#like thats something theyve discussed or established

[charmac]

Before I asked Glenn about the Mac and Dennis bathroom situation, I had been working on a Paddy's Pub Blog post about this long-standing debate (if only because I find it interesting and like laying things out). I held it back in anticipation of Glenn visiting my neighbourhood once again, and that delay very much paid off.

Obviously Glenn Howerton's word isn't the be-all-end-all of a fandom debate, there's still no hard canonical evidence to prove whether Mac's Bathroom exists or not, but I thought having one of them weigh in on the situation would be a fun addition to a blog post about it.

If you're unfamiliar as to where the question of Mac's Bathroom comes from, undecided on which side you stand, are looking to be convinced, are familiar yet interested in reading a concise overview, or are even looking to fact check me, you should check out the latest post on The Paddy's Pub Blog, where I both-sides the Mac and Dennis Bathroom Situation as best I can

[mothtarts]

Just wanted to say that you are so real over your post about Cleo and Pearl and their weird ass homo relationship. Their relationship is just weird. I mean that in a good, kind of makes me insane type of way when I look at it from a narrative perspective

Okay. You. Walk with me, walk with me. I truly believe that if we rank duos and groups and yadda yadda based on popularity, Cleo and Pearl’s dynamic is one that is not talked about enough and is definitely underrated. Thats my genuine opinion

I enjoy the angst between Scott and Pearl in DL as much as the next person but I wish theres more discussion and just insane blabbering posts [like me right now] talking about Cleo and Pearl’s dynamic

Cleo became a part of Scott and Pearl’s group in LL, forming the 3Gs. Theyve established a bond, through the heist, the trust that Pearl showed to her fellow teammates to inform them of the rigged boogie [HA] dance room. Pearl is a very loyal person, all of the three are

And it’s this bond, this loyalty and joy over their previous group that Pearl got so excited over possibly teaming up with both Scott and Cleo after turning Martyn away, only to be shocked and hurt over Gatekeep and Gaslight refusing to let Girlboss join. The break up of the 3Gs, the birth of Divorce Duo and the beginning emergence of Scarlet Pearl

Thats something I dont see much acknowledged as well or like you know, be insane over. That while yes, Scott rejected and refused to team up with the person he is soulbounded with, may it be because of pride or just continuously being petty or both. The hurt cut deeper with how Cleo went along with it

The loyalty between Scott and Cleo and their shared disregard and rejection of Pearl are the first thorns to dig within her heart

And it just makes me think. Does Cleo get haunted with the fact that she had a hand in Pearl’s insanity? Do silent apologies in her mind play whenever she is around Pearl, never to be said and the words that do come out only cuts Pearl deeper with how sharp her tongue is? Does Cleo’s heart feel? Does is it ache as they watched Scott wince and grimace and complain over the pain in his shoulders?

[these are just things I think over the headcanons I have, basically feeling each other’s pain not only with the game’s mechanic but in a story sense that even just little things like getting a papercut, accidentally burning yourself while cooking and your soulbond feeling that pain. In this case, I’m referring to my headcanon that Pearl doesnt mind the bite of the snow but it gets to her that shes alone in her tower, in her lonesome with no one to fall back on. Having Tilly helps but only for so long before she cant stand it anymore. So sometimes she cant help but hug herself, try to bring herself comfort but unknowingly digs her nails in through her hoodie, there is pain in her jaw being clenched so tight in an attempt to not let herself be wrecked with sobs only for her to struggle to breathe through her nose because the ball in her throat is making it clogged with the effort shes trying to exert to just not break down from not only losing one friend but two]

So yes does Cleo wonder? Do they think about Pearl alone in her tower? Does she know Pearl does this? No she doesnt. They think that Pearl is probably doing something else that makes Scott also hurt and not get a good night’s sleep. Hahaha you know just thoughts to bring up the angst more

Welp. Anyways this was a lot. I can honestly go on and on about the dynamic and angst and feels between them but I feel embarrassed with how much I already typed. Apologies that you have to be the unfortunate soul to receive this ramble of mine [I’m actually just a lurker and dont really post anything but here have a smidge of my thoughts]

OMGGG FUXK YEA WOAOWOWKWKWKJWWINQOOOOOO WOOOOOOOO YEAA

but like on a more serious note woa anon you fucking put it into words perfectly

a huggeee reason i love the dynamic of this season is because pearl has specifically been targeting cleo, no she is out for blood and it’s so fun. the fact that cleo burns her dog pack, the same kind of pack she had in dl makes me go crazy.

cleo remembers scarlet pearl vividly, more than anyone else since (from what i remember) she got murdured by pearl. she probably got triggered by the dog pack and acted in pure instinct. pearl doesn’t know that tho, she took that personally.

the person that encouraged her soulmate to never trust her again, who made her alone and vulnerable, now coming back to destroy the one lifeline she has in this series??? it’s perfect

cleo has watched pearl through her worst, seen her through her most wretched and evil moments and came out of it stronger, while pearl became a husk of her former self, now longing for the day she becomes a red life and can snap and wreck havoc again.

it’s also not lost on me that cleo has a huge ducking chance of winning, and she’ll prob fight pearl at some point since shell wanna get revenge

[sibylsleaves]

ngl i think itd be more likely for them to do family therapy with the three of them + individual therapy for buck and eddie where they have the other person included in their sessions from time to time? i havent had couples therapy but ive worked with different therapists that do couples therapy + had interest in being a therapist myself before and based on my knowledge usually thats for couples who have a lot of disagreements/fighting/problems within their relationship that they need a third party perspective on and need help learning how to communicate

like ofc buddie has had conflict but the rare times they have theyve resolved it themselves pretty well??? even their “divorce” era was more about eddie missing buck rather than eddie being mad about the lawsuit itself and eddie’s pstd arc basically established that they’re there for each other through everything and 709 and 710 proved that

DEFINITELY think they should have sessions discussing stuff like the tsunami, the well, the shooting, buck dying etc though because damn 😭

yeah i'm not sure why you would go to couple's therapy if you were just kind of having regular run-of-the-mill type relationship conflicts. so it's not something i necessarily see happening for Eddie and Buck because on the whole their communication is actually very good. therapy is also expensive!!!! and unfortunately our healthcare system SUCKS and a lot of therapy ends up not being fully covered, so.

my family member specializes in trauma therapy and i'm sure they would have a FIELD DAY with these three...although a lot of trauma therapy is not really what people think. like it's less about delving into memories of specific trauma, and more about becoming more aware of the coping mechanisms you have in response to past trauma that are not serving you in your current life and developing new, better coping strategies. so i guess more about addressing the impact of trauma on your day-to-day life than like, ruminating on the trauma itself. at least in CBT- and DBT-based therapy

[glitchbirds]

the more i think about it the more i think “dont hatewatch anything dont give (x) any attention” is a sentiment thats a bit misguided, though i understand completely where it comes from

because, like, in that ideal world where no one online Does hatewatch anything that looks like trash from the first preview.. should only official film/television critics hired on major publications and already established in the industry have the privilege to watch whatever studio slop is pumped out? or does that privilege extend to people who make, like, informal critical essays and videos online discussing media; but beyond them the average person should not watch these things because its Bad and Morally Wrong to do so, they have to achieve the Special Privilege of having an audience for them to be allowed to watch something for critical purposes? or are they ALL corporate shills and not even critics should be covering shows like velma because its all free publicity? because idk. i feel like the implication here is either ���death to all discussion of things i personally think suck (that i havent watched myself yet and never will) we should all just ignore it until it goes away” OR you make allowances for official film critics and the like and we have a roger ebert-type situation where ppl trust the word of certain critics so thoroughly that they never watch media outside their bubble of immediate interest themselves and just parrot the opinions of critics they like. so media can live and die by the force of what the most popular film writers of our time have to say about it, regardless of their actual quality. (frankly, we’re kind of already nearing at that point in certain online circles with some popular video essayists/“video essayists”, but i digress.) also, like, as plenty of ppl have pointed out, hatewatching is Not the main source of engagement for most shows you and all your tumblr mutuals think sucks, because there are plenty of ppl earnestly watching these things because theyve been heavily advertised to/because theyre interested in the IP/because it Actually seems to align with their sense of humor/etc. so in the ideal no-hatewatching-ever society, only ppl who have no real reason to object to the media in question will watch it, making actual debate and critique of the media impossible. because if all you can really say to them in protest is something you read in a polygon article once, you cant pull genuine examples that you understand in full context and it gets increasingly difficult to argue your points with someone who actually Has seen the full thing, even if their conclusions are heavily flawed.

obviously this is all hypotheticals and extremes because its impossible for hatewatching and media critique to just cease. and i absolutely dont think theres like a moral issue with telling ppl to not watch the stupid scooby doo television show, let alone being annoyed at it all over your dash. but im starting to think that the refrain shouldnt be “dont hatewatch EVER” and should be “dont create a fandom out of hatewatching”. because really fandom IS the problem here- you can watch whatever the hell you want on your own time and i honestly have no issues with ppl constructively picking apart shows like velma on their own blogs but its another thing entirely to be making harry potter “fix it” aus in 2023, u know? or making countless posts of just out of context screencaps (of dialogue the creators of the show Knew you were going to make out of context screencaps of), w/ no further critique beyond “what were they thinking?!?”-type captions. idk. just hatewatch and engage critically.

and pirate whatever you’re watching. obviously.

[actualbird]

n/s//f///w text

i want fic where nxx polycule where it's like the team's respect for artem's boundaries + artem's idiocy = monumental sexual frustration for everybody involved

wc: 864

so this idea has been swimming in my head for a while where like, the nxx polycule is established and theyre all in love and there are bumps in the road of course but everybody works through them because they want to make each other happy.

thing is tho, they havent all fucked each other yet in every permutation bc 1) scheduling is a nightmare (5 adults fully employed in different fields? on GODS i know coordinating schedules is a hellish activity) and also bc 2) everybody has got their own pace, irt wanting to explore sex

marius and vyn are slutting it up fastest, i think. mc is right behind them, and luke, a bit hesitant but also very very game, is behind her. and artem?

artem draws a boundary clearly and very early on that hes not sure yet if he wants to have sex at all, hes still thinking about it. like, he realized that hes demisexual and hes attracted to all of them, yes, but this is his first time being attracted to ANYBODY EVER. quite literally, this is not only his first relationship, it's also the first time hes experiencing this kind of desire and he asked the team for some time to figure it out.

of course, the team understand fully and tell him that no matter what, they all still love him. and they mean it!! even if sex isnt on the table ever with artem involved, thats not gonna change any of their feelings and commitment towards him.

artem is hugely touched by how considerate everybody is and maybe he cries about it because with them, he doesnt have to worry about being "correct" or whatever else societal bullshit expectations on relationships there are. hes just allowed to Be, and hes loved all the same.

so things go swimmingly for a while!!

but then artem takes a yoga class

and one day it goes over a bit late and he goes to an nxx meeting still in his attire and everybody is LOOKING RESPECTFULLY

OR TRYING NOT TO LOOK AT ALL

because lord, protect the nxx team's lustful jezebel gazes from artem wing's YOGA PANTS DICK OUTLINE OF ENORMOUS SIZE.

of course, of COURSE, they do not push artem or speak inappropriately about it to artem or even look at his clothed kickstand dick after the first glance.

but they are in shambles about it.

after some communication, the others learn that artem is definitely okay with being talked about when the others are fucking, and thus the rest of the team start having sex while sexily discussing Not So Little Artem

thing is, artem keeps showing up to meetings or hangouts in outfits that are not leaving anything up to imagination in regards to how fucking huge that dick is. the team is having a hard (HA!) time but, again, they love artem so much, so they do not push.

unbeknownst to them that artem is actually down to clown now, hes thought about it, hes ready and VERY MUCH WANTS TO. but also hes shy and stupid and doesnt know how to say this clearly so he just takes cues from like, a cosmo magazine sex tips article or something

"Be coy!" the magazine article says. "Show your lover a taste and see if they'll take the bait!"

AND LIKE, artem follows this ridiculous advice because hes worried hes a boring lover!!! and he doesnt want to be a boring lover!!!! and so all i want is just a much too long and silly fic thats basically like

artem: theyve been so accommodating to me and i want to thank them for that by being....exciting and enticing. yes, i could communicate clearly but would they be bored with that? i dont want to be a boring partner....

vyn, marius, luke, and mc: //renaissance painting depicting lusty despair

(after enough comedy misunderstandings, they all do end up communicating eventually and then sex scene resolution where everybody is in attendance, wahoo!!!

but also i staunchly headcanon that since artem's dick is so goddamn huge, hes only got enough in that thing for ONE COME PER HOUR (1 cmph)

so like, not everybody is gonna get a literal taste. some compromise will have to happen. marius calls dibs on sucking artem off and he cites that his headgame is the BEST and so he DESERVES TO GO FIRST but also that artem needs to tap out when hes about to come so that marius will stop bc if he does come down marius' throat, theyll have to schedule another google calendar event like next fucking week.

vyn takes one for the team and says hes fine waiting to get dicked down to the stratosphere so that leaves luke and mc to flip a coin for whos getting railed.

it's the most tense coin flip ever. civil war between the besties.

and needless to say, artem's first time is a blast. he loves these people so so much.)

[aroaceacacia]

Just took a trip through hermittwt and it was indistinguishable from dsmptwt. I’m so disappointed in them (if anything it’s more embarrassing, scar’s a good 20-something years older than the average twitter stan I’m sure he can handle himself)

COHSHOCJOGJSPIGSGIP

yeah thats.... kind of my issue with them as well and why i stepped back a bit from the community, even if I was kinda on the fringes in the first place. the hermits are established adults who know how to behave and handle themselves online, and when an issue arises, they know they have a support system in each other (think xisuma helping tfc write the apology video he released a couple months ago). the way they're very concerned with keeping the feelings of the irl hermits in mind with the content and jokes they make is kinda... silly? to me, because 1) the hermits are adults who can block and mute people as they feel necessary, and 2) fandom isnt for the creators, it's for the fans. That's a sentiment Joe Hills himself expressed on stream in early 2020 when discussing his feelings on shipping. it's cool when creators are involved with fandom (think scott smajor checking in on tumblr's 3rd life and empires memes), but fundamentally, the hermitcraft fandom is for our enjoyment and not for the enjoyment of the hermits. obviously that doesnt mean being completely unrestrained with the kind of jokes/content we make (dont be assholes/bigots, use the agreed upon tagging systems, lock fics to only archive users on ao3 when you want to keep ccs out, and warn when necessary)

that and the fact that they have like, community rules when it's a public subtwt is a red flag for me personally. one of the problems that happened in hermitblr in 2019 was certain users/groups of users trying to force certain mindsets/opinions on the rest of the community and it ended up creating a very toxic environment because people were scared to think differently, whether that was intentional or unintentional. hermittwt has (or has tried to have) a policy of "keeping drama to the dms", too, so they can present themselves as a friendly and approachable subtwt, and it all just. it reeks of toxicity & negativity being bottled up and of groupthink

im sure they're all lovely people, and I've interacted with some of them and theyve been very nice. i just dont think the format/genre of having stan accounts dedicated to hermitcraft really works with hermitcraft as a brand and as a community of ccs, and the way theyve tried to go about handling their community reminds me too much of 2019 hermitblr to feel 100% safe there. that's just my onion tho

[we8comic]

i was the anon who sent the eyeroll dream thing and genuinely actually do you have any feelings about like dream and by extension sapnap trying to assert themselves into pop off trio streams

because i’m not gonna lie as much as i love dream and sapnap and yeah the going dark thing was funny, they do have this problem where they show up and get confrontational about not being invited and when they do that shit and put everyone on the spot about “being left out” it’s very weird to me you should just accept they want to have a stream alone right..? i was wondering what you thought about that and whether you think they genuinely feel threatened about being left out

like let george hang out with his other friends maybe i doubt they’d do this if it was quackity and karl with anyone else or even just them alone

also i’m too much of a coward to discuss this on my own main idk if you know who this is but i have a feeling it’s smth you agree with and it’s veryyy nice to see someone calling sapnap and dream out for their occasional annoying and stream ruining behaviour

sorry this is so long!! you also totally don’t have to answer btw lmao i just notice the same frustration sometimes through your liveblogging whenever sapnap and dream crash a stream

anonymous: wait wait to add onto my last ask it was the biggest power move for karl to announce that the sex havers only consists of george karl and quackity and i really felt like that was a hint drop from him, i think jokingly adding that anyone else is “a friend of sex havers” was to lessen the impact but i still enjoy the fact that he asserted (and has been asserting) that their group when they’re together is an exclusive trio

i felt it that time he was like yeah well. we were the original sex havers groupchat and i feel like sapnap and dream kinda wriggled themselves into being included like i hope none of this sounds mean i just really want dream and sapnap to understand it’s okay to not be included in everything

oh MAN do i have feelings 😩 dream and sapnap are almost comically emasculated by any little thing that makes them feel inferior and that includes being excluded from things. and i personally feel they have no right to get angry about being left out and to then show up onto their streams to express that theyre upset in front of an audience of thousands. i say this because the other three ALWAYS mention that they dm'd them and invited them to the activity or otherwise said they had reason to believe dream or sapnap wouldnt be available (and even outside of that, theyre not required to tell the other about every single one of their plans lol)

i think getting confrontational about it on stream in the middle of planned activities is childish. take a look at bad for example, who also isnt a part of the trio but doesnt get confrontational about having been left out. the trio is full of lighthearted people, bad came into the call and they asked him if he wanted to join in the game they were playing and he did and that was it. compare that to dream or sapnap and when they join calls. theyre consistently immediately accusatory. the trio will take it in stride (cus again. an audience of over 100k is watching. its really not the time and place to whine and get mad about feeling left out, those are convos to have in private), theyll throw some facts like "we invited you" "you said you were busy" "we already had this planned for a while" etc., then theyll offer an invitation to join. this invitation is usually met w quite frankly STUPID debate about "well why wasnt i included in the first place" like dude. read the room, youre streamers for a living, talk about these things off stream like an adult. plus they literally already said you could join if you still wanted to, whats the problem, why drag it out for longer than it needs to be. it just stalls the stream and their plans and shifts the lighthearted tone into somethin a little more careful (however briefly it might be, it didnt need to happen)

i LOVE karl for saying that theyre their own group and joking that their attitude is why theyre friends of sex havers. it felt like a lighthearted way to lift the mood again and kinda say "hey, we do our own things sometimes, chill"

i cant speak for whether i think they genuinely feel threatened about being left out cus not only do i not know them personally, theyre also not ccs i focus energy on (thats for quackity and george 😌) i DO think that with all the times theyve brought it up when crashing the trio streams, they should really by this point have talked about it off screen. it feels almost like they use the audience as a safety net to avoid the consequence of intruding/being mean cus whoever theyre talking to has to keep a certain face and therefore cant say certain things (might even hazard a guess that off screen they probably still dont REALLY talk about it)

i dont blame them for wanting to be a part of things their friends are doing but i blame them for the way they express that. it makes the atmosphere tense by making it far too personal for something thats visible to a live public audience.

i know theyre around the same age, but the way dream an sapnap handle conflict on screen IS immature vs the way quackity and karl do. quackity and karl have been entertainers for A WHILE and understand how to stay entertaining and theyre far more aware of their audience and the overall mood and how to handle problems and conflict without things getting too tense. dream and sapnap (sapnap moreso) have a habit of being confrontational and not lightening the mood and instead continuing to be mad, making everyone else in the call responsible for the energy of the stream instead of them themselves dealing with the tenseness theyve caused. it makes things awkward and im always hoping itll end fast and that theyd please for the love of god talk about it off stream

thats worded a little dramatically cus its rarely ever THAT bad, but it would be SO much better if it just didnt happen yknow. if they understood that they dont have to be a part of everything their other friends do AND if they understood that getting mad on stream and stalling their plans and souring the vibe isnt the best way to handle it.

tl;dr: theyre their own group who do their own things and arent required to share their plans w the rest of their friends (and usually they dm in advance anyway asking if they wanna be a part of their plans). dream and sapnap feeling excluded isnt something they should get overly heated about on stream (its an immature way to bring up the issue especially without ever offering a solution). these are problems they should talk about off stream where the trio dont have to be so conscious about their audience and its perception. i love karl and quackity for emphasizing that theyre their own group with their own plans and joking that the way they act is WHY theyre not part of the group. i think they deal w it as well as they can and i think dream and sapnap need to learn just a little more spacial awareness and how to handle conflict

edit: quackity/karl/george should be fully able to have their own stream together without anyone else intruding. dream and sapnap arent their bosses, they dont need to run all their plans by them first. if they want to have streams with just their own established group, they should be able to have that.

[comicteaparty]

December 27th, 2018 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party chat that occurred on December 27th, 2018, from 5PM - 7PM PST.  The chat focused on Inhibit by Eve Greenwood / evegwood.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

RebelVampire

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB START!

Good evening, everyone~! This week’s Thursday Book Club is officially beginning! Today we are discussing Inhibit by Eve Greenwood / evegwood~! (http://www.inhibitcomic.com/)

Remember that Thursday discussions are completely freeform! However, every 30 minutes I will drop in OPTIONAL discussion questions in case you’d like a bit of a prompt. If you miss out on one of these prompts, you can find them pinned for the chat’s duration. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is fun and respectfully appreciating the comic. All that said, let’s begin!

QUESTION 1. What is your favorite scene in the comic so far and why?

there are many great scenes, but i am particularly fond of victor in the parking garage. specifically, i enjoy the unfolding of events once masha joins the party. i love the fact that victor freezes up and just flat out doesnt know what to do. not only does this fit with his character, but i actually think its refreshing for a protagonist with powers to still just be a regular person deep down who does not have the required training to deal with that sort of situation. not to mention i love seeing paulina's powers in action

spire

Agreed! The garage is one of my favorites too. I love how Paulina is breaking rules left and right- not just laws (lol) but all the concepts that have been established so far about how powers are supposed to work. I really want to figure out what's going on(edited)

RebelVampire

or is she breaking laws? as in the powers. obviously shes breaking the other sorts of laws like dont set ppls property on fire. but i will save theories on the powers for a bit later. i do enjoy that she throws a wrench already into what's established. tho i felt bad for victor that nobody is listening to him.

another scene ive been enjoying is the current flashback where victor is a bouncy child. mostly because i love how excited about everything victor is. like wanting explosions just cause its cool. and i think its just this real contrast that builds tension for the narrative since youre like "victor man what happened O_O"

spire

No one listened to him then and no one listens to him now. I would love it if someone took him seriously for once

I would also love it it someone let him REST

RebelVampire

yeah my heart really hurts for him. because ive been in that position of sitting there constantly trying to tell someone something and then being ignored.

although i really think ppl need to learn moderation in regards to their expectations for victor most of all

cause it seems like ppl either 1) expect nothing from victor and think hes a loser or 2) pull a nate and expect victor to auto be this extremely capable person despite not having trained for anything in years

Superjustinbros

*jumps in

Hello~!

RebelVampire

hey super!

Superjustinbros

Hey Rebel!

Pleased to be here~

spire

Hello~

Superjustinbros

And hello to you too, Spire!

RebelVampire

another scene that i enjoy was when julia, david, and victor snuck back in to the building to eavesdrop. on a technical level i liked the writing for it because it was a scene that moved the plot along but also served to show off the relationship dynamics that exist between those specific characters. so as a narrative construct everything in that scene felt like it had purpose to one end or the other.

Superjustinbros

I just want to say, the faces in this comic are incredible.

http://www.inhibitcomic.com/comics/2658763/chapter-5-pg-11/ Especially this one on the bottom right

And then they play bloody Laser Tag

RebelVampire

yeah the faces on the kid are really some fantastic exaggerations

Superjustinbros

Oh yes

RebelVampire

but suits them cause theyre kids

Superjustinbros

There's lots of fun to be had with giving characters over the top faces.

RebelVampire

QUESTION 2. Victor has been shown to be a drastically different person than he was in his youth. What is the past incident that several characters bring up that apparently resulted in a trial and inevitably got Victor kicked out of Urquhart? What does it have to do with Masha, and do you think Julia was involved somehow considering she’s also at Earl Estate? Is it the reason Nate and Victor’s relationship soured as well? Do you believe the incident is what changed Victor so much, or is it several aspects of his life? Do you think any of this has something to do with why Victor has failed to improve at Earl Estate? Also, why do you believe Victor’s inhibitors are now failing him so badly? Lastly, do you believe his missions with Nate will have an effect on Victor’s personality? How so?

Superjustinbros

tfw it's already time to answer question 2

I'll stop posting these to the chat now

RebelVampire

well considering adult victor has some issue controlling his powers when hes emotional, im gonna assume something of that nature happened. potentially maybe to that bully who keeps picking on young masha. cause i feel like victor is gonna stand up to them or attempt to and get mad and then accidentally severely injure them or something. idk about julia being involved

tho looking back it looks like she has all her fingers as a child

Superjustinbros

That seems like a very good interpretation.

Considering he does shoot out electricity at impractical times, at least from what I've seen(edited)

RebelVampire

as for nate and victor's relationship souring, i think theres more at work than just this incident. i kind of get the impression that nate just kind of likes taking things out on victor even when everything has nothing to do with victor. but i think basically all this crap combined to shake victor's confidence and that's a large reason hes not improving. cause he just has no reason to be confident anymore.

spire

I think Vic's self worth has been raised into a precarious position thanks to being a gifted (in this case- super powered) child, and with how much his spark-outs are emphasized through the whole comic, something terrible must have happened with a spark and that lack of control was touted against him, which makes it near impossible to repair his self esteem

RebelVampire

yes definitely all that. cause i feel by and large that victor has just given up on himself. which tbf i dont blame him cause literally nobody is doing anything to help really. like theres not a truly positive influence. although to nate's credit i guess he's trying? just ya know, in a super bad way

spire

Lol yeah. That's a good way to put it

Nate is helping but in the worst way. Vic needs some genuine, earnest support

As for Julia, I suspect she gave herself frostbite? Noor is very strict about Julia forming ice around her limbs, and she must have been moved to Earl for a similar outburst of her own powers

RebelVampire

tbh i think julia has more control of her powers. from the impression i get anyway. i kind of think julia is just reckless and doesnt think her actions through. though i mean might of been an outburst too. i could really go either way. and maybe its both.

though frostbite is way more tame than what i was thinking happened XD

i was picturing more encasing an ice and then shattering said ice

frostbite sounds more reasonable and less horrific

spire

Omg

Julia just thought one day that it would be cool to be a snowman

She didn't consider the fact that she can't move. Once she becomes the snow man ️

RebelVampire

that sounds like something shed do. even now cause i dont feel shes anymore responsible than she was as a kid

which ya know narratively speaking is kind of a good contrast with victor in a way

spire

Yeah

RebelVampire

cause victor has no control of his powers but has a sort of reserved control of himself. whereas julia has control of her powers but is an explosion of bad decisions waiting to happen

spire

I love that about them. Despite Julia's recklessness I think it's good for Vic to not be sitting alone in his room 24/7

RebelVampire

idk i agree and disagree. its good for him to get out and socialize, but im not sure the ppl around him are well-suited to kind of give him teh space he needs.

tho tbf im not sure the estate is the healithiest place in general

it kind of feels like prison

QUESTION 3. Victor’s life changes a lot when he’s forced to join Nate’s team. Why do you think Nate is so vehement about having Victor as a temporary member on his team? Is he honestly just trying to help Victor, or is there is some other hidden reason? What did you think the way the retrievals were handled says about the world and its view on Variants? How might the first mission change Victor’s perspective on Variants and how they’re treated (if at all)? How will it affect how Victor deals with other team missions and/or the course of the story? Lastly, do you believe that Victor will be able to makes amends and bond with the team, or will he continue to be chastised and treated somewhat lesser?

spire

The way that variants are trained at places like Urq and Miller to almost solely police their own community is disturbing. Vic wants no part of it and it's perfectly understandable

Variants are monitored so closely through their whole lives. it's invasive.

RebelVampire

yeah. and i mean...theres a degree i want to be understanding. i would not want untrained variants just walking around causing accidents and such. cause theyve shown that their powers can be damaging not just to others but themselves and also all the property around them. so i can understand that variants kind of need a special thing going on for everyone's protection

but man do those places feel like prison

like when you cant even let someone's mom see their kid off

thats a bad sign

spire

In that kind of environment a variant is pressured to do whatever they can to appear trustworthy. Even if Nate is trying to help Vic out I think he's ultimately trying to make himself look better by helping Vic succeed

RebelVampire

that could be although i feel theres easier ways then making under the table secret deals. tho tbh i think theres a mix going on here. like i think nate does want to help victor and wants to see him succeed. but i also feel like nate isnt altruistic either. more like he wants to help victor cause he feels like victor is his one failure that he cant leave to continue to be a failure just for the sake of his own pride.

Superjustinbros

“I think he's ultimately trying to make himself look better by helping Vic succeed”

This thought caught my eyes

RebelVampire

although it could also be that nate sees something of himself reflected in victor. cause nate did freak out when masha wasnt just flat out listening to his captain's orders. and i kind of feel that reflects his own feelings of being unsure of himself

Superjustinbros

Perhaps

RebelVampire

but i kind of wonder if theres an issue of dormancy at play in all this? cause if nate feels like he's losing his powers and position soon, that could be a prime motivator in whatever he feels hes got to do

like hes running out of his chance to do that one super awesome thing that immortalizes him in history

spire

Ooooooooo that's a very interesting thought

Reminiscent of thinkin you need to be ultra successful by the time you're 30

I hadn't thought of nates motivation that way before :0

RebelVampire

yeah and this is kind of an extreme case of needing to be successful by 30. cause in this case its kind of true in a way. since im sure if youre a variant the powers are kind of part of who you are. but by 30 you lose that and essentially have to redefine who you are as a person. and i think thats more true with the way their system is set up since their glorified prisons are so life encompassing.

spire

Yeah. That's got to be terrifying, knowing your whole identity is going to disappear one day, one day SOON

RebelVampire

yes. or so were led to believe. cause tbf i got sinister vibes from that scene with the doctor checking young victor for dormancy. so maybe all we know is a lie and dormancy is not a natural process but something forced upon variants.

spire

OOOOOOOOHH

Terrifying if tru

Superjustinbros

Yeah that scene creeped me out a bit

and it just came out of nowhere

RebelVampire

cause i agree with young victor. why are you checking a kid for dormancy if you know the typical ages for dormancy

and i feel that line is there for a reason

spire

I wonder if he's still wondering that now, 9 years later?

And I hope he is

RebelVampire

maybe hell remember it

Superjustinbros

Exactly, Rebel. (about the dormacy part)(edited)

RebelVampire

cause to tie in the 2nd part of that question, i def think victor is on the path to see the injustice in how variants are treated

those facial expressions in the van were already on the extreme i feel sorry for these people side

QUESTION 4. Inadvertently, Victor becomes involved with a dangerous arsonist named Paulina. What do you think Paulina’s powers are? Is she a pyro as many believe, or is there something funky going on with her powers like Victor believes? Why do you believe Paulina attacked Miller, and why do you think she’s so desperately looking for Chalice? Where do you think Paulina even came from given she isn’t declaring any facility as her origin? Why, of all people, do you think Paulina went to Victor specifically for help? Given Victor gets Julia involved, how might the residents of Earl Estate affect Victor helping Paulina or not? In general, do you believe Victor will help Paulina or not, and how will this choice affect the rest of the story?

Superjustinbros

I'm going to say maybe she has multiple powers versus most of the other characters that only have one

spire

That's what I was thinking too

Superjustinbros

I mean she really is mysterious, since her profile is still //||?⁄⁄/⁄\ | on the site

RebelVampire

idk. i mean its certainly possible. but im also willing to think that she has one power that doesnt fit any of the predefined powers the world established. so like shes a new variant type. or that she knows how to use her pyro powers in a way that nobody thought possible

but multiple powers is still possible

im just more willing to error on the side of it still fitting in with established laws and we just dont get the full picture yet

Superjustinbros

maybe like dark/gravity powers, or some power that's otherwise considered taboo?

spire

I think ultimately Vic's going to be looking for some truth and working with Pauli will appear? To get him some answers

Superjustinbros

Considering het background is nothing like the others

And yeah, maybe that ends up happening

http://inhibit.smackjeeves.com/files/what.png I mean can anyone translate this(edited)

RebelVampire

no but its probably just for the purposes of making her mysterious

and wont change to not give new readers spoilers XD

spire

Yes I believe that's simply to keep it mysterious for new readers

Superjustinbros

Yeah

RebelVampire

i think victor will def help paulina, although im not sure i get the impression paulina is gonna inspire victor to look for truth persay. though if she gets him to chalice, i think chalice will make him question stuff.

Superjustinbros

Maybe, just maybe.(edited)

RebelVampire

i kind of get the impression that paulina didnt come from any facility but instead has been living and training outside the system. cause we dont really know the process by which the facilities collect variants in the first place. like obviously we see victor's mom bring victor. but like...was it the law? was it under threat hed be taken anyway? how did ppl know?(edited)

and without knowing these things i can think of a lot of reasons paulina just skirted by the system

Superjustinbros

Definitely could be something outside the system, since it's still a mystery

spire

I'm wondering if the only reason Pauli chased Vic down to Earl is because she has blackmail to make him help her find chalice. If she asked anyone else she's obvs get turned in to the police or taken home?? Wherever that is???

Well, I guess it's not really black mail. So I don't really know

RebelVampire

maybe paulina just picked him cause hes the only variant she knows now who didnt immediately try to arrest her

and tbf

victor is a good choice cause he would seem easy to intimidate into doing what you want him to do

spire

TRUE LMAO

RebelVampire

tho i couldnt fathom why she wants to find chalice. i mean the assumption is she wants their help. but maybe she super hates them and chalice is corrupt and bad. and that there is no good in this world. or something depressing like that.

Superjustinbros

lmao

Plus he's the protagonist

RebelVampire

paulina got super meta and said "hey victor you feel like a protagonist. you can probably help"

XD

Superjustinbros

XD

Protagonist Syndrome in a nutshell

RebelVampire

that makes me feel bad for victor. victor seems like the last person whod ever want to be a protagonist

just wants to sleep in his room instead

spire

Hashtag relatable tbh

Superjustinbros

Yes

RebelVampire

since we only have 4 mins left, are there any final thoughts to share?

Superjustinbros

I'd love to do the same lol

I want to say this has been a great read so far, it's got great characters, lots of emotion, and lots of charm.

(And lots of good expressions)

Good luck with the comic, Eve, it's really going strongly so far.

spire

I think inhibit really nails what it feels like to be pinned by the expectations put on you by all levels of society, but still allowing itself to breathe and be funny and so human

RebelVampire

i think inhibit is a great story with memorable personalities. but most of all it has a relateable protagonist whose inner demons can speak to most ppl, and watching his journey is definitely probably something that will inspire hope

unless victor dies

then no hope

COMIC TEA PARTY- THURSDAY BOOK CLUB END!

Sadly, this wraps up this week’s Thursday Book Club chat for now. Thank you so much to everyone for reading and joining us! We want to give a special thank you to Eve Greenwood / evegwood, as well, for making Inhibit. If you liked the comic, make sure to support Eve Greenwood / evegwood’s efforts however you’re able to~!

Read and Comment: http://www.inhibitcomic.com/

Eve Greenwood / evegwood’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/evegwood

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Eve Greenwood / evegwood’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/evegwood

Comic Tea Party- Thursday Book Club

Next week’s Thursday Book Club will be about Princess Pups by Lindsay Hornsby. For participants, you have the next week to read as much of the comic as you would like~! We hope to see you on Thursday, January 3rd, from 5PM to 7PM PST for the chat in #thursday_bookclub!

Comic’s Main Site: https://tapas.io/series/Princess-Pups

[patriotsnet]

How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-do-republicans-feel-about-the-wall/

How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

Half Of Republicans Believe False Accounts Of Deadly Us Capitol Riot

How do Hispanic Americans truly feel about the border wall?

7 Min Read

WASHINGTON -Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.

Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists trying to make Trump look bad, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that Novembers presidential election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.

Since the Capitol attack, Trump, many of his allies within the Republican Party and right-wing media personalities have publicly painted a picture of the days events jarringly at odds with reality.

Hundreds of Trumps supporters, mobilized by the former presidents false claims of a stolen election, climbed walls of the Capitol building and smashed windows to gain entry while lawmakers were inside voting to certify President Joe Bidens election victory. The rioters – many of them sporting Trump campaign gear and waving flags – also included known white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.

DANGEROUS SPIN ON REALITY

They Just Come For Show

The four House Republicans were unfamiliar with the history of the fight over Santa Ana.

It was not addressed by the Border Patrol agents who led the morning excursion. And by the time E&E News connected with Chapman, the delegation had departed the refuge for a briefing on Border Patrol activities at the local headquarters of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Later, when asked whether Westerman thought the environmental impact of installing a wall at Santa Ana and in other refuge areas was a necessary sacrifice to stop the flow of illegal immigration, the lawmaker said it didnt sound unreasonable.

One hundred and fifty feet kind of sounds like what the right of way would be on a levee, but I dont know, he said. Obviously, if youre going to build a wall, theres going to be clearing. And from what Ive seen, stories Ive heard about human trafficking, the rapes, the deaths yeah, I think its worth building the deterrents.

At the National Butterfly Center a 100-acre nature preserve that was also exempted from having a border wall built on its land in the same 2019 spending package Executive Director Marianna Trevino Wright said she thought the GOP lawmakers were ignorant by choice.

I think they have no idea, Trevino Wright asserted. They come just for show. Theyre not interested.

The real litterbugs, she contended, were the officers with Border Patrol.

There’s Something Happening Here

But he uses a different touchstone: Occupy Wall Street, the left-leaning anti-establishment movement that blossomed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“This is Occupy Wall Street Part 2, but this time it is on their turf, and there are real financial consequences,” he said. LeGate, who received a $100,000 Thiel fellowship to drop out of college and start a company when he was 18 years old in 2013, has been watching the WallStreetBets Reddit discussion for several years.

He said he is seeing increasing frustration and anger, which is exploding in the Covid pandemic era and it is bringing together the traditional political left and right.

“People were willing to take a risk on Trump and now they’re willing to take a risk in the markets,” he said. “A lot of people just want to see the world burn right now, and they’re enjoying watching it happen.”

He said he’s already seeing people on the WallStreetBets Reddit page looking for new targets and there are two themes. First, they’re looking for highly shorted stocks where big hedge funds might have a lot of leverage. And second, they’re looking for nostalgia plays to bring back the companies from their youth. That’s why Nokia, Blackberry and Blockbuster are all getting attention.

Border Walls In The Middle East

One major proof of concept that Republicans supporting a Mexican border wall cite is the success of similar walls in the Middle East. For example, walls along the Israeli-Palestinian border reportedly cut down illegal immigration between the countries. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who is also the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated that he was impressed with a system of fences he had inspected along the Israeli border with Palestinian territories. Johnson stated Im always looking for best practices. Its been incredibly effective. They had thousands of illegal immigrants; its down to the teens.

House Republicans Propose $10 Billion For Trumps Border Wall

House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a plan to provide $10 billion for President Donald Trumps border wall with Mexico, a bill unlikely to clear the Senate but which could fuel a shutdown fight in December.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said his panel will vote on the legislation next week. The bill also would add 10,000 more border patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, tap the National Guard to patrol the southern border and target people who have overstayed visas.

Now that we have a partner in the White House who has made this a top priority, its time to send a bill to President Trumps desk so we can deliver the American people the security they have long demanded and deserve, McCaul said in a statement.

The bill represents Republicans opening salvo in both the looming year-end government funding fight and high-stakes negotiations over undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

It almost certainly wont pass the Senate, where at least eight Democrats would be needed to clear a 60-vote threshold.

Partisans Approve Their Partys Approach To Shutdown Negotiations Disapprove Of Other Partys

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 76% approve of how Trump is handling shutdown talks, including 50% who say they strongly approve of Trumps approach. In contrast, just 4% of Democrats approve of Trumps handling of the negotiations, while 93% disapprove .

The overall pattern is similar in views of Republican leaders in Congress: 69% of Republicans approve of their partys leaders handling of negotiations, while just 10% of Democrats approve.

And while about seven-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners approve of the way Democratic leaders in Congress are handling the shutdown negotiations, just 11% of Republicans say the same.

Republicans Pray For A Border Crisis To Bring Biden Down

Joe Biden and his programs are popular. Republicans cant lay a glove on him. So theyve settled on immigration as the way to drag him into the mud.

Guillermo Arias/Getty

Republicans are crazy about immigration. No, really. The issue makes them loco. Just listen to the things theyre saying. Many of them have lost touch with reality.

Or maybe Republicans are crazy like a fox. The GOP seems to have once again pinned all of its hopes for retaking powerin this case, by winning back control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections and possibly regaining seats in the House of Representativeson the immigration issue. If either of those things happen, Republicans will be in decent shape to try to retake the White House in 2024.

President Joe Biden has only been in office for about 60 days, and Republicans who want to attack him and his administration dont have a lot of material with which to work.

Thats what some of the current fearmongering over the situation at the U.S.-Mexico borderabout half of itis all about. The other half is made up of good ol fashioned nativism and racism. Thats one reason why Republicans act like the prospect of what could turn out to be 100,000 would-be refugees from Central America mostly women and children is the end of Western civilization as we know it.

Here we are again. And the same Republicans who were quiet and subdued when former President Donald Trump confronted this same problem now cant stop talking about this being a crisis.

Republicans Spent Two Years Resisting Trumps Border Wall What Changed

Since the government shutdown 25 days ago, Republicans have largely defended the need for a border wall. While there appear to be some cracks in support, most are standing by the presidents insistence on funding.

As recently as September, The Washington Post described it this way:

The same Republican lawmakers who rushed through the tax bill Trump wanted, confirmed his first Supreme Court pick and are fighting to defend his second, and have remained largely deferential amid multiple scandals, have taken a far different approach when it comes to one of Trumps most memorable campaign promises deeming the wall to be impractical, unrealistic and too costly.

Most GOP lawmakers didnt come right out and say that, of course.

Instead, for the first two years of Trumps presidency, GOP lawmakers avoided the wall debate completely. In September 2017, USA Today took on the laborious task of surveying every member of Congress to determine their position on Trumps wall. At the time, the White House was requesting $1.6 billion to begin wall construction. The survey found that just 69 of the 292 Republicans in Congress said they supported Trumps funding request. Three outright opposed it, but the majority avoided answering the question directly.

Shortly after Trumps inauguration, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham , Trumps onetime nemesis turned close ally, told Politico that the border wall is probably not a smart investment.

Every Congressperson Along Southern Border Opposes Border Wall Funding

How would Republicans build Donald Trump’s wall? BBC News

Nine congressional representatives serve the districts that line the 2,000-mile southern border. They are men, women, freshman politicians and Washington veterans. The Democrats among them span liberal ideologies, while one of them is a Republican.

But they all have one thing in common: each is against President Donald Trump‘s border wall.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a multi-bill package that provided funding for federal agencies and reinstated Department of Homeland Security appropriations without offering any new border wall funding. All nine of the politicians serving in districts along the border voted in favor of the bills, which were an effective rebuke of the Trump administration’s request for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.

“It’s a 4th-century solution to a 21st century problem,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers along the southern border who voted against funding the wall.

Gonzalez doesn’t oppose border security. He said, “Nobody wants stronger border control than me.” But he’s against adding to the existing border wall because he doesn’t “think it brings real border security and it comes at a major cost to taxpayers,” the lawmaker said Tuesday in a telephone interview with CBS News.

“At the time I thought we were going to be able to have a reasonable conversation,” Gonzalez said. “I had no idea it was going to get this crazy.”

Everybody Look What’s Going Down

Holmes believes the key to understanding the power of this new movement is the gamification of investing melded with an anti-elite fervor. Sticking it to hedge funds and potentially making a lot of money is, simply, fun. And if you believe its also the right thing to do, and thrive on the engagement of a community of like-minded traders, so much the better.

“When things really get going is when the fun meets the purpose,” Holmes said. “This is the perfect storm of those two.”

His warning to Wall Street is: understand this. Be willing to scrutinize yourself. This not going away, and it is probably bigger than you think.

“People need to take the time to understand the social dynamics of this. What are the problems that have created this class of retail investor who seek to completely destroy your industry, and how do you remedy that?” Holmes said.

Holmes said he has spent the past decade watching American politics turned inside out. An earlier generation of politicians spent their time raising money at country club ballrooms from hundreds of donors writing $500 or $1,000 checks.

But now they spend their time on the internet raising money from millions of donors making $5 and $20 contributions. In politics, the retail money turned out to be bigger much bigger — than the institutional money. And that’s driven massive political spending inflation: the big Senate campaigns that once cost $15 million now cost $100 million.

There’s Battle Lines Being Drawn

But what explains that nostalgic impulse in the midst of a revolution? It is the same emotion that animated the MAGA movement which, after all, stood for make America great, again. It is a desire to return to an earlier time that the members of the movement remember as better than today.

“There’s a feeling I sense across society that people want to go back to a simpler time,” LeGate said. “No one likes Covid. People don’t feel the economy is fair. Everything looks better in hindsight.”

And he argues that efforts to regulate trading will feel to Reddit traders more like suppression, and could fuel more anger.

“If someone on Main Street loses half their portfolio in a day, nothing’s going to happen. But if a hedge fund does, they literally stop the trading,” he said. “I myself question whether this is really about protecting the individual investor or protecting the hedge fund.”

Public Disapproves Of How Shutdown Negotiations Are Being Handled

Most Americans offer negative evaluations of the way that the nations political leaders in both parties Donald Trump, Democratic congressional leaders and Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations over the shutdown.

Overall, just 36% of the public approves of how Trump is handling negotiations over the government shutdown, including 23% who say they strongly approve. About six-in-ten disapprove of Trumps approach to the negotiations, including 53% who say they strongly disapprove.

Views of how Republican leaders in Congress are handling shutdown negotiations generally parallel evaluations of Trump. Six-in-ten Americans say they disapprove of the way Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations, while just 36% say they approve. However, fewer Americans characterize their views of GOP leaders handling of negotiations as strong approval or disapproval than say this about the president.

Public views of Democratic leaders handling of the shutdown talks are somewhat more positive than views of Trump or GOP leaders. Still, more disapprove than approve .

Intensity Of Trumps Support Increases

Also in the poll, 46 percent of voters approve of President Trumps job performance, which is consistent with the other NBC/WSJ polls over the past year and a half.

But other numbers in the survey his strong job approval ticking up to its all-time high, his positive rating jumping to its highest level since after his inauguration prompts GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies to call this Trumps best NBC/WSJ poll in three years.

Still, 49 percent of all voters say they are very uncomfortable about Trump when it comes to his re-election bid in 2020.

Thats compared with 43 percent who are very uncomfortable with Sanders, 36 percent with Warren and 35 percent with Biden.

Klobuchar: Trump’s Actions Are Like A ‘global Watergate’ Scandal

Today, as Democrats in the House of Representatives move toward bringing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, with the next Judiciary Committee hearing of evidence set for Monday, few Democrats are still clinging to the hope that Republicans will reach a breaking point with Trump like they did with Nixon.

“I really don’t think there is any fact that would change their minds,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC News.

Why? Two key changes since Nixon: a massive divide in American political life we hate the other team more than ever before and a media climate that fuels and reinforces that chasm, powered by Fox News on the Republican side.

Himes said he was “a little stunned by the unanimity on the Republican side,” especially among retiring lawmakers who don’t have to worry about surviving a GOP primary had they gone against Trump. “We’re in a place right now where all that matters to my Republican colleagues is the defense of the president,” he added.

No Republican congressmen have said they support impeachment. In the Senate, the entire GOP voted to condemn the impeachment inquiry, except for three moderates: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The three have stopped short of saying they support Trump’s impeachment, however, and it would take at least 20 Republican senators to vote to convict him in a Senate trial for removal to succeed.

What Do Republicans Believe In

Do all Republicans believe the same things? Of course not. Rarely do members of a single political group agree on all issues. Even among Republicans, there are differences of opinion. As a group, they do not agree on every issue.

Some folks vote Republican because of fiscal concerns. Often, that trumps concerns they may have about social issues. Others are less interested in the fiscal position of the party. They vote they way they do because of religion. They believe Republicans are the party of morality. Some simply want less government. They believe only Republicans can solve the problem of big government. Republicans spend less . They lower taxes: some people vote for that alone.

However, the Republican Party does stand for certain things. So I’m answering with regard to the party as a whole. Call it a platform. Call them core beliefs. The vast majority of Republicans adhere to certain ideas.

So what do Republicans believe? Here are their basic tenets:

Questions Ahead Of The Democratic National Convention

Andrew Redleaf, founder of the hedge fund company Whitebox Advisors, has been a Republican donor in the past. He gave to the campaign of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He calls himself a libertarian conservative who favors free trade and immigration.

This year, he’s given money to the Lincoln Project, a group of conservative never-Trumpers who are running scathing ads against the president in swing states.

“I’d like there to be a right-of-center, limited-government party … which is not the Trumpist Republican Party,” Redleaf says.

Redleaf is wary of Democrats and has no particular affection for Biden.

But the former vice president is a known commodity on Wall Street and is widely seen as a more centrist, acceptable alternative to more liberal Democrats who ran for president, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has also been a top recipient of financial industry money for decades as a senator from Delaware, home to financial and credit card companies.

“He’s not somebody that the industry is particularly afraid of,” Bryner says. “So I think that we would see them kind of hopeful that he would be a more moderating influence, whereas Trump can be quite unpredictable.”

Widening Party Divide Over Expanding The Border Wall

El Chapo financing Trump border wall is a yes vote: GOP lawmaker

Public views of a U.S.-Mexico border wall have changed little over the past three years. But the partisan gap has widened, as Republicans have become more supportive of a border wall, while Democratic support has declined.

Currently, 58% of Americans oppose substantially expanding the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, while 40% favor the proposal.

Since early 2016, roughly six-in-ten Americans have opposed building or expanding the border wall .

Yet partisan differences are now wider than they have ever been. Today, 82% of Republicans and Republican leaners favor substantially expanding the wall along the U.S-Mexico border. Over the past year alone, Republican support for expanding the border wall has increased 10 percentage points . Over the same period, the share of Democrats who favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall has declined from 13% to 6%.

Conservative Republicans and Republican leaners overwhelmingly favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall . Moderate and liberal Republicans are somewhat less supportive .

Overwhelming shares of both liberal Democrats and conservative and moderate Democrats oppose expanding the border wall.

As in the past, opinions about expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall are divided by race, education and age. Whites are more than twice as likely as blacks or Hispanics to favor expanding the border wall.

Why Do Republicans Behave The Way They Do

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich?

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich? Thats the incessant question as posed by liberals today about the partys now enacted tax reform. Not only does the bill include another attack on Obamacare, but it provides the pretext the need to reduce deficits to go after other long-held goals, the end of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. 

The answer should be obvious by now. Republicans behave as they do because they can get away with it! Its no more complicated than that. 

Contrary to liberal opinion, Republican politics isnt out of the mainstream provided we push the clock back sufficiently. A political economy without social services and entitlements is in fact the default position of the capitalist mode of production from its inception. If recent comments from Republican Sens. Orin Hatch and Charles Grassley sound like characters from a Charles Dickens novel their barely disguised contempt for the working poor that should come as no surprise. Such attitudes were almost de rigueur for ruling elites in capitals long ascent. The constant refrain of the rich Why should we be taxed to pay for the education of the children of the irresponsible poor?  explains why public school education became a widely accepted norm only in the 20th century. 

How Dems aided and abetted

What Republicans And Democrats Have In Common On Wall Street Regulation

The Democratic and Republican parties disagree on most major issues. When it comes to Wall Street, however, it’s a mixed bag. Take the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Democrats believe the bill has reined in the type of out-of-control behavior that led to the near collapse of the banking industry in 2008 and prevented a similar crisis. Republicans have criticized the legislation calling it “the Democrats legislative Godzilla.” They feel the financial regulations have made it too difficult for small lenders and community banks and has indirectly slowed the growth of small businesses. 

Regulation of the financial services industry has been a major issue not only in the current presidential election but in house and senate races. Democrats believe that the electorate largely sides with them that banks have overstepped and that they can use their position to win votes and take back the Senate. Republicans currently hold a majority 54 votes. Because of gerrymandering rules, Democrats will have a tougher time retaking the House.  

Dodd-Frank was intended to increase transparency and accountability in the financial services industry and to protect consumers. Among other things, the bill created a new consumer protection agency and standards for a number of common financial services products. 

A Shift In Immigration Thinking

Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois is one of the Houses most outspoken Democrats on immigration reform, and she understands this shift, and believes it is essential. Lives are at stake and the lives of Dreamers are more important to me than bricks, Gutierrez said. If advocates would reject any money for Trumps wall in exchange for freedom and legalization and eventual citizenship for the Dreamers, I understand their choice, but for my part, I would lay bricks myself if I thought it would save the Dreamers. For me, the very real attacks on legal immigration are far greater threats than bricks and drones and technology on the border.

This shift has also led Democratic views on a border wall to soften in general. As Trump has become less demanding, Democrats have begun to consider what type of barrier, and what size, they would be willing to agree to if push came to shove. The 2,000 mile wall that Democrats had feared would be a looming symbol of America turning inward on itself is becoming something closer to the 2006 plan; some new barriers, some new monitoring technology, and that is somewhat agreeable to Democrats, especially if they can garner support in other arenas in exchange for it.

[statetalks]

How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

Half Of Republicans Believe False Accounts Of Deadly Us Capitol Riot

How do Hispanic Americans truly feel about the border wall?

7 Min Read

WASHINGTON -Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.

Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists trying to make Trump look bad, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that Novembers presidential election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.

Since the Capitol attack, Trump, many of his allies within the Republican Party and right-wing media personalities have publicly painted a picture of the days events jarringly at odds with reality.

Hundreds of Trumps supporters, mobilized by the former presidents false claims of a stolen election, climbed walls of the Capitol building and smashed windows to gain entry while lawmakers were inside voting to certify President Joe Bidens election victory. The rioters – many of them sporting Trump campaign gear and waving flags – also included known white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.

DANGEROUS SPIN ON REALITY

They Just Come For Show

The four House Republicans were unfamiliar with the history of the fight over Santa Ana.

It was not addressed by the Border Patrol agents who led the morning excursion. And by the time E&E News connected with Chapman, the delegation had departed the refuge for a briefing on Border Patrol activities at the local headquarters of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Later, when asked whether Westerman thought the environmental impact of installing a wall at Santa Ana and in other refuge areas was a necessary sacrifice to stop the flow of illegal immigration, the lawmaker said it didnt sound unreasonable.

One hundred and fifty feet kind of sounds like what the right of way would be on a levee, but I dont know, he said. Obviously, if youre going to build a wall, theres going to be clearing. And from what Ive seen, stories Ive heard about human trafficking, the rapes, the deaths yeah, I think its worth building the deterrents.

At the National Butterfly Center a 100-acre nature preserve that was also exempted from having a border wall built on its land in the same 2019 spending package Executive Director Marianna Trevino Wright said she thought the GOP lawmakers were ignorant by choice.

I think they have no idea, Trevino Wright asserted. They come just for show. Theyre not interested.

The real litterbugs, she contended, were the officers with Border Patrol.

There’s Something Happening Here

But he uses a different touchstone: Occupy Wall Street, the left-leaning anti-establishment movement that blossomed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“This is Occupy Wall Street Part 2, but this time it is on their turf, and there are real financial consequences,” he said. LeGate, who received a $100,000 Thiel fellowship to drop out of college and start a company when he was 18 years old in 2013, has been watching the WallStreetBets Reddit discussion for several years.

He said he is seeing increasing frustration and anger, which is exploding in the Covid pandemic era and it is bringing together the traditional political left and right.

“People were willing to take a risk on Trump and now they’re willing to take a risk in the markets,” he said. “A lot of people just want to see the world burn right now, and they’re enjoying watching it happen.”

He said he’s already seeing people on the WallStreetBets Reddit page looking for new targets and there are two themes. First, they’re looking for highly shorted stocks where big hedge funds might have a lot of leverage. And second, they’re looking for nostalgia plays to bring back the companies from their youth. That’s why Nokia, Blackberry and Blockbuster are all getting attention.

Border Walls In The Middle East

One major proof of concept that Republicans supporting a Mexican border wall cite is the success of similar walls in the Middle East. For example, walls along the Israeli-Palestinian border reportedly cut down illegal immigration between the countries. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who is also the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated that he was impressed with a system of fences he had inspected along the Israeli border with Palestinian territories. Johnson stated Im always looking for best practices. Its been incredibly effective. They had thousands of illegal immigrants; its down to the teens.

House Republicans Propose $10 Billion For Trumps Border Wall

House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a plan to provide $10 billion for President Donald Trumps border wall with Mexico, a bill unlikely to clear the Senate but which could fuel a shutdown fight in December.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said his panel will vote on the legislation next week. The bill also would add 10,000 more border patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, tap the National Guard to patrol the southern border and target people who have overstayed visas.

Now that we have a partner in the White House who has made this a top priority, its time to send a bill to President Trumps desk so we can deliver the American people the security they have long demanded and deserve, McCaul said in a statement.

The bill represents Republicans opening salvo in both the looming year-end government funding fight and high-stakes negotiations over undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

It almost certainly wont pass the Senate, where at least eight Democrats would be needed to clear a 60-vote threshold.

Partisans Approve Their Partys Approach To Shutdown Negotiations Disapprove Of Other Partys

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 76% approve of how Trump is handling shutdown talks, including 50% who say they strongly approve of Trumps approach. In contrast, just 4% of Democrats approve of Trumps handling of the negotiations, while 93% disapprove .

The overall pattern is similar in views of Republican leaders in Congress: 69% of Republicans approve of their partys leaders handling of negotiations, while just 10% of Democrats approve.

And while about seven-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners approve of the way Democratic leaders in Congress are handling the shutdown negotiations, just 11% of Republicans say the same.

Republicans Pray For A Border Crisis To Bring Biden Down

Joe Biden and his programs are popular. Republicans cant lay a glove on him. So theyve settled on immigration as the way to drag him into the mud.

Guillermo Arias/Getty

Republicans are crazy about immigration. No, really. The issue makes them loco. Just listen to the things theyre saying. Many of them have lost touch with reality.

Or maybe Republicans are crazy like a fox. The GOP seems to have once again pinned all of its hopes for retaking powerin this case, by winning back control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections and possibly regaining seats in the House of Representativeson the immigration issue. If either of those things happen, Republicans will be in decent shape to try to retake the White House in 2024.

President Joe Biden has only been in office for about 60 days, and Republicans who want to attack him and his administration dont have a lot of material with which to work.

Thats what some of the current fearmongering over the situation at the U.S.-Mexico borderabout half of itis all about. The other half is made up of good ol fashioned nativism and racism. Thats one reason why Republicans act like the prospect of what could turn out to be 100,000 would-be refugees from Central America mostly women and children is the end of Western civilization as we know it.

Here we are again. And the same Republicans who were quiet and subdued when former President Donald Trump confronted this same problem now cant stop talking about this being a crisis.

Republicans Spent Two Years Resisting Trumps Border Wall What Changed

Since the government shutdown 25 days ago, Republicans have largely defended the need for a border wall. While there appear to be some cracks in support, most are standing by the presidents insistence on funding.

As recently as September, The Washington Post described it this way:

The same Republican lawmakers who rushed through the tax bill Trump wanted, confirmed his first Supreme Court pick and are fighting to defend his second, and have remained largely deferential amid multiple scandals, have taken a far different approach when it comes to one of Trumps most memorable campaign promises deeming the wall to be impractical, unrealistic and too costly.

Most GOP lawmakers didnt come right out and say that, of course.

Instead, for the first two years of Trumps presidency, GOP lawmakers avoided the wall debate completely. In September 2017, USA Today took on the laborious task of surveying every member of Congress to determine their position on Trumps wall. At the time, the White House was requesting $1.6 billion to begin wall construction. The survey found that just 69 of the 292 Republicans in Congress said they supported Trumps funding request. Three outright opposed it, but the majority avoided answering the question directly.

Shortly after Trumps inauguration, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham , Trumps onetime nemesis turned close ally, told Politico that the border wall is probably not a smart investment.

Every Congressperson Along Southern Border Opposes Border Wall Funding

How would Republicans build Donald Trump’s wall? BBC News

Nine congressional representatives serve the districts that line the 2,000-mile southern border. They are men, women, freshman politicians and Washington veterans. The Democrats among them span liberal ideologies, while one of them is a Republican.

But they all have one thing in common: each is against President Donald Trump‘s border wall.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a multi-bill package that provided funding for federal agencies and reinstated Department of Homeland Security appropriations without offering any new border wall funding. All nine of the politicians serving in districts along the border voted in favor of the bills, which were an effective rebuke of the Trump administration’s request for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.

“It’s a 4th-century solution to a 21st century problem,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers along the southern border who voted against funding the wall.

Gonzalez doesn’t oppose border security. He said, “Nobody wants stronger border control than me.” But he’s against adding to the existing border wall because he doesn’t “think it brings real border security and it comes at a major cost to taxpayers,” the lawmaker said Tuesday in a telephone interview with CBS News.

“At the time I thought we were going to be able to have a reasonable conversation,” Gonzalez said. “I had no idea it was going to get this crazy.”

Everybody Look What’s Going Down

Holmes believes the key to understanding the power of this new movement is the gamification of investing melded with an anti-elite fervor. Sticking it to hedge funds and potentially making a lot of money is, simply, fun. And if you believe its also the right thing to do, and thrive on the engagement of a community of like-minded traders, so much the better.

“When things really get going is when the fun meets the purpose,” Holmes said. “This is the perfect storm of those two.”

His warning to Wall Street is: understand this. Be willing to scrutinize yourself. This not going away, and it is probably bigger than you think.

“People need to take the time to understand the social dynamics of this. What are the problems that have created this class of retail investor who seek to completely destroy your industry, and how do you remedy that?” Holmes said.

Holmes said he has spent the past decade watching American politics turned inside out. An earlier generation of politicians spent their time raising money at country club ballrooms from hundreds of donors writing $500 or $1,000 checks.

But now they spend their time on the internet raising money from millions of donors making $5 and $20 contributions. In politics, the retail money turned out to be bigger much bigger — than the institutional money. And that’s driven massive political spending inflation: the big Senate campaigns that once cost $15 million now cost $100 million.

There’s Battle Lines Being Drawn

But what explains that nostalgic impulse in the midst of a revolution? It is the same emotion that animated the MAGA movement which, after all, stood for make America great, again. It is a desire to return to an earlier time that the members of the movement remember as better than today.

“There’s a feeling I sense across society that people want to go back to a simpler time,” LeGate said. “No one likes Covid. People don’t feel the economy is fair. Everything looks better in hindsight.”

And he argues that efforts to regulate trading will feel to Reddit traders more like suppression, and could fuel more anger.

“If someone on Main Street loses half their portfolio in a day, nothing’s going to happen. But if a hedge fund does, they literally stop the trading,” he said. “I myself question whether this is really about protecting the individual investor or protecting the hedge fund.”

Public Disapproves Of How Shutdown Negotiations Are Being Handled

Most Americans offer negative evaluations of the way that the nations political leaders in both parties Donald Trump, Democratic congressional leaders and Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations over the shutdown.

Overall, just 36% of the public approves of how Trump is handling negotiations over the government shutdown, including 23% who say they strongly approve. About six-in-ten disapprove of Trumps approach to the negotiations, including 53% who say they strongly disapprove.

Views of how Republican leaders in Congress are handling shutdown negotiations generally parallel evaluations of Trump. Six-in-ten Americans say they disapprove of the way Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations, while just 36% say they approve. However, fewer Americans characterize their views of GOP leaders handling of negotiations as strong approval or disapproval than say this about the president.

Public views of Democratic leaders handling of the shutdown talks are somewhat more positive than views of Trump or GOP leaders. Still, more disapprove than approve .

Intensity Of Trumps Support Increases

Also in the poll, 46 percent of voters approve of President Trumps job performance, which is consistent with the other NBC/WSJ polls over the past year and a half.

But other numbers in the survey his strong job approval ticking up to its all-time high, his positive rating jumping to its highest level since after his inauguration prompts GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies to call this Trumps best NBC/WSJ poll in three years.

Still, 49 percent of all voters say they are very uncomfortable about Trump when it comes to his re-election bid in 2020.

Thats compared with 43 percent who are very uncomfortable with Sanders, 36 percent with Warren and 35 percent with Biden.

Klobuchar: Trump’s Actions Are Like A ‘global Watergate’ Scandal

Today, as Democrats in the House of Representatives move toward bringing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, with the next Judiciary Committee hearing of evidence set for Monday, few Democrats are still clinging to the hope that Republicans will reach a breaking point with Trump like they did with Nixon.

“I really don’t think there is any fact that would change their minds,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC News.

Why? Two key changes since Nixon: a massive divide in American political life we hate the other team more than ever before and a media climate that fuels and reinforces that chasm, powered by Fox News on the Republican side.

Himes said he was “a little stunned by the unanimity on the Republican side,” especially among retiring lawmakers who don’t have to worry about surviving a GOP primary had they gone against Trump. “We’re in a place right now where all that matters to my Republican colleagues is the defense of the president,” he added.

No Republican congressmen have said they support impeachment. In the Senate, the entire GOP voted to condemn the impeachment inquiry, except for three moderates: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The three have stopped short of saying they support Trump’s impeachment, however, and it would take at least 20 Republican senators to vote to convict him in a Senate trial for removal to succeed.

What Do Republicans Believe In

Do all Republicans believe the same things? Of course not. Rarely do members of a single political group agree on all issues. Even among Republicans, there are differences of opinion. As a group, they do not agree on every issue.

Some folks vote Republican because of fiscal concerns. Often, that trumps concerns they may have about social issues. Others are less interested in the fiscal position of the party. They vote they way they do because of religion. They believe Republicans are the party of morality. Some simply want less government. They believe only Republicans can solve the problem of big government. Republicans spend less . They lower taxes: some people vote for that alone.

However, the Republican Party does stand for certain things. So I’m answering with regard to the party as a whole. Call it a platform. Call them core beliefs. The vast majority of Republicans adhere to certain ideas.

So what do Republicans believe? Here are their basic tenets:

Questions Ahead Of The Democratic National Convention

Andrew Redleaf, founder of the hedge fund company Whitebox Advisors, has been a Republican donor in the past. He gave to the campaign of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He calls himself a libertarian conservative who favors free trade and immigration.

This year, he’s given money to the Lincoln Project, a group of conservative never-Trumpers who are running scathing ads against the president in swing states.

“I’d like there to be a right-of-center, limited-government party … which is not the Trumpist Republican Party,” Redleaf says.

Redleaf is wary of Democrats and has no particular affection for Biden.

But the former vice president is a known commodity on Wall Street and is widely seen as a more centrist, acceptable alternative to more liberal Democrats who ran for president, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has also been a top recipient of financial industry money for decades as a senator from Delaware, home to financial and credit card companies.

“He’s not somebody that the industry is particularly afraid of,” Bryner says. “So I think that we would see them kind of hopeful that he would be a more moderating influence, whereas Trump can be quite unpredictable.”

Widening Party Divide Over Expanding The Border Wall

El Chapo financing Trump border wall is a yes vote: GOP lawmaker

Public views of a U.S.-Mexico border wall have changed little over the past three years. But the partisan gap has widened, as Republicans have become more supportive of a border wall, while Democratic support has declined.

Currently, 58% of Americans oppose substantially expanding the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, while 40% favor the proposal.

Since early 2016, roughly six-in-ten Americans have opposed building or expanding the border wall .

Yet partisan differences are now wider than they have ever been. Today, 82% of Republicans and Republican leaners favor substantially expanding the wall along the U.S-Mexico border. Over the past year alone, Republican support for expanding the border wall has increased 10 percentage points . Over the same period, the share of Democrats who favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall has declined from 13% to 6%.

Conservative Republicans and Republican leaners overwhelmingly favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall . Moderate and liberal Republicans are somewhat less supportive .

Overwhelming shares of both liberal Democrats and conservative and moderate Democrats oppose expanding the border wall.

As in the past, opinions about expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall are divided by race, education and age. Whites are more than twice as likely as blacks or Hispanics to favor expanding the border wall.

Why Do Republicans Behave The Way They Do

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich?

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich? Thats the incessant question as posed by liberals today about the partys now enacted tax reform. Not only does the bill include another attack on Obamacare, but it provides the pretext the need to reduce deficits to go after other long-held goals, the end of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. 

The answer should be obvious by now. Republicans behave as they do because they can get away with it! Its no more complicated than that. 

Contrary to liberal opinion, Republican politics isnt out of the mainstream provided we push the clock back sufficiently. A political economy without social services and entitlements is in fact the default position of the capitalist mode of production from its inception. If recent comments from Republican Sens. Orin Hatch and Charles Grassley sound like characters from a Charles Dickens novel their barely disguised contempt for the working poor that should come as no surprise. Such attitudes were almost de rigueur for ruling elites in capitals long ascent. The constant refrain of the rich Why should we be taxed to pay for the education of the children of the irresponsible poor?  explains why public school education became a widely accepted norm only in the 20th century. 

How Dems aided and abetted

What Republicans And Democrats Have In Common On Wall Street Regulation

The Democratic and Republican parties disagree on most major issues. When it comes to Wall Street, however, it’s a mixed bag. Take the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Democrats believe the bill has reined in the type of out-of-control behavior that led to the near collapse of the banking industry in 2008 and prevented a similar crisis. Republicans have criticized the legislation calling it “the Democrats legislative Godzilla.” They feel the financial regulations have made it too difficult for small lenders and community banks and has indirectly slowed the growth of small businesses. 

Regulation of the financial services industry has been a major issue not only in the current presidential election but in house and senate races. Democrats believe that the electorate largely sides with them that banks have overstepped and that they can use their position to win votes and take back the Senate. Republicans currently hold a majority 54 votes. Because of gerrymandering rules, Democrats will have a tougher time retaking the House.  

Dodd-Frank was intended to increase transparency and accountability in the financial services industry and to protect consumers. Among other things, the bill created a new consumer protection agency and standards for a number of common financial services products. 

A Shift In Immigration Thinking

Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois is one of the Houses most outspoken Democrats on immigration reform, and she understands this shift, and believes it is essential. Lives are at stake and the lives of Dreamers are more important to me than bricks, Gutierrez said. If advocates would reject any money for Trumps wall in exchange for freedom and legalization and eventual citizenship for the Dreamers, I understand their choice, but for my part, I would lay bricks myself if I thought it would save the Dreamers. For me, the very real attacks on legal immigration are far greater threats than bricks and drones and technology on the border.

This shift has also led Democratic views on a border wall to soften in general. As Trump has become less demanding, Democrats have begun to consider what type of barrier, and what size, they would be willing to agree to if push came to shove. The 2,000 mile wall that Democrats had feared would be a looming symbol of America turning inward on itself is becoming something closer to the 2006 plan; some new barriers, some new monitoring technology, and that is somewhat agreeable to Democrats, especially if they can garner support in other arenas in exchange for it.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-do-republicans-feel-about-the-wall/

[jamiedodgerart]

if you're happy to tell us, i'd love to head more about ur inquisitor :00!! his debates with dorian sound fun

:DDD yeah sure! soz this is late

pica’s 1/6 of an inch tall

(im kidding. his name was originally a pun, but not a typography one - he’s a rehash of an old oc i had way back in the day, who was based off a magpie. hes actually on the short side for a dwarf, i want to say around 4′3″)

he was a lyrium smuggler before the inquisition, and specifically was the front man who sold it. he’s a champion liar and man of many faces, and knows how to disappear in plain sight (which is easy if you’re a dwarf and most law enforcement on the surface are humans. to a human guard dwarves all look the same and theyre too short to really get a good look at their faces). he had a pretty transient lifestyle- he didn’t get tied down, didn’t get too attached to anyone or anything, had pretty few posessions. he was 26 (or the dwarf equivalent of 26. hows dwarf aging work in dragon age anyway) when the carta got him to spy at the conclave, and you know how that went

look ok. the first half of his career as inquisitor was just. wingin’ it. no one really knew what the fuck he was supposed to be doing, least of all him, so he just pretended he knew what he was doing till, i wanna say the end of into the abyss. after talking to mal hawke some he learned that, hey, everyone’s always winging it, and also that his decisions kind of really mattered. (and that those decisions he makes can. kill people) for the first time in his life, he realizes hes actually important, and what he does changes things on the large scale

so after that, he got to thinking. the world kinda sucks. and it sucked before the war. and the leaders of thedas are really not doing all that much about it, except trying to kick each other in the nuts while their enemies are weak and completely forgetting that politics Cannot Survive as a practice if theres no farmers able to make food for diplomats to eat. so, orlais, if your farmland is all gunched up with battlefields, then you need to fix that, don’t you. but the inquisition is really, really good at providing stability! it’s good at establishing patrols, safe trade routes, providing local employment, and is a fairly reliable consumer of local goods. so pica capitalized on that, and quietly spread inquisition presence all over southern thedas. this led to immense inquisition influence, with very little fanfare.

you can guess why the rulers of thedas tried to get rid of him as soon after corypheus was taken care of as possible. they branded him a tyrant and like. ok. they werent like. super far off. bc at this point he was kinda trying to see how much of the world he could take over before anyone noticed/tried to stop him and also figured he could do like, a way better job at leading it than the current rulers could. and he wasnt beholden to anyone either (not like empress celene! elected to her throne by… uhhhhhhhhhhh divine providence or something. i mean shes doing an ok job but like i didnt vote for her) so if he really really wanted to he could go full dragon reborn

ive got off topic but point is he figures humans have had their go and they fucked it up, so it’s a dwarf’s turn and he’s going to put the world back together himself. (ps hey bioware can we have some dwarf stuff in the next game. im js. weve had a whole load of elf nonsense and its nice and all but dwarfs had a cool ancient society too yknow)

after trespasser he elects to keep the inquisition around, because he worked hard to make this glue keeping the bits of thedas stuck together and he’ll be damned if he’ll let solarse and his minions screw it up. but it gets nerfed heavily and hes pissed about it

he romanced cassandra! i really like their relationship- they look to each other for moral guidance. pica knows he can get flighty and relies on her to keep him in line, and always asks her for advice when he sees her in the courtyard. he usually doesn’t follow it but he feels it’s important to have her perspective on things

they disagree on a lot of stuff (like he made celene and briala co-leaders but she was in favor of gaspard) but he trusts her judgement, and supported her in becoming the divine

he’s a little weird about religion, specifically relating to the stone. the surfacer part of him that hates caves is like pff hippie garbage, but the bit that’s generations old and wants to belong to a larger whole of a culture is Super Into It. cole said he felt the stone’s presence around pica one time and externally he didnt react but internally he was yelling WHAT THE FUUUUUUUCKKKKKKKKKKKKK I LIVED IN SUCH PEACEFUL IGNORANCE I DIDNT NEED TO KNOW THAAAAAT and after the mythal thing hes like fuck believe what you want. whatever floats your boat. we live in a world where nugs have little people hands so if it comforts you to know a god did that then live your truth

re mages he figures theres a way better way for them to fit into society than the circle. its dumb. they can LIFT THINGS WITH THEIR MINDS. USE THAT FOR BUILDING. they can HEAL WOUNDS WITH THEIR MINDS. THEY CAN TALK TO SPIRITS AND SHIT THEY CAN PROBABLY FLY WHY ARENT WE USING THIS THEY’RE WASTED IN TOWERS LEARNING TO SHOOT FIREBALLS OR WHATEVER people who fear magic are cowards. chantry more like sham-try. 

hes big on research and development. he sent samson to dagna for research and in the au where mal lives he sent anders to her too. cos. like. dude COEXISTS WITH A SPIRIT. thats cool as SHIT how does it WORK. 

(im gonna make a post abt the mal lives au soon. its good)

hes largely responsible but he has also impulse bought at least three stuffed dragons. also, if the textiles technology were available, hed have dragon jammies. it’s the little things in life.

he collects notes he’s found talking about him and hangs them up by his desk. his favorite is the one samson wrote calling him a damnable rogue. he says hes doing things right, if he’s making people mad

hes trans! im not sure how thatd be regarded in dwarf society, in undergrounders i doubt it’d be very acceptable given their emphasis on reproduction, but house cadash has been on the surface for generations and has probably adopted more liberal views on lgbt stuff. either way hes not very open about it, and it’s really easy to pass when he’s around humans (i get the feeling dwarves and humans look for different things, when they’re trying to guess gender. for example hes got some beard scrub, which in human terms means male but in dwarven terms probably either means very young male or unkempt female) (the added implication to this is that varric might keep his beard to stubble so he looks younger) he met krem and had an instant Trans Solidarity moment, which also comes with the Trans Fear that the person Knows that you’re trans and could out you. it’s a weird kind of trust and for me feels like that one performance art piece with the people holding the bow and arrow. anyway hes cool w krem but doesnt talk to him all that much. theyve got pretty different interests.

his best friends are probs cole and dorian! he’s very curious, and likes to hear different perspectives on things. he and dorian often play chess and discuss all sorts of stuff. they end up yelling a lot because they both want to talk but the other started saying something before they were done with their point, which they started saying before the other was done with their point, and so on. he doesnt get very far in the slavery argument until hawke starts chillin at skyhold more regularly and can adequately school him on the state of tevinter slavery (fuck i gotta make a post about that. mal’s had a lot of development since i last talked about him)

he listens very seriously to cole’s observations. he can really appreciate the input of someone who watches so much more than speaks, and heartily supported his ventures in becoming more human.

he also gets along very well with josephine and likes to trick her into taking days off. hes also always down to chat w dagna and scout harding! and varric, of course. it’s always nice to talk to someone without having to crane his neck up at them all the time

(this is the reason he doesnt usually spend time w bull. hes just too tall and its uncomfortable knowing your face is at your friend’s dick height while ur trying to discuss battle strategy)

uhh trivia, at one point i thought i’d fucked up cassandra’s romance by not flirting with her enough so i meant to go for dorian’s instead, bc while i had wanted to romance cass since uhh i dunno one of my mutuals first reblogged a picture of her, i underestimated how charming and cool of a guy dorian ended up being. so in canon i say pica had a crush on both of them for a little while

its late and i think i got mostly everything so enjooooooy

as a parting gift, this is him

[moonydiego]

review shinees lucifer album 🐸 (im judging anything below a 9/10 jsyk)

send me an album and i’ll review it

alright SO 2010 kpop, lucifer was arguably shinees break out album (really theyve been the shit since replay with that rookie grand slam, PLUS with ring ding dong as a strong single of the ep Y.O.U.) i personally think this is due to how shinee was branded as actaully fucken amazing at dancing, and the lucifer choreography is honestly something unmatched, especially for the time that it came out.

but honestly for me as how i view things in shinee’s discography timeline, as well as with sales or what not i really think lucifer was that staple that not only was hype af when it came out but its main single “lucifer” still brings people onto shinee to this day so? really iconic album

however, as a long time shinee fan, i really love lucifer mostly nostalgically, like most people the first video i saw from shinee was lucifer, the first album i downloaded was lucifer, i tried learning the vogueing part from lucifer (and i still remember it lmao) so for me lucifer is really? great, mostly because it’s album i listened to when i was super young and kinda brought me onto shinee which in turn brought me to a wider spectrum of music

however, while it may be shinee’s amazing throwback album, looking back on it as a whole it really did not showcase the amazing powerhouse shinee is.

im not talking singing wise, lucifer does showcase amazing vocals but, shinee as a whole has a huge history of being contemporary, of always bringing people that new shit-that good shit-that cutting edge shit. and i think it’s taken them some time to grow into that contemporary mindset, before this mostly imo theyve been contemporary in the terms of style and what not but musically they’ve more or less sat comfortably of what was kinda going on. rather than being on the edge of the trend imo they brought out something that refined the trend to further establish it as the norm-before moving on as the trend changes

(imo shinee breaks out with sherlock as THAT group musically and artistically, that constantly pushes kpop music but thats for another review)

however lucifer is a staple in shinee’s discography and it’s a really nice album for that 2010 nostalgia era, it has cute upbeat songs, the freaking catchy lucifer as well as some gr8 ballads (and electric heart, imo one of the BEST songs shinee’s ever done)

anyway here’s the track by track review lmao:

(disclaimer, vocally shinee’s performances never disappoint (maybe rap wise but never singing wise) this is mostly me critiquing like the actual music and what it brings to the table as a cohesive album so not really shinee but mostly the production team backing them up and sm’s musical choices lmaoooo)

the first track is up and down, it’s classic 2010 kpop era type of song, it’s cute it’s catchy it’s upbeat. the main vocalists voices are strong af and the backing voices are really noice as well, the chorus is extremely catchy and it’s just? a straight forward catchy song. honestly nothing really new, especially with the placements of the raps but? it’s just a sweet listen, maybe a bit too sweet as the years pass, i think ready or not is a better catchy pop-y song imo but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the next track is lucifer and honestly im gonna give my actual opinion, i dont listen to lucifer anymore sure i love lucifer but honestly i think this is just the perfect throwback song that you’re super hype for but in my opinion i dont listen to on the daily, like its good and it’s just catchy but, it follows that generic verse chorus verse chorus rap chorus. really what brought shinee into the lime light imo was their dancing and lucifer showcased that AMAZINGLY, but songwise it’s pretty? catchy but ?? you feel me??????

next is electric heart and electric heart TO THIS DAY is one of my favorite all time shinee songs. dude shinee has not done this type of song before, and it’s the only time they do this type of song on this album. the vocals are breathy and self assured, the harmonies are fucken angelic, the instrumentals fit their voices perfectly gives a very moody almost? seductive type of vibe that’s really punctuated by their falsettos. fucken A+++ track and honestly it really stands out from the album IMO just because of the way they sing and just how they all work together to make the song work. it’s groovy and sensual and jams when it needs to and just? a great listen all of them work so well in this ugh i love it

then it’s a-yo which i used to love when i was younger, not to repeat myself but the way i feel about this track is how i honestly feel about up and down with the exception that this song isn’t as upbeat, it’s more of a subdued upbeat song, something that in my opinion would fit perfectly in their replay album? i feel like it has that 2008 vibe. anyway yeah. catchy, cute, nothing new but nothing wrong w that

ok then we hit obsession and it’s one of the few shinee songs i actually dont like. i will give them the fact that it’s pretty experimental i guess?? for them??? for this album? the only problem is how out of place it feels, like we have upbeat and catchy then kinda sensual rly nice electric heart and then this? it has a darker tone and it’s? okay i guess i just think they really didn’t go all way that they couldve on this, i feel like theyve really refined the “darker” songs or more desperate sounding songs on the misconception albums. like it’s dark then soft and then you’re hit with jonghyun almost pleading chorus, honestly im not that big of a fan of it, especially with how the beginning and the chorus sound so disjointed on the same song but not in a Cool Experimental way imo, i kno i lot of people like it and if you do please tell me why!! would love to discuss w you all c:

after you’re hit with quasimodo which is a str8 up ballad and it would sound weird to have on an album that has songs like up and down and ready or not but? being placed after obsession was a great choice imo so it doesn’t sound so jarring. this is a complete ballads with fucken amazing vocals but especially the way they all just work together especially on the verses leading up to vocals. imo im not a huge fan of ballads but this is a really beautiful song that’s just, a great soft listen if you like those types of ballads. imo not anything new or groundbreaking but honestly it’s a Typical Ballad song in which jinki kills it so??? not really complaining

ok then it’s shout out which i was….obsessed with and honestly i….never listen to it now. it’s a great, “we’ve gone thru so much shit and here we are bitch we’re back and we dont give up” song i guess. however, in my opinion as a rap song? it’s not really? anything new or anything really?? astounding, imo listening back it’s kinda? i dont wanna say childish but i think like as utilizing “rapping” as a form of conveying music shinee (esp minho and kibum) have really improved on that a lot in their after years, and this is like a last remaining album of kibum and minho rapping the way every kpop group did in 2010 you know? nothing really shinee-like it’s just? idk it really isnt that great listening back and how far theyve come since it (odd eye guys, the rap in odd eye is a perf example because the rap goes along so well with the song itself and it feels like it sits in shinee’s discography as a perfect shinee song rather than A Rap Song They Did) and idk yeah, not a big fan now and i honestly think it’s great to show just how much shinee has grown as a kpop group to actual artists.

next up is wowowow and it’s? another catchy upbeat song but it’s not really with a lot of substance imo, like i feel they really went hard on the autotone like autotune can be used as a really cool device in song producing but i feel like? it’s a bit off putting with jonghyun’s high vocals you know?  it’s catchy but???? it’s just cute that’s it, what are they offering here that the other upbeat songs on this album dont offer? not to bash on it but?? there’s not much to say that i havent already ;A; (it’s still really cute)

your name is next and it’s? a cute slower song. it’s slow but not ballady. it’s like if wowowow was w/o autotune and like a bit more chiller. it’s just a sweet song nothing really???amazing i guess?? the “lalalala” the members do is really nice and i like it towards the end, once minho raps and the song changes a bit, i feel like it’s less generic and a cooler listen, like most songs in this era there’s a slight change towards the end of the song with the first two halves sounding extremely similar. nothing much to say w this one just. it’s cute.

then it’s life, which if i have one thing to say about this album’s lack of a cohesive feel is the fact that they put the slower songs with perfect transitioning songs before them, so listening to the album straight isn’t a jarring experience so honestly??? good on them that was a fab choice. now in my opinion, quasimodo was a better ballad-mostly because all the members really work together backing each other up and it sounds greater orchestrally than this song. life takes nearly two minutes to pick up, now i lov a slow start to get the tension started but really it doesn’t pick of until 1:50 and there isn’t really? anything amazing going on instrumentally to garner attention imo, shinee’s vocals are beautiful but?? u kno???? like most songs the cool shit is towards the end but i feel like it’s just subdued with some great notes belted out. classic ballady song if you like it, but again i think quasimodo really brought it home without sounding like it’s taking a while to get to the good parts you know????

after it’s ready or not. which i know i mentioned having transitining songs from slower to upbeat, which is NOT the case with this. but i FUCKEN lov ready or not. it’s literally like a better version of up and down imo, up and down sounds incredibly repetitive because of the whole rollercoaster ride thing, but this is like a repetitive song that doesnt seem like it’s looping. it has some embarssing 2010 song moments but honestly??? i dont care it’s literally a cute up beat song, generic especially with that kpop formula and the slight change towards the end but honestly thats what shinee was doing at the time, and it was fine. im only being so hard on this album because shinee Really Fucking Worked on their music and really went like beyond everything to become the shinee we know and love and appreciate today. so yeah. generic cute pop song that i still jam to but dont listen to often.

then it’s love pain, which i mean? it’s like a more hurt ayo lmao. like in the way it’s sung and it’s feel, the subject matter can be totally different. anyway not much to say just like…this album is so 2010 and this song really captures that like idk not much critique on this, i dont love it anymore but? vocals are gr8 and it’s a cool slow song

the album finishes with love still goes on, which is i think an AMAZING reference to the song love should off their first album. it’s a nod to the past while showing off how theyve grown and how theyve improved their vocals. the problem i have with this song is literally the same with ready or not with a dash of side eye at the raps but honestly?? it’s cute its happening and i just think the nod to their first album was a cute way to finish the album. it doesnt finish with a band but rather with a thanks, and i think that was really lovely

anyway my final review is: nostalgia/10 (with me mostly only listening to electric heart, ready or not, love still goes on and up and down)

but again this was me really just? giving a thorough critique lmao i still really lov this album, i own it (a ver AND b ver) and honestly if i ever see shinee live and they do any song off this album you will catch me wiping the tears from my eyes while belting out the lyrics. hyped as fuck. i kno this album like the back of my hand istgggggg i really do love this album, it’s just musically we all kno shinee is that group, but it’s super cool looking at their progression as artists and how theyve moved along musically!!

[dunntekraleigh]

SEO Project Management Considerations - Part 3

This blog post http://dunntek.com/seo/seo-project-management-considerations-part-3 is courtesy of DunnTek Blog This is the third and final installment in this particular series about certain special considerations with SEO project management. This isnt intended to be a guide on how to perform SEO project management, since that would be quite a lengthy document. Rather, my aim in this series is simply to shed light on certain areas that project managers used to working in other disciplines might want to consider, as well as to help business owners understand things that make SEO different from other types of Information Technology projects. Without further ado, lets begin.

SEO Project Management Model

As mentioned previously, a fairly standard set of activities will generally need to be performed at the start of any SEO project. These activities include the identification of digital assets, an assortment of various on-page tasks, competition analysis, and early off-page tasks such as link clean-up, just to name a few. Custom SEO agencies may apply their own secret sauce during this phase as well. While the general nature of these activities will tend to be consistent within an agency in how they handle client SEO, the exact details and level of effort required may vary greatly from one project to the next.

Once these baseline tasks are complete, the project will likely go through a series of progressive cycles until the desired results are achieved. A project management methodology that supports this approach of iterative work through successive cycles is recommended in order to maintain flexibility and avoid a constant stream of change orders that would likely result from trying to hold to a traditional waterfall approach.

SEO ROI

There are a lot of opinions and approaches to calculating the ROI of an SEO project. Certainly, every project requires a clear and compelling reason why the business would invest money in it. The bottom line is that SEO is not simply a marketing cost due to the fact that it potentially creates residual value in a way that other forms of marketing do not. SEO is a strategic investment that a business owners makes to help ensure a regular flow of inbound customers that don't depend on paid advertisements. While beginning to realize the ROI may take anywhere from two months to a year or longer depending on your particular industry and location, this varies widely depending on the level of competition and the skill of your SEO.

Perhaps most importantly, SEO creates an exit-strategy for the business owner. It has an incredible ability to transform a business thats just getting by into a valuable target for corporate acquisition by a larger company. Simply put, if you're sitting at the top of the search results for things that generate revenue, someone's likely to be interested if your business is for sale. From such a perspective, the potential ROI is possibly much higher than when simply compared to alternative marketing strategies.

Project Communication

A communication plan is an important part of a project that details how communication is going to occur. This is important in order to prevent a free-for-all of instant messaging, email, phone calls, and cellular text messages that may result not only in complete chaos and missed deadlines but also the potential loss of important project data. A communication plan brings structure to how different types of communication will occur, both internally within the project team and with stakeholders, with the goal of ensuring that the project is successful. In this instance, my particular focus is on certain things that can come into play during communication between the client and the SEO provider which must be considered.

Having managed projects of so many different types, one thing Im certain of is that SEO is different. One thing you may encounter in an SEO project is that semi-technical people are very likely to try and understand things which are simply never going to make sense to them. While that could be said for IT in general, what makes SEO a bit unique is that we deal with a lot of things that people are used to looking at constantly, and, being smart people, they will be quick to think they understand them but theyve never looked at any of those things from an SEO perspective.

This can potentially lead to a lot of conversation because it arouses peoples curiosity when they suddenly discover that the online world thats been right in front of them has immense depths of subtlety they never previously imagined. Analytical people will be naturally inclined to want to get their heads around it, so to speak. Creative people may suddenly find themselves having no end of ideas they want to contribute. For all of these reasons, business owners should decide up front whether they want to pay for their staff to have kind of this extra dialogue or simply let the SEO firm do their thing.

As an example, consider a scenario in which the project is moving into content marketing. Suppose an appropriate piece of content can be sourced by the SEO for $50. Creative staff employed by the client, however, want to hold additional meetings to discuss the content to be used, possibly create their own content, and then invariably have to conduct additional meetings to discuss changes required to make the content suitable for SEO purposes. That type of dynamic creative process takes much longer, and the additional hours required are usually not going to be covered in a standard engagement. As a result, the client needs to determine in advance whether a creative engagement is worth the cost and schedule risk, or whether they prefer to simply let the SEO procure an appropriate piece of content to keep the project on-target in regard to both time and money. Neither approach is right or wrong; its a question of cost and preference, and its something that needs to be established during project inception to avoid any potential heartburn later.

Because SEO may take anywhere from three months to a year or longer, some type of regular contact is certainly needed to assure the customer that something meaningful is happening. I caution, though, against the standard inclination to produce detailed activity reports with tons of detail. If you go into too much detail, what may well happen is that when people read a report with a bunch of activities listed of things you did and digital documents or properties that you created, for example, people are going to try to look at those things online and try to understand both the individual activities as well as how they all fit together. Its human nature to do that. Unfortunately, theres a huge potential for them to end up feeling confused and frustrated for several different reasons. First, some of the things we do in SEO can be counter-intuitive or go against many common misconceptions. Second, they simply lack the years of experience to understand the strategic approach behind why these things are done the way they are. Unless youre dealing with another actual expert, consider the level of detail thats really going to be beneficial to the customer. More is not always better. Seek to provide meaningful indicators of progress while avoiding the inclusion of unnecessary data-points. There is another reason to consider keeping reports at a high level, though.

A critical consideration for any SEO firm is intellectual property and trade secrets. No one expects to walk into a major brand fast food restaurant and walk out with anything more than the vaguest understanding of their secret recipe, and SEO is no different. Within the field of SEO, there is a great amount of highly specialized tradecraft that changes on a very frequent basis. This tradecraft represents an SEO firms secret recipe in how they address the 200+ ranking factors. Accordingly, if you want anything more than a high-level report, dont be surprised if youre asked to execute a legal Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) which attaches a hefty financial penalty for violating the terms of the agreement. I prefer to avoid such a situation entirely and keep trade secrets and propriety business processes strictly on a need-to-know basis. As long as you can deliver results, people will not only understand that youve got something special, but theyll also appreciate the fact that you dont take just anyone as a client.

Conclusion

SEO should be seen more as a capital investment than a marketing cost. As a Raleigh SEO provider, our goal is to create residual value for our clients that can lead to a possible exit-strategy for a small business owner looking to sell their business. An SEO project can meet the criteria to be considered a project according to industry definitions, depending on the approach taken by the SEO agency. In selecting an SEO project management methodology, an SEO company should consider modern iterative approaches that will accommodate the dynamic nature of competitive SEO. Finally, if youre a business owner and need an SEO company, drop by (http://dunntek.com/seo)

DISCLAIMER: Subject to terms and conditions as posted on the DunnTek website

[hishem25]

A Discussion On Black Mental Health

By Dorothy Watson

It goes without saying, but the stigma or racism is still very much alive these days. It totally depends on the individual goings on and undertakings in each persons life, may it be an ongoing experience or an offshoot of historical perspectives. Anyhow, statistics show that African Americans are very much liable to take the brunt of unique challenges, which explains the distinctions of the term black mental health. Racism is an idea thats inputted to most, if not all, African Americans at a very tender age. Although some might not have experienced it to an overt or severe degree due to subsisting in a modern, well adjusted environment, its something whose repercussions theyve likely heard on the news, something that their parents or relatives apprehensively talk about, their peers languish about, or something that theyve deduced from the stares of strange strangers on the subway. Its saying something about the twenty first century that racism is officially established as an unpleasant and intolerable idea. However, theres no way of controlling and surveying each and every individual interaction of the denizens. Especially in this hyper globalized world and the prevalence of social media, everyone at least is sure to come across some rotten apple. Therefore, certain well meaning individuals have built an enterprise that caters specifically to blacks and other racial minorities. As per their mission, they aim to educate and inspire vulnerable persons from vulnerable communities. This undertaking is no doubt an effort to overturn undesirable statistics which relegates African Americans to the sidelines when it comes to receiving according treatment on mental and psychological issues and some such. More specifically, the historical adversity undergone by African Americans, from slavery to the more recent socioeconomic, health, and educational exclusion from the twentieth century has translated to impregnable perceptions of disparity. Altogether, and if we were to take Maslows Hierarchy of Needs seriously, the lack of these givens may result in a downturn of self actualization, namely issues in ones mental state. Its not at all far fetched to assume that people who are discriminated, impoverished, and some such, are at higher risks for poor psychological well being. If we were to build upon Maslows quintessential Hierarchy of Needs, then it might be said that these experiences refused certain Blacks from achieving self actualization, that which could be emotionally or mentally burdensome to their well being. Compound that with the cumulative feelings of exclusion, discrimination, and the actualities of poverty, and we are painted an extremely bleak picture. The BMHA, which is an alliance for education and consultation for BMH, is a regional and social membership and advocacy non profit organization. It means to provide an authoritative forum which aims to promote relevant approaches to health access and the like. The BMHA aims to engage healthcare professionals in a licensed, and service oriented practice to its patients. Many approaches are adopted for this enterprise. Theres direct service prevention, that which ranges from school services to community ones. It touches on motley topics, from tobacco use education and prevention, HIV and AIDS prevention initiatives, and even fatherhood initiatives. After all, the reasons for mental issues are wide and discrete. Might as well be as holistic as possible in ones approach. Without the essential specialized support, the disenfranchised will have more complications when it comes to acting out their coping mechanisms. Especially with the cultural mannerisms of blacks in terms of ideas about openness in acknowledging their need for help seeking, its no wonder how many dont receive the help they need. Accordingly, they also need an innate understanding of the unique experiences of a group of people who by dint of unique perspectives and treatment, are exposed to unique emotions and experiences.

About the Author:

You can get valuable tips for choosing a counselor and more information about an experienced black mental health professional at http://bit.ly/2uosZ8M right now.

A Discussion On Black Mental Health from NEXT GENERATION http://bit.ly/2EZMUyU

[vitalmindandbody]

If not my surname or my husband’s, could we call most children after a New Zealand volcano?

Franki Cookney and her husband didnt much like each others surnames, so now theyre having a baby theyve decided to pick a brand-new one

When my husband, Rob, and I marriage last year, the question of what to do about our surnames scarcely recruited our discussions. We are both scribes, so our names are on every piece of work we do. That we would deter our own seemed a yielded. There was just one niggling disbelieve. What would happen if “were having” brats?

I had always thought that we would just deposit both our identifies on the birth credential, but I knew this didnt fairly resolve the problem. Whose identify would go first? And which reputation would end up being used?

We could use a double-barrel call, but didnt detect our surnames, Cookney and Davies, gave themselves to hyphenation. Whichever guild you choose, research results is clunky and we were reluctant to saddle a child with it.

We could have just preferred whichever call sounded best with our babys first name. But in that scenario, one parent culminates up not sharing a surname with their child and neither of us wanted that. Plus, Id sounded too many fables of parents being agreed upon at airport protection because the refers on their passports didnt equal that of their children.

The traditional alternative of taking my husbands surname was never on the table. Fairly apart from the feminist principle of not wanting to renounce my identity for his, I wasnt keen on the identify. Rob supported this and was by no means offended. The fus was, he wasnt a fan of my appoint either. Its precisely a bit unwieldy, he said. Its almost Cockney but not quite. Youre perpetually having to spell it out. We looked at our moms maiden reputations and our grandparents names but ever intention up back in the same plaza, feeling that it wasnt equal, that picking one surface of their own families over another wasnt fair.

We hit on the idea of taking a new reputation about a year ago when before our bridal we went to write our wills. As we chit-chat to one of the attorneys, it transpired that he and his wife had done precisely this. Theres a fair fragment of admin, but its good, it operates, he did , nodding decisively. Unexpectedly, it didnt seem so outlandish. This wasnt some childish disobedience or bohemian pretentiousness, this was something solicitors did!

We mooted it with friends, who were largely unfazed. What appoint will you go for? was the thing they were most strange about. Good query. Could we mix the messages of our identifies and establish something new, we wondered. Directories were attained: Dents, Cave, Devine, Kinsey, Dacovnicks Cookies? Nothing of them quite hit the mark.

As our wedding gleaned nearer, we made the appoint competition on a back burner. But when I became pregnant 3 months later, we were forced to look at the situation afresh and decided to change tacking. How about a plaza? I intimated. Somewhere weve inspected that we enjoyed. A backpacking stint before we got married had left us with plenty to choose from but most sounded reasonably bizarre when attributed to a couple of ordinary Brits. Rob and Franki Tongariro possessed any particular sparkle, but reputation yourself after a New Zealand volcano would be ridiculous. And Zhangjiajie might create retentions of dazzling Chinese mountains, but imagine having to spell it every time you booked a whisker appointment or called your internet provider. For a while Salento and Chaltn were on the roster, after places available in Colombia and Argentina. But we werent convinced we are to be able pull off the patently Latino-sounding former and supposed the latter would lead to a lifetime of chastening people who enunciated it Charlton.

Then Rob mentioned, What about Stone Town? The beautiful old-time township of Zanzibar City is where he had asked me to marry him. It instant detected right. Stone was straightforward but important. It seemed good with both our given name and after a few weeks of trying it on with other names would work well with almost anything we decide to for our newborn. It was perfect: a solid epithet( with a potential for puns “thats really not” misplaced on us) that felt like a constructive solution to our problem. We would impede our original surnames for piece and accept this new family name for our personal lives.

By law, all you need to do to change your figure is, well, change it. Simply choosing and using your brand-new call is enough. Informing your reports and accounts, however, requires a document of proof such as a wedding certificate or, in such cases, a deed canvas. “Were not receiving” official acces of buying a deed referendum. You can write one yourself using free templates from the internet, but deficiency of clarity about the process results in some institutions demanding an original certificate despite the fact that no such situation exists. You can either fight it out or you can do which is something we did and offer 15 -2 0 for a company such as the Deed Poll Office to draw up the character on your behalf and print and stamp it on watermarked article. Established the directory of bodies and organisations you have to notify and the health risks arguments over what constitutes an original credential, this seemed a reasonable compromise.

Perhaps “its been” naive, but we didnt expect to meet with resist. Uncertainty, perhaps. Intrigue, for sure. When it came to getting married, we had trenched virtually every habit extending, prohibiting the matrimony itself, and no one had wondered us. Surely this too would be seen as a modern updated information on an outdated habit. But when we announced our decision to our families, the reaction was mixed.

Franki and Rob. Photo: Christian Sinibaldi for the Guardian

While they understood our predicament, the common refrain was that the child would lose the connection to its family history. Try as I might, I cant know what this is. To me, family history exits far deeper than ones call. Its in accordance with the rules we live, our values, the prudence and shared ordeal passed down through generations. It is part of the storytelling our parents did and its in the stories we, more, will tell and the beliefs we will share.

Our roots “re not in” our refers, they are in our middles. My grandmother, whose surname was Jones, is important to me not because of her appoint but because of her ardour. My great-grandmother, a midwife I never even satisfied, let alone shared a appoint with, formations a part of my gumption of identity. Why? Because of the lane my own mother talks about her, because of the pictures she has decorated in my heads of state of that life, that clas, that time.

Interestingly, the reputation itself has also testified a sticking point, with a few people commenting that its abiding. Youre doing this really unusual thing but youve picked a really ordinary appoint, said one colleague, as though by doing something different we are obliged to go the whole hog and announce ourselves Rob and Franki Thundercats.

In fact, the accessibility of the name was something we contemplated would be used sell the idea. It turns out we were naive there, too. My mom, a former primary school teacher, insisted that someone called Stone would be teased. Another relative describing him as a dead weight of a name.

In my experience, boys will come up with monikers no matter what. I wasted often of my school years known as Franki Cookie while my given name was often elongated to Frankenstein, Frankincense or Frankfurter.

Never tell people your call alternatives in advance, admonished one pal( too late ). Its as if telling parties in advance is inviting a talk or consultation!

While my familys thinks undoubtedly matter to me, I suspect she might be right. Ultimately, this is our decision, based on our necessities, and I hope they will come to see it as a practical and positive step , not an reckless one.

Its almost impossible to get everyone on board, adviser another friend, who changed her surname by deed ballot in 2004. The idea upset my grandmother but my daddy, her son, understood. When I married my husband, he took my epithet. Im still not sure two brothers was 100% behind us, but when we had our first son, he was the first to be born into our dynasty. Im so excited that we are the first in our tree!

This is exactly how I find. I affection the idea that our baby will be born into this new, specially elected and carefully thought-out family name. And if the working day he or she decides to change it either to something new or to one of our old last name we will fully support that.

Even when you change names, ancestry can still be traced and, if nothing else, I like to think we will be looked back on as the ones who tried something new; who instead of forming do with an unsatisfactory place, considered creatively about how to solve it. Thats their own families bequest Im glad with.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

The post If not my surname or my husband’s, could we call most children after a New Zealand volcano? appeared first on vitalmindandbody.com.

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[patriotsnet]

How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-do-republicans-feel-about-the-wall/

How Do Republicans Feel About The Wall

Half Of Republicans Believe False Accounts Of Deadly Us Capitol Riot

How do Hispanic Americans truly feel about the border wall?

7 Min Read

WASHINGTON -Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.

Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists trying to make Trump look bad, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.

Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that Novembers presidential election was stolen from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed.

Since the Capitol attack, Trump, many of his allies within the Republican Party and right-wing media personalities have publicly painted a picture of the days events jarringly at odds with reality.

Hundreds of Trumps supporters, mobilized by the former presidents false claims of a stolen election, climbed walls of the Capitol building and smashed windows to gain entry while lawmakers were inside voting to certify President Joe Bidens election victory. The rioters – many of them sporting Trump campaign gear and waving flags – also included known white supremacist groups such as the Proud Boys.

DANGEROUS SPIN ON REALITY

They Just Come For Show

The four House Republicans were unfamiliar with the history of the fight over Santa Ana.

It was not addressed by the Border Patrol agents who led the morning excursion. And by the time E&E News connected with Chapman, the delegation had departed the refuge for a briefing on Border Patrol activities at the local headquarters of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Later, when asked whether Westerman thought the environmental impact of installing a wall at Santa Ana and in other refuge areas was a necessary sacrifice to stop the flow of illegal immigration, the lawmaker said it didnt sound unreasonable.

One hundred and fifty feet kind of sounds like what the right of way would be on a levee, but I dont know, he said. Obviously, if youre going to build a wall, theres going to be clearing. And from what Ive seen, stories Ive heard about human trafficking, the rapes, the deaths yeah, I think its worth building the deterrents.

At the National Butterfly Center a 100-acre nature preserve that was also exempted from having a border wall built on its land in the same 2019 spending package Executive Director Marianna Trevino Wright said she thought the GOP lawmakers were ignorant by choice.

I think they have no idea, Trevino Wright asserted. They come just for show. Theyre not interested.

The real litterbugs, she contended, were the officers with Border Patrol.

There’s Something Happening Here

But he uses a different touchstone: Occupy Wall Street, the left-leaning anti-establishment movement that blossomed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

“This is Occupy Wall Street Part 2, but this time it is on their turf, and there are real financial consequences,” he said. LeGate, who received a $100,000 Thiel fellowship to drop out of college and start a company when he was 18 years old in 2013, has been watching the WallStreetBets Reddit discussion for several years.

He said he is seeing increasing frustration and anger, which is exploding in the Covid pandemic era and it is bringing together the traditional political left and right.

“People were willing to take a risk on Trump and now they’re willing to take a risk in the markets,” he said. “A lot of people just want to see the world burn right now, and they’re enjoying watching it happen.”

He said he’s already seeing people on the WallStreetBets Reddit page looking for new targets and there are two themes. First, they’re looking for highly shorted stocks where big hedge funds might have a lot of leverage. And second, they’re looking for nostalgia plays to bring back the companies from their youth. That’s why Nokia, Blackberry and Blockbuster are all getting attention.

Border Walls In The Middle East

One major proof of concept that Republicans supporting a Mexican border wall cite is the success of similar walls in the Middle East. For example, walls along the Israeli-Palestinian border reportedly cut down illegal immigration between the countries. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who is also the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated that he was impressed with a system of fences he had inspected along the Israeli border with Palestinian territories. Johnson stated Im always looking for best practices. Its been incredibly effective. They had thousands of illegal immigrants; its down to the teens.

House Republicans Propose $10 Billion For Trumps Border Wall

House Republicans on Wednesday unveiled a plan to provide $10 billion for President Donald Trumps border wall with Mexico, a bill unlikely to clear the Senate but which could fuel a shutdown fight in December.

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said his panel will vote on the legislation next week. The bill also would add 10,000 more border patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers, tap the National Guard to patrol the southern border and target people who have overstayed visas.

Now that we have a partner in the White House who has made this a top priority, its time to send a bill to President Trumps desk so we can deliver the American people the security they have long demanded and deserve, McCaul said in a statement.

The bill represents Republicans opening salvo in both the looming year-end government funding fight and high-stakes negotiations over undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.

It almost certainly wont pass the Senate, where at least eight Democrats would be needed to clear a 60-vote threshold.

Partisans Approve Their Partys Approach To Shutdown Negotiations Disapprove Of Other Partys

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 76% approve of how Trump is handling shutdown talks, including 50% who say they strongly approve of Trumps approach. In contrast, just 4% of Democrats approve of Trumps handling of the negotiations, while 93% disapprove .

The overall pattern is similar in views of Republican leaders in Congress: 69% of Republicans approve of their partys leaders handling of negotiations, while just 10% of Democrats approve.

And while about seven-in-ten Democrats and Democratic leaners approve of the way Democratic leaders in Congress are handling the shutdown negotiations, just 11% of Republicans say the same.

Republicans Pray For A Border Crisis To Bring Biden Down

Joe Biden and his programs are popular. Republicans cant lay a glove on him. So theyve settled on immigration as the way to drag him into the mud.

Guillermo Arias/Getty

Republicans are crazy about immigration. No, really. The issue makes them loco. Just listen to the things theyre saying. Many of them have lost touch with reality.

Or maybe Republicans are crazy like a fox. The GOP seems to have once again pinned all of its hopes for retaking powerin this case, by winning back control of the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections and possibly regaining seats in the House of Representativeson the immigration issue. If either of those things happen, Republicans will be in decent shape to try to retake the White House in 2024.

President Joe Biden has only been in office for about 60 days, and Republicans who want to attack him and his administration dont have a lot of material with which to work.

Thats what some of the current fearmongering over the situation at the U.S.-Mexico borderabout half of itis all about. The other half is made up of good ol fashioned nativism and racism. Thats one reason why Republicans act like the prospect of what could turn out to be 100,000 would-be refugees from Central America mostly women and children is the end of Western civilization as we know it.

Here we are again. And the same Republicans who were quiet and subdued when former President Donald Trump confronted this same problem now cant stop talking about this being a crisis.

Republicans Spent Two Years Resisting Trumps Border Wall What Changed

Since the government shutdown 25 days ago, Republicans have largely defended the need for a border wall. While there appear to be some cracks in support, most are standing by the presidents insistence on funding.

As recently as September, The Washington Post described it this way:

The same Republican lawmakers who rushed through the tax bill Trump wanted, confirmed his first Supreme Court pick and are fighting to defend his second, and have remained largely deferential amid multiple scandals, have taken a far different approach when it comes to one of Trumps most memorable campaign promises deeming the wall to be impractical, unrealistic and too costly.

Most GOP lawmakers didnt come right out and say that, of course.

Instead, for the first two years of Trumps presidency, GOP lawmakers avoided the wall debate completely. In September 2017, USA Today took on the laborious task of surveying every member of Congress to determine their position on Trumps wall. At the time, the White House was requesting $1.6 billion to begin wall construction. The survey found that just 69 of the 292 Republicans in Congress said they supported Trumps funding request. Three outright opposed it, but the majority avoided answering the question directly.

Shortly after Trumps inauguration, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham , Trumps onetime nemesis turned close ally, told Politico that the border wall is probably not a smart investment.

Every Congressperson Along Southern Border Opposes Border Wall Funding

How would Republicans build Donald Trump’s wall? BBC News

Nine congressional representatives serve the districts that line the 2,000-mile southern border. They are men, women, freshman politicians and Washington veterans. The Democrats among them span liberal ideologies, while one of them is a Republican.

But they all have one thing in common: each is against President Donald Trump‘s border wall.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a multi-bill package that provided funding for federal agencies and reinstated Department of Homeland Security appropriations without offering any new border wall funding. All nine of the politicians serving in districts along the border voted in favor of the bills, which were an effective rebuke of the Trump administration’s request for $5.7 billion in border wall funding.

“It’s a 4th-century solution to a 21st century problem,” said Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat and one of the lawmakers along the southern border who voted against funding the wall.

Gonzalez doesn’t oppose border security. He said, “Nobody wants stronger border control than me.” But he’s against adding to the existing border wall because he doesn’t “think it brings real border security and it comes at a major cost to taxpayers,” the lawmaker said Tuesday in a telephone interview with CBS News.

“At the time I thought we were going to be able to have a reasonable conversation,” Gonzalez said. “I had no idea it was going to get this crazy.”

Everybody Look What’s Going Down

Holmes believes the key to understanding the power of this new movement is the gamification of investing melded with an anti-elite fervor. Sticking it to hedge funds and potentially making a lot of money is, simply, fun. And if you believe its also the right thing to do, and thrive on the engagement of a community of like-minded traders, so much the better.

“When things really get going is when the fun meets the purpose,” Holmes said. “This is the perfect storm of those two.”

His warning to Wall Street is: understand this. Be willing to scrutinize yourself. This not going away, and it is probably bigger than you think.

“People need to take the time to understand the social dynamics of this. What are the problems that have created this class of retail investor who seek to completely destroy your industry, and how do you remedy that?” Holmes said.

Holmes said he has spent the past decade watching American politics turned inside out. An earlier generation of politicians spent their time raising money at country club ballrooms from hundreds of donors writing $500 or $1,000 checks.

But now they spend their time on the internet raising money from millions of donors making $5 and $20 contributions. In politics, the retail money turned out to be bigger much bigger — than the institutional money. And that’s driven massive political spending inflation: the big Senate campaigns that once cost $15 million now cost $100 million.

There’s Battle Lines Being Drawn

But what explains that nostalgic impulse in the midst of a revolution? It is the same emotion that animated the MAGA movement which, after all, stood for make America great, again. It is a desire to return to an earlier time that the members of the movement remember as better than today.

“There’s a feeling I sense across society that people want to go back to a simpler time,” LeGate said. “No one likes Covid. People don’t feel the economy is fair. Everything looks better in hindsight.”

And he argues that efforts to regulate trading will feel to Reddit traders more like suppression, and could fuel more anger.

“If someone on Main Street loses half their portfolio in a day, nothing’s going to happen. But if a hedge fund does, they literally stop the trading,” he said. “I myself question whether this is really about protecting the individual investor or protecting the hedge fund.”

Public Disapproves Of How Shutdown Negotiations Are Being Handled

Most Americans offer negative evaluations of the way that the nations political leaders in both parties Donald Trump, Democratic congressional leaders and Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations over the shutdown.

Overall, just 36% of the public approves of how Trump is handling negotiations over the government shutdown, including 23% who say they strongly approve. About six-in-ten disapprove of Trumps approach to the negotiations, including 53% who say they strongly disapprove.

Views of how Republican leaders in Congress are handling shutdown negotiations generally parallel evaluations of Trump. Six-in-ten Americans say they disapprove of the way Republican congressional leaders are handling negotiations, while just 36% say they approve. However, fewer Americans characterize their views of GOP leaders handling of negotiations as strong approval or disapproval than say this about the president.

Public views of Democratic leaders handling of the shutdown talks are somewhat more positive than views of Trump or GOP leaders. Still, more disapprove than approve .

Intensity Of Trumps Support Increases

Also in the poll, 46 percent of voters approve of President Trumps job performance, which is consistent with the other NBC/WSJ polls over the past year and a half.

But other numbers in the survey his strong job approval ticking up to its all-time high, his positive rating jumping to its highest level since after his inauguration prompts GOP pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies to call this Trumps best NBC/WSJ poll in three years.

Still, 49 percent of all voters say they are very uncomfortable about Trump when it comes to his re-election bid in 2020.

Thats compared with 43 percent who are very uncomfortable with Sanders, 36 percent with Warren and 35 percent with Biden.

Klobuchar: Trump’s Actions Are Like A ‘global Watergate’ Scandal

Today, as Democrats in the House of Representatives move toward bringing articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, with the next Judiciary Committee hearing of evidence set for Monday, few Democrats are still clinging to the hope that Republicans will reach a breaking point with Trump like they did with Nixon.

“I really don’t think there is any fact that would change their minds,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Conn., a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told NBC News.

Why? Two key changes since Nixon: a massive divide in American political life we hate the other team more than ever before and a media climate that fuels and reinforces that chasm, powered by Fox News on the Republican side.

Himes said he was “a little stunned by the unanimity on the Republican side,” especially among retiring lawmakers who don’t have to worry about surviving a GOP primary had they gone against Trump. “We’re in a place right now where all that matters to my Republican colleagues is the defense of the president,” he added.

No Republican congressmen have said they support impeachment. In the Senate, the entire GOP voted to condemn the impeachment inquiry, except for three moderates: Mitt Romney of Utah, Susan Collins of Maine, and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska. The three have stopped short of saying they support Trump’s impeachment, however, and it would take at least 20 Republican senators to vote to convict him in a Senate trial for removal to succeed.

What Do Republicans Believe In

Do all Republicans believe the same things? Of course not. Rarely do members of a single political group agree on all issues. Even among Republicans, there are differences of opinion. As a group, they do not agree on every issue.

Some folks vote Republican because of fiscal concerns. Often, that trumps concerns they may have about social issues. Others are less interested in the fiscal position of the party. They vote they way they do because of religion. They believe Republicans are the party of morality. Some simply want less government. They believe only Republicans can solve the problem of big government. Republicans spend less . They lower taxes: some people vote for that alone.

However, the Republican Party does stand for certain things. So I’m answering with regard to the party as a whole. Call it a platform. Call them core beliefs. The vast majority of Republicans adhere to certain ideas.

So what do Republicans believe? Here are their basic tenets:

Questions Ahead Of The Democratic National Convention

Andrew Redleaf, founder of the hedge fund company Whitebox Advisors, has been a Republican donor in the past. He gave to the campaign of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He calls himself a libertarian conservative who favors free trade and immigration.

This year, he’s given money to the Lincoln Project, a group of conservative never-Trumpers who are running scathing ads against the president in swing states.

“I’d like there to be a right-of-center, limited-government party … which is not the Trumpist Republican Party,” Redleaf says.

Redleaf is wary of Democrats and has no particular affection for Biden.

But the former vice president is a known commodity on Wall Street and is widely seen as a more centrist, acceptable alternative to more liberal Democrats who ran for president, such as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has also been a top recipient of financial industry money for decades as a senator from Delaware, home to financial and credit card companies.

“He’s not somebody that the industry is particularly afraid of,” Bryner says. “So I think that we would see them kind of hopeful that he would be a more moderating influence, whereas Trump can be quite unpredictable.”

Widening Party Divide Over Expanding The Border Wall

El Chapo financing Trump border wall is a yes vote: GOP lawmaker

Public views of a U.S.-Mexico border wall have changed little over the past three years. But the partisan gap has widened, as Republicans have become more supportive of a border wall, while Democratic support has declined.

Currently, 58% of Americans oppose substantially expanding the wall along the U.S. border with Mexico, while 40% favor the proposal.

Since early 2016, roughly six-in-ten Americans have opposed building or expanding the border wall .

Yet partisan differences are now wider than they have ever been. Today, 82% of Republicans and Republican leaners favor substantially expanding the wall along the U.S-Mexico border. Over the past year alone, Republican support for expanding the border wall has increased 10 percentage points . Over the same period, the share of Democrats who favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall has declined from 13% to 6%.

Conservative Republicans and Republican leaners overwhelmingly favor expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall . Moderate and liberal Republicans are somewhat less supportive .

Overwhelming shares of both liberal Democrats and conservative and moderate Democrats oppose expanding the border wall.

As in the past, opinions about expanding the U.S.-Mexico border wall are divided by race, education and age. Whites are more than twice as likely as blacks or Hispanics to favor expanding the border wall.

Why Do Republicans Behave The Way They Do

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich?

Why are the Republicans so mean-spirited when it comes to the poor and so indulgent when it comes to the rich? Thats the incessant question as posed by liberals today about the partys now enacted tax reform. Not only does the bill include another attack on Obamacare, but it provides the pretext the need to reduce deficits to go after other long-held goals, the end of Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. 

The answer should be obvious by now. Republicans behave as they do because they can get away with it! Its no more complicated than that. 

Contrary to liberal opinion, Republican politics isnt out of the mainstream provided we push the clock back sufficiently. A political economy without social services and entitlements is in fact the default position of the capitalist mode of production from its inception. If recent comments from Republican Sens. Orin Hatch and Charles Grassley sound like characters from a Charles Dickens novel their barely disguised contempt for the working poor that should come as no surprise. Such attitudes were almost de rigueur for ruling elites in capitals long ascent. The constant refrain of the rich Why should we be taxed to pay for the education of the children of the irresponsible poor?  explains why public school education became a widely accepted norm only in the 20th century. 

How Dems aided and abetted

What Republicans And Democrats Have In Common On Wall Street Regulation

The Democratic and Republican parties disagree on most major issues. When it comes to Wall Street, however, it’s a mixed bag. Take the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.

Democrats believe the bill has reined in the type of out-of-control behavior that led to the near collapse of the banking industry in 2008 and prevented a similar crisis. Republicans have criticized the legislation calling it “the Democrats legislative Godzilla.” They feel the financial regulations have made it too difficult for small lenders and community banks and has indirectly slowed the growth of small businesses. 

Regulation of the financial services industry has been a major issue not only in the current presidential election but in house and senate races. Democrats believe that the electorate largely sides with them that banks have overstepped and that they can use their position to win votes and take back the Senate. Republicans currently hold a majority 54 votes. Because of gerrymandering rules, Democrats will have a tougher time retaking the House.  

Dodd-Frank was intended to increase transparency and accountability in the financial services industry and to protect consumers. Among other things, the bill created a new consumer protection agency and standards for a number of common financial services products. 

A Shift In Immigration Thinking

Representative Luis Gutierrez of Illinois is one of the Houses most outspoken Democrats on immigration reform, and she understands this shift, and believes it is essential. Lives are at stake and the lives of Dreamers are more important to me than bricks, Gutierrez said. If advocates would reject any money for Trumps wall in exchange for freedom and legalization and eventual citizenship for the Dreamers, I understand their choice, but for my part, I would lay bricks myself if I thought it would save the Dreamers. For me, the very real attacks on legal immigration are far greater threats than bricks and drones and technology on the border.

This shift has also led Democratic views on a border wall to soften in general. As Trump has become less demanding, Democrats have begun to consider what type of barrier, and what size, they would be willing to agree to if push came to shove. The 2,000 mile wall that Democrats had feared would be a looming symbol of America turning inward on itself is becoming something closer to the 2006 plan; some new barriers, some new monitoring technology, and that is somewhat agreeable to Democrats, especially if they can garner support in other arenas in exchange for it.