#rabid is a good descriptor for me

[frnkiebby]

Hello random person. I wanted to share my Frank Iero photos with someone I thought would be just as rabid as me. I scoured the frank Iero tag for another adult and you were in the top.

If this is weird, sorry. But also this is the autism website, it's inevitable.

Hello fellow random person—

AND FUCK. YES. FRANK.

definitely not weird. it’s encouraged to send me frank pics. always. pls. he’s so fucking pretty.~🎃

[professorlegaspi]

Buckle up kiddos because you’re about to get an in depth character analysis of our favorite unnamed character ever: Josh Rumble’s sister!

Major disclaimer before I start: info on this girl is few and far between. I did not reread the whole series and I could have missed something. If you find something unmentioned in this essay TELL ME. Do not be shy. No, I will not be mad. Yes, I will want to hear. I am rabid about this woman.

The biggest source of information we DO have about Josh’s Sister (from here on referred to as JS) is her conversation with Celia in the Gathering Storm. The bulk of this essay will focus on that scene, but I want to mention the other small tidbits that exist.

We basically have 3 facts found outside of The Summer Tournament.

1) JS is older than Josh Rumbles

2) JS taught Josh how to dance

3) JS gave Josh an e-reader for Christmas in The Final Word.

This tells us a couple more things.

1) Her family celebrates Christian holidays

2) JS is good at gift giving

3) JS has disposable income

Okay cool. So JS is in contact with her family who are either Christian or culturally Christian, she knows how to dance, and she loves her brother. Baseline stuff.

Now the spicy bit - the Summer Tournament.

For those who may have forgotten, Josh’s team won the Renasci Soccovolle tournament so now they’re going to nationals. The one that year is in Florida, and all of Josh’s friends have come out to watch him play.

Yes, you are remembering correctly. This is the stage of The Kiss. Josh kisses Celia, she slaps him, it gets caught on camera, it’s on the front cover of every newspaper. Josh is pissed, Celia is pissed, and JS is pissed.

Celia and co. are staying at a hotel for the tournament. They have nearby rooms, and Josh is staying with his teammates, presumably in the same hotel. It is unclear what JS’s rooming situation is.

Josh apologizes to Celia in the hotel lobby, and it ends with him storming away. JS confronts Celia directly afterwards, so we can infer the JS has seen the conversation.

The first thing we learn about JS is her appearance.

She is tall, and gorgeous. She has blue eyes, mahogany hair, and her two most notable descriptors are “cool” and “sophisticated.” If there is any archetype she fits it is “The Bitch.”

Fittingly, she starts off the conversation bitchy.

She “stud[ies] her fingernails” for much of the following conversation. She is an absolute drama queen.

JS goes on to explain why she’s there. “I was here to watch my brother play. Our parents couldn’t make it.”

I would like to take a minute to remind everyone that Josh, for much of the summer, had been complaining because the one year he made it the Summer Tournament it was in Florida, the state where he lived.

The summer tournament is in Florida - where Josh lives - and his parents couldn’t make it. I think we all can agree that that’s a little weird.

They’re either poor and can’t veherate, thus making travel difficult, Josh’s tournament isn’t considered a priority for them (:/).

This next part is interesting:

“I guess he talks about you a lot.” On the surface, this tells us that JS and Josh communicate frequently.

However, that clause “I guess” is strange. There’s no real reason to add it. Her message still comes across - indeed, is more impactful - without it. So the fact that it’s there speaks to habit. She’s used to either tempering herself and her opinions, or she’s used to hiding her relationship with her brother.

And then, and THEN!

“You didn’t have to make it so public.”

That is a loaded sentence. The implications there are scalding. This changes everything.

This sentence is pivotal because it tells us why she’s upset - why she’s picking a fight.

JS does not care that Josh has a crush on Celia. That is for him to work out. She does not care that Celia turned him down. That is for them to work out. She does not even care that Celia slapped him. Look at the sentence above. “Are you often in the habit of humiliating your friends?” she asks. Not ‘hitting’ not ‘injuring’ not ‘slapping.’ Humiliating.

JS does not care that Celia hit her brother. She cares that it happened publicly.

JS cares about Josh’s reputation.

With that revelation, I want to return to her descriptions. “Polish and sophistication” is what Celia notes about her contenance. Knowing that JS cares deeply about how her brother is seen, and therefore cares deeply about how she is seen, the air of “polish” cannot be anything but deliberate.

JS either wants to, or feels like she has to, be exceedingly presentable even on a Sunday morning travel-day.

This could be a result of being overlooked as a woman, but I think especially because her reaction to Josh’s “humiliation” was so strong, it is probably a quirk of her upbringing.

Contrast that with Josh. He’s constantly choking on his own masculinity. He’s a jock, he doesn’t know how to communicate his feelings, he is uncomfortable even when other people communicate their feelings, he has a fairly gruff exterior and feels threatened by other men.

Something about JS and Josh’s upbringing has caused them to feel that they have to perform gender roles very hard, and has also made JS see violence coming from a loved one as less important than reputation.

WHAT is their home life???

Genuinely. Something is Going On.

Whatever it was, it caused Josh to almost never mention it. He never calls his sister by name, and it is only though passing comments that we know they have a relationship. And we know nothing, truly zilch, about his parents.

So, to conclude.

JS comes from a … rocky home life. She cares about her brother. She is protective of her brother. She buys him expensive Christmas presents. He tells her about his friends and Celia. She listens.

She cares about being taken seriously, and beyond being very beautiful seems to have secured a well-paying job. She is very curt when she speaks, and likes to let people come to their own conclusions. She doesn’t offer her name and Josh never mentions it.

After the Gathering Storm she is never seen again.

[rourhksapocolypse]

So, I clicked this on a lark, and it hit me.

I've always called myself a child, a kid. I scoff at the rabid feminism, I roll my eyes at how nepotic storytelling is getting, I cringe at how easily, how readily people get offended and I think to myself, yep.

I am, unfortunately, a child of my generation, because I'm as hair trigger as everyone else is even if comes to personal insult.

Then... I watched this. A breakdown of who Kratos is.

And at the end, we have a quote from C.S. Lewis. "When 'adult' is used as a definition, rather than a descriptor, as if it was something to be admired, it shows as a mark of adolescence."

Another quote of his, paired with this one, shows he faced a similar antipathy.

"I was told to put away my childish things and childish stories, so I put away my fear of being seen as childish."

The world we live in is, quite honestly, childish.

And upon realizing that, I realize that I am not.

Yes, I take offense easily, but I know what I'm interested in, and if people mock that interest then I'm only saddened by the loss of a potential friend, a potential place to bond with another.

I am uninterested in politics, because they are children with lots of money and little interest in those they represent; subsequently, when they talk about laws that don't affect me or news I never paid attention to, it affects me not at all. I know my place, and how little I care for others in other parts of the world I'll never see.

I'm not childish, because I know what I like, what I dislike, and am unbothered by what the world thinks of that.

It's... Weird. To think that I am, somehow, a grown man in spirit, without noticing that. It happened, and I didn't notice.

I... Honestly have nothing else to say.

No words coming to mind.

So instead... Instead I'll just leave it here, and post some nice country music later. Good stuff, dark stuff, not whining about how your wife left you over the dog or something to do with beer, just... Acoustic guitar, pouring out a man's soul.

[gaymikeehrmantraut]

so uhhhh making mirrors by gotye is my favorite album of all time and listening to Smoke and Mirrors im realizing it's such a jimmy song,,, or a nacho song or fuck it maybe even a howard song

you're a fraud and you know it

but it's to good to throw it all away

anyone would do the same

gotta keep going

and you're careful not to show it

but sometimes you even fool yourself a bit

it's like magic

but it's always been a smoke and mirrors game

anyone would do the same

[inkykeiji]

hi clariiii! just popping in to say i loooove your touya-nii universe (and all others lol)! 🥺 i have read all your works, and i think your writing is both so raw and beautiful at the same time…and just captures the needy/desperate?? and all-consuming relationships your characters have. the imagery you use to describe a feeling too…its just 😌…

like the way you utilize touya’s “blue flames” from the actual show/manga and use it has a descriptor & just in general the use of fire/smoke/heat to describe his feelings towards y/n. also another moment i liked was when he licked y/n tears and you described how he swallows them to be protected by his heart and “cage of bone”…just like asfsedf i loved that bit of writing…! your writing is just sooo unique on here and one of my favorites 💕!

reading your latest piece really reminded me of a song im also obsessed with atm! not sure if you listen to keshi, but his latest song touch realllyyy just vibes with it i feel like! i recommend a listen! keshi also just had a way with words and melodies that are so smooth/soft and heartbreaking (but like heartbreaking in that good way if ya know what i mean?! lolol) at the same time that just feel like…i could hear playing in my head while i read your writing.

your writing also single-handedly made me want touya when i had never before lolol. honestly all my fave characters now, i love because a creator on here got me to love them haha.

anywhos! i am rambling... thank you for your writing and gifting it with us all <3 i hope you were able to get some rest after workin so hard to get that our for us! you genuinely are such a sweet person & i appreciate you and your writing ✨ - rin

hello!!! <3

first off, i want to apologize for taking a few days to get to this. because it was so thoughtful and thorough, i wanted to make sure i gave my answer the same attention and effort as you gave your ask, because you deserve that (and also to fully listen to the song!). i want you to know that your support honest to god means the entire world to me and for you to take the time to write out such a beautiful response means more to me than my words could ever tell you <33333 thank you so much for this, i'm sorry i'm responding a little late. i appreciate you so much!!

secondly, wow!!!!!!!!! thank you thank you thank you from the very bottom of my heart for such incredible feedback!!! 'raw and beautiful is SUCH a fantastic compliment!! it makes me so insanely happy to hear that the obsessive, rabid relationships i write come across so clearly; all-consuming is absolutely the most perfect word for it, because that's exactly what they are. such a 'love' devours each characters soul from the inside out until they've fused together, constantly reliant on each other to survive.

aaaah hehehe honestly i just really love fire and water/ice. they're interesting elements to me and i like the way they look hahaha. but i also find them to just be fantastic to describe the physical FEELING of specific emotions, and i'm literally beyond happy that you've picked up on my tendency to do that in my work!!! i also just really love rib cages HAHAHA i think they're super cool and just like,,, intriguing??? because they're supposed to protect all of your vital organs right? idk i won't ramble on about that hahaha but WOW that means a lot to me, thank you <333

i have never listened to him before, but i can totally see what you're talking about 100%!!! i gave it a listen and i loved it so so so much!!!! just the whole vibe in general is perfect for that piece, i wish i knew about it while i was editing because it really would've been perfect to listen to!!! i'm in love with the can't talk with your tongue in my mouth lyric hehehe <333 this is absolutely going on my touya-nii playlist, thank you so much for recommending it!!!

OH MY GOSH HEHEHE REALLY!? omg i love that HAHAHA i feel so accomplished!!!!!!! that's so funny ehehehe awwwww i'm glad to hear it!! <3

once again, thank YOU for taking the time to write out such a thoughtful response to my newest piece, i appreciate it (and YOU!) so, so much <333 thank you for reading my work!!!

[heylabodega]

My Life This Year In Emails I Sent:

(last year)

January: 

'Welfare' being a pretty nebulous term, most of the benefits it refers to are disproportionately received by women, and by nonwhite women especially, so controls on these programs affect those groups more, and since public perception, going back to everyone's favorite Cool Guy, Reagan, mainstream rhetoric has tied 'welfare recipients' to poor women and black women (and conflated the two)

February: 

I know it would be more standard to just email or ask to jump on a call but to be honest you're delightful and I'd also just like the chance to hang out. That said, if you're super busy I will write a more specific email/set up a time for a call/whatever you have time and energy for.

March:

Exciting news I couldn’t bring myself to do the drinking beer in the morning part of sadness and the market doesn’t open til 10 so I’ve skipped straight to “looking for Circle of Magic fanfic”, the classic third step of grieving

April: 

help my chest

can't contain how much i love

this baby. I know

it's fucked up to keep using the word love

in poems but it's all there is my friend

had a baby and i think how i'd die

for him, want to show him

every good thing. We've never

met but I loved him even before the pictures

eyes and cheeks and smooshy ruddy ugly perfect skin between hat and swaddle loved him maybe even before I loved

his mother maybe even before

everything. Something this sure and big has to be older

than a week, heavier than six pounds.

May: 

I am having so much fun--that phrase just keeps running through my head and I laugh, I am having so much fun. Running coaching is going well and it's finally nice out and I think (knock wood, I reserve the right to take this back but) I think I'm getting over the breakup and I have that my so called life over jordan catalano wheeling around my room to blister in the sun feeling.

June:

I used to take a hard line against describing friends as family, thinking it devalued the idea of friendship. As I've gotten older, my position on this has softened as I've come to see family, like love and community and home, not as a noun or a descriptor or a static state but as an action. Friends are still not family, and home is still complicated, and love is both a feeling and an undertaking, but the line blurs and the words become less important than the practices.

July:

I hope you don't mind, I printed it out and line-edited it, because it's snappy and funny and just needed a little tightening here-and-there, and because I'm very bored at work. 

August:

‘Twas me, a rabid kaitlyn Tiffany fan!

September:

Hi coaches Mel and Stuart,

I can take 10 miles of Saturday’s run, at any pace 9 mins or slower :)

Lily

October:

I would add one other element—I know you’re hitting the point that we serve the needs of others and sometimes have trouble following the advice we give them ourselves, but I’d throw in: take care of someone else/your community. I feel like in our current self care age we forget that a HUGE piece of self care is taking care of the community that nurtures us. Maybe not like Do Something For Someone Else but I’d maybe add a bullet point to like take a breath and look around you and remember the original thing we’re celebrating which is the network of people we love. Not self-sacrifice just like: take this chance to honor your family, chosen or otherwise. 

November:

Hey there,

I'm looking to buy the abovementioned book and would obviously much rather buy it from you than Amazon. Your website said to call or email about it, so obviously I chose email because I am a millennial. Would there be a chance of ordering it? I don't have a crazy rush, it's for a Christmas present.

December:

HEY. Te quiero. Please feel better

Sent from my iPhone

[breadknight-likes-things]

Goosebumps (TV) Retrospective #9: My Hairiest Adventure

This episode is a bizarre puberty metaphor where a kid turns into a dog.  Still with me?  Then you’re probably already well aware of how god damn weird “My Hairiest Adventure” is, even without the part where a kid slowly polymorphs into a dog.  This episode right here is prime Goosebumps, everything that makes this show strange or entertaining in a way that it was probably never intended to be is present here, and almost all of them are cranked so far past the maximum the people who made it could probably be tried in the Hague. 

We start with Larry Boyd, our lead character who’s regaling us with the tale of his titular “Hairiest Adventure”.  The easiest descriptor of Larry as we get to know him in this episode is “yo, this kid sucks” and it’s one that sticks fairly close the entire episode.  He’s introduced being chased down by a pack of I guess rabid dogs?  He’s terrified of them due to his allergies and this is apparently a thing that happens to him all the time as he so un-enthusiastically tells us over the course of an internal monologue this episode keeps bringing back up, but never does anything meaningful with other than piles of exposition. Eventually Larry tries (Well sort of) and miserably fails to escape this bizarre pack of unsupervised neighborhood dogs by climbing up a tree branch that almost immediately snaps on him.  The way the tree shot is framed makes it look like he’s plummeting to his death but upon coming back from the cut, is immediately apparent he fell like three feet flat onto his ass. In the pantheon of Goosebumps “Well lets just edit it to look dangerous even though he’d maybe get a boo boo at worst” quick cuts, it’s a pretty damn good one.

I swear all the kids playing their instruments look like they just realized some terrible truth in their lives but can’t find the will to stop playing.

Now, when he isn’t be hunted down by a pack of doggos, Larry Boyd is in a band with his friends, and by band I of course mean they stand around in a garage wailing on instruments they don’t know how to play and making supremely weird faces and erratic movements for the camera to....I guess communicate that they don’t have any skill?  It’s during one such of these band practices we get the motivating Maguffin of this episode, a bottle of suntan lotion the kids fish out of the trash (just right out of the can, not even one thought for the fact somebody threw this out) and just start slathering on themselves so they can be “Bronze Gods” and impress their schoolmates with a fake tan they can claim they got in Hawaii which....sure, why not, it’s best not to question these things I find.  Naturally because this is Goosebumps, this immediately leads to the terror of....an outbreak of hair growth? The bulk of this episode is just Larry trying way too hard to hide the fact he’s growing hair all over his body, even asking his friends about “unexpected hair” that’s suddenly appeared in strange places in a supremely unsubtle puberty metaphor.  Even when his friends start vanishing most of the focus and tension of this episode still comes from Larry trying and barely succeeding in hiding the massive amount of hair he’s growing, and it never stops being weird.

It’s really hard to move past that simple truth in this episode frankly, that somewhere deep down, when R.L Stine was writing the book that formed this episode, he was embroiled a flurry of puberty metaphors for a book series that’s otherwise about as chaste as the puritans for blindingly obvious reasons.  Eventually though we reach the apex of this episode and it’s final twist, that twist being of course “Turns out Larry was a dog the whole time, who was being turned into a human via shots from a mad scientist assisting couples unable to conceive children on their own”.  Go ahead and read that sentence again because you aren’t mistaken, I even bolded it for you, that really is the single most bizarre thing you’ll likely ever think about in relation to Goosebumps. 

The mad scientists name is “Dr. Merkin” by the way, which, come on!

For whatever it’s worth, the story then immediately establishes that Larry (the dog) is a lot happier now (as a dog), free of responsibilities (Again, this boy transformed into a dog) and content to laze away in the sun and chase the mailman (dog!).I know I’m harping on one point here, but a boy (and most of his friends at that) transform into dogs in this story and the more I write about it, the more confused and disturbed I become.  This is one of the most bizarre episodes that Goosebumps ever produced (one of, just wait until we hit Strained Peas) and that it was one of the episodes chosen to adapt is endlessly confusing to me.  Granted couldn’t have been that hard, or likely very expensive, all they really needed was to glue a bunch of hair onto a kid and have him freak out about it on camera, but it doesn’t make it any less strange.  Doesn’t make this any less entertaining of an episode to watch either, if you just want a supremely bizarre 22 minutes of TV?  Well guess what, you found it.

Come on prop team, I live in California, I’ve seen way hairier people than this just walking around.

[heartslogos]

newfragile yellows [1145]

If it were someone else Bull would ask if she knew how to use that fancy sword of hers. But she isn’t anyone else, and Bull has seen her use that fancy sword as well as plain ones she's grabbed off of the corpses her fancy sword has left behind. Ellana is a fair hand with a blade. Or any weapon, really, though she favors the blade. He’s seen her with a halberd and an axe as well. The image of a woman on fire, somehow, doesn’t seem the same though. Intimidating and disconcerting as fuck for certain. But not the same.

So Bull does not ask that question, instead he pointedly moves his eye towards the untouched carts of supplies she’s standing next to. Whatever it is that she’s got going on with fire she seems to be able to control it well enough.

The ring of flames she’d spread have died down to flickering embers, low on the blackened ground. But the supply carts and the animals that were pulling them are untouched.

“Those are the Inquisition’s,” Bull says.

Ellana leans against the nearest cart, making a show of turning her head to examine the crates. Her face is a masterwork in faking contemplation and deep thought.

“So it was,” she concludes.

Bull feels something in his cheek twitch. There’s something about this woman that makes his hackles rise. Something about the way she talks and the way she wears her expressions that rubs against him wrong. Like rubbing your hand on shark skin the wrong way, it feels like shredding something. Thus far he’s been lucky to have avoided her.

Anyone with a literal crown of bone growing out of their skull is someone to be avoided. It's different from having horns. Bull’s horns are natural. Her crown? Definitely not natural.

“And who’s is it now, if not the Inquisition’s?” Bull asks.

Ellana smirks at him. “I do enjoy it when you play along. You’re a quick study. You ought to have given yourself a different name. The descriptor of Bull is such a superficial one. Would you like for me to suggest a different one? I have a few in mind.”

“I’m good with this one. I’d rather not have to start over with a new persona again. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s very hard to get people to understand you with a different name when you’ve gone by a certain one for so long. Are you stealing those supplies?”

Ellana runs a palm over a crate, the wood blackening but not burning all the way through.

“Well. You see, I ran across some thieves. And we knew them by their look; we are excellent judges of character. We see a lot.”

Bull’s jaw grinds. “Cut it with the plurals.”

Ellana’s eyebrows raise, faint trails of smoke wisp up from between her fingers as she drums them on the wood of the wagon.

“We will refer to ourselves as we please. Would you dare to deny a person their choice in address?”

Bull refuses to answer that.

“I ran across some thieves. We knew them to be so because of our excellent sense for poor character. So we disciplined them as such. But who’s to say that the thieves didn’t steal from crooks to begin with?”

“What is your deal with the Inquisition?”

“We don’t trust rabid dogs.” Ellana’s lips curl into a sneer and she spits to the side. “See where it gets you. Mark our words. This Inquisition was doomed from a start; a ship set out from port with a giant hole in the hull. It’s only a matter of time before it sinks and takes everything you lot have loaded onto it down. Meanwhile, we’ll be watching from the safety of the shore.”

Bull doesn’t bother hiding his irritation. “You got any proof.”

Ellana points at the ring of bone that rises above her head. “We are the proof.”

“The Inquisition didn’t do that to you.”

“Now you’re pretending to be slow to try and irritate us. Well, me. Frankly, even without the act you irritate the Crown. You usually have to work at it to get to me on my own.”

“You’re relying on a hunk of magic bone that’s adhered itself to your skull to make your choices for you.”

“Should I be basing my choices on what, then? The weather? Some omen or portent in my morning meal? Whether or not I see a cat cross my path?” Ellana rolls her eyes. “Do not speak on topics you are not educated on. Should I start waxing about the Qun? No thank you. Let’s not waste any more time. To cut down to the bone of it — we’re taking these supplies.”

“What use do you have of them? That’s food. You going to eat that much? There are people up at Haven starving right now. They need those rations.”

Ellana barks out a laugh and then in a burst of strength Bull can’t quite believe based on her frame, hauls one of the crates off the back and throws it onto the ground. The wood shatters, contents spilling out.

Bull hears the cracking of glass before he sees the brilliant glow of lyrium leaking out and soaking the ground.

“Rations in a manner of speaking, I suppose,” Ellana sneers. “But not the sort you’d want to be feeding to just anyone. There was no food. Do not forget — this Inquisition was formed by the hands of the Divine. Its Commander is a former Templar — who’s only a former Templar in name. The man carries the doctrines in his heart and other Templars follow him willingly. This is a military machine. And its dogs need to be fed to run.”

Ellana’s eyes are burning and spiteful when she looks back up at him.

“Do not trust the Inquisition. It’s an apple riddled with worms. And once they’re done feasting on that apple’s flesh they’ll turn on each other.”

[stopkingobama]

Washington Post Editor: Just Let White Working Class Die in Peace

They have thought it but recently a member of the media elite actually said it out loud.

Image Credit: Library of Congress Public Domain

Washington Post columnist and editorial board member Jonathan Capehart basically told white working class Americans they are better off dying than trying to fight for their life against a swelling tide of immigration and globalization.

“Economic dislocation and demographic changes are fueling discomfort and desperation among white working-class voters,” wrote WashPo columnist and editorial board member Jonathan Capehart, continuing:

While [university professor and author] Justin Gest says that both Republicans and Democrats have exploited these voters, he sees a way forward.

“The only way of addressing their plight is a form of political hospice care,” [Gest] said. “These are communities that are on the paths to death. And the question is: How can we make that as comfortable as possible?”

Professor Gest made no bones about his views of white working class citizens: they are a dying breed who are simply too dumb to understand that they need immigrants to revitalize they communities.

Declining towns need immigrants to reinvigorate their markets, take on unwanted labor positions, and add youth to aging demographies. Once these communities understood the benefits immigrants bring and were consulted about the terms of their integration, they would feel more comfortable with their arrival.

Capehart and Gest are both well aware of their rabid anti-white working class prejudice:

“It has become okay [among Democrats] to become classist against poor white people and the [white voters] see it,” said Gest.

The party’s coalition includes environmentalists, lawyers, Latinos, hippies, and electric-car drivers, Gest said, adding “there are many people in there who like the privileged status that the Democratic Party gives to certain ethnic groups.” For the party to welcome the white working class, he added, it would be “cheapening” the privileges given to others.

In other words, the Left doesn’t want to demean itself by appealing to people who do not meet their standards of virtue signaling.

So instead of appealing to them in any meaningful way, Gest suggests political suicide:

For many white working class people, and this is going to be controversial, for many white working class people, not all of them but many, you have a community of people who are advanced in age, whose skill set is for a different economy, who are living in communities that are losing population, losing resources, and so in many ways, the only way of addressing their plight is a form of political hospice care. These are communities that are on the paths to death, and the question is how can we make that as comfortable as possible …

A white working class voter offered this defense of her community:

Education can’t be the only answer for Americans if the U.S. labor market is also being flooded with cheap foreign workers, said a highly skilled worker contacted by Breitbart. “I know you don’t know me from a can of paint, but I had to throw in my 2 cents in your article about the WashPo editor,” said the woman, who tunes and operates computer-controlled machine tools in Cincinnati, Ohio. She continued:

I work in manufacturing. I have a high school diploma and a so-called associate degree from Wyotech that currently has as much worth to me as toilet paper (and it’s just as disposable). I am a [Computer Numeric Control] Machinist. I set up, tool, program, and operate CNC mills and lathes to make precision parts out of Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene, that nonstick stuff on your frying pan) and can hold tolerances to +/- 0.0002″. So I’m wondering, since I am working in a field of a bygone economic era, how dumb do they think I really am that I need “more” education? What is more education going to do for me? So I can sit around and be a great do-nothing thinker as a white (non) working class individual? What is the threshold of intellectual satiation? How many degrees do we need to be indebted to the federal government before they deem the white working middle class smart enough to associate with people like THAT?

I have a hard time understanding how someone like Gest or Capehart can look down their noses at someone like me because I don’t share their desire for overpriced toilet paper. Could either of them program a machine to cut an arc into a piece of material? No, but I can. Could either of them change their oil, replace their brakes, or change their front differential fluid? (I’d be surprised if they knew where the dipstick is to even check it.) No, but I can. I’m a 35-year-old, white working class woman that could outsmart them on a common sense basis and on a highly technical basis, and somehow I am the one that needs more education?

People like that think that “working class white voters” is a descriptor of who we are as a socioeconomic group, with a dash of race and political functionality. “Working class (white) voters” are machinists, assemblers, machine operators, mechanics, nurse’s aides, waitresses, small retail store managers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, truck drivers, and all the jobs that they wouldn’t dare do themselves, being so much smarter than the rest of us (doubtful they know which end of a wrench to use).

Being a “working class white voter” does not make us inferior or intellectually stunted so much that we need to be (re)educated in liberally biased schools of doublespeak and thoughtlessness. All we want to do is work a good job that does present a modest challenge, that does feel rewarding, keeps the lights on and our bellies full and after all of that, we just want to come home, drink some beers, pet the dog and enjoy the sunset in our small suburban slice of heaven. For us, that is what life is all about. We don’t care about revolutions, microaggressions, or how many physical and economic descriptors we can apply to a sub group of a sub group of a sub group. People like Gest and Capehart are more important to themselves, like Narcissus was to his reflection; eventually, they will drown in their obsession. And when they do, they’re still gonna be at the counter of a Mom and Pop shop asking some “white working class voter” with grease on his or her face “What’s wrong with my Prius?”

[americanlibertypac]

Washington Post Editor: Just Let White Working Class Die in Peace

They have thought it but recently a member of the media elite actually said it out loud.

Image Credit: Library of Congress Public Domain

Washington Post columnist and editorial board member Jonathan Capehart basically told white working class Americans they are better off dying than trying to fight for their life against a swelling tide of immigration and globalization.

“Economic dislocation and demographic changes are fueling discomfort and desperation among white working-class voters,” wrote WashPo columnist and editorial board member Jonathan Capehart, continuing:

While [university professor and author] Justin Gest says that both Republicans and Democrats have exploited these voters, he sees a way forward.

“The only way of addressing their plight is a form of political hospice care,” [Gest] said. “These are communities that are on the paths to death. And the question is: How can we make that as comfortable as possible?”

Professor Gest made no bones about his views of white working class citizens: they are a dying breed who are simply too dumb to understand that they need immigrants to revitalize they communities.

Declining towns need immigrants to reinvigorate their markets, take on unwanted labor positions, and add youth to aging demographies. Once these communities understood the benefits immigrants bring and were consulted about the terms of their integration, they would feel more comfortable with their arrival.

Capehart and Gest are both well aware of their rabid anti-white working class prejudice:

“It has become okay [among Democrats] to become classist against poor white people and the [white voters] see it,” said Gest.

The party’s coalition includes environmentalists, lawyers, Latinos, hippies, and electric-car drivers, Gest said, adding “there are many people in there who like the privileged status that the Democratic Party gives to certain ethnic groups.” For the party to welcome the white working class, he added, it would be “cheapening” the privileges given to others.

In other words, the Left doesn’t want to demean itself by appealing to people who do not meet their standards of virtue signaling.

So instead of appealing to them in any meaningful way, Gest suggests political suicide:

For many white working class people, and this is going to be controversial, for many white working class people, not all of them but many, you have a community of people who are advanced in age, whose skill set is for a different economy, who are living in communities that are losing population, losing resources, and so in many ways, the only way of addressing their plight is a form of political hospice care. These are communities that are on the paths to death, and the question is how can we make that as comfortable as possible …

A white working class voter offered this defense of her community:

Education can’t be the only answer for Americans if the U.S. labor market is also being flooded with cheap foreign workers, said a highly skilled worker contacted by Breitbart. “I know you don’t know me from a can of paint, but I had to throw in my 2 cents in your article about the WashPo editor,” said the woman, who tunes and operates computer-controlled machine tools in Cincinnati, Ohio. She continued:

I work in manufacturing. I have a high school diploma and a so-called associate degree from Wyotech that currently has as much worth to me as toilet paper (and it’s just as disposable). I am a [Computer Numeric Control] Machinist. I set up, tool, program, and operate CNC mills and lathes to make precision parts out of Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene, that nonstick stuff on your frying pan) and can hold tolerances to +/- 0.0002″. So I’m wondering, since I am working in a field of a bygone economic era, how dumb do they think I really am that I need “more” education? What is more education going to do for me? So I can sit around and be a great do-nothing thinker as a white (non) working class individual? What is the threshold of intellectual satiation? How many degrees do we need to be indebted to the federal government before they deem the white working middle class smart enough to associate with people like THAT?

I have a hard time understanding how someone like Gest or Capehart can look down their noses at someone like me because I don’t share their desire for overpriced toilet paper. Could either of them program a machine to cut an arc into a piece of material? No, but I can. Could either of them change their oil, replace their brakes, or change their front differential fluid? (I’d be surprised if they knew where the dipstick is to even check it.) No, but I can. I’m a 35-year-old, white working class woman that could outsmart them on a common sense basis and on a highly technical basis, and somehow I am the one that needs more education?

People like that think that “working class white voters” is a descriptor of who we are as a socioeconomic group, with a dash of race and political functionality. “Working class (white) voters” are machinists, assemblers, machine operators, mechanics, nurse’s aides, waitresses, small retail store managers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, truck drivers, and all the jobs that they wouldn’t dare do themselves, being so much smarter than the rest of us (doubtful they know which end of a wrench to use).

Being a “working class white voter” does not make us inferior or intellectually stunted so much that we need to be (re)educated in liberally biased schools of doublespeak and thoughtlessness. All we want to do is work a good job that does present a modest challenge, that does feel rewarding, keeps the lights on and our bellies full and after all of that, we just want to come home, drink some beers, pet the dog and enjoy the sunset in our small suburban slice of heaven. For us, that is what life is all about. We don’t care about revolutions, microaggressions, or how many physical and economic descriptors we can apply to a sub group of a sub group of a sub group. People like Gest and Capehart are more important to themselves, like Narcissus was to his reflection; eventually, they will drown in their obsession. And when they do, they’re still gonna be at the counter of a Mom and Pop shop asking some “white working class voter” with grease on his or her face “What’s wrong with my Prius?”

[topicprinter]

Good post by a VC who has backed PillPack, SeatGeek, and some other impressive startups. An infographic in the post shows a 2-4 year lag between when startups are founded and when the trend associated with them starts exploding on Google Trends.For instance, "Crowdfunding" didn't really emerge until 2011/2012, but Kickstarter and GoFundMe were started in 2008-2009. This piece is a good perspective on why today's themes are unlikely to yield tomorrow's hot companies.What Theme Predicted Airbnb and Uber?“SoLoMo” and the “Real Time Web” were themes popular with investors in 2009–2010 and drove significant investment activity. Both terms would have been perfect descriptors of Airbnb and Uber, but neither company earned the label. They were just oddball startups that struggled to get funded. Eventually, after enjoying runaway success, they were hailed as exemplars of a new trend, the “sharing economy,” which in turn resulted in another wave of me-too startups.The author also shared some advice on how to find soon to be emerging opportunities:1. Build an Idiosyncratic TeamYour friends are more important than the Gartner Hype Cycle in determining your entrepreneurial success. The most important decision in startups, in life really, is who you decide to associate with. We like to invest in founders who see something few others do, either by dint of their background or perspective on the world. We’ve backed a world champion barista, a pro basketball player, and many other talented founders because, not in spite, of their unorthodox backgrounds. Surround yourself with the brightest (and sometimes the weirdest) collaborators you can.2. Champion a CommunityMakerBot built on open source project that had been active for years. Bre Pettis’s genius was galvanizing a passionate community of “alpha geeks” that would evangelize for a bold, if slightly buggy, product and turn it into a real business. We’ve also seen this with Max Lynch and the Ionic Framework and Dave Gandy who has built a rabid fanbase around fonts of all things.3. Look for IntersectionsWeird and wonderful startups tend to come from a well of deep IP. This doesn’t mean patents, but rather domain knowledge that is hard to assemble from Stack Exchange and Github. In the case of Oculus, building a VR headset required a tremendous amount of hardware, software, and even biology that needed to be hammered out. Complex products give you an advantage.4. Think in Years, not MonthsCompanies building in atypical industries need to think carefully about funding. Investor tastes are fickle, and it’s often difficult to get a dollar from VCs. Angels and crowdfunding are often better earlier options. It goes without saying that revenue from paying customers is by far the best source of capital for a weird and wonderful startup. For startups that get funded, manage the burn rate to optimize for the long haul. Practice efficient entrepreneurship. It took four to five years before the market caught up to the visions of many of the companies above. A startup limited to six quarters of capital will fall short.

[moleofmetal]

 Gig Review: Jack Fest!

 https://www.facebook.com/events/1079665092154988/

Bands: Archives, Bereavement, Violent Relapse, Third Floor Incident, Defacer, Sonorous, Hopes Up High. Starting off as a just a standard gig for Archives, then evolved into a birthday gig for the organizer (and Violent Relapse guitarist) Jack then into a Mini-fest, as Jack just kept adding more and more bands to the bill. 

But with a chaotic start-up like that, there was going to have some adverse effect on the show. First of all the arranged sound guy decided to not be “the sound guy” at the gig as he already was too drunk! Off to a flying start then.... 

So it was up to some members of the early bands to try and figure out how all this sound equipment worked. Once everything was plugged in and ready to go, it was starting quite a bit later than "advertised".

Up first for the night is Hopes Up High, their deceptive “Hardcore” logo aside. They normally play a pop punk sound, that is always popular with the teeny-boppers of the scene but this time they were presumably missing their drummer. So They were a 3-piece acoustic team for this gig.  A good thing for bands to do, although might not work everywhere, or for every style of music (I Don’t expect acoustic death metal to take off, but you ever know.) but if your music is translatable, having a kind of backup plan if a member or two is missing (See also: Iron Seawolf in my review). This can only help in songwriting and musical growth, as well as it still gets your name out there and noticed. 

They played a few cover tunes, and as well as versions of their own songs complete with the irritating imitation American accent. Despite the singer/bassist fucking up the lyrics to one of the covers, the band made light of this and even got a few laughs. They played well but just breezed through the set as if they knew they were the opening fart to something a lot heavier to follow.  Finishing on a high though with always a favorite Tenacious D song “TRIBUTE” [6/10] 

https://www.facebook.com/hopesuphighuk

Up next and Sonorous from Forfar, the newbie of the night. They play a post-hardcore mixed with a bit of metal(core) even a touch of post-rock atmosphere at points. 

It's great to see such a young band, (I'm almost twice as old as the oldest member of the band) have such a great understanding of actual Dynamics. They know their stuff better than some bands I've seen that have been there for longer. A hot contender at that point for the “Band of the night”  for me seriously!

Another curious feature of the night, (more of the place) rather than the band, was the way the crowd gave pretty much every band heckles of “Take your shoes off!” this is actually a nice tactic and probably works the best in favour for newbie bands such as Sonorous, this although probably quite intimidating at first is a good way to get the band fired up or more relaxed and know in a way that the crowd is on their side. 

The only downside I could see from their set was their vocals, as the singer had a hard time hitting some of the notes due to a bad cold, (not to be helped). Like a shitty fortune-teller, I could say “I see a bright future” for these lads. [8/10] 

https://www.facebook.com/sonorousbanduk/?fref=ts

Defacer is on 3rd of the night and hail loudly "move out the way kids, the adults are here to play now!" I only heard anything about them on the night, and them being described as Everytime I Die meets Lamb Of God but I would also add to the descriptor  as Cancer Bats too as they do have an ounce or two of southern swing in the mix too, 

Apart from what I saw of the other bands, it was Defacer got the best crowd reaction with lots of pit action with dancing, kicking and slamming, even with a row bow motif as well as a human pyramid!

They played an admirably done cover of Tool "potman", showing they have a lot of talent to pull off something as progressive as them on the set list. Pete from Violent Relapse even did a bit of guest screaming on one their songs, turning it into a 2 pronged vocal attack! A hugely heavy and entertaining set!  [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/DefacerKDY

Up next in the bill next is the very late addition to the bill was Third Floor Incident. Sounding like what Hopes Up High would love to sound like. Playing a speedy punk rock, bordering on pop punk, with even a The Suicide Machines Influence in there too.

Although I didn't, to be fair. get that a good listen to them as I was vainly trying to secure some kind of a lift back to home or a couch spot to crash on. By this point, everything was hugely late, and with all the craziness that was still going on, with large and hyped up a younger audience, I was admittedly a little distracted.  

They even did a cover or two, an ongoing theme of the night. Bonus for an is the absence of an annoying faux American accent! 

[7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/thirdfloorincident

This is really when the gig really got crazy out of hand, as everyone was as drunk as they were going to get to still be coherent. As this point, there were a few stage invasions and lots of folks grabbing mics between sets and blurting out random shit and start singing Smashmouth that even got a chorus as you do.

Then the hair trimmers came out, not a band but the actual tool. Welded by now thoroughly drunk Jack who is at best unpredictable when sober, so this loose cannon then proceed to shave the head of.. some guy. Presumably, they knew each other and this was to do with a charity fundraiser that this gig became at some point, The plan was if they raise an X amount. Jack would lose his fisherman's beard, but I don't think that would happen without a fight. Nor did I find out how much was raised or for what cause. 

Next up was Violent Relapse who are always a riot! Almost to a literal degree! With the rabid fanbase of pissed up maniacs. Not the tidiest of bands to play as they always try and turn every one of their gigs into either a piss-up, party or both, and by his own admission vocalist, Pete has never played a sober gig in the last 2 years! And I think that goes for most of the members too. 

They were quick to get chaotic with Pete jumping up on the tables and just going nuts really! Harsh vocals that are a forced so violently out. 

They play a fuck-heavy style of deathcore that is just tailor-made to get people crazy pumped and moshing. Unpolished and single-minded in the approach they even list their driver as “Pit starter” like a metal equivalent of a Flava Flav!

[8/10]

https://www.facebook.com/ViolentRelapse

This is when my crazy and hell of a fun night came to an end as I was once again shafted by bus times and had to exit the scene about 3-4 song into the set of Violent Relapse.

This gig is one of the most fun gigs I have been at in a long time, but definitely, not the most talented or musical impressive, this show was all about the crowd and atmosphere of so many folks having such a manic time.

This show was probably the least organized gigs I've been to since well forever, or well before I started doing reviews. It had a tiny promotion, and it was from a metal point of view, obscure bands, it was in an out of the way location yet still it pulled in a massive crowd.  

The other bands I missed:

Bereavement - Hefty Deathcore-meisters that know the heavy and well see my Review debut of their EP. (Edit: from what I heard from their bassist after the fact, this gig was not their finest hour as apparently there was a bit of infighting in band)

https://www.facebook.com/BereavementUK

Archives - Fife based pyromaniacs bridging the gulf between melodic hardcore and metalcore gracefully in a twisted violent way. 

https://www.facebook.com/ArchivesUK/