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arlopez · 1 year

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Blog 8 - The repudiation script and "Pallywood"

Analysis of “The Boy Who Wasn’t Really Killed”: Israeli State Violence in the Age of the Smartphone Witness by Rebecca L. Stein

The author through a variety of examples, argues how the colonial ideology of the Zionist movement put at the center of their politics the denial of Palestinian digital evidence. The paper begins with the account of sixteen-year-old Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian activist from the West Bank town of Nabi Salih, slapping and kicking an Israeli soldier outside her home during the area's weekly anti-occupation rallies in December 2017. Military retaliation was common. Tamimi's arrest and imprisonment in the Israeli military court followed footage shot by her mother and live-streamed on Facebook. Tamimi's international standing as a symbol of the Palestinian anti-colonial resistance. At the time, Israelis had already matured the notion that in encounters between troops and civilians, as depicted in photographs on social media, the soldier will seldom have the upper hand. It was widely acknowledged that these multiplying cameras with their inciting pictures constituted a severe threat. It was reported that the tape was staged and that the Tamimis were not even a genuine family, but rather a troupe of actors paid to pretend.

So how did we get to this consolidated ideology? Stein examines many cases from the previous two decades to demonstrate how the charge of Palestinian forgery went from the fringes of the pro-Israel conspiratorial Internet to the Israeli political mainstream. They employed the claim of Palestinian forgery, or what the author would refer to as the "repudiation script," as a political containment tool. It took aim at "Pallywood," a phrase established by a Hollywood group to suggest Palestine stages its video as if it were creating movies.

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Stein makes an interesting connection between these phenomena and populist developments in the United States over the previous decade. Numerous sections of the rejection script matched Trump's "fake news" charge or its white nationalist "cousin" in the United States. Also, the rejection script has a lengthy history. In his work, Edward Said demonstrated that the rejection of indigenous claims was a fundamental logic of all colonial enterprises, particularly the allegation that the indigenous claim was inauthentic or contrived in some way. The script's proponents attempted to erase Palestinian victims and Israeli offenders from the increasing video graphics record of Israeli state brutality made available by the shifting media environment.

The first example Stein gives is a landmark case of reputation script: the tragic shooting of twelve-year-old Muhammad al-Durrah on September 30, 2000, while he was entangled in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Palestinian terrorists in Gaza. The tragedy was captured on film by French television, and photographs of the child's lifeless body quickly went viral. The attempt to discredit the al-Durrah tape would raise questions about the amount of footage captured, the blurred frames, the editing, and so on. At its heart was a collection of self-styled forensic specialists, including an American scholar, Richard Landes, who claimed to be an "expert in Palestinian media manipulation," and an Israeli, Nahum Shahaf, who claimed to be a "forensic expert."

The second incident occurred near Ni'lin, West Bank when Palestinian activist Ashraf Abu Rahma was shot at close range by an Israeli soldier. Salam Kana'an, a Palestinian adolescent, secretly recorded the events on a basic cassette recorder. Because Palestinian testimony film of this type, despite its amateurism, was still uncommon in 2008, it had the power to captivate a mainstream Israeli audience. In television discussion programs, commentators addressed military concerns about "the element of video manipulation," as well as recurring queries about the seconds after the shooting when the videographer dropped the camera in astonishment, registering as a black patch on the film. Almost as if the question “Ok but what happened when we couldn’t see?” would translate into “What did they do to deserve it?” as if the explanation was not on the perpetrator's violence but the victim’s guilt. The accusation of fraud would also make its way into the military trial. Two types of forgery were claimed: video graphics doctoring and fraudulent assertions made by the inmate about his ailment.

The author then recalls being able to attend an informal Israeli military social media team meeting led by Richard Lanes. She overheard him telling a packed crowd that Pallywood is everywhere, that NGOs aid them, and that Landes' efforts will pay off. Al Durrah was never killed, according to Israelis: "The Kid Who Wasn't Actually Dead."

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The third example moves across decades again as it happened in Beitunia on 15 May 2014. It involves the fatal shooting of two Palestinian youngsters, Nadim Nuwara, and Muhammad Salama, by Israeli border police during the annual march. Their murders were caught by various cameras: four fixed security cameras put at a shop near, a CNN cameraman who had been recording the demonstrations that day, and a Palestinian photojournalist's still camera. The Israeli government had denied involvement in the murders, claiming that its security forces had acted according to existing rules of engagement, employing solely "nonviolent" crowd control techniques like rubber bullets. B'Tselem denied these allegations, accusing Israeli security forces of being responsible for the incident based on eyewitness evidence, autopsy records, and accompanying footage. Nonetheless, the vast number of pictures did not stop the Israeli people from debating the terms of the deaths. Instead, it appeared to feed it. Ben Deri, the border police officer involved in the shooting, subsequently pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of "negligent manslaughter" in one of the deaths and was sentenced to just nine months in jail.

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The repudiation script was a small conversation in 2008, but by 2014, the allegation had expanded and cemented. By 2014, the Pallywood grammar had gained broad Israeli legibility and became the state language. At first look, the repudiation efforts of these decades stand out for their very repetitious style, which is based on a consistent storyline. Yet, as time went on, the charge of picture alteration became insufficient for the work. The charge would now move from the visual field to the event itself, from a tale of postproduction editing to an account of deception at the scene of the purported damage.

The fake was based on Palestinian nature, as though despite Palestinians' greatest attempts to cheat the public by seeming to be dead, their bodies continuously gave them away with blood that did not flow properly or dropped in the incorrect direction. Their flailing limbs revealed them time and again. In other words, according to Israel, Palestinians were inherently deceivers because they didn’t hold the same narrative. Their bodies are sinning in their existing state in Israel’s visuality.

The author concludes with a striking example: in 2016, Israelian Elor Azaria killed a Palestinian who was already injured and hence not threatening. Israelis attempted to defend him, stating that if they do not protect their soldiers who will protect them? Azaria was convicted of manslaughter in an Israeli military court in 2017 but was freed after completing the ninth month of his sentence. He was given a hero's welcome. Azaria's popularity grew in the months that followed, showing that racial colonial visuality is embedded in Israelian society.

According to media historians Lisa Gitelman and Geoffrey Pingree, moments of media emergence are frequently periods of social crises, as people adjust to the meanings, functions, and daily usages of the media forms. The repudiation's development and normalization occurred when the Israeli Jewish public was reacting to shifts in Palestinian digital ecosystems. Yet, the author feels that the reputation script was not an innovative measure in response to a new reality. In fact, the expansion and normalization of the repudiation script only resurrected the colonial ideology of denial and dehumanization at the heart of the Israeli agenda.

Israel detains Italian artists for jailed Tamimi mural – Middle East Monitor

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anantradingpvtltd · 2 years

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waitingformyfavoritesongs · 2 years

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22 February 2023 Wednesday 👰‍♀️ 4:46 am pdt

I am only a spec of dust to them.

4:47 am pdt I had painful diarrhea 😖😭😖😭😖😭😤🥵 I am ash

rise above the flames 🔥 🎶🎼🎵🎧 the wedding 👰 is a joke

I smelled 👃 my sh*t literally toilet 🚽 paper 🧻 to nose 👃 & it SMELLED like GAS ⛽️ OLINE literally putting flammable liquids inside of me.

4:50 am pdt my brother in law has a memory problem like 50 first dates which has Adam Sandler drew berry more in it & I watched on one of my first dates in the theatre 🎭 not my pick/choice - my date’s choice. I have also watched The Vow Channing Tatum movie 🎥 I think maybe on dvd 📀 around the time it first came out. $ when I was a kid or teen I saw a movie 🎥 on tv 📺 (before turning 18 years old) I think it’s called overboard w/ Goldie hawn? A rich woman who falls out of yacht into ocean 🌊? & she gets amnesia she doesn’t remember who she is & her husband decides to abandon her but the carpenter she hired & fired fire 🔥 pretends to be her husband Bcz he’s got a lot of kids & no more mother to take care of them. They fall in love at the end. 4:56 am pdt I have been set up 🆙 to be gas ⛽️ lit 🔥 by them. It’s a joke. 🃏 they like to do cruel things. They’re *ssholes. 4:57 am pdt literally & physically. 4:58 am pdt

5:01 am pdt they like to use the truth to lie so I’m warning ⚠️ you this is authentic. I’m not kidding. I have no memory of incubus being nice to me. 5:03 am pdt

5:04 am pdt literally & physically gas ⛽️ lighting me. 5:05 am pdt When I ran away in 2020 weird fedex trucks 🛻 were around me. One driver stared at me w/ his wife gaping open in a smiley way as if he was relishing the fumes flying towards me. It was strange. The night b4 (they made the cursor fly down to the hashtag #️⃣ add tags 🏷 at bottom to symbolize me falling from being turned into ash from being burned a lot. (Made me spell “kot” reminds me of Scott is cott but they meant me. Vag pain 5:10 am pdt ok 👌 ) 5:11 am pdt the driver often stopped to look 👀 at me & make that weird face expression as he went through the parking lot of Costco. I had slept 🛌 the night b4 in the ground inside a restaurant outside entrance area w/out going inside actual restaurant. That restaurant had plans to reopen w/ a different name & it was still full of tables & chairs 🪑 as if it was ready to serve people (#3). 🍅 sweet. I went there b4 they had good food & it was packed the previous year when I went. When I got out of the hospital 🏥 30 days later it was completely demolished. 5:15 am pdt

9:15 am pdt I feel that I am a decoy for Q. Autocorrect what was that? Decent decision? To write ✍️ about it would make me look 👀 bad. At times recently the thought 💭 of if I were a god would I pull a Jesus Christ resurrection stunt? Or would I kill people? Think 🤔 smart not hard. Turkey’s earthquake & ghost 👻 ship 🚢 fire 🔥 in Oakland December 2, 2016. I didn’t & don’t feel good about the answers. At the end of 2017? I think 🤔 it was after incubus had been scaring w/ me & toying with me to make me believe he’s my boyfriend, I find pictures on Q’s & his Facebooks that look 👀 like they’re flirting with each other. Especially one Halloween 🎃 looked as if they wore the same airline pilot 👩‍✈️ costume & Q’s breasts looked even bigger than I remembered. Made me think that maybe they had a baby 👶 together behind behati’s back. 9:24 am pdt it seemed as if they wanted to sacrifice me to Behati whom he wanted me to believe had all the magic 🪄 power. Question 🙋🏻‍♀️: how do they sneak around to see each other w/o Behati finding out? MySpace she put “music is my boyfriend” . I got angry 😤 & maybe 🤔 it was wicked/evil/bad of me to give up 🆙 their secrets by posting links of Q’s pictures to his pictures in Facebook so all his fans can see. I tried to go back later to delete but it beach 🏖 balled on me every time I tried. I did not like being a sacrifice & having my feelings toyed toy 🧸 with. Q already had “endometriosis” she told me years b4 this happened. & she had an uncle in Santa Barbara who bought her a very nice car 🚗. My uncle never offered to buy me a car 🚗. B4 we stopped talking she wanted me to get checked out for endometriosis, too. I thought 💭 at the time that I didn’t so I didn’t bother. ≈2004 I was told by a gynecologist to see a counselor/psychologist/psychiatrist. 🤷🏻‍♀️ maybe I was being gas ⛽️ lit 🔥. In 2013 Q gave me her oldest iPhone 📱 that probably had a recycle ♻️ value of $35. It was in working condition but I was laid off so I didn’t get service for it . I remember she texted me on it & it seemed too coincidental the timing ⏱ my mom even suspected that she was using it to spy 🕵️‍♀️ on me. The cell phone cover she put on it was pink w/ skull ☠️ w/cross bones 🦴. When she gave it to me she insisted she help me set up my iCloud account on it. She also helped me decide on a password. & she left it w/ her name on the phone 📱. I forgot a detail I was going to write ✍️... in 2018 I watched YouTube videos on witch 🧙‍♀️ craft. Revealed was that skull ☠️ w/ cross bones 🦴 is an omen for illness to come or that it’s an item or symbol used by witches to give illness? Bcz I think 🤔 they suggested throwing it away to make the illness go away? I’m not sure 🤔 probably not a good idea to get rid of it. It was a cell phone 📱 cover. I remember Q said she went to Stanford & the doctor 👨‍⚕️ straightened her uterus and said there , you can have children 👶 now. I think 🤔 shortly after that several days later she said the doctor 👨‍⚕️ talked to her about freezing 🥶 her eggs 🥚 & she was thinking about it. Wasn’t until 2018/end of 2017 that I thought 💭 about if she was being honest or not. If incubus was lying 🤥 about his access to power they probably could have put on an act. It is probably not a good idea to think 💭 that it was an act. Which I started to think 💭 may be it was but maybe that was bad. 9:51 am pdt so this is probably incubus revenge on me to punish me. 9:52 am pdt

10:16 am pdt after I posted the picture links I was made to believe I failed a test. That I was selfish & a bad friend & wicked & evil. After I posted the picture links some time after that I also realized that pictures of me in her Facebook was actually intentionally photoshopped to make me look different. I had noticed the details years ago when she first posted these pictures but it didn’t occur to me then that it was a sign that she was pretending to like me. She spoke so sweetly & I thought that I used to liked (edited 10:53 am pdt ) her & was probably trying too hard to be her friend Bcz she seemed to tolerate me unlike a lot of other people. There were pictures she had taken w/ the 2 of us & she had a sorta laughing grin or smirk? I commented once was (10:58 am pdt why) does my head look so big? But no one answered. On Facebook. I forgot about it. Hanging out with Q was expensive. I spent $20+ every time. 2010/2011 I started hanging out with her less. She was usually the only one inviting me to hang out so I started saving money and tried to work more but also had addiction problems to internet stuff like easy 2-d games like Tetris/biotronic & cartoons that were nostalgic of my childhood 10:28 am pdt. & I had issues with time management & falling asleep. & my mom’s boyfriend woke up after I turned everything off: games or cartoons & he created noise through the thin wall. 2006-2010 I drank some alcohol now & then. May 2010 I drank (autocorrect sea dead 10:32 am pdt)(I think that means me.)(Pepsi looks like Dead Sea upside down)(10:33 coughing & peeing)(incubus I think is stretching my stomach Sphincter too wide it hurt & he hurt my bladder sphincter last year w/ sharp things 10:35)(I wish incubus killed me in the womb. I’m not rich. I have no power of any type & now my body is absurd. Incubus likes torture. “Lots of sex & lots of crying” that was a quote I found on the internet probably an interview incubus did. 10:37 left shoulder pain) the cartoons were Jem , & marina (anime style. A little silly cartoon). May 2010 I drank wine when I visited my sister & got drunk to the degree that I couldn’t walk well & almost fell over every step & my sh*t was extremely easy to come out. Felt I couldn’t talk easy that I was missing vitamins like niacin. When I saw Scott in June 2010 @ the party I drank ≈1/2 of his beer (40 oz can) to prevent him from drinking the whole thing. Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid & then he opened another can after that in front of me. Then I tried a little 2-buck chuck. Stupid. Even though I had a bad experience with alcohol before those 2 times - my skin eczema immediately dried up and felt pained I did it again. 10:45 am pdt I woke up with a hangover & nauseous. It went away the same day. Usually I don’t drink but I made some exceptions for social purposes that year. 10:47 why why why why why why why why why why 10:48 am pdt

12:09 pmpdt incubus probably controls/controlled everyone to make everything happen: including crimes ... all crimes.... 12:10 pmpdt how else would people say that Bcz they’re good that nothing happens to them? & for rapist to justify rape? 12:11 pmpdt (head brain skull pain 12:12 pmpdt I think that the incubus has done too much harm to me for me to ever believe that I special. Q worked at the Apple store & bought a lot of gadgets from them. 12:13 pmpdt I miswrote in a post that I had MacBook. I actually have the cheaper white plastic one. 22:24 12:14 12:15 pmpdt something I learned: when they offer an iPod w/ $100 rebate w/ the laptop it’s probably not a good deal? Not sure. Bcz I learned later on when Q was trying to talk me into upgrading my laptop I found out there were 2 different computer chips sold at the time. The one I bought was probably the older chip which is probably why they offered the iPod w/rebate. 12:18 pmpdt

12:24 reread abovefedex truck said wife gaping open I meant mouth gaping open. I hope I am using this word correctly. Autocorrect said defect desecrated try truth. About what? 12:26 pmpdt

12:29 I think it was around that time- about the computer chips.

12:32 pmpdt I did not like that they were messing with my feelings after cockblocking me & planning to sacrifice me for her to hide from behati. They wanted to sacrifice me to behati. I feel selfish but I basically tattled on them & I got punished for it. Which is weird. I have already been in a lot of pain all my life & rarely felt life satisfaction & usually filled my days w/ tv & internet & school. & I thought I felt like I was close to healing becomg healthy for the first time in a long time since I was 7 years old. I didn’t want to give it up for her. I had tried new diets & I thought it worked. Now I don’t know. I question everything now. I thought I was right about something & now I’m wondering if I jumped to conclusions Bcz they’ve been doing stuff/manipulating my memory. There was a time I’d go to sleep w/ a big belly from dinner & then I wake up the next morning w/ a flat abdomen. 12:42 pmpdt 12:43 pmpdt at some point I thought behati already knew Bcz she had endometriosis. But if he did have access to behati’s magic powers & was faking every one out & photoshopping, bcz Q’s face started changing from pretty to messed up b4 I realized or said anything or posted any of her picture links. I also thought Q was very lucky: pretty/attractive, I took a picture of her @ my sister’s fair well party in 2006? She had long neck , little waist line, wide hips like an ark. & a pretty singing voice that her previous boyfriend called her a “siren.” Pale green eyes. Hazel eyes she said. She was same height as me though. I slept over once & noticed she had satin sheets. Is that good w/ s*x???? I was jealous I didn’t think I could ever compare/compete with Q. But that guy chose to talk to me first. Maybe it was wishful thinking but I probably met him in my high school b4 & I think he was interested back then too but didn’t remember me? Although it was probably incubus karma. I think my mind was already messed up. I was at school ≈7 am. I think I was scared. Trying to do homework b4 class. Happend a lot. He sat down at the same table as me? Or maybe it was reversed? Maybe he was there first? For a weird reason I was scared. He asked w/ a shy smile “why are you sitting here ?” In retrospect (brain pain 12:56 pmpdt)

1:03 pmpdt I answered a retarded bad answer. I said “I’m free to sit anywhere I want/I can sit anywhere I want” in my mind I was scared. But he probably interpreted this differently. I think that was him. & was probably interested. & I screwed it up. 1:05 pmpdt

1:06 pmpdt he also was friends on Facebook w/a mutual friend, a hapa, which also added to the reasons why I thought he was interested in me. Bcz he probably thought half Asian girls are pretty. 1:08 pmpdt

1:27 pmpdt I feel like I am never going to win a popularity contest. Especially against Q. She seemed to make a lot of friends at Apple. She got out a lot. Even b4 she got her license. Once I drove to her place & picked her up. & then she said she wanted to go to was it, my town? So I drove us there. & then drove her back home. Somehow her mom found out & gave me $20 (jjjk guy <-incubus did that) 1:32 pmpdt then she scolded her infront of me that she should not do that to me, or that she should have paid me. 1:33 pmpdt I think Q goes to a lot of concerts/musical events. Also in SoCal like Coachella. There was something else I was going to write I don’t remember now. At some point she seemed to have made a lot of friends. Oh in 2007, when Scott went to Q’s house to meet up with us, Q’s mom was bragging about how good Q is w/ photoshop. Back then I could not afford photoshop. Waaaaaaay too expensive. 1:38 pmpdt Q got MacBook, a new digital single lense reflex camera, iPad, iPhone at some point. A new flat screen tv. Possibly a kitchen? Renovation? Did they? Trying to remember. Now I don’t know. They had a swimming pool in the backyard. 1:41 pmpdt she asked to borrow my acrylic paints once & I lent her w/ palette knife & brushes. Incubus stole my paint brushes recently. I think her mom probably told her again to stop that/don’t use it Bcz it looked like she didn’t use. 1:43 pmpdt

1:52 pmpdt something about puppies today...

Q told me I am fun. And that I play the guitar better than her.... which I never believed Bcz she was probably a music major initially? I barely can play a song. One song. & only a few chords well sometimes. I believe that the shape of my finger tips is not suitable for guitar. Fretting is difficult. 1:55 pmpdt

1:56 pmpdt she also recorded a bunch of songs on her laptop that she said she wrote & had played the guitar. A song she played back had added sound effects of guns. 1:57 pmpdt now, I am thinking retrospectively, maybe it was a hidden threat? When they got their new flat screen tv the image quality was strange. As if the mayb how to describe images multiplying???? Was it? Something was weird. Was it a refresh rate problem? Idk 🤷🏻‍♀️ I asked what’s wrong with your tv? & then she said something like what do you mean? Like it was supposed to be like that. & another time Q wanted to go to pasta pomodoro at Santana row. The waitress seemed excited to interact with Q. Problem though: the lighting is dim. Weird. I ordered chicken & I cut into it & I barely see the bright red vein that made it looked under cooked. (Nose bone pain 2:03 pmpdt) the manager seemed displeased at me for trying to order a large non meat dish to replace the chicken so I change it to small. Only choices large or small. Q says for their mistake she would have ordered free dessert too b4 I reordered. But I did not think that would have been nice so I could not help my reaction to Q’s suggestion I scowled a little Bcz I heard the first 2 years of restaurants are usually profitless? I forgot where I heard that. 2:08 pmpdt in retrospect was I weird? This was the same restaurant I ate at & got my first bout? Of acid reflux after seeing Scott there b4 eating. 2:10 pmpdt

2:11 pmpdt Q’s has a lot of favorite stuff: music, art, probably books, movies. On her Facebook she likes I am the cheese by Robert Cormier. On her Flickr there’s a picture of a small wooden rocking horse infront of an old movie poster illustration of a woman in a red dress having a romantic moment. 2:14 pmpdt On one of her social media pages she puts she’s Christian. In an effort to help her find a man I asked her why don’t she look for someone in church. She says something about political party affiliations. 2:16 pmpdt I feel like Q is smarter than me in some ways that I am not. She likes California history books, too, & she has enough knowledge to enlighten me a lot of wars are started Bcz of religion. 2:18 pmpdt I didn’t read much of the Bible yet back then so the Flickr picture wouldn’t have really triggered any concerns. Only maybe a play on words at most. Q likes to show off her breasts sometimes but not all the time. Other than that she usually doesn’t wear revealing clothing. 2:21 pmpdt she once commented about someone’s choice of clothing as slutty.

“Brendan” put on his Friendster he’s interested in conspiracy theories. 2:23 pmpdt he also said his birthday is 6/16. ≈2016 I saw online that dead sea scrolls w/ the number 616, & that that was actually the number of satan? Not 666. I tried to look for it again but could not find it. 2:26 pmpdt

2:59 pmpdt I think incubus miñion was here to torture me minutes ago Bcz I’m gurgling again. Usually diarrhea follows. 3:01 pmpdt I started feeling fear that maybe all humans naturally back stab. If so then I have no gio <- accidentally typed then autocorrect: gio guilt.... I was going to type no hope for anything nice (left shoulder pain & can’t breathe thru nose 3:04 pmpdt) probably signs incubus lied again, & admitting he lied about gio. I was so afraid of this & being gas lit in more than one way Bcz I really don’t have a memory which probably really REALLY means I don’t have children. Ever. 🥺😞😖😭😤😥😰😖😭😖😭😤🥵😤🥵 Bcz why deprive me of the memory? If everything is controlled? 3:09 pmpdt

3:10 pmpdt he has hurt 😞 me So much that I would be too afraid 😱 to be alone w/him. 3:12 pmpdt

4:08 pmpdt Q had a dermatologist she referred me to. I never saw her have any skin problems though. 4:09 pmpdt

4:09 pmpdt I guess this is why he’s burning 🔥 me to death ☠️. Bcz I backstabbed Q. & they prepared well ahead of time for my punishment. Such as pictures to make me think we had history. If it was really a life & death ☠️ thing, would they do anything that risky? Put pictures out in public? I guess it don’t matter. I guess it’s the principal. Even though I didn’t rape, & probably didn’t run 🏃🏻‍♀️ over anyone w/ a car 🚗, & I probably didn’t go that fast on a tricycle, Bcz I didn’t stay & clear stuff up 🆙 I’m worthy to be tortured to death ☠️ for profit. I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️ if Q was trying to help me or set me up 🆙 for a fall. 4:15 pmpdt b4 2017... b4 2010 I probably tried my best to be her friend even though I had a lot of weird feelings that kept me from wanting to hang out with her or talk to the phone ☎️ all the time. I once helped her reconcile w/ Ep (code name). I thought 💭 I gave her nice gifts 🎁 & I stepped aside for some moments so she could have a chance still with josh & “the cute one” she put in the text reply to me when I asked his name after the fact. I don’t remember if I said something b4 she said that. I probably mentioned that the other guy I was not yet attracted to. 4:20 pmpdt.

4:31 pmpdt I guess Q is really Juliet to incubus Romeo. 4:32 nose 👃 pain. No se rio us ly. 4:33 pmpdt

4:45 pmpdt I guess I’m wrong about everything. Incubus hurt my left hip bone 🦴 w/ a pick sort of action, felt as if a piece of bone 🦴 came out. B4 4:45 pmpdt Scott bit& yanked me near the jugular it looks like. Around this time he said he ran over a guy drunk 🥴- but the court document online says he wasn’t drunk 😵 & was I think intentionally using low beams instead of high beams & there was only one witness? & he chose to loook over his shoulder into his blind spot was it at the moment before or during when he ran over the guy? Avalos. 2013. Happened 2009. At one moment I thought I had read it said that avalos was responsible for his own death ☠️ not Scott & then I think it changed. That Scott said that I thought 💭 I saw 👀 & then I didn’t see it the second time I think (4:52 pm pdt head skull ☠️ pain) his dad is an architect Lhasa a house 🏠 in Cupertino. He’s your king 🤴. & he didn’t respect me when I said “I don’t think we should be doing this!” Inserted himself w/o confirm & w/o verbal consent. W/O saying “I love you” w/O a proposal. W/o a proper platonic? Friendship & courtship b4 moving towards physical intimacy stage & then publicly whore shamed me, even though I told him we shouldn’t do the actual intercourse yet. A lot of people can mess around & stop 🛑 short of the s*x. People do it all the time. Men have big heads. There’s probably some sort of control center up there that a king 🤴 probably has privileges to access? That would enable him to respect ✊ a woman’s wishes? Hot cannot breathe 🧘🏻‍♀️. 5 pmpdt head pain brain 🧠 pain 5:01 pmpdt 5:02 pmpdt incubus (gio dd <- incubus did that) demon lord god’s love 💕 is letting bad stuff happen letting kings do what they want Bcz they’re all like that? Not in genetic makeup 💄 to be monogamous? 5:05 pmpdt so there are double standards . Men can do whatever they want & women can’t. 5:05 pmpdt

5:12 pmpdt diarrhea feeling 5:13 pmpdt left hip bone 🦴 pain I guess I’m still the loser. I’m the one who is still in the wrong. I didn’t realize it until now. I was very afraid after I did each thing. I regretted it yet I still ended up doing another thing unplanned. I prayed to god on the last one that no one would get hurt. I wish now he didn’t show me that he controlled traffic l. Bcz then I probably would have been more careful. I wouldn’t have relied on him. I would not have got excited that he would help me out. Bcz many years b4 that I predicted once that I’d make it to school 🏫 in a fraction of the time & then it happened & I was shocked & wondering if it was god, god exists?, or coincidence? & then I probably forgot & remembered time to time. 5:19 pmpdt still it’s my fault 🤦‍♀️ & I AM the bad one. Not Scott. 5:20 pmpdt heart ♥️ pain. I think god really doesn’t like me & was hoping to trick me into screwing up 🆙 big. 5:21 pmpdt he has favorites you know.

5:34 pmpdt I remember I took the street way Bcz initially I was scared to take the freeway 🛣. It took me twice? As long or much longer than I expected. Still it was the stupidest decision. I feel as if Scott Did a voodoo curse on me to make me mess up 🆙. Bcz he told me he ran someone over. Did I do that b4? I hope not. I don’t think so. Bcz I was extremely self conscious after that one time. & then I had a lot of problems. 5:37 pmpdt brain 🧠 head pain. 5:38 pmpdt I wasn’t a perfect driver but I think that was the first time? Now I’m wondering 💭 if there were more times! This sucks. Pain right heel pain. 5:39 pmpdt incubus really is sacrificing me. I am bad!!!! 😞😖😭😤🥵😫 5:40 pmpdt I didn’t even want to drive my moms bests friends husband told me I had to. 5:41 pmpdt

5:45 pmpdt sometimes I psych (chest pain & wheezing 5:46 pmpdt) myself out $ think I’m right but I guess I’m not. I’m very flawed . There is something extremely wrong with me. I guess it’s Bcz of that one test w/ Q. That was bad. I should have left it alone. Should have not retaliated. That was probably the first time I did anything bad to Q? 5:48 pmpdt I don’t remember but maybe yes? Still. It was th test I guess & that’s what counts. Don’t mess w/ Romeo & Juliet! 5:49 pmpdt

6:05 pmpdt I feel that I’m not worthy, even if my name backwards might mean worthy or lord/chieftain w/ other transliteration. Would a rose 🌹 rose 🥀 by any other name smell 👃 as sweet? Names don’t matter. 6:08 pmpdt

6:31 pmpdt w/o condom! Protection from pregnancy 🤰! Not comfirm... above. He said he accidentally got cat 🐈 hair on it & it was the last one ☝️. 6:32 pmpdt d*mn autocorrect.

7:03 pmpdt I was afraid 😱 of god probably since I was 7 years old I started becoming aware of the concept of god. I remember becoming afraid 😱 of my own thoughts 💭 & feelings & probably what god would think 💭 if my thoughts 💭 & feelings. Sometimes I had to fight very weird feelings $ sometimes I had to fight not very good feelings. It was exhausting feeling all those feelings that I didn’t want. Once I felt like I was going crazy & that I might kill someone & in hopes the feelings would go away I knocked knock ✊ on wood 🪵 all night. & I did not realize my neighbor heard 👂 me & was annoyed & retaliated in a very strange timing ⏱ a moment b4 I was about to fall asleep 😴 as if he was psychic. Then it seemed apparent that he had a young woman 👩🏼 in bed 🛌 with him he wasn’t married to yet probably. & in case he could hear 👂 me , Bcz I heard her giggle 🤭 after he knocked on the wall, while I only knocked knock ✊ on my pine 🌲 wood 🪵 bed 🛌 frame 🖼, I said if you have time to retaliate then you’re not busy enough. I think 🤔 he started to hustle after that & seemed more busy? Was it wishful thinking 🤔 I said something (pain 7:13 pmpdt) right? Soon 🔜 after that I think I heard my mom say his uncle bought him a Tesla. 7:14 pmpdt

It was probably wishful thinking 🤔. I’m stupid. 7:15 pmpdt how did he hear 👂 me? Maybe the bed was too close to the wall. I’m not sure 🤔 if I had put a space that time Bcz I might have switched sides & became afraid 😱 I would hit my head on the wall? It’s possible but I don’t remember anymore. I guess I’m stupid again. 🤦‍♀️ More aches abdominal groin doesn’t feel right feels a lot of diarrhea. I guess god is upset I didn’t follow through on suicide. He probably thinks I’m lying. I did condemn myself to the point that I thought 💭 I should but I was a chicken 🐔 & didn’t want to deal with the actual action of doing it. I felt remorse for what I did but death ☠️ is scary. I made excuses not to do things like not get another job but I was extremely scared 😱 to face people I was afraid 😱 Bcz I doubted myself. Bcz I didn’t double check Bcz I did something i should not have & I put myself in a questionable? Position. My way of dealing with problems was crawling in to bed 🛌 & questioning myself why why why why. I was too chicken 🐔. 7:25 pmpdt I asked god several times in 2017/2018 if the guy was ok. I saw 👀 many Dodge Chargers 🔌 & I thought 💭 that meant he stopped b4 I crossed. But he didn’t telll me verbally . Rarely says anything to me . Seems he only says stuff to make trouble happen trouble 👿 here comes trouble incubus wore that tshirt. Diarrhea cramps a minute ago. 7:28 pmpdt 7:29 pmpdt please read previous posts if you are new. 7:29 pmpdt 7:30 🕢 pmpdt

7:34 pmpdt I also changed my diet again. & again & again & again 7:35 pmpdt

7:42 I changed my diet hoping to change me. 7:43 pmpdt I remember feeling not very awake? While I drove once. & I realized I had forgot to take my vitamins that morning. I think 💭 it was Bcz I was still not yet recovered from the punch 🤛 my cousin pounded into my head. 7:45 pmpdt

7:46 pmpdt I think incubus is trying to destroy all my organs w/ fire 🔥 & vinegar & gas ⛽️ oline. I don’t believe that I will survive this. 🦩7:47 pmpdt it’s not a fake out magic 🪄 process to make me stronger. He really hates me. I wish they would have ended my life early when I was conceived. Not make me miserable my whole life for someone else’s amusement & profit. 7:50 pmpdt hungry strong hunger pangs. Hot 🥵 don’t want to get up 🆙. Need to go. 7:51 pmpdt

9:11 pmpdt incubus forced out all the food from my stomach & left shoulder pain 9:12 pmpdt a lot of gurgling happened. I usually feel bad & twisted. Am I really? Btwn years 2011-2014 I felt a lot of fear whenever my Sony dream 😴 machine radio 📻 alarm went off & it was maroon 5 playing. Probably 3 days in a row. I guess I inherited a bad personality. I should not have done that to Q. Was Q a good friend to me? I don’t know 🤷🏻‍♀️. There were times she said “best friend” even though I thought 💭 we didn’t hang out enough at the time to feel true. I wanted to reciprocate but I had difficulty holding onto the feelings. I m trying hard to remember. Incubus is making it extremely difficult to remember. I think 🤔 that was what probably it was. I wanted to find someone else to be friends with for a while. Sometime after a neighbor moved out & a new one a woman moved in sometime btwn 2011-2014 I wanted to be friends with someone who was not Q. I wanted to not see Q anymore. I gave her chances but I wasn’t happy. I felt sick after hanging out with Q. Q can be nice but I think 🤔 she likes to take whatever she wants, the bigger stuff - having to do w/ guys w/o regarding my feelings. & she set me up 🆙 with Scott & blamed me for the s*x, even though her own mom & her thought there was something wrong with him. 9:26 pmpdt she I think wasn’t looking out for anyone but herself. Maybe that’s a conclusion I shouldn’t jump to but I really don’t like my experience with the both of them anymore. 9:28 pmpdt

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historyhermann · 2 years

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Declassified U.S. Intelligence Documents Describe Taliban History with Illicit Narcotics Trade

On January 13 of this year, Hasibullah Ahmadi, head of Afghanistan’s Ministry of Interior’s counternarcotics department, asserted that drug trafficking from the country has dropped, but admitted this illicit trade continues in some provinces. These comments raise the question of the Taliban’s ties to the narcotics market and previous attempts to curb drug production. The declassified documents featured in today’s post, all released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), are a selection from the new Digital National Security Archive collection, Afghanistan War and the United States, 1998-2017, which was published in December of last year. The three documents examined in this post detail the Taliban’s ties to international trafficking networks in the late 1990s and attempts to regulate the market in the early 2000s in an effort to curry favor from the international community. Taken together, the documents describe the Taliban’s ties to drug trafficking schemes and how poppy bans, even when effective, financially benefited the Taliban and associated trafficking consortiums.

This was originally published on January 24, 2023 on Unredacted.

As the early Taliban movement emerged, from 1994 to 1996, narcotics production skyrocketed in Afghanistan, with declassified documents asserting that the group aligned themselves with international drug traffickers. There were indications from U.S. officials that narcotics production in the country significantly increased following the Taliban’s control over large swaths of the country. In a now-declassified Secret May 2001 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence outlined that by 2000 the country supplied an estimated 72% of the world’s “illicit opium”. This heavily redacted document included a map noting opium poppy growing areas in Afghanistan (page 26), and a chart showing rising opium cultivation between 1991 and 2000. The NIE noted that producers in Afghanistan had switched to supplying and producing more heroin over several years before 2001.

This analysis was reinforced by a now-declassified Top Secret December 1998 CIA research paper, prepared by the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Crime and Intelligence Center, and recently released under the FOIA to the National Security Archive. This heavily-excised Top Secret report details the explosion of the narcotics market under Taliban rule, noting the ties of the group to Quetta Alliance, an international drug trafficking ring, which shared ties to Osama bin Laden. Furthermore, this report asserts that the Taliban’s increasing role in the country caused the narcotics business to explode. The paper also assesses the group’s involvement in illicit drug traffic, stating that it included top Taliban leaders and that this trade intensified “over the last several years,” leading to immense profits for the fundamentalist organization. Notably, the DCI Crime and Intelligence Center states that Afghan narcotics suppliers had shifted towards international markets, beyond distributing to drug traffickers in Turkey. The paper outlines that Taliban fighters provided “logistic support” and “protection” for drug trafficking and laboratories within the country. Most significantly, the paper argues that the Taliban forged ties to the Quetta Alliance, a major regional trafficking group, and terrorist sponsor of Osama bin Laden.

This paper was not alone in describing the Quetta Alliance. A publicly-available August 1994 report compiled by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Intelligence Division, describes the Quetta Alliance as an alliance between three powerful trafficking groups operating out of Quetta, within Pakistan’s Baluchistan Province. The DEA report stated that this loose alliance was based on familial ties, and described the operation as “similar to a large manufacturing or service consortium.” This connected to the assertion in the aforementioned paper by the DCI Crime and Intelligence Center, which argued that once the Quetta Alliance became the dominant narco-trafficking group in southern Afghanistan, it provided financial support and recruits to the burgeoning Taliban.

By late 1999, the Taliban had banned poppy cultivation. This would be followed by a ban of opium cultivation and trafficking in July 2000, the latter in an edict by Taliban leader Mullah Omar. However, these bans did not interfere with trafficking and sale of opium or poppy. A declassified Secret July 2001 cable from the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) stated that while the ban was primarily effective, it still substantially increased the Taliban’s revenue from illicit drug trafficking. The ban followed the U.N. Security Council resolutions 1267 and 1333, in 1999 and 2000 respectively, which condemned “the significant rise in the illicit production of opium” and demanded that the Taliban work to “virtually eliminate the illicit cultivation of opium poppy.” Later, the DIA cable notes that the Taliban likely weighed recognition from the international community from its own interests when considering an extension of the ban.

This now-declassified DIA cable further stated that while the Taliban’s ban would likely reduce the worldwide opium production by at least 50%, the ban resulted in the quadrupling of the Afghan price for opium, morphine base, and heroin – which were previously at record lows. The cable explicitly states that one year after the ban the Taliban was still benefiting substantially from drug revenues, “… chiefly from its taxes on continuing narcotics trafficking and from Taliban-owned narcotics stockpiles, whose value has increased substantially.” The DIA cable also notes that the ban would likely not have an impact on the U.S. over the coming months, because its main heroin sources were from Southeast Asia and Latin America. While the Taliban never faced having to weigh its interests in extending the ban due to the U.S. invasion beginning in October 2001, the DIA cable notes all of the influences that the Taliban would likely weigh in the decision making processing, including the potential recognition from the international community, major narcotics traffickers’ reactions to an extension, the size of stockpiles, and the impact on their own finances.

For more documents on the Taliban, see the Archive’s numerous sourcebooks, including the September 23, 2021, post, “Newly Published Documents Cast Doubt on Claims Taliban Will Give Up al Qaeda.”

#taliban #afghanistan #opium #drug trade #drug war #war on drugs #illicit drugs #declassified documents #classified documents #national security archive #osama bin laden #quetta alliance #narcotrafficking

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esatyabca · 6 years

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Certificate in Computing - CIC 02 Question Paper December 2017

Certificate in Computing – CIC 02 Question Paper December 2017

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recentanimenews · 4 years

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IN-DEPTH: How Did Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Become Japan’s Hottest Domestic Franchise?

At this point, it’s safe to say that Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba is one of the biggest franchises this decade. The manga series sold more than double what One Piece did at its peak in 2020, the Mugen Train anime film has outgrossed Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning Spirited Away to become the king of the Japanese box office, and the franchise is estimated to bring in 270 billion yen to the Japanese economy by itself this year.

Looking at all of that, there is no question that Demon Slayer is the hottest domestic property in Japan right now. But how did it get here? Let’s examine how the little manga series from new author Koyoharu Gotouge became a cultural phenomenon in Japan.

Demon Slayer’s History with Jump

Before the Demon Slayer anime started, the series was running in Weekly Shonen Jump, one of Japan’s top manga magazines. The series started in Jump on February 15, 2016, and had modest success, with around 3.5 million copies of the manga series printed and sold as of February 2019, just a few months before the anime premiered in April 2019.

During Jump Festa 2017 — an annual exhibition for series being released by Shueisha in Weekly Shonen Jump and their other manga magazines — the first chapter of Demon Slayer was given out in a sample booklet alongside other new series that had started in 2016, such as THE PROMISED NEVERLAND. Outside that sample booklet though, Demon Slayer barely existed in the mind’s eyes of attendees, with gazes glued to NEVERLAND and BORUTO as the new hot series.

It wasn’t until Jump Festa 2020 (held in December 2019) that Demon Slayer got some time in the spotlight, with the Aniplex booth doing its best at showing off the series that had become such a hit over the previous summer.

Demon Slayer at the Aniplex booth during Jump Festa 2020 (photo: Daryl Harding)

Even though the collected manga volumes weren’t selling as much as one might expect from the now behemoth of a series, Demon Slayer was slowly gaining traction among fans, but wouldn’t really break out until just before the first episode of the TV anime aired on television in Japan.

The Outside Influences Brought into Demon Slayer

When the Demon Slayer TV anime was announced in June 2018, it was revealed that the studio Ufotable would be adapting the series. The Aniplex-affiliated studio is widely praised for their work on the Fate franchise, which has culminated with the Fate/stay night [Heaven’s Feel] film series. Ufotable-produced works are known to already be event-type series, and with Demon Slayer being their first Weekly Shonen Jump adaptation, it was a series to look forward to on that point alone.

First Demon Slayer TV anime key visual (source: Anime Eiga)

Just before the series premiered in April 2019, it was also revealed that popular singer LiSA — who was then mostly known for her work on the Sword Art Online openings, including the wildly popular theme to the Ordinal Scale anime film “Catch the Moment” — would be singing the opening theme for the series, with the first preview of the song at Anime Japan that year. LiSA went on to have a solo concert at the Yokohama Arena on the last days of the Heisei era in April 2019, selling out the 17,000 capacity hall.

youtube

AnimeJapan 2019 Trailer

Music can be a huge element in propelling the popularity of a series in Japan. Some of the biggest anime over the last decade was supported by their opening and ending themes, which kept the anime in people's minds. Demon Slayer’s opening theme “Gurenge” became such a hit in its own right that it dragged the rest of the series along with it. This formula worked to bring Your Name to the forefront of Japanese pop culture in 2016 — you couldn’t go anywhere in Tokyo without hearing Radwimps. And the double whammy of “Gurenge” and “Homura” (the theme for Demon Slayer: Mugen Train) has helped the series achieve even more success.

Rounding out the series was the star-studded voice cast who all have their own fan bases. Voicing Tanjiro is Natsuki Hanae, who was best known at the time for Ken Kaneki in Tokyo Ghoul; Zenitsu is voiced by Hiro Shimono, who voices Connie in Attack on Titan, and the boar himself Inosuke is voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, who voices Kirito in Sword Art Online. Nezuko's voice actor Akari Kito, who largely played side characters up until her casting in Demon Slayer, would become a well-known name and go on to play many more lead roles after the series became popular.

On paper, the breadth of talent involved in Demon Slayer far exceeded that of just any TV anime series. The production committee, led by Aniplex, was banking hard on people giving the series a try before the first episode had even aired. And it worked.

Topping the Film Charts before the First Episode Even Aired

Demon Slayer: Mugen Train has topped the film charts since it first premiered on October 18, 2020, but it’s not the first time the series has been in theaters. Prior to the TV airing of the first episode on April 6, 2019, the first five episodes were shown in eleven theaters across Japan starting on March 29. The screenings were dubbed “The Bonds Between Brother and Sister” and topped the mini-theater rankings, with over 10,000 people going in just the first three days.

Ironically the press release from Aniplex announcing that the screenings were being extended in early 2019 said the “excitement for Demon Slayer is at its peak!” If those screenings were anything on the mountain of the popularity of Demon Slayer, they’d be right near the start of the trek.

“The Bonds Between Brother and Sister” Visual

Due to the immense popularity, the two-week special screenings were then extended for another week at all eleven cinemas, which were coming in at Number 1 on the mini-theater rankings (for screenings in less than 30) for the two weeks it was originally scheduled for.

It’s no surprise then that just after these screenings had finished, and during the early broadcast of the anime on TV, that the production committee ordered the Mugen Train arc — which directly follows after the ending of the first season — to be produced as a film, according to industry sources.

Demon Slayer’s Evolving Popularity Throughout Its Airing

Hiroyuki Nakano, the editor-in-chief of Weekly Shonen Jump, spoke to Nikkei Entertainment in the March 2020 issue of the magazine on the slow success of the manga series, explaining that “normally the number of sales of a series increases gradually during the broadcast, but the number of copies sold of Demon Slayer exploded when the broadcast ended.” Nakano alluded to streaming services helping the anime series escalate the popularity of the original series by giving people the accessibility of being able to catch up on the show the next day via services like Amazon Prime and Netflix, who streamed the show weekly in Japan.

Gone are the days where an anime fan would have to record an episode of a late-night anime series because it aired early in the morning. With streaming services on the rise within Japan, that night’s episode of Demon Slayer could be watched the next day on the way to work or school, on the train, or on the toilet.

“I felt that the way people interacted with anime had changed and that we had entered a new phase,” Nakano explained, discussing how Demon Slayer’s rise in popularity was due to the evolving ways of media consumption.

This helped the series when the famous Episode 19 aired, blowing away all expectations of what an anime could do in animation. If Demon Slayer wasn’t already part of the modern anime zeitgeist, that one episode — which trended worldwide on Twitter after airing — propelled the series to the forefront by word-of-mouth. Inside Japan, people couldn’t help but talk about the latest episode of the series, treating it like prime-time event television in the same vein as Game of Thrones would have been in the west.

Demon Slayer’s success has also been well documented since the anime finished airing on September 28, 2019. The manga series has broken all records to become the most-sold series for a year, the Mugen Train sequel film is now the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan, and has given Japan the honor of being the third country to have a film reach US $300 million in a single market during its initial run.

Why Does Demon Slayer Resonate With Japanese Audiences?

How Demon Slayer became popular is one thing, but why did this one series, when many others have the same level of talent behind them, become the cultural phenomenon it is today? In December, Oricon released the results of a survey given to Japanese people on how well they know the series, and if so, why did they like it so much.

An astonishing 97.6 percent of the 3,848 respondents, who ranged from teens to the elderly, said they knew of the series, with 40.5 percent of people saying they knew it well. Of those who knew the series, they described how they liked the world setting and had sympathy for the characters. A male teenager said that he “was fascinated by the story of the main character growing up while struggling with various difficulties,” while a woman in her sixties enjoyed “the storytelling and LiSA's powerful voice.” A woman in her thirties remarked that she “never thought I'd be talking about anime at my age with my 60-something mother.”

All through the responses, Demon Slayer is bridging the divide between generations, with each generation taking something out of the story that Gotouge has crafted.

The top-notch action scenes and relatable characters draw in the younger crowd, while more middle-aged people get a kick out of the family bonds that weave throughout the story, and the aesthetic of the entire series gives older people a sense of nostalgia, also known as “Taisho romance,” but without it being overly melodramatic about the era. Even kids are going to the schoolyard to reproduce the breathing techniques seen in the series. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga joined them when he made a cheeky reference to Demon Slayer’s breathing techniques while speaking to the DIET in November.

The accumulation of these points has made Demon Slayer a cultural touchstone, one that could only be born out of Japan. Even if the world wasn’t in the current state it is in, the Shonen Jump series would be just as big in its homeland, if not bigger, with more people going to the theaters and traveling to the areas that influenced the series.

Living in Japan at the moment means living in a world surrounded by Demon Slayer. From billboards promoting the film to masks people wear, you can’t go outside (not that people should be!) without having the series in your eyesight. And with how good the series is, and how many people are enjoying it, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba deserves its time in the sun.

Demon Slayer masks being sold in Harajuku in December 2020 (photo: Daryl Harding)

Daryl Harding is a Japan Correspondent for Crunchyroll News. He also runs a YouTube channel about Japan stuff called TheDoctorDazza, tweets at @DoctorDazza, and posts photos of his travels on Instagram.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features.

By: Daryl Harding

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Trump Expected to Order Troop Withdrawal (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Donald Trump is set to order a dramatic and rapid cut in the number of U.S. troops stationed in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Somalia as he seeks action from loyalists newly installed at the U.S. Department of Defense. A perception that Mark Esper, the previous U.S. Secretary of Defense, would not agree to further troop reductions on so quick a schedule, was seen as one of the reasons for his removal from the post shortly after the U.S. presidential election. Although the numbers are not yet public, several media reports signal a halving of current troop levels in Afghanistan from the 4,500 troops currently stationed there. A reduction in Iraq would be less severe, but almost all of the 700 U.S. troops stationed in Somalia are expected to return to the United States. Although Republican leaders are wary, a troop withdrawal appears to be popular among the American public. According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the libertarian Charles Koch Institute in August, 76 percent Americans supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan, with almost half of respondents strongly supporting withdrawal. The number supporting U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq was 74 percent. The desire to end America’s wars in the Middle East and South Asia is felt similarly among U.S. military veterans. An April poll by another Koch-backed group found 73 percent of veterans surveyed supported a full withdrawal from Afghanistan, an almost 13 percent increase from the previous year.

Covid-19 origin remains a mystery (South China Morning Post, Tumori Journal) The virus that causes the Covid-19 disease has now infected more than 54 million people across the planet, but the question of just where it came from remains a mystery. Researchers may have found a new link in this puzzle after discovering evidence suggesting the pathogen had infected people across Italy as early as September last year, or months before it was first identified in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The unexpected finding “may reshape the history of [the] pandemic”, said the team led by Dr Gabriella Sozzi, a life scientist with the National Cancer Institute of Milan, in a peer-reviewed paper published last week in the Tumori Journal.

Hurricane Iota bashes Nicaragua, Honduras after Eta floods (AP) Hurricane Iota battered Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast and flooded some stretches of neighboring Honduras that were still under water from Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier, leaving authorities struggling to assess damage after communications were knocked out in some areas. By late Tuesday, Iota had diminished to a tropical storm and was moving inland over northern Nicaragua and southern Honduras, but forecasters warned that its heavy rains still posed a threat of flooding and mudslides. The storm passed about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south-southwest of Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, where rivers were rising and rain was expected to intensify. In mountainous Tegucigalpa, residents of low-lying, flood-prone areas were being evacuated in anticipation of Iota’s rains, as were residents of hillside neighborhoods vulnerable to landslides.

Boris Johnson, in self-quarantine, says he’s ‘bursting with antibodies’ (Washington Post) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson boasted that he was “fit as a butcher’s dog” and “bursting with antibodies” as he began two weeks of self-quarantine after having close contact with a lawmaker who contracted the coronavirus. Johnson was infected with the virus in March—and struggled to breathe in an intensive care unit for three days. His staff did not say on Monday whether he had been tested this time, but cases of coronavirus reinfection have been incredibly rare. Johnson on Monday said that he felt great and that because he previously had the disease he was “bursting with antibodies” but that he would self-quarantine for two weeks as “we got to interrupt the spread of the disease.” He added that he would continue to govern by video conference.

After Trump, Europe aims to show Biden it can fight for itself (Reuters) The Donald Trump era may be coming to an end. But European Union ministers meeting this week to discuss the future of the continent’s defence will say the lesson has been learned: Europe needs to be strong enough to fight on its own. EU foreign and defence ministers meeting by teleconference on Thursday and Friday will receive the bloc’s first annual report on joint defence capabilities, expected to serve as the basis for a French-led, post-Brexit, post-Trump effort to turn the EU into a stand-alone military power. “We aren’t in the old status quo, where we can pretend that the Donald Trump presidency never existed and the world was the same as four years ago,” a French diplomat said. The EU has been working since December 2017 to develop more firepower independently of the United States. The effort has been driven mainly by France, the EU’s remaining major military power after Brexit.

Hungary and Poland Threaten E.U. Stimulus Over Rule of Law Links (NYT) When European Union leaders announced a landmark stimulus package to rescue their economies from the ravages of the coronavirus, they agreed to jointly raise hundreds of billions of dollars to use as aid—a bold and widely welcomed leap in collaboration never attempted in the bloc’s history. But that unity was shattered on Monday when Hungary and Poland blocked the stimulus plan and the broader budget. The two eastern European countries said they would veto the spending bill because the funding was made conditional on upholding rule-of-law standards, such as an independent judiciary, which the two governments have weakened as they defiantly tear down separation of powers at home. Their veto has thrown a signature achievement of the bloc into disarray, deepening a long-building standoff over its core principles and threatening to delay the stimulus money from getting to E.U. member states, if a new agreement can be reached at all.

Armenia seethes over peace deal (Foreign Policy) Armenia’s government is under strain after signing a cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan in a Russian-backed deal a week ago. On Monday, Armenian Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan resigned after a public disagreement with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan over the direction of peace talks. Pressure on Pashinyan has shown no sign of easing in recent days: 17 opposition parties have called for his resignation as street protests against his leadership continue.

Kissinger Warns Biden of U.S.-China Catastrophe on Scale of WWI (Bloomberg) Former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said the incoming Biden administration should move quickly to restore lines of communication with China that frayed during the Trump years or risk a crisis that could escalate into military conflict. “Unless there is some basis for some cooperative action, the world will slide into a catastrophe comparable to World War I,” Kissinger said during the opening session of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum. He said military technologies available today would make such a crisis “even more difficult to control” than those of earlier eras. “America and China are now drifting increasingly toward confrontation, and they’re conducting their diplomacy in a confrontational way,” the 97-year-old Kissinger said in an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait. “The danger is that some crisis will occur that will go beyond rhetoric into actual military conflict.” U.S.-China relations are at their lowest in decades. As President Donald Trump stepped up his criticism of China, blaming it for the spread of the virus and the death toll in the U.S., each side also has ramped up moves the other sees as hostile.

Hundreds of fraudulent votes were discovered. Then a fat green parrot was elected. (Washington Post) A plump, waddling parrot has soared past its competition to claim victory in New Zealand’s Bird of the Year contest, a tense race marked by attempted voter interference during a divisive month of campaigning. In what event organizers conceded was “a stunning upset,” the critically endangered kakapo flew into first place to steal the title—ruffling the feathers of those who say the bright-green parrot unfairly secured a second term as chosen bird. The bird-of-the-year controversy took flight after data analysts working with Forest & Bird discovered that roughly 1,500 fraudulent votes had been cast. The “illegal votes,” which were submitted using a suspicious email account and came from the same IP address in Auckland, briefly pushed the country’s tiny kiwi pukupuku bird into the lead, a brazen meddling attempt that sent officials and campaign managers into a flap. Those votes were immediately disregarded, organizers said. “It’s lucky we spotted this little kiwi trying to sneak in an extra 1500 votes under the cover of darkness!” Laura Keown, spokesperson for Bird of the Year, said in a statement Nov. 10, adding that officials did not “want to see any more cheating.”

Israelis Take On Netanyahu And Coronavirus Restrictions In Wave Of Civil Disobedience (The Intercept) Netanyahu is Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, having been at the helm for over 11 consecutive years. He is also the first sitting prime minister to be indicted, currently on trial in three cases of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust, arising from abusing his authority to grant favors for, among other things, favorable media coverage. While there have been small but stubborn protests against Netanyahu since investigations into his corruption first opened in late 2016, it was not until the coronavirus paralyzed Israel’s economy that people—many of them in their 20s and 30s—starting coming out in droves. For more than 20 weeks now, tens of thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets to call on Netanyahu to recuse himself for corruption, for failing to manage the pandemic, and for what many describe as his megalomania—doing whatever it takes to evade trial. They have been convening in massive numbers in front of his official residence, many carrying homemade signs, chanting in unison “Go!” and “We won’t leave till Bibi resigns.”

Protests that historically bring out large numbers of Jewish Israelis have long been dominated by Israel’s left-leaning peace camp, and a decade ago, others drawing attention to the high cost of living. What is happening now is different: With over a million people unemployed in a country of 9 million, culture and nightlife all but dead amid the pandemic, and people’s ability to travel outside the country severely restricted, a nationwide movement of disgruntled Israelis, spanning ages and to an extent sociocultural backgrounds, is practicing civil disobedience. The government has responded with relative force against a segment of the Jewish population that is largely unfamiliar with police brutality and has not had their individual rights violated. At the same time, the government has all but ignored incitement and incidents of violence against the protesters. The official response is giving Jewish Israelis a tiny window into what it has always been like for Palestinians, both in Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza, whose protests are, prima facie, treated as suspect.

Ethiopia bombs Tigray capital (Foreign Policy) Ethiopia’s air force began bombing the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle, on Monday in another escalation of the country’s civil war, now entering its third week. In a tweet he later deleted, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni called for the two sides to negotiate and halt the conflict “lest it leads to unnecessary loss of lives and cripples the economy.” Redwan Hussein, a government spokesman, said the war would be a “short-lived operation,” and that mediation offers from Uganda or another country were not being considered.

Amazon opens online pharmacy, shaking up another industry (AP) Now at Amazon.com: insulin and inhalers. The online colossus opened an online pharmacy Tuesday that allows customers to order medication or prescription refills, and have them delivered to their front door in a couple of days. The potential impact of Amazon’s arrival in the pharmaceutical space rippled through that sector immediately. Before the opening bell, shares of CVS Health Corp. fell almost 9%. Walgreens and Rite Aid both tumbled more than 10%. The big chains rely on their pharmacies for a steady flow of shoppers who may also grab a snack, or shampoo or groceries on the way out. All have upped online services, but Amazon.com has mastered it, and its online store is infinitely larger. Amazon will begin offering commonly prescribed medications Tuesday in the U.S., including creams, pills, as well as medications that need to stay refrigerated, like insulin. Shoppers have to set up a profile on Amazon’s website and have their doctors send prescriptions there. The company said it won’t ship medications that can be abused, including many opioids. Most insurance is accepted, Amazon said. But Prime members who don’t have insurance can also buy generic or brand name drugs from Amazon for a discount. They can also get discounts at 50,000 physical pharmacies around the country, inside Costco, CVS, Walgreens, Walmart and other stores.

R.I.P. whoopsie (Euronews) French broadcaster RFI has apologized after a bug on its website triggered the publication of obituaries of Queen Elizabeth II, Pelé, Jimmy Carter, Brigitte Bardot, Clint Eastwood and about 100 other prominent (and still alive) celebrities. RFI said in a statement that a “technical problem” led to the erroneous publications. Broadcasters often prepare obituary material in advance to publish it promptly when a death is announced.

#headlines #news

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charlie-minion · 5 years

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What were the highs and lows of this year?

I didn’t do journaling on my blog this year, but I didn’t abandon my insightful nature either. I believe this year was better than last year and considerably better than 2017, so I’d like to borrow the last journal entry from last year in order to organize in my head the good and the bad of 2019.

LOWS:

I spent a long time staring at the word “lows” and trying to write something, but every time I came up with an idea, my brain provided a thought that made it seem like it really wasn’t a big deal and that it all worked out for the best, anyway. I guess my psychologist would be very proud of me right now! For instance:

I let go of some friendships and acquaintances.

After uttering this statement, I realized that this was more positive than negative because I learned to invest my time and energy wisely. I learned the importance of giving and taking in a relationship (platonic or otherwise) and the necessity of letting go of those who don’t make an effort. So, in this regard, I regret nothing.

I had another depressive episode and some serious moments of crisis.

This is another low that turned into a high. I started to feel the decline in my mental health again at the end of June and promptly looked for help. I realized the health care system in my country does offer mental health services for free, so I went back to therapy. I had regular weekly sessions with my psychologist for 6 months, and I was properly diagnosed by a psychiatrist. They discovered I had been wrongly diagnosed with major depression the previous times I had hit rock bottom, but in reality, I’ve had bipolar disorder all this time (which makes a lot of sense, truth be told). Without that depressive episode, I wouldn’t have gone back to therapy and many of the highs of the year wouldn’t have happened.

My social service project and master’s thesis took a lot longer than I expected.

However, I can’t complain much about this because everything worked out great in the end. And the fact that my graduation was in September gave my big sister the chance to come to my country and be here with me on such a special occasion.

It took me a long time to sell the missing half of my old property.

But it was worth the wait because a friend of my mom’s bought the house and I don’t carry that burden into 2020 anymore.

I didn’t get a job.

This isn’t true, though. I did get a job. I got a job as the vice-principal of a private school, but I decided not to sign the contract because there were things I didn’t agree with. I was offered two other jobs during the year and I just wasn’t interested in taking them. It took me some time to realize that I didn’t want to get a job because I wasn’t stable enough. I felt pressured to do so because it was expected of me as someone with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, but I didn’t really want to, so not getting a job was actually a good thing and the Universe knew better.

I burned the bridge with my ex-girlfriend (whether temporarily or for life).

When I broke up with my girlfriend, I didn’t do it because I didn’t care for her; I did it because I wanted to give her a chance to learn what she truly wanted. She’s still hot and cold and that’s understandable due to her age (there’s an age gap to consider between us). She kind of tried to communicate with me a few times (mostly when she needed something) and I tried to stay friends, but when she approached me a month into my depressive episode of the year, I was not in the right condition to keep playing mind games with her and decided to set very clear boundaries that would leave her out maybe for good. On the one hand, this could be one of the lows of the year, but on the other hand, I simply don’t regret a thing because I had to do what was best for me and my mental and emotional health.

Honestly, there’s not a single low this year that can’t be turned into a good thing. And I know that must have been true in the previous years as well, but I wasn’t in the right state of mind to do so.

HIGHS:

All the aforementioned things are definitely highs, but they are the result of an automatic exercise my brain did to transform something negative into something positive. My therapist spent weeks and weeks working with me on this, and I thought this was the most difficult exercise of all, so that’s why I believe she would be extremely proud of me if she saw me doing this unprompted.

Now if I want to talk specifically about the highs, I can mention:

I had a spiritual awakening on January 28th.

When my depressive episode kicked in, I started to doubt the spiritual awakening had been true. Then when I learned about my mental illness, I thought that maybe what I thought was a spiritual awakening had simply been a hypomanic episode. But the truth is that my level of consciousness shifted and there’s no denying that. I may have a serious mental illness and I may be on meds for the rest of my life, but the fact that, from January on, I’ve been very in tune with my intuition has nothing to do with all that. There’s no need to go deep into this because I don’t feel the need to talk about it or convince anyone anymore, and isn’t that even better?

I got closer to my family.

I realized that I didn’t have to turn my back on my family because not everything is black or white. They may not be perfect, but I’m not either; nobody is. So, I made peace with some relatives and got closer again to some others. I’m a lot better at setting boundaries now, so I’m not a people pleaser, but I’m not nasty either. All in all, I feel good about the fact that I may not be as alone as I thought I was.

I released the two major sources of stress I still had.

When I finished grad school and sold my house, I could finally breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t have any more papers to worry about, professors or classmates to deal with, or fees to pay. I don’t have to clean my old house or continue paying the bills. I’m finally free! And there’s no better way to start a new year and a new decade.

I got diagnosed and was given the proper treatment.

As I mentioned before, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. It’s not that I’m happy about it, but I was treated incorrectly for so many fucking years, that it feels wonderful to be taken seriously for the first time in forever. I started medication in November and my psychiatrist has been really helpful. The effect of the meds has been evident! There haven’t been side effects and my brain has reacted beautifully to the treatment. It feels like I can use my rational mind now, and I can even keep it together when other people act in a threatening way (which has happened). I’m amazed at how different life feels like from this perspective. I never quite understood why people liked to be alive because all I felt on a daily basis was despair, so to me being alive used to feel like a burden rather than a blessing. It doesn’t feel that way now. I know both the meds and the changes in my life style have contributed, but I can say with 100% certainty that without the meds, I would not feel the way I do right at this time.

I look freaking fantastic!

I have lost over 80 pounds since I started exercising on March 20, 2018. I have a lot of energy and feel good about myself. It’s not just the fact that I’m not overweight anymore, though. I’m proud of myself because I’ve had the patience and discipline to do something that didn’t give me any immediate benefit. I see the results now and everyone praises me for what I’ve accomplished, but I exercised daily for over a year without seeing much of a change, and despite that, I kept going. So, this is definitely a high! I’m missing just 25 pounds to weigh what I want, and I’m confident I’ll be there soon.

I appreciate the people who are still part of my life.

I haven’t let go of every friend; I just got better at knowing when a cycle is over without taking it personally. Some people have returned to my life, and some others have left. That’s just part of life, I guess. The only thing I know is that those who remain mean a lot to me, and I’m thankful for them.

I finally learned what I want.

It was December of 2017 when my friend Kate asked me what I wanted after yet another failed suicide attempt. I couldn’t answer her question because I didn’t know; no one had ever asked me that, not even me. I’d always done what others wanted me to, or what I thought others wanted or expected from me. Last year, when I had to answer this question in my journal, I had trouble giving a straight answer. It was easier to identify what I DIDN’T want. That was progress, indeed, but still not enough. This year, I’ve continued to progress. I know what I want! I want to live as if I had already retired without feeling guilty about it. I want to feel proud about my academic accomplishments without feeling that I’m obliged to climb a professional ladder because of them. I want to have time to enjoy my hobbies and to enjoy the simplest things in life, even if I can’t eat out at fancy restaurants or buy fancy things as often as I used to. I want a humble, simplified life. And that’s exactly what I have right now!

I may not be where I thought I wanted to be 10 years ago, but at the time, I didn’t even know what I wanted. I was just acting in autopilot, following other people’s beliefs of what I should want. I’m convinced that 2020 will be an amazing year precisely because I am EXACTLY where I want to be, and if that’s not where others expected me to be, all I can say is that I don’t give a single fuck! :’D

Thank you for everything, 2019!

HAPPY NEW YEAR to everyone, especially to those who read all of this! ♥♥

#not supernatural #personal #about me #charlie talks #highs and lows #2019 summary #it was a good year

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ukimmigrationmatters · 4 years

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youtube

Cryptocurrency: the future of money or the biggest Ponzi con in history?

You may have heard the saying, “rich as Croesus”. Meaning that you have to exceeding wealthy to be richer than the king of Lydia in Asia Minor in 560 BC. He is believed to be the first person to mint coins as “money” from gold, although I visited a ruin in Rome where the Italian guid said the Romans first minted coins and coined the phrase which became known as money. Why was Croesus fabulously wealthy? He formed and controlled his own currency which dominated the region.

Now others want to form their own currency and dominate the financial markets.

Is it a currency or just a speculative investment?

But are cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, the answer or are they, in the words of Warren Buffett, a “mirage”?

Buffet has called it wrong on previous technological revolutions, but you have to sit up and listen to one of the greatest investors and richest men in the world.

The leading and most well-known cryptocurrency is bitcoin. In the last five years, the price of a single digital bitcoin has risen from $263 to over $10,000.

However, it rose to $17,000 in 2017 and failed to just over $3000 a year later. It has doubled in price since March 2020, as soon investors sought a “safe” haven for their cash during the financial crisis.

What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital assets design to become a medium of exchange where individual coin ownership records are stored on a ledger in the form of a computerised database records known as the blockchain.

The US dollar is the world reserve currency, which gives America a tremendous advantage because other countries need to change their currency into dollars to trade internationally.

China is launching its own digital currency based on its paper currency, the Yuan. Although not the same as a cryptocurrency, China would like to break America’s dominance in the financial markets and become the most widely used international currency.

How do you buy a Cryptocurrency such as a bitcoin?

The answer is you exchange your real money dollars or pounds for digital bitcoin stored in a “wallet”, which comes in various forms.

When you sell it, you get back your dollars or pounds.

Bitcoin is not a practical and real currency accepted by markets and governments. You cannot go down to your local supermarket and pay for your shopping in crypto currency. Well, not yet. Digital currency is definitely coming as the banks try to phase out money using “Covid 19” as a convenient excuse, but whether this will be in the form of bitcoin is another question.

Furthermore, if you accepted payment in bitcoin in December 2017 when the price of one coin was equivalent to $17,000, a year later that bitcoin would be worth $3000.

There are many other contenders for the digital currency market, including powerful companies like Facebook with their libre currency.

Some form of digital currency will eventually replace paper money, but that will be a sad day for all of us. Money in your pocket represents a bit of freedom and more difficult for banks and governments to take it from you.

Other articles available at Money Tips Podcast - www.moneytipsdaily.com

· Trump tests positive for Covid 19

· Have you made a Will and is it valid?

· UK house prices soar 5% in September

· How to avoid bankruptcy in a business

· Is this the end of office work as we know it?

· Home workers one step closer to outsourced

· Why live in expensive town centres anymore?

· Buy-to-let landlords ignore “NO DSS” tenant ban

· Thousands trapped in unsellable leasehold flats

· New Job Support Scheme unveiled by UK Chancellor

· 2m homeowners apply for mortgage payment holiday

· Government extends ban on landlords evicting tenants

· Self-employed, have you claimed your government grant?

· UK property prices jumped by 3% since June following stamp duty cut

· Why UK Property prices rising after stamp duty cut, despite the downturn?

· New planning rules will open up more opportunities to make money in property

· You can create a second income during the lockdown…and come out stronger

· Learn how to make money from property without deposits, mortgages or cash

Millions of people face a bleak future post-Coronavirus lockdown, as businesses disappear and the job furlough scheme eventually comes to an end. However, life doesn’t have to end because of lockdown! You can join thousands of ordinary people who have increased their income and added streams of new income during this period.

Are you ready to adapt to the new economic model?

As lockdown restrictions around the world are being eased, the economic model has subtly changed forever. How will you adapt to this new way of working and running a business, what obstacles and opportunities lies ahead? Will you be a participant or spectator in this revolution?

By Charles Kelly, Wealth Mentor, Property Investor, Author of Yes, Money Can Buy You Happiness and creator of Money Tips Podcast.

There are more examples and practical steps to getting rich and being happy in my book, Yes, money can buy happiness, I cover the 3 R’s of Money Management, the Money B.E.L.I.E.F System and much more. Check it out on Amazon http://bit.ly/2MoneyBook.

If you’d like further information on wealth mentoring and coaching, how to survive the crisis and even quit the rat race, email me at [email protected] or send me a message through Facebook or my Money Tips Daily community. See more articles at www.moneytipsdaily.com

Heal your money wounds the Japanese way with Ken Honda Japan’s #1 bestselling personal development guru. Ken will take you on a journey where he will teach you the Japanese art of healing your money wounds and making peace with your money. Too often, money is a source of fear, stress, and anger, often breaking apart relationships and even ruining lives. We like to think money is the centre of our lives and everything depends on our financial status, but Ken challenges our beliefs to install more liberating perceptions of money and delivers concrete tools that have the power to change your life. Click to join his free masterclass – Click: https://bit.ly/2GqyYki

#cryptocurreny trading #bitcoin #donald trump #money

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audiencestudies2020 · 4 years

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Audience Studies (3P18) Week #2 – Nintendo Version 2 – The Power of Audience Inclusion

In this week’s lecture and readings, we discussed the nature of audiences and power. Specifically looking at the reading by Sonia Livingstone, “Giving People a Voice: On the Critical Role of an Interview in the History of Audience Research”. Throughout the lecture, we discussed, what gives an audience power? – based on Livingstone’s audiences are in power when they are interviewed. Now it is foolish to think in such a modern-day and age that every brand and business with an audience can sit down and have a one-on-one interview with its audience members. Instead, Livingstone suggests that we have moved into a more modern frame of interviews, yet it is still crucial to our understanding of the audience’s power, nonetheless. In her paper, Livingstone notes the following about her audience studies students and their ability to distinguish implied and actual audiences [in relation to more modern and digital audiences], “Curiously, it remains easy to presume that one knows what other people think or feel.” (Livingstone, 569). This line stuck out the most for me from the entire reading because I realized just how true it really was. As a communications student I don’t often do extensive, elaborate research on subjects and audiences (at least not extensive based upon the research I have read by professionals in this field). I have most definitely filled in the gaps in my research with broad sweeping assumptions about audiences and consumer bases, and yet, unless I actively went out and talked to audience members myself, my claims would (and are) no more than just broad sweeping assumptions.

When I pondered Livingstone’s article, I was reminded of an article I read relating to the success of Nintendo’s console, the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch launched on March 3rd, 2017 as Nintendo’s newest console. The Switch was branded as the most versatile gaming console on the market, because, as its name implied it was able to switch between being a hand-held, on the go console like the Nintendo 3DS, but could also be placed into an HDMI connected dock and played on a television much like a Nintendo Wii. This ability to switch back and forth between television and hand-held made the Switch a revolutionary console. As of right now (October 24th, 2020) the Nintendo Switch has sold 61 million units, making it the 12th best selling video game console of all time. As the large nerd and lover of video games I am, I bought a Nintendo Switch only days after they launched, what is significant about that? If you went out and bought a Nintendo Switch today, we would own very different devices. But if they are both the Nintendo Switch, why are they different you may ask? Audience power.

After the launch of the Nintendo Switch in 2017, users realized that there were a few “flaws” in their Nintendo Switches. Users (including myself) noticed that the battery life on their Nintendo Switched was not nearly as long as they thought it was going to be (for context Nintendo’s previous hand-held console, the Nintendo 3DS, could last three to five hours while playing a 3D game, and five to eight hours for a 2D game). While launch day Nintendo Switches only lasted at most six and a half hours. As well, launch day Nintendo Switch was prone to what is called Joy-con drift. Joy-con’s are Nintendo Switches detachable controllers, Switches released on launch day were prone to experiencing an uncontrollable drifting motion which resulted in the system believe the user was moving the controller in either the far right or far left direction endlessly.

So, what did Nintendo do about this? They asked their users what they thought of their Nintendo Switches, specifically on Twitter. Twitter users who bought Nintendo Switches expressed their concerns and disappointments in replies to Nintendo, and for months users responded to Nintendo’s tweets expressing their thoughts and opinions on the Nintendo Switch. After two years of communication and allowing audiences to inform them of what needed to be improved, Nintendo subtly relaunched an updated (Version 2/V2) Nintendo Switch. This new Switch had a battery life of up to nine hours as opposed to the six and a half of the previous. As well it had the dreaded Joy-con drift resolved. The entire recreation of a console in a difficult process, and yet when Nintendo launched their Nintendo Switch, they opened the floor up to their audience in the most modern interview like way possible. They posed them the question on a collaborative forum (Twitter) and said, “Tell us what you think of this product” and took all the feedback they received from their users to create a better product for them! If that is not a wicked cool example of the power audiences have to invoke change when they are given the chance by large corporations and researchers to speak how they feel about a product, experience, television show, movie, music, etc. then I truly don’t know what is.

REFERENCE LIST:

IR Information : Sales Data - Dedicated Video Game Sales Units. (2020). Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/finance/hard_soft/index.html

Livingstone, S. (2010). Giving People a Voice: On the Critical Role of the Interview in the History of Audience Research. Communication, Culture & Critique, 3(4), 566-571. doi:10.1111/j.1753-9137.2010.01086.x

Oxford, N. (2019, December 11). How Long Does the Nintendo 3DS Battery Usually Last? Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.lifewire.com/nintendo-3ds-battery-life-1126265

Spear, R. (2020, October 22). Here are the differences between the Nintendo Switch V2 and the original. Retrieved October 25, 2020, from https://www.imore.com/how-new-nintendo-switch-compares-original-model

#Week2 #Weekly Blog Post

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antoine-roquentin · 5 years

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Author Richard Beck, in We Believe the Children: A Moral Panic in the 1980s, locates the roots of the McMartin conspiracy theory in the social progress of the previous decade—particularly in the gains won by women. “In the ’80s you had a strong, vicious anti-feminist backlash that helped conspiracies take hold,” Beck tells me. “In the ’70s, middle- and upper-middle-class women had started to enter the full-time workforce instead of being homemakers.” This was the dawn of what the economist Claudia Goldin has termed “the quiet revolution.” Thanks in part to expanding reproductive freedom, career horizons had widened sufficiently by the end of the 1970s for women to become, in Goldin’s words, “active participants who bargain somewhat effectively in the household and the labor market.” They were now forming their identities outside the context of the family and household.

The patriarchal family was under siege, as conservatives saw it, and day-care centers had become the physical representation of the social forces bedeviling them. “You had this Reagan-driven conservative resurgence,” Beck says, “and day care was seen as at least suspicious, if not an actively maligned force of feminism.”

Day care held a prominent place in right-wing demonology. As far back as the 1960s, conservatives were warning darkly that child care “was a communist plot to destroy the traditional family,” as sociologist Jill Quadagno writes in The Color of Welfare. In 1971, President Richard Nixon vetoed the Comprehensive Child Development Act, which would’ve established a national day-care system. In his veto message, Nixon used the Red-baiting language urged upon him by his special assistant, Pat Buchanan, saying the program would’ve committed “the vast moral authority of the national government to the side of communal approaches to child-rearing against the family-centered approach.” In a decade of rising divorce rates, at least conspiracism and reactionary social conservatism could enjoy a happy marriage. By the time Judy Johnson came forward in 1983 with allegations that a teacher at the McMartin preschool had molested her child, the country had been primed to assume the worst by more than a decade of child-care fearmongering.

Certainly it wasn’t just the movement of women into the workplace that created the conditions for a reactionary panic. There were other cultural forces at work. The anti-rape campaign of the 1970s, historian Philip Jenkins writes in Moral Panic, had “formulated the concepts and vocabulary that would become integral to child-protection ideology,” in particular a “refusal to disbelieve” victims. The repressed-memory movement of that era had created a therapeutic consensus surrounding kids’ claims of molestation: “Be willing to believe the unbelievable,” as the self-help book The Courage to Heal put it. “Believe the survivor…No one fantasizes abuse.” And the anti-cult movement of the late 1970s had raised the specter of satanic cabals engaging in human sacrifice and other sinister behavior.

Beck likens conspiracy theories to parables. The ones that stick are those that most effectively validate a group’s anxieties, with blame assigned to outsiders. In a 2017 paper on Pizzagate and pedophile conspiracies, psychology professor Jim Kline, now at Northern Marianas College, argues that conspiracy theories “are born during times of turmoil and uncertainty.” In an interview, Kline goes further: “Social turmoil can overwhelm critical thinking. It makes us get beyond what is logically possible. We go into this state of hysteria and we let that overwhelm ourselves.”

The McMartin accusations were a vivid demonstration of the rot in the American social structure, as perceived by conservatives. Perhaps inevitably, the claims metastasized. Now it was hundreds of children who had been assaulted and subjected to satanic rituals, and now, instead of just one McMartin teacher, there was an entire sex ring involved. One boy told of adults in masks and black robes dancing and moaning; of live rabbits chopped to bits by candlelight. “California’s Nightmare Nursery,” People magazine called it. But soon the case began to fall apart. The stories of abuse turned out to have been coaxed out of children by way of dubious and leading questioning. Judy Johnson, who made the initial accusations that her son had been molested, was found to be a paranoid schizophrenic. In 1986, a district attorney dropped charges—at one point there had been 208 counts in all—against all but two of the original defendants. A pair of trials ended in 1990 with the juries deadlocking on some charges and acquitting on the others. After seven years and $15 million in prosecution costs, the remaining charges were dropped.

However flimsy its premises, the case whipped up a national panic. In 1985, a teacher’s aide in Massachusetts was wrongly convicted of molesting 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old boys and girls; the prosecutor had told the jury that a gay man working in a day care was like a “chocoholic in a candy store.” Around that time, employees at Bronx day-care centers were arrested for allegedly sexually abusing children. Five men were sentenced before all ultimately saw their convictions overturned.

Liberals certainly participated in the hysteria—Gloria Steinem donated money to the McMartin investigation—but by and large it was a reactionary phenomenon. What drove the panic, Beck says, wasn’t just the sense that children were being harmed. “It’s that families were being harmed.”

In 2016, three decades after the McMartin trial, WikiLeaks, in cahoots with Russian hackers, published the private emails of top Hillary Clinton adviser John Podesta. In one, Podesta is invited to a fundraiser at Comet Ping Pong. Amateur internet sleuths blew it up into a conspiracy theory about a child-sex ring. The pedophiles communicated in code: “hotdog” meant “young boy”; “cheese” meant “little girl”; “sauce” meant “orgy.” The theory was easily debunked. Eventually it was abandoned by the high-profile internet figures who’d initially given it oxygen, but not before Pizzagate, as it was immediately dubbed, had spilled over into reality. In December 2016, a 28-year-old man named Edgar Maddison Welch, having driven from North Carolina to Washington, DC, fired an assault rifle inside Comet in a bid to rescue the children he thought were locked away there. No one was hurt. Welch was sentenced to four years in prison.

The QAnon conspiracy picked up where Pizzagate left off, alleging that the liberal elite’s pedophile ring extends way beyond one restaurant and that it is only a matter of time before Trump arrests Podesta, Clinton, and other Democratic power brokers for their crimes. All of this was fueled by an anonymous internet poster dubbed Q, who claims to be a government insider.

With Pizzagate and QAnon, the molesters have changed from day-care workers to the liberal elite, and the politics behind the theories now are more explicitly spelled out. But the general context is more or less the same: conservative retrenchment after a period of progressive social gains. If women’s entry into the workplace in the latter half of the 20th century triggered deep anxieties about the decay of traditional gender roles and the family unit, in the 21st century it was same-sex marriage, growing acceptance of transgender rights, and the seeming cultural hegemony of a social justice agenda. “Q found that fear,” says Travis View, a conspiracy theory researcher and a host of the QAnon Anonymous podcast.

“While Q directly never touches on trans rights or those sorts of things, there is a great deal of anxiety on those sorts of issues,” he says, referring to the QAnon community at large. “They’re concerned generally on the sort of acceptance of trans people and the oversexualization of children.” On the matter of transgender rights, the conspiracists are aligned with “normal” conservative politics; from the state legislatures to the White House, Republicans have made considerable hay out of attacking and overturning various protections that had been extended to trans people.

Conspiracy theories of all kinds draw their energy from social anxieties. Occasionally there is some real basis for the theories. In her book, Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power, Anna Merlan details the belief among black New Orleanians after Hurricane Katrina that the city’s levees hadn’t failed on their own—they had been bombed intentionally to destroy the poor parts of New Orleans. The theory was “rooted in a real event—a 1927 decision to dynamite levees outside of New Orleans, the logic there being that they were going to flood low-lying areas and save the city itself,” Merlan said in an interview with Mother Jones’ Becca Andrews. “[I]t created a lingering sense of suspicion that maybe the government would do this again.”

View points out that the concern about elites preying on children isn’t baseless, either. “The core of elements of the systematic elite child abuse theories—they aren’t crazy,” he says. “There are instances of wealthy powerful abusing children and other people covering it up. Jeffrey Epstein, the Catholic Church. People have the sense that elites can commit horrifying crimes and get away with them.” The Epstein arrest earlier this month has done much to ratify the QAnon worldview. “This is just the beginning,” declared QAnoner Liz Crokin, a former gossip journalist. “The Storm is officially here.”

And thus does the legitimate concern about elite predation and impunity get woven into a demeaning and dangerous social crusade. The “Storm” cited by Crokin—also known as “The Great Awakening”—is part of the vivid eschatology that QAnon adherents share with traditional conservative culture warriors, one in which judgment is at last be rendered against liberals, and the nuclear family is restored to its proper place. “One thing they often talk about after ‘The Storm’ is that they imagine that the economy will be restored so that a single income can support a family again,” View says. “They imagine traditional gender roles and norms will be upheld and how children are raised will return to what [it] used to be.”

The differences between the pedophile conspiracies of the 1980s and those of today are telling in their own way. There’s the matter of scale. The pedophile witch hunt of the ’80s managed to mobilize entire institutions, with much of the media uncritically amplifying its falsehoods and police taking action based on shoddy nonevidence. Lives were ruined around the country. But except for some reckless far-right pundits and websites, the media hasn’t taken the claims of Pizzagate and QAnon seriously. Earnest conversations about the conspiracies are limited to online image boards and social media.

There’s also the nature of the targets. Where the pedophile conspiracies of the 1980s attacked the institutional emblems of feminist progress, the pedophile conspiracies of the 2010s attack the cultural emblems of creeping cosmopolitanism. The ritual abuse of the 1980s supposedly happened in the suburbs in state or state-licensed institutions such as schools and child-care facilities. Today the abuse happens in businesses in cosmopolitan cities. Comet Ping Pong, in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of DC, is known as a welcoming space that regularly showcases progressive DIY artists and musicians—“a tangible emblem,” in the words of University of New Haven sociology professor Jeffrey S. Debies-Carl, “of inclusivity, tolerance, and other progressive values that are threatening to the conspiracy-prone alt-Right.”

British historian Norman Cohn, in his book Europe’s Inner Demons, finds elements of pedophile conspiracies throughout history. In the 1st century B.C., members of the Catiline conspiracy, an aristocratic plot to overthrow the Roman Republic, supposedly swore an oath over the entrails of a boy and then ate them. And in the witch hunts of the 15th–17th centuries, tens of thousands of people were tortured and killed over allegations that they’d performed ritual child murder, among other heinous acts.

The conspiracy theories documented by Cohn are fundamentally political. The rituals they describe are the means “by which a group of conspirators affirms its solidarity,” he writes, with the ultimate goal of overthrowing “an existing ruler or regime and to seize power.” The mass witch hunts that followed are political too, based on the “demonological obsessions of the intelligentsia.” The history of American political reaction is full of sex demons. Jim Crow was buttressed by myths about black male virility. Likewise, North Carolina’s infamous bathroom bill was sold in part on the fear that predatory men could say they’re transgender to gain access to women’s bathrooms. Opponents of abortion rights continue to conjure gory fantasies of promiscuous women committing “infanticide,” an incitement that Trump turned into an applause line in an April rally.

In this way, pedophile conspiracies act as a sort of propaganda of the counterrevolution, a fun-house reflection of the real threats to the social order. This is what connects QAnon and Pizzagate to McMartin to the witch hunts of the Middle Ages to the dawn of major religions. The demons may take different forms, but the conspiracy is basically the same: Our house is under attack.

“Decay of morals grows from day to day,” goes one despairing account. A secret cabal is wreaking havoc across the land, the man complains to his friend. Its members “recognize one another by secret signs and marks,” and “everywhere they introduce a kind of religion of lust” that subverts “ordinary fornication.” There is a rumor that they worship the “private parts of their director and high priest.” Maybe the rumor is false, “but such suspicions naturally attach to their secret and nocturnal rites.”

In this dialogue, written by Marcus Minucius Felix in the 2nd century, the Roman pagan Caecilius Natalis speaks of Christians the way Pizzagaters described John Podesta and his fellow liberal elite. Natalis is particularly incensed by the cult’s initiation ritual. The details are as “revolting as they are notorious”: New members are initiated into the cult, he reports, by stabbing and killing an infant who has been coated in dough.

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prorevenge · 6 years

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Steal our money and abuse your children? Good Luck with life.

I would just like to put this out there that while I still am a minor, this culminated only last year. Also, I am based outside the US, Canada and Europe, so perhaps some laws may differ. I also suck at languages. Sorry if it gets too long. NSFW tag is needed for details further on. This is a new account, so there will be people who call this fake, and I apologise if this comes off as so.

During the 2008 financial crisis, my father had (ironically) received a promotion based on a project that had rolled out worldwide a few months ago. While his salary only received an increment upgrade, he received a healthy stock bonus (I think that is what they called). As a form of celebration, he decided to buy the apartment we were (and still are living) in and give it a fresh coat of paint (i.e. renovate the house completely). He bought it at well below the market price and the previous owner was more than happy to get the home of his hands so that he could pay off the loan on it. All done and said, my father looked around for a renovator who would work at a reasonable price.

He eventually found one who was ready to do the work at a fraction of the cost the others were doing it at, and after settling on designs and material choices, we moved out of the house and into a service apartment while they began to do the work over 6 months. Now, my father is a very naive person. He believes in the good every being, and will give everything if it means it will help you. The renovator, who we shall name as James, seemed a pitiful character at first. He claimed to be severely overworked by the owners, and had been looking for a way to set up his own business. He non directly was insinuating that my father lend him some money, but, as it was the midst of the financial crisis, my father assured he will try his best to help James out.

Over the 6 months, my younger sister and I got very close to James' two children; twin sisters (Violet and Bella) who were of my age. We would meet often at the local playground, while my father and James would discuss how to help James out with his idea for a business. My father would always recommend a lender, but James would always refuse, stating some bullshit excuse about how he does not want to be tied up. Eventually, my father gave in, and scrubbed together $10,000 to help James bankroll his own renovation business (which in hindsight makes no sense because how do you set up a renovation business with only $10,000). James was very grateful for this and promised to return the money back, and my Father had a contract created with the help of a lawyer, and both James and him signed it.

After the 6 months was over, we moved in. The house was in a great condition, and us kids loved it. But strangely, right after we picked up the keys from James, we never heard a word from in. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, and finally months into years, and yet we could never trace James or his kids (he had no wife), and my father did not get his money back, which was a severe strain on us for a year and a bit more. We lodged a police report, but found that this was only one amongst many cases that were against James, and the name and details we had received from him were fake. They were ghosts.

This really depressed my father, because it opened his eyes to the type of people that were around him, and the fact that even if he wanted to look for the good in people and help them, he would always be taken advantage of, regardless of whether it was in the office or in social life.

Fast forward a few years to around March of 2017, and I had just entered the final two years of my schooling education. At the time, I was 15, while my classmates were between 16-17 (I skipped a grade when I was younger, and thus, will still, legally, be a minor when I graduate this year). During the first day of orientation, I picked out two familiar faces in the crowd, that at first I could not put my finger on who they were, and this was strange because I had been in this school for many years and could easily recognise anybody. It took me a few days, and looking at them carefully during classes, to realise that the two new girls who had joined were Violet and Bella themselves, albeit with completely different names and in a bad shape. I approached them at first, thinking they would recognise me, but they never did (and had), and were kind of apprehensive the first few weeks. They did not make many friends at school.

But over time, I managed to get through their armour, and, while they were still not entirely comfortable with me, it was miles better than how the rest of the school treated them. And this was when I actually got a good look at how they had turned out. There were many scars on their hands, any time parents or family were mentioned in the conversation, they basically turned off and went ghost white, and if a boy came even within 2 metres of them, they would turn as white as a sheet or become very agitated. The school counsellor had also notice this, and asked their parents (James essentially) about this, but he played dumb when asked questions and claimed he did not know why these were occurring (just a note, I found this out later but added it here because it helps the flow of the events). I realised something was horribly wrong nearly the instant I saw them but this confirmed it.

Over the same time, my friends and I tried to include them in as many activities as possible, and we took as many pictures with them (and every time somebody took out a camera they would shudder) as possible under the guise of memories, but I mostly kept them as evidence because I had a feeling this was not a good story. It is also important to note I had not told my father that James' children were in my school as it would only trigger bad memories for him and I did not want him to go through the same phase again.

After collecting these pictures, my friends and I made a beeline for the counsellor. The pictures showed in greater details the type of scars that the two sisters had on their hands and feet, which aren't visible in school uniform as our uniform consists of long pants and a full sleeve shirt. I am pretty sure the counsellor and us had a good idea where these scars had come from, but the pictures only was not really great evidence to James arrested, but it was enough to have our country's CPS equivalent get involved. And let me tell you, these guys do not mess around. They have their own division of military trained "police" officers and are relatively well funded, will go to any lengths to thoroughly investigate a case, and will ruin your life if they even doubt you.

After submitting the pictures, and learning a case was opened, we were not involved in much else as we were still minors. That was, until a few months after (December of 2017), when my friends and I were pulled out of class by the principal, and were taken to the local police station were a representative of CPS was waiting for us. They were very polite, and wanted to know more information about the case. Apart from what were in the pictures, and what we gave, my friends could not provide much else. Neither could I, but I saw the representatives eyes light up for a second when I mentioned about who the father was and how he had cheated our family. But apart from that, we did not hear much after that, other than they might need us as witnesses (I am sorry if this comes off as wrong but this is what I recall) if the case proceeds onto court.

Some weeks later (January of 2018), my father received a call from the police to come down for the case on James (I don't think it was ever closed due to the sheer magnitude of number of cases against James). Apparently they had let him know that there was a new lead on where James might be and he might be needed later on. They also let him know that CPS was on the case too, so he should expect a call soon on them for their case on James (I think they now believed that James was behind the scars). My father had known by know that I had gone to the counsellor with pictures of Bella and Violet being potentially abused, as the principal had called him up on the day CPS had pulled me out of class for an interview, so he had fully expected this, and was seething with anger because a man he had thought to be good had stolen his money and abused his own daughters.

After that, I do not know what happened for a long time. Bella and Violet remained in school, more drawnback than ever, and my friends and I were not contacted any more. Until one day, around June of 2018, just before we broke for summer, when they were met outside of school by a representative of CPS. I was a close friend of them by now, so I was walking with them to the bus stop, when we were met by the representative. He asked me to continue on, as he had to ask them a few questions. I moved on, fully expecting what was to happen. It didn't take long.

Around end September of 2018, CPS contacted my father and I, as well as my friends, regarding the case, They needed some things (I could not go that day as I had been hospitalised for a compound fracture), so my father went for the both of us (he could sign for me as I was still a minor and he was a legal guardian). When he came back, he was truly shocked. It turns out the problem was far more than I expected. My father had signed an NDA, as had my friends, and even though I had been involved, I could not get much out of them except that my friends and I had started something huge.

Come December 2018, and finally I found out just what we had started. The entire article was printed in the papers (James, Bella, Violet, my friends and I, and my father were not named due to a gag order to protect the identity of the victim; other than us lot, nobody else in the school or society, to my knowledge, knew who the children in question were).

Bella and Violet had not only been physically abused by James with the use of pipes and belts, but they had been raped by James multiple times, and their reaction to the camera, which I mentioned earlier, was due to the fact that James had been recording his rapings of his Bella and Violet, and had been trying to sell them to snuff sites on the dark web. In addition to this, he had cheated nearly 15 victims (including my father) out of nearly $200,000.

The book was thrown at James, mainly due his treatment of Bella and Violet, as well as due to another incident which had happened when he was being arrested, but I will not mention it because it, on its own, will give away where I am from. He was given multiple life sentences, no chance of parole, and was also given another punishment that is not used in other countries, but I will not mention it because it identifies where I am, but I am guessing the smart people here will be able to find out just what it is anyway.

I am also pretty sure the people in prison will do not take kindly to child rapists, so he is in hell. Which is good. Because that is all he deserves.

I do not know where Bella and Violet are, they were pulled out as soon as court proceedings began.

(source) story by (/u/TakeRevengeAsALiving)

#prorevenge #by /u/TakeRevengeAsALiving #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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go-diane-winchester · 6 years

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How do I know Jensen hates the militant destiel shippers?

@supernaturallygayforyou said the following:

''people may hate me and you but Jensen doesn’t. He just doesn’t like for his character to be reduced to a ship (which I have realized I’ve done and apologized for in my comments because I do actually love supernatural and the post was a joke). he doesn’t mind destiel shippers and is comfortable with hanging with jared and misha.''

I told her that Jensen hates the hellers, but apparently she didn't believe me, thus giving me the opportunity to reopen this can of worms. First, lets identify a heller. If you have the following vile traits, you are a heller. If you don't, then you are a normal destiel shipper in whom we see no fault, other than your terrible taste in men. Because seriously, Misha? No hate though. Just a little revulsion but no hate. You do you. These are heller traits:

Hellers tag their ship posts in the main tags.

Hellers accuse CW of queer baiting.

Hellers ship shame.

Hellers threaten Jensen with death.

Hellers want endgame destiel.

Hellers tweet Jared that he should die.

Hellers threaten kidnapping, arson and poisoning.

Hellers call Jensen a homophobe.

Hellers insist Dean is anything but straight.

Hellers pretend to like Jared and Sam but secretly want both gone.

So how do I know that Jensen hates the hellers. Lets look at the timeline:

October 2014 - NerdHQ

A bunch of horny destihellers planned to throw Astroglide on stage every time Jensen and Misha spoke. The organizers were asked permission to bring this stuff to the event, and they notified Jensen and gang to ask for permission to allow it. They were not given permission and Misha was excluded from the panel. Only J2 and Mark Sheppard attended. This is the first inkling that Jensen was getting aggravated with the hellers.

January 2017 [Jaxcon]:

A heller asked an ignorant shipping question, even though they were banned from asking shipping question. Jensen succinctly said ''Destiel doesn't exist''. He was bashed on social media and that is where he got the first death threat. The homophobia accusation has been happening since 2014 and mass media is aware of it. So essentially they are ruining Jensen's reputation. But if I point out that Misha's ugly face is ugly, I am such a meanie, right? The result of this relentless bullying and death threat, manifested itself, at Jibcon. Explain to me how Jensen can like the hellers after the question, the bullying and the death threat.

May 2017 [Jibcon]:

Jensen has a breakdown during the only panel he shares with Misha, and Jared shuts the panel down early. But hellers thought he was flirting with Misha. The man who mocks Misha on any other day, chooses this one convention to get all sexual. Could it be because of the online abuse and the death threat? Could it be because he was pacifying his abusers, during the only panel where he knows they will be watching? Nah, it must be because the bag-eyed overlord is totes irresistible. Tell me how Jensen likes the hellers who can have such a negative effect on him.

June 2017 [Comic Con]

Misha pulls a chair stunt that makes Jensen and Jared look like bullies. They become aware of it. Jensen knows what the hellers will do. But he loves them, right?

October 2017 [Nolacon]

This was the con where J2 reiterated that Misha is NOT the lead, and the hellers went after them, calling them rape enablers for using a stale joke from previous cons. The media got wind of it and J2 issued a statement and no apology. The hellers got angry because they wanted separate con panels for J2 and didn't get it. There was a rumor that they were trying to get Jared fired from the show, but I have not receipt for that. Tell me how despite this unnecessary hurdle, Jensen still loves the fans.

November 2017 [DCcon]

The scandal has only just subsided. Its affect on the boys showed in the Js behavior when they took to the stage. Jared was suffering from a manic episode [which was painful to watch] and Jensen was already angry. The insufferable J stans were there, getting the wrong end of the stick, as per usual. Jensen stans said Jared was being disruptive. Jared stans fought back or said that Jared was being ''extra'' because he was trying to cheer Jensen up after the scandal. Ironically, it was a Jensen stan who recognized that Jared was suffering from mania.

Jensen was being patient with Jared because he has seen Jared's manic episodes and the crash that is likely to follow it. I have to say Jensen, despite already being angry with fans for the scandal, was still very patient with Jared. Anyone else would have been at their wits end. Jared is very lucky to have a friend and co-worker who has so much compassion. Especially considering the state of this panel. Let me point out that this was the worst panel I have ever witnessed, because those were some of the most horrible attendees. One of them told Jensen to shut up when she was given the opportunity to ask them a question. That will give you an idea of how horrible this panel was. The other questions were either boring or the person asking the question went off on a tangent about themselves. I only watched it once and never again.

This is a link to the panel, for those who mind watching Jared fall apart and Jensen looking close to driving his fist right through a wall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOBs7Hp9FRo

At the timestamp of 15:53, this exchange happened.

Jensen: ''We pull our punches. So if we do connect, its not a full... you know, its a 50% power punch. It shouldn't knock you out, unless you have a really weak chin. But, eh...''

Jared: ''Like Misha.''

Jensen: ''Well, you could just go...'' Blows out air hard and makes a splatting sound, ''Eh, I'm kidding. We love Misha. People will get mad at me know.''

The look that Jared gave Jensen showed why the episode happened. He didn't follow up what Jensen said, with a snarky remark. No jokes. He just moved on but not before putting his hand on Jensen's shoulder and Jensen bit his lower lip. They figured out that the scandal happened only because of Misha's fans. They joined the dots beforehand. That is why they were messed up during that panel. Jensen's facial expression when he said that last bit. You can tell he is completely insincere when he says they love Misha. So Jensen knew who caused the Nolacon scandal, and why they went after him and Jared. But he still loves the hellers, how exactly?

November 2017: Honocon

This con was going to be destiel friendly. The hellers were running their mouths off about it on social media. Jensen and Misha was getting a panel together for the first time in Creation con history. Jared would not be interfering or so they thought. Jared threw a spanner in the works, staying on stage for longer than he was needed, fiddling around with the keyboard and the drums, disrupting the entire panel. This time he wasn't suffering a manic attack. This time he was doing it on purpose. That is what you get when you anger the boys. During J2 panel, they kept making shippy remarks about each other. No, its not because they ship themselves. We are not stupid like the hellers. Straight men don't ship anything. They were doing it to annoy the hellers. During the Cockles panel, Jensen laughed at Misha's walk and Empty Cas voice choice. Other than the insults flung at Misha, they just did the recycled paper airplane story. Destiel fans are scattered around the globe and not the majority of the fans in America. So the con didn't do well. Honocon was never mentioned again. Whether it pops up again in the future remains to be seen. Despite loving the hellers, why is he essentially spitting in their face.

December 2017: Sydney con/AHBL

J2 was in very good form during this panel, because pig-of-a-face was not attending. Jared played guitar while Jensen and Robbie sang ''Free Falling''. Here's an adorable tiny clip of Jared being adorably adorable while eating an egg roll. Only 42 people watched it so shame on all of you. Heres the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPE5JlGp8dg

See how happy they are when Pee puddle and his splatterings are not present. So why didn't Jensen miss his heller fans?

May 2018 - Birmingham

Misha shares a panel with Jensen and Jared, and Jared places himself between the two of them. Misha tries to pull the stupid chair stunt again, but Jared put a stop to it. Misha picks up the topic of the shirt sharing for the heller's benefit. Jensen throws out that he has shared underwear with Jared. When Misha pointed out that the brothers were not affectionate people generally, J2 shot him down by saying Sam and Dean were very emotional and affectionate with each other. Between the stripping, the mocking and the icing, Misha did not enjoy the panel. Why is Jensen punishing his beloved heller fans.

May 2018 - Jibcon

After Jensen's breakdown the previous year, suddenly Jibcon was no longer destiel con. Suddenly shipping questions were banned. Hellers bashed Daniella for that. When the much anticipated cockles panel happened, Jared threw a spanner in the works, and crashed the panel brandishing balloons. Hellers tore him apart on social media. At the beginning of the panel, Misha put his hand on Jensen's shoulder. Jensen tapped Misha on the knee and then rubbed his fingers together in a disgusted manner. So he instantly squashed the shippy vibes Misha was pushing for. During the panel, Jared and Jensen took the time to laugh in Misha's face whilst in character. Why did Jensen allow his heller fans' only panel to be taken away from them?

July 2018 - Comic Con

Jensen placed himself between Jared and Alex, and every time Misha opened his big mouth, they just pulled faces and laughed. Doesn't he care how its going to affect his heller fans?

September 2018 - Indycon

This was the Misha-led con. No J2 in sight. It flopped. Misha is consistently losing fans. Only the really crass and tasteless ones really like him. This has nothing to do with Jensen and his opinion of the hellers. I just derive great pleasure in pointing this out to you.

December 2018 - Jaxcon

A heller got into an argument with Jensen during autos because she insisted Dean was bisexual whilst Jensen was saying that Dean wasn't. Misha confirmed [as if he has the authority] that Dean is indeed bisexual. Jensen must absolutely love the hellers after that, right?

Whatever I told you now is a brief overview. More in-depth posts are on my blog on all these subjects, except for DC Con 2017 which I elaborated on in this post. During 2017 and 2018, the online attacks have increased including telling Jared that they wish him dead. This was tweeted to him. Jensen's death threats increased to include an arson and poisoning threat. Hellers even threatened to kidnap Jared's children. Many of these tweets were directed to Jensen. The receipts for all of these, are on my blog. They are getting worse. I fear that they might actually act of their threats one day. The threats start from mistagged posts which is why I always call those out. Stay on your lane and you will offend nobody.

To summarize:

Jensen hates the hellers because they threatened to kill him, in various ways, ruined his reputation by accusing him of homophobia and threatening to kidnap Jared's children whilst also hoping that Jared would die along with Sam. Oh, and Misha is ugly. The End.

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