#mike corbett imagine

[amberbeach]

'THE HARDEST THING'

gif belongs to me

You started dating Mike when you were teenagers. He was two years older than you, and you remembered feeling special when he spoke to you, as he knew how to make people feel important. And Mike often told you that, family aside, you were one of the most important people in his life.

Leo often teased you back then, asking, "When's the wedding?" and you had always laughed it off, but fast forward several years, and here you were, married to your childhood sweetheart.

It wasn't always smooth sailing, no marriage was, but you still believed that you and Mike could survive anything. Fighting wasn't common between you both, as you had a proactive approach, talking about issues before they became problems and led to arguments. But you had been apart from your husband for a few months and when you were finally reunited, it hadn't exactly gone the way you had hoped.

Mike always told you that you were capable of anything, resilient, and not easily defeated when things got tough. But lately, you felt as if he didn't believe it anymore, trying to side-line you from the action, and it frustrated you to no end. When you tried talking to him, he shut you down, not letting you fight your case, and you found yourself standing in your quarters, shouting at each other from across the room after you found out he had spoken to your commander, once again keeping you from the action.

Mike was growing more and more frustrated, feeling backed into a corner, which only added to his temper as you persistently tried to convince him you were fully capable of going on the mission. Leo had entered during the early stages of your argument and immediately regretted it. When he tried to stay out of it, you ordered him to sit down, and the Red Ranger took a seat without argument, surprised as he listened to you both fight, his eyes wide as it escalated until insults were thrown.

You were stunned into silence when Mike mentioned one of your biggest insecurities, and from his expression, you knew he was equally shocked, and just like that, the fight was over. You stormed out of your quarters and Mike sighed as he watched you go, taking a seat, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"What's going on with you two?" Leo spoke up after a few moments, and Mike looked over at his younger brother, sitting back in the chair. And Mike told him about his fears about you fighting against Trakeena and his fears of losing you. Leo understood and knew how much Mike missed the times when you could hike in the hills, overlooking the city from a secluded spot, and forget about the war raging around you long before you joined the fight.

After the brotherly heart-to-heart, Mike left your shared quarters to search for you, finding you standing at a window, arms crossed as you stared out at the stars. You sensed him approaching but didn't glance in his direction, your eyes admiring the stars while he admired you.

"I'm sorry." He spoke up after a few moments, placing his hands behind his back as he looked out the window at the stars. "I didn't mean it."

"Why did you say it?" Your tone was frosty and Mike's shoulders deflated at the possibility of reigniting your fight.

"Because I don't want to lose you." He explained, turning his head to meet your gaze when he noticed you looking at him. "We're not teenagers anymore. We've changed, and you've grown into a formidable force. But that doesn't stop me from worrying about you. I look at you, and I travel back to when I first saw you. We're older now, but I will always be protective over you." He sighed, looking out at the stars. "I never thought there would come a day when we would be apart, but..." He trailed off, and you turned to him fully when his gaze met yours. "I am just so damn scared of losing you again."

You stepped forward, wrapping your arms around his neck, feeling his arms embrace your waist, and resting your chin on his shoulder. "You'll never lose me." You whispered gently. "I want this war over just as much as you do. I watch you, and Leo leave all the time, and it kills me because I could never do anything to help you before. Now I have the chance to."

You lifted your head to meet his gaze, and Mike nodded softly. "I know. I know." He sighed, resting his forehead against yours, and you both closed your eyes.

You placed your hands on the nape of his neck, smiling softly. Mike opened his eyes and lifted his head, meeting your gaze. "I rescinded my statement. They're expecting you at 0800."

You kissed him tenderly, and Mike placed his hands on your cheeks, bringing you closer. You knew how hard it was for him to take a step back and let you carve your own path. After all, you had done the same for him before. The hardest thing you could do in a relationship amid a galactic war was to let your lover join the fight. And Mike understood how you felt when he was determined to do the same all those years ago.

[buildsoil]

This thread was a response to questions about how to build soil. I look at the big picture what helps soil grow & end with a discussions about how towns & cities might be designed to help.

So there’s so much to cover in how to repair things. I’m going to do a slow thread on how the designed and built environment can be directed to soil building and climate repair.

1st thing to think about is what is soil? For brevity i’m going to say soil is the culturing of weathered rock with a food web of microorganisms that leads to making rock nutrients solvable &stores them along with organic carbon. (Soil scientists i know i’m over-simplifying)

I’m talking about aerobic souls formed with oxygen rather than anaerobic. Wetlands souls are amazing and do good. But there are reasons to focus in aerobic for now. (I’m a huge fan of wetlands and pond systems too)

Too much water and too much compaction removes oxygen. The system switches to anaerobes that live by yanking Oxygen off of soil nutrients, making them smell bad and able to leave the soil. They also produce alcohols that prevent plant roots from growing.

So this kind of soil needs: enough air, water, contact with plants (that feed it with sugars and proteins made with photosynthesis and CO2 exuded from their roots.)

Rock weathers into subsoil without a lot of big life, when plants interact with it they build living subsoil through their roots and the accumulation of organic matter on top.

Living soil is protective. So it actually protects the subsoil from some of the processes that speed up formation. Which is why in natural conditions it can settle into a very slow rate of production.

We have been running civilizations in the use of this built up soil. Turning it killing fungi and structure to get bacterial blooms that feed out Annual crops.

This leads to Erosion rates more similar to mountain systems then the low lands where the soil formed. We are burning through our soil to grow and crash quite a few civs

You have to understand. The buffering capacity of our plants souls* could have handled the CO2 from fossil fuels. Only what we used fossil fuels for was to increase erosion, change the balance of water runoff, deforest, and plow over the grasslands every April. 8/?

*Sorry about the autocorrect to soul. Lol

I have to be off-line for a spell but I’ll continue with a discussion about how we design to accelerate that soil building process. Including some references in case studies

So i want to introduce a few puzzle pieces. The first is the work of this man PA Yeomans. He was a mining geologist who retired and starting thinking about soil care from a Geomorphologist POV

When he set off to tend his land, the Australian gov provided soil conservation literature focused on contour plowing. Based on the view that soil is precious(it is) but that it’s impossible to speed its production (it’s not)

The main problems with contour based design can be seen from this image by PA. On land contours are not parallel. This slows water but it drains ridges and concentrates water in valleys. Overdrying and overwriting soil at the same time. Can even blow out.

PA developed a way of understanding topographic features to organize landscapes so that: water is infiltrated, spread, extra collected stored as high as possible to re-hydrate during dry times. He realized this could be used to organize everything on broad acre farmland

This prob is too dense for Twitter. But imagine land as big ridges between streams and they have smaller ridges and valleys. Imagine the inflection point in those smaller valleys where the land nicks in like a clavicle * in the pic 13/

PA called them keyponts and they are : the highest water concentrating point in land, where soils thicken, & any line parallel to this on the land concentrated water above but spreads water below

Now he had a way to organize features. First he placed ponds at those points. Collection drains could be set to collect overland flow and move it into those ponds. Then any roads could follow those drains with minimal impact actually helping water collection.

And bellow, the land could be plowed with a subsoiler that sharpers the subsoil without turning the soil. And he would plow down on ridges and up on valleys which means water spreads.

PAs land:

And here in red are plow lines (or how to organize and water receiving element such as tree rows to spread water along ridges)

Roads, buildings, pasture, agroforestry- whatever could be designed. Roads can also be placed along ridges, Trees get planted along ridges & in valleys and along streams with complete connectivity. And humans move out of valleys to ridges, leaving valleys for soil and wildlife.

This planning process is like adding sourdough starter to flour and sugar and adding just enough water. The subsoil can be reached by water, roots, inoculated by microbes. you can rapidly add feet of topsoil. Keyline farms are amazing. They stop flashy creeks & can repair land

And it should be viewed as appropriate for where people live and farm. Ag land not the giant ranges that could be bison prairies.

So there is more. PAs last book was on how these design methods could be applied to cities and towns. That towns could extend along ridges,roads could direct water into Catchment which could water yards then agricultural & reforested lowlands. He called it “the city forest”

The City Forest by P.A. Yeoman hosted on SoilandHealth.org

Library Rules and Copyright Notice

Think about what this would mean. Human settlements designed so they are collectors of water, human labor, and even humanure, directed towards the generation and care of soils and forestry.

So let’s talk examples. Frederick Law Olmstead designed a number of Stormwater collecting parks Into towns. One of the most famous being Boston’s Emerald Necklace. /24

His son John Charles did something similar when he designed Portland Oregon’s water collecting neighborhood of Lauralhurst. Before the current Stormwater system, Laurelhurst Park was the detention basin.

Next step in the journey Is Davis California in the 80s where Mike Corbett designed village homes a neighborhood designed to handle Stormwater by soaking it in Swales and orchards rather then management systems

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Village_Homes

Here’s a video of Mollison touring the place in the 1990s. https://youtu.be/v_05oRQxssQ I’ve heated that they have managed several very large storm events that flooded their neighbors. All while building the soil and restoring the water table.

Village Homes with Bill Mollison (improved audio)

So:,remember this and this question: what if we really looked for a city that took this approach?

Well, here's Siena Italy which started as a number of little settlements and converged in the hills of Tuscany: that big public square is the Piaza Del Campo- built in the key point of the landscape, The roads collect water into drains and reservoirs under the piazzas.

Link to tweet with 3 Images here

28/ if you look at the landscape you see how this hilltown stayed on the uplands and collected water to irrigate the lowlands.

Link to tweet with 4 Images here

Underground passages for water, the 'fountain of the earth' sits at the keypoint, and the lowland valleys are irrigated and saved for soil...

Link to tweet with 2 Images here

more images of siena form GIS models im building

Link to Tweet with 12 Images here

[matt0044]

This post is in memory of Spot the Plant (2019-2019)

Let us all press F to pay our respects in this moment of silence.

...

...

Okay, moment over. Steel is keen on keeping a pet so he can explore his more human side but Nate only agrees to it if the hi-tech himbo can keep a potted plant healthy for at least a week. I honestly really like how a robot like Steel can just walk around with few batting an eye. I guess the Earth in Power Rangers really has gotten use to advanced tech like with General Burke’s model rockets.

However, Vargoyle activates his Memory Pulsator to rewrite the memories of Coral Harbor’s citizens where Evox never attacked with Blaze and Roxy both Rangers in their minds. I really like it when the last episode is self-contained while doubling as set up for the bigger picture in TV shows. It’s something that Power Rangers has done really well. Yes, even in the earlier Neo-Saban Era. :P

Thankfully, Steel’s circuity negate these transmissions after Devon gets him his potted plant and lets him see the energy rewriting the Red Ranger’s mind. Though the transmissions must have a few side effects since Devon seems disinterested in the FRIGGIN’ robot he’s never seen before and even asks, “What’s a morpher?” Guess the cast of Megaforce was hit with the Pulsator. :/

Steel convinces Devon to get him into Grid Battleforce where they see Blaze and Roxy just waltzing through the front door. Unfortunately, Ben and Betty confiscate their wrist-coms even as Steel does his best impression of Thing from The Addams Family. Seriously, Steel’s own left hand kicking tail was just a treat in and of itself. They just remembered that one gag and had a blast with it.

Vargoyle comes in to take on his robotic Ranger rival while he can’t morph. Devon uses the Karate skills he used on Blaze with a friggin’ pipe and helps Steel play keep away with Spot the plant, even tapping into his Cheetah Speed. I always felt that the Disney Era’s Civilian powers were weird for disappearing when the Rangers morphed but this and Go Busters seem to solve this issue.

Alas Vargoyle destroys our beloved Spot and even put Steel out with the trash for all his trouble. Now that’s just cold. Luckily, Devon get their wrist-coms back so they can get to the Channel 10 News Station. Meanwhile, Blaze and Roxy have the other take the mega transporters for a “project.” The Avatars even sabotage the real Roxy’s stasis pod for what I only guess is a sort of insurance.

I love the shot where Roxy is shown still sleeping while her Avatar messes with her pod in a brilliant show of green screen tech. I’m calling it now. She made it so that the Avatar’s powers would be return to her original body should she be defeated in battle. This way Evox has a mole on the inside or somebody to carry out his will should he himself be deleted. I haven’t seen any spoilers so...

Devon and Steel make it to the station only to find the transmitter fitted with a force-field and the ladder electrified. Devon decides to go find the main power shut-down switch while Steel climbs the ladder himself. Bare in mind that his human part gives him pain receptors and his metallic body conducts the voltage yet he soldiers on towards the top. Spot would be proud, robo-dude.

Devon runs into Vargoyle guarding the main power switch with just enough Morph-X to use his Cheetah Speed. There’s a lot to love about this battle even if it’s lifted from Go Busters. They have the two battling each other at top-speed to the point that they run across the walls and ceiling. It really takes advantage of the close-quarters in the hallway compared your typical open field battles. :)

Perhaps what I love the most about it is how in Go Busters, Hiromu’s battle with Danganloid was made specifically for Mission 10 only and something Enter put as an mere obstacle for his scheme of the week. Beast Morphers, on the other hand, recontextualizes this single battle as the final confrontation with a more recently reoccurring villain built up since Episode 2. Adaptation is just amazing.

Steel reaches his limit just as he busts up the Memory Pulsator. The other Rangers regain their original memories but Blaze and Roxy retreat with the transporters. Devon dispenses of Vargoyle is a really cool strategy of tossing his blaster and speeding up to get a few hit in before combining it with his saber so he can get a close-ranged clean shot. Now I see why they choose this battle.

Steel is brought back to GB for a full system reboot while the main trio go out to face Vargoyle’s Gigadrone. Vargodrone? Anyways, Steel pulls through and is rewarded with a trip to the pet shop. Unfortunately for Devon, he picks a dog and cause the Red Ranger to freeze up. It’s nice to see that weakness again though I get why Beast Morphers doesn’t milk it too much like Go Busters did.

Steel does realize that he might not have the time to care for Spot 2.0 as a Ranger and give it to a young girl in a scene that made me go, “Awww...” Though it’s a shame we couldn’t get a dog as a mascot for the show, I would imagine that Devon’s actor might find it challenging to freeze up unmorphed. Though imagining all the outtakes would make it totally worth it. Just saying. :P

Meanwhile, the Bumbling Burkes travel across the universe due to a cracked Mega Transporter. Seriously, they’re in space for a second and are totally fine without a suit. Then again, Mike Corbett was totally fine after losing the Magna Defender power in the vacuum so I guess they’re being consistent. In a way. :/

Next time, Evox’s latest power play truly begin...

[moviesandmania]

IT: Chapter Two will be released by Warner Bros. in the USA on Digital on November 19th 2019 and on 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital combo (the one to get!), Blu-ray + DVD + Digital combo and Special Edition DVD on December 10th. Content options vary in other regions but they should be released around the same time.

Special features:

Audio commentary with director Andy Muschietti

Pennywise Lives Again!

This Meeting of the Losers Club Has Officially Begun

Finding the Deadlights

The Summers of IT: Chapter One, You’ll Float Too

The Summers of IT: Chapter Two, IT Ends

Here’s our previous coverage of the movie with stacks of reviews:

IT: Chapter Two is a 2019 American supernatural horror feature film directed by Andy Muschietti (Mama) from a screenplay Gary Dauberman (The Nun; Annabelle; Within; Wolves at the Door; et al), based on the novel by Stephen King. Seth Grahame-Smith and Barbara Muschietti produced.

Bill Skarsgård returns as Pennywise the clown, with Jessica Chastain (Crimson Peak; Mama) as adult Beverly, Bill Hader (The Skeleton Twins) as Richie, James McAvoy as Bill, James Ransone (Sinister; Sinister 2) as Eddie, Isaiah Mustafa (Shadowrunner: The Mortal Instruments) as Mike Hanlon, Andy Bean (Allegiant) as Stanley, Jay Ryan (Mary Kills People) as the adult Ben Hanscom.

Plot:

Twenty-seven years later, the members of the Loser’s Club have grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them back…

Reviews:

“The group dynamics of the (very good) cast propel the film as each Losers Club member faces down his or her personal demons. (Chastain especially gives the material a lift.) Taking each storyline at a time, all accompanied by flashbacks, gives each character some depth, even as the crowded film — at nearly three-hours long — verges on turning into a clown car.” Jake Coyle, Associated Press

“The whole film is going damn near overboard, for better and worse. It’s easy to admire Muschietti’s film for its excess and imagination. It’s easy to watch and enjoy it as a fright flick. It’s just harder to connect with the adult versions of these characters than it should be, and it’s harder to take this story seriously than it was before.” William Bibbiani, Bloody Disgusting

” …each scene begins relatively innocently before exploding into a waking nightmare that preys on the worst fears and repressed memories of each of the Losers. All good stuff, but more often than not, director Muschietti and the first-rate special effects team deliver gross-out visuals in favor of truly chilling and tense psychological terror. I mean, the Losers have to deal with a lot of arachnid-inspired imagery.” Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times

“The devotion that Dauberman and Muschietti exhibit towards the Losers is palpable from start to finish, and despite some pitfalls in the film’s pacing, overall what they’ve managed to achieve with their collaborative efforts on IT Chapter Two is nothing short of monumental, and I think they’ve crafted something very special with these two films.” Heather Wixson, Daily Dead

“A psychologically merciless sequel, everything here is as it should be: deeper, scarier, funnier. Muschietti, in particular, has stepped up, skilfully guiding us through a rollicking funhouse. It is obscenely entertaining.” Alex Godfrey, Empire

” …even if Chapter One was example enough, there are no diminishing returns when it comes to shock value. Any time Pennywise feeds on life there is genuine sadness over the loss (the naivety and insecurities of his child victims contrasted with Bill Skarsgård’s master manipulator tendencies ensure it so), whether it’s a character we are attached to or someone newly introduced. ” Richard Kodjer, Flickering Myth

“The terror of Pennywise is best glimpsed fleetingly. See the clown too many times, and he becomes a familiar joke. But also letting the air out of things is Muschietti’s penchant for CGI scares, where practical effects would be far more effective. The movie’s many monstrosities – a crawling eyeball! a giant spider! an insect with the head of a human infant! – don’t inspire fear.” Barry Hertz, The Globe and Mail

” …Chapter Two seems to consist of an indefinite number of big, scary set pieces, featuring interchangeable snaggle-toothed creatures, or occasionally gigantic, fairground-sized monsters lurching grotesquely up out of nowhere. The scenes deliver reasonably efficient scares, but with the tension level repeatedly and disconcertingly reset afterwards to zero…” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Muschietti’s faithful adaptation, with all its creative and creepy set pieces, can’t justify that ass-numbing run time; especially not when the characters are just doing a lot of the same things they did in the first movie. They run into cobwebbed houses, stare down nightmarish visions and get tangled up with a clown that can morph into all kinds of silly, gigantic creatures. It’s all so easily forgettable.” Radheyan Simonpillai, Now Toronto

“Chapter Two is darker than the first, Bill’s attempt to deal with the guilt of losing his little brother by saving another ending in a brutal bit of bloodshed. Yet there are really only a couple of scary jolts, too many scary CGI puppets repeating themselves, too many effects beholden to Carpenter’s The Thing. McAvoy feels miscast here, perhaps a first for the actor.  Chastain, Ransone and Hader do a great job updating their childhood counterparts…” Laura Clifford, Reeling Reviews

“Maybe it’s just that an evil clown terrorizing kids is intrinsically scarier than one going after adults. Or maybe it’s that the filmmakers, apparently believing this themselves, put the majority of their focus on a series of digitally created monstrosities. Whatever the case, It: Chapter Two, though ultimately satisfying, doesn’t get at the deep-seated creeps its predecessor did.” Michael Gingold, Rue Morgue

“IT: Chapter Two never really depicts the way dewy sentimentality can curdle into pain and regret or considers whether the other side of middle age offers a way of letting go of the past. Its monster only occasionally embodies the otherworldly fearfulness that leads the characters to speak of it in hushed tones. But at least Muschietti is trying for something epic and intimidating…” Keith Phipps, The Verge

” …when the filmmakers don’t force the story to fit into strict parameters and just let the story flow with these characters that we love, IT Chapter Two can be just as effective and emotional as the first film. For fans of the novel, you shouldn’t miss this because much of what we love about the book makes its way to the screen, even if it can’t completely hit every high point. IT Chapter Two is clunky, too long, and not as scary as it could have been, but when it hits, it really hits.” Alan Cerny, Vital Thrills

“Real trauma is given the same consideration as a literal funhouse of horrors, which cheapens what the characters and audience are put through.” Alan Silberman, Washington Post

“What stands out in It Chapter Two is not the clearly labored-over insect effects but that moment with Mrs Kersh and the scene of Pennywise as Beverly’s father — both reliant on actors rather than technical wizardry. The human eye can tell that there is not much in effects but effects themselves with a story like this about evil. But an actor like Gregson or Skarsgård can channel evil for us because they are human…” Dan Callahan, The Wrap

NB. Scroll further down past the trailers for YouTube reviews

The New Line Cinema production is obviously the sequel to the smash-hit horror movie IT (2017) which took a whopping $700,381,748 at the box office worldwide against a reported budget of $35 million.

Controversy:

As reported by 9news, some parents in Australia say that giant billboards of Pennywise’s face have been giving their young children nightmares.

“It just totally freaks them out,” Brisbane mother Kellie told the Australian news outlet, speaking about her kids’ reaction to the billboards. Her daughter Piper added: “I get really scared because it’s hard to go to bed when you have a scary picture in your mind. Before I go to bed, I have to check the whole room. And when I finally go to bed I will wake up after a nightmare.”

Another mother also told 9news that her child is terrified by the imagery. “Some people do enjoy going to horror movies and that’s fine and that’s their choice, and I understand that but we’re not choosing to see this poster,” said Jane, who issued a complaint with Ad Standards. The latter body has confirmed that the ads don’t break any of their rules. [Source: Bloody Disgusting]

Production:

Filming on IT: Chapter 2 officially began on June 20 in Toronto with a release date of September 6, 2019.

Background:

IT: Chapter Two clocks in at a whopping 169 minutes.

“A movie is very different when you’re writing the script and you’re building a story compared to what the final product is,” director Andy Muschietti told Digital Spy and other press.

“At the beginning, when you’re writing and building the beats of the story, everything that you put in there seems very essential to the story. However, when you have the movie finally edited and it’s 4 hours long, you realise that some of the events and some of the beats can be easily lifted but the essence of the story remains intact.

“You cannot deliver a 4-hour movie because people will start to feel uncomfortable – no matter what they see – but we ended up having a movie that is 2 hours and 45 minutes, and the pacing is very good. “Nobody who’s seen the movie has had any complaint.”

Cast and characters:

Jack Dylan Grazer … Young Eddie

James McAvoy … Bill Denbrough

Jessica Chastain … Beverly Marsh

Bill Skarsgård … Pennywise

Sophia Lillis … Young Beverly

Finn Wolfhard … Young Richie

Bill Hader … Richie Tozier

Jaeden Martell … Young Bill

Jay Ryan … Ben Hanscom

Kate Corbett … Dean’s Mom

Javier Botet

Xavier Dolan … Adrian Mellon

James Ransone … Eddie Kaspbrak

Owen Teague … Patrick Hockstetter

Jess Weixler … Audra Phillips

Jake Weary … John ‘Webby’ Garton

Nicholas Hamilton … Young Henry

Wyatt Oleff … Young Stanley

Isaiah Mustafa … Mike Hanlon

Jeremy Ray Taylor … Young Ben

Jackson Robert Scott … Georgie Denborough (rumored)

Teach Grant … Henry Bowers

Andy Bean … Stanley Uris

Chosen Jacobs … Young Mike

Stephen Bogaert … Mr. Marsh

Logan Thompson … Victor Criss

Taylor Frey … Don Hagarty

Ryan Kiera Armstrong … Victoria

Janet Porter … Richie’s Mother

Jake Sim … Belch Huggins

Amanda Zhou … Waitress

Kelly Van der Burg … Victoria’s Mom

Angela Thompson … Comedy Show Patron

Will Beinbrink … Tom Rogan

Ari Cohen … Rabbi Uris

Lyla Elliott … Dead Young Girl

Angelica Alejandro … Asian Waitress

Rob Ramsay … Meaner Nurse

Divan Meyer … Audience Member

Erik Junnola … Bully

Anthony Ulc … Joe The Butcher

Martavius Gayles … Paramedic

Connor Smith … Carny

Shannon Widdis … Cheerleader #1

John Connon … John Koontz

Elena Khan … Derry townsperson

Chris Jiggins … Paramedic

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Image credits: Brooke Palmer / Warner Bros. Entertainment

Jump forward four minutes for review:

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IT: Chapter Two released on 4K Ultra-HD, Blu-ray, DVD, Digital soon – invite Pennywise into your home! IT: Chapter Two will be released by Warner Bros. in the USA on Digital on November 19th 2019 and on…

[canadianabroadvery]

  In a recent interview with The Corbett Report, the Ron Paul Institute’s Daniel McAdams spoke disdainfully of those ostensibly anti-interventionist libertarians who picked this moment of all times to loudly and aggressively condemn Venezuela’s president Maduro, just as the US power establishment is ramping up its campaign to topple the Venezuelan government.

“All of a sudden now there are millions of Venezuela experts in America, and many of them could not point Venezuela out on a map five days ago,” McAdams said. “And everyone has to have this disclaimer, ‘Well, I know it’s probably worse than North Korea, but the US government shouldn’t get involved.’ It’s cowardice, because once the war starts, they can say ‘Hey I never called for US intervention!’ No, but you’re a conveyor belt for propaganda. You’re a conveyor belt to get the machine ginned up for war. And so you’ve got to stand up and take responsibility.”

McAdams has for years consistently operated in the hub of one of America’s most forceful and effective branches of opposition to US interventionism, and he is absolutely correct here. On both sides of America’s political divide, the primary objections you will see to this administration’s campaign to delegitimize and topple the Venezuelan government are prefaced with a strong condemnation of Maduro followed by some feeble equivocations voicing vague objections to Trump’s actions, if that.

Even more often, what you will see is excuses made for the US government’s aggressive attempts to control who runs Venezuela, followed by some mumbling along the lines of “I don’t want us to go to war, though” dribbling out of the corner of their mouths. Some silly, arbitrary line in the sand saying that Trump’s current ongoing starvation sanctions, CIA covert ops and premeditated campaign to delegitimize and overthrow Venezuela’s government is fine, and hey, maybe arming some right-wing militias via Columbia would be fine too, but don’t send American troops to do the killing or we’ll be a tad upset.

All these wimpy, wishy washy “I oppose US interventionism sorta kinda but not really P.S. fuck Maduro” mouth noises are infuriatingly obnoxious, for a number of reasons. Firstly, someone who claims to be antiwar or anti-interventionist but reserves their objections solely for the most overt forms of warfare is not really antiwar or anti-interventionist, because warfare in modern times is designed to take many less overt forms in order to prevent the kind of attention-grabbing public objections seen over Vietnam and Iraq. A look at what the US empire did to Libya and Syria shows that hundreds of thousands can be killed, millions can be displaced, and humanitarian disasters beyond our ability to imagine can be unleashed without any overt conventional invasion.

Secondly, by wrapping your resistance to US warmongering in loud criticisms of the Venezuelan government and “Go people’s rebellion!” cheerleading, you are functioning as a pro bono propagandist for the CIA and the US State Department, and thereby helping to advance the warmongering agendas of those depraved agencies.

Before they launch missiles, they launch narratives. Before they drop bombs, they drop ideas. Before they invade, they propagandize. Before the killing, there is manipulation. The front line of any antiwar movement is a fight against mass media psyops. What you're doing matters.

 — @caitoz

A common refrain is “It’s possible to be opposed to US interventionism while also opposing these tyrannical governments, you know.” But it isn’t. Not realy. It’s impossible to oppose US interventionism while also helping to advance its propaganda narratives against targeted governments.

All US-led military agendas begin with propaganda. If the public were allowed to see the reality of war with fresh eyes, they would all instantly recoil in horror and adamantly demand its immediate end. The only reason the US-centralized empire is able to sow death and destruction around the world without this happening is because of propaganda, which is why Americans are the most aggressively propagandized people in the world: the violent agendas of the most powerful military force ever assembled are far too important to be left up to the will of the citizenry.

So before they can launch missiles, planes, and ships, they launch propaganda. They launch mass media psyops. They launch narrative control campaigns to make sure that Americans hate the leader of Targeted Nation X and want the people of Targeted Nation X to have Freedom and Democracy™. Day after day after day, they seed the idea that Targeted Leader X “must go”, until the story has become so thoroughly indoctrinated that it almost looks like the US and its allies have no choice but to intervene with increasingly violent measures.

When you help advance those propaganda narratives, you are actively facilitating the first steps of war in a very real way. It’s the same as if you personally picked up a rifle and began picking people off; the only difference is that you’re participating in an earlier stage of the bloodshed rather than a later one. The people are just as dead in the end as if you personally had killed them with your own hands, you just helped with an earlier part of the mechanizations of war rather than a later one. Hell, the one firing the bullets is arguably in a more moral position, because at least they’re putting something on the line and reckoning sincerely with the reality of what they’re doing. The one hiding behind a keyboard and acting as a pro bono war propagandist while inserting “…but I oppose direct interventionism” at the end is vastly more cowardly and dishonest. In the end, the one with the gun is just delivering the bullet that was put in the mail by the propagandist.

Life pro tip: If you find yourself cheering for the same "people's uprising" in a foreign nation that the US State Department says you should cheer for, it's because you've been propagandized. Please revise your media consumption habits and critical thinking skills accordingly.

 — @caitoz

Over and over and over I run into this stupid herd mentality while arguing about this stuff online where people (seemingly deliberately) conflate the notion of Venezuelans sorting out Venezuelan affairs with US interventionism. I’ll be clearly and explicitly condemning US interventionism, and some foam-brained Trump supporter will come up to me saying “I don’t understand, Caitlin! Why don’t you support the Venezuelan people??”

That phrase, “the Venezuelan people,” incidentally, is exclusively used in propaganda articles to refer to those who support regime change in Venezuela, as documented here by Fair.org’s Alan MacLeod. Like the people who support their government aren’t Venezuelan people.

And I don’t mean to just single out Trump supporters here; they’re just the ones who are more vocally gung-ho for this particular intervention. For the last two years I’ve had Democrats up in my face all the time calling me a “genocide denier” and an “Assad apologist” for opposing the Syrian war propaganda and demanding to know why I hate the Syrian people. The rest of the time I’m being asked why I don’t support the Iranian people by Republicans and why I love Putin by Democrats. This mind virus is totally bipartisan.

I oppose interventionism, but I like to act as a pro bono CIA propagandist and regurgitate US State Department talking points at every opportunity." ~ Old partisan hack proverb

 — @caitoz

It is unlikely that the US war machine is gearing up for an all-out invasion of Venezuela as its Plan A. That’s not its MO. First we’re likely to see continually tightening starvation sanctions, more narrative control, more CIA covert operations, and the arming of oppositional militias within Venezuela. If that doesn’t work we can perhaps expect to see some drone warfare and a coalition being formed, with ground troops sent in only if these other measures fail to rip the country apart by themselves, and only if our rulers can manufacture consent for it. The time to begin disrupting that consent-manufacturing apparatus is now, not later.

The only thing keeping the public from using its numbers to force an end to imperialist warmongering is that most people lack a deep understanding of how horrific and widespread it is, and the only thing preventing them from developing that understanding is propaganda. By regurgitating the propaganda narratives being spouted by neoconservative death cultists like Mike Pompeo, John Bolton and Elliott Abrams, you are helping them pave the road to acts of mass slaughter as sure as if you were perpetrating it yourself.

If you wouldn’t go to a country and start killing everyone between you and its leader personally, stop helping to construct the narrative framework that is being set up to accomplish exactly that. The most powerful thing in our society is narrative. Please treat it with an appropriate level of respect.

[democratsunited-blog]

How N.H. Democrats could retake the House

https://uniteddemocrats.net/?p=5019

How N.H. Democrats could retake the House

It’s been thrown around so easily as to be nearly meaningless: the “blue wave.”

This is the rising sense – borne out through special election results both across the country and within the state – that a relatively unpopular president and an energized progressive base will lead to change in November.

Republicans aren’t buying it – publicly, at least.

“The only blue wave I know of is the one on the Pacific coast,” quipped House Majority Leader Dick Hinch at a recent press conference.

But privately, some party insiders say it’s an open possibility. And there is some history behind the idea; in this purple state, New Hampshire’s 400-member House of Representatives has seen 100-seat swings in recent elections, and flipped between the parties three times in the last decade.

With victories in 11 of the latest 13 special elections, Democrats are increasingly expressing confidence they can take back the chamber, a first since 2014.

So could they? And if they did, how might they do it? We analyzed the election results district-by-district – sorting each single and multi-member seat by total party vote share to see which ones the Democrats will need to pick off.

Democrats closed out the two-year session with 169 out of the 385 remaining members of the House. If the party manages to hold all the seats it previously won, it will need 32 more.

Here’s what recent election results say: Of the 159 sitting Republican representatives running for re-election, 35 of them are doing so in districts in which their party won 55 percent or less of the vote in 2016.

Whether the blue wave materializes is an open question. But if it does, here are some of the Republican representatives most vulnerable:

(Visit concordmonitor.com to see the full list.)

Gene Chandler, R-Bartlett

Yes, that Gene Chandler. It may seem surprising that the outgoing Speaker of the House – a two-time Speaker and 18-term representative no less – should find his seat threatened, but Carroll’s District 1 has seen a notable swing to the left in recent years. Compare 2012, when Chandler commanded an imposing 62 percent of the vote – and 2014, when he took 58 percent – to 2016. In the year of President Donald Trump, Chandler lost considerable ground, holding the seat with just 52 percent.

His Democratic challenger the last two election seasons: Erik Corbett, a former restaurant owner and ski area manager who recently sat on Bernie Sanders’s steering committee. Corbett is running a third time this year, hoping to finally close that gap. But with a higher profile following a year with the Speaker’s gavel, Chandler may yet manage to hold him off another two years.

Jim McConnell, R-Swanzey

McConnell is a newcomer to the House, but he’s quickly made his mark. An outspoken conservative, the Swanzey Republican helped found the Freedom Caucus, which enginereed the defeat of the House budget last year. And he’s already taken two unsuccessful swings at the Speaker’s office, promising transparency and a curtailment of the powers of the Finance Committee.

But none of that may matter in the heart of Cheshire County, the bluest corner of the state. McConnell, who shares his district with a Democrat, is the only realistic pick-up opportunity in the county for Democrats for a clear reason: He’s one of the only Republican representatives there at all. After earning a 47 percent overall share of the vote last time, Democrats will be gunning for the other half.

Brian Seaworth, R-Pembroke

Seaworth sits in one of the most evenly-divided districts in the state – Merrimack’s 20th, which saw an even 50 percent split among voters in 2016. He occupies his district’s seat alongside two Democrats, both of whom are running for re-election. And he’s faced upheaval before; in 2012 he was voted out as his seat turned fully blue.

Still, with only one other Democrat filing alongside the incumbents, Seaworth effectively has only one challenger: first-timer Clint Hanson of Pembroke. Hanson has plenty of credentials though, with extensive experience as a financial aid director at several New Hampshire colleges and the president of the New Hampshire School Boards Association Board of Directors. Expect a tough fight.

Brandon Phinney, L-Rochester

When Brandon Phinney won his election last year, he won as a Republican, and by a narrow 2.6 percent margin. As of last July, he’s jumped to the Libertarian party. How that affects his next race will be something to watch, especially with a new Republican challenger this time, Mona Perreault, a fiscal hawk with ideological ties to activist Jerry DeLemus.

But Phinney has a lot in his favor. The district has stayed in Republican control for the last three elections, and it voted for Trump by 10 points – though only after rejecting Mitt Romney by seven. And Phinney’s Democratic opponent, Jeremiah Minihan, has so far had a relatively low profile.

Phil Bean, R-Hampton

Phil Bean is in another district that stretches the imagination: Rockingham 21. On the left, there’s Renny Cushing, progressive stalwart, long-time representative and potential future Speaker candidate – as well as Mike Edgar. On the right: Phil Bean and Tracy Emerick, cut-and-dried Republicans. In Hampton, apparently, there’s room for everyone.

Bean, a first-time candidate, took the highest share of votes in 2016 in the four-seat district, despite facing three incumbents. But the seat was closely fought; each of the winners came within a percentage of each other, and the four runners-up were just a point or two behind. This year, Cushing and Edgar are making another go, joined by two first-timers hoping for a party surge.

Add to that another problem for Bean: He’s being targeted on the right. Bean is one of dozens of Republicans being targeted by Americans for Prosperity for voting against a “right-to-work” bill championed by the governor last year. One mailer released recently reads: “Governor Sununu supports worker rights in the Granite State, but what has Rep. Philip Bean done for us?” Bean and Emerick are part of a Republican field of five for four seats, setting the makings of an interesting primary.

Beyond the incumbents running again, Democrats have an additional handful of pickup opportunities in districts won by Republicans last year by fewer than 10 points. These are the open seats: the ones in which the incumbents who narrowly won them last year have declined to run again. To name a few: one seat in Merrimack 1, vacated by Anne Copp, R-Danbury; two seats in Strafford 4, left open by Leonard Turcotte, R-Barrington and Jackey Cilley, D-Barrington; three seats in Belknap District 2, after the departure of Marc Abear, R-Meredith, Norman Silber, R-Gilford, and Herb Vadney, R-Meredith; and a seat in Merrimack 23, left open by J.R. Hoell, R-Dunbarton.

That latter seat will prove its own litmus test. Hoell has defined himself over his four terms as a fiscal hawk to be reckoned with, wielding vast influence among a team of conservatives bordering on Libertarians in the back rows of the House floor. Such is his presence, it’s easy to forget that he won his seat just under 200 votes ahead of the nearest Democrat last election day – and behind Mary Beth Walz, the incumbent Democratic candidate. Bow and Dunbarton, like so many other towns, are ideologically complex, leaving many possibilities come Nov. 6.

Depending on how you view them, the 35 Republicans running for re-election with the weakest historical hold over their seats are either the Democrats’ best hope for flipping the House or Republican’s last bulwark in favor of keeping it.

Whether the blue wave swells as much Democrats hope it will – if it shows up at all – is unknowable. But the numbers make one thing clear: It will have to be more than a ripple for the gavel to change hands.

(Ethan DeWitt can be reached at edewitt@cmonitor.com, or on Twitter at @edewittNH.)

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[amberbeach]

'MOVIE NIGHT'

gif belongs to me

You placed the popcorn on the coffee table, turning when the door opened and Mike walked in, a smile on his lips as he walked towards you.

"Sorry, I'm late."

He walked over to peck your lips before going to change his shirt. You sat in front of the television, looking through the movies. Mike walked in and you held up two movies you couldn't choose between.

"It's a tie." You told him.

Mike looked between them, before shrugging his shoulders. "Why not both?"

"You think the universe will allow it?" You asked with a smile.

He chuckled, sitting on the sofa while you put on one of the movies, moving to join him on the sofa. "I don't know, but I want to try." He smiled, placing his arm over your shoulders as you cuddled into his side, resting your head on his chest.

Throughout the movie, Mike stole glances at you, smiling when you laughed at the rom-com. He cherished moments like this because he knew at the drop of a hat he would have to leave to attend his duties. It was moments like these where he was happiest.

[amberbeach]

'SEE YOU AGAIN'

gif belongs to kidrix

Leo had told you the news. Mike had fallen into an abyss and was presumed dead. He had held you when you crumbled to the floor and promised you that he would find his brother.

The not knowing was the worst part, you thought. Then as time passed and your mind formed gut-wrenching conclusions. But the worst part was realizing that he may not be coming back.

Leo visited you often, and you knew he didn't like seeing you so upset. So you tidied the house and took a long bath. When he came to see you that day, you were a different person. You knew he felt like he was letting his brother down by not finding him, and seeing how devastated you were wasn't helping.

Then Leo vanished for weeks. You didn't hear from him, didn't see him, and you wondered if he had met the same end as your fiancee did.

You felt yourself slipping away slowly, faced with a harsh reality that life went on regardless.

And then you started getting sick. You brushed it off at first until you were too weak. When the doctor told you, you weren't sure how to feel. You and Mike had discussed having children and agreed that it should happen naturally. And now he was gone, and you were two months along, wondering where you went from here.

You returned home and found the door open. Your eyebrows furrowed as you slowly pushed the door open further. You heard two male voices and followed them to the living room.

Leo turned around, and your eyes widened when you saw he was covered in bruises and dirt. "Where have you been?" He hugged you tightly, and you rested your head on his shoulder.

"I could ask you the same thing." You said, taking a step back.

"About that..."

You heard footsteps and looked up when a figure appeared in the doorway.

"M-Mike?" You placed a hand over your mouth, your eyes never leaving his as he stepped forward.

"Hey, beautiful."

You hugged him tightly, and he lifted you, turning around. You placed your hands on his cheeks, kissing him passionately.

"I've missed you so much. I didn't think I'd ever see you again." He wiped away your tears with his thumbs, smiling softly.

"I missed you too." He wrapped his arms around you, and you cried on his shoulder.

You placed your hands on his shoulders, lifting your head after a few minutes. "I-I have something I have to tell you...I'm pregnant."

His eyes widened but he stayed silent.

"I'm two months along and -" Your eyes closed when he kissed you. Mike hugged you tightly.

You looked at Leo when he spoke up, "Congratulations!"

You smiled as you stepped away to hug him. Mike smiled at you both before stepping forward, putting his arms around you both. You pouted when he ruffled your hair.

"Hey!"

The brothers laughed, and you smiled, watching them together. A giggle left your lips for the first time in a long time.

Mike was finally home. And you thanked your lucky stars that he was safe.