#one of the major facets of his powers since at LEAST the 70s is that he can make anything he touches lighter than air

[softgrungeprophet]

johnny storm should be a twink and i will die on that hill

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Post-Left Anarchy: Leaving the Left Behind

Prologue to Post-Left Anarchy

It is now nearly a decade and a half since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is seven years since Bob Black first sent me the manuscript for his book, Anarchy after Leftism, published in 1997. It’s over four years since I asked Anarchy magazine Contributing Editors to participate in a discussion of “post-left anarchy” which ultimately appeared in the Fall/Winter 1999–2000 issue of the magazine (#48). And it’s also one year since I first wrote and published “Post-Left Anarchy: Rejecting the Reification of Revolt,” which appeared in the Fall/Winter 2002–2003 issue (#54) of Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed.

Aside from creating a hot new topic for debate in anarchist and leftist periodicals, web sites and e-mail lists, one can legitimately ask what has been accomplished by introducing the term and the debate to the anarchist, and more generally radical, milieu? In response I’d say that the reaction continues to grow, and the promise of post-left anarchy primarily lies in what appears to be a continually brightening future.

One of the most troubling problems of the contemporary anarchist milieu has been the frequent fixation on attempts to recreate the struggles of the past as though nothing significant has changed since 1919, 1936, or at best 1968. Partly this is a function of the long-prevalent anti-intellectualism amongst many anarchists. Partly it’s a result of the historical eclipse of the anarchist movement following the victory of Bolshevik state communism and the (self-) defeat of the Spanish Revolution. And partly it is because the vast majority of the most important anarchist theorists — like Godwin, Stirner, Proudhon, Bakunin, Kropotkin, and Malatesta — come from the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The void in the development of anarchist theory since the rebirth of the milieu in the 1960s has yet to be filled by any adequate new formulation of theory and practice powerful enough to end the impasse and catch the imaginations of the majority of contemporary anarchists in a similar manner to Bakunin’s or Kropotkin’s formulations in the nineteenth century.

Since the 1960s the originally minuscule — but since that time, ever-growing — anarchist milieu has been influenced (at least in passing) by the Civil Rights Movement, Paul Goodman, SDS, the Yippies, the anti-Vietnam War movement, Fred Woodworth, the Marxist New Left, the Situationist International, Sam Dolgoff and Murray Bookchin, the single-issue movements (anti-racist, feminist, anti-nuclear, anti-imperialist, environmental/ecological, animal rights, etc.), Noam Chomsky, Freddie Perlman, George Bradford/David Watson, Bob Black, Hakim Bey, Earth First! and Deep Ecology, neo-Paganism and New Ageism, the anti-globalization movement, and many others. Yet these various influences over the last forty years, both non-anarchist and anarchist alike, have failed to bring to the fore any inspiring new synthesis of critical and practical theory. A few anarchists, most notably Murray Bookchin and the Love & Rage project, have tried and failed miserably in attempting to meld the extremely diverse and idiosyncratic anarchist milieu into a genuinely new movement with a commonly-held theory. I would argue that in our current situation this is a project guaranteed to fail no matter who attempts it.

The alternative argued for by the post-left anarchist synthesis is still being created. It cannot be claimed by any single theorist or activist because it’s a project that was in the air long before it started becoming a concrete set of proposals, texts and interventions. Those seeking to promote the synthesis have been primarily influenced by both the classical anarchist movement up to the Spanish Revolution on the one hand, and several of the most promising critiques and modes of intervention developed since the 60s. The most important critiques involved include those of everyday life and the spectacle, of ideology and morality, of industrial technology, of work and of civilization. Modes of intervention focus on the concrete deployment of direct action in all facets of life. Rather than aiming at the construction of institutional or bureaucratic structures, these interventions aim at maximal critical effectiveness with minimal compromise in constantly changing networks of action.

Clearly these new critiques and modes of intervention are largely incompatible with both the old left of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and most of the New Left of the 60s and 70s. And just as clearly they are engaging a growing number of anarchists who gravitate to them because they seem to be much more congruent with the global situation we find ourselves in today than the old theories and tactics of leftism. If anarchism doesn’t change to address the lived realities of the twenty-first century — by leaving the outmoded politics and organizational fetishism of leftism behind — its relevance will dissipate and the opportunities for radical contestation now so apparent will slowly vanish. Post-left anarchy is most simply a rubric through which many thoughtful contemporary anarchists would like to see the most vital of the new critiques and modes of intervention coalesce in an increasingly coherent and effective movement, which genuinely promotes unity in diversity, the complete autonomy of individuals and local groups in struggle, and the organic growth of levels of organization which don’t hold back our collective energies, spontaneity and creativity.

Introduction

Anarchist critiques of leftism have a history nearly as long as the term “left” has had a political meaning. The early anarchist movement emerged from many of the same struggles as other socialist movements (which made up a major part of the political left), from which it eventually differentiated itself. The anarchist movement and other socialist movements were primarily a product of the social ferment which gave rise to the Age of Revolutions — introduced by the English, American and French Revolutions. This was the historical period in which early capitalism was developing through the enclosure of commons to destroy community self-sufficiency, the industrialization of production with a factory system based on scientific techniques, and the aggressive expansion of the commodity market economy throughout the world. But the anarchist idea has always had deeper, more radical and more holistic implications than mere socialist criticism of the exploitation of labor under capitalism. This is because the anarchist idea springs from both the social ferment of the Age of Revolutions and the critical imagination of individuals seeking the abolition of every form of social alienation and domination.

The anarchist idea has an indelibly individualist foundation upon which its social critiques stand, always and everywhere proclaiming that only free individuals can create a free, unalienated society. Just as importantly, this individualist foundation has included the idea that the exploitation or oppression of any individual diminishes the freedom and integrity of all. This is quite unlike the collectivist ideologies of the political left, in which the individual is persistently devalued, denigrated or denied in both theory and practice — though not always in the ideological window dressing that is meant only to fool the naive. It is also what prevents genuine anarchists from taking the path of authoritarians of the left, right and center who casually employ mass exploitation, mass oppression and frequently mass imprisonment or murder to capture, protect and expand their holds on political and economic power.

Because anarchists understand that only people freely organizing themselves can create free communities, they refuse to sacrifice individuals or communities in pursuit of the kinds of power that would inevitably prevent the emergence of a free society. But given the almost mutual origins of the anarchist movement and the socialist left, as well as their historical battles to seduce or capture the support of the international workers movement by various means, it isn’t surprising that over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries socialists have often adopted aspects of anarchist theory or practice as their own, while even more anarchists have adopted aspects of leftist theory and practice into various left-anarchist syntheses. This is despite the fact that in the worldwide struggles for individual and social freedom the political left has everywhere proven itself either a fraud or a failure in practice. Wherever the socialist left has been successful in organizing and taking power it has at best reformed (and rehabilitated) capitalism or at worst instituted new tyrannies, many with murderous policies — some of genocidal proportions.

Thus, with the stunning international disintegration of the political left following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the time is now past due for all anarchists to reevaluate every compromise that has been or continues to be made with the fading remnants of leftism. Whatever usefulness there might have been in the past for anarchists to make compromises with leftism is evaporating with the progressive disappearance of the left from even token opposition to the fundamental institutions of capitalism: wage labor, market production, and the rule of value.

Leftists in the Anarchist Milieu

The rapid slide of the political left from the stage of history has increasingly left the international anarchist milieu as the only revolutionary anti-capitalist game in town. As the anarchist milieu has mushroomed in the last decade, most of its growth has come from disaffected youth attracted to its increasingly visible, lively and iconoclastic activities and media. But a significant minority of that growth has also come from former leftists who have — sometimes slowly and sometimes suspiciously swiftly — decided that anarchists might have been right in their critiques of political authority and the state all along. Unfortunately, not all leftists just fade away — or change their spots — overnight. Most of the former leftists entering the anarchist milieu inevitably bring with them many of the conscious and unconscious leftist attitudes, prejudices, habits and assumptions that structured their old political milieus. Certainly, not all of these attitudes, habits and assumptions are necessarily authoritarian or anti-anarchist, but just as clearly many are.

Part of the problem is that many former leftists tend to misunderstand anarchism only as a form of anti-statist leftism, ignoring or downplaying its indelibly individualist foundation as irrelevant to social struggles. Many simply don’t understand the huge divide between a self-organizing movement seeking to abolish every form of social alienation and a merely political movement seeking to reorganize production in a more egalitarian form. While others do understand the divide quite well, but seek to reform the anarchist milieu into a political movement anyway, for various reasons. Some former leftists do this because they consider the abolition of social alienation unlikely or impossible; some because they remain fundamentally opposed to any individualist (or sexual, or cultural, etc.) component of social theory and practice. Some cynically realize that they will never achieve any position of power in a genuinely anarchist movement and opt for building more narrowly political organizations with more room for manipulation. Still others, unused to autonomous thinking and practice, simply feel anxious and uncomfortable with many aspects of the anarchist tradition and wish to push those aspects of leftism within the anarchist milieu that help them feel less threatened and more secure — so that they can continue to play their former roles of cadre or militant, just without an explicitly authoritarian ideology to guide them.

In order to understand current controversies within the anarchist milieu, anarchists need to remain constantly aware — and carefully critical — of all this. Ad hominem attacks within the anarchist milieu are nothing new, and most often a waste of time, because they substitute for rational criticism of people’s actual positions. (Too often rational criticism of positions is simply ignored by those unable to argue for their own positions, whose only recourse is to wild or irrelevant accusations or attempted smears.) But there remains an important place for ad hominem criticism addressed to people’s chosen identities, especially when these identities are so strong that they include sedimented, often unconscious, layers of habits, prejudices and dependencies. These habits, prejudices and dependencies — leftist or otherwise — all constitute highly appropriate targets for anarchist criticism.

Recuperation and the Left-Wing of Capital

Historically, the vast majority of leftist theory and practice has functioned as a loyal opposition to capitalism. Leftists have been (often vociferously) critical of particular aspects of capitalism, but always ready to reconcile themselves with the broader international capitalist system whenever they’ve been able to extract a bit of power, partial reforms — or sometimes, just the vague promise of partial reforms. For this reason leftists have often been quite justifiably criticized (by both ultra-leftists and by anarchists) as the left wing of capital.

It’s not just a problem that those leftists who claim to be anti-capitalist don’t really mean it, although some have consciously used such lies to gain positions of power for themselves in opposition movements. The major problem is that leftists have incomplete, self-contradictory theories about capitalism and social change. As a result their practice always tends towards the recuperation (or co-optation and reintegration) of social rebellion. Always with a focus on organization, leftists use a variety of tactics in their attempts to reify and mediate social struggles — representation and substitution, imposition of collectivist ideologies, collectivist moralism, and ultimately repressive violence in one form or another. Typically, leftists have employed all of these tactics in the most unrepentently heavy-handed and explicitly authoritarian of ways. But these tactics (except for the last) can also be — and have often been — employed in more subtle, less-overtly authoritarian ways as well, the most important examples for our purposes being the historical and present practices of many (but not all) left anarchists.

Reification is often most generally described as “thingification.” It’s the reduction of a complex, living process to a frozen, dead or mechanical collection of objects or actions. Political mediation (a form of practical reification) is the attempt to intervene in conflicts as a third-party arbiter or representative. Ultimately these are the definitive characteristics of all leftist theory and practice. Leftism always involves the reification and mediation of social revolt, while consistent anarchists reject this reification of revolt. The formulation of post-left anarchy is an attempt to help make this rejection of the reification of revolt more consistent, widespread and self-aware than it already is.

Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Organization

One of the most fundamental principles of anarchism is that social organization must serve free individuals and free groups, not vice versa. Anarchy cannot exist when individuals or social groups are dominated — whether that domination is facilitated and enforced by outside forces or by their own organization.

For anarchists the central strategy of would-be revolutionaries has been the non-mediating (anti-authoritarian, often informal or minimalist) self-organization of radicals (based on affinity and/or specific theoretical/practical activities) in order to encourage and participate in the self-organization of popular rebellion and insurrection against capital and state in all their forms. Even among most left anarchists there has always been at least some level of understanding that mediating organizations are at best highly unstable and unavoidably open to recuperation, requiring constant vigilance and struggle to avoid their complete recuperation.

But for all leftists (including left anarchists), on the other hand, the central strategy is always expressly focused on creating mediating organizations between capital & state on the one side and the mass of disaffected, relatively powerless people on the other. Usually these organizations have been focused on mediating between capitalists and workers or between the state and the working class. But many other mediations involving opposition to particular institutions or involving interventions among particular groups (social minorities, subgroups of the working class, etc.) have been common.

These mediating organizations have included political parties, syndicalist unions, mass political organizations, front groups, single-issue campaign groups, etc. Their goals are always to crystallize and congeal certain aspects of the more general social revolt into set forms of ideology and congruent forms of activity. The construction of formal, mediating organizations always and necessarily involves at least some levels of:

Reductionism (Only particular aspects of the social struggle are included in these organizations. Other aspects are ignored, invalidated or repressed, leading to further and further compartmentalization of the struggle. Which in turn facilitates manipulation by elites and their eventual transformation into purely reformist lobbying societies with all generalized, radical critique emptied out.)

Specialization or Professionalism (Those most involved in the day-to-day operation of the organization are selected — or self-selected — to perform increasingly specialized roles within the organization, often leading to an official division between leaders and led, with gradations of power and influence introduced in the form of intermediary roles in the evolving organizational hierarchy.)

Substitutionism (The formal organization increasingly becomes the focus of strategy and tactics rather than the people-in-revolt. In theory and practice, the organization tends to be progressively substituted for the people, the organization’s leadership — especially if it has become formal — tends to substitute itself for the organization as a whole, and eventually a maximal leader often emerges who ends up embodying and controlling the organization.)

Ideology (The organization becomes the primary subject of theory with individuals assigned roles to play, rather than people constructing their own self-theories. All but the most self-consciously anarchistic formal organizations tend to adapt some form of collectivist ideology, in which the social group at some level is acceded to have more political reality than the free individual. Wherever sovereignty lies, there lies political authority; if sovereignty is not dissolved into each and every person it always requires the subjugation of individuals to a group in some form.)

All anarchist theories of self-organization, on the contrary, call for (in various ways and with different emphases):

Individual and Group Autonomy with Free Initiative (The autonomous individual is the fundamental basis of all genuinely anarchistic theories of organization, for without the autonomous individual, any other level of autonomy is impossible. Freedom of initiative is likewise fundamental for both individuals and groups. With no higher powers comes the ability and necessity for all decisions to be made at their point of immediate impact. As a side note, post-structuralists or postmodernists who deny the existence of the autonomous anarchist individual most often mistake the valid critique of the metaphysical subject to imply that even the process of lived subjectivity is a complete fiction — a self-deluded perspective which would make social theory impossible and unnecessary.)

Free Association (Association is never free if it is forced. This means that people are free to associate with anyone in any combination they wish, and to dissociate or refuse association as well.)

Refusal of Political Authority, and thus of Ideology (The word “anarchy” literally means no rule or no ruler. No rule and no ruler both mean there is no political authority above people themselves, who can and should make all of their own decisions however they see fit. Most forms of ideology function to legitimate the authority of one or another elite or institution to make decisions for people, or else they serve to delegitimate people’s own decision-making for themselves.)

Small, Simple, Informal, Transparent and Temporary Organization (Most anarchists agree that small face-to-face groups allow the most complete participation with the least amount of unnecessary specialization. The most simply structured and least complex organizations leave the least opportunity for the development of hierarchy and bureaucracy. Informal organization is the most protean and most able to continually adapt itself to new conditions. Open and transparent organization is the most easily understood and controlled by its members. The longer organizations exist the more susceptible they usually become to the development of rigidity, specialization and eventually hierarchy. Organizations have life spans, and it is rare that any anarchist organization will be important enough that it should exist over generations.)

Decentralized, Federal Organization with Direct Decision-Making and Respect for Minorities (When they are necessary larger, more complex and formal organizations can only remain self-manageable by their participants if they are decentralized and federal. When face-to-face groups — with the possibility for full participation and convivial discussion and decision-making — become impossible due to size, the best course is to decentralize the organization with many smaller groups in a federal structure. Or when smaller groups need to organize with peer groups to better address larger-scale problems, free federation is preferred — with absolute self-determination at every level beginning with the base. As long as groups remain of manageable size, assemblies of all concerned must be able to directly make decisions according to whatever methods they find agreeable. However, minorities can never be forced into agreement with majorities on the basis of any fictitious conception of group sovereignty. Anarchy is not direct democracy, though anarchists may certainly choose to use democratic methods of decision-making when and where they wish. The only real respect for minority opinions involves accepting that minorities have the same powers as majorities, requiring negotiation and the greatest level of mutual agreement for stable, effective group decision-making)

In the end, the biggest difference is that anarchists advocate self-organization while leftists want to organize you. For leftists, the emphasis is always on recruiting to their organizations, so that you can adopt the role of a cadre serving their goals. They don’t want to see you adopt your own self-determined theory and activities because then you wouldn’t be allowing them to manipulate you. Anarchists want you to determine your own theory and activity and self-organize your activity with like-minded others. Leftists want to create ideological, strategic and tactical unity through “self-discipline” (your self-repression) when possible, or organizational discipline (threat of sanctions) when necessary. Either way, you are expected to give up your autonomy to follow their heteronomous path that has already been marked out for you.

Anarchy as a Theory & Critique of Ideology

The anarchist critique of ideology dates from the work of Max Stirner, though he did not use the term himself to describe his critique. Ideology is the means by which alienation, domination and exploitation are all rationalized and justified through the deformation of human thought and communication. All ideology in essence involves the substitution of alien (or incomplete) concepts or images for human subjectivity. Ideologies are systems of false consciousness in which people no longer see themselves directly as subjects in their relation to their world. Instead they conceive of themselves in some manner as subordinate to one type or another of abstract entity or entities which are mistaken as the real subjects or actors in their world.

Whenever any system of ideas and duties is structured with an abstraction at its center — assigning people roles or duties for its own sake — such a system is always an ideology. All the various forms of ideology are structured around different abstractions, yet they all always serve the interests of hierarchical and alienating social structures, since they are hierarchy and alienation in the realm of thought and communication. Even if an ideology rhetorically opposes hierarchy or alienation in its content, its form still remains consistent with what is ostensibly being opposed, and this form will always tend to undermine the apparent content of the ideology. Whether the abstraction is God, the State, the Party, the Organization, Technology, the Family, Humanity, Peace, Ecology, Nature, Work, Love, or even Freedom; if it is conceived and presented as if it is an active subject with a being of its own which makes demands of us, then it is the center of an ideology. Capitalism, Individualism, Communism, Socialism, and Pacifism are each ideological in important respects as they are usually conceived. Religion and Morality are always ideological by their very definitions. Even resistance, revolution and anarchy often take on ideological dimensions when we are not careful to maintain a critical awareness of how we are thinking and what the actual purposes of our thoughts are. Ideology is nearly ubiquitous. From advertisements and commercials, to academic treatises and scientific studies, almost every aspect of contemporary thinking and communication is ideological, and its real meaning for human subjects is lost under layers of mystification and confusion.

Leftism, as the reification and mediation of social rebellion, is always ideological because it always demands that people conceive of themselves first of all in terms of their roles within and relationships to leftist organizations and oppressed groups, which are in turn considered more real than the individuals who combine to create them. For leftists history is never made by individuals, but rather by organizations, social groups, and — above all, for Marxists — social classes. Each major leftist organization usually molds its own ideological legitimation whose major points all members are expected to learn and defend, if not proselytize. To seriously criticize or question this ideology is always to risk expulsion from the organization.

Post-left anarchists reject all ideologies in favor of the individual and communal construction of self-theory. Individual self-theory is theory in which the integral individual-in-context (in all her or his relationships, with all her or his history, desires, and projects, etc.) is always the subjective center of perception, understanding and action. Communal self-theory is similarly based on the group as subject, but always with an underlying awareness of the individuals (and their own self-theories) which make up the group or organization. Non-ideological, anarchist organizations (or informal groups) are always explicitly based upon the autonomy of the individuals who construct them, quite unlike leftist organizations which require the surrender of personal autonomy as a prerequisite for membership.

Neither God, nor Master, nor Moral Order: Anarchy as Critique of Morality and Moralism

The anarchist critique of morality also dates from Stirner’s master work, The Ego and Its Own (1844). Morality is a system of reified values — abstract values which are taken out of any context, set in stone, and converted into unquestionable beliefs to be applied regardless of a person’s actual desires, thoughts or goals, and regardless of the situation in which a person finds him- or herself. Moralism is the practice of not only reducing living values to reified morals, but of considering oneself better than others because one has subjected oneself to morality (self-righteousness), and of proselytizing for the adoption of morality as a tool of social change.

Often, when people’s eyes are opened by scandals or disillusionment and they start to dig down under the surface of the ideologies and received ideas they have taken for granted all their lives, the apparent coherence and power of the new answer they find (whether in religion, leftism or even anarchism) can lead them to believe that they have now found the Truth (with a capital ‘T’). Once this begins to happen people too often turn onto the road of moralism, with its attendant problems of elitism and ideology. Once people succumb to the illusion that they have found the one Truth that would fix everything — if only enough other people also understood, the temptation is then to view this one Truth as the solution to the implied Problem around which everything must be theorized, which leads them to build an absolute value system in defense of their magic Solution to the Problem this Truth points them to. At this point moralism takes over the place of critical thinking.

The various forms of leftism encourage different types of morality and moralism, but most generally within leftism the Problem is that people are exploited by capitalists (or dominated by them, or alienated from society or from the productive process. etc.). The Truth is that the People need to take control of the Economy (and/or Society) into their own hands. The biggest Obstacle to this is the Ownership and Control of the Means of Production by the Capitalist Class backed up by its monopoly over the use of legalized violence through its control of the political State. To overcome this people must be approached with evangelical fervor to convince them to reject all aspects, ideas and values of Capitalism and adopt the culture, ideas and values of an idealized notion of the Working Class in order to take over the Means of Production by breaking the power of the Capitalist Class and constituting the power of the Working Class (or its representative institutions, if not their Central Committees or its Supreme Leader) over all of Society.... This often leads to some form of Workerism (usually including the adoption of the dominant image of the culture of the working class, in other words, working-class lifestyles), a belief in (usually Scientific) Organizational Salvation, belief in the Science of (the inevitable victory of the Proletariat in) Class Struggle, etc. And therefore tactics consistent with building the fetishized One True Organization of the Working Class to contest for Economic and Political Power. An entire value system is built around a particular, highly oversimplified conception of the world, and moral categories of good and evil are substituted for critical evaluation in terms of individual and communal subjectivity.

The descent into moralism is never an automatic process. It is a tendency which naturally manifests itself whenever people start down the path of reified social critique. Morality always involves derailing the development of a consistent critical theory of self and society. It short-circuits the development of strategy and tactics appropriate for this critical theory, and encourages an emphasis on personal and collective salvation through living up to the ideals of this morality, by idealizing a culture or lifestyle as virtuous and sublime, while demonizing everything else as being either the temptations or perversions of evil. One inevitable emphasis then becomes the petty, continuous attempt to enforce the boundaries of virtue and evil by policing the lives of anyone who claims to be a member of the in-group sect, while self-righteously denouncing out-groups. In the workerist milieu, for example, this means attacking anyone who doesn’t sing paeans to the virtues of working class organization (and especially to the virtues of the One True form of Organization), or to the virtues of the dominant image of Working Class culture or lifestyles (whether it be beer drinking instead of drinking wine, rejecting hip subcultures, or driving a Ford or Chevy instead of BMWs or Volvos). The goal, of course, is to maintain the lines of inclusion and exclusion between the in-group and the out-group (the out-group being variously portrayed in highly industrialized countries as the Middle and Upper Classes, or the Petty Bourgeois and Bourgeois, or the Managers and Capitalists big and small).

Living up to morality means sacrificing certain desires and temptations (regardless of the actual situation you might find yourself in) in favor of the rewards of virtue. Don’t ever eat meat. Don’t ever drive SUVs. Don’t ever work 9–5. Don’t ever scab. Don’t ever vote. Don’t ever talk to a cop. Don’t ever take money from the government. Don’t ever pay taxes. Don’t ever etc., etc. Not a very attractive way to go about living your life for anyone interested in critically thinking about the world and evaluating what to do for oneself.

Rejecting Morality involves constructing a critical theory of one’s self and society (always self-critical, provisional and never totalistic) in which a clear goal of ending one’s social alienation is never confused with reified partial goals. It involves emphasizing what people have to gain from radical critique and solidarity rather than what people must sacrifice or give up in order to live virtuous lives of politically correct morality.

Post-Left Anarchy: Neither Left, nor Right, but Autonomous

Post-left anarchy is not something new and different. It’s neither a political program nor an ideology. It’s not meant in any way to constitute some sort of faction or sect within the more general anarchist milieu. It’s in no way an opening to the political right; the right and left have always had much more in common with each other than either has in common with anarchism. And it’s certainly not intended as a new commodity in the already crowded marketplace of pseudo-radical ideas. It is simply intended as a restatement of the most fundamental and important anarchist positions within the context of a disintegrating international political left.

If we want to avoid being taken down with the wreckage of leftism as it crumbles, we need to fully, consciously and explicitly dissociate ourselves from its manifold failures — and especially from the invalid presuppositions of leftism which led to these failures. This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for anarchists to also consider themselves leftists — there has been a long, most often honorable, history of anarchist and left syntheses. But it does mean that in our contemporary situation it is not possible for anyone — even left-anarchists — to avoid confronting the fact that the failures of leftism in practice require a complete critique of leftism and an explicit break with every aspect of leftism implicated in its failures.

Left anarchists can no longer avoid subjecting their own leftism to intensive critique. From this point on it is simply not sufficient (not that it really ever has been) to project all the failures of leftism onto the most explicitly obnoxious varieties and episodes of leftist practice, like Leninism, Trotskyism and Stalinism. The critiques of leftist statism and leftist party organization have always been only the tip of a critique that must now explicitly encompass the entire iceberg of leftism, including those aspects often long incorporated into the traditions of anarchist practice. Any refusal to broaden and deepen the criticism of leftism constitutes a refusal to engage in the self-examination necessary for genuine self-understanding. And stubborn avoidance of self-understanding can never be justified for anyone seeking radical social change.

We now have the unprecedented historical opportunity, along with a plenitude of critical means, to recreate an international anarchist movement that can stand on its own and bow to no other movements. All that remains is for all of us to take this opportunity to critically reformulate our anarchist theories and reinvent our anarchist practices in light of our most fundamental desires and goals.

Reject the reification of revolt. Leftism is dead! Long live anarchy!

[dipulb3]

The man behind Fortnite is making the riskiest bet of his career. The payoff could be huge

New Post has been published on https://appradab.com/the-man-behind-fortnite-is-making-the-riskiest-bet-of-his-career-the-payoff-could-be-huge/

The man behind Fortnite is making the riskiest bet of his career. The payoff could be huge

The CEO and founder of Epic Games has had a knack for picking the right battles while also shoring up his company’s independence. Fortnite, the company’s blockbuster battle royale game, recently topped more than 15 million concurrent players and has spawned a universe of fandom. Epic challenged established platforms by launching its own digital video game storefront. And the multi-billion dollar company developed the Unreal Engine, a proprietary software for making its own video games that it licenses out to other developers and animators.

Now Sweeney, 50, is embarking on the biggest battle in his company’s 30-year history: Epic is suing Apple and Google in a legal challenge that could remake the future of the digital economy.

“Epic’s frustration with Apple especially, and Google to some extent, had been building up for at least three years. Ever since Fortnite grew to have a large audience, we felt stifled by several things,” Sweeney told Appradab Business during a December interview.

Launched in 2017, Fortnite quickly became a phenomenon. When it first debuted, Epic charged $40 to download the game — a typical price. But the company quickly pivoted to a riskier business model, betting that offering Fortnite as a free-to-play game with in-app purchases of digital items like outfits would generate more overall revenue.

The bet paid off. Though Epic has raked in billions off Fortnite’s in-game purchases — about $1.3 billion in 2020 and $1.8 billion in 2019, according to Nielsen’s gaming division SuperData — the company balked at paying a chunk of that revenue to app store owners like Apple and Google. If a player downloaded Fortnite from Apple’s App Store, for example, Apple would receive a 30% cut of all in-app purchases.

Sweeney believed that requirement violated antitrust laws because it forced developers to use Apple and Google’s payment systems.

So Epic spent months developing its battle plan to fight Apple, which it codenamed “Project Liberty,” he said.

The company prepped a 60-page lawsuit and created a video that parodied Apple’s classic “1984” commercial, for good measure.

On August 13, Project Liberty was sprung into action — a plan that sought to force the tech giants into response.

In a blog post, Epic encouraged Fortnite users to pay the company directly for in-app purchases. Both Google and Apple promptly removed Fortnite from their stores, alleging the company violated their terms of service. Epic then filed lawsuits against each of the companies, in which Epic argued the courts should intervene and order Apple and Google to allow developers to sell in-app purchases without the 30% revenue cut.

“Epic’s problem is entirely self-inflicted and is in their power to resolve,” Apple said in a statement. “Epic has been one of the most successful developers on the App Store, growing into a multibillion dollar business that reaches millions of iOS customers around the world. We very much want to keep the company as part of the Apple Developer Program and their apps on the Store.”

Google responded that it had “consistent policies that are fair to developers” and that Fortnite had violated those rules. “However, we welcome the opportunity to continue our discussions with Epic and bring Fortnite back to Google Play,” it added.

For Sweeney, who spoke to Appradab Business via video call from his home, the battle against Apple and Google is about more than just a 30% cut of its revenue.

“I grew up in a time in which anybody could make software. This is my first computer, an Apple II,” said Sweeney, gesturing towards the iconic blocky, grey machine on the desk behind him. “You turn it on and it comes up with a programming language prompt,” he continued. “So I felt all along that open platforms are the key to free markets and the future of computing.”

Early dreams

In 1991, a young, 20-something Sweeney founded Epic, then known as Potomac Computer Systems, as a way to sell copies of a video game he made himself. He ran the company out of his parents’ house in Maryland.

While Epic produced its own shooter games like Fire Fight and Unreal, it also began licensing its game development technology to other game makers in the late 1990s. This became the Unreal Engine, a ubiquitous game software which is now an essential part of Epic’s business. Between 2012 and 2017, Epic survived mostly on revenue generated from the Unreal Engine’s licensing fees, said Sweeney. Today, the Unreal Engine is also used in animation, such as creating scenes for Disney’s “The Mandalorian.”

Sweeney said he always envisioned Epic as a multi-faceted business. He wanted Epic to both make and sell games — and create and license the tools used to make them.

One part of that equation was, of course, Fortnite.

From the outset, Epic has always has always had outsized ambitions for Fortnite. The game has dozens of crossovers each year, from Marvel’s Avengers to Star Wars. It hosts massive virtual concerts and gives gamers endless shiny features, with the aim that there’s something new each time a player logs on. But the breakneck speed of development allegedly had a real cost for its workers, some of whom told gaming publication Polygon in 2019 that they regularly worked 70-hour weeks. Since then, Epic has made changes including hiring more people, soliciting more employee feedback, offering unlimited paid time off and mandating company-wide vacations, according to the company.

Epic’s decision in 2018 to expand into selling third-party games created yet another business opportunity, and yet another fight against the establishment. By launching its own games store, and cutting out the middleman, Epic was attempting to break into an already thriving market for PC games that was, at the time, dominated by Steam, a popular games store.

“We had to move mountains in order to have any chance of gaining traction at all,” said Sweeney. Epic’s store attracted attention for splashy stunts like giving away Grand Theft Auto V, which is the best-selling game in the US in the last decade, according to NPD Group.

While the Epic Games Store has gained momentum, attracting over 160 million PC users and generating over $700 million in purchases last year according to the company, critics object to its exclusive deals that keep certain games out of other stores. Sweeney has defended his position, saying the store exclusives are a reasonable strategy that helps Epic compete against Steam.

In 2019, Epic acquired social media app Houseparty and later announced it would add voice chat to Fortnite through the app.

The company was valued at $17.3 billion as of 2020, making Sweeney a billionaire.

Uniquely positioned

While investors of Epic include Tencent, which has a 39% stake, and Sony, which purchased a 1.4% stake in 2020 for $250 million, Sweeney remains the CEO and controlling shareholder.

Competitor Roblox has announced its plans for a direct listing and Unity — a rival to Unreal — went public in 2020. But Epic Games has little interest in an IPO.

“We’re still a highly independent company who’s not beholden to public markets in which we have to show ever-increasing profits,” said Sweeney. “And anything like a fight like this [with Apple and Google], which loses us money for a year or more, would never be tolerated. So we have the financial independence to do that.”

Epic’s business model gives it a flexibility that other tech companies don’t necessarily have.

“Unlike Facebook, iOS doesn’t drive the majority of Epic’s revenues. Unlike Spotify or Netflix, Epic is highly profitable,” said Matthew Ball, a former Amazon Studios executive and strategist who has penned over 20,000 words on Fortnite and Epic. “And unlike almost all other large companies, Epic is private and majority controlled by one person.”

Ball added that the fight with Apple and Google didn’t come without sacrifices for Epic, which might see avid iPhone users find other games to replace Fortnite as the app spends months if not years in legal purgatory. “But Epic is uniquely able to push back,” he said.

What’s at stake

Sweeney declined to say how much the company is spending on legal fees, but he said that the fight to take on Apple and Google is costing “lots and lots” of senior leadership time.

And the ban on Fortnite in app stores is costing the company plenty in lost revenue. Fortnite users have spent about $1.2 billion globally on the game on iOS since its launch, according to mobile app tracker Sensor Tower.

Epic’s case against Apple is expected to go to trial in May. Google is seeking to have Epic’s suit dismissed in a hearing scheduled on February 18.

Such a public fray has unnerved some developers, who fear that Apple might go a step further and remove apps from its store simply for being built using the Unreal Engine, which it briefly threatened to do last August.

“We were legitimately planning to switch to Unreal for our next VR project but after Tim decided to poke the bear we decided it wasn’t [worth] the risk,” game developer Ryan Engle tweeted in December. “I love Epic and Unreal, but business is business and the real-world consequences of Apple banning Epic is too much risk for us.”

Sweeney responded saying that Engle’s “fear of retaliation by Apple” was shared by many developers, but Epic would “fight on just the same!”

Epic is also risking Fortnite’s market share on iOS and Android platforms, as fans may turn to other games during the legal battle. On Android devices, Fortnite can be downloaded from Epic’s website and app stores other than Google’s Play Store, so while access is hindered, it’s not eliminated. However on Apple devices, the game can no longer be downloaded at all.

Sweeney also faced backlash in November for controversially comparing Fortnite’s legal battle to the civil rights movement.

“The point is if you really want to make a difference, you have to buck the system,” Sweeney said in response to the criticism. “I think there’s a lot we can learn from any of the past struggles in humanity and I think it’s perfectly healthy to apply struggles from vital causes in the history of the world to struggles over smaller issues like software platforms.”

Returning to court

For Epic Games and Sweeney, the risks are worthwhile. Sweeney fears a dystopian future where tech platforms are dominated by a few companies and the most successful apps are cloned by those companies to maximize profits.

“[The companies] will just do that industry by industry and app category by app category until they’ve gobbled up everything that matters. And who will be left?” said Sweeney. “A million indie developers who collectively together make a small percentage of revenues on the app store because these businesses are too small to be attractive to steal.”

In what Epic’s best case scenario, the court could rule that Apple and Google are prohibited from bundling payment services with their app stores, allowing developers to be paid directly, according to legal experts.

But if Epic loses, it will at least make clear what the limits of antitrust law are, so people with similar grievances can look to appeal Congress for antitrust reform, according to John Bergmayer, legal director of consumer rights group Public Knowledge.

“I think [Epic winning the lawsuits] would be pretty good for the markets overall,” said Mitch Stoltz, senior staff attorney of the nonprofit digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation, in an August interview. “You’d see more experimentation. You’d see more business models. You’d see more innovation.”

As for Sweeney, he’s optimistic Epic can change the industry.

“It’s Epic fighting or pressing for change and succeeding, and it’s not that unusual,” he said. “We’ve done it many times and everybody in the industry has benefited often.”

[viduamarchive]

I don't know much about the black widow, so i apologize in advance if the answers are obvious. did she choose the alias black widow herself? or was it an alias given to her? if so, why has she kept the alias all these years?

OF  LOVE  /  OF  DEATH.      hi there !!     don’t worry,     the answer isn’t very obvious at all   —–   much of fanon / fandom are confused on the matter,     & canon writers have absolutely  NO  consistency in explaining this,      so it’s definitely one of the muddier topics regarding natasha’s past.      keep in mind,      NATASHA’S CURRENT CANON HAS BEEN RETCONNED,     & IS NO LONGER THE CANON THAT I FOLLOW.      i don’t follow it because it’s stupid.     it’s shallow.     & lazy.    & culturally insensitive.     & very obviously written by straight white men who just like to watch one of the most popular female cbc suffer.      anyway,     here we go   ——

NATASHA JOINED THE KGB IN 1956,      AT THE AGE OF 28.     it was a voluntary choice,     based in the necessity of saving her father figure,    IVAN PETROVICH,     who had suffered fatal injuries during an attack in east berlin.     JAMES BARNES / THE WINTER SOLDIER  offered,    on behalf of the USSR,    a way to save ivan,     a way to extend their lifetimes indefinitely,      in exchange for their ensured loyalty to the government.      NATASHA  ACCEPTED,     & very shortly after she joined  THE RED ROOM.

THE RED ROOM,     was a division of  DEPARTMENT X,     which was the covert scientific division of the KGB.     the RR was responsible for taking 28 female volunteers & training them / biochemically enhancing them to become super spies for the USSR.      these 28 women were given the codename  ЧЕРНАЯ ВДОВА / BLACK WIDOW,     which says a lot in & of itself.     the women themselves in the red room were not taken seriously.     many men thought that their position was vulgar & inferior,     &  MANY  used the title of  ‘black widow’  as a slur,     despite seduction never being a major focus of their training.      though the conception of the title is unclear,     i strongly believe that it was a way for the state to control these women & restrict their freedom.     even giving them a title that they could not choose that denotes a NEGATIVE STEREOTYPE of women was a way to take ownership of them.     but it doesn’t matter why or how it was used.     natasha wore the title like a medal,     & she earned her place as the best & only black widow.

now that that answers your first question,     let’s get to the second part  :  WHY DID SHE KEEP IT ?

IN 1957,     AFTER A YEAR OF RIGOROUS TRAINING & EXPERIMENTATION / ENHANCEMENT IN THE RED ROOM,     & after proving herself as the best,    most skilled black widow of the 28,     natasha married alexei shostakov,     one of the  USSR’s  best test pilots,     & put away her training & her title as black widow in favor of settling down as a housewife.     the couple were highly privileged,     soviet icons,     & were quite the power couple in terms of their being the supreme propagandized example of soviet living.     the marriage lasted 6 years,     until 1963,     when the USSR faked alexei’s death in a failed rocket test.     this devastated natasha  ( & proved to haunt her for the next 20-30 years ),     which,    though it wasn’t exactly the intention of the USSR in faking alexei’s death,     it proved to be exactly what they needed.

------ ( deadly origin.   #2 )

AS HISTORY RECALLS,     during this time,    NIKITA KRUSHCHEV  was the premier of the soviet union.     he was not at all fond of much of what his predecessors had done,     & worked to undo much of stalin’s plans.      ONE OF THESE,     was the black widow program itself,     which krushchev thought to be ridiculous & far too expensive to carry out moving forward.     however,     NATASHA HERSELF,     JUST RECENTLY WIDOWED,     wanted nothing more than to honor her husband’s legacy &  carry out missions against the west  (  THE  WEST,     she thought,     was responsible for taking her husband from her,     for his supposed death was due to the space race between the USSR & the US  ).      krushchev,     though reluctant,     obliged,     & natasha returned to the black widow ops program for another year of training in 1963,     before she was sent by the KGB to the US for her first mission in 1964,     as THE FIRST AND ONLY SUCCESSFUL BLACK WIDOW.     for the next three years,     natasha held the title of the black widow according to the USSR’s wishes,     until she defected around 1967,     became an avenger,    etc.  etc.

IN 1970,     IN AMAZING SPIDERMAN #86,     natasha returned to action & re-invented her image & designed the sleek black suit which we are familiar with now.      but still    -------    SHE KEPT THE TITLE.      she kept the name that her previous government had given her.      but it wasn’t that she simply kept it,      SHE MADE IT HER OWN.     she was no longer a spy on the wrong side of the wall,     she was a hero doing things for good,     & choosing her own destiny.

however,     during the 70′s,     natasha’s development arc centered primarily around her  WIDOW’S CURSE.      many people that she had grown close to or grown to love,     starting with her husband,     HAD DIED BECAUSE OF HER in one way or another.     & she spent much of the decade trying to rid herself of the curse by helping people & doing the right thing.      SHE WANTED NOTHING MORE THAN TO BE A BLACK WIDOW IN NAME ONLY.      & eventually,     she succeeded.

after her WIDOW’S CURSE arc ran its course,     & comics entered the 80′s & 90′s,     natasha’s title in - canon wasn’t really paid attention to as anything other than just another code name.      but it was given attention when  YELENA BELOVA,     a student of the red room,     wanted to surpass natasha & take the title for herself.      natasha thought this to be foolish,     & horribly misguided,     for the life that natasha has lived to earn the title has been one of pain & suffering,     & never one that she would wish on anyone else ; especially not on a young & nationalistic girl.

“   WHY BE THE WIDOW,     ROOSKAYA,     WHEN YOU CAN BE YELENA ?     ”     ------- ( itsy bitsy spider.   #2 )

THE BLACK WIDOW  is doomed to hardship.     it may even be considered a curse,     as natasha thought it was so long ago.     but it is a burden that natasha is willing to bear,     because she knows she is the only one equipped to.     SHE IS NOT PROTECTIVE OF THE TITLE,     she simply does not wish for anyone else to have to earn it the way she had to.

time goes on,      & the black widow continues to straddle the line between mystery as a spy & publicity as a hero.     & with that comes stereotypes & misconceptions & personas imposed on her.      but let’s be real  :  NATASHA IS A WALKING STEREOTYPE BREAKER.     everything she does is for a reason.     everything she does proves people wrong in some way.     & natasha,     since the late 80′s / early 90′s,    has been very sexualized both in & out of universe,     & she knows this.    people think of her as a femme fatale,     as a spy that seduces her targets & kills them soon after,      but this is  FURTHEST FROM THE TRUTH.     seduction has never been  ( at least while working espionage for the US )  part of her methods.     if anything,    the fact that people think so is just part of the mass reduction of how faceted she is.     but honestly ?    that’s ok.    HER PAST IS HER OWN.     she is her own woman,     first,    last,   & always.     SHE DEFINES WHO SHE IS,     & no amount of misconception or sexualization or greedy men will ever change that.     & really,     that’s part of what makes her keeping the title of  BLACK WIDOW  so satisfying to her.     she never gives people what they want,     she never plays by anyone’s rules,     & she proves everyone wrong time after time after time.     IT IS HER BURDEN TO BEAR,     as a woman in a man’s world,     as a woman paving her own path.     & it’s just one part of what makes her so strong.

SEND QUESTIONS YOU HAVE ABOUT NATASHA !

[tayersaree]

Atari Brings Deer Hunter Competition To COMPUTER, 360 This Autumn

Admit it. You desire a military-style weapon with a big clip and also long variety because (1) it's an awesome tool as well as (2) you intend to be prepared when the "black helicopters" supporting the U.N. A lot of the areas I hunted were smaller sized sections that were reasonably level, open, as well as thought about domestic, and the landowners were hesitant to allow deer searching with long variety tools. Deer searching is now a recreational task, arranged and also promoted for at the national level by the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association. Programs are run by organisations such as the British Organization for Capturing and also Conservation and also this qualification is additionally included within the Level 1 deer tracking certification. Lots of deer seekers lack suggestions as to what to do with all their deer meat. The size of the season is often based on the health as well as population of the deer herd, along with the variety of hunters expected to be taking part in the deer search. The DFW will also produce details time frameworks within the period where the number of seekers able to hunt is restricted, which is called a controlled quest.

As their antlers become completely established, they will certainly begin to drop their velour. The velour will certainly fall off of the deer when their antlers start to harden in late summertime to very early be up to prepare yourself for mating period in the winter months. This mix has every little thing that a deer might want, four kinds of clover, chicory, as well as little burnett, a perennial forb that suches as completely dry gravel or sandy dirt where a great deal of other plants will certainly not expand. Another typical grievance regarding deer searching with pets is security. Always use a safety belt when hunting from a tree stand. The bar action is crisp and also fluid, as well as the security system is "2nd to none." There will certainly be future updates as well as experiences of searching with Henry! Chasing the target and also performing at wonderful speed throughout warm mid day will certainly offer a remarkable stress to any kind of animal. Trophy elk searching overviews can give you with info on all these facets as well as set up transport and also a place to hang your hat at the end of the day. The community gets a fresh lease of life on the weekend break when the farmers market takes location every Saturday, with numerous suppliers marketing luxury food as well as beverage products which are most of the time locally-sourced.

I figured it was a dog as well as believed nothing even more of it. He gulped as well as assumed for sure he was mosting likely to be the bear's dinner. I'm not mosting likely to offer my opinion on whether I personally feel that is fair chase or otherwise, however that's something that is worthwhile of more conversation. After even more researching and also factor to consider, I chose I at the very least intended to offer this brand-new hunting option a shot. The choice on what I intended to utilize was challenging, and also I talked to a number of seekers that were using high power rifles and also had substantially more understanding about this subject than myself. The mix of deer and also vehicles likely originates from even more driving in the evening during Thanksgiving week since collisions in the evening are 70 percent more probable during that week than various other times of the year. When you are simply trying to find wildlife in your yard, it is best to use them at night as this is when the fascinating wild animals appears. If among these deer is scared or startled, they can also let out an ear splitting scream. Mule deer are located in the western USA in the foothills of the hills.

The mule deer have taller skinnier tines on their antlers where white-tailed deer generally have shorter thicker tines White-tailed bucks are somewhat smaller than mule deer dollars. In Australia, there are 6 types of deer that are offered to search. It was mostly all field back then, but currently there are some crops like alfalfa and corn grown in the area. If you have ever before seen what can take place to a location once all the larger trees have been eliminated you know very first hand just how rapidly the under brush can expand up. He unwinded to enjoy what was just one of his preferred times of the year: that first dawn of the new searching period. At first I was very reluctant considering the terrain in Indiana being not for risk-free hunting with high power rifles. A couple of years back, Indiana included a high power rifle deer season as well as I began taking into consideration including a high power rifle. I always joked and also claimed that I would also "toss rocks" at the deer if there was a rock season for whitetail deer. In the late nineteenth and also twentieth centuries, there were several packs of staghounds hunting "hauled deer" in England and Ireland.

For instance, Kentucky permits the taking of antlerless deer throughout any type of deer period in the majority of the state, but in particular areas allows only antlered deer to be taken during components of deer period. Considering that I have instead huge hands, I chose to purchase the bigger bar take care of that permits additional room for large hands and also putting on gloves throughout cooler trip. UK deer stalkers, if providing venison (in hair) to video game dealers, butchers as well as restaurants, require to hold a Lantra level 2 large game meat health certification. If supplying venison for public consumption (meat), the carrier should have a fully functioning and also clean pantry that meets FSA criteria and need to register as a food business with the regional authority. Approaches of going after ready wild meat and also matching periods undergo law by state governments as well as as a result differ from one state to another. That obviously, is subject to alter, yet up until now, I definitely love the way this rifle manages in close quarters such as ground blinds and tree stands. September and can copulate up until February like in Texas. This breed gets on incredibly well with other animals and also can be relied on with kids.

[gadzaarora]

Atari Brings Deer Hunter Competition To COMPUTER, 360 This Fall

Confess. You desire a military-style weapon with a big clip as well as long range since (1) it's an awesome piece of equipment as well as (2) you want to prepare when the "black helicopters" supporting the U.N. A lot of the locations I pursued were smaller areas that were relatively flat, open, and also considered household, and the landowners were hesitant to allow deer hunting with long array tools. Deer searching is now a recreational task, arranged as well as promoted for at the national level by the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association. Courses are run by organisations such as the British Association for Capturing as well as Conservation and also this qualification is additionally included within the Level 1 deer stalking certificate. Numerous deer seekers lack concepts regarding what to do with all their deer meat. The size of the period is often based upon the wellness and populace of the deer herd, along with the variety of hunters anticipated to be joining the deer search. The DFW will additionally develop details timespan within the season where the variety of seekers able to hunt is limited, which is understood as a controlled quest.

As their antlers become fully developed, they will certainly start to lose their velvet. The velvet will certainly drop off of the deer when their horns begin to harden in late summer to very early be up to get ready for mating period in the winter season. This mix has every little thing that a deer might want, four sorts of clover, chicory, and little burnett, a perennial forb that likes dry crushed rock or sandy soil where a lot of various other crops will not expand. Another usual problem regarding deer hunting with canines is safety. Constantly use a safety belt when hunting from a tree stand. The lever action is crisp as well as fluid, and also the safety system is "unrivaled." There will certainly be future updates as well as experiences of searching with Henry! Going after the prey and going for fantastic rate throughout warm mid day will offer an amazing stress to any kind of animal. Prize elk hunting guides can supply you with details on all these facets as well as prepare transportation and also a location to hang your hat at the end of the day. The community gets a fresh lease of life on the weekend when the farmers market takes place every Saturday, with different suppliers marketing luxury food and beverage items which are usually locally-sourced.

I figured it was a dog and also thought nothing even more of it. He gulped as well as thought without a doubt he was mosting likely to be the bear's dinner. I'm not mosting likely to give my viewpoint on whether I personally really feel that is reasonable chase or otherwise, however that's something that is worthwhile of further conversation. After even more researching as well as consideration, I determined I at the very least wished to provide this brand-new searching alternative a try. The choice on what I desired to use was challenging, and also I spoke with a variety of seekers that were making use of high power rifles as well as had significantly even more expertise regarding this subject than myself. The mix of deer and also cars likely comes from more driving in the evening throughout Thanksgiving week given that crashes at evening are 70 percent most likely throughout that week than various other times of the year. When you are just searching for wildlife in your yard, it is best to utilize them at night as this is when the fascinating wildlife appears. If among these deer is terrified or alarmed, they can additionally let out an ear splitting scream. Mule deer are located in the western United States in the foothills of the mountains.

The mule deer have taller skinnier tines on their horns where white-tailed deer generally have shorter thicker points White-tailed bucks are a little smaller than mule deer dollars. In Australia, there are six varieties of deer that are available to search. It was mostly all field at that time, today there are some plants like alfalfa and also corn expanded in the location. If you have ever seen what can occur to a location as soon as all the larger trees have actually been removed you know very first hand how quickly the under brush can expand up. He sat back to enjoy what was just one of his preferred times of the year: that very first sunrise of the brand-new searching period. In the beginning I was incredibly reluctant considering the terrain in Indiana being not for risk-free hunting with high power rifles. A couple of years earlier, Indiana included a high power rifle deer season and I started taking into consideration adding a high power rifle. I constantly joked as well as asserted that I would even "throw rocks" at the deer if there was a rock period for whitetail deer. In the late nineteenth and also twentieth centuries, there were a number of packs of staghounds searching "hauled deer" in England and also Ireland.

For instance, Kentucky permits the taking of antlerless deer during any type of deer period in the majority of the state, but in particular locations permits only antlered deer to be taken during components of deer season. Because I have rather huge hands, I opted to order the bigger bar manage that permits extra space for big hands as well as using handwear covers during cooler outing. UK deer stalkers, if supplying venison (in hair) to video game dealerships, butchers and also restaurants, require to hold a Lantra level 2 large video game meat health certificate. If supplying venison for public intake (meat), the provider has to have a totally operating and clean pantry that satisfies FSA criteria and have to sign up as a food service with the neighborhood authority. Approaches of going after game for wild meat and also matching periods undergo guideline by state federal governments and consequently vary from state to state. That naturally, is subject to change, however so much, I definitely like the method this rifle handles in close quarters such as ground blinds and tree stands. September as well as can copulate until February like in Texas. This type jumps on incredibly well with various other pets and can be relied on with youngsters.

[qalebjalod]

Atari Brings Deer Seeker Tournament To PC, 360 This Fall

Admit it. You want a military-style weapon with a big clip as well as lengthy range since (1) it's an amazing piece of equipment and also (2) you wish to prepare when the "black helicopters" supporting the U.N. The majority of the locations I pursued were smaller sized sections that were fairly flat, open, as well as taken into consideration household, and the landowners were reluctant to enable deer hunting with long array tools. Deer searching is currently a recreational task, organised as well as advocated for at the nationwide degree by the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association. Programs are run by organisations such as the British Association for Shooting and also Preservation as well as this qualification is also consisted of within the Degree 1 deer stalking certification. Several deer hunters lack suggestions regarding what to do with all their deer meat. The length of the season is often based upon the health and populace of the deer herd, in enhancement to the number of seekers anticipated to be joining the deer search. The DFW will additionally produce certain timespan within the season where the number of seekers able to hunt is restricted, which is referred to as a regulated hunt.

As their antlers become completely established, they will begin to lose their velour. The velvet will certainly diminish of the deer when their horns begin to set in late summer season to early autumn to get ready for mating period in the wintertime. This mix has every little thing that a deer might want, four sorts of clover, chicory, and small burnett, a perennial forb that likes completely dry gravel or sandy dirt where a whole lot of other plants will not grow. One more typical complaint concerning deer searching with dogs is security. Always put on a harness when hunting from a tree stand. The lever activity is crisp and fluid, and the safety and security system is "2nd to none." There will be future updates and also journeys of searching with Henry! Chasing after the target as well as going for wonderful rate during hot mid day will provide an amazing pressure to any type of animal. Trophy elk hunting guides can offer you with info on all these facets along with prepare transport and also a location to hang your hat at the end of the day. The town obtains a fresh lease of life on the weekend break when the farmers market occurs every Saturday, with various vendors marketing high-end food as well as beverage items which are usually locally-sourced.

I figured it was a pet dog as well as believed nothing more of it. He gulped and thought without a doubt he was going to be the bear's dinner. I'm not going to provide my opinion on whether I personally really feel that is reasonable chase or not, however that's something that is worthy of more discussion. After even more looking into as well as factor to consider, I decided I at the very least wanted to give this new hunting alternative a try. The decision on what I desired to make use of was hard, and also I spoke with a variety of seekers that were using high power rifles and also had considerably even more knowledge concerning this subject than myself. The mix of deer and also vehicles likely comes from even more driving in the evening during Thanksgiving week considering that crashes at night are 70 percent most likely throughout that week than various other times of the year. When you are simply looking for wild animals in your yard, it is best to utilize them in the evening as this is when the interesting wildlife comes out. If one of these deer is scared or alarmed, they can also discharge an ear splitting scream. Mule deer are located in the western USA in the foothills of the mountains.

The mule deer have taller skinnier tines on their antlers where white-tailed deer usually have shorter thicker tines White-tailed bucks are slightly smaller than mule deer bucks. In Australia, there are 6 varieties of deer that are readily available to search. It was mostly all field at that time, however now there are some crops like alfalfa as well as corn expanded in the location. If you have ever seen what can occur to a location as soon as all the larger trees have been removed you know first hand how rapidly the under brush can mature. He rested back to relish what was among his favorite times of the year: that initial daybreak of the brand-new open season. In the beginning I was exceptionally hesitant considering the surface in Indiana being not for risk-free searching with high power rifles. A few years back, Indiana included a high power rifle deer period as well as I started thinking about including a high power rifle. I always joked and asserted that I would certainly even "throw rocks" at the deer if there was a rock season for whitetail deer. In the late nineteenth and also twentieth centuries, there were numerous packs of staghounds hunting "hauled deer" in England and Ireland.

As an example, Kentucky permits the taking of antlerless deer throughout any deer period in the majority of the state, but in certain areas permits only antlered deer to be taken during parts of deer period. Considering that I have instead huge hands, I chose to get the bigger bar handle that allows additional space for large hands and putting on gloves throughout cooler getaway. UK deer stalkers, if supplying venison (in fur) to video game dealers, butchers as well as dining establishments, require to hold a Lantra level 2 big video game meat hygiene certificate. If supplying venison for public usage (meat), the provider should have a totally operating and also tidy pantry that satisfies FSA standards as well as should register as a food business with the local authority. Approaches of pursuing ready wild meat and also equivalent periods go through guideline by state governments as well as as a result differ from one state to another. That obviously, is subject to alter, but so much, I absolutely like the means this rifle deals with in close quarters such as ground blinds as well as tree stands. September and also can go all the means till February like in Texas. This type jumps on exceptionally well with other pets and also can be trusted with kids.

[marksxweber]

Atari Brings Deer Hunter Competition To PC, 360 This Fall

Confess it. You desire a military-style tool with a big clip and also long range since (1) it's a great tool as well as (2) you wish to be prepared when the "black helicopters" sustaining the U.N. Many of the locations I hunted were smaller sized sections that were reasonably flat, open, and considered domestic, as well as the landowners were reluctant to permit deer hunting with long variety tools. Deer hunting is currently a leisure activity, organised and supported for at the nationwide degree by the New Zealand Deerstalkers' Association. Courses are run by organisations such as the British Organization for Capturing and Preservation as well as this qualification is likewise included within the Degree 1 deer tracking certification. Lots of deer hunters lack suggestions regarding what to do with all their deer meat. The size of the season is often based upon the health and wellness and populace of the deer herd, in addition to the variety of hunters expected to be taking part in the deer search. The DFW will likewise produce particular period within the season where the variety of hunters able to search is limited, which is understood as a regulated search.

As their antlers become totally developed, they will certainly start to drop their velvet. The velour will fall off of the deer when their horns start to solidify in late summer to early be up to prepare yourself for mating period in the wintertime. This mix has every little thing that a deer could want, four kinds of clover, chicory, and tiny burnett, a perennial forb that likes dry gravel or sandy soil where a whole lot of other crops will certainly not grow. An additional usual problem concerning deer hunting with pet dogs is safety. Constantly use a safety belt when hunting from a tree stand. The bar activity is crisp as well as liquid, and also the security system is "second to none." There will be future updates and adventures of searching with Henry! Going after the prey and performing at fantastic rate throughout hot mid day will offer a phenomenal stress to any kind of pet. Prize elk hunting overviews can give you with information on all these facets in addition to organize transport as well as an area to hang your hat at the end of the day. The town obtains a fresh lease of life on the weekend break when the farmers market occurs every Saturday, with different vendors marketing deluxe food and drink things which are most of the time locally-sourced.

I figured it was a dog as well as assumed absolutely nothing even more of it. He gulped and also thought for certain he was going to be the bear's supper. I'm not mosting likely to provide my opinion on whether I personally feel that is reasonable chase or otherwise, but that's something that is worthwhile of additional discussion. After even more investigating as well as consideration, I decided I at least desired to give this brand-new hunting option a try. The decision on what I intended to use was tough, and also I spoke to a number of seekers that were utilizing high power rifles and had substantially more understanding about this subject than myself. The mix of deer as well as cars likely originates from even more driving during the night throughout Thanksgiving week considering that collisions during the night are 70 percent more probable during that week than other times of the year. When you are merely looking for wild animals in your yard, it is best to utilize them during the night as this is when the interesting wildlife comes out. If one of these deer is scared or surprised, they can additionally blurt an ear splitting scream. Mule deer are discovered in the western United States in the foothills of the hills.

The mule deer have taller skinnier points on their antlers where white-tailed deer normally have shorter thicker points White-tailed bucks are somewhat smaller sized than mule deer bucks. In Australia, there are six types of deer that are offered to hunt. It was mainly all field back after that, today there are some plants like alfalfa as well as corn grown in the area. If you have actually ever seen what can take place to an area as soon as all the bigger trees have been removed you recognize first hand just how quickly the under brush can grow up. He kicked back to savor what was one of his favored times of the year: that very first dawn of the brand-new open season. Initially I was incredibly hesitant considering the surface in Indiana being not favorable to safe hunting with high power rifles. A few years ago, Indiana included a high power rifle deer period as well as I began thinking about adding a high power rifle. I constantly joked and also asserted that I would even "toss rocks" at the deer if there was a rock period for whitetail deer. In the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there were numerous packs of staghounds hunting "hauled deer" in England as well as Ireland.

As an example, Kentucky enables the taking of antlerless deer throughout any deer season in the majority of the state, but in specific locations permits just antlered deer to be taken during parts of deer season. Considering that I have instead big hands, I opted to purchase the bigger bar manage that permits additional area for big hands as well as wearing handwear covers throughout cooler trip. UK deer stalkers, if supplying venison (in hair) to game suppliers, butchers as well as dining establishments, require to hold a Lantra degree 2 huge video game meat health certificate. If supplying venison for public consumption (meat), the supplier must have a fully functioning and tidy larder that meets FSA criteria and also should sign up as a food service with the local authority. Techniques of seeking video game for wild meat and equivalent periods undergo policy by state federal governments and therefore vary from one state to another. That certainly, undergoes transform, however so much, I absolutely enjoy the way this rifle deals with in close quarters such as ground blinds as well as tree stands. September and also can go all the means till February like in Texas. This breed hops on remarkably well with various other animals as well as can be trusted with youngsters.

[allwicca]

A Short History of North American Witchcraft

By: Amelia Henry

Witchcraft is a concept that Western culture and society at large has been obsessed with for as long as it has existed. Its idea represents the ultimate “other” from a dominating patriarchal, Christian society: a collective of women free from shame and imbued with power, grace, and sexuality. In this dominating society, the idea of a free community of Pagans proved unacceptable, the most notable example being Salem’s oppression of real or imagined witches. However, though the accusation of witchcraft had been a tool of oppression in Puritan times, its modern actual practice has bloomed into empowerment.

During the Salem Witch Trials, the Puritan society of the 17th century directed its fear and hysteria towards (mostly) women that didn’t quite fit into their ideals, thereby oppressing and killing those that dared to be different. The first person killed in the witch trials was Bridget Bishop, a woman known for “publicly fighting with her various husbands, entertaining guests in home until late in the night, drinking and playing the forbidden game of shovel board, and being the mistress of two thriving taverns in town.” Dozens more were killed in the process, but unsurprisingly, more than two-thirds were women.

“If you look at some of the witchcraft trials and persecutions in history, there were some men, but mostly women,” said Stacy Rapps, witch and owner of the Enchantments occult store in New York City, in an interview by the Huffington Post. “Most of them were unmarried, they may have even been lesbians, they were healers, they were usually outspoken, very independent… Witchcraft was a way to persecute women who were strong and outspoken in a time when women had no rights, and had no function other than to be baby machines.”

In colonial Latin America, much like in colonial North America, witches were persecuted heavily out of fear that they might “band together in a female conspiracy to control male actions,” according to Susan Miden Socolow’s book The Women of Colonial Latin America. Accused brujas were “often older nonwhite women, frequently widows past childbearing age” whose power was “derived from their sexual, racial, and social ‘otherness.’” Though, arguably, it is likely that the witches of Salem were accused out of hysteria than because they were actual witches, some of these women farther south may have actually practiced witchcraft. Witches were said to make deals with the devil in order to gain magical powers, and would often to try to empower themselves sexually as their main focus: love magic. They also tried to empower themselves politically. One account of an actual witch from the time described a “Guachichil woman accused of being a witch, who attempted to use her power to stir up her people against Spanish authorities.” Of course, she was hung like many others.

Though the fear surrounding magic and witchcraft was hard to shake, during the twentieth century those that did not fit the overarching standards began to explore a new sort of witchcraft, and through it, found empowerment and community.

When Gerald Gardner published his book Witchcraft Today in 1954, he created a new religion: Wicca, which drew on a multitude of preexisting spiritual practices. With it the world of witchcraft went public.

I spoke with Heather Greene, Wiccan and editor of the leading news agency for Pagans, The Wild Hunt, in order to further understand the trajectory of witchcraft’s history and its modern realization. “While Witchcraft existed prior to the 1950s, Wicca did not,” Greene said. “[Wicca] was created in the way art is created– an artist doesn’t just make things up, they’re inspired by what’s around them and they congeal it into something new and accessible, and that’s what [Gardner] did.”

To be clear, not all witches are Wiccan and vice versa. Though many Wiccans identify as witches, not all do. Other witches do not identify as Wiccans, either, like brujas from Central and South American communities. It must also be said that Wiccans practice Paganism, but not all Pagans practice Wicca. Paganism itself is very vast and very old. It covers early forms of religion like Druidism, a nature-based religion under the Pagan umbrella, which was originally taught by Celtic priests over 2000 years ago and is still practiced today (for more information on one of its churches, go to A Druid Fellowship).

“Paganism is an umbrella term for a lot of different religions including Wicca,” Greene said. “Wicca is not the only [Pagan religion], it’s just the most common and probably the most populous.”

It is also particularly Western. After Witchcraft Today was published, Wicca spread throughout the United Kingdom – Gardner’s homeland – through the next couple of decades. Wicca also made its way over to the United States and Canada.

This Gardnerian witchcraft came at the right time to the right place to take hold in communities disillusioned with the dominant culture’s norms. Some groups in the late sixties and the seventies took vague ideas from Wicca, like the American radical feminist group called WITCH (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell) that used Western society’s long-held fear of witchcraft to further their political statements by “throwing hexes” at Wall Street bankers and beauty pageant goers. Second-wave feminists, like Zsuzsanna Budapest, took hold of these new beliefs and made them their own.

Dr. Zsuzsanna Budapest’s mission was to empower other women through a feminine community and through finding their deity, The Goddess, in their own spirits. She went on to write books on Dianic Wicca such as The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, Summoning the Fates, and even an autobiography, titled My Dark Sordid Past as a Heterosexual.

“Women hesitate less and less at the thought of finding the Goddess within themselves and in each other,” Budapest said. “Peace will prevail when women rediscover sisterhood once again; across borders, across cultures and oceans, and hold together as a gender who represent the virtues of peace.”

Dianic Wicca was only one of the new practices formed.

“In the 70s there was a limited number of groups and practice. Then, a differentiation started to happen, similar to the way that Christianity differentiated, or a cell differentiates when a baby’s being made in its mother’s womb,” Greene said. “That started happening, and now there’s a beautiful, colorful rainbow of different religions.”

However, Paganism once again faced strong, widespread cultural opposition in the 1980s after its massive growth in the decades before. The “Satanic Panic” started with the public shock and outrage at the publication of a memoir called Michelle Remembers, which outlined one woman’s alleged abuse at the hands of Satan worshippers. Though it was discredited almost immediately after publication, the fear that it inspired started a craze of false allegations and very public United States court cases.

“Between 1984 and 1986, the investigation into these labyrinthine claims of satanic ritual abuse would send at least 26 people to jail in interrelated convictions, despite a complete lack of corroborative physical evidence for any of the claims,” according to Vox.

Though many Pagans, like Wiccans, had nothing to do with worshipping Satan, they were still afraid to practice publicly.

Archpriestess at the Aquarian Tabernacle Church and Dean of Wiccan Seminary Belladonna Laveau told me about what it was like to practice during that time of fear. “In 1988 when it was time to do a ritual, me and my friends would move all the furniture in the living room and make a little place for us to have circle at, and we would have little tiny altars that we would kneel in front of,” Laveau said. “It was a much smaller, quiet, don’t-let-the-neighbors-hear-us kind of thing, and now anywhere from 100 to 1000 people get together at big campsites and worship outside.”

Though during the 1980s Pagans had to practice more quietly, the introduction of the Internet in the 1990s provided the Pagan community with a massive increase in practices and practitioners. “There was communication boom with the internet and with people being able to connect… the Pagan community started to come into its own; the Pagan world started to really strengthen with that connectivity,” Greene said. “That really helped. It also enabled people to see that there were more people out there like them.”

Since then, Paganism has integrated itself more into society. For example, in 2007, the Veteran’s Association approved the Wiccan pentacle for military headstones. Earlier this year, they also approved the Druid’s Awen symbol.

“25 years ago, if there were 100 witches in the park doing a ritual, it would have been seen as a threat to culture,” Laveau said. “Now it’s just another facet of our culture.”

Brujeria also still lives on. However, this feeling of “sexual, racial, and social ‘otherness’” felt by many is giving rise to other mystical religions practiced in Latin America: such as La Santa Muerte, Santeria, and Voodoo to name a few. In fact, though Catholicism is on the decline in Mexico, Santa Muerte, a quasi-Catholic practice of worshipping and making deals with the saint of death, is growing fast. The oppression of colonial witches that made deals with the devil, centuries later, turned into a religion for working-class Mexicanos in which they could make deals with death. Santa Muerte, known popularly as “La Nina Blanca,” or “The White Lady,” is a “complex multitasker,” according to Dr. Andrew Chesnut, author of Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint. She offers vengeance to the cartels, health for the sick, and protection for the everyman. However, like the brujas of the colonial days, “her most important task is love magic.” Also like in colonial times, La Santa Muerte is condemned by the religious majority. Though it goes against the overarching religion, this kind of empowerment, a feeling of security in love, life, and career, is what the brujas attempted to provide to their communities. With time, the oppression that they faced could turn into the reality of community and of liberation that we see in Santa Muerte today.

Like with Latin America’s new religions, acceptance does still pose an issue to modern Wiccans in North America. “They think you’re silly,” Greene said. “They don’t see that there’s a religion or that you’re serious about what you’re doing.”

The bigger issue today is not acceptance by others, but acceptance by peers. Some sects, like Dianic Wiccans, do not allow cis men or trans folk into their practice. “When Wicca was born in 1959, it was very binary. Women do this, men do this. However, it was matriarchal instead of patriarchal and exalted women above men,” Laveau said. “As we have moved into the new millennia, we’ve found that it’s just the same old shit in a different package. Oppressing any gender is not okay.”

However, Laveau notes that people of all genders are more and more welcome in Wiccan spaces and in Pagan religions in general. “A lot of trans people come to Paganism,” Laveau said. “Across the board, modern witches have released that [old] ideology.”

Greene stated that the reason why the community is so accepting is because it is quite young – if not in age, then at least in spirit. “I think that a lot of Pagans came to it in their youth,” Greene said. “You get into your teens and your twenties and you think, ‘There’s more, there’s gotta be more,’ and there are so many different Pagan religions that allow you to walk your own path and also allow you to be who you are. Whether that’s cisgender or trans or gay or bisexual, artist or lawyer, whatever it is that you are. It’s very open to that kind of youthful spirit.”

Laveau notes that one of the most important, and most empowering, parts of modern Wicca is the vast spiritual community. “Being Wiccan helps you learn how to deal with the challenges of life in stride. It takes away the whiny syndrome and it empowers you to be the best you that you can be,” Laveau said. “When you have your coven supporting you, it’s easier to take those steps and be courageous because you have people cheering you on.”

“The most rewarding part of it is the creative aspect of it,” said Greene. “It allows you to grow and to learn and to fail and to explore and to be a spiritual artist.”

    The post A Short History of North American Witchcraft appeared first on Familiar Territory.

from A Short History of North American Witchcraft

[whittlebaggett8]

Will Foreign Policy Matter in Indonesia’s Presidential Election?

In fewer than a thirty day period, Indonesian voters will head to the polls. The fourth pre-election presidential debate amongst incumbent President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo and challenger Prabowo Subianto took location on Saturday, March 30. The fourth round of the discussion concentrated on defense and foreign plan.

All over the campaign period, observers and myriad news articles have predicted that overseas policy difficulties would be notable throughout the campaign and presidential debates. Pursuing the fourth presidential debate on defense and overseas plan, we now have a greater being familiar with about challenges that are, and are not, salient.

Although knowledge the presidential candidates’ foreign plan stance helps Indonesian voters and other nations around the world gauge Indonesia’s future trajectory in the international arena, an additional similarly vital and broader question right here is this: To what extent does foreign policy make a difference to voters in the 2019 Indonesia election?

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For international policy to affect the election, some political experts these as John Aldrich and many others have instructed that there are 3 problems that need to have to be present. 1st, voters have to have secure, coherent attitudes about foreign plan. Next, the general public will have to be equipped to obtain these attitudes when they vote. 3rd, the candidates must uphold distinctive or contrasting international coverage platforms so voters can use their established attitudes to distinguish involving candidates.

Decades of investigate on international plan and general public impression in Western democratic countries this sort of as the United Point out present that general public does have a tendency to have steady, coherent attitudes about foreign policy. The stability of general public feeling is examined by utilizing repeated thoughts by many pooling corporations. Even although community feeling adjustments, this kind of alter is precipitated by alterations in the international environment.

Do we notice the same pattern in Indonesia? Presented the lack of time series study analysis about Indonesian public belief on major overseas policy concerns, it is tricky to argue conclusively irrespective of whether Indonesian voters have secure or coherent attitudes on international policy. However, there are public view surveys obtainable that deliver us a snapshot or baseline of Indonesian views. Primarily based on general public view surveys from main news shops and polling corporations, there is motive to question the salience of these indicators when it will come to answering these types of thoughts in Indonesia.

For instance, on the challenge of the inflow of overseas employees, surveys by the Middle for Strategic and Worldwide Studies in Indonesia in 2017 confirmed that all around 70 p.c of the respondents reacted negatively towards the presence of international workers. Nevertheless, a different study showed that only 27.8 % of Indonesian are anxious with the inflow of foreign employees and believe that they endanger the sovereignty of the region.

What about nationwide protection issues? A single key foreign coverage challenge confronting Southeast Asian international locations, together with Indonesia, is the rise of China and the standing of the U.S. presence in the region. Dependent on the World Perspective Survey, more than 50 % of Indonesian respondents seen U.S. electric power and influence as a threat. The 3rd wave of the Asia Barometer Survey performed from 2010-2012, advised that there is a much more good perspective of China. On top of that, from 2002-2005, Indonesia was between quite a few international locations that experienced the least favorable see of foreign policy. With regard to China, a study by Pew confirmed that inner thoughts towards China have been regularly favorable in Indonesia involving 2002-2007.

Based mostly on this quick examination of these two important foreign coverage troubles, it looks that proof on no matter if the general public has dependable sights is mixed. If the opinions of Indonesian voters on overseas plan are not coherent, then it is more durable for the two candidates to persuade voters to arrive to their facet.

As much as the second prerequisite is involved, if the Indonesian community does have attitudes about international plan, they will have to be equipped to access individuals attitudes to specific them in an election. In other terms, they ought to be knowledgeable of their possess views on worldwide troubles. Since voters are fast paced people and tend to concentrate on difficulties closer to dwelling, they are likely to go away foreign policy to crucial international policymakers and count on their cues to comprehend international problems. Some students of public view place out that media and important foreign policymakers support voters to entry their sights toward different worldwide concerns. Information media and elite discourse direct people today to fork out focus to certain concerns (priming) and power the community to think of all those foreign plan difficulties in specific means (framing).

Information shops and pundits issue out that President Jokowi and his challenger, Prabowo Subianto, have produced reference to international coverage throughout the marketing campaign period. Among the the concerns that have been raised by the two candidates are China-Indonesia relations, the existence of foreign companies this kind of as Freeport, the involvement of international consultants in the campaign, Indonesia’s job in the United Nations Security Council, Natuna Island, Palestinian statehood, and the role of difficult navy electricity in the maritime place.

The fourth presidential discussion, on top of that, assisted deliver the voters into additional speak to with international policy challenges ranging from Indonesia’s national passions (territorial integrity and sovereignty, welfare and protection of Indonesian employees abroad, financial prosperity), threats to countrywide pursuits (international invasion, overseas ownership of strategic belongings), many usually means to accomplish individuals goals (political and financial diplomacy, military services power) that they would potentially or else be unaware of. Thus, the general public appears to be offered with enough possibilities to accessibility their attitudes with regards to international policy.

The past criteria necessary for general public feeling about overseas plan to be able to affect election considerations is the international plan platforms of the candidates. Do Jokowi and Prabowo existing voters with contrasting foreign policy alternatives?

So considerably, not really. As the fourth debate shown, both of those candidates appeared to concur on main national passions: territorial integrity, sovereignty, and financial prosperity.

Even so, it is significant to note that each and every chose to give more body weight to sure issues. On the matter of global relations in the fourth discussion, Jokowi, for example, chose to spotlight economic prosperity and talk about trade diplomacy as just one of the indicates to accomplish prosperity in his opening assertion, and he chose to take the security of the nation from external military invasion as a specified. As the exchange concerning two candidates on intercontinental relations ongoing, Jokowi reminded voters that he is equally fully commited to nationwide sovereignty and territorial integrity as Prabowo, albeit conveyed in a extra delicate-spoken way.

Prabowo, having said that, most well-liked to focus on the challenge of defense and the great importance of boosting defense spending to protect the country against external military services threats in his opening statement. As a former army person, Prabowo thinks that armed service electrical power can be a crucial to the achievements of negotiations, even in multilateral settings.

In his subsequent statements relating to global relations, Prabowo did not contest or provide contrasting sights to Jokowi’s argument about the need of worldwide trade or foreign financial commitment. Nor did he disagree with Jokowi’s opening assertion about Indonesia’s job as the largest Muslim region and just one that is established to play a mediating part in conflict spots throughout the world. This could have left the viewers who watched the debate wanting to know if Prabowo opposed or supported Jokowi’s sights on these distinct concerns.

The arrangement on main countrywide curiosity notwithstanding, the distinctive emphasis each candidate place on the three main countrywide interests regions and the implies to achieve them may possibly direct some voters to cast ballots based mostly on overseas policy or at least make broad assist among the specified voting segments. For all those who worth an aggressive or difficult stance on protection, political, or financial problems could possibly value Prabowo’s oratorical design and style and his military services-very first method. Meanwhile, for voters who worth intercontinental trade when also respecting countrywide integrity and sovereignty together with a comfortable-spoken general public speaker, they could possibly aspect with the incumbent.

Nevertheless, public sentiment could not be as coherent as the minimal proof above indicates. The international coverage debate could be thought of by voters as lacking contrasting foreign plan platforms and be much too crammed with imprecise public statements. Potentially voters will base their vote on non-overseas policy concerns as a substitute. The capacity of voters to access their attitudes will not be appropriate beneath this condition if other troubles dominate their factors.

Angguntari C. Sari is a Fulbright Scholar and Ph.D. university student in the School of Worldwide and Political Reports, Arizona Condition University.

The post Will Foreign Policy Matter in Indonesia’s Presidential Election? appeared first on Defence Online.

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[thetrumpdebacle]

MOSCOW — The boss of a Kremlin-funded news organization accused of playing a role in Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. election says she hopes the deep rift between Moscow and Washington can be mended.

Margarita Simonyan has been editor-in-chief of RT — formerly known as Russia Today — for more than a decade.

But until recently, few had heard of her outside Russia.

Then her name was mentioned 27 times in a report by U.S. intelligence agencies that was published in January. It described RT as the “Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet” and said it “served as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.”

It alleged that government-financed RT America sought to “influence politics [and] fuel discontent” in the U.S.

Forbes magazine ranked Simonyan as the 52nd most powerful woman in the world this year — 13 places ahead of Hillary Clinton.

“I am very saddened by what is going on right now between Russia and America,” the 37-year-old Simonyan told NBC News at the network’s Moscow headquarters earlier this month.

“I lived in America. I love America,” she added, referring to a year she spent as an exchange student in Bristol, New Hampshire, in 1995. “We are not Communists anymore. We have changed, but for some reason the establishment doesn’t recognize it and doesn’t give us a chance to show that we have changed. You don’t have to be afraid of us anymore.”

President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman on Friday said the Kremlin views deteriorating relations with the U.S. as a major disappointment of 2017. Following allegations of meddling in the presidential election, the two countries have been exchanging tit-for-tat measures all year, ranging from restrictions on embassy staff to legislation targeting state-owned media.

RT America — the U.S. arm of the organization — was forced to register as a “foreign agent” in November, prompting a response from the Kremlin that called restrictions on Russian broadcasters in the United States an attack on free speech.

Russia retaliated earlier this month by designating Voice of America and Radio Free Europe as “foreign agents.”

RT has never made a secret of being a Russian TV station, Simonyan said, likening it to the U.K.’s publicly funded BBC.

“I don’t understand why any country is given a chance to make its point of view seen and heard by the world, and Russia is not given that chance,” she said. “Russia is said to be propaganda for doing exactly that. We are no more propaganda than the Voice of America or Radio Free Europe is propaganda.”

Simonyan, who covered the Second Chechen War and the 2004 Beslan hostage siege as a young reporter, took charge of RT when she was aged just 25.

The network has since been through a major transformation. Rebranded from Russia Today in 2009, it’s now a global, round-the-clock news network with 2,450 employees around the world, seven TV channels, digital platforms in six languages and video news agency RUPTLY.

RT says 70 million people in 38 countries watch its channels every week, and its content has been viewed more than 5 billion times on its YouTube channels.

With its “Question More” slogan, RT says its objective is to identify under-reported stories that mainstream media won’t cover.

“If all the media are singing one song, it gets dangerous, it really does,” Simonyan said. “Just remember the Iraq war. It’s important to at least try and say something different.”

Asked if RT aims to influence audiences in the West, Simonyan maintains RT sets out to inform. “If you think informing is influence, then you can put it in those words.”

U.S intelligence agencies disagree. A declassified version of the “Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent US Elections” report said:

“RT’s criticism of the U.S. election was the latest facet of its broader and longer-standing anti-U.S. messaging likely aimed at undermining viewers’ trust in U.S. democratic procedures and undercutting U.S. criticism of Russia’s political system.”

“The Kremlin staffs RT and closely supervises RT’s coverage, recruiting people who can convey Russian strategic messaging because of their ideological beliefs.”

“In recent interviews, RT’s leadership has candidly acknowledged its mission to expand its U.S. audience and to expose it to Kremlin messaging.”

“RT’s reports often characterize the United States as a ‘surveillance state’ and allege widespread infringements of civil liberties, police brutality, and drone use.”

“RT America formally disassociates itself from the Russian Government by using a Moscow-based autonomous nonprofit organization to finance its US operations … In addition, RT rebranded itself in 2008 to deemphasize its Russian origin.”

“Russia’s state-run propaganda machine contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform for Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences.”

However, RT anchor and correspondent Kate Partridge, 47, said she had never felt pressure to report something she was not comfortable with.

“I am allowed to object,” she said. “But I can’t think of when I have been in a situation where I felt really fiercely against something.”

But others have spoken out.

RT America anchor Liz Wahl quit on air in 2014, saying the channel “whitewashes” the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin. “As a reporter on this network I face many ethical and moral challenges,” she told viewers from her studio in Washington, D.C. “I’m proud to be an American and believe in disseminating the truth. And that is why after this newscast I am resigning.”

One of her colleagues, Abby Martin, also criticized Russia’s military intervention in Crimea, calling it “wrong.” In response to Martin’s comments, RT said in a statement that “contrary to the popular opinion, RT doesn’t beat its journalists into submission, and they are free to express their own opinions.” Martin left the channel in 2015.

Andrey Kiyashko, the 29-year-old deputy head of news at RT, dismissed allegations the network offers nothing but Kremlin propaganda.

“It is a serious allegation and I would suggest to those people to pay a bit more attention to what’s going on in their own media landscape in terms of the bias in the news before they make such accusations,” he said.

Earlier this year, RT launched its FakeCheck project to “weed out and correct inaccuracies, bias, misinformation and outright falsehoods in global coverage of major news stories.” However, a recent Poynter Institute analysis of the project suggested it “mixed some legitimate debunks with other scantily sourced or dubiously framed fact checks.”

In October, the network also had to pull a video segment about a burger joint in New York that allegedly offered a Vladimir Putin burger, in a tribute to the president’s 65th birthday and his political stature. The story was picked up by some Russian state news agencies as well.

But thanks in part to a very observant Russian journalist, the story came under scrutiny and the joint eventually refuted the existence of the celebratory burger.

RT’s video agency that published the segment deleted the video, saying that upon further review “it did not meet its editorial standards.”

Partridge also dismissed claims RT was more propaganda than journalism and said her work features “so many checks.”

She added: “By definition, there is an editorial concept here to show the other side. But you can say that about any media organization.”

Partridge echoed her editor-in-chief’s remarks, saying she thinks RT, and Russia in general, are misunderstood.

“I think it’s just a fear because it’s so unknown and because of the Cold War history, because of so many things — where it gets kind of a bad press and I think it has built up almost as de facto truth.”

via The Trump Debacle

[yahoo-roto-arcade-blog]

Week 15 Fantasy Sleepers: Jordy Nelson to re-enter circle of trust

Week 15 Flames: Latavius Murray to issue proper SKOL-ding to Cincy

Each week the Noise highlights under-started names who he believes are destined to torch the competition. To qualify, each player must be started in fewer than 60 percent of Yahoo! leagues. Speaking as an accountability advocate, I will post results, whether genius or moronic, the following week (Scoring thresholds – QB: 18 fpts, RB: 12 fpts, WR: 11 fpts: TE: 10 fpts; .5 PPR). If you’re a member of TEAM HUEVOS, reveal your Week 15 Flames in the comments section below.

Blake Bortles, Jax, QB (8 percent started, $28 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: vs. Hou (Game over/under: 38.5)

Place your trust in the hands of Bortles and uncreative owners will predict you pull a “Fuller.” You remember. He’s the Pepsi-chugging kid from “Home Alone” famously known for wetting the bed. The much-maligned quarterback is very familiar with that warm feeling. Outside of garbage-time explosions, he’s failed to live up to his exorbitant 2014 NFL Draft price. But owners, especially those looking to replace Carson Wentz, should proudly and confidently don a pair of rubber pants. Bortles is a viable stream option that could catapult gamblers into the championship round. His Week 15 matchup is nothing short of spectacular. As advertised in this space repeatedly this season, the Texans defense has repeatedly flopped. As a unit, they’ve surrendered 8.0 yards per attempt, 254.2 passing yards per game, 27 total touchdowns and 19.9 fantasy points per game (in Yahoo leagues). Only the New York Giants have been friendlier. Mining data, starting DBs Kareem Jackson and Jonathan Joseph have coughed up a 103.0 passer rating and 66.9 catch percentage. Bortles, who is a sneaky multidimensional contributor (21.8 rush yards per game), is a strong candidate to record his third multi-TD output in four games. Without much applause, he’s displayed significant improvement in several advanced categories, including completion percentage (’16: 58.0; ’17: 60.2) and yards per attempt (6.2, 6.9). His spark is pretty amazing considering Allen Robinson was lost Week 1. Credit to Marqise Lee, Dede Westbrook and Keelan Cole. Believe in Blake.

Fearless Forecast: 253 passing yards, 2 passing touchdowns, 1 turnovers, 19 rushing yards, 19.0 fantasy points

Mike Davis, Sea, RB (11 percent started, $18 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: vs. LAR (Over/Under: 47.5)

It never ceases to amaze when castoffs receive a second lease on life and unpredictably catch fire. Prime example, Alex Collins, kicked to the curb by Seattle, is now thriving with Baltimore. So is Davis. Buried behind Carlos Hyde and Matt Brieda in San Francisco, the former Niner, thrown on the rubbish heap earlier this season, has remarkably become Pete Carroll’s primary rusher, the coach’s fourth option since Chris Carson exited Week 4 with a broken leg. Eddie Lacy, Thomas Rawls and J.D. McKissic simply couldn’t seize the opportunity. Davis, however, grabbed the bull by the horns. He didn’t electrify last week against Marcell Dareus and Co., but his bob-and-weave efforts versus Philadelphia still resonate. So does his very attractive volume (36 touches lats two weeks). He owns the size (5-foot-9, 224 pounds), break-tackle ability (2.94 YAC/att) and versatility to boost box scores. His Week 15 opponent only enhances the profile. The Rams are terrible when it comes to defending the run. No club has yielded more fantasy points to rushers. On the year, they’ve allowed 4.67 yards per carry, 154.8 total yards per game and 14 touchdowns. In total, eight running backs have reached double-digit points against them in .5 PPR formats. Seattle’s line is still a major weakness, but if Davis registers at least 15 touches, he tucks inside the RB top-20.

Fearless Forecast: 15 carries, 70 rushing yards, 3 receptions, 18 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, 16.3 fantasy points Latavius Murray, Min, RB (53 percent started, $20 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: vs. Cin (Over/Under: 42)

Interchangeable backfields are the ruin of fantasy. This season, a discouragingly high number of teams have employed full-blown committees. As a result, unpredictability has become the norm. Some roles are defined, but pinpointing how coaches will deploy a specific timeshare RB and for how much ranks up there with nailing lottery numbers. Oh how we yearn for the days of volume monsters Larry Johnson, LaDainian Tomlinson and Shaun Alexander. Minnesota, featuring Latavius and Jerick McKinnon, is one hair-pulling tandem. Over the past two weeks, Murray’s diminutive tag-team partner has proven more valuable. Still, Latavius, who was RB7 from Weeks 7-12 and has tallied a rock solid 2.58 yards after contact per attempt, is the more desirable option of the pair in Week 15. His downhill style should play nicely against a banged up Cincinnati defense that was steamrolled by a resurgent Jordan Howard last Sunday. In fact, the Bengals, turned into cabin rugs the past five weeks, have surrendered the second-most fantasy points to RBs. Over that stretch, they’ve served up 4.65 yards per carry, 125.6 rush yards per game and five rushing TDs to the position. Back at home and ticked after last week’s late meltdown in Charlotte, the Norsemen, commanded by Murray, ground and pound the Bengals into submission, even if Vontaze Burfict returns.

Fearless Forecast: 15 carries, 74 rushing yards, 2 receptions, 9 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, 15.3 fantasy points

Ted Ginn, NO, WR (35 percent started, $17 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: vs. NYJ (Over/Under: 47)

When Alvin Kamara exited barely 10 minutes into last Thursday’s game against Atlanta, an explosion of four-letter words not fit for innocent ears echoed throughout Fantasyland. His shocking departure erased thoughts of victory belts, trophies, bonus cash and bragging rights. Due to Kamara’s concussion and with Mark Ingram nursing a sore toe Sean Peyton reverted to an old school game plan, feature Drew Brees. The QB’s 35 attempts was his second-highest contribution in the category since Week 8. Initial indications arrow to a Kamara return, but Brees is sure to be the point of emphasis again this week against the hapless Jets. New York, unforgiving in the trenches has given up just 3.57 yards per carry to RBs. Due to the major shortcomings of Morris Claiborne, Darryl Roberts and Buster Skrine in coverage – they’ve allowed a combined 93.1 passer rating and nine total TDs to assignments – Ginn should excel.  Collectively, the Jets rank No. 6 in fantasy points surrendered to WRs. The quick-footed weapon has lured only five targets the past two games (13.5 target% on year) and hasn’t scored since Week 9, but the paper matchup is certainly exploitable. Pour a Ginn and tonic.

Fearless Forecast: 4 receptions, 58 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, 13.8 fantasy points 

Jordy Nelson, GB, WR (30 percent started, $25 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: at Car (Over/Under: 45)

For the past nine weeks, Nelson has wandered aimlessly, a lost soul aching for his on-field compadre. With Aaron Rodgers shelved, last year’s most valuable wide receiver fell destitute. A lack of targets and chemistry with Brett Hundley led to one penniless performance after another, forcing owners to consider the unthinkable, bench until further notice. After Rodgers’ exited with a broken collarbone in Week 6, Jordy’s stock dipped to unforeseen depths. From Weeks 7-14, he tallied a useless 23-153-0 line over seven games. His resulting 15.3 fantasy points accumulated in standard leagues ranked WR98 during that stretch, one spot ahead of Andre Holmes and one spot behind Louis Murphy (WHO?!). Woof. But with his hero back in the saddle this week in Carolina, a rapid turnaround is likely. Davante Adams is Green Bay’s WR1 fixture, but Nelson, who is still gaining considerable distance from defenders (WR17 in separation yards per target), is hardly cooked. Recall with Rodgers firing off rounds Weeks 1-6 he compiled a top-10 output totaling 25 receptions (On 38 targets) for 290 yards and six touchdowns. Against a flammable Panthers secondary, the pair should pick up where they left off. No secondary has allowed more fantasy points to WRs since Week 9 than Carolina. Suspect safety play combined with James Bradberry’s weak execution (92.7 passer rating allowed) have led to numerous double-digit WR fantasy efforts. It’s strange seeing Jordy in the “Flames,” but the under-started outcast needs to be trusted again.

Fearless Forecast: 5 receptions, 68 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, 15.3 fantasy points

WEEK 15 SHOCKER SPECIAL (Under 10-percent started)

Rod Smith, Dal, RB (2 percent started, $16 in Yahoo DFS) Matchup: at Oak (Over/Under: 45.5)

After everyone and their grandmother, me included, talked up Alfred Morris last week, it was Smith who thumped the pathetic Giants. Displaying the skill set of throwbacks Herschel Walker and the Denver Ring of Famer with the same name, the rusher plowed, juked and sprinted his way to a galactic line, doing most of his damage in the pass game. A superb receiver, the big-bodied back (6-foot-3, 226 pounds) isn’t a flash in the pan. Yes, Morris will continue to dominate the between-the-tackles grunt work, but Smith could be the second “receiver” Dak Prescott has sorely needed. He’s powerful (3.4 YAC/att in Week 14), sure-handed (81.3 catch%) and has become a trustworthy asset near the goal line. Because he was underutilized early in the season with Zeke Elliott on the field, Smith is also fresh. It’s no stretch to project another 11-13 touches for him this week on roughly 30-35 snaps. Oakland, penetrable in all facets, has given up the seventh-highest yards per carry (4.34) and eighth-most receptions (44) to running backs since Week 7. The Raiders’ defensive inadequacies combined with Dallas’ formidable offensive line suggests Morris and Smith deliver a stinging 1-2 combo punch. Roll the dice. FLEX Smith.

Fearless Forecast: 8 carries, 34 rushing yards, 4 receptions, 21 receiving yards, 1 touchdown, 13.5 fantasy points

BONUS WEEK 15 FLAMES

#TEAMHUEVOS PICKS OF THE WEEK Each week one fortunate guest prognosticator will have a chance to silence the Noise. Following the rules stated above, participants are asked to submit their “Flames” (1 QB, 2 RBs, 2 WRs, 1 TE, 1 D/ST) by midnight PT Tuesdays via Twitter @YahooNoise. How large are your stones?

Jimmy G, Rod Smith, Riddick, Sanu, Hogan, Ebron and New Orleans

— Jason (@jasoncummings_) December 12, 2017

Fan Week 14 results: 4-3 (Season: 38-61) My Week 14 results: 5-6 (Season: 65-92; W: Jimmy G, Josh Gordon, Marquise Goodwin, Rex Burkhead, Dallas D/ST; L: Alfred Morris, Jay Ajayi, Mike Davis, Josh McCown, David Njoku, Martavis Bryant; DNS: Peyton Barber)

Want to bull rush Brad? Follow him on Twitter @YahooNoise. Also check out his TV show, “The Fantasy Football Hour,” now available in 75 million households on Fox Sports Regional Networks, and his new podcast, “The Fantasy Record.”

[junker-town]

Who’s the best NBA player in 2021? Let’s argue about it

Anthony Davis or Karl-Anthony Towns? Giannis or Kawhi? Or maybe it’s still Kevin Durant.

We’ve finished our countdown of who we think will be the 101 best players in the NBA in 2021. Hopefully by now, you’ve checked out the whole thing. If not, start here and begin the journey.

When we did this four years ago, there were only two real options for the top spot. Twenty-eight-year-old LeBron James had just won his second title, while 24-year-old Kevin Durant had just narrowly missed out on his fourth straight scoring title. Conrad Kaczmarek chose Durant No. 1, but reaction was split at the time.

This time, the choice was much harder. James will be in his late 30s in 2021, while Durant will be 32. Meanwhile, a flood of younger players could stake their claim to the top spot if they continue to develop over the next four seasons.

In polling our panel of 10 drafters, we found five players with legitimate claims to the No. 1 spot. Here is the argument for each of the five, made by different members of the panel.

Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

The case for Anthony Davis

By Tom Ziller

I almost had a panic attack when I won the No. 1 pick in the NBA 2021 draft. This is how legacies are destroyed! I would have much rather picked No. 3 or 4, where I could make a safe pick from the leftovers and second-guess the unfortunates in front of me.

But No. 1 it was. I considered four names based on the contours of our exercise: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Kevin Durant in addition to my eventual choice: The Brow.

It ended up being a series of comparisons that led me here. Giannis is wonderful and a smart pick at No. 2, but Davis has done the unicorn things more consistently for longer. The same applies to Towns — he’s incredible but has only been able to show that for two seasons. Davis has been unreal for four.

As for Durant, he’ll be 33 entering the 2021-22 season, whereas Davis will be just 28. It’s similar to where LeBron and Durant were entering this season in terms of age. We don’t yet know if KD will age like LeBron — in other words, we don’t have evidence that Durant will continue to add and refine skills and make his body a masterpiece. Durant has also had injury issues LeBron did not. By passing on Durant here, I’m making a small wager that he won’t continue to gain power into his 30s as LeBron so clearly has.

Of course, Davis is a walking bag of maladies. But I have faith that his body will get right and so will his team, whether that’s in New Orleans or elsewhere. The Brow is still the future of the league until someone forcibly takes that title from him.

The case for Giannis Antetokounmpo

By Tim Cato

Giannis Antetokounmpo is not the best player in the league right now, but he’s close enough (an All-NBA second teamer) and young enough (22) that no soul would dare deny the possibility. Giannis is mesmerizing. Everything about him is endless: his wingspan, his potential, the amount we love him.

But let’s resist the urge to fall into long-winded esoteric praise — boy, could I — and examine what Antetokounmpo would look like as the league’s best player.

Last season, Antetokounmpo became the first player to finish in the top 20 in all five major statistical categories. That raw, all-around impact that Antetokounmpo can exert on every facet of the game will be present for years, especially as he refines his feel for the game and develops veteran instincts that you don’t expect a 22-year-old to possess. Imagine how much more polished a 26-year-old Greek Freak could be, and sweat bullets at how that would manifest itself against your favorite team.

Can Antetokounmpo shoot better? He shot 27 percent behind the arc and 34 percent on long two-pointers last season, which isn’t good enough. Both of those figures are worse than LeBron James has ever shot in a season — and yes, since we’re wondering if Antetokounmpo can claim James’ mantle, that’s a fair comparison. Giannis doesn’t need to be a good shooter; he isn’t one right now and still a borderline top-five player who can literally — and I do mean literally in its truest sense — do everything else on the court.

Still, I’m a believer in his ability to improve that jumper. Everyone on this list has at least one major hurdle. Anthony Davis and Kevin Durant must stay healthy. Karl-Anthony Towns needs to completely rework his defensive approach. Kawhi Leonard has to add more playmaking depth to his offensive palette.

Comparatively, a 26-year-old Antetokounmpo improving to shoot 33 percent on three-pointers — the same percentage James shot while winning MVP in the 2008-09 season — feels like a much simpler path. Giannis picked up basketball just a decade ago when he was 12, and has still learned so many requisite skills so easily and so quickly that I can’t deny him learning one more.

And if Antetokounmpo does that, I don’t think this is even a debate.

Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

The case for Kevin Durant

By Mike Prada

A lot changes in the NBA in four years but not at the very top of the league. Four years ago, we were arguing Durant vs. LeBron James for the No. 1 slot in 2017. Four years later, Durant and LeBron battled in the NBA Finals as the two best players on the floor — with Stephen Curry maybe in the conversation as well. Not much really changed.

So when projecting the very best player in the NBA four years down the line, history suggests it’s actually best to go with the best player right now.

Kevin Durant is the best player in the NBA right now, especially after his 2017 finals performance. True, he didn’t have the best 2016-17 season, nor does he necessarily carry the label in the eyes of traditionalists (like my colleague Tom Ziller) who still favor LeBron.

But when the games mattered most, one player was omnipresent in all aspects of the game. One player hit the toughest shots. One player supplied the scoring binges that held off opponent runs and put games out of reach. One player protected the perimeter and the rim, all while swooping in for boards to kick-start the devastating fast break. That player was Kevin Durant. (Reminder: He was recovering from a knee injury, too.)

Durant has a history of foot problems, but he’s also a 7’0-small forward who can get his shot off anytime he wants. That doesn’t age, especially on a loaded team like the Warriors that can save his legs until he’s needed most.

With LeBron too far along in the aging curve and the other options not quite there yet, Durant, at 32, is the easy choice for me to be the best player in the game in 2021.

The case for Karl-Anthony Towns

By Ricky O’Donnell

It’s already fair to say the NBA has never seen a big man like Karl-Anthony Towns. Not one that has this much shooting ability, this proficient a floor game, and this bounty of athletic grace. Not one already so productive at just 21 years old, only two years removed from his freshman season at Kentucky.

When you look at numbers Towns has put up through his first two NBA seasons, the only comparisons can be to names like Olajuwon, Shaq, and Robinson. And that’s mostly just points and rebounds — none of those Hall of Fame bigs could shoot like Towns, who canned 102 three-pointers at a 36 percent clip last season.

Consider that Towns made more three-pointers in 82 games last season than Davis has made (78) in 335 career NBA games. That 82 is a big number, as well. Towns has played in every game since being drafted, something Davis, Durant, and Joel Embiid can only dream about.

The big question for Towns is how good he can be on the defensive end of the floor. That’s common for young big men. The bet here is that another season under Tom Thibodeau with the guidance of Taj Gibson and Jimmy Butler will push Towns to be a more consistent defender.

When that happens, watch out.

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

The case for Kawhi Leonard

By Kristian Winfield

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: If Kawhi Leonard didn’t re-injure his ankle in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals against Golden State, the Warriors almost certainly lose that game. They probably don’t lose the series, but they don’t become the greatest playoff team of all-time.

Leonard’s injury single-handedly turned a 23-point Game 1 lead into a series sweep in favor of Golden State. That’s how dominant he is on both ends, and he’ll only get better.

As it stands, Kawhi’s a player who’s a visibly better defender than he is a scorer and playmaker. That’s a huge compliment, because he averaged 25.5 points for San Antonio and was the end-all-be-all for its offense last season. His offense is pretty damn great, too.

Sure, Leonard will turn 30 in 2021, and I made it a point to shy away from players over that age. But Leonard’s a two-way player the likes of which most people my age haven’t seen, and he finds ways to get better every single season.

I’m riding with Kawhi.

INTRO | FULL LIST | TOP 100 OF 2017 | HOW WE DID IN 2013 | SNUBS | 101-91 | 90-81 | 80-71 | 70-61 | 60-51 | 50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1 | THE CASES FOR NO. 1

[bestnewsmag-blog]

New Post has been published on Bestnewsmag

New Post has been published on https://bestnewsmag.com/mansfield-municipal-court-gets-10k-grant-to-update-tech/

Mansfield Municipal Court gets $10K grant to update tech

MANSFIELD — The Mansfield Municipal Courtroom is certainly one of 64 courts throughout the state to acquire techn  furnish funding from the Ohio Superb Courtroom.

The Courtroom acquired $10,000 to update the Court’s CMS, or case management device, with More advantageous Case-control Challenge software that will automate the transfer of facts between the clerk and probation workplace.

In general, 70 Court docket projects in forty-two counties across the country received more than $2.eight million.

“era offers boom get entry to to justice to extra Ohioans and get rid of obstacles to the efficient and effective management of justice for nearby courts,” Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor stated in a press launch. “Without this initiative, many a good deal needed era improvements in courts around Ohio might now not arise.”

That is the third annual spherical of funding through the Ohio Supreme Courtroom. Courts had been allowed to put up one investment request for up to two separate initiatives.

The choice turned into given to courts within entities the Ohio auditor has deemed to be in the monetary emergency or fiscal watch, along with those that have not obtained a generation provide previously, had been given precedence. The choice was additionally given to projects upgrading the Court docket’s current case management system affecting cash flow, in addition to those upgrading, changing or buying era structures, PC hardware or system supporting the case management machine or other structures affecting cash flow or the essential duties of the Courtroom.

Creating High-Tech Weapon Systems Is Good For Humanity

  Most people cringe when they think of more ominous, powerful, and destructive weapon systems. The mere thought of huge monetary and economic resources going into weapons that ultimately help kill people makes one cringe, and yet, there is an upside to advanced weaponry – and the upside is huge. I’d like to discuss this for a moment because recently I was interviewed on the topic.

Daniel (the interviewer) asks: How can the development of new weapons help the humankind?

You know, when I speak at Universities, I get this question early and often. Look, no one wants to have a war. There is nothing noble about killing members of one’s own species. It’s a tragic flaw of humankind, although evolutionarily speaking this streak of aggression which runs deep, well let’s just say it’s there for a reason. Nevertheless, while I do not condone the carnage, I do know that only 1% of all the people who have ever lived have actually died in a war. Most die of old age, I believe we should focus maximum research funding on life-longevity, maybe then we’d remember our past and not repeat it, perhaps ending war in the future.

However, we do not live in the future, we live now, and without debating the philosophical scientific question; “What is time?” we must defend ourselves when our leaders reach political impasse and the fighting begins. “The best advice when it comes to war is not to have one, but if you find yourself in a war, it’s best to win it quickly and decisively,” I often ponder; if Karl von Clausewitz were alive today, would he give a ‘thumbs up’ to that?

Now then, back to the question, and sorry to digress there, but it’s important, especially for the next generation whose talented minds will be keeping us safe. There is a reason why nations spend so much on defense and why it is so necessary.

If we look back, we see Leonardo da Vinci who spent a portion of his time inventing and sketching war machines, about 1/3 of his time judging from the large volume or work he left behind. It was as important back then as it is today.

Now then, consider if you will all the technology – originally used for making weapons, that helps us in our daily lives today. How about jet air travel? Jet engines were developed to propel war planes faster. How about rocketry, or how about the Internet, originally developed by ARPA and Bell Labs?

My grandfather worked with radars, we use those for air traffic control. He also worked with microwave beams, pure Naval Research, today we cook food with the same technology. What about GPS Navigation? What about Satellites? Think about it, what would our lives be like today without those things? What about that smart phone in your pocket, the one you just used to text, buy a coffee, scan your boarding pass, and set up a meeting? Yep, you can thank defense spending and research.

New materials used in our high-tech aircraft will be used to make cars, trucks, buses, planes, future flying cars, and trains lighter, meaning they use less energy (less fuel) and are stronger and safer, likewise we will have better building materials, more durable, and stronger. How about lasers for manufacturing, dentistry, or on the Mars Rovers?

Indeed, I think we owe a lot to the development of weapon systems, just as we owe a lot to our space exploration and particle accelerator technologies. This is the message I’d like to bring because I see these innovations and the transfer technologies, as well as what they’ve done in the past for humankind, I see that as a trend which will definitely continue

The Importance of Municipal Water Treatment

We’ve seen the pictures of people in third world countries drinking from polluted streams and heard about the rampant disease epidemics that take place in those countries. Living as we do in the United States, it’s hard to believe that anyone in the world wouldn’t know the connection between contaminated water and disease, but they either don’t or are powerless to do anything about the situation. What many of us don’t realize is that only 200 years ago, most of America had the same problems, and diseases spread in our country just like they do in other nations today. People didn’t understand what was happening, and even if they did, the technology wasn’t yet in place to conduct major municipal water treatment.

Actual water filtration started in Scotland in the 1700s. Scotland was an area of the world in those days that was full of scientists and philosophers and was in a period known as the Scottish Enlightenment, so it wasn’t surprising that they were in the position to realize the importance of clean, healthy drinking water and to then come up with a way to purify existing water sources. During this period of time, a Scottish scientist and engineer, Robert Thom, designed the first municipal water treatment facility. He utilized a method called slow sand filters and was able to provide clean, disease-free water for an entire town.

Since the eighteenth century, municipal water treatment systems have been redesigned and improved in order to provide safe water for residents in some of the largest cities in the world. Drinking water comes from two different sources: groundwater and surface water. About 95% of all the water we drink comes from groundwater sources. Pesticides and nitrates run into this groundwater and must subsequently be removed before the water will be safe for consumption. Groundwater also contains bacteria and other contaminants that are fed to it from surface water.

The human body is between 60 and 70% water, and we must constantly replenish the water supply in our bodies if we are going to maintain good health. Therefore, it is important that we have ready sources of clean drinking water. That’s where municipal water treatment plants have made a real difference in the lives we lead. We in the United States no longer have to worry about getting serious diseases from drinking the water that comes out of our taps, and we have all the fresh water we could possibly want. Now we need to work at getting clean water to people all over the world.

3 Tips for Being a Leader on the Volleyball Court

  Leadership is something all teams need for success, but it’s not always something easily defined or developed. We can’t say do this and do that and you’ll be a great leader for your volleyball team. Here are a few tips to help you move in that direction, though.

Tip #1: Be a model player

A leader need not be the best player on a team, but they do need to represent its ideals. This is mainly about attitude and effort. Leaders turn up on time and follow team rules – written and unwritten. They work at least as hard as everyone else. They don’t complain or whine, but instead get on with what needs to be done. Leaders don’t make excuses. They also respect the coach(es) and everyone else associated with the team. I could go on, but I think you probably get the idea.

All of this may sound like stuff that isn’t part of on-court leadership, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It is the foundation of being the person the other players look to when it’s competition time. A leader doesn’t just turn up for match day and have everyone follow them. They earn that right by what they do in training, at meetings, during strength & conditioning work – basically in every facet of being part of the team.

Tip #2: Communicate

It doesn’t take a loud voice and a constant stream of chatter to be a good leader, but it does take the ability to communicate with teammates. Talking is the most obvious example of this, and all leaders do need to be able to speak at the right time and in the right manner for the circumstances. Communication can just as importantly come from a look, a pat on the back, or a gesture, though. It’s about being connected with teammates and making sure everyone is on the same page.

[tandem85]

Survey...thing

Okay so this is gonna be a bit weird. I came across this copypasta survey thing and thought it looked interesting judging by the first question. Had no clue of it's true length and I've been just kinda rambling on for close to 2 hours now. This tumblr has possibly the lowest traffic in recorded history, so I shouldn't have to worry about too many eyes stumbling across this. At least I hope. Eh, oh well, whatever, here it is.

1. Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 3. - Good machines don't guarantee success, though, as RCA and Xerox and others had discovered. (The Soul of A New Machine, Tracy Kidder)

2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can, What can you touch? - The wall and pillows.

3. Before you started this survey, what were you doing? - Browsing the internet after pulling an all-nighter due to insomnia and painful recollections of past mistakes.

4. What is the last thing you watched on TV? - 'The West Wing' on Netflix

5. Without looking, guess what time it is: - Eight fucking A.M.

6. Now look at the clock. What is the actual time? - 8:03 AM. End me.

7. With the exception of the computer, what can you hear? - A desk fan and the faint sound of traffic

8. When did you last step outside? What were you doing? - A few days ago, to pick up an old iMac off Craigslist

9. Did you dream last night? - No.

10. Do you remember your dreams? - On average, no. Sometimes a decent one lingers, though.

11. When did you last laugh? - I honestly have no idea.

12. Do you remember why / at what? - Not at all. Probably just a passing chuckle at something I read somewhere.

13. What is on the walls of the room you are in? - Various posters, most either from Club Nintendo or Nintendo Power, along with a few more obscure ones.

14. Seen anything weird lately? - Plenty.

15. What is the last film you saw? - All the way through? I, uh, honestly couldn't say...I have a habit of just watching bits and bobs of films I like over and over again, usually to just take in detail or just to confirm a stray thought or something. If that's the case, then Star Wars w/the theatrical mono track. If an *entire* film, then probably Aliens a month or so back.

16. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would you live? - Small suburban town a few miles out from some city in some state, preferably more northern than where I am now. Countryside of Oregon seems nice.

17. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy? - Probably just save it all and try to coast on it for the rest of my life.

18. Tell me something about you that most people don’t know. - the fuck is this copypasta quiz? Er, well, nobody really *knows* me so just any facet of trivia about my life would do, I guess. I'm really, *really* obsessed with EPCOT even though I've never been and I haven't even visited Disney World since 2002. I genuinely have a copy of every pavilion and attraction's soundtrack from Future World burned to CDs sitting in my car right now, and if I had to pick favorites, Horizons and Communicore get the most play time.

19. If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do? - Give everyone some common sense and a better sense of care towards others. That would ((hopefully)) end a majority of conflict out there.

20. Do you like to dance? - Not really. Haven't danced since my sister's wedding back in '09. Yep, even missed prom, not that I really care.

21. Would you ever consider living abroad? - Maybe if it's like Japan or somewhere with similar power standards...I couldn't make it a month in Europe and it's 240v mains standard. My life hinges too much on tech.

22. Does your name make any interesting anagrams? - Never really thought of it. Probably not.

23. Who made the last incoming call on your phone? - ...my mother, a few days ago. I only have my immediate family's numbers saved. Not like anyone would ever really want to call me.

24. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? - Some shitty (what I presume) in-ride recording of Horizons I wanted to play around with in an audio editor to get a decent loop or two out of...before I realized YouTube had better resources for that.

25. Last time you swam in a pool? - Years. I used to love swimming all the time when I was younger (weather permitting; my skin goes from moonlight pale to lobster red faster than it takes to boil an egg on the sun). Heck, I don't think I still have any trunks that fit anymore...

26. Type of music you like most? - Normally I'd say 70s/80s rock/pop, but I haven't listened to much outside of, er, soundtracks the past few months.

27. Type of music you dislike most? - Either country or EDM/dubstep/whatever. I can't stand singers in country, it's so painfully obvious they're forcing their voices to have this bogus accent, and dubstep/electro whatever is just screeching garbage that sounds worse than playing a data cassette through a walkman. 

28. Are you listening to music right now? - No, I was trying to go to sleep earlier, now I'm just laying with a laptop sitting 2 feet from my face listening to the fan whir.

29. What color is your bedroom carpet? - Beige

30. If you could change something about your home, without worry about expense or mess, what would you do? - Expand the floorspace somehow. If where was an extra bedroom, a lot of storage problems would be solved. (lot of books and furniture. Takes up a lot of space.)

31. What was the last thing you bought? - iMac G3 off craigslist.

32. Have you ever ridden on a motorbike? - nope

33. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? - I tried zip-lining once. Nearly broke my hands and fell 30+ feet into a ~40 degree lake. High-flying stunts ain't my thing.

34. Do you have a garden? - No, but I (as in my family) used to years ago. It was nice.

35. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? - Yes, thanks 4kids /s

36. What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? - why am I still here

37. If you could eat lunch with one famous person, who would it be? - Steve Wozniak, but my brain's so fried from exhaustion so often I'd probably royally fuck that lunch up.

38. Who sent the last text message you received? - My sister a few days ago. By mistake. Wrong "Andrew".

39. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? - If I had one and if I was stupid enough to max one out, definitely 100% my local game store, The Video Game Cavern.

40. What time is bed time? - My life is in such shambles that a bed time isn't even a functioning concept in my life. It's whenever I pass out.

41. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? - I'm a guy, so, no.

42. How many tattoos do you have? - None. I'm a total square.

43. If you don’t have any, have you ever thought of getting one? - Nah. Being broke + being a bear = never even a passing thought.

44. What did you do for your last birthday? - Nothing iirc. Had classes (then), didn't have that fancy a dinner, and just crashed that night.

45. Do you carry a donor card? - Can't be due to [insert some crap about bad bloodline]

46. Who was the last person you ate dinner with? - Ha. Ha. ha...

47. Is the glass half empty or half full? - depends on how the water got into the cup.

48. What’s the farthest-away place you’ve been? - Ohio. eh

49. When’s the last time you ate a homegrown tomato? - Not a fan of tomatoes. I think my dad still grows some during the summer (not a full garden, just like 3 veggie plants he tends in the flower beds)

50. Have you ever won a trophy? - Not really

51. Are you a good cook? - Well I haven't burned anything or cut myself yet so maybe.

52. Do you know how to pump your own gas? - Yes

53. If you could meet any one person whose deceased, who would it be? - You know, I never really thought about something like this. Honestly, not as much 'meet' but more of just have a good long talk with, my grandfather. He passed when I was 8, so I never got to really *know* him that well. I've learned more about him from his service papers than being around him a lot when I was young. So yeah, that.

54. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to school? - Lol yep in middle school, uniform and enforced dress code. Everyone hated it back then, however since it was a small school in a massive district I never kept up with anyone afterwards so I can't speak for them, but I actually adopted practices from that dress code. Belt and polo not so much, but always wearing a nice shirt and keeping it tucked in, yeah. I've dressed that way every single day since then.

55. Do you touch-type? - Yep, but I'm weird and don't use the normal home-row hand layout thing. I can type proficiently, it just looks sloppy af

56. What’s under your bed? - A lot of junk. Binder of Gen 1 Pokemon cards, a case of cassettes, stack of old model railroading magazines, old busted up laptop, some blank paper.

57. Do you believe in love at first sight? - HA. Ha. ha......

58. Think fast, what do you like right now? - warmth. seriously, it's cold and my blanket is doing nothing.

59. Where were you on Valentine’s day? - Home, all day, doing pretty much nothing. just a typical day.

60. Life motto: - I don't really have a motto but if I want to be sappy I'd just lift the one from Horizons: "If we can dream it, we can do it" but I have no dreams and I literally do nothing

61. What was the name of your first pet? - I named all my fish once, but I was 5, so I'll just skip to my first cat. 'Whiskers'. Very imaginative.

62. Do you like to go camping? - Yes. I miss it. My sister and brother-in-law used to take me camping all the time years ago...but they've since settled down, had kids, and haven't done anything like that in a while. Meanwhile I'm broke, have no gear, no friends or anything like that so I can't do jack shit about camping.

63. Is there anything going on this weekend? - Not really. Just working on that iMac I keep mentioning

64. Do you have any nicknames? - Not really. Only thing that could vaguely qualify is 'swiss', the first word of my normal username everywhere else. Which is ironic since I'm 100% not Swiss.

65. Who is your favorite musician/band? - Genesis, Collins era. aaaaaaaaaaaaaand I've just earned myself a beating.

66. What time do you get up in the morning? - I STILL HAVEN'T EVEN SLEPT YET

67. Do you wear pajamas when you sleep? - usually. just a t-shirt and pj bottoms.

68. What is the first thing people notice about you? - dunno. don't really interact with enough people to notice anything

69. What is the last movie that you saw at the cinema? - err, probably Ghostbusters. The original, not the new one. They re-released it briefly in promotion of the new one. Fucking loved the new transfer and audio mix, blew the earlier (2014 30th anniversary edition screening) out of the water.

70. Do you sing in the shower? - Nah, I prefer the sound of running water

71. What do you do most when you are bored? - browse the internet, die a little on the inside. whatever's left, at least

72. What do you do for a living? - eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

73. Do you love your job? - EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

74. Which came first the chicken or the egg? - the egg because evolutilkjoirwjga;slkdfja;lkgja;eruhmynf;djva;n

75. How many keys on your key ring? - 3

76. Are you close with your parents? - physically too close, emotionally, further than the moons around jupiter. though that can be said about many things.

77. What kind of car do you drive? - Pontiac Grand Prix. Jumped through freaking hoops the past half a year just to be able to drive it since the damn title was stuck in limbo since March 2016. Just got the tag for it a week ago.

78. What are your best physical features? - people comment on my hair and eyes a lot so those, I guess

79. What are your best characteristics? - oh god. Well, guess you can say I'm determined. Like how I keep on with this survey even though I only thought it was like 20 questions long, not 100 or so. Also you could probably punch me in the face and I'd be the one apologizing.

80. What was the name of your favorite teacher? - Ms. Hamm

81. Where did you grow up? - At this point I've spent most of my life in this hell hole, so Greenville, SC. wait, fuck

82. How far away from your birthplace do you live now? - err somewhere around 300 to 400 miles. Essentially really just one state away.

83. Can you do any impressions? - I've perfected an impression of a sad sack of shit living in emotional isolation stuck in a permanent state of panic

84. Are you a morning person or a night owl? - Night owl by far

85. Can you touch your nose with your tongue? - No, ew

86. Can you close your eyes and raise your eyebrows? - kinda, yeah

87. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? - I couldn't be more of introvert if I lived in a literal hole in the ground

88. What is your best childhood memory? - driving a golf cart up a tree. Don't ask me how, but I somehow managed that when I was like 6. And by tree I mean massive pine. And by up it I literally mean the thing was hanging 5 feet off the ground on a branch.

89. What are some of the different jobs that you have had in your life? - (Re: 72, 73)

90. Do you light candles where you live? - yeah, I enjoy LIGHT scented ones. In open rooms. Strong candles are migraine invoking pieces of shit

91. What was your favorite toy growing up? - wooden Thomas the Tank Engine

92. Do you play any musical instruments? - I am a defect in my familial lineage

93. Have you ever been involved in a crime? - I'm a goodie-two-shoes meh-fest, only thing I've ever stolen is a pencil off a teacher's desk and even that was an accident

94. Do you have long or short hair? - too long for my taste, but it doesn't really look long at all. crazy curls.

95. Have you ever spread a secret to others someone asked you not to? - Never been given many secrets, but I've always kept them.

96. What is your favorite movie? - Oh jesus christ. I just have a slew of movies I enjoy above average, I'll be damned if I could ever properly rank them. In no particular order: Jurassic Park, Short Circuit, Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture

97. Are you getting tired answering all these questions? - I'm already tired. This was supposed to be more amusing than anything, but it's actually felt good to just let my mind flow into the keys and out into this notepad file.

98. Last question.  Without looking can you remember what the first question was? - Something about lines in a book. It's what hooked my into doing this whole thing.

Wait, seriously, only 98 questions? Thought this thing would've rounded off too 100, then again, I thought it wouldn't be longer than 20 when I started and have just kinda been dragged through this whole thing. Well, it did feel kinda nice I guess. I'm debating if I should post this or not....eh, screw it, I'll throw it on my tandem tumblr. (Which it's short for TAND-EM, I was a retard and got the Tandy emulator confused for DeskMate, the proprietary Tandy OS shell. Nothing to do with bikes, but I guess the latin [at length] humorously applies as well.) I should probably write a header for this...oh, regarding the time questions, that was genuinely the time as of answering those questions. It's currently 9:46 AM. That's how long I've been at this. This...can't be healthy...

[medicalmarijuana-news]

How College “Psychedelic Clubs” are Changing the Conversation on Drugs

“The first meeting we had, we were just nine people sitting in a circle under a tree,” James Casey told me. Casey, the current director of the Psychedelic Club at the University of Colorado, was sitting in a noisy Boulder coffeehouse recalling the club’s origins. Next to him sat Nick Morris, the club’s founder. “Nick suggested we go around and everyone say their name, and this other person says, ‘…and your spirit animal!’”

Morris and Casey traded glances and laughed. “I just cringed,” Casey recalled.

After the first meeting, Casey approached Nick. “This thing has a lot of potential,” Casey told the club’s founder. “We can really make something beautiful.”

That was two years ago, and the tone has changed quite a bit since. Today, they see about 40 heads per meeting.

“We have a wide range of people,” said Morris. “We have people who know psychedelics down to their chemical structure. And we have some who only know what a psychedelic is—and that’s all they know. We get people who are really deep into psychedelic culture, and we get people who are 4.0 neuroscience majors.”

A few months ago I read about CU’s Psychedelic Club in a local student newspaper. The club’s name, a kind of throwback to the Timothy Leary era, intrigued me. I couldn’t shake the question: What would a Psychedelic Club meeting look like?

Morris invited me to come out and see for myself. I half expected to meet two guys with enough edge that said, “Hello, we made a drug club.” Instead, Morris and Casey perfectly blended into Boulder’s casual college scene. Both wore flannel shirts. The only concession to psychedelia was Casey’s Pink Panther baseball cap.

Once we found the bottom of our teas, Morris, Casey and I stepped outside into the watery slush left by the recent storm and made our way to the Environmental Design building where the club meets.

University of Colorado, Boulder campus. (Ryan Dearth for Leafly)

• • •

The spirit of the room was relaxed and light. Students twisted in their seats, ate pizza, and chatted with their friends. Casey announced that they’d be having a low-key meeting today: writing or sharing poems, then electing a new slate of club leaders.

Students excitedly grabbed paper and let poetic meter spill onto it. For fifteen minutes, the only sounds in the room were pen scratching paper and computer keys clicking. One student volunteered to share his work. He stood, wearing a shirt that said “Legalize It.” He read a poem he had saved from a while back, written after a profound psychoactive experience.

His poem captured the anxiety felt as the clock counts down our years of life with a steady tick-tock – a sound that becomes ever more ominous when burned away at a 9-to-5 job.

The end of his poem was met with a single “Oh my god” from one impressed student, and a chorus of applause. Other students shared their work with an unusual openness. No one seemed to be intimidated by the performance that preceded their own. It was simply one person followed by another, each sharing their own perspective.

In the meeting’s waning minutes, three students shared their visions for the club’s coming year. The student who’d read the first poem unveiled plans to meet with faculty and legislators to design safer approaches and drug education for students who are curious, uninformed, or struggling.

And that’s where the Psychedelic Club’s real work begins.

CU Psychedelic Club founders James Casey and Nick Morris standing at a campus balcony before a club meeting. (Ryan Dearth for Leafly)

• • •

College cannabis clubs are nothing new; many have been around since the 70s. NORML counts at least 20 student chapters on college campuses around the country. Students for Sensible Drug Policy have over 4,000 cannabis activists at work today.

But psychedelic clubs are a little different. Though all support legal reform, these groups mainly focus on education, peer-to-peer information exchange, and harm reduction. Since the founding of CU’s club two years ago, fifteen clubs have sprouted across the country, from California to North Dakota to North Carolina. Each club grows organically, according to the desires of the members and the environment on campus.

Psychedelic Club is spreading across the US, with 15 chapters coast-to-coast. That number is constantly growing.

“At first we wanted it to be mainly awareness-based, just educating the public,” said Morris, the CU club founder.

That quickly changed. Club members identified a need for harm reduction programs and evidence-based information about the psychedelics circulating around Boulder. “We eventually started doing substance testing for students as well as trip sitting,” Casey added.

The club’s testing work revealed some shocking results. Over 80 percent of the MDMA that club members analyzed turned out to be cut with methamphetamine.

“We can’t do that anymore, though,” said Casey. Despite the critically important information revealed by the tests, university officials couldn’t allow such direct interaction with drugs. If the club wanted to remain a CU-affiliated organization, the testing would have to stop. “So now we host psychedelic harm reduction workshops,” Casey said. “The Zendo Project, for example, will come out and do workshops for students and the community.” The Zendo Project is a psychedelic harm reduction organization based in Santa Cruz, California.

• • •

The University of Colorado and its hometown of Boulder have a long history with cannabis and alternative culture. But college psychedelic clubs aren’t limited to expected outposts like Boulder and Berkeley.

The University of North Dakota, a campus of 15,000 students located in the conservative farm town of Grand Forks, is the unlikely birthplace of another psychedelic club. I asked Will Beaton, a senior at the University of North Dakota and president of the Grand Forks Psychedelic Club, how his club got started.

“There are few young people here [at UND] who don’t know someone whose life has been impacted – or ended – by drug use,” Beaton said.“When I went to our first [club] meeting, I was expecting a bunch of stoners or something. But almost everyone there just knew someone who had overdosed and died. We were all there because we didn’t want to get another email saying a friend died.”

Beaton touched on an extraordinary fact of life for many high school students these days. He made it through high school without losing a friend or loved one to overdose – and that isn’t the norm. Beaton considered himself unusually lucky to be untouched by loss.

His luck did not last.

One month after his high school graduation, the body of Beaton’s friend was discovered in the grass outside his parents’ home.

Later that same week another friend, just 17 years old, died of overdose. The 17-year-old thought he and his brother were taking psilocybin chocolates. The overdose of another Beaton’s close friend would come soon after.

Autopsies would show that many of those deaths were caused by NBOMe – a research chemical that can only be differentiated from LSD through testing – and powdered fentanyl, a potent opioid that can have lethal effects even in small amounts.

“These substances are cheaper to produce than hallucinogens like LSD, but since their effects are somewhat similar, dealers often sell these extremely potent drugs as something safer and more marketable than what they really are,” Beaton said. “Often dealers themselves don’t know what they’re pushing.”

The same problem exists in Boulder, where NBOMe was detected in 40 percent of LSD samples tested by the CU Psychedelic Club.

• • •

University of North Dakota’s Merrifield Hall (Creative Commons)

The problem of overdose fatalities is so troubling that faculty members at some colleges are getting involved. Frank White, a sociology professor at the University of North Dakota, teaches a class called “Drugs and Society” that seeks to keep pace with the changing landscape of drug use, education, and policy in the United States.

“We grew up in a time where what you didn’t know couldn’t hurt you,” White said, harking back to his own upbringing. “Now what you don’t know can kill you.”

You won’t hear the words “Just Say No” in White’s class. The course is presented in a spirit of helping students and others prevent abuse and overdose. Discussions are leavened with analysis, psychology, and statistical logic – all fueled by the collective emotional undercurrent of students nationwide affected by drug and alcohol abuse.

White was more than aware of the Grand Forks Psychedelic Club. Club members have taken White’s class, and there seemed a natural bond between the professor and the student club leader. “Will should really be commended as a student who is making a difference,” White said. “He’s not advocating use, he’s advocating education.”

Still, with a name like “Psychedelic Club,” skeptics might wonder how the group would breed a smarter, safer generation. White said he wasn’t thrilled about the name, given the “emotional luggage of the ’60s.” But he warmed up to it over time.

“If you look at the word ‘psychedelic,’ it means mind-expanding or mind-examining,” White said, “And Will is doing that.”

The Boulder chapter, too, had initial reservations about using the word “psychedelic.” The founders ultimately concluded that “Drug Safety Club” just didn’t have the same boldness or attraction. After all, the club’s effectiveness is powered by the student community. It doesn’t work if students don’t show up.

“We’re missing an important segment that involves students and their perspectives and experiences,” White said, criticizing the teacher-to-pupil one-way dynamic in conventional drug education models. “Students listen to students. That’s one facet of the Psychedelic Club I’m really happy with.”

“To beat this drug problem, you need the teachers, the parents, the coaches, the ministry to make an effort, too,” White continued. “It’s got to be a collective effort, and I don’t see that happening yet.”

Will Beaton was invited to Washington, DC’s Newseum to discuss the Psychedelic Club and its objectives relating to freedom of speech. (Photo courtesy of Will Beaton)

That’s part of Will Beaton’s plan – to expand outward, not just inward. At the end of 2016, Beaton flew out to Washington, DC to visit North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s office, local state legislators, and university and law enforcement officials, in an effort to reform the state’s confidential informant program. The infamous Andrew Sadek case still resonates deeply with the student community in the northern Plains states.

Beaton also organizes open mic events to get the Psychedelic Club’s message out between the sets and songs of musicians. Recently, comedian Shane Mauss invited Beaton up on stage during one of his performances to talk about the club’s efforts. Beaton was also interviewed by DC’s Newseum to discuss the club as it relates to freedom of speech. Sandbagger News, a student-formed media outlet whose video work has won the team travel opportunities and participation in political conferences, helps give their cause ever wider attention. 

As I listened to Beaton’s enthusiasm about the club’s future, it reminded me of the power a single individual has against what can sometimes seem like an impenetrable system.

“Don’t be afraid and think that you aren’t good enough to stand up for the rights of other people,” Beaton said. “Lots of people think they haven’t experienced enough tragedy or don’t know enough to raise their hand and join those who are standing up. You can’t be afraid to do that. You have to believe your voice matters.”

I reminded him that North Dakota, of all places, just legalized medical cannabis. He laughed and said, “Yes! If change can happen in North Dakota, it can happen to you.”

Bailey Rahn

Bailey is an editor at Leafly, specializing in strains and health.

The post How College “Psychedelic Clubs” are Changing the Conversation on Drugs appeared first on Leafly.

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