years and alcohol-free for a little over a year. Beam and Brawley have been co-leaders at Celebrate Recovery, a volunteer program, for nearly two years.

“She speaks at all the recovery rallies,” Beam said of Brawley. “She’s a big spokesperson for Cherokee and all of the surrounding counties. She’s an awesome role model. She’s come a long way.”

It was important to Brawley to stay on the reservation instead of starting a new life elsewhere. And she echoed the commitment of her tribe’s leaders in their battle against opioids.

“I got high here, I got clean here,” she said. “And I can give back here.”

Thomasi McDonald is a 2018 John Jay/H.F. Guggenheim Justice Reporting Fellow. This story was written as part of his fellowship project. The  full story and a video report is available here.

America’s Drug Problem Hits Home for North Carolina’s Cherokee Tribe syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[kushcanada]

I’m Back!!!

After Censorship on YouTube closing many Cannabis related accounts in a clear censorship move by the powers that be. Contradicts the fact that federal medical marijuana has been legal since 2003  in Canada and recreational use starting nation wide in June 8 2018. A clear shift from illegal marijuana to hundreds of corporations you can buy stock in right now. Urbangrower, Theweedguy,  Customgrow420 and Pot.tv and many more are subjected to censorship for making videos about safe effective safe natural plant federally legal in Canada and Recreationally legal In June 2018. California also recreationally legal and many other states such as California and Washington having state wide marijuana legalization cashing in. The discrimination of censorship is biased wrong and needs to be addressed by all forms of media. If you can’t freely post activism on YouTube about a life saving natural plant curing and treating epilepsy, cancer, nausea, MS, Chronic Pain, Spasms, Turets and many many conditions symptoms. With no physical addiction and impossible to overdose from but more importantly can be grown EVERYWHERE by most it’s a huge threat to the most profitable industries in the world, medicine, fuel and fiber and food. Corporations have a vested interest controlling and profiting from marijuana and these industries they profit from. Videos are being shut down are accounts shut down with the excuse of violating YouTube rules when in reality nothing illegal is being filmed especially on Canadian YouTube accounts with content filmed by federal medical marijuana patients. A doctor has prescribed marijuana and health Canada licenses the patient to grow and use it. But even cities such as Vancouver shifted from a gray area non-profit accepted dispensary self regulated system to 30,000$ business licensing issues City wide regulated system. 

You have to ask YouTube is it really “You” tube when Federally licensed Patients in a country recreationally legalizing this year can’t film, report or use the medication prescribed and licensed to use by Health Canada. Discrimination beyond censorship and of rights are what’s at stake, but more importantly revenue and content worked hard on by many pot tubers is erased in one day with the three strike YouTube close your account method. So instead of accepting what seems to be an insurmountable fight against Youtube and governments and corporations Theweedguy aka Mark Klokeid has decided to declare a Celebration party marking Recreational Legalization of Marijuana for July 1, Canada day. I have been on stage filming using his doctor prescribed marijuana with artist  such as Snoop Dogg, Wu Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, Waka Flaka, Trailer Park Boys, Daniel Wesley, Obie Trice, Ludacris,  Norm McDonald, Missy Elliot, B.O.B, Akon, Just to name a few. Co executive producer of The Culture High and collarborator and appearing in The Union movie, A blood cancer,  bone marrow transplant survivor and an entrepreneur mark has overcome and inspired millions to Live life to the fullest. Refusing to let Youtube or The police or Government control him or any entertainer blogger reporter or marijuana patient.

  I have decided to make a huge “WE WON POT IS LEGAL PARTY” 

Funds will be raised to contract entertainers, pay lawyers and lobby advertise and alert and fight everyone in the world discriminating and controlling marijuana. Crowdfunding to pay for civil action against YouTube and other organizations and government or authorities discriminating against marijuana or to boycott and hold accountable these unchecked media and government entities. 

In the coming das Kush.ca will unveil links to donate and partipate in the Free Celebration party Mark Klokeid will organize and raise funds to raise awareness of the censorship and discrimination being suffered at the hands of Youtube, Corporations, Organizations and Police and Governments Or powers that be. July 1 2018 Canada Day join The party and celebrate Recreational legalization Nation wide and continue the fight for freedom from censorship and corporate control. You can share this and make your own blogs or make videos raising awareness about the many videos and channels being erased on YouTube and continued control and discrimination. But no matter what come to the free Celebration with entertainment and support from the people who care about the right to marijuana use. That means You and every human wanting equal access. This is your chance to spread the word make a change and donate to the best free party in the WORLD!!! The “We Won Pot’s Legal” party July 1 Canada Day in Vancouver Canada. Artist and crowdfunding link to be posted soon with update videos. Please Care and Share.