#like the only positive thing is there's in unit w/d but our building has a w/d we can use in a pinch

[roseband]

...

[jiminrings]

bestie what if jungkook finally finds out that jin’s friends with y/n 😭😭😭 he’d live in embarrassment for like eight business days

cold senior!y/n x stem major!koo masterlist :D

jungkook wants to crawl in a ditch for bADLY misjudging a situation he should’ve foreseen in the first place

yoongi has never been this dedicated to curing his hangover

well actually, nO ONE was really forcing him to pick you and taehyung up anyway

you didn't even ask!!! you could 10/10 just call for an uber to bring back taehyung to his place

maybe, just maybe, it's your fault that when yoongi asked you where you were when he's just woken up from a long night of partying, you mentioned "i'm with taehyung" and hospital and go home in the same sentence so that's why he went to overdrive

did he process what you said correctly?? probably not <3

that's the whole reason why yoongi had wasted sIX eggs this morning!!

he read somewhere in passing and watched song-hwa from hospital playlist enough to know that drinking eggs apparently helps you with your hangover and some other things

first, he wasted tHREE eggs because apparently, you're not supposed to drink the eggs !!! whisked !!! because it "defeats" the whole purpose

but it's still an egg whether you whisk it and no one's sane enough to drink raw eggs unprovoked

yoongi nailed it on the second try and he might have gagged a few times but the important thing is, his hangover is all-cured from the stress of digesting raw eggs :D so now he can safely drive at a borderline dangerous speed to pick you and tae up

"hey kiddo."

you peer your head up to see yoongi looking down at you, ruffling your hair in greeting

you've been held up here for less than five hours anyway, and it's not that yOU look tired,,, it's just that maybe you could use a little more sleep

lol you got yoongi thinking for a second that you're the injured on

"hey champ," yoongi acknowledges taehyung who's smiling from his bed, getting a forehead flick from his senior to which he rolls his eyes to

taehyung's... dressed up already in his normal clothes?

he already has his shoe on too so yoongi doesn't quite get why the two of you still aren't standing up

"you're lucky you just got a flick," you add helpfully, yawning in remembrance, "he punched my arm when i fell down the stairs at the dorm."

and wHY is this conversation all pointing to him now??

"because the both of you did stupid things that landed you in the ER!"

"i was just trying to see if i can go down the stairs three steps at a time!!"

"i just wanted to embrace y/n!!!"

very stoopid decisions if you ask him

yoongi shifts his weight from one foot to another, still a little lost because he's already here, and the two of you are all-ready to go, and he's not really a fan of the smell of the hospital —

oh wait

"has the bill already been settled?" he asks in curiosity, fishing out his wallet from his pocket

"mhmm. already did," tae answers instantly, nudging yoongi to put his wallet back where it came from

uhm wait maybe it's the eggs that are talking but uh

..... if the bill's already paid-

"then why are we all just sitting here?"

taehyung opens his mouth but he cLOSES it shut the moment it all clicks in his head, belatedly looking at you whose face screams conflict

yoongi's eyes turn to you on instinct, narrowing his eyes because you're choosing not to meet his eyes

"we're uh, we're waiting for jungkook to come back from the restroom."

...

.....

.......

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

yoongi's quiet, almost like he's calculating the variables in his mind

his mind's working harder rn that it did on his finals last week

"so jungkook is here?"

he gets war flashbacks every time he hears his name

he just shudders at the thought of him and he doesn't mean it positively lmao

"y-yeah! did i not tell you that at the call? he helped me get taehyung here," you scratch your nape in explanation, not accounting for the fact that yoongi still vERY much loathes jungkook when you called him

tae's not actually sure if he's helping you when he opens his mouth but he's trying his best <3

"yup! his shoulders were my crutch for like, three blocks. he also bought us food from the cafeteria while we were waiting to have my leg cast!!"

he glances at the fancy paper bags from the cafeteria downstairs, even some take-outs in there that makes it look all-stuffed

how in the living hELL is yoongi suppposed to feel about all of this :|

"i'm back! should i call an uber now? sorry, i bought these tiny hand sanitizers because they were having a sale at the pharmacy. y/n what scent do you-..."

jungkook happily chirps as he rummages through the bag he was given, preparing to scoop all the different scents to present them to you when he jUST had to look down at a familiar pair of shoes

as in the same black converse that he had the relief of looking at when someone was particularly asking him if he ever had a knuckle sandwich

"h-hi yoongi."

yoongi narrows his eyes at the kid who just squeaked, mouth puffed-up in disbelief that he looks like he's hiding a hamster in there

"bye jungkook."

yoongi uses tae as an excuse to shoo jungkook off as fast as possible but that kinda bites him in the ass

taehyung's going through a learning curve with his crutches and yoongi's making him wALK faster!!!! he still needs a little-

oh wait a minute :-)

"jungkook! help me walk to yoongi's car."

no

there is nO way that even taehyung's conspiring against him now

first jin and now taehyung????

tae solidifies his point by winking at yoongi, leaving you alone with him as you carry the paper bags of cafeteria take-outs

he's not exactly sure if he's helping you out at this situation, but once again, he's just trying his best and having fun alright!!! he likes to be included in these types of things hee-hee

yoongi has no choice now but to aLSO drive jungkook home, and the thought just makes him grumble from thinking about it

he'll have to disinfect his seats ://

"i haven't fully forgiven him if that's what you're thinking about," you chime in with his thoughts, looping your arm around his to help quell the visible stress in his mind

"it's your life," he puffs out because he doesn't want to meddle with you, consciously trying not to be overbearing when it comes to your choices

"i know. i just want you to know that your closest friend has the pride and the brains to not forgive an asshole, a goddamn junior, who said really mean things to her," you add thoughtfully and transparently, making yoongi break into a smile

ok that's got the heaviness in his chest a little lighter

"we should probably talk to each other one of these days."

you haven't had a heart-to-heart talk with yoongi for quite some time now because there weren't really any pressing issues of the sort to make the two of you talk face-to-face, but now it's probably needed

"we should."

:D

jungkook has never feared for his life in a car ride tHIS much before

and he's even wearing his seatbelt!!!!

you're sitting at the front seat and he's with taehyung at the back, the latter dozing off because yoongi indulged his request for sleep music with soft rain on the background (it doesn't make yoongi sleepy) in an attempt to make him feel better about his leg

the one-hour loop's working wonders because you're passed out on the front seat too

normally, this would also make jungkook sleepy

but how the fuck can he sLEEP when yoongi looks at him through the rear-view mirror like an apex predator??????

kook could take the easier route of pretending to sleep so he could get to avoid yoongi's gaze

but then if he pretends to sleep, yoongi would clearly see how his eyeballs are still very much trembling even when his eyes are shut and he's the furthest thing from being relaxed

don't get him started on stoplights too!!! that was just pure torture because jungkook was conflicted to whether or not he should look at him rIGHT back

taehyung and jungkook live in the same building anyway so that's more convenient because he actually wouldn't know how to act if he had to drop j-name (he honestly can't digest saying his name) separately

now that that's all over, jungkook feels oddly fulfilled in a way...?

fulfilled in a sense that even if partially, he managed to earn your forgiveness

he feels like he could sleep a little more peacefully knowing that he atleast did something right this time!!!

which is for the exact reason, he's gonna gUSH about this to mr. kim from student affairs!!!

it's uh the weekend and he walked to campus because he thinks that admin works even on weekends (mad respect)

it's noticeably a lot more empty compared to weekdays and it's just filled with freshmen with their hectic class schedules and some students who are just fulfilling units to graduate early

jungkook walks straight to student affairs and it instantly looks empty, the only familiar face in there being namjoon

as in mr. kim namjoon who's wearing a windbreaker rn and whose hair is dEFINITELY blonde than the last time (two days ago) that jungkook saw him

he's not here to work isn't he

wait is he here to rob the place ???!?#?!?

"and what are you doing here?"

namjoon is as confused as jungkook, his mouth opening and closing in dumbfoundedness

"o-oh! is mr. kim here? w-wait, you are here. i mean mr. kim seokjin, sorry. did he-"

"nope," namjoon shakes his head, putting his bucket hat back on to leave jungkook all by himself

namjoon from work and namjoon every other time besides work are TWO different entities

"we just came here to collect our paychecks. you missed jin by ten minutes."

oh well

his momentum's not entirely ruined!! jungkook just has to cram thinking of a recipe to put in your lunchbox by tomorrow and jin is his tried and tested saving grace

technically, jungkook already saw you this morning because of the whole taehyung in a cast thing, but he feels as if that the take-outs from the cafeteria aren't gonna cut it

he still needs to step up his game of course :D

so that's why jungkook forcibly enlisted jimin's help to make fish and chips for dinner and put them in two lunchboxes

one for you and one for yoongi!! he didn't skimp on the fish nor the chips and made sure they're still toasty and in peak-flavor when he delivers it to your dorm

is he intruding? is this a bad time? he didn't exactly know how to process when yoongi told him that he wouldn't stop him from making it up to you

he just iSN'T sure if delivering homemade lunchboxes at 7 in the evening to your dorm is optimal

oh good!! the door's opening :D

"good evening!! i uhm-"

... what

.......... WHAT

what the fuck is going on

seokjin is suprised to see that the guy at the door isn't from the delivery place he ordered from two minutes ago

... he may be disappointed

but what he is amused about is the way jungkook looks beyond confused and intimidated

jin's in a sleep shirt and some boxers and jungkook doesn't kNOW what to feel about all the variables present that he's trying to connect

"you look like you're hiding a goldfish in your mouth."

seokjin remarks and yawns when a fraction of a minute passes and jungkook's still frozen in his spot, his eyes darting to what the kid's holding

"oh c'mon! one for y/n and one for yoongi? you trying to make it up to him too? and none for me?" jin jives him further, leaning against the doorframe with a sleepy smirk on his lips, "i practically live here, and i gave you the tonkatsu recipe, and i'm the one who doesn't get a lunchbox?"

he eventually saw this coming lmao

jin knew that someway somehow, jungkook would come to know that hE's your close friend throughout the whole time

that he's been the sort of middleman all this time but nah he's on your team of course <3

that all this whining he's done to him has all been in the name of you and seokjin had to sit through ALLLL of that with his fists clenched underneath the table to calm himself down

"oh my god," jungkook's literally WEAK in the knees as it all connects in his mind, the gravity of this scenario kicking down on him

he really iS such a fucking asshole

how did he not hypothesize this????? how wasn't he able to connect you and yoongi and jin as each other's closest friends???

his legs are literally about to give out so that's why seokjin snatches the lunchboxes from his hands

"i am so, so, so sorry mr. kim. i-i really didn't-..."

jin pays him no mind, opening the lunchboxes slightly as he whistles at the sight of fish and chips

meanwhile jungkook is so sO close to crying both in realization and very very slight relief because he knows atleast one of your friends doesn't hate him that much

the door opens wider, the creaking getting both of his and jin's attention

"what's taking you so long? is the-..."

yoongi switches his gaze between the two lunchboxes on jin's hand and jungkook sitting on the floor looking like he's had the shock of his lifetime

wow this is really amusing

this is in fact so amusing that yoongi can't help but to snap a picture for him and jin to laugh at later

"bye, jeon."

yoongi grabs one of the lunchboxes from jin's hand and goes back into the dorm, leaving jungkook alone with mr. student affairs

seokjin chuckles as he outstretches his hand to make jungkook stand up and shoo him off sooner than later so he wouldn't look like a pebble in front of your dorm

he pats him on the back, only having to pull him slightly to get him closer to his ear

"we're still mad at you kid, don't get it twisted. you're lucky i didn't expel you."

jungkook pales at the realization overall, only weakly nodding his head as he attempts to take in everything while trying to look at the bright side

seokjin cheerily closes the door, waving at him who looks so close to passing out from hock

"bye jungkook!!!"

[ir-egipto-travel]

History

For 300 years the Abu Stait Mosque has been Basuna’s main mosque. It was built and rebuilt a couple of times. The latest building was completed 70 years ago, on the very same plot in the center of the village, adjacent to the village’s graveyard serving as the main Friday Mosque and the only funerary mosque in the entire village. A flash-flood and a soil subsidence caused by the construction of a neighboring building, inflicted considerable structural damage rendering the mosque unsafe, and so it had to be demolished.

Urban and Architectural

Project Concept The main concept is the mosque as the “House of God”. A physical space, a House for the One who is beyond space and time, which are nothing but His own creatures. “No human vision can encompass Him, whereas He encompasses all human vision: for He alone is unfathomable, all-aware.” [Qur’an 6:103] “[…] there is nothing like unto Him, and He alone is all-hearing, all-seeing” [Qur’an 42:11] This design is intended to look into the architectural expression of the connection between the physical and the metaphysical, the created and the Creator. The House of God houses His will, which is known to us through His books. The Revealed ‘Written’ Book Kitab Allah al-Massttur (Qur’an and Hadith) and the Created ‘Sensed’ Book, Kitab Allah alMandhur, the Cosmos. The Revealed book shows us His will through a prescribed world view and prescribed worship, while the Cosmos shows us His will through natural order and scientific laws which govern physical existence. His will is that we journey back to Him. The journey must have an Orientation. A Qibla, the point of origin and return, the archetypical House of God, which could be understood by creatures only through the Attributes of Divine Perfection, more famously known as the 99 names of God; The House of houses, represented in this project as the “Cube of Cubes”* which is the prayer niche or Mihrab. Contemplating, understanding and devoting ourselves to the ethical implications and spiritual values of the Attributes -within human capacity- is our earthly journey or Israa, which leads us to our Ascension or Miraaj in endless cycles until our earthly life is over and we carry on in another eternal form of life. These cycles of combined horizontal/earthly/physical/bodily interaction with the Vertical/Heavenly/metaphysical/spiritual creates an upward spiralling force, represented in the apparent Hajj-like counter-clock circumambulation of all four columns bearing the main dome, which is formed by 64 circumambulating blocks in each of the 35 vertical courses. The blocks represent worshippers in their attempt to escape their earthly material being, which shrinks in dimension as they leap up from one orbit to the higher orbit, until the last course of blocks vanishes and becomes one with the heavenly dome. The same force gives the minaret its form, which is also topped by the Cube of Cubes confirming the motivation and orientation. The pendentive-domes take their form and orientation from abiding by God’s will in His Cosmos; respecting the wind behaviour and the principles of solar movement to allow for the God-given breeze and light to shower the interior of the mosque while keeping away glare and heat. A prayer of nature. The first thing the worshippers encounter as they turn from the main entrance into the main prayer hall is a single vertical window overlooking the cemetery, which reminds them of the end of their journey before they turn right to the Qibla to begin their prayers; “Stand upright and pray as if it is your final prayer”.

Description

The Old Mosque:

• Prayer Hall (Men only) = 165.31 sqm , with no room for women at all.

• Structurally unsafe; structural walls cracked and mud roof severely damaged by a surprise flash-flood.

• No minaret, and not a single minaret in the entire village.

• Main Entrance to the mosque goes through the bathrooms and the Qibla axis directed towards the toilets.

The New Mosque:

The new design attempts to increase the capacity of the mosque in terms of the numbers of the worshippers, as well as in the quality of spaces and services.

A main goal was to also bring forth an element of inclusivity, by introducing praying spaces and services for female worshippers, for the first time in the entire village.

Project Statement

The location of the Al Abu Stait Mosque in the hot and arid village of Basuna, in the governorate of Suhaj, Upper Egypt, over a site amidst a noisy, dusty and densely constructed area with encroaching residential buildings, a cemetery, cattle frequently moving back and forth on the road and a weekly makeshift small market right outside the main entrance of this place of worship posed a major challenge. The new building must offer peace and tranquillity for its users and so a few requirements had to be met:

a) Climate control

b) Noise control

c) Dust and undesired odors (caused by farming animals passing in the street)

d) Urban context and aesthetics

e) Budget

f) Access during construction

Approaching every challenge separately made it impossible to arrive at a satisfactory solution. For example, if operable windows were used on the exterior to allow for cross-ventilation that would have meant a poor performance on the fronts of noise, dust and odor control. The decision was to limit openings, at or close to street level, to just the main entrance, while tackling all these challenges at the roof’s higher altitude.

Budget constraints and limited or no machine-accessibility meant that any solution had to depend mainly on manpower and simple tools.

The solution was a hybrid roof system; consisting of a concrete beam gridiron, cast in situ, forming a central square (6.0x6.0m) covered with a main dome, and 108 smaller squares (0.82 x 0.82m) partially covered using pendentive-domes, complemented with fixed and operable glass panels allowing natural filtered light and ventilation for low-cost enhanced thermal comfort.

The main dome was constructed using an Egyptian-made light block made of sand, lime and air, with a density of 0.5 ton/m3, thermal conductivity 0.136-0.132 W/m2.°K, fire rating (relative to thickness) 4-7 hours, sound insulation (dB) 37-48. The remarkable lightness of the block decreased the building’s own-weight, in turn decreasing the required dimensions of all reinforced concrete elements. Its dimensions (100x200x600 mm) were perfect for introducing an original aesthetic, serving the conceptual scheme of the mosque, through employing a special cutting list and a simple staggered tessellation. I had to devise a special steel compass to guarantee the meticulous spatial positioning of every single block regardless of a mason’s skills and accuracy.

Pendentive-domes are a known traditional element, hardly used as an independent element. Their main use is recognised within dome systems, facilitating the transition from square to octagonal plans to finally receive the circular plan of a dome.

In the Basuna Mosque, this element was reimagined as an independent unit, with innovated functions; structurally as a roof system, environmentally as a wind-catcher and skylight, and aesthetically as an independent geometrical object, appreciated both from the interior and the exterior -only from the higher buildings overlooking the mosque-.

The entrance dome is a stacked dome , referencing the historical dome of the Cordoba Grand Mosque, with minor modifications. It serves as a reminder of the rich potential of historical architecture in both the architectural discourse and construction innovations.

This project presents a hybrid roof system utilizing brick and block masonry, aiming to introduce innovative, energy efficient, economic, sustainable and aesthetically creative solutions. It is an attempt towards a new resilient and meaningful architectural paradigm, which seeks to learn from the past in order to create relevant innovations for the future.

#egyptpassion #iregipto #ThisIsWonderfulEgypt #this_is_wonderful_egypt #Ägypten #Egipt #Egipto #egito

[antoine-roquentin]

In May, 2001, Bolton was named Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs. The terror attacks of September 11, 2001, came a few months later, and the State Department and the White House were often in conflict about how to react: Dick Cheney, the Vice-President, urged an assertive use of military power abroad, while Colin Powell, the Secretary of State, was more restrained. Lawrence Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff, told me that Bolton was appointed to his position only at Cheney’s insistence. “Everyone knew that Bolton was Cheney’s spy,” Mark Groombridge, an aide to Bolton at the time, told me.

George W. Bush’s Administration had vowed to attack any “rogue nation” that developed weapons of mass destruction, and Bolton began a public crusade against America’s enemies, real and presumed. In May, 2002, he spoke at the Heritage Foundation, where he accused the Cuban government of developing an ambitious biological-weapons program and of collaborating with such pariah states as Libya and Iran. As he prepared to give similar testimony to Congress, Christian Westermann, an analyst at the State Department’s internal intelligence bureau, told him that the bureau’s information did not support such a view. (Westermann declined to comment for this story.) Bolton, according to several officials, threatened to fire him. “He got very red in the face and shaking his finger at me, and explained to me that I was acting way beyond my position for someone who worked for him,” Westermann later testified. “I told him I didn’t work for him.” Bolton began excluding Westermann’s supervisor from daily briefings and, after an unsuccessful attempt to fire him, tried to transfer him to another office.

Carl Ford, who oversaw the intelligence bureau, complained to Powell that Bolton was misrepresenting the views of its officials. Powell decided to have Ford brief Congress in Bolton’s place. Bolton was angry enough that he didn’t speak to Ford for six months. Then, as Ford was preparing to retire, Bolton called him on the phone. “He told me he was glad I was leaving,” Ford said. (Bolton denies making this call.)

Bolton’s immersion in the arcana of weapons of mass destruction encouraged an absolutist view. “The first thing he thinks about in the morning is protecting Americans from nuclear weapons,” Sarah Tinsley, who has worked as an aide to Bolton since the eighties, told me. In 2003, as he prepared testimony for an appearance before Congress, he described Syria’s efforts to produce nuclear and biological weapons as an urgent threat—an assessment that intelligence agencies thought was exaggerated. A bitter internal debate ensued; the accusations endangered the Syrian government’s coöperation in hunting suspected terrorists. “We were getting some of our best, if not our best, intelligence on Al Qaeda from Damascus,” Lawrence Wilkerson told me. Richard Armitage, the Deputy Secretary of State, took Bolton aside and “told him to shut up,” Wilkerson said. Before Bolton testified to Congress, much of his language was diluted. Armitage reached out to a team of intelligence officers who vetted public statements made by State Department officials, and asked them to give special scrutiny to Bolton’s. “Nothing Bolton said could leave the building until I O.K.’d it,” Thomas Fingar, who led the team at the time, told me.

As the Bush White House made the case to invade Iraq, Bolton came into conflict with José Bustani, who was in charge of overseeing the Chemical Weapons Convention—a treaty, endorsed by the U.S. and a hundred and ninety-two other countries, that bans the production of chemical weapons. Bustani, a former senior diplomat from Brazil, was negotiating with the Iraqi government to adopt the treaty, which mandated immediate inspections by outside technicians. He thought that, if inspectors could verify that Iraq had abandoned its chemical-weapons program, an invasion wouldn’t be necessary. But, he told me, when the Iraqis agreed to accept the convention, the Bush Administration asked him to halt his negotiations. “I think the White House was worried that if I succeeded it would mess up their plans to invade,” he said.

Not long afterward, Bustani recalls, Bolton showed up at his office in The Hague and demanded that he resign. When Bustani refused, Bolton said, “We know you have two sons in New York. We know your daughter is in London. We know where your wife is.” (Bolton has denied this.) Bustani held firm, and the White House, determined to remove him, convened an extraordinary session of the Convention’s members—in many cases, Bustani said, paying the travel expenses of delegates to insure that they attended. The group voted forty-eight to seven, with forty-three abstentions, to cut short Bustani’s term.

Later that year, Bustani was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work against chemical weapons. When U.S. troops moved into Iraq, they found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Commentators across the political spectrum have decried the invasion—even Trump calls it “a big, fat mistake”—but Bolton hasn’t changed his view. In 2015, he told the Washington Examiner, “I still think the decision to overthrow Saddam was correct.”

In March, 2005, Bush nominated Bolton to be the Ambassador to the United Nations, a move that was widely seen as an expression of contempt for the institution. Bolton had a history of deriding the U.N., once saying that if the headquarters “lost ten stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.” Still, Democrats in the Senate anticipated a routine hearing; they were the minority party and could do little to resist. Tony Blinken, who was the staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told me that the members began to reconsider as they examined Bolton’s work in the State Department. “We saw a pattern of Mr. Bolton trying to manipulate intelligence to justify his views,” Blinken told me. “If it had happened once, maybe. But it came up multiple times, and always it was the same underlying issue: he would stake out a position, and then, if the intelligence didn’t support it, he would try to exaggerate the intelligence and marginalize the officials who had produced it.” After several days of testimony, Senator George Voinovich, a Republican from Ohio, declared, “John Bolton is the poster child of what someone in the diplomatic corps should not be.”...

In addition to giving Trump a rundown of potential national threats each morning, Bolton attends the President’s Daily Brief, a top-secret meeting with Gina Haspel, the head of the C.I.A., and Dan Coats, the director of National Intelligence. Trump prefers to hold these meetings just two or three times a week, and is famously susceptible to distractions—people walking into the office, telephone calls, even houseflies. Aides have found that detailed briefings provoke impatience; graphics and bullet points work better, and relatable photographs better still. “Bolton gets to the point very fast,” a senior Administration official told me. “He’s very brief, and the President appreciates that.” Groombridge, the former aide, said, “John is thinking, To the extent I can modify or mollify the President’s actions, I will. He is truly a patriot. But I wonder how he goes into work every day, because deep in his heart he believes the President is a moron.”...

When McMaster was the national-security adviser, he had carefully limited the scope of the mission in Syria, maintaining a deployment of some two thousand troops, dispatched by Obama in 2014. Their orders were to kill ISIS fighters and to train local soldiers, but not to fight Assad’s government, his Iranian and Russian backers, or their proxies in Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group and political party. An adviser on Middle East issues told me that senior officials at the Pentagon and in national security had regarded the deployment as highly successful. “We were trying to follow the President’s guidance that this force was there to destroy ISIS, and that’s it,” the adviser said.

Last summer, at a meeting with officials involved in Syria, Bolton announced that the mission was being expanded. According to the adviser on Middle East issues, who attended the meeting, Bolton told the group, “I don’t care about Syria, but I do care about Iran.” He said that the American forces would stay in Syria until the Iranians left—potentially for years. Bolton told his aides to communicate the new policy to the Russians, and he declared it publicly in September, 2018.

Trump had been suggesting for months that the mission in Syria was nearly concluded. “We were very successful against ISIS,” he told a group of Eastern European leaders that April. “We’ll be successful against anybody militarily. But sometimes it’s time to come back home.” Now he was saddled with an open-ended military commitment, of a kind that he had repeatedly vowed to avoid. Bolton told me that he had secured the President’s permission to expand the mission, but the adviser on Middle East issues disagreed: “What’s obvious is that Bolton does not speak for the President.”...

In fact, Bolton has believed for decades that these are the only two choices. In the early two-thousands, as the Bush Administration was negotiating to limit North Korea’s nuclear program, Bolton stridently advocated war. Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff, was so concerned that he brought Bolton into a private meeting on the consequences of military strikes: “I gave him a ten-minute brief on what a war with North Korea would look like—a hundred thousand casualties in the first thirty days, many of them Americans. The Japanese that would die. The Chinese that would die. The fact that Seoul, one of the most modern and forward-looking cities in the world, would probably be reduced to the Dark Ages. I told him, ‘That’s Passchendaele, John. That’s Ypres.’ ”He said that Bolton was unmoved: “John looked at me and said, ‘Are you done? Clearly, you do war. I don’t do war. I do policy.’ ”

this is who’s running venezuela policy right now

[davidmann95]

E L S E W O R L D S ? ? ?

MY THOUGHTS ON THE WORLDS AND THEIR ELSE-ENING ARE MANY.

Gonna put most of this under a spoiler cut just in case, but right up front: I only regularly watch The Flash starting with Season 4 (along with seeing the first half-seasons of it and Supergirl, plus sporadic episodes of the other shows and Invasion!), and while there are absolutely standout episodes, it’s probably the most lukewarmly received piece of media I consume on a regular basis. So Elseworlds looked rad, and The Best Superman was coming back for it, but aside from hints that it was going all Final Crisis (which sadly weren’t realized) I was hardly outright ecstatic at the prospect of a Freaky Friday alone, even with Batwoman’s introduction in play. Basically I assumed it’d a bunch of fine stuff I’d get through so I could drink up the Superman content like a dying man in a desert.

This was my favorite live-action DC thing since The Dark Knight Rises if not in fact The Dark Knight itself, and in all honesty probably my favorite period of the non-Batman division. It was everything I want out of this sort of project and more.

I’mma break this down into a few categories: as a whole, Superman specifically because if you’re here you know what my deal is, THE ENDING, and a multitude of scattershot impressions and thoughts.

AS A WHOLE: Was this a masterwork of layered conceptual depth and calculated plotting tight as drum? Hardly - if nothing else, the sheer fact that the entire Superfamily is functionally and thematically superfluous precludes that upfront. But again, this is the perfect version of this kind of series, where clockwork precision is rarely the name of the game (aside from that dope episode of Flash with the bomb) so much as excitement and character-driven emotion, and in that regard this is the platonic ideal. Oliver and Barry hold the narrative together as Barry low-key relearns the value of his own kind of strength, and Oliver high-key learns to accept that he’s not living in a world defined by him anymore and he needs to be better, to the point where I may not even rag on him as Walmart Batman anymore every time I have cause to mention him, especially since that gets its own perfect sendoff. Batwoman functions as a perfect pilot capsule while still functioning as a chunk of a larger story, and Ruby Rose is on point. Supergirl gets some quality content even with her hands off the wheel (which is one of the lesser aspects given…well, given this is probably gonna be the last crossover like this and she really should have been the lead for one of them). It’s funny and thrilling and so damn weird, concerned above all else with making you giggle at doing stuff you’ve wanted to see for years and then making you give a shit about the emotional consequences of Barry Allen picking up some archery classes, and it earns what it reaches for.

Moreover, this episode represented a moment of maturation for me in terms of its status as a shared universe: Crisis on Earth-X was the culmination of what this world HAD been with its massive group shot aboard the Waverider, and that culmination was my going “wow, lookit that, they really did build something kinda functional out of what they had to work with”. It was a world that was comic book as all hell in the best way, but its own oddball strain made up of recognizable pieces broken off from a larger puzzle and rearranged into a new configuration. Here? From the moment the Monitor chases off 90s Flash on a desperate race from his dead world and the bodies of an army of superheroes to save all creation, into Superman taking his place as a central figure, Batman’s mythology unfurling out of nowhere at a beautifully shameless breakneck pace, the establishment of the Multiverse and Monitor mythology as the base level concept uniting the universe as a whole, and hotlinks to a half-dozen other major mythology elements I’d given up on ever seeing acknowledged, this really and profoundly feels like DC Comics.

SUPERMAN: Still so so good! I will say, this wasn’t nearly as much a breakthrough standout display for Hoechlin’s Clark as his prior Supergirl appearances, with a couple line readings where he’s maybe just a little too chill, and less opportunity to display range or depth given he’s in the back seat. And dude’s gotta practice pretending to be thrown back, however you do that, because that was pretty badly fakey-looking. If this had been his debut, I still would’ve loved him, but he’d be taking up third or fourth on my list of live-action Superman actors rather than sitting pretty at #1; I have to wonder if a lot of his energy simply went to his killer performance as Deegan, or if he’s still modulating his kinda-being-his-real-self-but-also-still-putting-on-the-Supermanness chunk of his performance given it’s with Kara and Lois that he really shines. If someone writes him off as a dime store Reeve though, they’re still wrong and also probably bad. Shoring up his cracks though is Elizabeth Tulloch, who’s already at least vying for a place on the Lois Lane Mount Rushmore. Reminded me heavily of the best of Erica Durance’s take, but with an additional straightforward bluntness that suits Lane incredibly well, and a talent for talking rings around Clark that does more than any other Lois to date to sell the idea that that’s a huge part of what he loves about her. Also she slaps around a mad god with the hammer for the cosmic anvil from All-Star Superman, because if there’s one thing Lois Lane steadfastly refuses to be in the business of, it’s in any way fucking around.

As for the big question: even aside from Tulloch making pretty clear in a recent interview that it’s something producers are talking about, yes, I absolutely think the Superman/Lois chunk of this was as fully intended to act as a backdoor pilot for them as the second act was for Batwoman. I know I’ve been certain on this in the past just as a matter of ‘they can use Superman so it would be foolish not to push that’, but then, well, nothing happened. But here, while the creators are clearly hedging their bets with providing them what could easily be a happily-ever-after, their appearance in this way in this context is bizarrely conspicuous and pointless if that wasn’t what was intended. They’re incidental to the plot (Deegan becoming Superman, while great fun that gives us an interesting new spin on the evil Superman concept, is basically just an aesthetic), the functionality of getting Clark away from National City had already been handled by the season premiere and never actually takes anything more than ‘he’s busy in space/plugging up a volcano/fighting Luthor’ as has already been done in the past, the guest spots and relevant emotional beats could have easily been contained to an episode of Supergirl rather than spilling out into an already stuffed three episodes, and if they could only be used in one crossover for some reason they’d obviously be saved for the next one. And they get a scene to themselves AFTER their role with our leads is wrapped up, with a moment that could have already come off-screen earlier but didn’t, purely to endear them to us in a way that would make us want to see more of them. I’m not saying a Superman show is now guaranteed, but unless there was some bizarre instruction that they suddenly once and for all needed to permanently get rid of him - yet permitted that to be accomplished via the delivery mechanism of more Superman, in a way that’s noted as impermanent in-universe and in a context that’s going to introduce him and Lois and push them as big deals to the maximum possible number of viewers - yeah, I think that’s what the people who made this must have been intending. And that the powers that be let them is incredibly encouraging. As Tulloch said, a lot of this is out of the hands of anyone but corporate, but Elseworlds got season highs so that’s a point in their favor; hopefully Cryer works out as Luthor, because I imagine that’s the other checkmark needing to be crossed off that comes down to the response of the viewership.

Also the proposal was perfect, and I am astonished that happening after the pregnancy was announced got to go through - ‘modern’ indeed, as Cat Grant would put it. I get it’s got precedent of a sort in Superman Returns, but on the other hand, that precedent was Superman Returns. I’m surprised I’m not already seeing thinkpieces on the degradation of American Values coming out of this.

FUCK: 

FUCK.

I really thought there was gonna be one more crossover before they dove all the way in. But nope, nope nope nope, instead by this time next year for-real live action Crisis on Infinite Earths with Flash, Supergirl, Superman, the Monitor, shadow demons, the Psycho Pirate, and assuredly a comprehensive collection of carefully curated cameos from the ghosts of DC TV past will be a thing out there in the world. Marv Wolfman sure must be having a nice day.

And boy, they are not in ANY kind of position to half-ass it. The name value alone would be enough, but if that was it they could at least maybe get away with Dean Cain and Brandon Routh showing up in their old working clothes to help beat up the Anti-Monitor on a cordoned-off Vancouver street, maybe a couple of the Legends folks biting it. But they‘ve been explicitly acknowledging it as a thing they’d build up to for five years, since episode one of their most popular show, and if I’m right and the writing in the book of Destiny was supposed to be the same kind of text that Nora’s writing, they’ve been actively setting up Chekhov’s guns within the shows themselves for at minimum two years. AND they’ve already done three other world-threatening multiversal crossovers, including a classic JLA/JSA-model Crisis, so they’ve already established a threshold of crossover event that this needs to plainly mark itself as an entirely different order of magnitude from, AND they’ve had a threat to the multiverse before in Zoom so just saying that again without really showing it isn’t going to measure up. Hell, the idea of massive status quo changes is reinforced as being just the much of the mission statement of this as the original via Psycho Pirate. They’ve apparently quite knowingly backed themselves into a corner where they actually have to Wreck Shit. At minimum one of the three leads has to die for keeps, and all have the symbolic weight behind them - Oliver included after Elseworlds, and really in the first place as the founder of this DCU - and have obvious enough successor shows waiting in the wings to feel like they’re legitimately in the line of fire.

My hope? One that unlike usual I’m not gonna bolster by drawing on evidence at hand and logical assumptions, but the way I simply feel it Should Go and think at this point has a legitimate chance of being the case? Crisis is its own miniseries in the fall in place of the return of the other four shows, a massive high-budget ensemble piece with room to breathe…and at the end pretty much everyone dies. Most of the Legends, some supporting cast members, and above all Oliver, Barry, and Kara ALL die grandiosely and nobly to save all creation, hidden from the audience successfully by way of a miniseries ‘putting off’ the actually nonexistent renewals of the existing series. Earths 1 and 38 are merged (hopefully without discarding the multiverse as a whole, and with the heroes remembering their pasts), and in the wake of this massive conclusion, the entire DCTV lineup is effectively relaunched. Batwoman comes in here, taking Arrow’s place, while Superman emerges (likely with a psuedo-Rebirth setup since Jon’s on the way - they can figure out a way to get him to the appropriate age) with him dealing with his family and his initial grief, The Flash is relaunched with Wally and/or Nora assuming the mantle, and Legends reconstituting itself, whether by its original title or as Legion of Superheroes or Justice League, with a new lineup made up in large part of the castoffs from the cancelled series. Again, obviously there’s nothing definitely pointing towards this being the case, but somehow it just feels right, especially with Batwoman and Superman shows clearly being gestured towards when Arrow and Supergirl are the shows that would definitely have to end or at least change names with the death of their leads. The strongest evidence against all this, I think, is that Supergirl wouldn’t quite have hit a hundred episodes and syndication yet. Though there may still be that Supergirl movie too, so that’s a factor.

A couple incidental thoughts on that front: 

* Interesting that Flash vanishes in 2024 and is still gone in 2049, but the first crossover - made when ‘Flash vanishes’ was already a keystone mythology element, and given its place at such an important moment you’d think the writers would remember - makes clear there’s an old Barry around in 2056. I could see that coming up. 

* Thawne’s role in this season of Flash feels at this point like it has to dovetail into everything, and I could see him taking up Psycho Pirates’ role in the original story even if the genuine article’s around. 

* I wonder if Jon Cryer’s gonna play Alexander Luthor.

* If Kara and Barry do die, and likely make some post-death appearances, I wouldn’t mind if they for the sake of novelty reverse things so that it’s Kara who comes back for real in Final Crisis, while Barry’s the one who comes from the past unknowingly and tear-inducingly ala Whatever Happened From The Man Of Tomorrow? (that could easily be set up via the “three hardest days of your life” thing Johns did in his Flash run).

* Incidentally, do Final Crisis as the ultimate event the next wave of shows build up to like this was built up to, and make that the end of everything.

* If I’m all wrong about Superman and he’s just being set up as a lamb to the slaughter for Crisis to fill the Supergirl role (which would still by no means require him appearing in Elseworlds, especially given it’s not like he develops a relationship with Barry or Oliver, so I’ll say my points all still stand), I get the impulse is to do him dying in Kara’s arms. But if they do wanna go this way and finish his story, I really, really hope that instead they let him deal at least part of the killing blow and then somehow vanish into ‘Heaven’ with Lois and Jon. If you’re gonna homage a Superman bit from there to close him out, that’s the one to go with.

* If Ezra Miller wasn’t bullshitting and would be willing to put in a little appearance, this is the place.

ASSORTED REACTIONS:

* “Oh Barry, what have you done this time?” Oliver’s wise to your shit, boy. He knows full well he’s pretty much in a ‘Barry fucks up with Flashpoint even further’ meme come to life.

* Barry freaking out that he knows kung fu is a delight, as is Oliver trying so dang hard to do this whole ‘Flash’ thing.

* Knocking out the pair of them is admittedly *a bit much*, but while some might correctly note that they’ve seen so much weird shit they should be able to accept this, I’d say it’d also be fair to note that they’ve seen so much weird shit they’re not wrong to think this is gonna snowball into some bullshit and it’d maybe be simplest to nip it in the bud and get things under control.

* Barry, I’m glad there are toilets in the Pipeline, but someday you’re going to think to ask ‘so Cisco, what are you feeding them down there?’, and then Vibe’s gonna go OH FRAK or some other nerd shit and they’re gonna find 5 seasons worth of corpses to clean up.

* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha they did fuckin’ KGBeast on Arrow. Was that who Dolph Lundgren played? Checking…no. Dang.

* I had heard there was gonna be a Remy Zero shout-out for Smallville, but I assumed someone would just ask for someone to save them or it would be playing on the radio, not that they’d hard swerve from vague orchestral stirrings to pseudo-Nickelback. Loved it.

* Clark’s doin’ Clark stuff and I love it, Lois is doin’ Lois stuff and I love it, she nearly kills the Flash and Green Arrow with a hammer (truly her weapon of choice!) and I love it.

* Oliver pathetically puffing out his chest, WHILE CLARK ISN’T EVEN BEING SUPERMAN, is as good as television gets.

* AMAZO. Aside from basic delight at his existence, I love that the ‘Mirakiru’ ties into the Ivo material I know was in early, pre-superhero Arrow. It’s as if when Smallville got to do Supergirl and Doomsday for real they went ahead and tied them back in to the weird proto versions of them they’d already set up not knowing what they’d be able to do later. Much as Mxyzptlk or Grodd or Muppet Legends (I also caught that shows’ midseason finale, it was delightful) are easy to point to as indicators of how far this universe has come, this underlined that in a very unique way.

* Harsh, Barry - and where did you get those crossbows? - but earned as the Superfamily probably put together when they heard Oliver yelling about how when HE shot Barry he totally had a good reason for it. And along with the sheer, savage power of “I don’t think you can go more than nine hours without some sappy motivational speech”, it sets up Barry’s more understated character arc relative to Oliver in questioning and then reaffirming that his brand of emotional strength is just as strong as what your cowled types draw on. And while Lois obviously had the killer moment, Clark’s little “well, you kinda had that coming” look when Barry floors Oliver is nicely done. Smart money says he was thinkin’ about Bruce.

* Continued into the porch conversation, where the show takes its first real step in rehabilitating CW Green Arrow into a character I may no longer refer to by default as Walmart Batman as the show continues to dunk on him but he begins to take it in stride and realize he’s gonna have to change things up a bit.

* “Cool. Who are you?” “A friend.” So choice. Is that very clearly Williams-evoking musical sting at the end there something that often shows up in Supergirl? And I can’t tell whether’s Clark’s grin is in response to what he’s about to do, or because he’s relishing the hilarity of meeting a normal dude for the first time in his adult life who doesn’t know who Superman is, but either way I love it. And since I found his previous introductory shirt-tear honestly a little sub-par, this was an appreciated moment of redemption.

* Amazo fight rules, obviously. I do like to imagine the headlines the next day mentioning “hey, another superhero teamup happened with Supergirl from that other Earth who helped out with those invasions, and this time a male partner of hers showed up, some kind of…Super-man?” as the one pubic mention of Superman in the history of what’s presented as a ‘main’ DC universe.

* Barry just casually addressing ‘Clark’ by his first name is the first moment where I really thought ‘oh wow, this IS the DC Universe now’. And that “You’re welcome” worked as a reminder where there otherwise wasn’t space that yeah, he’s a nice dude, but maybe don’t tug too hard on his cape.

* Even though it wasn’t overtly followed up on, Barry being reminded that following Oliver’s example as his source of strength isn’t what’s gonna win him the day in the long run in the way that matters is a pretty essential piece.

* Every moment of Total Bat-Bullshit in here was so cheap and I loved it all so much.

* Oliver-dunking takes on its glorious apotheosis here - you know the line I’m thinking of - but it’s a necessary aspect of his journey here.

* Ruby Rose is very good as the charismatic vaguely menacing but easily flirty businesswoman, and again later kicking ass and delivering the growl, which she honestly does better than any live action Batman to this point. Curious to have it elaborated what kind of role she had in Bruce’s operation, given she clearly knew and has her own friggin’ cave.

* And then Barry stands up to Oliver’s demons while Oliver realizes Barry’s.

* “You really do have a lot of tattoos.” Oh my, Kara.

* “You have real steel in you, my friend.” And there you go for Barry’s arc.

* Well, wow. Fan theory bullshit triumphs at last, and now I kind of have to imagine we’re gonna see some actual Lanterns down the line. Hope, likely in vain, we see Hal so he can pal around with them before Oliver and/or Barry bite it.

* Mar Novu, huh? Somea that Final Crisis bullshiiiiit, please do feel free to pursue that further. Mandrakk’s cousin or something I guess?

* That can’t really be the end of the 90s Flash, right? If nothing else, he needs to stick around so that if they decide not to disintegrate Grant Gustin after all he can be the one there to make the death run.

* Episode one: “The darkness…I feel it…it threatens…to…CONSUME me…” Episode three : “oh my GOD Oliver we broke a LAW I’m gonna THROW UP”

* Hoechlin plays the hell out of Scary Dickhead Superman, even if it’s odd that Deegan was defensive about making an arguably sexist choice of identity when he already openly fucking supports eugenics. But an anon asked me about this and suggested this is a top-tier evil Superman, and yeah, I’d agree with that. He’s not scary because’s a mad god, he’s scary because he’s a small, small man who’s lucked his way into being GTA mod Superman, all of the pluses with none of the minuses, all of the ego-assuaging praise and power without having to meaningfully hold up his end of the bargain. It’s an effective twist on Superman as a power fantasy, one that’s scary in a very different way than the idea of it going wrong usually is. Because instead of him letting us down, it’s one of us joining him in the sun and trying to kick him and the rest of us out because it’s all HIS now.

* Oh yeah, of course Superman totally knows about the Book of Destiny. All the REALLY cool superheroes got that that kind of experience in the bag.

* As I said, Supergirl takes a back seat, but Benoist really shines with swaying Alex Danvers - from the moment I saw she’d be in this from the trailer I thought “Kara swaying her can’t be done very believably, it would be convincing her of a whole other life instead of a minor alteration”, but damn if she didn’t sell it.

* I must admit, the Superman V Superman fight is Hoechlin’s low point; him losing the advantage because he’s saving people is perfect, but some of his good-Superman deliveries lack the necessary conviction, and whether due to the animation or his overexagerated tumbling, him getting knocked around the city looks notably fake in parts to an extent that breaks the immersion.

* I guess Superman fought Bizarro at some point, if that concept carried over (I know Supergirl fought a Bizarro too, but if Superman never fought one the average citizen wouldn’t make that comparison). I suppose it’s the Earth-1 Alex Danvers and James Olsen though?

* Similar note: Kara mentions that ‘maybe my pod didn’t make it here’, and given doppelgangers are a thing, it’s been noted there’s a Krypton in each universe, obviously at least one other major superhero carries over in Batman, and the degree of long-term planning clearly going on at this point with the multiverse stuff, I honestly wonder if they might be laying the seeds for something on why Superman and Supergirl never happened on Earth-1.

* I do like that Superman’s technically the one who beats the bad guy flat-out and saves the world from a broken history by sheer force of will, even if he’s not the one with the splashier more permanent win later (and even then he saves Lois).

* Fuck yes. Never liked Superman turning the world backwards, but now entirely worth it for how that shit comes back here in the most gleefully unhinged manner imaginable (even if Mach 7 wiping out Barry and Kara is absurd on the face of it).

* And Oliver comes full circle to realizing he’s no longer the center of his own universe, realizing he can be better while still proving he has it in him to make the hardest call. This dude still ain’t Ollie, but I guess I can acknowledge him as Green Arrow.

* And then it’s all Superman stuff and Crisis, which I discussed, though worth mentioning just how off-guard the Jon confirmation caught me. Thumbs up on that!

[tkmedia]

Raw recap & reactions: The Hurt Business, New Day go to war

Big Poppa I love an overarching thread with multiple twists, turns, and a logical conclusion. Monday Night Raw set it off this week with a match pitting WWE Champion Big E vs Bobby Lashley. Lashley truly believes E can’t beat him, which explains all the rationalization he’s done since the All Mighty added “former WWE Champion” to his resume. Their opening match, which was ill in all the right ways, showcased a dominant Lashley and the reinstatement of the Hurt Business. Yes, ladies and gents, the Hurt Business is apparently back in business. Once Shelton Benjamin and Cedric Alexander made their presence known, Xavier Woods and Kofi Kington stepped in. A brawl ensued, a DQ was handed out, and it was the best kind of chaos. Adam Pearce, clearly not a fan of anything he saw, said the match would continue later tonight in a steel cage. No Hurt Business, no New Day. Just Lashley x E trapped in twisted steel. These two cats didn’t disappoint. Besides the brutality of the match, it was the clear desperation both men showed. Bobby Lashley needed to beat E to prove his point. Before the bell rang, got all of the upper hands on the champ. Lashley didn’t want to leave anything to chance and wanted every advantage he could muster. If that meant tossing E around the floor before the match officially started, then so be it. If that meant calling the Hurt Business down to do business, that’s cool too. E needed to beat the All Mighty to shut him and anyone else up who believes he’s not a legitimate champion. Despite the pre-match ass whooping, E lit Lashley up like a pinball machine once the bell rang. He used the cage to his advantage every now and then, but he wanted to overpower the man. It wasn’t just about proving he was the better man; E needed to prove he was the stronger man. In every good or great wrestling match, a character flaw is shown and exploited. Early in the match, we got ours from Lashley. Rather than continue to go for pin attempts, Lashley tried climbing out. Corey Graves, a man who should make it his business to be Flava Flav to Lashley’s Chuck D, said Bobby wants to win the title in dramatic fashion. Bobby’s ego didn’t allow him to just take the W when it was right there; he had to showboat and continue his pattern of habitual line stepping. E stopped him from getting out and tried to do a Big Ending from the top rope, but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. Not yet anyway. We even got a tease of a Hurt Business x New Day feud I’m dying to see. When Shelton and Cedric interfered to stop the champ from climbing out, Woods and Kofi represented as they should. Woods, in particular, looked like a man who needs a belt around his waist when he slammed the cage door on Bobby Lashley’s head, and superkicked Cedric back to Main Event. No diss to the man or Main Event, but yeah, you get the point. Once the four men were finally in the locker room, E and Lashley continued their war. That desperation I mentioned showed up again as both men had chances to walk out of the gate. When Lashley tried to walk out, E grabbed his arm as many times as possible. When E looked ready to saunter out, Lashley grabbed his ankle. They were literally holding on for dear life because the title, and beating each other, means that much to them. Neither man wanted to stay down and neither could stay down. E survived a spear and a spine buster, while Lashley survived multiple suplexes and a Big Ending. But when the challenger had the champion in a precarious position, his fatal flaw reared its ugly head again. Rather than walk out the gate or go for a pinfall, he once again decided to climb out of the ring, apparently learning nothing from earlier. E caught him again and this time, he nailed the Big Ending from the top rope. 1-2-3. While basking in the moment, a familiar tune blasted out of the arena speakers and Drew McIntyre, sword in hand, made his intentions known to the champ. We didn’t get a fight—and still no swordplay—but it’s clear Drew Mac wants a fight and E is ready to give it to him. I hope this isn’t the last tango the Hurt Business and New Day do, but this was a fantastic story and match. In just a few weeks, E and Bobby told a succinct story with a logical conclusion. Well done, boys. Priest x Sheamus Get Extreme I didn’t think they’d get me. After seeing Sheamus and Damian Priest go blow for blow over the United States Championship for several weeks, I got it. Priest is better than Sheamus right now. How many times can they tell the same story? Well, it’s a good thing I didn’t put money on that because the extreme rules stipulation was the proper escalation of a feud built on physicality. As usual with most matches like this in WWE these days, they start out wrestling until one guy realizes they can use kendo sticks, chairs, and whatever plunder they can find. Chekov’s table made an early appearance thanks to the champ, and he suffered a White Noise for his troubles. In fact, with Sheamus’ history as a brawler, one might think this was the perfect match for him to finally best the Infamous one and snatch back the gold. Right? Yeah, about that. We’ve seen Priest outsmart Sheamus in their previous matches. Even last night, he was just quicker to the draw than the Celtic Warrior. This week, Priest showed he’s the better man physically as well. He survived Sheamus’ best shots, and, in my favorite spot of the night, threw a chair at the man’s face to counter a Brogue Kick. Ultimately, Sheamus met his...reckoning...after going through a table in the corner of the ring, and then taking a Reckoning. This should be the last gasp in this feud. The draft is Friday, and these two have fought each other enough. Damian needs more challengers, and Sheamus might benefit from a change of scenery. Good ending to a story that went a long way in making Damian a legit tough cat and not someone you want to mess with. Extracurriculars Words from Goldberg’s Garage Goldberg doesn’t know what kind of a papa Bobby Lashley is. Clearly, Lashley isn’t the type to have a painting of his arm and his baby clinging to said arm on his wall. But that aside, Goldberg wants to fulfill a promise he made to his wife and his son to always protect the latter, at all costs. If he’s lucky, he’ll get to kill Lashley. This is a good story because its relatable and understandable. Lashley hurt Goldberg’s son, Goldberg wants his pound of flesh. And you know what? I hope he gets it. Goldberg’s never been the best promo but that worked because it felt real and I’m riding with the old man. Finally Phenomenal AJ Styles can pretty much do anything he wants in a wrestling ring with anyone he chooses to do it with. Styles and Riddle put on a dope television match that, at times, looked like someone was legitimately hurt. From a story standpoint, he needed this W. AJ’s racked up several Ls over several weeks, and looked anything but phenomenal. That changed this week and it was beautiful to watch. Charlotte Has no Time for This Either Charlotte Flair wasted an open challenge on Doudrop because, duh, Eva Marie isn’t finished with her former “friend” yet. Anyone who knows wrestling saw this coming from 25 miles away, so it’s not shocking. However, it is disappointing because there’s no end in sight to this thing between Doudrop and Eva plus it ruins her first title match. No one was served well here, so consider it a swing and a miss. And yet.. Raw moves fast. Remember when I said it looks like we’re still doing this thing with Eva and Doudrop? Like I just said it? Scratch that. Eva got on the mic and said she should be Raw’s champion of women. What’s more, she believes she can beat any woman in locker room. This brought out an angry Shayna Baszler, who did to Eva the same thing she did to Nia Jax last week. I guess WWE thought Shayna would get booed for this? Handsome Finish Angel Garza x Erik danced for a bit as a breather after the hot opening segment. It was a glorified squash as Garza got the W. Reggie Lives to Fight Another Day Silly me for thinking Richochet was getting a real chance to get some gold around his waist. Instead of a match filled with cats getting higher than a giraffe, we only got a taste of that until R-Truth, Drake Maverick, and friends interfered. Wherever this ride is going, I want off. That’s no Bear, That’s a BearCAT Tozawa, fresh off another 24-7 embarrassment, demanded a match with anyone. Out came the newly minted Keith “Bearcat” Lee. This is obviously a reboot for the former limitless one. And he looks good. He looks like someone I need to take seriously. But Bearcat? Really? I guess if you’re going to debut that nickname, Cincinnati is the right place. If only Lee wasn’t from Texas. Matching Capes Nikki A.S.H. wants matching capes for Super Brutality. Rhea Ripley isn’t convinced. Six Man Chaos Jeff Hardy, Mansoor, & Mustafa Ali vs. Jinder Mahal, Shanky, & Veer battled in the ongoing saga of Jeff Hardy wandering from position to position on Monday nights. This was a quick hitter that didn’t last long enough to get good or bad. Jinder and the boys got the W as the holding pattern before the draft continues. He’s the Commanding Officer Now Another squash/holding pattern match between Karrion Kross and Jaxson Ryker. They’re building Kross as a dominant super shredder, one who even poked fun at Ryker’s military service. It was a nice touch and added personality to a guy who needs as much as he can to overcome that look. Raw was good this week. The show moved at a good clip, was bookended by two dope matches that told one long story, and was mostly entertaining in the middle. While a lot of it was a holding pattern because things change Friday and next Monday, it was a good sendoff for Raw as we know it. Grade: A- That’s my grade and I’m sticking to it. Your turn. Read the full article

[orbemnews]

How Biden’s Climate Ambitions Could Shift America’s Global Footprint John Kerry, the new American envoy for climate change, has spent the last few days repeatedly telling world leaders that the United States is ready to help the world “raise ambition” to address global warming. Doing so, however, could mean big changes for America’s role in the world. Foreign policy experts say that the Biden administration’s efforts must extend far beyond rejoining the Paris Agreement, the global pact by nearly 200 governments aimed at slowing climate change. Taking on climate change will require a reassessment of everything from United States priorities in the Arctic to helping fragile countries deal with the fallout of climate risks. “It changes defense posture, it changes foreign policy posture,” said John D. Podesta, a former Obama administration official. “It begins to drive a lot of decision making in foreign policy, diplomacy and development policy.” The first acknowledgment of that shift is expected on Wednesday, with the White House directing intelligence agencies to produce a National Intelligence Estimate on climate security, and telling the secretary of defense to do a climate risk analysis of the Pentagon’s facilities and installations. “Addressing climate change can, and will be, a central pillar of the Biden administration’s foreign policy,” said Meghan O’Sullivan, who served as a deputy national security adviser under President George W. Bush and now leads the Geopolitics of Energy Project at the Harvard Kennedy School. “It means infusing the issue of climate and environment into our trade policies, our foreign aid programs, our bilateral discussions and even our military readiness.” Mr. Kerry, a principal member of President Biden’s National Security Council, is in charge of navigating that shift. Here are four big things to watch in the coming weeks and months. Can the United States address its own climate problem? On his first day in office, Mr. Biden began the process of rejoining the Paris Agreement. Now comes the hard part: The United States, which is responsible for the single largest chunk of greenhouse gases that have warmed the planet since the industrial age, needs to set specific targets to reduce its own emissions by 2030 — and to put in place domestic policies to achieve them. Greenpeace has urged a 70 percent reduction in emissions from 2010 levels, while the World Resources Institute and other American advocates have pushed for around 50 percent. That puts Mr. Kerry in a tricky position. More ambitious targets would give him more leverage over other countries ahead of the next global climate talks, set for November in Glasgow. But setting targets for domestic emissions reductions will not be so simple politically, especially with a split Senate. In a speech to American mayors on Saturday, Mr. Kerry signaled that the administration would seek to balance the ambitious with the realistic. “We have to go to Glasgow with reality, and we have to go to Glasgow with strength,” he said. How will the United States deal with China? Climate may be one of the few areas of cooperation in an increasingly tense relationship between Washington and Beijing. The two countries are the world’s largest emitters and the world’s largest economies, and without ambitious steps from both, there is no way the world can slow down warming. Mr. Podesta said the Biden administration would need to create “a protected lane in which the other issues don’t shut down the conversation on climate change.” The New Washington Updated  Jan. 26, 2021, 8:40 p.m. ET China is also ahead in some ways. Its president, Xi Jinping, said last September that Beijing was aiming to be carbon neutral by 2060, which means it plans to either capture its carbon emissions or offset them by buying credits for green projects like tree-planting programs. Mr. Kerry has described China’s 2060 target as “not good enough.” Not for nothing have Mr. Kerry’s first overtures as climate envoy been to European leaders. His best chance of putting pressure on Beijing is to do it alongside the world’s other big economy: the European Union. What leverage does the United States have? Mr. Kerry has repeatedly said he intends to “raise ambition” by all countries. The United States has at its disposal a few diplomatic sticks and carrots. Mr. Kerry could use a bilateral United States-Mexico trade agreement, for instance, to persuade Mexico to open up to American investment in clean energy projects. He could encourage private U.S. investment to encourage India to move away from coal and accelerate renewables. And he could channel United States development aid to help countries pivot to a green economy — not something Washington is known for, as Kelly Sims Gallagher, a former Obama administration official, pointed out. “For the United States to be seen as a country that’s helping vulnerable countries to become resilient and enabling low carbon development, actually fostering low carbon development, would earn us a lot of good will,” said Dr. Gallagher, now a professor at the Fletcher School at Tufts University. “It would be a major turnaround.” Climate advocates have called on the Biden administration to ensure that development aid is channeled to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change and to work with allies in Europe to encourage developing countries to build clean energy projects instead of polluting coal plants. Few details have emerged from the White House about how to use American money to advance climate goals abroad. Mr. Kerry has said only that the United States, having reneged on a $2 billion pledge to the United Nations-backed Green Climate Fund, would “make good” on its financial commitment to help vulnerable countries deal with climate risks. How will U.S. alliances with oil-producing countries change? The elephant in the room in a climate-focused White House is what to do about American relations with Saudi Arabia. The geopolitics of energy had already been changing. The United States had steadily become less dependent on oil from the Middle East, thanks to the shale boom at home. A climate-focused White House stands to accelerate the change. “We do have an opportunity to rethink and reset our relationships in the Middle East because of that,” Dr. Gallagher said. “Climate change is an additional factor.” No sooner had Mr. Biden been elected than Saudi Arabia’s crown prince unveiled plans for a car-free city. Source link Orbem News #ambitions #Americas #Bidens #Climate #Footprint #Global #Shift

[lupine-publishers-sjpbs]

Lupine Publishers | Enabling Intragenerational third places as New Incubators of Sociability and Placemaking in Times of Transition

Lupine Publishers | Scholarly Journal Of Psychology And Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

One of the most influential place theories, or conceptual frameworks that deal with the framing, activation and management (as well as understanding) of the public realm, for which the coffee shop, bookstore, taverna, bistro, bakery, pub, etc. became a metonym, was the idea of the “Third Place”: a term that emerged to describe new social environments that were distinct from both home (the first place) and work (the second place) and which revolved around leisure, consumption and the desire for the social with a lesser emphasis on the community Banerjee Tridib [1], Oldenburg Ray [2]. The full vocabulary that thoughtful public realms, intragenerational and inclusive can offer, as prime public places, is a vivid example of Oldenburg’s third place theory (1999) which he centers round a place to which person(s) are drawn into some kind of sanctuary, serenity, relaxation and refuge feeling and atmosphere. This is a place where the community feeling is being developed and nurtured (Figure 1).

Introduction

The main argument is that third places, places where people can gather, relax after work, put aside their differences, concerns of work and home, and just hang out simply for the pleasures of good company and lively conversation, are the heart of (any) community’s social vitality and are the grassroots of democracy Oldenburg R [3] (Figure 2). Third places are gathering places and their importance is in nourishing sociability. For these places to work, they need to fully enable a culture of social inclusion, multiculturalism, ethnic diversity and a balance social-mix, instead of becoming very segregated, mono cultural realms. One thing is certain: these places such as coffee houses, community centers, groceries, markets, bazaars, parks, discussion rooms, etc. are of extreme importance for a vibrant life of any neighborhood, town or city. Now on the opposite site of the pendulum, but still making sense of cities complex hybridities and constant transformations, Edward Soja’s “third space” presents itself as an extremely useful term (curiously resembling in form, though definitely not meaning, the Oldenburg Third Place). In essence, third spaces are those which overlay real spaces (the first space) and imagined spaces (the second space), both we mentioned above, to produce in something that is open-ended, undefinable, fluid, and endlessly complex (as are, Soja argues, so many contemporary urban spaces in cities). Soja Edward W [4]. Importantly, third spaces are not only physically constructed but socially and virtually constructed (Something that Oldenburg has not envisioned at all) as well: a factor which, above all, infers that they may be differentially constructed. By the way, Soja’s theory of the third space builds on Henri Lefebvre’s concept of the spatial triad Lefebvre H [5]. Lefebvre’s production of space ideas remains contentious but highly relevant for the investigation of city transformation in general and how the planning of urban space can contribute to social injustice in particular University of Minnesota Press. and Harvey D [6]. What Oldenburg describes as “the problem of place” one of the foci and key driving elements his social urban geography work, and is where Soja’s concept of third space differs most dramatically; as in third spaces, the key link between participants is not normally their location but shared links that draw people together.

Figure 1: Barber and Parlour Third Place, London, United Kingdom by Toa Heftiba. Reproduced by Permission.

Figure 2: Spaces, Place and People of Shanghai, China, Photo by Christie Kim. Reproduced by Permission.

Communities include things held in common, like government and social structure as well as a common sense of place or location. Main function of the community (local community-gemeinschaft) is to mediate between the individual and society (geselschaft), and that people could relate to their societies through both geographic and non-geographic substructures of communities Hillery G [7]. The third place is an outcry for the return to the fundamental values of a community; some which have been forgotten and erased in today’s age of fast changes, superficial values and eradicated places. The popularity of a place where new social networks are built and old maintained can never be or made obsolete. Third places have existed for hundreds of years. They wereplaces that had their appeal and that were symbols and active mediators in community communication. As Oldenburg calls them-social condensersplaces, agoras if you will, where all citizens of the community or a neighborhood meet to develop the place where citizens of a community or neighborhood meet to develop friendships, discuss issues, and interact (socially changes, positive and negative ones alike. A well-functioning public realm with a third place richness can build social capital by enforcing and melding social relations Putnam R, Lewis F [8]. This happens through in-continuo social contact among people in multiple overlapping role relationships Lennard Crowhurst S, Lennard, H [9].

These third places are crucial to a community for a number of reasons. They are firstly distinctive informal gathering places, secondly, they make the citizen feel at home, thirdly they nourish relationships and a diversity of human contact, fourthly they help create a sense of place and community and finally they invoke a sense of civic pride Oldenburg R [10]. The key ingredient lies in the fact that they are socially binding, encouraging sociability at the same time and fighting against isolation. They simply make life more joyous, colorful, and they enrich city’s economic activity, public life and democracy. The life of third places in coffee shops, cafés, hair salons, restaurants, bakeries, semi-informal meeting places, bazaars, other markets, gardens etc. are in alignment with the argument that these types of places are the facilitators of vibrant and good public life and that in most cases they are in synergy with open public spaces, like squares, bazaars and other markets. [3] points at the essential ingredients for a well-functioning third place: 1. They must be free or relatively inexpensive to enter and to purchase food and drinks. They must be highly accessible; ideally one should be able to get there by foot from one’s home; A number of people can be expected to be there on a daily basis; All people should feel welcome, regardless of their race, gender or religion and it should be easy to get into a conversation. A person who goes there should be able to find both old and new friends each time they visit. Third places are retreats into social spaces from a selfish need with those of like mind. Its where we foster some of our selfesteem, and a great deal of our social capital, that helps us survive and bridge home and work Putnam RD [11].

Freud held that emotional wellbeing depends upon having someone to love and a work to do. Oldenburg argues that we also need a dependable place of refuge where, for a few minutes a day, we can escape the demands of family and work environment Oldenburg R [10]. Third places in action, where intergenerational spirit exists, can provide possible and viable foundation for: 1) foster a sense of connection between people (of different age, gender, ethnicity, social class, sexual orientation, political or religious beliefs) 2) create temporary and permanent venues where a vibrant exchange of ideas can take place 3) encourage those ideas to lead to real efforts that bring progress to the community 4) offer an enjoyable and long-lasting social and aesthetic environment both for you, elderly and in the middle-for all geographies of age.

Built environment supports the built-up of social capital not just amongst adults, elderly but also between children. Especially for children the concept of the traditional European square offers an important learning environment. Primarily, children learn by repeated observation, imitation and practice in relating to a range of adults in multiple contexts Lennard H [12]. The disturbing lack of good public spaces in our cities, town and neighborhoods where children are able to gather and play, can have a tremendous impact on urban culture. Lack of these places reinforces the already omnipresent alienation and loss of real sense of place for children, which has to do a lot with the overuse of video, TV and other electronic media (rise of obesity levels due to lack of walking, exercise, etc.). Another problem is lack of walking and the overuse of automobile for transportation of children even on very short distances.

Because children cannot always reach places on their own, they rely upon their parents to transport them everywhere (thus the “soccer mom” phenomenon in American suburbia). The problem is also that children often play in the street and across several open front lawns. It is impossible, however, to define this area as urban space (like a public square) bounded by surrounding houses and trees, when distances between opposite houses are enormous Gehl J [13]. The common mistake is made when parks are being associated with public squares. Parks are designed with specific areas set aside for recreational activities or quiet contemplation. A typical park is an area dominated by grass, trees, water and pathways. Public squares are designed with paved surfaces to accommodate a variety of uses that parks cannot offer, including the relation to the built environment, orientation, legibility and imageability. However, both are needed in order to create livable places and one does not exclude the other. Public places (squares) have also a value to children for play. This becomes very obvious when kids learn to use their imaginations and expand their sense of curiosity in an environment that offers much more than just landscape. It is also a place where children learn how to properly socialize with their equals, to organize themselves, and to resolve disputes. The same could be said of society. Environmental psychology has looked into those aspects where there are clear indications that the opportunity to explore rich, varied public realm environments appears related to cognitive, social, and motor development in young children. Physical spaces designed for children must meet the need for social interaction as well as preserving the possibility of privacy. Persons on European squares act to acknowledge and confirm each other’spresence. And, if they are fortunate, children get a sense of the pleasure and some experience in being with, meeting and talking to each other Crowhurst Lennard S, Lennard H [14]. Lack of attention to the different ways children (could) use their cities (public realm especially) can have dire consequences for the future of urban design in creation of livable cities. Cities urban public spaces need to be designed in such a way to support sociability and constructive exchange, not destructive behavior Lennard H, Lennard Crowhurst S [12].

Figure 3 As we mentioned above, the concept of third place, developed by Ray Oldenburg, is distinct from first and second places. A first place is the private space of home. Second places are where people spend significant time, often formally. These include schools, universities and workplaces. Common examples of third places in cities include community gardens, libraries, public swimming pools, cafes, men’s sheds, farmers’ markets and dog parks. There is growing understanding of the negative outcomes and costs associated with loneliness, especially with elderly generation. These include fractured communities, declining trust, stress, depression and disease. Clearly this is neither desirable nor sustainable. More than a century ago the sociologist George Simmel G, Wolff KH [15] observed how mobility disrupts social connection and creates isolation. The urban migrant, or a lonely senior citizen leaves behind her/his own social ties and often struggles to connect to the new community or lack of such. These challenges feel both the migrant, the elderly and their new neighbors around her/him. Third places can help by creating or enhancing a sense of community on a smaller, more human scale a relief from the overwhelming sensory experience of a large and unfamiliar city.

Figure 3: Marien Platz, Square in Munich Germany by Jan Kolario, Reproduced by Permission.

The village-like feeling of third places can reduce people’s anxieties and make them more comfortable with trying a new social experience, therefore minimizing the urban loneliness. Loneliness has been associated with objective social isolation, depression, introversion, or poor social skills. However, studies have shown these characterizations are incorrect, and that ‘loneliness is a unique condition in which an individual perceives himself or herself to be socially isolated even when among other people’ while human longitudinal studies indicate that the ‘harmful effects of loneliness are not attributable to some peculiarity of individuals who are lonely, instead they are due to the effects of loneliness on ordinary people’ Miller G [16], Murthy V [17] and-the-loneliness epidemic and Masi CM, Chen HY, Hawkley LC, Cacioppo JT [18]. and Cacioppo JT, Cacioppo S, Capitanio JP, Cole SW [19].

Implication for Planning and Urban Design Policy for Combatting (Urban) Loneliness through Urban form and Human Behavior approaches

Implications for policy in urban planning and design for combating urban loneliness are extensive if all tenants of the place theory, i.e. Oldenburg’s example of third place, can and could be included. As we mentioned before, community and society are on the classic linking elements. Community development programs recommend supporting elderly and intragenerational setting and links, small businesses geared toward the young and middle aged children’s suitable environment and third places for their peoplebased social benefits, might be the key. Some researchers suggest that pace-street based businesses that are considered “third places” by the users of those same “Main or High Streets” influence their immediate public space by paying more attention to and providing place-based urban design characteristics that help make good people places Mehta V, Bosson JK [20]. These and other findings have implications for urban design, community planning, city management and economic development policies. What we see from our research as emerging issues for policy and design implications and implementations, those with spatial and social value (physical and social sustainability efforts) are issues of natural accessibility and acceptable distances for elderly, proximity to destination of value and utility and mixed use for socialization and publicness and familiarity to spaces and place attachment in terms of sense of place and place recognition. An addendum to this, in the age of crime, fear and pandemics, an additional issue of gentle density and green spaces is a must. Dykstra [21] uses the distinction between emotional and social loneliness in an attempt to unpack the complex nature of loneliness and its association with other psychological responses to company, community and society. “Emotional loneliness” encompasses feelings of desolation and insecurity that result from missing or losing an intimate attachment and so having no-one to turn to. In seeming contrast, “Social loneliness” is characterized by the perceived lack of a circle of friends and acquaintances who can provide a sense of belonging, companionship and community. When thinking about the role that urban planning and urban design or placemaking (for policy and implementation) has in addressing loneliness the obvious conclusion would be that the focus should be on social loneliness Dykstra PA [21]. Gotesky’s [22] claims that there are 4 kinds of loneliness, that loneliness is a contemporary phenomenon, and that loneliness can be transcended. Gotesky distinguishes between physical aloneness, the spatial and/or temporal separation from others; loneliness, the feeling of being rejected by one’s fellows or excluded from their activities and interests when one desires to be included and accepted; the state of feeling isolated, which derives from the rational recognition of conditions of existence which one does not know how to change; and solitude, a state of living or working alone which is free from the pain of loneliness or isolation Gotesky R [22]. Loneliness has always characterized the consciousness of man: It is a permanent condition that may be alleviated but not transcended, because each human ego is unavoidably confined to its own realm of monadic, opaque, and solipsistic consciousness. Mijuskovic B [23]. It is evident that the experience of loneliness is a very rich plethora and mix of a number of variances of emotional experiences Nisenbaum S [24].

Urban planning & design have enormous potential to address issues like human loneliness and the health and wellbeing of citizens, in this case the ageing society. To realize this promise, it must be valued differently and formulated around contemporary social scientific understanding of human ‘needs’, not aesthetic architectural narratives. Eric Miller [25] Cities simply need to accept and adapt to multigenerational urban settings, ageing in place strategies, smart ageing and the combination of traditional and contemporary lifestyles and accessibility where the “senior city” or “geographies of age” generation of people cannot and must not be cut off from the rest of society, with age becoming a new form of segregation, one which ultimately provides the ground for emerging and growing urban loneliness.

On the contrary cities and planners and urban designers need to accept that they - the ageing society and the new reality reflects a desire for an active, experience-filled lifestyle. In this fashion, three interrelated aspects of ageing must be considered in creating policy responses for ageing societies: i) individual ageing; ii) population ageing; iii) the new equilibrium of societies that have undergone the different stages of an ageing trend Ageing Societies: A Comparative Introduction, McGraw-Hill. Finally, policy makers need to nurture, manage, retain and support the third places of Oldenburgian type that exist in neighborhoods; if they don’t, they need to be regenerated or created. All should realize the social value of being recognized as a third place and follow business models that help them become third places Oldenburg R [26]. Policy makers need to be sensitive to both the existing and the new third places in neighborhoods and value them not only for their social attributes but also for their contribution to the design quality of the public spaces in which they exist Mehta V, Bosson JK [10]. There is ultimately a need to develop an adaptable, resilient and inclusive place strategy to address urban loneliness, sort of a proactive placemaking approach that will have nexus in the need for prosocial places; ones combating lonely cities-empty spaces and isolated places.

Finally, there is a need to take a few steps back and position the whole issue of public spaces and loneliness in a larger scheme, an almost metaphysical conceptual contour. There are multiple and even limitless ways of understanding, approaching and analyzing the subject of (urban) loneliness in contemporary culture and society, i.e. in our cities. Loneliness is largely a social phenomenon and a social form Johansson, T and Andreasson T [27]. (Urban) Loneliness, product of partly (urban or ‘agorian’) social (and even physical) isolation and retreat and partly our own subjective (metaphysical, subconscious, conscious and synchronicity) interpretation of our lives, can become a public health problem in our cities. Why? Simply because it degrades the lives of the public, bring down the quality and joy of being, makes our lives shorter and unhealthier; our bodies and motoric prone to sickness and disease, our minds vulnerable to anxiety, stress, isolation, alienation, depression and other mental illness and daytime/ nighttime problems. But as with most ailments that manifest in our individual bodies, loneliness is also a failure of our environments, and the powers who have created or neglected them Ankita Rao [28]. The (urban) loneliness that city dwellers are experiencing today, are obviously not imbedded and rooted in any one (single) phenomenon or reason, though we easily slip into believes of blaming the “modern” causes of this: breakdown of the traditional nucleus family unit, disappearance of porches in front of our houses, urban sprawl, bowling alone, dominance of the car, the mindless network society and its “evil” city of bits: scroll-click-scroll of our phones and tablets, or the endless stress always-connected-onjobs- online feeling that follow us home through emails, SMSs texts, Whatsups, Instagram’s, Facebooks, Twitters and other messages. What really is needed is a deeper understanding of the triad of complexity: space, place and time. If we do not understand that we will never understand (urban) loneliness and thereby never be able to intervene in proper way in urban planning & design. We have a pretty good understanding what good public realms are and what good urban design is and the position of loneliness within; but without a thorough understanding of “time” as the main pinnacle of the cubus or triangle of concepts and categories, we will never arrive anywhere.

Marc Wittmann (2016) gives us a fascinating inquiry into how our subjective experience of time’s passage shapes everything from our emotional memory to our sense of self. This is also extremely important for our cities and public realms and us within them. “Consciousness is tied to corporeality and temporality; I experience myself as existing with a body over time...If one has no time, one has also lost oneself. Distracted by the obligations of everyday activities, we are no longer aware of ourselves… Everything is done all at once, faster and faster, yet no personal balance or meaning can be found. This implies the loss of contact with one’s own self. We also no longer feel “at home” with ourselves and find it difficult to persist in any given activity because we are available at every moment”, Marc Wittmann [29].

“If we had deliberately aimed to make cities that create loneliness, we could hardly have been more successful,” said Suzanne Lennard, an architect and the director of the International Making Cities Livable movement and author of some of the leading works on public spaces. Lennard said “we have lost some of our cities’ most essential components, like the plazas and piazzas that once formed the center, allowing for people to naturally bump into each other, or interact while shopping, eating, and walking. Which is why urban planners and designers have started to look at the pathways, gardens, and building façades that have become staples of the urban milieu. In other words, they are examining many of the features we pass by every day without so much as knowing how such things influence our psyche”. Lennard S [30]. At the end of the day, understanding the underlying problems that create and contribute to urban loneliness, understanding the complexity of space, place and time, and accepting the reality of everyday urbanism, i.e. contemporary urbanism in general will be sine qua non for moving beyond merely theorizing and analyzing the problems; but instead through research and practice outputs shows that an alternative, for a less lonely 8urban) future is indeed possible. Without claiming to solve (urban) loneliness, urban planning and urban design can be an important tool in response to it (Figure 4).

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[maritzaerwin]

14 Common Interview Questions with Actionable Answers

While you can never guarantee what questions you are going to get at an interview, there is a number that you are most likely to turn up. Preparing yourself to answer these questions will also inspire you for similar questions but be ready for the outside-the-box strange question that many businesses now use!

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The key to nailing the popular interview questions is pretty simple: understand the intention behind them. Every question the interviewer poses is aimed at yanking some key information from you regarding your personality, cultural fit, skills, and career progression. Your goal is to serve them just that, plus use your answer to tout some more curious bits of your professional life.

PRO TIP:

The interviewer will want to get to know all they can about you during the interview, so prepare a summary about yourself and why you have chosen this career and be prepared to back up your answers with solid examples.

Melony Botha HR Consultant London, United Kingdom

  Now, keeping that in mind, let’s move on to the list of common interview questions, paired with sharp and on-point tips for answering them!

1. Please, Tell Me About Yourself

This is one of those interview questions you’ll get 99 out 100 times. Considering its popularity, we even wrote an entirely separate post on how to answer the “tell me about yourself” question.

Here’s a quick recap:

Start with a quick, professional summary — a one-liner summarizing your key ‘selling points’ and background.

Highlight your core technical skills and areas of expertise.

Wrap it up by saying why you are interested in this new position/company.

Here’s a sample answer to the “tell me about yourself” question:

“I’m an experienced Regional Sales Manager with 6 years of experience in CRM software sales to Fortune 500 companies. I have deep familiarity with lead scoring and Salesforce software and strong people’s skills that helped me close over $1.5 million in sales last year and win the Top Regional Manager award. Although I love my current position, I feel ready for another challenge and would love to apply my skills in the new market that your company’s pursuing.”

If the interviewer then asks “to tell some more about yourself”, bring up some more details that are relevant, but didn’t make it to the final cut of your resume. Because your resume only contains the basics, add in more information about a skill or some situation that may demonstrate your expertise in the area.

2. What Is Your Experience In This Field?

Talk about the jobs you have held but also elements within it – tools or software used, industry events you’ve attended, as well as some specific projects that you have worked on. Mention some of your key accomplishments, backed by data if possible, to further demonstrate your industry knowledge.

Career changers and recent graduates are the most likely to receive this question. If that’s your case, keep the focus on your education and passion for the field, rather than past work expertise. Mention the courses you’ve taken or brought up some recent commentary on the industry events, demonstrating that you are aware of how things work in the field.

3. Why Do You Want to Work Here?

Focus on the main aspects of the job and why this appeals to you. It might be a chance to learn new technology, work in a new environment, or work on a specific type of project. Or focus on that it is a natural extension of your skills or experience and the best step on your career path.

Read more about how to answer the ‘why do you want to work here’ interview question using our 5-step formula.

4. What are Your Reasons for Leaving a Job?

Be positive and be honest when talking about your reasons for leaving your last job. Focus on the positive reasons for changing jobs such as looking for a new challenge or a lack of career growth in your old job. Perhaps you were a victim of restructuring or the company has relocated, these are also legitimate reasons.

However, at all costs avoid badmouthing your former employer, boss, or colleagues! Even if you still have some hard feelings towards either of these people, don’t show them to the interviewer.

Also, try to turn the negative part of your leaving into a positive one. Reference the good parts of your former job and address any potential shortcomings at your end. For instance, if you were terminated due to the lack of some essential skills, mention that while the company didn’t provide any on-the-job training, you later mastered this skill on your own.

5. Why Were You Fired?

This question may seem scary, but don’t fret too much over it. The intention behind it is to learn where the problem was and if you contributed to it in some way.

So again, be honest and forthcoming. Shortly explain the reason for being fired, address your shortcomings (if there were any), and move on to talking about what you’ve learned from this experience.

6. Why Are You Interested in This Position?

This question is your prime opportunity to showcase your enthusiasm and showcase how your skills and experience can positively contribute to the organization.

The easiest way to answer this question is to use the following three-step framework:

Demonstrate your eagerness for the job

Indicate how your experience and skills match the role

Make a connection with your desired career trajectory.

Here’s a sample answer:

“Your company places a great emphasis on user experience and that can be seen in every aspect of your web app and website. I know that the company’s mission is to create more responsive and inclusive web and that is something I care about too. In your job description, you’ve mentioned that you encourage your team members to contribute wherever the interests take them and I’d be really interested in combing my branding knowledge and UX skills to create a more unified experience for users across all digital channels, and my knack for writing could be further applied towards building a more intentional UX writing process. Starting this practice in my last position has reduced our design timeline by 15%. In fact, I’d be really interested in further growing professionally in UX writing and scaling this practice in your organization — something that works well in SaaS, but unfortunately isn’t a priority for most financial companies.” 

Last tip: focus on the career benefits of the job rather than financial aspects or benefits.

7. What Do You Know About This Company?

This question is similar to the previous one, but in this case, you have to place a greater focus on why this industry and employer interests you that much.

Do a little research into the company beforehand so you know its background, its core values, mission, current focus, or general direction. Then incorporate some of the points into your answer. Again, try to ‘connect the dots’ and show how your skills and experiences align with this particular company and role.

8. What Challenges Are You Looking For From This Job?

Remember the job description and the key duties/requirements of the candidates. Then pick one specific point and explain what exactly you’d like to achieve.

For example, the job description says that “you’ll need strong organizational skills to manage multi-million dollar budgets for marketing projects”. 

You can take that part and mention that for a long time you’ve been seeking extra leadership opportunities and would love to work more as a team to realize your past successes at a larger scale.

In essence, this question prompts you to discuss your career goals so that the employer could understand your expectations, ambitions, and desired career trajectory.

9. What Kind Of Goals And Objectives Do You Have For Your Career?

This interview question is similar to number 6 on this list and you should approach it in a similar fashion. Your answer should be orientated towards the employer, what benefits them, and how you can be instrumental in achieving those goals.

10. Would You Relocate Or Be Willing To Travel?

The point of asking this interview question is to gauge your flexibility, but also practicality. Some jobs may require extended periods of on-site work at customers’ locations – something that may interfere with your work-life balance or family relationships.

Relocation is a major move that not every person is ready to take. After all, your spouse may be happy with their current position and refuse the move. Anyhow, be honest and mention your availability for travel and feelings toward full relocation.

11. What Salary Are You Seeking?

Ah, the money talks. Money-related interview questions are always tricky. On one hand, you don’t want to lowball your offer. On the other, you don’t want to appear as someone with unrealistic expectations.

When asking this question during the interview (not the job offer part), most HRs just want to make sure that you understand the potential compensation range.  Negotiating the salary package happens after the job is offered so simply state a salary range within what is mentioned in the job advert.

If there was none, do some research for similar roles on Glassdoor and PayScale to get a good median range estimate.

12. What’s The Most Difficult Situation You Have Faced And How Did You Handle It?

This is one of the most common behavioral interview questions you can get. The interviewer’s goal here is to assess your personality traits and interpersonal skills. The best way to answer this is to provide a quick example from your job.

Tell a quick story showing how you were in a stressful situation but managed to recover quickly, identify the problem, take the right course of action, and succeed. For example:

“Once, our baggage was delayed when we were traveling to the trade show. Our booth decor, posters, and corporate swag were scheduled to arrive a day after the show began. Since it was a crucial event for our company, I contacted the organizers immediately and negotiated that they provided us with another flat screen. Also, I asked the junior manager to purchase a projector, while the rest of the team, including myself, worked overnight to create a new digital presentation of our products and a set of downloadable promo materials that could be downloaded via a QR code scan.  Despite the setback, we still managed to attract good traffic to our booth and sign up 20% more leads than usual”.  

13. What Are Your Strengths and Weaknesses?

This tricky question goes as number thirteen deliberately as it’s the one place where a lot of candidates chock. Some downplay their strengths. Others get too hung up on appearing all flawless.

When posting this question the recruiter wants to accomplish several things:

Assess your levels of self-awareness

Check your honesty

Verify for any major red flags

Use this question as an opportunity to highlight what you’ve learned and addressed some of the challenges (your weaknesses) that you had to overcome in the past or things that you are proactively working on right now.

P.S. Read more tips for answering “What Are Your Weaknesses And Strengths?” interview question.

14. Why Should We Hire You?

The inevitable pinnacle to all the interview questions is why should we hire you. Don’t get intimidated by it. Instead, use it as a welcome opportunity to deliver a winning sales pitch to the hiring manager.

To deliver the best answer, focus on the next three things:

Your ability to get the work done thanks to your skills

The great successes you’ve had in the past and can replicate at the new company

Your cultural fit and enthusiasm

Here’s how all of the above can be framed in a quick answer:

“In my last position as a restaurant manager, I managed to reduce the budget waste by 25% while also raising the customer’s rating of the venue thanks to proactive mentorship work with the staff. Thanks to the exceptional levels of service, the venue received a 5-star rating from Culinary Escapades magazine and I still keep close contact with the restaurant critic, so I’d be happy to invite them over to your venue, too. Lastly, I know that organic, fair-trade ingredients are a major selling point of your restaurant, as a vegan myself, I’m always on the lookout for new  suppliers and would be happy to share my contacts.”

PRO TIP:

Prepare answers to the Interview questions listed on the site to help you feel prepared and will help the interview conversation flow at a nice pace. If the interviewer asks a question you aren’t prepared for, ask for a couple minutes to gather your thoughts by stating “That’s a great question. Let me give it some thought for a moment.

Brenda S. Meyer Certified Senior HR Consultant Arizona, United States

  Every job interview can go one way or another. But no matter which questions you get asked, remember this: be honest, polite and keep your answer on-point. Talk more about what you can do for the employer and how you can be of help, rather than merely reciting all the things you know how to do.

Lastly, remember: you’ve got it!

This article has been originally published on Nov 9, 2016 and has been extensively revised and updated on July 30, 2020.

The post 14 Common Interview Questions with Actionable Answers appeared first on Freesumes.com.

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[lastsonlost]

The Ultimate Differential Theory of US Armed Forces (Snake Model)

I don’t know the first thing about the military but this is made laugh my ass off.

Upon encountering a snake in the Area of Operations (AO)...

Airborne: Lands on and kills the snake.

USAF O-6 and above: "Get that damned snake off the fairway!"

Armor: Runs over snake. Never knows it,as well as where the tank and the snake is on the battlefield. Continues directly ahead wondering what all those new buttons in his turret do.

Army Aviation: Has GPS ten digit grid to snake. Stands off at a range greater than any other weapon system and destroys snake with precision fires at a cost equivalent of one Mercedes 350SEL. Returns to base for fighter management and a "cool one".

Army Shrink: Attempts to get snake to explain its sexual feelings about its mother.  

Army Chaplain: Tries to get snake to attend services, mend its ways.

USAF Combat Controllers: Guides snake elsewhere.

Combat Engineer: Studies snake. Prepares in depth analysis based on obscure 5 series FM about how to defeat snake using counter mobility assets. Complains that maneuver forces don't understand how to properly conduct doctrinal counter-snake operations. (Engineer School tries to hide the fact that M9 ACE proves ineffective against snakes).

Field Artillery: Kills snake with massive Time On Target barrage with three Forward Artillery Brigades in support. Kills several hundred civilians as unavoidable collateral damage. Mission is considered a success and all participants (i.e., cooks, mechanics and clerks) are awarded Silver Stars.

Infantry: Snake smells them, leaves area.

Military Intelligence, G-2: Snake? What snake? Only four of 35 indicators of snake activity are currently active. We assess the potential for snake activity as LOW.

Judge Advocate General (JAG): Snake declines to bite, citing professional courtesy.

Force Recon: Follows snake, gets lost.

USMC Infantry: Kills snake by accident while looking for souvenirs. Local civilians demand removal of all US forces from Area of Operations.

Army Mech Infantry: Runs over snake, laughs, and looks for more snakes.

Military Intelligence, S-2: Reports to ground troops that snake is a non-combatant. Six Infantry wounded. MI states that if the ground forces would have read the nesting diagram provided in the 24 page enemy intel report, they would have known the snake was a possible threat.

Military Police, Criminal Investigation: Handcuffs snake's head to its tail, reads it its Miranda rights, then proceeds to beat snake to a pulp with night stick.

USAF Missileers: Lays in target coordinates to snake in 20 seconds, but can't receive authorization from National Command Authority to use nuclear weapons.

Military Police, Field: Snake safely infiltrates rear area of operations.

Navy SeaBees: Build snake elaborate rec room, complete with secret still.

Navy SEAL: Expends all ammunition and several grenades, then calls for naval gunfire in failed attempt to kill snake. Snake bites the SEAL, and dies of salt water poisoning. Hollywood makes film in which SEALS kill Muslim extremist snakes.

Navy, Surface Action Group: Fires off 50 cruise missiles fro several ships, kills snake and makes presentation to Senate Appropriations Committee on how Naval forces are the most cost-effective means of anti-snake force projection.

Ordnance: IDs snake as having improper scales. Deadline snake and order parts against snake. Parts come in 15 days later but the snake has been upgraded to FMC due to scrounging of parts through improper channels.

USAF Para-Rescue: Lands on snake upon descending, thereby injuring it, then feverishly works to save the snake's life.

USAF Pilot, A-10: Has Global Positioning Satellite coordinates to snake. Can't find snake. Returns to base for refuel, crew rest and manicure.

USAF Pilot, B-52: Pulls ARCLIGHT mission on snake, kills snake and every other living thing within two miles of target.

USAF Pilot, F-15: Misidentifies snake as enemy Mil-24 Hind helicopter and engages with missiles. Crew chief paints snake kill on aircraft.

USAF Pilot, F-16: Finds snake, drops two CBU-87 cluster bombs, and misses snake target, but gets direct hit on Embassy 100 KM East of snake due to weather (Too Hot also Too Cold, Was Clear but too overcast, Too dry with Rain, Unlimited ceiling with low cloud cover etc.) Claims that purchasing multimillion dollar, high-tech snake-killing device will enable it in the future to kill all snakes and achieve a revolution in military affairs.

USAF Pilot, Fighter, Generic: Mis-identifies the snake as a HIND and engages it with missiles. Crew Chief paints snake on airplane.

USAF Pilot, Transport: Receives call for anti-snake equipment, and delivers two weeks after due date.

Army Pilot, AH-64 Apache: Unable to locate snake, snakes don't show well on infrared. Infrared only operable in desert AO's without power lines or SAM's.

Army Pilot, HH-53 Jolly Green Giant: Finds snake on fourth pass after snake builds bonfire, pops smoke, lays out flares to mark Landing Zone. Rotor wash blows snake into fire.

Joint Security Area (JSA) Korea: Puts on Class B uniform and stares snake down for 40 years. Snake dies of old old age, but son of snake assumes staring contest.

Army Cavalry Troopers: Shoots near snake to prevent it from crossing FLOT because their mission is "Screen" and Not "Destroy." Put in for Silver Star, but is downgraded to ARCOM w/ "V" Device. Cav is successful in not becoming "Decisively Engaged"

NTC O/C: Shoots snake with Godgun, tells it to take off its fangs and wait for Medivac. Other Snakes berated in AAR for not knowing their 9-Line Medivac.

Military Intelligence (Tactical): Puts Rubber Snakes around Snake as "Battle Field Deception." Junior MI Soldier left near to make hissing noises because sound system is deadlined.

Retired SGM working at CIF: Gives snake a statement of charges for not having the same skin it was issued. Snake goes and kills other snake; Tries to turn in other snakes' skin. Spends 8 hours in CIF parking lot washing skin.

ROTC Cadet: Cadet dies of Snake Bite after asking Snake how he did at "Advance Camp"

SFOD-D: Deploys 2 man SR Team to maintain "eyes on" while squadron prepares for deployment. $2.1 M. worth of "Discretionary" funds are used to contract a company to produce a .50 cal subsonic round whose weapon effect closely resembles a mongoose bite. FBI's HRT is deployed to stand around while an Operator shoots the snake with the "Mongoose Round" while wearing an HRT Jacket. SFOD-D Cooks and Clerks expend a total of 1.7 Million Rounds of ammo back at Bragg so that it looks like SFOD-D was never deployed...

Army or Marine Quartermaster: Encounters snake, then loses contact. Can not identify who owns snake by hand receipts. Orders new snake through supply channels. Request is denied by higher authority; issuing the unit a snake will bring the manager to a zero balance; one snake must remain on hand at all times as per their boss' guidance.

Ranger: Plays with snake, then eats it.

USAF Ground Crew:  Runs back to truck after sighting snake, then after a half hour, sends lowest ranking airman out to beat snake to death with a set of wheel chocks.

USMC Band, "The President's Own": Oboe player charms snake into a saxophone case, which is then presented as a gift to former president Bill Clinton.

Army Band, "Pershing's Own": Snake's head crushed with a mallet by bass drum player. Snakeskin turned into cool sash for drum major.

Signal, Enlisted: Tries to communicate with snake . . . fails despite repeated attempts. Complains that the snake did not have the correct fill or did not know how to work equipment a child could operate.

Signal, Officer: Informs the commander that he could easily communicate with the snake using just his voice. Commander insists that he NEEDS to videoconference with the snake, with real-time streaming positional and logistical data on the snake displayed on video screens to either side. Gives Signal Corps $5 Billion to make this happen. SigO abuses the 2 smart people in the corps to make it happen, while everybody else stands around, bitches, and takes credit. In the end, GTE and several sub-contractors make a few billion dollars, the two smart people get out and go to work for them, and the commander gets what he asked for only in fiber-optic based simulations. The snake dies of old age.

Staff Judge Advocate (JAG): Swear they saw something like that on the Discovery Channel . . . spend weeks arguing if it was a snake or not.

Special Forces: Makes contact with snake, ignores all State Department directives and Theater Commander Rules of Engagement by building rapport with snake and winning its heart and mind. Trains it to kill other snakes. Files enormous travel settlement upon return.

Supply: (NOTICE: Your anti-snake equipment is on backorder.)

Transportation Corps: "Snake? What snake? We were sleeping in the truck."

US Congress Representative (D):  After initially voting in favor of anti-snake military action, suddenly realizes that the snake can never be defeated. Goes on TV and describes current operations as 'failed' before they begin and the calls the leading herpetologist in the world 'incompetent'. Pleads with snake not to hurt us. Then introduces legislation to re-deploy all military forces to Okinawa where they can more effectively engage snakes, world-wide. Then heads overseas to attempt to negotiate our surrender to the snake. Takes intern for 'support'.

Embed Main-Stream-Media Reporter: Decides snake is patriotic nationalist agrarian reformer being molested by imperialist U.S. forces, asks snake for directions to nearest bar. If bitten by snake, charges U.S. troops with neglect of duty to protect freedom of the press.

Public Affairs Officer: "We cannot comment on any snake-related activities, and anyway that would be up to the snake's chain of command to provide comments, if any are applicable. Be sure to check out our website on 'How to handle snakes in your AO' for the current command guidelines on snakes."

Naval Aviator, Jets:  Lobbies Congress for new funds to buy "Snake-seeking ordnance," while pressing the point that blue-water ops are the only effective way to display American might to the snake and have a psychological effect on it. Gets funds, then launches strike. Can't drop on Snake due to targeting pod being "bent." Has to jettison multi-million dollar Anti-Snake Bomb into ocean. Comes back to boat and traps on pitching deck in dead of night while bitching about how "Snake gets ten-thousand feet of solid runway to do this $%!T on." Proceeds to blame maintenance chief for bent pod. Chief goes out to jet, pulls tapes, finds that pod was never switched to "ON" position.

[blackresearchcentral]

Born into Slavery, this man escaped and became President of 4 Colleges

Inman E. Page

Inman Edward Page was born a slave in Warrenton, Virginia. He would later purchase his and his family's freedom.

On the plantation where he and his parents,   Horace and Elizabeth Page,  were enslaved, Page was a houseboy. When he was about ten years old the Civil War brought Union and Confederate troops near their place and they took the chance to escape to freedom.

Horace Page moved his family to Washington, District of Columbia, in 1862. Inman was was sent to the private school of Mr. George F. T. Cook, which he attended for about three years with a good record. He was hired out for several years to support the family. During this time he attended night school taught by a professor. Soon after Howard University opened, Inman went to the university and applied for work as an “ordinary laborer” to help them set up at the rate of fifteen cents per hour to afford his studies there as a student for 2 years.

He was among the first African American students admitted to Brown University at Providence, Rhode Island in the fall of 1873, and was the first of two African Americans to graduate in 1877 (the other was his friend George W. Milford).

Page in 1887 (Source: Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)

Valedictorian of his class, Page gave the senior oration at the 1877 commencement. The Providence Journal called his address "the ablest oration of the day."

Here is an excerpt:

When our legislators were found to be incompetent, with little regard for the past, and hence still less ability to provide for the future, it was argued that this was the necessary result of the principles of equity, and that nothing more could be expected.

But manifestly, this view of the tendency of our political institutions has been carried too far, for in the light of later years we have seen that in proportion as the advantages of education have been more generally extended among the masses, they have had just regard for the intellectual forces in society and have recognized the right of the more intelligent to exercise the functions of government. That there has been, and still is, a tendency to place men in positions of responsibility for which they have had no special training, is a truth which no one can deny, but to say that such a tendency is an inherent defect in our political system, is to say something which cannot be successfully maintained...

The base of Parnassus is not confined to a single continent, or to a single race; it extends wherever there is mind, and all may at least secure a foothold if they cannot reach its lofty summit. and how could it be otherwise? Is not America an outgrowth of all these forces which for centuries have been working in the old world? Is she not the continuation on a broader scale of those democratic tendencies which have caused the thrones of monarchs to tremble all over the world? And shall we conclude with those who have drawn such gloomy pictures that this steady development of free institutions, this inevitable tendency of the principles of political equality to follow the march of Christian civilization and to manifest itself in the form of a democracy is antagonistic to the progress of thought, the growth of literature, and the development of the highest order of mind? No if we cannot, we must not-

“For I doubt not through the ages One increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened With the process of the suns.”

Instead, therefore, of being unfavorable to the attainment of literary excellence there are reasons which lead us to believe that our literature will be commensurate in its range with that of our new experiment, and as far reaching in its influence as are the sentiments of liberty which we cherish.

No study of the nature of our institutions can fail to reveal the fact that excellence in the performance of literary labor will be appreciated in proportion to the intelligence of the people. Here, more than in any other country in the world, master minds address their works to larger and more appreciative audiences, whose facilities for the acquisition of knowledge are constantly increasing.

You can read his full speech here.

A member of the audience, Professor D. W. Phillips, who heard Page’s speech offered him a teaching position at Natchez Seminary in Mississippi. From there he went on to a number of important educational appointments. In Oklahoma, Page served as the first president of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University (CANU), later Langston University, for 17 years from 1898. He was also president of Missouri’s Western Baptist College and Tennessee’s Roger Williams University. In 1918, Brown University awarded Page an honorary Master’s degree. Page also served as supervising principal of Oklahoma City’s segregated black schools for 12 years.

Inman Page was the 1st (1880-1898) and 6th (1922-1923) president at Lincoln University of Missouri.

According to Lincoln University:

During his tenure, he brought in many new instructors, built several campus buildings, was president of the Negro Teacher's Association, worked with the state government for meaningful funding of the institute and was popular with the press because he was well spoken. In 1889, the Board tried to oust him, to put in a new person, but the move was so highly controversial that the candidate withdrew from the process. While Inman was president, in 1891, Lincoln University became a Land-Grant Institution under the Morrill Land-Grant Fund and the first Memorial Hall was built. He also began instituting college-level courses, which faced some serious opposition, but inevitably led to Lincoln Institute becoming Lincoln University.

At the teachers' association held in St. Louis, P. H. Murry, of the St. Louis Advance, said the following of him:

       He succeeded in proving at this convention his eminent fitness, both in culture and moral force, to preside over the educational interest of colored youth of Missouri. Races do not produce great men in very rapid succession. There may be many brilliant men, but with defects so apparent that their brilliancy is overcast with a cloud, and men who are possessed with native ability, can bring their culture, their moral character and habits of industry bravely to the front, side by side, and evenly developed, have the elements of success and usefulness, which brilliancy alone cannot secure. What the Negroes need among the educators of the State is a man of deep convictions, high sense of duty, unswerving will force and eminent culture; a man whose presence commands respect, and such a man we verily believe is Professor Page.

       I have known Professor Page for many years, and can bear personal testimony to his greatness of heart, to the generosity of his feelings, and his deep sense of responsibility to God. While a student in Howard University he was converted and united with the Baptist church, with which he has ever held pleasant relations; his manly bearing, dignified demeanor, and cultured mind bear rich fruits, and his personal enthusiasm impresses those under his care to such an extent that they cannot fail to become useful citizens and prominent individuals. This, however, can only be attained personally by those who have the privilege as well as the honor to sit at his feet and have at least a great blessing, and are considerably helped toward the attainment of those things which befit them for useful lives. But the best of men have their enemies, and Professor Page has had his trials like all men. The following, taken from the Jefferson City Daily Tribune, is as fine an indorsement as any man would need. It is an honorable document and deserves a place here, and it speaks more eloquently than anything I might say:

       The following testimonial of the regard and high esteem in which the citizens of this place hold Professor I. E. Page, both as a private citizen and the head of Lincoln Institute, should serve as an ample refutation of all the false reports trumped up by mischievous and meddlesome people to injure his standing and that of the school among the colored people of the State:

        "Inasmuch as certain false and injurious reports have been published concerning the management of Lincoln Institute, and derogatory to the high standing of Professor Page and wife, we, the undersigned, feel that some testimonial is due the public in this regard, and cheerfully subscribe to the following facts:

        "Professor Page and his wife have resided in this city eight years, and for six years the institute has been under their management. During this time the work of the school has been improving from year to year and has been at all times better than under any former management.

        "Professor Page has labored earnestly and with marked success for the upbuilding of Lincoln Institute. He has extended the couse of study, increased the attendance and secured from the State large sums of money for the support of the school. He is an educator of ability and high intellectual attainments, a gentleman of refined manners and a sincere and earnest Christian, possessing at once the respect and good will of the best citizens of this city. We see no cause for complaint either against Professor Page or his wife. Their influence has always been exerted for the best interests of Lincoln Institute and the elevation of the colored race.

Page taught the famous African American novelist Ralph Waldo Ellison at Frederick Douglass High School. In 1935, a year before he passed away, the city's school system named him principal emeritus for his outstanding contributions. When he expired in the home of his daughter, Zelia N. Breaux in Oklahoma City, his passing was front-page news. Hundreds of friends, colleagues, and relatives attended his funeral in Oklahoma City, and even more were present for his burial on the Langston University campus.

The main library at Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, is named after Page. 

1935 Obituary for Dr. Inman E. Page

(Source: Brown University Library)

Negro slave who became noted educator dies here:

Dr. Inman E. Page, supervisor of colored schools in city for many years and former college head, is claimed by death.

12-22-1935

Oklahoma News article about the death of Inman Page, Brown University graduate who was president of several colleges and supervisor of the colored schools in Oklahoma City.

(Source: Brown University Library)

You can find another newspaper clipping containing an obituary from The Pittsburgh Courier dated Saturday, January 4, 1936 here.

Sources:

“Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising” published by GM Rewell & Company,  pages 474-480

http://www.blackpast.org/aaw/page-inman-edward-1853-1936

https://www.lincolnu.edu/web/library/university-presidents

https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=40917800

[islesblogger]

Playoff Prep

The Islanders have 15 regular season games remaining before the playoffs. The Metro, and the Eastern conference are too tight to really narrow down an opponent at this point. So let’s look at how the team might best improve themselves for the road ahead.

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The Power Play

This has been the achilles heel of the team all year. They are currently operating at 15.63%. That’s more than 4% below the NHL average. There is too much talent on this team to have such an anemic power play.

Power Play Problems

Nick Leddy might be the worst power play point in the league. He seems to be on the first power play unit solely for zone entries. I’m not really sure why you need your top two centers and a speedy one dimensional defenseman on your first power play unit for zone entries. The Islanders have two other defensmen who can handle zone entries. Either Ryan Pulock or Devon Toews should be able to handle that responsibility. Plus, they both have much better shots, and distribute the puck with much less hesitation.

Creativity is seriously lacking. The Islanders have one of the more dynamic puck moving and playmaking centers in Mat Barzal. Once possession has been established in the offensive zone his ability to orbit the zone is neutralized. Nothing is gained by circling the perimeter. Passing the puck accomplishes the same thing much faster. There needs to be more movement north and south between the three middle options. This would create more and clearer passing lanes through the “Royal Road“. It also offers more options to more skilled passers. This is another reason for removing Leddy from the first unit. They could have three primary shooting targets (Pulock, Nelson and Lee) with two distribution hubs (Toews and Barzal) if they’d just give up their tired love affair with Nick Leddy.

The second unit could use a boost. If you remove Toews and Pulock from the second power play unit it will need some “umph”. They will probably still employ the 1-3-1 style as they have in the past. The two units could have very similar features, regardless of players’ position.

Barzal and Filppula would be my two low distribution points. Pulock and Eberle would share the RH shot on the LW spots for each unit. Lee and Ladd would be the net front guys, with Nelson and DalColle on the RW. The high D would be Toews on the first unit, and… Thomas Hickey on the second.

If this strategy was deployed each piece would be interchangeable between the units. That could serve as a positive in a long series should injuries arise, or just to reward a hot hand. Sometimes just putting a different body out there confuses a defender who may rely on tendencies.

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The Roster

Tweaks

The season can really be broken down into three slices for a playoff team. The first twenty games or so a coach will try to find the best 23 to ride for the meat of the season. The next forty he lets those players do their best to show they deserve their playing time. The last 20 he either has to ride those 23, or use whatever he’s learned in those 60 games to put together his best nightly lineup for the playoff push. I think that’s where we are now.

Michael Dal Colle has earned some trust, and may offer some offensive upside over Matt Martin. Physical play does not diminish at crunch time, but the ability to find time and space is more sorely needed. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Martin be a healthy scratch in more than 5 of the last 15.

Tom Kuhnhackl over Cal Clutterbuck. There is no denying that Cal is a big part of the success of the “best fourth line in hovkey”. There’s also no denying that he is a step slower the past few years, and it is hurting what could be one of the more productive middle six lines in the league. Any roster change has to be done in respect to special teams. With that in mind we have seen Cizikas paired with Kuhnhackl a little more often as Clutterbuck has been scratched. I think this is a way for Trotz to give himself more roster flexibility going forward.

They have to create a real offensively threatening first line. All year we have seen Mat Barzal switch linemates. There have been the “Killer B’s” (Beauvillier and Bailey) and last year’s highly successful (Beauvillier and Eberle) and currently (Beauvillier and Dal Colle). He’s even played with Ladd and Komarov some. All the while Nelson has been pulling the heavy weight as the number one center.

It’s time to try a true number one line. One that can play solid 200 foot hockey, with a puck mover and distributor, and three forwards who can shoot the puck. There has been a reluctance to deploy Lee, Nelson and Barzal on one line because the Islanders have been short a showcase center since that other guy left. Just like Leddy is not a first power play quarterback, Mat Barzal is not a top line center in the NHL just yet. But he could be the right wing for the most dynamic line going into the 2018-19 playoff season. It’s about time we see if that can build some chemistry.

 LWCRWL127Lee29Nelson13BarzalL218Beauvillier12Bailey07Eberle L316Ladd53Cizikas14KuhnhacklL428DalColle51Filppula47Komarov FR15Clutterbuck 17Martin32Johnston LDRDD103Pelech06PulockD204Hickey55BoychukD325Toews24MayfieldDR02Leddy21Sbisa##SeidenbergGOAL01Greiss40Lehner

The Pros

Roster flexibility is always a good thing. The two big surprises are obviously swapping Bailey and Barzal positionally, and making Leddy and Hickey interchangeable.

Let’s face it, Bailey takes the important draws, and plays the defensive role when with Barzal anyway. A RW can be rather effective as the puck mover and distributor. If you don’t believe that, please stop asking for the Islanders to promote Josh Ho-Sang. He’s never going to be a center.

I doubt we’ll see a full time move from Leddy to Hickey. More subtly I think the change will be moving Hickey in for Pelech. The roles should change on special teams. Hickey can handle Pelech’s PK minutes, and add to the second PP unit. Hopefully the addition of Toews and Pulock to the first unit will make folks forget about Leddy. Leddy adds little to the PK, so if you then move Pelech back in, you improve all three phases of the game.

The long term gain there is that you might be able to get a late first rounder for Leddy in June. The Islanders now have Toews, Pelech, Hickey, Aho, Wotherspoon and Vande Sompel to play the left side. That $5.5M might come in handy if they are going to sign all of their UFAs and shop for somebody like Duchene in July.

The Cons

Mat Barzal, Anthony Beauvillier, Michael Dal Colle, Adam Pelech and Devon Toews have zero NHL playoff experience and Ryan Pulock was mostly a healthy scratch in 2015-16. There will be some learning to do. But what better time to give these kids some experience. This is a season that nobody expected anybody to be adding to their playoff resumes.

Upsetting the apple cart. This roster, flawed as it may be, has been good enough to earn first place in the Metro division. Though I understand that, every “playoff” team in the east is playing better in the second half. The Islanders have hit a bit of a lull over the past few weeks. One way out of the lull is by getting back on the horse and playing through it. Another way is to get on a fresh horse. The benefit of the fresh horse is that it will give you a good look into what you have for next year. It may also surprise your opponents. It’s a gamble.

What’s In Store

The Islanders have 15 games left. Only four of them are against teams that are out of playoff hopes. Six if you include the Flyers who are hanging by the thinnest of threads. Let’s say there are nine games left that will test their ability to compete against playoff competition.

Their main focus will be to win the Metro Division. That accomplishment comes with home team advantage in the first two rounds. Something they haven’t enjoyed in two decades. To accomplish this they will either need to win out, or they will need some help. They only have one gaim remaining with their closest rivals, the Washington Capitals. That is the last game of the season, and could very likely be the first game of the playoffs.

They do have some matchups with possible first round opponents:

(03/11/19) (03/26/19) Columbus. After shoving all their chips into the center of the table the Blue Jackets have been somewhat disappointing. If they lose the second game of thier back to back to Pittsburgh they would really need Montreal to help them out if they want back into the race.

(03/14/19) (03/21/19) Montreal. These two games might mean more to Columbus and Montreal respectively than they do the Islanders. But they will both be stern playoff tests as they are both battling for their playoff lives.

(04/01/19) Toronto. If Toronto has fallen to the Wild Card spot by this time, this game will be way more important to them, than to the Islanders. They should be preparing for a tough first round with the Bruins.

(04/06/19) Washington. There are a few ways this could happen. The idea that either Pittsburgh or Carolina would pass both teams to win the Metro is highly unlikely (but I’m knocking on my wooden desk, just in case), but it is possible.

Our most likely first round opponent is the team currently in that position. The Carolina Hurricanes. They would earn that honor by being the top wild card team. If Washington wins the Metro, they could also finish third and be our first round opponent. Pittsburgh could also do either. We have no games remaining with either team.

What To Look Forward To

Hopefully over the next 15 games Barry Trotz and his staff will explore some of these ideas. They may not all work. Maybe none of them will. Some of them may even cause damage to the team’s confidence. But they will keep me from screaming at the TV… especially when I see Nick Leddy continually fumble the puck on the point during an important power play.

Playoff Prep was originally published on islesblogger.com

[patriotsnet]

When Did Republicans Turn Against Nixon

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/when-did-republicans-turn-against-nixon/

When Did Republicans Turn Against Nixon

Us Federal Government Reports

This article incorporatespublic domain material from websites or documents ofthe U.S. federal government.

Cole, Jared P.; Garvey, Todd . Impeachment and Removal . Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. R44260 via University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

Hudiburg, Jane A.; Davis, Christopher M. . Resolutions to Censure the President: Procedure and History . Washington, D.C.: Congressional Research Service. R45087 via University of North Texas Libraries, Digital Library, UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.

Final Investigations And Resignation

Resignation speech of President Richard Nixon, delivered August 8, 1974. Problems playing this file? See media help.

Nixon’s position was becoming increasingly precarious. On February 6, 1974, the House of Representatives approved H.Res. 803 giving the Judiciary Committee authority to investigate impeachment of the President. On July 27, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee voted 27-to-11 to recommend the first article of impeachment against the president: obstruction of justice. The Committee recommended the second article, abuse of power, on July 29, 1974. The next day, on July 30, 1974, the Committee recommended the third article: contempt of Congress. On August 20, 1974, the House authorized the printing of the Committee report H. Rep. 931305, which included the text of the resolution impeaching Nixon and set forth articles of impeachment against him.

The Party Of Kennedy V The Party Of Nixon In The Civil Rights Era

Two things started happening at the same time:

Racist Democrats were getting antsy

Neither party could afford to ignore civil rights anymore

In 1960 Kennedy defeated Nixon. At the time of his election, the both parties unevenly supported civil rights. But President Kennedy decided to move forward.

After Kennedys assassination in 1963, Johnson continued Kennedys civil rights focus.

As you can imagine, that did not sit particularly well with most Southern Democrats. This is when Strom Thurmond flew the coop for good.

In fact, a greater percentage of Congressional Republicans voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 than did Democrats. Support for the Act followed geographic, not party, lines.

Photo Credit

Soon after, the Republicans came up with their Southern Strategy a plan to woo white Southern voters to the party for the 1968 election.

The Kennedy and Johnson administrations had advanced civil rights, largely through national legislation and direct executive actions. So, the Southern Strategy was the opposite states rights and no integration.

As in the Civil War, the concepts of states rights and tradition, were codes for maintaining white supremacy.

Starting with Thurmond in 1964, and continuing throughout the Johnson and Nixon administrations, Dixiecrats left the Democrats for the Republicans.

Photo Credit

Trump May Be So Much Worse Than Nixon But Republicans Dont Seem To Care

S.V. Date

BEDFORD, N.H. Richard Nixon used tens of thousands of his campaign dollars to finance a burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in order to cheat in his 1972 presidential reelection.

Forty-seven years later, Donald Trump, according to witness testimony in congressional hearings, used hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to coerce a foreign government in order to cheat in his 2020 reelection.

Yet while Nixon wound up resigning after his fellow in the Senate told him they would vote to remove him from office, Trump today appears likely to survive a Senate trial, even as the House prepares to debate two articles of impeachment later this week.

Americans are guided in many ways by their leadership, said Al Cardenas, a former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida. There was significant bipartisan agreement that President Nixon had breached the threshold regarding abuse of power and thus was impeachable. Either todays values have evolved, partisanship has hit a new high or the caliber of our GOP representation has diminished. Take your pick.

Reflecting or perhaps driving that across the decades: 31% of Republicans wound up abandoning Nixon and saying he should be removed from office, while only 7% of Republicans today believe that about Trump.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trumps short-lived White House communications director in 2017 who has now become a Trump critic, has a two-word answer for whats different: Fox News.

Senate Watergate Hearings And Revelation Of The Watergate Tapes

Fred Thompsonranking memberHoward BakerSam Ervin

On February 7, 1973, the United States Senate voted 77-to-0 to approve 93 S.Res. 60 and establish a select committee to investigate Watergate, with Sam Ervin named chairman the next day. The hearings held by the Senate committee, in which Dean and other former administration officials testified, were broadcast from May 17 to August 7. The three major networks of the time agreed to take turns covering the hearings live, each network thus maintaining coverage of the hearings every third day, starting with on May 17 and ending with on August 7. An estimated 85% of Americans with television sets tuned into at least one portion of the hearings.

On Friday, July 13, during a preliminary interview, deputy minority counsel Donald Sanders asked White House assistant Alexander Butterfield if there was any type of recording system in the White House. Butterfield said he was reluctant to answer, but finally admitted there was a new system in the White House that automatically recorded everything in the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room and others, as well as Nixon’s private office in the Old Executive Office Building.

Political And Cultural Reverberations

According to Thomas J. Johnson, a professor of journalism at University of Texas at Austin, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger predicted during Nixon’s final days that history would remember Nixon as a great president and that Watergate would be relegated to a “minor footnote”.

When Congress investigated the scope of the president’s legal powers, it belatedly found that consecutive presidential administrations had declared the United States to be in a continuous open-ended state of emergency since 1950. Congress enacted the National Emergencies Act in 1976 to regulate such declarations. The Watergate scandal left such an impression on the national and international consciousness that many scandals since then have been labeled with the “-gate suffix“.

Disgust with the revelations about Watergate, the Republican Party, and Nixon strongly affected results of the November 1974 Senate and House elections, which took place three months after Nixon’s resignation. The Democrats gained five seats in the Senate and forty-nine in the House . Congress passed legislation that changed campaign financing, to amend the Freedom of Information Act, as well as to require financial disclosures by key government officials . Other types of disclosures, such as releasing recent income tax forms, became expected, though not legally required. Presidents since Franklin D. Roosevelt had recorded many of their conversations but the practice purportedly ended after Watergate.

Final Legal Actions And Effect On The Law Profession

Charles Colson pled guilty to charges concerning the Daniel Ellsberg case; in exchange, the indictment against him for covering up the activities of the Committee to Re-elect the President was dropped, as it was against Strachan. The remaining five members of the Watergate Seven indicted in March went on trial in October 1974. On January 1, 1975, all but Parkinson were found guilty. In 1976, the U.S. Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for Mardian; subsequently, all charges against him were dropped.

Haldeman, Ehrlichman, and Mitchell exhausted their appeals in 1977. Ehrlichman entered prison in 1976, followed by the other two in 1977. Since Nixon and many senior officials involved in Watergate were lawyers, the scandal severely tarnished the public image of the legal profession.

The Watergate scandal resulted in 69 government officials being charged and 48 being found guilty, including:

G. Gordon Liddy, Special Investigations Group, convicted of masterminding the burglary, original sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Served 4+12 years in federal prison.

E. Howard Hunt, security consultant, convicted of masterminding and overseeing the burglary, original sentence of up to 35 years in prison. Served 33 months in prison.

James W. McCord Jr., convicted of six charges of burglary, conspiracy and wiretapping. Served two months in prison.

Virgilio Gonzalez, convicted of burglary, original sentence of up to 40 years in prison. Served 13 months in prison.

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David A. Nicholss Ike and McCarthy is a well-researched and sturdily written account of what may be the most important such conflict in modern history: the two years, 1953 and 1954, when Dwight D. Eisenhower, the first Republican president elected since Herbert Hoover, found himself under assault from the demagogic senator who perfected the politics of ideological slander. Joseph McCarthy had begun his rampage against subversives in the federal government, some real but most of them imagined, during the Truman years, amid the high anxieties of the Cold War. Hostilities had broken out in Korea, and threatened to draw in Red China or escalate into a doomsday showdown with the Soviets, newly armed with the atomic bomb. Meanwhile, billions were being doled out in foreign aid to left-wing governments in Western Europe, and homegrown spies like Alger Hiss and Julius Rosenberg had been uncovered and exposed.

Then as now, the press could achieve only so much, and for a reason that hasnt changed. McCarthy was a political problem, not a journalistic onea problem that could be solved in the end only by politics, by Eisenhower himself, who fooled almost everyone in deftly outmaneuvering McCarthy. Nichols is not the first to make this argument. But his timing is good. Americans have as much to learn today from Eisenhower as his many liberal critics did in 1954.

Nixon’s Support In Congress Deteriorates

Despite “a triple whammy” of events in late Julythe widely covered Judiciary Committee hearings, the Supreme Court’s order to surrender the tapes, and six Republican defectionsNixon, according to White House Chief of Staff Alexander Haig, had not “changed one iota his sense of self?confidence and sense of determination to see this thing through.” He was closely studying the possible vote counts that impeachment in the House or trial in the Senate would get; Henry Kissinger later sympathetically described the president at this time as “a man awake in his own nightmare.” Republican leaders in Congress were also estimating vote counts. During a July 29 meeting between House Minority Leader John Rhodes and Senate Minority Leader Hugh Scott, Rhodes estimated that impeachment in the House would get as many as 300 votes and Scott surmised that there were 60 votes for conviction in the Senate . Both felt that the situation was deteriorating for the president.

Public support for the president was also deteriorating. A Harris Poll completed August 3 found that two?thirds of the American public “believe that President Nixon should be impeached over Watergate scandals and tried.” The “pro?impeachment” total had increased by 13 percentage points during the course of the Judiciary Committee’s televised debate and votes on the articles of impeachment.

Releasing Evidence To Public

On July 9, the Judiciary Committee released its own version of eight of the White House tapes of which Nixon had previously issued his own transcript. The committee transcripts benefited from superior playback equipment, which restored some of the potentially damaging statements that Nixon staffers had removed or heard differently. This was followed three days later by the committee’s release of its accumulated evidence, which ran to 4,133 pages in all3,891 pages assembled by the impeachment inquiry staff, as well as a 242-page rebuttal by James St. Clair, but contained neither commentary nor conclusions from the committee. Afterward St. Clair acknowledged for the first time publicly that a committee vote in favor of impeachment was likely, but White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler said the president remained confident that the full House would not impeach.

A Harris Poll was released in mid-July which showed that 53 percent of Americans supported Nixon’s impeachment by the House. That same poll showed that 47 percent thought he should be convicted in a Senate trial and removed from office, and 34 percent thought he should be acquitted . A Gallup Poll, released July 25, revealed that Nixon’s overall job approval rating had slipped to a new low point of 24 percent, down considerably from its pre-Watergate hearings peak of 67 percent at the end of January 1973 .

The Myth Of The Republican

When faced with the sobering reality that Democrats supported slavery, started the Civil War when the abolitionist Republican Party won the Presidency, established the Ku Klux Klan to brutalize newly freed slaves and keep them from voting, opposed the Civil Rights Movement, modern-day liberals reflexively perpetuate rather pernicious myth–that the racist southern Democrats of the 1950s and 1960s became Republicans, leading to the so-called “switch” of the parties.

This is as ridiculous as it is easily debunked.

The Republican Party, of course, was founded in 1848 with the abolition of slavery as its core mission. Almost immediately after its second presidential candidate, Abraham Lincoln, won the 1860 election, Democrat-controlled southern states seceded on the assumption that Lincoln would destroy their slave-based economies.

Once the Civil War ended, the newly freed slaves as expected flocked to the Republican Party, but Democrat control of the South from Reconstruction until the Civil Rights Era was near total. In 1960, Democrats held every Senate seat south of the Mason-Dixon line. In the 13 states that made up the Confederacy a century earlier, Democrats held a staggering 117-8 advantage in the House of Representatives. The Democratic Party was so strong in the south that those 117 House members made up a full 41% of Democrats’ 283-153 advantage in the Chamber.

So how did this myth of a sudden “switch” get started?

It would not be the last time they used it.

Republicans Stuck By Nixon For Two Years

Not only did Republicans continue to back Nixon after five men were caught trespassing at the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the building during the summer of 1972 â Nixon was that fall in a landslide over Democrat George McGovern. 

According to polls conducted by the Nixon campaign at the time, the Washington Postreported, more than two-thirds of voters said they wouldn’t be any less likely to vote for Nixon if it was discovered that top Republicans were involved in the DNC break-in â and most that summer saw it as “just politics” as opposed to “very serious,” according to the Post. 

But as the scandal went on, public opinion began to shift. 

In 1973, Archibald Cox was appointed independent prosecutor to investigate Watergate â something about 75% of Americans believed was necessary to get to the truth, according to May 1973 polls cited by the Post. 

In October of that year, Nixon fired Cox and accepted the resignations of his attorney general and deputy attorney general in what would become known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.” More than 50,000 Americans sent telegrams to Washington over the firing, and 21 members of Congress called for Nixon’s impeachment.

Republicans Were Consolidating An Enduring Majority Back Then Not Now

While Nixons disgrace and resignation temporarily plunged his party into crisis its important to remember that he won a second term by a landslide in 1972, and that the Democratic Party was in the middle of a chronic ideological crisis. Democrats won 43 percent of the popular vote for president in 1968 and 38 percent in 1972. They got a temporary respite when one-time southern voters and those disgusted by Watergate gave Jimmy Carter 50 percent in 1976, but they were back down to 41 percent in 1980 and didnt win a popular-vote majority again until 2008. Republicans didnt have much rebounding to do at all: They came within an eyelash of winning in 1976 and didnt lose the presidency again until 1992.

Now its Republicans who are on a long-term popular-vote losing streak in presidential contests . And the GOP is famously on the wrong side of demographic trends that are shrinking its coalition rooted in older white voters and expanding the oppositions younger and more diverse base. Yes, they enjoy more robust power than their actual support merits thanks to the distorting effects of the Senate, the Electoral College, and gerrymandering of House and state legislative districts. But its not like they have a stiff wind at their backs as they seek to recover from a lost presidential election and now a doubly impeached president.

Early Calls For Impeachment

During the opening months of the 93rd Congress, multiple calling for a presidential impeachment inquiry were introduced in the House and referred to its Judiciary Committee. The committee began an examination of the charges under its general investigative authority. In February 1973, the House approved a resolution providing additional investigative authority that did not specifically mention impeachment.

The first resolution to directly call for President Nixon’s impeachment was introduced on July 31, 1973, by Robert Drinan. His resolution, which did not contain specific charges, was made in response to Nixon’s clandestine authorization of the bombing of Cambodia, as well as his actions relative to the growing Watergate scandal. The resolution was effectively ignored by leaders of both parties. House Majority Leader Tip O’Neill later said,

Morally, Drinan had a good case. But politically, he damn near blew it. For if Drinan’s resolution had come up for a vote at the time he filed it, it would have been overwhelmingly defeatedby something like 400 to 20. After that, with most of the members already on record as having voted once against impeachment, it would have been extremely difficult to get them to change their minds later on.

Gop Unlikely To Reprise Role It Played In Nixons 1974 Exit

NEW YORK – On Aug. 7, 1974, three top Republican leaders in Congress paid a solemn visit to President Richard Nixon at the White House, bearing the message that he faced near-certain impeachment because of eroding support in his own party on Capitol Hill. Nixon, whod been entangled in the Watergate scandal for two years, announced his resignation the next day.

Could a similar drama unfold in later stages of the impeachment process that Democrats have now initiated against President Donald Trump? Its doubtful. In Nixons time, there were conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans. Compromise was not treated with scorn.

In todays highly polarized Washington, bipartisan agreement is a rarity. And Trump has taken over the Republican Party, accruing personal rather than party loyalty and casting the GOP establishment to an ineffectual sideline.

In the past in the U.S., party members would dissociate themselves from disgraced leaders in order to preserve the party and their own reputations, said professor Nick Smith, who teaches ethics and political philosophy at the University of New Hampshire. But now President Trump seems to have such a personal hold on the party more like a cult leader than a U.S. president that the exits are closed as the party transforms into his image.

Congressional leaders

That would change if Trumps troubles become so serious that congressional leaders think it will affect them and their party, Jillson said.

A more powerful Congress

Legal Action Against Nixon Administration Members

On March 1, 1974, a grand jury in Washington, D.C., indicted several former aides of Nixon, who became known as the “Watergate Seven“H. R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman, John N. Mitchell, Charles Colson, Gordon C. Strachan, Robert Mardian, and Kenneth Parkinsonfor conspiring to hinder the Watergate investigation. The grand jury secretly named Nixon as an unindicted co-conspirator. The special prosecutor dissuaded them from an indictment of Nixon, arguing that a president can be indicted only after he leaves office. John Dean, Jeb Stuart Magruder, and other figures had already pleaded guilty. On April 5, 1974, , the former Nixon appointments secretary, was convicted of lying to the grand jury. Two days later, the same grand jury indicted Ed Reinecke, the Republican Lieutenant Governor of California, on three charges of perjury before the Senate committee.

Impeachment Wasnt Popular Until Right Before Nixon Resigned

When the House of Representatives voted in February 1974 to give the House Judiciary Committee subpoena power to investigate Nixon, it did not have the weight of public opinion behind it. According to a poll conducted by Gallup just days before the vote, only 38 percent of Americans were in favor of impeachment. And although a solid majority of Americans did eventually come to support impeachment, that moment didnt arrive until quite late in the game.

But this didnt mean the public wasnt souring on Nixon as the Watergate scandal unfolded. After winning a , the president began his second term with an approval rating around 60 percent, according to FiveThirtyEights tracker of presidential approval. Then that spring saw a stunning 30-point drop in Nixons support starting around when one of the people charged with breaking into the Democratic National Committee headquarters confessed to a judge that he and the other conspirators had been pressured to stay silent.

Release Of The Transcripts

The Nixon administration struggled to decide what materials to release. All parties involved agreed that all pertinent information should be released. Whether to release unedited and vulgarity divided his advisers. His legal team favored releasing the tapes unedited, while Press Secretary Ron Ziegler preferred using an edited version where “expletive deleted” would replace the raw material. After several weeks of debate, they decided to release an edited version. Nixon announced the release of the transcripts in a speech to the nation on April 29, 1974. Nixon noted that any audio pertinent to national security information could be from the released tapes.

Initially, Nixon gained a positive reaction for his speech. As people read the transcripts over the next couple of weeks, however, former supporters among the public, media and political community called for Nixon’s resignation or impeachment. Vice President Gerald Ford said, “While it may be easy to delete characterization from the printed page, we cannot delete characterization from people’s minds with a wave of the hand.” The Senate Republican Leader Hugh Scott said the transcripts revealed a “deplorable, disgusting, shabby, and immoral” performance on the part of the President and his former aides. The House Republican Leader John Jacob Rhodes agreed with Scott, and Rhodes recommended that if Nixon’s position continued to deteriorate, he “ought to consider resigning as a possible option”.

Last Baseball Game Played At Historic Yankee Stadium

The Dixie Democrats seceding from the Democratic Party. The rump convention, called after the Democrats had attached President Trumans civil rights program to the party platform, placed Governor Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Governor Fielding L. Wright of Mississippi in nomination.

Up until the post-World War II period, the partys hold on the region was so entrenched that Southern politicians usually couldnt get elected unless they were Democrats. But when President Harry S. Truman, a Democratic Southerner, introduced a pro-civil rights platform at the partys 1948 convention, a faction walked out.

These defectors, known as the Dixiecrats, held a separate convention in Birmingham, Alabama. There, they nominated South Carolina Governor Strom Thurmond, a staunch opposer of civil rights, to run for president on their States Rights ticket. Although Thurmond lost the election to Truman, he still won over a million popular votes.

It was the first time since before the Civil War that the South was not solidly Democratic, Goldfield says. And that began the erosion of the southern influence in the Democratic party.

After that, the majority of the South still continued to vote Democratic because it thought of the Republican party as the party of Abraham Lincoln and Reconstruction. The big break didnt come until President Johnson, another Southern Democrat, signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965.

[ayeonkkot]

Emerging AI and Deep Learning in E-Commerce for Accelerate ASEAN Economic Community

Industrial Revolution 4.0

ASEAN is getting serious in preparing to enter the 4.0 generation industrial revolution. This 4.0 industry is even projected to bring ASEAN into the top 10 largest economies in the world. Five industrial sectors that are the first focus in the application of automation and digitalization are the five are food and beverage industry, automotive, electronics, textiles and chemical industries. In addition to the potential to encourage the industrial sector as well as the national economy as a whole, several possibilities of disruption from the development of technology and digitalization have caused concern among some people including among them being replaced by jobs with the power of machines, robots and artificial intelligence. However still optimistic that there will be many new job opportunities that arise. Along with the development of innovation, the president predicts that there will be 7 to 19 million new jobs opened by 2030. Industrial Revolution 4.0 is the name pinned on the revolutionary trend of industrial development that sinergizes between the huge amount of data growth (Big Data) which is driven primarily by increased connectivity via the Internet of Things and Cloud Computing so that everything has a digital identity and track record, then the data was studied with Advanced Data Mining techniques. The data analysis is complemented by the increasingly flexible development of automation and 3D printing technologies. Basically stepped up by the development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Actually Industry 4.0 is not a new discovery, but an attempt to read industry trends based on technological developments there are 3 Technology Pillars in Industry 4.0:

Physical technology in the form of automation using robots, RFID and 3D printing sensors is growing rapidly, resulting in increasingly efficient industrial production systems

In terms of connectivity in the concept of the Internet of Things, all tools or humans will have digital identities taken from sensors, so the data can be collected in real time. The data will be larger so that it becomes Big Data to accommodate in the Cloud whose capacity is greater. then the relationship and patterns can be studied with Data Mining techniques.

From the side of the system brain The development of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning makes AI able to learn independently and can make decisions independently The aim of Industry 4.0 is to produce self-optimized industries that are very efficient and able to produce in the form of mass customization.

There are 3 things why the industrial era can now lead to Truly Industry Revolution 4.0 such as data availability 90% of the data stored on the internet, generated in the past 2 years produce large amounts of data and grow rapidly every year, computerized ability computers can process up to 318,000 million instructions per second now compared to the 1970s that were only able to process less than 1 million instructions per second, readiness of the world community This is marked by a higher percentage of internet penetration. Industry 4.0 is a continuation of 3 previous industrial revolutions. Industry 1.0 is the time when steam and water-based mechanical production machines are introduced. This technological revolution mechanized the value added process which was based on craft manship in the fabrication world and economically as a whole dominated by the agricultural economy. Production machines are developing. Society changes from farmers to laborers and industrial cities have sprung up. Industry 2.0 is a time when mass production began to grow rapidly. Production lines and conveyor belts are used massively. Although the production line has been used since 1870 in the chicken cutting production line in Cincinnati, Ohio USA. This revolution found its form in the production of Ford Motor cars in the 1920s. Ford Motor and its encounter with the Scientific Management concept brought by Frederick W. Taylor; enabling mass production to occur efficiently. Taylor found that the work system can be built scientifically and quantitatively. Scientific Managers embody the concept of Adam Smith's Division of Labor into systematic gave birth to the science of Time and Motion Study. This science then gave birth to one of the most important sciences in the world: Industrial Engineering. Industry 3.0 occurs when the discovery of a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) in 1969 to the present era. The discovery of PLC opened the door and later became a way for the use of robots and automation in the industry. Technology cluster that directs to Truly Industry 4.0:

Interrelation of Technology Cluster 1 Technology that develops in the physical world: robotics, automation equipment, traditional machinery combined with technology that developed in the cyber world: advanced algorithms, machine learning, high-performance hardware.

Interrelation of Technology Cluster 2 Technology that develops in the physical world: traditional machinery, traditional & semiconductor based sensors Combined with technology that developed in the cyber world: advanced data analytics, management database systems, cloud computing.

Interrelation of Technology Cluster 3 Technology that develops in the physical world: traditional machinery, RFID, automation equipment combined with technology that developed in the cyber world: embedded systems, real-time image processing (e.g. OCR), data storage hardware.

Interrelation of Technology Cluster 4 Technology that develops in the physical world: camera & imaging systems, visual sensors, traditional sensors combined with technology that developed in the cyber world: real-time image processing, advanced data analytical, advanced algorithms

Produce Industry 4.0 solutions, smart environment recognition is smart factory the immediate implications of technological developments that enable high-level connectivity are as following with efficiency from mass production, even mass customization, flexible production systems that can quickly adapt to the variability of customer demand, integration of value from customer into value added system (read: product to be produced) in its entirety, and ability to produce high-value production and services. More specifically, the characteristics of Industry 4.0 are industrial revolutions that have the potential to change industry: from mass production to mass customization, from the volume scale effect to localized & flexible units, from planned make to stock to dynamic make to order, from product to usage, from cost driven to ROCE driven, from Taylorism to flexible work organization and from hard working conditions to attractive work space. Industry 4.0 takes 10-15 years to achieve maturity and should focus sector: climate/energy, health, mobility, security, communication. IoT, Cyber ​​Physical Systems and public funding of 200 million euros with private party funding for R & D: 50% for SMEs.

Readiness of the ASEAN Community

Most of ASEAN country still in a position that is not ready for industrial revolution 4.0. Based on World Economic Forum, country like Indonesia, Vietnam and Cambodia has position in the lower left quadrant or in nascent quadrant. Nascent means complexity and production capability and the driving force of production need still lacking. Thailand and Philippines has position in the lower right quadrant or legacy quadrant. Singapore and Malaysia has position in the higher right quadrant or leading quadrant. In fact, Indonesia is part of the G20 country. But the biggest proportion of GDP actually comes from consumption, around 55% and Net Export is in the 0% position. Most of all addition, some country wants to avoid Middle Income Trap or Economic Vicious Cycle. Influence relationship some country in ASEAN will forever become a developing country. Even though we should change from a country that depends on the rich resources and cheap labor costs, move into a country based on productivity, technology and innovation. In the other hand there are other facts are less rewarding such as Indonesia issues very minimal expenditure on technology for ICT: only 1.3% of GDP, 45 dollars per capita, the increase in labor wages is relatively high, but is not driven by a proportional increase in productivity increases (if compared to China and India). Indonesia is an ASEAN country with the lowest trade flow in ASEAN (37% of GDP) coupled with a decrease in Net Export (0.8% of GDP), foreign investment has stagnated (average 3.4% of GDP 2013-2016), Indonesia experienced deindustrialization: the composition of GDP in the manufacturing sector decreased from 25.2% in 2000 to 21.7% in 2015 and is predicted to decline again to 16.3% in 2030. While our service sector increased by 11.9% growth until 2030 The government hopes: Making Indonesia 4.0 can be a way to revitalize the manufacturing industry to absorb the growth in the number of working age due to demographic bonuses (30 million people in 2015-2030).

Increase net export from 0.8% of GDP in 2016 to 10% of GDP in 2030. Benchmarking of Indonesia's net exports in ASEAN in 2000: 10% of GDP

Increases labor productivity / cost to 2x

Increase the percentage of expenditure on R & D, from 0.3% of GDP in 2016, to 2% in 2030

Based on the feasibility and contribution of value (the size of the Industry and the potential for net export), 5 government-focused industry sectors were chosen: food industry, textile, automation, electronics, chemistry in general, food industry, textile, automation, electronics, chemistry in general, there are should be 10 national priorities in realizing Making ASEAN 4.0:

Improving the flow of material flow by strengthening material production in the upstream sector.

Redesigning the industrial zone by building a national industrial zone road map.

Accommodation of sustainability standards.

Empowering MSMEs including micro-enterprises.

Building a national digital infrastructure.

Attract foreign investment by targeting global leading manufacturing companies

Improving the quality of human resources

Establishment of an innovation ecosystem with the development of Research & Development & Design (R & D & D) centers by the government, private, public, and universities

Implement technology investment incentives by introducing tax exemptions or subsidies for technology adoption and funding support

Harmonization of rules and policies by harmonizing policies and regulations across ministries when viewed, there is still much to be pursued to fill the gap in the roadmap that the government has made.

Prof. Klaus Schwab says there will be a vulnerability such as: lack of adaptation of the organization or business to adaptation: government failure to regulate new technology to optimize profits, cyber security issues, economic inequality, and polarization in society. The concept of the industrial often use to describe the transition process of British society in the 1760s, from an agrarian society to an industrial society with the discovery of a steam engine. Industrial revolution 4.0 is an expert effort to analyze the relationship between each revolution.

IoT is at the Heart of Industry 4.0

IoT is described as an expansion of network connectivity functions, and computing capabilities for devices, objects, sensors, and everyday appliances that are not considered to be computers. The expansion of internet connectivity functionality, and the computing capabilities enable devices to generate data, use data, and exchange data with minimal human intervention (K. Rose, 2015). The Internet of Things has architecture, but there are various opinions about the number of layers. There is a view that the layer of IoT consists of 3 layers, 5 layers, and 6 layers. The 3 layer IoT architecture consists of perception layer, network layer, and application layer (Khalid, 2016). The IoT has 5 layer architecture, consists of perception layer, network layer, layer middleware, application layer, and business layer (R. Khan, 2012). The IoT 6 layer architecture consists of coding layer, perception layer, network layer, layer middleware, application layer, and business layer (M. U.Farooq, 2015). Based on Gartner Analyst said with the IoT, the supply chain will have unprecedented access to data valued by internal and external stakeholder. This present an opportunity for supply chain groups to co-develop new information-based solutions for individual customers or markets. Up to 2 billion internet-connected ‘smart’ devices will be installed generating some $300 billion by 2020. More than half of major new business processes will incorporate some element of IoT by 2020. The 4.0 industrial revolution on the basis of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS), merging of real and virtual worlds. AI and Deep Learning can help in supply chain decision making. There is main point:

Managing fleets: use of sensor-enable IoT solutions the location and speed of vehicles can be tracked and maintenance alerts can be given.

Transporting perishable goods: IoT enable devices allow for monitoring conditions during shipment not just temperature and humidity, but vibrations and shocks as well.

Proactively managing inventory: real time information on inventory and market demands can enable automatic shelf replenishment.

Reliable supply chain with real time visibility for all in-transit inventory:

Complete visibility covering all modes of transportation, capacity and multiparty visibility for each of your buyers to track their order status

Operational efficiency with track and trace

Integration with GPS device and temperature sensors

Intelligent process foe real-time estimated time of arrival, item level tracking and event specific alerts

Bottleneck identification and mitigation

Digital proof of attempt deliveries with digital signatures, material, document photos and feedback rating.

Powerful analytics for business critical insights

Live dashboards for KPI benchmarking and management

Detailed reports and analysis on major time sink to improve turnaround time

Ability to warehouse data source from other applications in your operations technology.

Indonesia’s manufacture output expected to accelerate to 6.5 percent over the next five years from the current five percent. Global enterprises are moving their factories from China to South east Asia, because of low cost of labor. E-Commerce market expected to grow to which calls for robust and agile supply chain. Indonesia comprises of more than 17000 island. Setting up a comprehensive logistics network is a major challenge. With little logistics standardization, it is very difficult to implement automation systems that could increase productivity. Varying development levels across SE Asian countries needs synchronization of various supply chain strategies and digitalization. Industry 4.0 will push the boundaries of current manufacturing operations with faster development cycles, improved A, improved safety, predictive maintenance and real time data and optimization. Emerging technologies for the modern supply chain:

58% companies say IoT is strategies their digital transformation

48% of global economy will be impacted by industrial internet

20% customer interaction by chatbox by 2021

84% companies say AI is key to competitive advantage

50% large industrial companies will use digital twin by 2021

33% industry leaders will be disrupted if they don’t embrace change

Key Supply Chain Challenges

Multichannel proactive customer service

Handle disruption and unpredictable demand with planning and risk management

Build product with safety, quality and compliance

End to end visibility and transaction security through supplier and partner relationship management

Optimize labor, energy and freight cost control

Address changing market demands in today’s dynamic supply chain using short product introduction cycles

Disruptive Technologies enabling SCM Innovations

IoT enabled- internet of things, connect physical equipment and business apps, digital thread

Intelligent: machine learning, artificial intelligence

Interactive: digital twin, augmented reality

Interconnected: block chain and chatbox

Artificial Intelligence is set of algorithms and techniques which can help machine in mimicking human behaviour.

Components of artificial intelligence

Generalized intelligence: intituative load planning (over-loading, SLA delays)

Reasoning: overlap of route clusters, routes choice (traffic-time vs. distance). Knowledge presentation (road/route constraints, docking bays, vehicle specific constraints)

Planning: dynamic planning of load, inventory, fleet, resource

Perception: driver behaviour, location preference

Natural language processing: contextual understanding of costumer’s comments, feedback, address