#no women in the nfl!!! not allowed!!!

[greyeyedmonster-18]

(my favorite thing is when the sports players dont do what theyre supposed to and the camera pans to the coach and they all look like disappointed dads)

[didhewinkback]

HOW is twitter still talking about the t swift golden globes joke

[chubbydino]

we will know when f1 is Americanized when the WAGs wear customized driver “jersey” merch all race weekend

[kumkaniudaku]

Requesting sadness 15: “I can’t do this anymore.” w/ Terry Richmond but it could be an unrequited love story that maybe was reciprocated idk

@pocketsizedpanther put NFL!Terry in my mind and this is what came up.

Silence. Unusual, unbearable silence. The kind of silence that hung in the air thick like humidity in Georgia, choking the life out of every living being in its vicinity. 

Silver forks scratched porcelain plates while two lovers sat across from each other trying to salvage a romantic dinner gone awry before it could ever start. Terry sensed the discomfort when he flew into town with no welcoming hug at the end of the tarmac. She left no text, no call, not even an insight into her whereabouts via Instagram stories. Only an empty space where her pretty red BMV usually sat awaiting his return. 

She hadn’t been in the stands lately either. From the cloudless skies of Los Angeles to the bitter chill of Philadelphia, she was a mainstay on the sidelines, wearing his last name on her back like a badge of honor. But tickets had gone unclaimed here and there. Not enough to raise alarms, but enough for him to bring it up as they dug into the night’s dinner. 

“If you wasn’t trynna be in the cold, that’s cool too. It’s just…you know. I wanted you to be there to see us win the conference. It’s kind of a big deal. First time in like six seasons or something like that. I don’t know. I just got here.”

“I’m sorry.” 

“You don’t have to be sorry. I’d rather make sure you’re good than get tight over a game. Football isn’t more important than you. You straight?” He shoveled a forkful of branzino into his mouth, looking across the table for a response that she never provided. “Tia, what’s up? You feeling alright?” 

“I’m fine.” 

“Did I forget something?” 

“No.” 

“Somebody DM you something crazy? Fans bothering you again? Let me know something.” 

Her distant stare slowly drifted to his face with tears welling in her waterline. “I-Terrence, I can’t do this anymore?” 

“Do what? What you mean?” He knew. He’d seen the text messages and how she rushed out of the room to answer phone calls. The rumor mills and blind item reports never missed a beat. Atlanta wasn’t a city for secrets. But, he prayed that they’d been mistaken. Taking a sip of his water, he took a deep breath and repeated himself. “What can’t you do anymore? Sneak around like I can’t see you? Lie? Cheat? What is it, Tia?”��

Each question came out louder than the one before, making Tia wince in her seat. 

She knew he’d never put his hands on her. Terry was too sweet for that. So sweet that it made life boring. Being a kept trophy wife wasn’t her speed, but she allowed him to woo her in the VIP section of a club in Las Vegas and drag her back to a slow life full of WAG meetings and nosey neighbors. The thrill of being All Star tight end Terrence Richmond’s girlfriend lost its luster the moment engagement rings and wedding dresses became the topic of every conversation. 

One-night stands turned into sneaking around during long road trips until feelings and another life threw a wrench in what was supposed to be a quick fling with someone far too stupid to be a long-term beau. She’d fucked up. 

“It’s not you,” she choked out, trying to offer him some solace. “He was around when you weren’t and I-”

“Bro, don’t explain that shit to me! You don’t think I’m lonely sometimes? That I don’t meet women ready to fill a void if I snap my fingers? C’mon, Tia. This me you talkin’ to right now! Stop playing in my face!” 

He was fuming and fighting to keep his emotions at bay as he paced across the lavish dining room. 

Tia drew in a deep breath to calm the tears forcing a painful lump into her throat. “I’m sorry, Terry. I know I messed up. I embarrassed you and I’m so fucking sorry for that.” 

“Did you fuck him?” Dread attacked their bellies simultaneously. Seconds passed so slowly that he looked over at the wall clock to make sure time wasn’t standing still. Her silence became confirmation. 

She swallowed hard and nodded. “I’m pregnant. Yesterday makes eight weeks. Terry...”

“The Houston game, wasn’t it. When you said you got sick halfway through and had to leave early. You lied in front of my mama and got pregnant while she was worried about you. You fuckin’ sick in the head, Tia, what the fuck!”

Any explanation Tia intended to offer became lost in a swirl of profanity and angry shouting. Betrayed was the prevailing sentiment. All of his hopes for a family smiling back at him before pre-game intros were dashed, leaving him grieving in real-time. He blamed himself for believing that she was ready for something serious and ignoring the warnings. Now, all he had to show for his blind optimism was a broken heart. 

Tia watched Terry dissolve into a near rage with tears ruining her foundation as they poured without ceasing. All of the trust, all of the love they’d built in two years together was washed away by her selfishness. 

“You gotta go,” he finally managed to grit through clenched teeth. “Get the fuck out. Nah, fuck it. I’ll go. You stay until I can get some shit figured out, but you can’t stay here past the weekend.”

“Terrence! I don’t have anywhere to go!” 

“That’s not my fuckin’ problem! Call your sister or that nigga or some shit, I don’t care. All I’ve ever done is take care of you. If you think you can keep makin’ a fool outta me, you got the wrong motherfucka. This shit is over. Forreal this time!”

“But, I can’t -” 

“What the fuck are you fighting for, Tia? You made your decision. Deal with that shit!”

Sobbing and pleas to rethink his decision hit the condo’s walls like bricks, likely fueling a noise complaint that would be slapped on the door come morning. Tia listened to Terry rifle through drawers and closets on the hunt for enough to get him through a few nights at the Four Seasons. 

He just needed to blow off some steam. They’d been in this place before, angry and screaming at the top of their lungs behind her indiscretions, only to come back together and push the pain of the past to the far recesses of their mind. But, as he stomped his way out of the front door and into the night without so much as a second look, the future became more clear. 

He was gone. For good this time.

[shitswiftiessay]

so travis kelce (or rather, his team) has been frantically deleting old tweets that have resurfaced, in which he bodyshames people (but especially women), uses the r-slur, makes fun of autistic children, says it’s funny to watch fat people fall, and appears to be offended that they allow such “ugly”cheerleaders and female basketball players to exist.

and swifties, predictably, are going out of their way to DEFEND this man. because he’s taylor’s future husband in their eyes, and anyone who is good in taylor’s eyes is good in their eyes. swifties have proven time and time again that they ONLY care about misogyny when it happens to taylor. and they are even willing to defend brittany and jackson mahomes because if they hang out with taylor, then they MUST be good people! 🙄 (and we all know taylor swift is an infallible judge of character!)

the excuses they make for this man are absolutely pathetic. what makes you so damn sure that travis has “changed”? he was calling women breeders on his podcast earlier this year and before that, talked about how it’s a dealbreaker if a woman won’t give him oral sex before the 4th date.

he has a PR team to help clean up his image since he joined the NFL, but that doesn’t mean he’s a genuinely better person or changed man.

and, i’m sorry, but swifties are the LAST fucking people on earth who should be telling people “it was 13 years ago get over it!”

they are STILL harassing all of Taylor’s exes from more than a decade ago, when All too well the short film came out they were demanding jake gyllenhaal’s head on a plate because *checks notes* “he stole taylor’s scarf” and “he made taylor wash the dishes!” 😡

they also accused jake of being a pedo and a groomer because of the 9 year age difference between two adults but have nothing to say about taylor dating teenage boys well into her 20s.

hell, they are STILL mad at joe jonas for breaking up with taylor over the phone back in 2008 and giving him shit for that. but when the bigoted tweets of taylor’s new boyfriend resurface we’re all supposed to just get over it and move on because people grow and change?? 🙄 what a fucking JOKE!

[battleangel]

Pigs Eyes & Crying Elephants: Sentient Beings Manifesto

A commercial with a crying elephant & the eyes of a pig.

I saw the elephant commercial for an animal welfare group last Tuesday during NXT.

That is what started all of this.

I was vegetarian for two years from 2013 to 2015 meaning I didn't eat any meat or seafood but I did eat eggs & consume dairy.

Then I started eating meat again in 2015.

Then about a year ago, I decided I would eat vegetarian during the week (Monday through Friday) and then eat meat & dairy on the weekends -- so my diet was 75% vegetarian for the past year.

But I was still eating all the chocolate, cheese & all of the dairy tingz.

Then I saw a commercial last week during NXT with a crying elephant. It really got to me.

I started during research on elephants & emotion. Turns out elephants pass the "mirror test" and are self-aware.

So are dolphins.

That led me down a rabbit hole where I started researching the emotional self-awareness of other animals and was surprised to find similar findings for pigs, chickens and cows.

And monkeys -- rhesus macaques are endlessly tortured for human medication. They are extremely self-aware and emotional.

I questioned myself on why my 75% vegetarianism diet shouldn't be 75% plant-based (vegan).

And I realized that I didn't want to give up exactly two things: cheese & chocolate.

And hell no, I didn't want the vegan alternatives.

But I started researching the dairy industry which then led me to researching CAFOs (commercial agricultural feeding operations) aka factory farms aka hell on earth aka infinity mirrors of animals being tortured endlessly.

10 billion land animals are slaughtered every year in the United States. Millions a day.

Is that really necessary?

Then I realized that the dairy industry was the plot to a dystopian sci-fi novel:

Women are forcibly impregnated, their babies taken from them immediately after being born — the baby boys are killed within 1 to 4 days, the girls are imprisoned to be forcibly impregnated just like their mothers.

The impregnation cycle is relentless and there are absolutely no breaks between artificial insemination - impregnation - birth repeat.

The woman are also given artificial growth hormones to force them to grow bigger & more quickly — the easier & quicker to impregnate them.

The women are kept in stalls that are so small & overcrowded they cant even move or turn around.

The women never see natural sunlight.

They are only allowed out of their stalls to give birth.

They are forced to endlessly lactate and pumped by machines so mercilessly that they bleed.

I still didn't feel that I could give up cheese 75% of the time.

Then I questioned myself on why not.

I have done very restrictive very low calorie diets in the past. I used to work out 2 hours a day, 6 days a week. I used to have a six pack. 

I broke my 13 year addiction to the NFL & won't even be watching the Super Bowl once a year as of this year.

Why then is not eating cheese 75% of the time a seeming impossibility?

That was honestly how I felt.

So, I googled and found this:

Cheese contains casein. This is what causes such intense cravings. It also contains casein fragments called casomorphins, a casein-derived morphine-like compound. Dairy protein has opiate molecules built in. When consumed, these fragments attach to the same brain receptors that heroin and other narcotics attach to. Casomorphins cross the blood brain barrier and attach to dopamine receptors.

Cheese is literally 10% as addicting as morphine.

Yet they (do ask yourself who they is) have the motherfucking audacity to say it is "no more addictive than anything else that could be addictive, like Pringles or fast food."

First of all -- they are simply proving the point as those foods -- OPFs or overly processed foods & fast food -- also are highly addicting by deisgn, they are literally made to be. Study after study has confirmed that the most addictive foods are foods that are highly processed, high in fat, high in sodium and/or sugar.

Checks out, right? 

What foods do you consider the most addicting? 

Probably Oreos, potato chips, pizza, french fries, mozzarella sticks, fast food, donuts, cookies, brownies, pretzels, burgers like anyone else.

Right?

They are designed that way on purpose.

They create addicts on purpose for profit.

Cancer, diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, artherosclerosis, blood clots, immune system disorders, heart disease, stroke, heart attacks are all caused by diet & lifestyle.

It is a very lucrative business for them.

A million people are already on Wegovy babes?

It's a set up.

They make the food that makes people sick and they make the medicine that people buy after they buy the food that makes them sick. The above diseases did not exist at the current rate even 100 years ago. It's due to OPFs (overly processed food), PFAs (forever chemicals), toxins, sugar substitutes, partially hydrogenated vegetable oil (transfat), high fructose corn syrup, modified food starch, monosodium glutamate, dextrose, sucralose, lecithin, emulsifiers, aspartame, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), bioengineered ingredients, pesticides, artificial flavors & colors, preservatives, synthetic lab-made chemicals.

Capitalism is nothing but a death cult.

Wake up.

They are literally made that way on purpose & designed to be addictive.

But the way that casein is addictive is truly unique because it is binding itself to receptors in our brains the way that morphine & heroine does.

So, I decided I want to do something that is sustainable in the long-term 15 & 20+ years from now. I am 43.

I don't play an all or nothing zero sum game of zealotry where it's something that is impractical.

I look forward to the weekly meals with my husband.

We have been together for 17 years and have been married for over a decade.

I've looked at thousands of recipes over the years and have curated a Top 100 list of our absolute favorite receipes plus ones that I want us to try.

We always make a meal on the weekend & post the pictures on his Facebook.

While we eat our weekly meal, we talk, hang out, watch stuff on Youtube, baseball, basketball & wrestling.

It's one of the things we look forward to doing together as a couple the most.

He is the quintessential "meat & potatoes guy" but when I started eating vegetarian 75% of the time last year, he agreed to eat vegetarian 3 to 5 days a week.

He does eat meat & dairy the other days of the week.

I have decided that maintaining our weekly meals ritual as a couple is important to me.

So, for this to be sustainable it has to allow for our weekly meals to have meat and/or dairy -- and also, during the holidays, I want to be able to eat meat and/or dairy.

Other than that, Monday through Friday, my plan for the rest of my life is to eat a vegan (plant-based) diet 75% of the time -- no meat, seafood, dairy or animal-based or derived ingredients or by-products.

I immediately went through my apartment this morning once I had decided on this & was disappointed at how many of my snacks weren't vegan -- Annie's Organic granola bars, Nature's Bakery Bars & literally all of my remaining Halloween candy (Take 5, Reese's Cups, Crunch, & candy corn).

I gave it all to my husband in a bag this morning for him to take to work.

Since they are snacks that I ate on a daily basis, it is better to remove them from the apartment as my goal is to now eat vegan (plant-based) diet 75% of the time, Monday through Friday.

Staring at a bag of my absolute favorite non-vegan candy corn isn't exactly going to help me achieve that.

Vox When asked in an interview on the Climavores podcast why farms aren’t regulated to reduce pollution, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack said there are simply too many farms to regulate, and that conservation efforts should be voluntary

According to Civil Eats, a nonprofit publication covering the US food system, nearly all animal agriculture operations are exempt from federal protections under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the agency doesn’t respond to 85 percent of worker fatalities on animal farms.

Most states exempt livestock from anti-cruelty laws, and many states have passed “ag-gag laws,” which criminalize activists and journalists for simply recording what goes on at farms. 

All 50 states have so-called “right to farm” laws, which prevent citizens from suing farms for nuisances like pollution and odor that degrade their quality of life. 

A recent analysis from Stanford University researchers found that from 2014 to 2020, the US livestock sector received about 800 times more public funding than the meat, egg, and dairy alternatives sector.

Farmers are heavily overrepresented in government, with 25 current members of the US House of Representatives, or their family members, having collected millions of dollars in agricultural subsidies. That’s almost 6 percent of the chamber, even though just about 1 percent of Americans live on farms. The dynamic is the same at the state level.

Corn and soybean production, most of which is dedicated to ethanol and livestock feed, accounts for half of all crop cash receipts.

Don't you think some of the children literally starving to death right now in North Gaza in Palestine could have used some of that corn & soybean? No? The livestock that we don't need to eat because we don't need meat to survive needed it more than the children literally dying from starvation right now in North Gaza?

Vox Raising livestock requires far more land and water than growing plant-based foods — and produces far more pollution.

Over the past decade, the animal-agriculture industry has been behind the introduction of "ag-gag" bills in more than half of all state legislatures across the country. These dangerous bills are designed to silence whistleblowers revealing animal abuses on industrial farms. Ag-gag laws currently exist in six states, penalizing whistleblowers who investigate the day-to-day activities of industrial farms, including the recording, possession or distribution of photos, video and/or audio at a farm. 

The USDA never conducts surprise audits, or any audits at all, to verify the company is telling the truth. It is, in essence, an honor system. The USDA also has an incredibly low, and often nonsensical, bar for what passes as humane treatment.

Over the course of more than a dozen shifts at multiple Foster Farms facilities, the investigator — who requested anonymity due to the covert nature of undercover investigations — documented workers slamming birds into crates, kicking and hitting chickens, and numerous instances of forklift drivers running over birds.

The investigator recalled making eye contact with a bird shortly after they were run over by a forklift. “They were being crushed and everything was being pushed forward, and they had their beak open, and they had this look on their face like they knew that they were dying,” the investigator told me. “And then I watched them flap and struggle for a moment before passing.”

The investigator chalked up most of the cruelty to the chaotic, fast-paced work environment imposed by supervisors during long, grueling shifts.

But you wouldn’t know that from its marketing or its “American Humane” certification. 

Chickens raised for meat in America -- 98% of land animals that get slaughtered each year in factory farms -- are five times bigger today than they were in the 1950s! In 1957, chickens on farms raised for meat were 907 grams. In 1978, chickens on farms raised for meat were 1,808 grams. In 2005, they are 4,202 grams! WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY???????????

Vox American Humane allows for the standard chicken slaughter process: shackling chickens upside down, dunking them in a bath of electrified water to stun them unconscious, slitting their throats, and then placing them in a scalding vat to loosen their feathers.

Despite all that, the resulting meat can still be advertised as humane, sustainable, and produced from healthy birds.

Currently, chickens and other poultry birds have zero federal legal protections while on the farm or in the slaughterhouse.

During their short stint on behalf of the Washington, DC-based animal rights group Animal Outlook, the investigator documented hours upon hours of the typical horrors found on chicken factory farms: tens of thousands of birds stuffed into dark warehouse-sized barns, many of them severely injured with gruesome lesions, injuries, and deformities. At more than one point, birds are deprived of feed or water, and there was also a rat infestation and footage of bugs crawling in the chickens’ feed.

The conditions are visibly at odds with Tyson’s advertising claims that it treats animals humanely and raises “happy” and “healthy” chickens.

“It’s just a living nightmare,” the investigator, who requested anonymity due to the covert nature of undercover investigations, told Vox. “A video just does not do it any justice.”

Despite the horrific findings, they’re not all that different from the conditions documented at other farms that raise chickens for Tyson and Tyson’s competitors. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) says chicken producers using the label “free-range” must provide birds “continuous, free access to the outside” for over 51 percent of their 6.5-week lives.

Is 6.5 weeks a life?????????????????????

In another portion of Animal Outlook’s footage, when the investigator asked the farm manager why so many chickens couldn’t move, he was blunt:

“They’re just fucked up.” 

According to a 2021 ProPublica investigation, humane-labeled chicken is often processed in the same slaughterhouses, owned by companies like Tyson, as conventional meat.

 “You almost couldn’t design a more torturous setting,” she said, adding that the video shows dying and dead chickens in “advanced states of decomposition” with the potential to “spread infectious disease to the other birds, human workers, and unsuspecting Tyson customers.”

WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY???????????????

Animal Outlook’s investigator also documented bugs crawling in the chickens’ feed, and rat infestations — problems echoed by the Tyson technician in the undercover video.

“The little baby chicks are gonna peck at those bugs, eat them, and then they’re gonna die,” Tyson’s technician told the farm manager in a conversation recorded by the investigator. 

“You got rats in there, you got fresh rat activity in all your houses.” Despite these known issues, Animal Outlook alleges Tyson delivered fresh chicks to the farm.

As journalist Eyal Press, author of Dirty Work, a book on jobs in morally troubling industries like poultry, put it in a Vox podcast interview: “On the rare occasions when the curtain is pulled back and we see this dirty work going on, the blame goes to the lowest-ranking people at the bottom, and that’s very convenient for society.”

Ofcourse it is -- society still wants their Wendys Spicy Nuggs.

Vox However, holding meat companies legally accountable for how they treat animals is exceedingly difficult because there are no federal laws that protect animals while on the farm, and birds are exempt from federal slaughter and transport law. 

Chickens raised for slaughter are bred in "high stocking densities", meaning they are unable to "move freely to flap their wings" or show "natural behaviors".

"They [Frankenchickens] have been bred to eat at an extraordinary rate so they put on this completely inappropriate weight gain just to get to market as quickly as possible."

If you are a starseed, understand our mission is to break up & dismantle Big Meat & Big Ag (& ofcourse Big Oil, Big Pharma, etc...): LPE Project

Today four massive companies – JBS, Tyson Foods, National Beef, and Cargill – control over 80 percent of America’s beef. Three companies – JBS, Tyson, and Smithfield Foods – control 63 percent of America’s pork. Two of those – JBS and Tyson – also control 38 percent of poultry. The grain, seed, farm equipment, agrochemical, livestock genetics, and animal pharmaceutical industries have likewise become highly consolidated.

These companies possess dominant market power as both sellers of meat and buyers of livestock, which they used to raise prices for consumers and lower prices paid to farmers.

In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Earl Butz – who at the time served on multiple agribusiness boards – to lead the USDA, opening a revolving door between the industry and the agency that has swung non-stop ever since.

Under Butz, subsidies for fossil-fuel-intensive monocultures led to a glut of cheap grain, which in turn led to factory farmed animals. “Since factory farms could buy grain for less than it cost farmers to grow it, they could now fatten animals more cheaply than farmers could,” wrote Michael Pollan.

In the last year, top companies in every major American meat sector – beef, pork, chicken, and turkey – have been subject to civil suits and/or federal investigations for conspiring to keep prices high. One lawsuit estimates that chicken industry price-fixing alone costs the average American family of four $330 per year.

The primary reason multinational meat conglomerates have flourished, and meat prices have remained artificially low, is that our government massively subsidizes them at everyone else’s expense.

Our government subsidizes Big Meat directly by allocating the bulk of federal crop subsidies to large farms growing animal feeds, by financing animal factory infrastructure, by buying billions of dollars of their products, and much more. In exchange for this support, taxpayers get hijacked federal agencies, policies shaped by pro-industry academic research, a less responsive democracy, and forceful industry lobbying to keep it that way.

It does this by failing to regulate the environmental impacts of factory farming, including the industry’s role in contaminating air, poisoning drinking water, and driving the climate crisis; by failing to require safe conditions for slaughterhouse workers; by denying most farmworkers the rights to form unions and earn minimum wage and overtime pay; by exempting “common farming practices,” no matter how cruel, from most state animal anti-cruelty statutes; and by failing to restrict the industry’s use of antibiotics (used to speed growth and keep overcrowded animals alive) despite the resulting increase in drug-resistant infections.

Farmer suicide rates are now 3.5 times that of the general population.

It is now commonplace for pigs (and their diseases) to be trucked hundreds of miles across the country without food, water, bedding, protection from extreme temperatures, or adequate space.

BedlamFarm.com One of these happenings was the discovery by scientists in New York in the 1950’sthat by adding tiny traces of antibiotics to animal feed they could increase the growth rates of animals.

With these new tools, farmers could concentrate animals in confined areas on a scale never before possible.

This was soon to be called “factory farming” by the few voices raised in alarm. The term has never been complimentary..

At the same time as the geneticists made their discoveries, Earl Butz, Dwight Eisenhower’s Agriculture Secretary, defined the new future.

It isn’t clear if Butz, a crude by visionary agriculture economist, saw the coming future or created it.

Farms, he said,  and farmers had to consolidate, corporatized, embrace economies of scale, just what most family farmers would never do.  The economists picked up this cry, and the family farmers never had a chance.

Butz was serious, perhaps prescient. He meant that in order to survive, farmers must pursue a new corporate model for farms – maximize profits, minimize loss. 

Corporations jumped into farming big-time, buying giant tractors, hiring biologists and geneticists to redesign animals and turn them into unhealthy freaks with short live spans and no resistance to illness, parasites, or viruses, setting up distributions systems that could even sell milk and meat overseas.

On the corporate farms, when a cow gets sick, it is instantly put to death, veterinary care cut into profits, the cow just goes to slaughter.

The average live span of a milk cow, says the Agriculture Department, plunged from 12-15 years to two years by the 1990s. Cows on corporate farms never set foot outside, some never left their stalls, get no exercise, and are bored almost senseless.

Where is our humanity?????????????????

There is no stimulation in their lives, no change of scenery no hed for these herd animals, no walk, grazing, or hanging out with other cows, a cow’s favorite activity.

They live as long as they can produce more and more milk, and when they can’t, they die.

For animals, life became an Orwellian horror show, their very bodies,  and spirits taken from them as they were genetically engineered to be profit centers, not animals with human caretakers and individual personalities and traits.

So have the chickens and pigs, many of whom live their lives without ever standing up in factory farms, mostly in the mid-central United  States. 

Most Americans will never see what is happening to these animals or even hear about them.

The people who increasingly have taken over the care of the animals we eat are sometimes the cruelest and most immoral people who have ever come within a hundred miles of a farm.

Comment to the above article: A quick google search reveals legislation proposed to add oversight to use of antibiotics in animals in 2018, 2017, 2013, 2002- all fought by Big Pharma. Often with the same ferocity and tactics used by Big Oil to fight against regulations to slow climate change.

ForksOverKnives: The USDA is tasked with setting the nation's nutrition guidelines. Yet this is in direct conflict with its primary interest: ensuring the profitability of producers of foods such as dairy and meat. These foods are known to increase the risk of obesity, diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. Is it any wonder that programs administered by the USDA and funded by the Farm Bill preferentially feed school children and the poor unhealthy foods that cause chronic disease?

The farming practices that underpin our healthcare crisis also degrade our environment. To grow vast swaths of these monoculture crops, enormous amounts of chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides are required. Many of these agricultural chemicals are suspected endocrine disruptors and carcinogens that are thought to alter human DNA down through the generations.

During my lifetime alone, annual worldwide pesticide production has increased from 200,000 tons to more than 5 million tons, according to estimates from The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. It has gotten to the point that many of these chemicals now rain down upon us. These pesticides wipe out beneficial and native wildlife such as honey bees, monarch butterflies, and songbirds.

A Happy Meal? If, by eliminating Farm Bill subsidies, the cost of a Quarter Pounder with Cheese were to rise from, say $4 to $15, eating habits would likely shift toward eating healthier foods, especially if at the same time, a program were put in effect to incentivize the consumption of whole plant foods. In fact, a large nationwide program in South Africa has already demonstrated that the public will consume more fruits and vegetables when these healthy foods are subsidized. 

Making Us Sick Makes Them Money The 17 percent of GDP (about $3.2 trillion) the nation now spends on health care will rise to 20 percent of GDP by 2025, according to The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The CDC estimates that 86 percent of this money is not actually spent on making people healthy; it is spent on treating and sustaining chronic illness such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, diabetes, and dementia. The medical evidence shows that most of this chronic disease is the result of the food we eat and can be prevented and even reversed by eating a plant-based diet. 

Fish have it worse in one way -- they have ZERO legal protections.

AnimalEquality Commercial fishing is cruelty to animals on a colossal scale, killing nearly a trillion animals worldwide every year. Ships the size of football fields use techniques such as longlining and gill nets.

Gill nets, which range from 300 feet to seven miles in length, create large walls of nets that fish are unable to see. They inadvertently swim into them and many will suffocate or bleed to death.

In the United States, fish are not covered by the Humane Slaughter Act. This results in a wide variety of cruel slaughter methods dependent on industry, company, and species.

Fish are usually removed from the water and left to suffocate and die. They desperately attempt to escape as their gills collapse preventing them from being able to breathe. Larger animals, such as tuna and swordfish, are usually clubbed to death. This often leads to an animal being injured but regaining consciousness and the process having to be repeated several times.

There are 1.3 billion farm raised fish in the United States.

Vox It’s unsurprising that fish have been ignored. They live underwater, so we rarely interact with them. They can’t vocalize or make facial expressions, so it’s much harder to understand them than mammals and birds. And research has shown that the further animals are from us on the evolutionary chain, the less likely we are to try to protect them.

In commercial ocean fishing, the welfare concerns are mostly relegated to the final minutes or hours of a fish’s life — they’re typically left to suffocate to death on deck, which can take under an hour or up to several hours. 

Other welfare issues include rough handling and the inability to express natural behaviors, like migration and nesting.

One of the bigger findings of the past two decades has been that fish have nociceptors, sensory neurons that detect and respond to damaging or threatening stimuli — a strong indicator they experience pain. 

But just like with other species, researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that fish behave differently in adverse conditions (for example, they limit eating and activity) and stop these behaviors when pain relief is given. 

They don't WANT to believe fish feel pain because it will lower their profits -- read the above again & honestly tell me that those fish don't sound like they were in pain & then relieved from pain -- so should they be left alone on ship decks to suffocate to death for HOURS???????????

Wild-captured fish experience agonizing final moments no animal should have to endure, as pressure weighs on their bodies when they’re quickly pulled up out of the ocean’s depths in nets, and they begin to suffocate. 

Death, too, is cruel on fish farms, where many fish are killed slowly by suffocation or in ice water.

Existing in these cramped environments is a far cry from the lives fish would experience in their natural habitats. For one example, salmon may swim spans of hundreds of miles to reach the ocean from the streams in which they hatched, and much farther as they reach feeding grounds, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Sometimes, salmon will spend years at sea before returning to their original stream to spawn.

Extraction of groundwater for aquaculture has been found in one study to accelerate sea level rise by causing land to sink.

Pigs on factory farms are often cannibalized, forced to eat meat from fellow pigs. 

WHERE IS OUR HUMANITY???????????

Where is humanity?

They are sentient beings: capable of feeling pain, and experiencing a range of emotions. Scientific evidence has revealed that fish are far more intelligent than people assume. They have long-term memories, complex social structures, problem solving abilities, and some have been seen using tools.

Fish are even crushed to death & literally cut in half while alive!

Where is humanity?

Porkopolis It is near impossible in the industry to encounter a conceptual or ethical limit proposed for sows biological reproductive capacity.

AnimalsAustralia Farrowing crates are cold, hard metal cages with steel or concrete floors. In factory farms around the world, it’s standard practice to transfer mother pigs to a farrowing crate 7-14 days before she gives birth to her new piglets. After birthing (in a process known as ‘farrowing’), she remains confined in these metal ‘maternity’ crates for 3-4 weeks until her piglets are weaned.

Farrowing crates are so small a mother pig can barely move – she can only sit, stand or lay down slowly, and with difficulty. Pigs are naturally very clean animals, and when given the choice, never toilet where they eat, sleep or play. Instead, they will often travel far away to relieve themselves.  But trapped in a farrowing crate, she can only take one step forward or back and is forced to urinate and defecate right where she stands. For mother pigs, this unhygienic behaviour causes her extreme stress, discomfort and heightens her risk of disease.

Despite having the intelligence of a 3-year old child, who can solve puzzles and even play video games, have amazing memories, can sense the passing of time, foster lifelong friendships with other pigs and expresses empathy for humans and pigs alike, these loving animals continue to be industrialised and treated like 'products', rather than individuals who feel - and express - an enormous range of emotions. She is someone, not something. 

Eggs are Not Eggscellent Cages are extremely cruel, and sadly they are just one of many cruelties chickens are forced to endure in the egg industry. In all commercial egg systems – cage, barn-raised, free-range or organic – male chicks are considered ‘worthless’ and are killed on their first day of life.

Female chicks are raised to replace hens who are sent to slaughter at just 18-30 months old — a fraction of their natural lifespan. As newborns, the tips of their beaks can be cut off without pain reliefto reduce aggressive pecking fueled by frustration when they cannot move freely, forage, or establish a natural social structure.

Because the males bred into the industry won’t grow up to produce eggs they are ‘disposed of’ by gassing or maceration -- literally being shredded to death while alive.

And later that year, at Sparboe Farms in Iowa, undercover investigators documented hens with gaping, untreated wounds laying eggs in cramped conditions among decaying corpses.

Leo Tolstoy - 1891 Essay A village pig is dragged outside for slaughter. The animals “human-looking pink body” screamed in a “dreadful voice, resembling the shriek of a man”. 

After the screams subsided and the animal was killed, even the gruff carriage driver accompanying Tolstoy lets out a heavy sigh.

“Do people really not have to answer for such things?”

Almost 200 years later, do they answer for such things?

My question to anyone reading this (unless you are already a strict vegan) is:

What can you do to reduce the overall suffering & harm done to sentient beings (all animals including fish & cetaceans) that is realistic & repeatable over the long term?

Me, personally I do not see the point in being some total zealot that never eats anyhing with bone char again if it isn't sustainable over the long term.

Vegans call it doing what is "practical & possible". 

I believe it is also very important that it be sustainable over the long term or else what was the point?

Now, I will end this by asking you the same question I asked myself:

What can you do to reduce the suffering & harm to sentient beings (all animals including fish & cetaceans) that fits the following two criteria:

Realistic

Repeatable over the long term

I also want to say this if you are a starseed reading this -- we need to work with everyone.

This isn't some kind of ideological purity test or a flex as I see a lot of that within the movement for animal rights & activism. This is about sentient, self-aware beings that are emotional, social & cognitively functional getting the living shit tortured out of them.

This is about the fact that 90% of the world's population as of today eats meat.

This is about 10 billion farm animals being slaughtered in the US every year for food.

This is about 99% of farm animals in the US being killed in factory farms.

This is about 90% of the 10 billion farm animals being slaughtered in the US being chickens.

This is about fedral subsidies that make a cheeseburger $4 when it should really be at least $15.

This is about big meat & big ag spending tens of millions every year to bankroll politicians for favorable policies.

This is about landmark legislation from the EPA & Congress not applying to the agricultural industry that causes the majority of land, air & water pollution & waste.

This is about the fact that there is no Big Broccoli to counter the meat & agricultural cartels.

This is about Trump winning.

It's not about fighting over bone char, cholecalciferol & cross contamination.

It's not about a competition on who can utilize the least animal byproducts (like the paint on the walls in your home & the tires in your car).

It's not a who's the best vegan dick measuring contest.

We need to work with everyone given what we are about against.

The 10 billion number has not dropped. And actually, people are consuming more meat.

Although there have been legislative wins and imitation meat like Impossible & Beyond Meat are promising.

They have the lobbying machine, political apparatus, laws, subsidies & constant commercials & ads on their side. When's the last time you saw a commercial for vegetables?

Now, when's the last time you saw a commercial for Sonics, Dominos, Pizza Hut, Burger King, Pringles, Lays, Reeses Cup, Snickers, Twix, Applebees, Chilis, McDonalds.

We need to work with omnis, flexitarians, pescatarians, people that don't eat pork, people that don't eat chicken, people that don't eat beef, people that don't consume dairy.

That's not watering down or diluting a message.

It's decentering zealotry so we can actually get somewhere in our fight for animals to be recognized as sentient beings with their own inalienable rights.

That is maybe 100 to 250+ years off.

We won't get anywhere if we stay on reddit debating about whether brown sugar is okay if it is processed with bone char. 

Keep that in mind. The animals are counting on us. ✨✨✨

[milfygerard]

it feels a little callous but i cant help but find this whole brittany mahomes thing kind of extremely funny because like. Ok so taylor has very valid reason to not speak out on this upcoming election at all considering she just narrowly avoided a terrorist attack from a different far right extremist group and america has guns and a decent population of people who thought shed use the superbowl to brainwash people into getting gay biden vaccines and im positive many of those people were the cops who would be in charge of investigating that terrorist threat but ALSO none of this wouldve happened if she didnt feel a deep need to be liked and so felt compelled to befriend her boyfriends coworkers wife except her boyfriend is a linebacktightendwhatever for the nfl so of course his coworkers wife (as well as a number of his coworkers) is a conservative white lady who obviously voted trump on the dl and so are most of her friends folding taylor into a circle that even at her most politically mum she never wanted to be involved in. Taylor swift is also of course a known coward who took 10 years and a movie to even just declare that shes a democrat which she obviously was and also obviously hid for marketing reasons (which was heavily encouraged by her team and her dad who is in her team) while taking advantage of the 2015 aesthetic pop politics to say that she likes gay people and respects women, which left a bad taste in peoples mouths once popular politics left its frothy naiivete behind in 2016 and she fell off the face of the earth in a valiant effort to not kill herself which allowed for the co-opting of her extremely white image from the growing reactionary movement that she eventually had to do way more work to cut down bc she didnt nip it in the bud fast enough which has left a long standing bad taste in peoples mouths and a negative association in their minds

but anyway this all leads back to the bizarre mean girl politics of 78 year old high schooler donald trump whose still mad that taylor called him a fascist because i guess he liked her music and who has spent the last few months trying to tie himself to her because she is currently God of the Monoculture and any mention of her brings attention which is mr celebrity apprentices only desire and the reason he even ran for president but now HIS star is falling as the republican party has finally found a good excuse to kick him to the curb because they have a far less embarassing woman who is popular enough that you can publicly support her and only leftists will be disgusted but fascist enough to work directly with you to continue funding and supporting the brutal racist border policies we hold with mexico and the insanse christian zionist genocide happening in palestine and definitely wont do anything to stop the transphobia culture war that you have rolling which will keep you in legislative and representative power for as long as you want BUT i digress. donald trump found out probably from understandably angry swifties that some WAG who liked posts supporting him is ALSO publicly associated with taylor swift and is considered a friend in her circles and so the DAY BEFORE hr boyfriends first game where she generally sits in the WAG group with families and partners including her new bestie brittany he makes a very public post announcing how he just SOOO APPRECIATES brittany mahomes and her PUBLIC SUPPORT and how its SO IMPORTANT TO HIM which sets a trap specifically made to torture taylor swift of choosing between publicly rejecting and admonishing brittany mahomes and her support which will not just piss off brittany and patrick burning a personal AND professional bridge, but also a large chunk of the extremely conservative NFL and could potentially have a negative impact on travis' career going forward considering how petty sports drama can be OR she can say nothing and trigger headline after headline of TAYLOR SWIFT FRIENDS WITHWOMAN PUBLICLY THANKED BY DONALD TRUMP FOR SUPPORT which isnt only a pr nightmare but also gets trump his one actual desire which is being paid attention to and discussed OR she can go to the game but show in some way that she endorses Harris/Walz which will cause a similar shitstorm but in this one the likeliness of major conspiracy thoeries and terrorist threats and plots based on those theories rises exponentially less than a month after the last terrorist plot (discussed earlier in the post) that led her to cancel a 4 show stay that I imagine wasnt great for her anxiety and paranoia

and the funniest part is this is 10000% entirely her fault for failing to pick a side on the public about politics vs just a singer and artist debate and constantly going back and forth as her morals, her business instincts, her cowardice, and her self conscious need to be liked all go to war with each other because she just had to be friends with her boyfriends coworkers wife without ever assuming that this wildly wealthy white woman may possibly be a conservative because all the wildly wealthy white women she hangs out with are DEMOCRATS! or at least PRETEND to be! and THIS is why you dont date guys who work in the NFL!

[v6quewrlds]

Any predictions for the game versus the Browns this weekend?

Love your page and especially your most recent fic :)

okay a couple thoughts

fuck deshaun watson. it is truly remarkable how leagues, regardless of sport, not only actively empower degenerates to prey upon and access women, but he sucks ass too!! it's a massive failing on the NFL for continuing to allow him to play and only suspending him like 11 games for the assault and battery of 20 women???? TWENTY!! need him gone thank you.

the browns have basically given up this season lmao. so unless something crazy happens (defense is back to being inefficient or the offense's rythym is off again) i genuinely don't think the bengals have much to worry about. even though the browns' defense has been pretty decent, if the game has to be boring like the giants game, idc just give me a bengals win pls.

the bengals need ja'marr to show up this game. against the browns defense, i think joe is going to have to pass the ball more than running so as long as he can find ja'marr and tee consistently, they'll be fine.

on the part about watson being ass, the browns haven't scored above 18 this season so far... and the bengals have consistently put points on the board (ignoring the giants game bc that was odd lmao). so as long as the offense can make plays and score, they'll be alright.

if the bengals don't win this game, i think zac taylor will be out the door just like the jets hc.

[livefastdriveyoung]

Dating an athlete is brutal, no matter what the sport. There are women on Tiktok who date NFL players or MLB players who have been accused of being gold diggers.

Primarily, let's look at Allison Kuch. Allison is married to Isaac Rochelle who played in the NFL. Dozens of comments per video claim she's a gold digger.

She makes more money than him.

Just on content creation alone, but also before they were married and even now, she owns and runs several airbnb and party rentals that are beautiful and super popular. She's able to make jokes about it, and people support her, but there are so many others who are not lucky.

Or goddamn Alix Earle? Hello? Her father is a millionaire. Millionaire. She was born into money. She got famous before she was dating an MLB player. She was even more famous before she started dating her NFL player boyfriend, who so clearly loves her. But she's still a gold digger. As if she didn't just shoot a cover for Sports Illustrated, walk their runway, and also literally just been declared an unproblematic fave on tiktok, which given that its tiktok, is a huge deal.

I can't find her account, but there was another NFL wag who posted photos of them clearly young and then to the NFL and she was still called a gold digger, and the first photo was from like JUNIOR prom. Newsflash, there was no way of knowing her 17 year old boy friend was going to be anything more than a college player, if that.

In the MLB it is a little less, mostly because those WAGS just don't engage as much, but the comments under Rachel Gomber's posts for example, are ridiculous. She's got three kids with the man and has been with him since before he made it to the Majors. You think she is with him for money when at one point she was very likely making more than him?

I say all of this, not to defend Kelly Piquet, but to question why women can't seem to be allowed to date athletes in peace. Why can't women be with men who happen to be making a lot of money? Is it because maybe, thanks to their husbands success, they're able to do things they actually enjoy? Has anyone ever considered that these men want their wives and partners to be, I don't know, happy?

Also, not every job is glamorous. Nor does every job allow for social media content to be posted. Not everyone feels comfortable talking about where they practice medicine, or where they work in corporate accounting. Or, these women who post because it is fun don't want the world to know every aspect of their lives, just like they are all critiqued for.

You don't have to like Kelly Piquet, she's certainly no angel. But one day her kid is going to get access to the internet and see the death threats and the accusations and the harassment. That's the future you're contributing to for someone's INNOCENT child. The same goes for Allison and Isaac's child and Rachel's kids.

You don't have to like everyone. But by god, if you don't have anything nice to say, stop posting it on the internet.

[passionandprecision]

Deshaun Watson’s Injury Aftermath: Frustration, Sportsmanship, Tone-Deaf Responses

By Jori Denese aka JDub

The reaction to Deshaun Watson’s injury during the Browns game has sparked a lot of conversation. Let’s set the record straight—most Browns fans were NOT cheering. The stadium was full of Bengals fans, which explains much of the noise when Watson went down. But even if the cheering was misunderstood, the conversation surrounding Watson is more complex and worth unpacking.

As a sexual abuse survivor myself, I have no empathy for Deshaun Watson. His off-field actions, paired with the 27 allegations against him, make that impossible for me. And I fully understand why so many are upset with his presence on the team, and to be honest, I couldn’t care less that he got hurt. However, while I don’t share sympathy for Watson himself, I do understand why his teammates might. Football is a team sport, and when one player falls, it impacts the entire unit. It’s not surprising that they would come to his defense, considering the bonds formed in such an environment.

That said, what I find tone-deaf and disingenuous are the comments made by some of Watson’s teammates, like Myles Garrett and Jameis Winston. Winston, for instance, said we should feel empathy for Watson because “he has the world against him and is fighting life.” But let’s be real—he’s only fighting for his professional life because of his own actions. Then Garrett went so far as to call Watson a “model citizen” for most of his career, aside from those 27 sexual abuse allegations, and suggested we show him grace and compassion.

This is where I take issue. Where was the grace and compassion for his victims? These comments distort reality, painting Watson as the victim when, in truth, there are real victims who were silenced and disrespected by the Browns organization. It’s frustrating to see these men, who should know better, turn Watson into a martyr when the real empathy belongs with the women who were harmed.

What’s even more frustrating is the glaring double standard. If Watson had been accused of abusing two dozen children or two dozen male massage therapists, he would not be in the league right now. The NFL and the public wouldn’t have tolerated it for a second. But because the victims were women, there’s a level of tolerance that simply shouldn’t exist. He should not have a job in the NFL, but Cleveland and a handful of others wanted him. Clearly, the NFL does not care about women, they allow players who have had domestic violence, sexual assault allegations and who knows what else continue to play in the league. However, that is a different argument for a different article.

While I understand that Watson’s teammates are defending him, they’re missing the point. Their statements not only alienate women, but they also dismiss the pain of those who were harmed. They are also being cold and dismissive towards women who have had those experiences as well. Celebrating an injury is wrong, but turning Watson into the victim of this story is equally damaging, and frankly, irresponsible. Celebrating the injury is wrong, but turning a sexual deviant into a “martyr” is also wrong.

At the end of the day, this is about more than just football. It’s about respecting the real victims and not allowing the narrative to twist Watson into something he is not. As fans and human beings, we need to remember that sportsmanship extends beyond the field—it’s about how we treat people off of it. When these worlds clash, the results can be disastrous, as we’re witnessing now.

To add to the complexity, this situation isn’t just about the allegations anymore. It’s also about Watson’s performance—or lack thereof. He hasn’t been playing well, often looks disinterested, and in press conferences, he comes across as detached. But because of the controversy surrounding him, everything gets lumped together. This is exactly why his teammates need to be more thoughtful in their defense of him. Instead of telling people how to judge his character, considering his past, they need to be more mindful of their words—or they risk alienating even more people. We’re already seeing more fans canceling their tickets and distancing themselves from the team because of this dysfunction.

The bottom line is this: Cleveland fans are exhausted by the stain Watson has left on the franchise. Some gave him a pass when it was just about his shoulder injury, but now, even when he’s healthy, things haven’t worked out. Yes, it was classless for the few who did cheer his injury to do so, but his teammates make it worse by being tone-deaf and failing to grasp the bigger picture.

[thegreatimpersonator]

No but exactly!!! I do not understand!!! Not to be para-social but what is she thinking? Surely there's a middle ground between "Caring too much about what people think" and "Making it a point to prove that you don't care about what people think" and that line is probably somewhere way before associating with a racists and sex offenders. The fact that this fandom is trying to spin associating with racists and sex offenders as some girl-boss move is so disgusting (and also very much not the point of feminism, people really need to understand feminism better. it's not just about women being allowed to act in the same ways as men, it's also about holding men as accountable for their actions as women)

No because I was just thinking about how the fandom basically learned about/shaped their view of feminism through the lens of Taylor, a rich white woman, and how that has become very very obvious over the last 8ish months. They can give her the benefit of the doubt and excuse her for her enablement of and association with people who contribute to racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, etc. plus her being so proudly close to and be public with people who excuse assault and use slurs…… but they draw the line at a joke in a monologue they think disrespected her. Because we need to stand against sexism but only when it hits close to home, only when it hits their queen.

And plus the fact that Taylor making active choices to wear racist merch (the chiefs are a racist name/team) and to watch games in the public boxes were she knows she’ll be indirectly advertising for the nfl is hurtful. She’s not stupid, she knows people will watch the games solely because she’s there. Fans with the moral strength of spaghetti are buying the racist merch she wears, watching the games, buying tickets to games she might attend, it’s all so morally blind and I’m not saying Taylor is at fault for other people’s actions (for the love of god develop another excuse @ swifties lol) but she is giving them her public stamp of approval and that’s disheartening. It’s also disheartening that no one cares about any of it. It’s disheartening that people’s morals can be bent for the sake of a parasocial relationship.

[thefauxsport]

Deuxmoi sent an email with this blind..any ideas?!? Message: ANON PLEASE. A hottest quarterback in the NFL is falling in love for a soccer star who won the gold medal with the US women's team in Paris. They had many dates in the cities where they each play. The quarterback is very much in love with the player and is happy that she understands him about being a private person. He has made several trips to the city where she plays and has attended some of her team's games in the National Women's soccer league

We are open to everyone's guesses on this but we have a hard time imagining a QB is allowed to leave town to watch a soccer game during the season. So we are skeptical this is true

[dfwpastor633]

An Open Letter to The NDA Era of Church

              This is a letter I’ve thought about writing for years but finally had the courage to pray and put words to paper. I am currently a pastor at a large church in the Dallas Fort Worth Area. At this time, I will keep my identity confidential, but to those close to me this will not come as a surprise. I have worked for multiple churches that are currently in the top 100 largest churches in the country. While I recognize that myself and no one is perfect, I can stay silent no longer with what I am seeing. I do not believe the American Church is the reflection and representation of Jesus that it should be and we should continue to hold our spiritual leaders accountable until real change takes place. I want to list a few things that have really hurt me to see and then by the end of the post offer some options. I hope that while this will be uncomfortable for some people to hear, it would ultimately help to reform the church into what Jesus wanted it to be originally.

I have with my own eyes have seen too many friends due to fear sign NDA’s because of what they seen take place within the walls of a church behind the scenes.

Friends being black balled because they had to courage to report work place harassment or incidents.

Millions of dollars poured into buildings and “Disney like experiences or services”, while sex trafficking, homelessness, and the people near our churches are dying. *But don’t worry we will pick one time a year to do a donation, plan missions trips to foreign countries, and do a “Serve Day” to quiet down the voices in our souls that are telling us something is off.

I have seen too many ministry friends be able to barely afford rent and groceries while Executives and Lead Pastors are making in the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually with extravagant sabbatical, vacation, and housing allowance packages.

I have been in too many meetings about how churches can increase the giving brought in financially or the weekend attendance numbers all under the umbrella of “We just want what’s best for people”. While secretly staff members or volunteers who do not hit certain giving or attendance thresh holds are labeled as “not bought into the vision”.

I have seen pastors expense things using church finances that have nothing to do with ministry or pastors have inappropriate relationships with people from the church. In some of those cases churches refuse to be transparent with the church members and those same employees are honored on the way out. Again, in today’s church almost anything can be solved with a NDA and some cupcakes in the lobby. 

              Truthfully, I could continue to share stories. The reality is I think you get my point. I want to talk about the time of history that we are in and what the men and women who are leading these churches can do.

First, if you are currently on staff at a church and things feel off, please have the courage to speak up. Even if it means losing your job and unkind things will be said about you. This is a dangerous time in the history of the church. When the NFL or NBA does things aggressively to make sure their brand, money, and power are protected most of us don’t truly care. But the church should be about Jesus and the people near us, correct?

Secondly, To those with real influence that can start making immediate change within the walls of these churches. Our request are below and I would contend they are biblical.

Start spending 50+ % of your budget on local and foreign missions. I know that you really like the light shows and big stages. But people are dying near our churches and need our help. If you need that kind of attention or validation, start a podcast.

Be more transparent with church members on what goes on behind the walls of their church and what you are doing with the money they give to you.

Stop paying your ministry buddies thousands of dollars to come and speak at events. Our people do not need more events, they need help and real discipleship. I don’t recall Jesus or the disciples making 50,000 to speak at a Conference. Raise up Godly leaders within your church to speak on occasion and use that money to actually help people.

Stop or at least significantly decrease the amount of NDA’s. I actually don’t remember Jesus having to use one. But maybe I just have the wrong translation.

Make lead pastor and executive teams, similar to elders in most cases, term positions due to their importance. If we have to vote for presidents every four years, why not significant spiritual leaders?

              Finally, we live in an era, especially in the technology age and AI coming around the corner, where people want to know what is real or not. Dear Church Leaders, please don’t make Church and Jesus one of those things for people. Matthew 5:14-16 says that the church should, “Be a light unto the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but a candlestick, and it giveth light to the entire house.”

Stop trying to impress people with physical light shows and be a church that the community around you knows loves and supports them at their worst moments. Introduce them to a real God and a group of people who no matter what happens in life will love them very much. That I believe, is the church that Jesus wants for us and the people in our communities. A church where staff meetings are more focused on how to fight real issues in our community, not just how to make a event more fun and we have enough snacks in the break room. A church where staff members to not have too turn those in need away because of how small the “benevolence and missions fund” is. One day we all will be held accountable for how we spent this life and stewarded what God has given us. It is not yet too late to change. Please, for the sake of God and the place near you, change for the better and become a church that we all would be proud to invite friends too.

[90363462]

The NFL free agent — who is said to have seven children with six different women — was tagged in a cuss-filled social media rant by model “Golden Blondie,” the apparent mother of his two-month old daughter Scotlyn Bell.

In the post, she called the running back a “coward” and the “worst f–king human being on the planet,” while accusing him of “barely” taking care of his kids, according to a screen-grab of the post that was published by Bro Bible.

“@leveonbell since you blocked me I guess we can talk on here because you only care what the public thinks! You’re the worst f–king human being on the planet you can’t even call yourself a man when you barley take care of the kids you do claim and pick and choose which ones to claim!,” Golden Blondie’s alleged post from 2021 read.

The model went on to identify herself as Bell’s sixth “baby mama,” and denied knowing about his previous children before she became involved with the former Jets player.

“Oh and we can dead the narrative I choose to be baby mama #6 because I never knew that.. I would have ran for the hills!! But I guess that’s why you had to go get a dumb underaged b–ch after me I let you slide for a minute tryna keep it cool but now the world can know what a terrible person you are!” she reportedly wrote.

“You said you would be there for me and the baby and went ghost when it came out in the blogs like the coward you are no @nfl team wants a little coward! And oh don’t try and spin the f–king narrative that I’m just out for your money.” --New York Post, July 6, 2021

Wow! Pittsburgh Steelers how was he EVER Allowed to be on your Team??? Do Better!!! Oh other teams & Cities he’s got children, most likely! Burn his Jersey! New York Jets The Kansas City Chiefs(current Super Bowl champions) Baltimore Ravens Tampa Bay Buccaneers

What a nasty projecting Ahole. Not only is he a disgusting excuse for a man, he must be a fecking idiot. Why else would anyone who is a minority support a candidate who clearly hates minorities.

[easton-m]

EASTON.

&&. wait, is ( easton emil madden ) quitting next season? i've heard through a grapevine, that the ( 41 ) year old ( quarterback for the new york giants ) is aiming for his last superbowl. somehow, he reminds me of ( david gandy ). some say that he is ( aloof & calculating ), but i think he is actually ( analytical & diplomatic ). ( penned by logan, they/them )

— BASICS

NAME: Easton Emil Madden AGE / D.O.B.: 41 / 03.10.1981 GENDER / PRONOUS / SEXUALITY: Cismale / he/him / Homosexual HOMETOWN: New York, NY AFFILIATION: Civillian JOB POSITION: Quarterback for the New York GiantsEDUCATION: High School Graduate / Havard (1999-2003 / Crimson Football) RELATIONSHIP STATUS: In a relatioship with @astrorahi CHILDREN: None POSITIVE TRAITS Tidy, secure, forgiving, discreet, reflectiveNEGATIVE TRAITS: Secretive, stiff, petty, cold, abrupt

— BIOGRAPHY

TW: Abuse, internalized homophobia + homophobia, eating disorders

Easton gets tired of his family's wealth when one of his middle school friends claims he's ignorant and no fun to be around, and he gets so sad that he feels sick for days. Friendship heartbreak is the worst, his mother says, and when he's in Highschool and his next "Friendship breakup" feels even worse, Easton figures there might be more to it. But his feelings, his emotions, they're all overshadowed by his mothers ex-husband, his father - William Madden. To be precise, everything is always overshadowed by his father's existence, his money, his work. Even his mother is, and the impact his father's violence and way of raising his kids has on his life is bad. Easton started sneaking out - started hanging out with the "bad guys", with the poorer people, risking his life just to get a part of normalcy.

Then, football enters his life. After always pushing himself to be perfect, good, no mess, in control of his emotions, always in control of his emotions, football is his escape route. It's messy. Dirty. Allows him to get angry and violent, allows him to let his control slip. And it does, once or twice, badly, but his media team is good, his lawyers are better. What his father's money cannot fix, though, is how lonely all the attention makes him feel, and how the success in football gets to him in college, where his eating habits slip for a while and he struggles to keep up with the sport, and school, and... figuring out he was gay, right before a big game night, which led to the worst game he ever played in his life. It couldn't be. He'd done business. He'd done football. He'd taken every crump of compliments, every word of appreciation, every cold nod and every punch to be good. To be perfect. No, to be good enough, and then he just isn't.

After his first and final football game of college, the scout of the New York Giants asks him to sign a contract, and there's no hesitation. No denying. It's what he's earned himself - his father hasn't asked him to, nobody has, he's old enough, he can do whatever he wants. And he does. And sticks around.

As good as Tom Brady. Possibly soon to be in the Hall of Fame, the newspapers read, and while he's offered many more contracts, he sticks around with the Giants, pushes them to Superbowl and gets them many wins. But he's never fully himself - he's not outed, fake dates women (during college and a few years after), and when 2020 comes around and he thinks of quitting - he does it. After a game, at a press conference, he speaks up about his sexuality and publicly outs himself as homosexual. The shitstorm is massive, but so is the support. Easton doesn't talk to his father about it. His mother knew. Of course she did. He loves Persephone with all his heart, and will likely never stop.

But there's more to the oh so famous NFL player - behind closed doors, there's his obsession with Haribo Gummies in all colors, but especially red and green, his favor for watching old romance movies with his beloved sister, Livy, the friendship bracelets his niece and nephew made him he always wears around, and his passion to memorize every little thing about his loved ones. His jersey number is 4 - Liv's favorite number.

And recently, he's been photographed wearing NASA hoodies around. Hm. A sponsorship? Who knows.

— WANTED CONNECTIONS / PLOTS

EXES: Some of the girls he fake-dated in College to be seen as straight. Probably broke up with them for dumb ass reasons. Could be great friends now and laugh about it together (he never purposely hurt anyone and likely told them he was gonna busy and wonky with their relationship).

COLLEGE BUDS: Went to college from 1999-2003? Could've met at Havard, a party, or during a game! Maybe some former football players?

[midnightsslut]

Patrick and Brittany have been pro blm, pro women’s sports but they are conservative for sure. I think it boils down to the fact that in the nfl the general mentality is respect everybody and come together through sports. So for example with the Butker thing, I think a lot of them probably disagreed with what he said to that extreme, but they all seemed pretty defensive of the fact that he should be allowed to voice his opinions. It is what it is. That’s why I find it so ironic that haters on twitter try to paint Travis as a trump supporter, because if you actually know anything at all you can tell he’s one of the most outwardly progressive players (and his family is definitely liberal 😭). Which is definitely not the norm for players.

they seem to prefer general discretion for sure. butker was the exact opposite of that, and the things he said were very extreme. also, agree re: travis. like, you would only assume that if you’ve done zero research beyond looking at his profession.