#republican suntan

[spilladabalia]

Painted Willie - Republican Suntan

[jeanjauthor]

Okay, we actually have an even better chance with this, since I know a lot of people still want to aim their hate at Biden for so many things. (A few of which he should be glared at for, admittedly, but the vast majority have been beyond his control.)

...I want everyone to think very carefully about how humiliating it will be for the current Republican nominee & the extremist conservatives to be beaten by a woman. Not just the first Black man in office--which we did even though everyone said it couldn't, wouldn't happen!--but A Woman In The Oval Office.

Not only that, but a woman who has been training for that office in the single most effective administration in decades.

She's in the prime of her life, healthy & clear-minded.

She has the training, the skills, and the vision to continue building upon the hundreds of little things that have Made America Far Greater than that last joke of an administration, thanks to some of her behind-the-scenes efforts these last 3.5 years.

To be honest, I'm actually relieved Joe Biden is stepping down, even if it's a bit unsettling to change pilots just before the plane leaves the airport. He is getting a bit too old for the rigors of this job. I was worried he'd have a heart attack or a stroke mid-job.

But Harris isn't a rookie pilot who's only ever flown simulator missions. She's been co-piloting our nation for nearly four years. And everything I have read up about her and her efforts, I never once had the feeling she would be a bad president...unlike Pence, who terrified me because of his stance on thinking that "conversion therapy" (torture so awful that survivors have a 40% rate of attempting to self-terminate) is not only a good idea, but should be mandated by law.

...I am genderfluid. I fall under the Transgender umbrella. I would be affected by that kind of law.

Kamala Harris would never inflict that kind of atrocity upon any of us.

She is not white. She can pass for it at a quick, casual glance (if you assume her skin color is a suntan), but her father was born in Jamaica (Black), her mother born in India (South Asian), and she has lived in America...which unfortunately is still full of racism, even though we are getting better.

Kamala understands what it means to grow up as a minority in America, on top of being treated like a second-class person simply because of her gender. And it's not just lip-service! She has already shown a great deal of compassion and understanding toward various minority groups of all sizes and shapes, and she has also fought for minority rights & acceptances all this time.

The only thing I'm nervous about in a Harris administration is who her running mate will be.

But I am abso-DAMNED-lutely sure that whoever it is will be WAY BETTER than their opponents.

Do NOT split the vote! A "protest" vote will destroy America.

Even the worst Democratic candidate will be better than the architects & implementers of Project 2025, but they will only win if we back them fully...and as we're stuck with this shitty two-party system, this is how we have to do it.

Vote for the people you know will either have your back, or can be persuaded to have your back.

We are still in the worst fight for the Nation of America to survive, outside of a literal return to civil war...and we saw that violence genuinely attempted, last time, by the frontrunner of the Republican Party.

Be prepared, but be LOUD about voting.

France shut out the fascists in their own country.

We need to shut them out, too.

(...and seriously, it will oh so gloriously humiliate the GOP & especially their filthy frontrunner if a Black/Asian Woman wins, heeheehee!!!)

...Lastly, a reminder:

VOTE AT ALL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT

Shut out the Republicans at all levels, from the head of our nation all the way down to the head of the local school board.

The GOP as a political party is literally siding with insurrectionists who have a list hundreds of tasks long on how they plan to further dismantle and wreck what remains of our nation.

Shut them out of every single office.

Vote Strategically even if you cannot get the perfect candidate.

Vote Stragegically especially if you cannot get the perfect one, this time.

Vote Strategically so there will be a next time.

:/

...Now the real work begins: to see off that other guy regardless.

ETA, because as usual John Scalzi says it well:

No. We're not fucked. There's no giving up, because if we do THEN we're fucked. Don't just give the fuckers the win, now or ever. Fight for yourself, fight for the people you care about, fight for the people who will be even more fucked than you will be. Be pissed that you have to fight. But fight.

And ETA2:

My fellow Democrats, I have decided not to accept the nomination and to focus all my energies on my duties as President for the remainder of my term. My very first decision as the party nominee in 2020 was to pick Kamala Harris as my Vice President. And it’s been the best decision I’ve made. Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year. Democrats — it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Dreaming and overfitting

I'm not the first person to note that our understanding of ourselves and our society is heavily influenced by technological change - think of how we analogized biological and social functions to clockwork, then steam engines, then computers.

I used to think that this was just a way of understanding how we get stuff hilariously wrong - think of Taylor's Scientific Management, how its grounding in mechanical systems inflicted such cruelty on workers whom Taylor demanded ape those mechanisms.

But just as interesting is how our technological metaphors illuminate our understanding of ourselves and our society: because there ARE ways in which clockwork, steam power and digital computers resemble bodies and social structures.

Any lens that brings either into sharper focus opens the possibility of making our lives better, sometimes much better.

Bodies and societies are important, poorly understood and deeply mysterious.

Take sleep. Sleep is *very weird*.

Once a day, we fall unconscious. We are largely paralyzed, insensate, vulnerable, and we spend hours and hours having incredibly bizarre hallucinations, most of which we can't remember upon waking. That is (objectively) super weird.

But sleep is nearly universal in the animal kingdom, and dreaming is incredibly common too. A lot of different models have been proposed to explain our nightly hallucinatory comas, and while they had some explanatory power, they also had glaring deficits.

Thankfully, we've got a new hot technology to provide a new metaphor for dreaming: machine learning through deep neural networks.

DNNs, of course, are a machine learning technique that comes from our theories about how animal learning works at a biological, neural level.

So perhaps it's unsurprising that DNN - based on how we think brains work - has stimulated new hypotheses on how brains work!

Erik P Hoel is a Tufts University neuroscientist. He's a proponent of something called the Overfitted Brain Hypothesis (OBH).

To understand OBH, you first have to understand how overfitting works in machine learning: "overfitting" is what happens when a statistical model overgeneralizes.

For example, if Tinder photos of queer men are highly correlated with a certain camera angle, then a researcher might claim to have trained a "gaydar model" that "can predict sexual orientation from faces."

That's overfitting (and researchers who do this are assholes).

Overfitting is a big problem in ML: if all the training pics of Republicans come from rallies in Phoenix, the model might decide that suntans are correlated with Republican politics - and then make bad guesses about the politics of subjects in photos from LA or Miami.

To combat overfitting, ML researchers sometimes inject noise into the training data, as an effort to break up these spurious correlations.

And that's what Hoel thinks are brains are doing while we sleep: injecting noisy "training data" into our conceptions of the universe so we aren't led astray by overgeneralization.

Overfitting is a real problem for people (another word for "overfitting" is "prejudice").

Hoel advances this argument in a fascinating, short, accessible 2020 Arxiv open-access paper called "The Overfitted Brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization."

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2007.09560.pdf

The paper demonstrates how the OBH resolves a lot of mysteries from previous theories advanced to explain dreaming. For example, it explains why dream-deprived subjects' performance fails on generalized performance tasks (which require extrapolation) but not rote tasks.

I learned about the paper from Peter Watts, an evolutionary biologist with a knack for turning scientific concepts into revelatory plot elements. His depiction (in MAELSTROM, 2002) of human/computer pathogenic co-evolution haunts me.

http://locusmag.com/2018/05/cory-doctorow-the-engagement-maximization-presidency/

Watts's blog-post on Hoel's paper is a great breakdown of the explanatory power of OBH, including (especially) why dreams are so weird - a proposed solution to one of the enduring scientific mysteries of dreaming.

https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?p=9844

Watts connects Hoel's work to another paper, this one studying lucid dreaming, in which researchers are able to have two-way conversations with lucid dreamers while they are dreaming (!):

https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(21)00059-2

In very Wattsian fashion, he wonders what this kind of injection of rationality into dreams might do to cognition, if Hoel is right and the irrationality is a feature, not a bug. You can see the beginnings of another banger of a sf premise stirring there.

Hoel is *also* an sf writer, as it turns out, and his debut novel, THE REVELATIONS, drops in mid-April: a murder mystery about "neuroscience, death, and the search for the theory of human consciousness."

https://www.erikphoel.com/

Image: Gontzal García del Caño (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/euskalanato/1971828859/

CC BY-NC-SA https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

[freighttransport8-blog]

latitude estate

Thinking About Early Retirement? 10-Minute Test Determines Your Readiness

( ARA) - If you have actually postponed planning for retirement since it makes you really feel a) old or b) monetarily inefficient, reconsider. With a little insight, you might be available enjoying life like other individuals-- maybe even prior to you reach the supposed "old age."

Like many people in the prime of life, it's not uncommon to think of retirement because of this a remote idea that you avoid saving for it till following week, next year, following work. Besides, that's obtained time to think about the "R" word? In truth, it's never ever far too late, or prematurely, to start planning for retired life.

Retired life made use of to be defined as what an individual was no more doing. An increasing number of, nonetheless, retired life has come to indicate what an individual is can do. Picking a second profession. Traveling to see the world. Volunteering in the area. Tackling a new pastime. Dealing with grandchildren.

If Mondays discover you going to the highway to function, but you prefer to be going to the golf links to play, it may be time to consider your financial future-- even if you're amongst the three out of 4 Americans that despise financial planning. Visit: hervey bay retirement

" You do not require to be a monetary wizard to start thinking about early retirement," states Randy Schuldt, vice head of state with IHateFinancialPlanning.com, a Web site committed to the 75 percent of Americans who dislike economic planning. "With some straightforward actions, you can take control of your financial future before it begins regulating your dreams."

To assist better comprehend what's associated with retirement planning, IHateFinancialPlanning.com has created a 10-minute test-- a layoff calculator of kinds-- that will aid establish your state of preparedness. If your score points to a lifetime of sustaining the everyday grind, a check out to IHateFinancialPlanning.com or a conference with an economic organizer could help perk up your economic future.

IHateFinancialPlanning.Com Layoff Preparedness Calculator

I fantasize regarding my retirement

All of the moment

Only when job drives me nuts

None of the moment

I know exactly what I intend to do when I retire

Yes-- actually I've determined the date

Way too many options to decide

No-- I'll be too old anyway

Individual Retirement Account represents

Person Retirement Account

Irish Republican Army

Individual Retirement Account-- you imply my relative Individual retirement account?

I routinely contribute to my 401( k) at the workplace

At the maximum quantity of money permitted

As long as I can manage

Never ever

I expect my medical insurance sets you back to reduce as I age

False

I'm not planning on aging

Real

If I settle my mortgage prior to I retire I will certainly have the ability to

Pocket as much as $250,000 in tax-free revenue on the sale of my residence

Hardly scrape by on my various other bills

Belly laugh loudly due to the fact that just rich people can pay for to do that

I can phase into retired life if I.

Plan ahead for large ticket items that may lure me to make use of investments too soon.

Take a one month leave from my present job to examine the waters.

Simply up and give up.

The expense of rising cost of living.

Is anticipated to increase from 2 to 4 percent per year.

Is constantly transforming.

Will certainly have no result on retirement plans.

The country's Social Protection program.

Will at some point lack cash.

Will cover just some of my retired life expenses.

Will constantly be there for me, much like it was for my parents.

Impairment revenue insurance is.

A great idea, given that there's a 42 percent possibility I'll become impaired in between the ages of 30 as well as 50.

Something you ought to purchase if you have a disability.

Just for old people.

A fixed-rate annuity is.

A contract with a life insurance policy firm made to attend to a routine stream of payments at a later day.

Also made complex for me to stress over.

Thought about to be a high-risk financial investment.

The vital to layoff is.

Having a retirement objective.

Having a job with a great retirement plan.

Winning the lotto.

SCORING:.

Give yourself 3 factors for every single "A" answer; 2 factors for every single "B" answer; 1 factor for each "C" solution.

36 points: Kiss work farewell? You might be headed straight for the coastline. We would certainly inform you to load suntan lotion for when you leave, however after that, you've probably currently prepared that, too.

25 to 35 or even more factors: So near, yet so far. While you might have a mutual understanding of what a retirement requires to consist of, it's time to place your suggestions into activity. Look into IHateFinancialPlanning.com for some understandable, non-intimidating methods to load the voids of your plan.

16 to 24 factors: Minimum effort might not get you where you wish to go. Your strategies can still utilize some expanding. You might want to think about speaking with a professional to help strengthen your dreams. Maintain your retirement goals in mind as well as get an economic strategy that will keep you headed in the ideal instructions.

12 to 15 factors: Layoff, or any kind of kind of retired life, could not remain in your future. Get thee to a monetary expert! If the simple thought of it makes you upset, at least do this: mark your schedule for Feb. 3-10. That's the official party of I Dislike Financial Planning Recognition Week, a week committed to helping individuals that dislike monetary preparation discover exactly how to manage money matters as well as how to take care of and spend loan. You'll locate even more information and methods to deal at IHateFinancialPlanning.com. It even has an on-line panic button that you can push to go out your monetary frustrations.

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Latitude25

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[shippinginsurancecompanies-blog]

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Thinking About Early Retirement? 10-Minute Quiz Identifies Your Preparedness

( ARA) - If you have actually postponed preparing for retired life since it makes you feel a) old or b) monetarily inept, reconsider. With a little foresight, you could be around delighting in life like other people-- perhaps even prior to you reach the so-called "retirement age."

Like many people in the prime of life, it's not unusual to consider retirement as such a distant concept that you stay clear of conserving for it until following week, following year, following job. Nevertheless, that's obtained time to consider the "R" word? In reality, it's never ever too late, or prematurely, to start planning for retirement.

Retirement made use of to be defined as what an individual was no more doing. A growing number of, however, retirement has actually concerned suggest what a person is can do. Selecting a 2nd profession. Traveling to see the globe. Volunteering in the community. Tackling a brand-new hobby. Dealing with grandchildren.

If Mondays discover you heading for the freeway to work, but you 'd rather be heading for the fairway to play, it could be time to consider your financial future-- even if you're amongst the three out of four Americans who hate monetary preparation. Visit: RV communities hervey bay

" You do not need to be a monetary wizard to begin considering layoff," states Randy Schuldt, vice head of state with IHateFinancialPlanning.com, a Website devoted to the 75 percent of Americans that dislike financial planning. "With some basic actions, you can take control of your financial future before it starts regulating your desires."

To assist much better understand what's involved in retired life planning, IHateFinancialPlanning.com has actually established a 10-minute quiz-- a layoff calculator of sorts-- that will help establish your state of readiness. If your rating points to a life time of enduring the day-to-day work, a visit to IHateFinancialPlanning.com or a conference with an economic coordinator could help liven up your monetary future.

IHateFinancialPlanning.Com Early Retirement Readiness Calculator

I fantasize concerning my retired life

All of the time

Only when work drives me nuts

None of the moment

I recognize precisely what I intend to do when I retire

Yes-- as a matter of fact I've identified the date

Way too many choices to choose

No-- I'll be also old anyhow

IRA represents

Person Retired Life Account

Irish Republican Military

IRA-- you imply my relative Ira?

I on a regular basis add to my 401( k) at the workplace

At the optimum amount of cash enabled

As long as I can pay for

Never

I expect my medical insurance sets you back to reduce as I get older

False

I'm not intending on aging

True

If I settle my home loan prior to I retire I will be able to

Pocket as much as $250,000 in tax-free profit on the sale of my home

Hardly scrape by on my various other expenses

Belly laugh noisally because only abundant individuals can afford to do that

I can phase into retired life if I.

Plan in advance for large ticket products that may tempt me to make use of investments prematurely.

Take a one month leave from my present work to evaluate the waters.

Just up and also quit.

The cost of inflation.

Is anticipated to increase from 2 to 4 percent per year.

Is constantly changing.

Will certainly have no impact on retirement.

The nation's Social Safety and security program.

Will eventually run out of money.

Will cover only a few of my retired life costs.

Will certainly constantly be there for me, much like it was for my parents.

Disability revenue insurance is.

An excellent concept, since there's a 42 percent chance I'll end up being impaired in between the ages of 30 and 50.

Something you must buy if you have a special needs.

Just for old individuals.

A fixed-rate annuity is.

A contract with a life insurance company created to offer a routine stream of settlements at a later day.

Too complicated for me to fret about.

Taken into consideration to be a dangerous financial investment.

The essential to layoff is.

Having a retired life goal.

Having a job with a great retirement.

Winning the lottery game.

SCORING:.

Provide on your own 3 factors for each "A" answer; 2 points for each "B" answer; 1 point for every single "C" answer.

36 points: Kiss work goodbye? You might be headed right for the beach. We would certainly inform you to load suntan lotion for when you leave, however after that, you've probably already prepared that, also.

25 to 35 or even more points: So near, yet so far. While you may have a good understanding of what a retirement plan requires to include, it's time to place your ideas right into action. Take a look at IHateFinancialPlanning.com for some understandable, non-intimidating methods to load the spaces of your strategy.

16 to 24 points: Minimum effort may not obtain you where you intend to go. Your strategies could still make use of some expanding. You might intend to think about talking with an expert to aid strengthen your dreams. Maintain your retired life objectives in mind as well as get a monetary strategy that will certainly keep you headed in the best direction.

12 to 15 factors: Layoff, or any type of retired life, may not be in your future. Obtain thee to a monetary professional! If the simple idea of it makes you upset, a minimum of do this: mark your calendar for Feb. 3-10. That's the official celebration of I Dislike Financial Preparation Recognition Week, a week dedicated to aiding people who hate monetary planning find out how to take care of loan matters and just how to manage and spend money. You'll locate even more information and ways to cope at IHateFinancialPlanning.com. It even has an on-line panic button that you can push to get out your financial aggravations.

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https://visitlatitude25.com.au/

Latitude25

1 Latitude Boulevard, Nikenbah QLD 4655

1800 025 025

[omfgtrump]

A Light At The End OF The Tunnel

I know I said goodbye, but I just couldn’t stay away. Though The Don, for now, is banished and Twitterless in Mar-a-Lago, he still is the primary power broker in the feckless Republican party. Though I am living less inside a Trumpian pinball machine, lurching from outrage to outrage, I am still living in a world of Republican offal that fills me with bile. The thing about bile, is that if you store too much it makes you sick, and frankly- I could do without that. So thank you for letting me share some of my bile with you.

But there is hope in America. We have a president who is getting things done. 50% of Americans have received at least one shot of the vaccine, and 31% are fully vaccinated.

We have a president that doesn’t insult people or suggest foreign policy on Twitter.

We have a president who is committed to tackling economic inequality and acknowledges institutional racism.

We have a president who has proposed bold initiatives in the battle to change the devastating course and impact of climate change.

We have a president who is proposing a real infrastructure bill, which will create millions of jobs, fix our dilapidated roads and bridges, expand broadband throughout the country, and address issues of childcare.

We have a president that believes in democracy. Now how strange is that?

There is light at the end of the tunnel of despair that we have all been living in this past year.

But all light is not the same. Remember ultraviolet light?

You know that stuff you can get inside the body and zap the hell out of the virus to stop it dead in its tracks? Mix a little Clorox in there, and abracadabra, 1, 2, 3 goodbye Coronavirus. That light?

Remember Deborah Birx, sitting there sheepishly, saying nothing, as The Don waxed on about the beauty of these treatments. (Just weeks before, Birx gave credibility to this dangerously delusional man by telling the nation that the Don was a smart dude you was doing a deep dive into the data.)

Well we just passed the one-year anniversary of that event!

By that point, 50,000 had already died. More than 500,000 more have died since then. How did the data man perform, Dr. Birx? Did he just forget to add three zeros in his calculations? Did his disregard of social distancing and masks throw the numbers off? Did his disregard for human life fuck up his calculations?

The Prince of Darkness’s denial and refusal to deal with reality, coupled with the complicity of those charged to protect us and give us the truth, led to what I have called The Genocide of Neglect.

The pain and suffering this caused is immeasurable. The narcissism and idiocy of the man charged with leading us out of this devastation pushed us further into it. It’s like a general telling his troops to go into enemy territory without a plan of action. Imagine the general saying:

General: Go forth, and let the light be your guide.

Soldier: But general, it’s certain death for us all.

General: Just follow the light and all will be well.

Soldier: Are you leading us into battle, sir?

General: Umm, wish I could, but I have a golf game set up. Remember, the light will be with you.

Soldier: You mean “The force will be with you.”

General: Whatever.  

After watching the ultraviolet news conference rewind, I had a nightmare. Think “Handmaid’s Tale” with Mr. Clean as the top dog.

In the dream, Mr. Clean is making a speech from his golf course.

“Today is a great day in America. We have cure for the Coronavirus. Frankly, vaccine roll out has been a real pain in the ass and most of MAGA world ain’t rolling up their sleeves, risking damage to their tattoos for nobody. They are the real Americans.

So what are we doing about it? Dr. Birx, isn’t this the coolest thing ever? Today I am announcing we will be opening up sun tanning salons across America. For anyone who has symptoms or just tested positive, this is for you. Pop-up salons will appear on every corner where the people, rather than getting a shot in the arm, can get a suntan while the coronavirus is being eradicated in your body. Talk about two-for-one deals! The initiative is called: “Shine a Light on America.” Isn’t this amazing, MAGA people? Not only will you stay healthy, but you can get that orange glow and look just like me. And you can have all this for the unbelievably low introductory membership offer of $39.95. This offer includes three ultra-violet treatments, a free MAGA hat, and- wait, wait, wait- a bottle of my new cleansing drink Trumlox, which is three times more potent that any Clorox product. Just think, after a half hour of luxurious tanning, a cool drink to make sure that whatever the light doesn’t get, Trumlox will. But you gotta act now because this is a one-time offer.

I am also announcing some changes in the distribution and delivery of the vaccine. As of today the following changes apply:

In homage to the beautiful new voting laws being enacted across the country, which will ensure that no election is ever stolen again, I am removing 3 out of 4 vaccine sites from every city. Also, those who voted for me will have priority for receiving the vaccine. Who needs voter suppression when you can just eradicate the voter? HA! Ha! Just joking. God, you all take me so seriously. Can’t you tell when I am being sarcastic?

Yes, that was my nightmare. But honestly, if The Don had won (remember, in the battleground states it was so close, and 77 million people did vote for him despite how he practically destroyed the country!). What kind of real nightmare would we be living in now?

And though there is light at the end of the tunnel, darkness, in the form of the Republican Party, looms everywhere. The very essence of our democracy is challenged everyday by a soulless, power hungry, obstructionist bunch of scoundrels who deny science, talk about the January 6th insurrection as if it were an unruly picnic that broke out into a food fight. 50% of Republicans still believe the election was not legitimate and the assault on voting rights and the encouragement of a white supremacist narrative is front and center. The dog whistle has morphed into a bull horn. The Republicans need to be called out for the vile offal they are. To do justice to the G.O.P’s vileness, I have renamed the Grand Old Party, the Grand Offal Party.

Umm, now that I think about it, that’s a great name for a new blog! I’ll very soon be hard at work getting a new website set up to host these new articles; so in the meantime, please feel free to sign up to be notified when it goes live:

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So if you you enjoyed OMFG, I hope you continue the journey with me. The Don may be gone (for now), but the lies carry on, and the siege against decency and democracy continues.

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[marnietm]

full name : marlena elise fitzgerald  

nicknames : marnie , mars , fitzy  birthday : january 9 , 1998 ( age 22 years )  zodiac : capricorn   birthplace : bloemendaal , netherlands   hometown : bloemendaal , netherlands ( until 13 years ) & paris , france residence : lenox hill , manhattan , new york city , new york   nationality : dutch , french & american   ethnicity : dutch , french & belgian  religion : catholic ( in name )  orientation : pansexual , panromantic   languages spoken : german ( fluent ) , french ( fluent ) , english ( fluent )  

family notoriety : grandfather ( paternal ) used the money from his families gold discovery to fund the second biggest international hospitality holding company to date known as fitzgerald corp . grandmother ( maternal ) a french duchess from the royal family that formerly ruled france & current prime minister of france making her the second woman to hold the office in the country .  father : jürgen hans fitzgerald ( age 51 years ) was born in hamburg , germany to a businessman & author . the family moved to bloemendaal , netherlands when he was young as his father expanding his company . he went on the get a bachelors from the university of cambridge . after college he’d go back home to germany for a couple months where he’d meet the women he refers to as his soulmate . he’s always been rather busy as ceo of fitzgerald corp. but he made a point to be around his children as often as he could and enjoy the lavish life he & his family was afforded .  mother : jeanne slyvie fitzgerald née lenoir ( age 47 years ) was born in toulouse , france to a noblewoman ( duchess ) & model . she followed her father’s footsteps and began modeling as a teen . inevitably moving to germany after highschool to live with her fashion designer boyfriend who she would later leave for his best friend . incredibly excited to be a mother when she turned up pregnant , she’s been a dedicated mother since her children were born & fills her free time with her charity foundation called the slyvie world foundation .  brother : name tba fitzgerald ( age 22 years ) was born in bloemendaal  . he shares the same parents as marnie and he also currently lives in new york city  .  pets : chocolate labrador retriever named billie , tan labradoodle named betty 

education : the juilliard school  degree : bachelors of fine arts in dance graduated : 2019 occupation : professional dancer affiliations : dutch national ballet ( 2003-2010 ) , paris opera ballet ( 2010-2015 ) , new york city ballet ( 2016-present ) , radio city rockettes ( 2019-present ) genres : ballet , modern & jazz

weight : 119 lbs  height : 5′9″  hair color : blonde  eye color : blue 

positive traits : passionate , jocular , intelligent , charismatic , imaginative , observant , benevolent , high-spirited   negative traits : querulous , thoughtless , selfish , foolhardy , insincere , grandiose , judgmental , histrionic   likes : pop music , beaches , conspiracy theories , sports cars , sparkles , huge bath tubs , pearls , tulip bulbs of any color , complaining , 20th century novels , football , tea , seafood , shirley temples , yacht rides , makeup , cards against humanity , smoking , beyonce , powdered donuts , rainy nights , champagne fountains , laughing , ufc    dislikes : video games , public transportation , bugs , coffee , drake , goodie-to-shoes , cold weather , bad fashion sense , dark liquor , remakes , being called a brat , taking medicine , long plane rides , sleep getting interrupted , misplacing things , low quality pictures   hobbies : stealing exes hoodies , playing with makeup , ignoring text messages , shopping sprees , reading & writing , going over choreography for hours , facetiming her pets , staying out until 3am , pretending to listen to others , late night joy rides , suntanning , getting her photo taken   character inspo : kourtney kardashian , chanel oberlin , nicole richie , elle woods , blair waldorf , naomi clark , regina george & gretchen wieners   fashion inspo : romee strijd , emma stone , cher horowitz & fran fine   aesthetics : perfectly manicured nails digging for cherries out of a spiked shirley temple , light snooze as a f.scott fitzgerald novel shields your face from the sun , stocking your side of the fridge with avocados , laughter so contagious , petite figure drunkenly sprawled across marble floor , high pitched screaming from across the house , a trail of crystallized tears , chanel bags lining the doorway , untied pointe shoes laying around the house

 marlena fitzgerald ( she never really goes by marlena though , she even fills out paper work as marnie ) was born to jürgen & jeanne in 1998 just moments after her twin brother in bloemendaal , netherlands . 

the daughter of two beloved public figures in their own rights . both coming from families riddled in success . it was only natural that she be raised with a silver spoon .  there was also a certain spotlight that came with her families level of success . she had never thought of it as odd , until she realized her way of life was actually abnormal & other children weren’t getting their picture taken as they were hand-in-hand with their parents on the street . her parents were able to keep a level of normality in their children’s lives though , due to her mother being a stay-at-home mom ( or you could call her your typical housewife ) .  

from a young age marnie had an almost obsessive liking for dance . her choreographer always raving to her parents about how quickly she could perfect a routine .  it wasn’t until she was about nine years old that her parents realized this was turning into alot more than just a fun hobby for their daughter . ballet was taking up all of her time and what concerned them the most was she didn’t seem to care . 

they inevitably decided to pull her from ballet in an attempt to get her to focus on having fun like the rest of the kids her age but marnie was anything but happy with them stripping her of what she loved , feeling like they just didn’t understand it . she would literally cry all night & throw tantrums all day . her bratty behavior soon getting her exactly what she wanted & her parents let her go back to her dance company less than a year after taking her out . 

when she wasn’t at dance class or putting on talent shows at home she was at school & to many people’s surprise academics have always come pretty easy for marnie . she was a good student , a little chatty but who isn’t ? there were times she felt left out when it came to her friends who would sent time going to arcades or having sleepovers & she could rarely join because of how focused she was on dance .

when she was thirteen the paris opera ballet was in contact with her mom after she’d posted a routine of marnie’s onto youtube . after a couple flights in and out of france her parents had come to an agreement to move the family for the sake of their daughters future career . 

the move was masked in excitement for marnie purely due to her going to the best ballet company in the world , but she was actually pretty nervous to start over somewhere new & also held a bit of pressure on her shoulders to continue to take ballet as seriously because after all her family had moved countries for her . 

as she grew older she was able to see the world for what is was , especially the ballet world . she started to lie alot to get what she wanted because if she told people what they wanted to hear , they would give her what she wanted . her favorite lie of all was that she was a virgin when she wasn’t . to this day , she’ll throw that one out there to see if someone will fall for it . 

she became a professional ballerina at the age of fifteen . 

coming out of highschool she only applied to one school . sure that based on her abilities she would get in but also confident that if she didn’t get in there was nowhere else she had much care to attend . the school was julliard , after three stellar auditions she was accepted and enrolled into the schools dance program . the move to america was one marnie had always wanted to do , so to say she was eighteen years old , wide eyed & eager would be an understatement . 

it all became a little overwhelming for marnie & she kinda of just over indulged in everything . she was partying alot , trying new drugs & over all just getting into to things she would’ve never done back home with the watchful eye of her parents on her . it wasn’t until her standing at julliard started to waver due to her behavior that she started to settle down a little . it was around this time that she met a u.s representative at one of her performances & started seeing him . he helped her get back on the right foot with her school with his particular pull but soon after they split ways . 

secret check !! so basically she got jealous of the u.s rep she was seeing , seeing another girl soon after her and threatened if he didn’t end this asap that she’d make a statement about how they had an affair which would not only put a damper on his marriage but also his political career due to him being a staunch ( religious ) republican . after she realized that she could get him to easily do as she said ... she may or may not have gotten a little power hungry & kind of just throws her weight around to get him to do things she wants him to here & there . he’s not the only one she’s doing this to though , she recently had an affair with a member of the parliament in the uk and basically blackmailed them with their affair after it ended to ensure certain things slide with her dads company in the uk & she follows through with marnie’s asks in fear that both her husband will find out about her affair but also it come out that she’s not all that straight if marnie were to go to the press . basically she’s the worst kind of hook up , especially if you have some sort of power .  

she’s a soiled brat but don’t call her that she’ll have a fit because according to her she has way more layers than that broad stroke . she’s a drama queen when it comes down to it , like big time . she’s perfected the craft of throwing tantrums . flashback to chanel oberlin on the golf course in scream queen fake crying & stomping her feet ? yeah that’s marnie .

also on the flip side of that she’s very chad in scream queens . catch her like “ i can’t date a garbage person “ to someone because they’re not popular enough for her liking .

when she isn’t being a total nightmare though , she’s actually really fun to be around ? she’s playful & loves to keep the party alive . she’s the kind of person who is smiling most of the time and really just wants the vibes to stay positive .

very chatty girl . victim of foot-in-mouth syndrome , big time . she doesn’t try to be disloyal & spill people’s secrets but she can’t help herself . if she has piping hot tea she’s gonna spill it because she doesn’t wanna burn herself .

she is extremely focused when it comes to dance . as of late she’s been a little more neurotic about things than usual because her name has been thrown out into the prima ballerina talks & that’s been her absolute goal for as long as she can remember & she’d also be one of if not the youngest prima ballerina in the world if she was given the honor within the next couple of years or so .

also she’s incredibly intelligent . very deep thinker , despite people often trying to put her into the box of being a ditzy blonde .

very observant girl , who loves to people watch but her observations can sometimes get muddled when she starts judging people a little too hard core .

last but not least , she’s a light weight and very aware of it but still will drink until she can’t feel her body on the right night 

[artificialqueens]

Make America Gay Again (Shalaska) - Chapter 2 - Grey

A/N: Thank you for the kind messages on the last chapter! I really appreciated them. 

An ear splitting ring shot through the air. Sharon covered her ears as she watched Michelle pick up the phone installed in the bus. She tried to shake the nightmare she had been having, all that glass and wood collapsing around her as Alaska, covered in blood, continued to throw grenades into her grave, laughing.

This was worse than being hungover. This was far, far worse. Her head pounded, shoulders screaming with pain. Her legs were basically jello they were so tired, lungs aching for a breath, her ribs bruised.

She slowly, painfully changed into boy clothes and finally washed her face with some hand soap and water from a bottle.

It was still morning, the thin light trickled through the slats in the windows. She couldn’t have gotten more than an hour or two of sleep. Her mouth tasted sour, and when she brushed her teeth she spat out blood.

Michelle stayed on the phone for hours, her serious face on, talking to headquarters. Sharon wasted the morning, scared to look at Alaska and nervous to be around Willam after their tift.

The bus had parked in a deserted county an hour north of Austin, waiting for instructions on the next mission.

Eventually, Sharon found herself opening the emergency exit in the roof of the bus, just above the highest stacked level of bunkbeds.

It was February, early springtime in Texas, the earth barely shaking the dregs of winter. Springtime had been coming earlier than ever after Trump made the executive decision to end all attempts at preventing global warming.

She pulled her aching limbs onto the metal roof, relishing in the heat on her sore muscles. She laid out, pretended she was suntanning at the beach. She could practically hear the distant crash of waves, the call of seagulls, Alaska’s ecstatic laugh at her side. They used to go to Lake Erie together every summer, where Alaska had grown up. She’d tell Sharon stories of being a kid, riding her bike through those same roads, getting ice cream at that now-closed convenience store when she got chore money from her mom.

Sharon could recall their drive up the lake the last  summer they were together. Trump had just been declared as the Republican nominee the night before. Alaska had held Sharon’s hand the entire car ride up, silent, rubbing her long thumb along Sharon’s knuckles. The quietest act of rebellion.

Sharon was yanked harshly out of the memory as Phi Phi climbed through the hatch and laid down next to her on the roof.

They were quiet for a few moments. Tensions between them had been high after their season of Drag Race, but it was hard for Sharon not to come to like Phi Phi. She was so determined and headstrong, so brash and unafraid. So unbelievably extra. It had taken a while, but eventually they realized the reason they had feuded so much was because they were so alike.

“It’s so nice up here” Phi eventually said, looking up at the wide desert sky. Not a cloud in sight, the sun was steadily climbing higher and higher as the time spun closer to noon.

Sharon “humphed” in agreement.

“Not like the mess in the bus.” She said. Another long pause rocked between them. “Alaska’s gonna be okay. She climbed far enough away from the explosion that most of her injuries were just from the fall from the crane.”

Sharon nodded slightly, her tangled hair swaying slightly in the weak breeze.

“Are you mad at me for letting her do it?”

“Phi Phi, I love ya girl, but if you’re looking for a fight now is not the time.”

Phi scooted herself closer to Sharon, turning her head to look at her. “You can’t make enemies out of all of us. Willam alone could kick your ass.”

Sharon turned to look at meet the other’s eyes, glaring. I could totally kick Willam’s ass. She thought annoyed, before seeing the glint in Phi’s eyes, the half smile on her tan face.

The two locked eyes for a moment before Sharon snorted out a laugh, rolling her eyes. “Okay, fine, I’m not mad at you. I just don’t know how all of you could be so irresponsible.”

Phi rolled her eyes. “Sharon, you’re being ridiculous. If you were the one to throw the explosives you’d do it in a heartbeat. And what the fuck are you doing now? Yelling at Willam for playing a small role in maybe slightly injuring Alaska, who you haven’t even talked to since we got back?”

Sharon bit her lip slightly. They had deflated since juviderm had become inaccessible. They made her feel so young, so untouched. It brought her back to being a kid, when she felt afraid all the time. Of the bullies, of herself, of all the uncertainty she had housed in her skinny frame.

She was absolutely terrified to talk to Alaska, for a thousand reasons she didn’t have words for. Alaska seemed like this distant concept, this idea that she had missed so fucking dearly for the past year. She couldn’t be real, that perfect person couldn’t actually exist. Her bony elbows and kind eyes and soft lips were some sort of fever dream, and holding them so close to her body last night as she ran back to the base was frighteningly real.

It felt like standing on one foot, reaching out into the mist, hoping someone would steady you. And Sharon was too afraid to see if Alaska was still standing in all that fog.

“Do you miss Mikhael?” She asked finally.

“He… he got deported, last May.” her voice shook, turning her eyes away. “They cut overseas mail, so I haven’t spoken to him since. I don’t even know where he is. I don’t even know if he’s alive.”

“I’m so sorry.” Sharon said, touching Phi’s shoulder gently. “I didn’t know.”

“You know, all those Trump supporters? How can they still believe in him? How has any part of this country become greater than it was before?”

Sharon sat up, legs folded crookedly under her malnourished body. “They’re evil fucking people. And if they’re not, they’re terribly misguided.”

Phi Phi wiped away a stray tear, rising into a seated position.

“I really am sorry about Mikhael.”

That fire returned to Phi Phi’s eyes. “Don’t let them take Alaska away from you Sharon.”

“We’re not… we aren’t… that’s over.” Sharon struggled out. “We can’t focus on that right now. She doesn’t love me anymore.”

As that sentence left her lips, she was hit with the idea that it might be true. That it probably was true. It had been a year, after all, since Sharon had refused to join Alaska and their friend Jeremy on the last plane out to California. A year is a long time in a war. Sharon had never considered the possibility that Alaska might have moved on. It was too painful.

Phi Phi was looking at Sharon like you’d look at a lost dog, a mix of pity and something else playing along her lips. A soft noise came from behind and they both turned to see Courtney, half out of the hatch, resting her elbows on the top of the bus with a crooked smile on her face. Her pink hair was tousled around her shoulders, mixing with the freckles dotted along her tan skin.

“You don’t just un-love someone.” Courtney said in her Australian know-it-all way. But her words had a soft certainty to them that drew Sharon in. “Sure, the other emotions, the new experiences might pile on top, might stifle the love. But it’s always there. You can’t run away from it all Sharon. Once you slip into that intimacy with another person, you’re linked forever. You already knew that.”

Courtney’s smile grew at the incredulous looks on the other two’s faces. “Come on back into the bus, make up with Willam. We’re going to eat soon.”

+

They ate lunch around the small coffee table that rested in the middle of the sitting area of the bus. Next to it was the long couch Alaska was recovering on, bookended by the two small armchairs that smelled like mold. Lunch consisted of cold beans, granola, and limp lettuce, with chicken for the non-vegetarians.

Sharon, cross legged across from Alaska, struggled to maintain eye contact with her mash of food. She didn’t know if she was embarrassed, guilty, or-god forbid-feeling things.

Willam plopped down next to her. “So ya gonna say sorry?” she spouted through a mouth full of chicken.

“I didn’t think you were the kind of person who needed an apology” Sharon asserted, looking up from her food.

“However-” she cut off Willam as soon as she opened her mouth. She didn’t need one of Willam’s monologues right now. “-I am. Sorry, that is. You did the right thing, the plan or whatever. I just got scared.” she quieted at the last sentence, stealing a quick glance at Alaska, who had miraculously been able to sit up for her meal.

“Ha! Pussy.” Willam laughed, but it wasn’t mean. Somehow all the shit that spurred out of Willam’s mouth never seemed to be mean. Sharon joined in laughing. She was just glad to be back on Willam’s good side.

Trixie slunk in from the bunk area, finally awake. “Mornin’ sleepyhead.” Willam chidded.

“How are you Alaska?” Trixie asked, her Wisconsin accent stronger with exhaustion. She was in one of her pink nightgowns, but wig and makeup-less.

Alaska moved to sit up a little more, Michelle hovering around her cautiously. Not having her real daughters to fret over had made Michelle more protective than ever.

“I’ll be fine” she drawled. And despite the damage she had sustained - it looked like she would be. Her arm was still fractured and her head wound would sporadically start bleeding sometimes, but the dizziness and confusion was fading.

“I’d rather be in your shoes than have to have another fucking night on guard with Michelle” Trixie rolled her eyes.

“You sure missed some drama” Raja joined, perched on the arm of one of the chairs. “Sharon nearly had a conniption, and Willam was passed out for a good minute or two after the shit went down.”

“You guys get all the fun” Trixie pouted jokingly.

“You were on guard because you were the only one who hasn’t been involved in any revolutionary activities before.” Alaska explained, always the rational one.

“So I hope fucking Katya in Australia for the past year was worth it.” Willam yelled, Trixie screeching and smacking him.

“For the record it was, you cunt” she stuck her tongue out as the noise died down.

“Heard she’s a total slopabottomus now.” Willam said factually, finishing his food and slinging an arm around Courtney.

“Do you have a fucking radar for when tops turn to bottoms?” Sharon asked incredulously, having confirmed Katya’s new sexual position by the redness spreading across Trixie’s cheeks.  

“A bell goes off and a picture of the fallen top flashes in her mind, like the fucking hunger games.” Alaska replied, laughing. She made eye contact with Sharon for a second, still giggling. Sharon could feel her heart swell with pride. Making Alaska laugh was one of the most fantastically happy things a person could do with their life.

“Even halfway across the world” Sharon noted.

“There’s probably hot gay aliens Willam can sense bottoming right now.” Alaska replied, still laughing.

Trixie interrupted the two, “All aliens are gay and that’s a fact.”

“The dead dad from Contact wasn’t gay” Courtney chimed in.

“He wasn’t an alien, bitch he was just dead.” Raja said through a mouthful of food, completely drowned out by Trixie screaming that someone had brought up Contact.

Sharon, half listening to the yelling match about whether the dad from Contact turned into an alien when he died, watched Alaska’s pained face as she tug on Michelle’s arm and whisper something to her. Michelle guided her carefully off the couch and into the back room, as the oblivious queens starting animatedly discussing whether Matthew McConaughey was gay too (“He has to be, anyone who agrees to wear that priest outfit for an entire movie has gotta be on the Kinsey scale.)

Sharon waited a second before quietly stepping around the scattered queens towards the bunks. She hesitated outside the curtain, trying to make out the near-silent whispers of Alaska to predetermine how welcome her presence would be.

Michelle didn’t looked surprised to see Sharon as she shuffled awkwardly through the curtain.

“Sweetheart, I have to go talk to Shawn. Could you sit with Alaska for a while? She’s in some pain.”

Sharon sunk into a crouch next to the lowest bunk bed. Alaska had curled into it, carefully moving around her bandaged left arm, the ulna of which she had snapped.

She was still smiling a little, lips also slightly smaller now that plumpers weren’t readily available for refill.

Alaska looked so much younger, with her short hair and fuller eyebrows. But the war had aged everyone’s eyes. Sharon could remember how tired Alaska looked those first few days Trump was in office. Every racist, sexist, or homophobic executive order that got sent out was like a personal stab at Alaska’s giant heart. A heart that by now could probably barely fit in her absolutely emaciated chest. If Alaska was skinny before, she was verging on disappearance, tucked into the bunk.

It took all the restraint left in Sharon not to run her finger along the others cheekbone. Just to test and see that she was still as warm as she remembered. Still as soft. Still smelled like earth and sweetness.

“I’m sorry.” Alaska broke the quietness.

Sharon almost laughed, it seemed so ridiculous to her that Alaska was apologizing.

“We shouldn’t have deviated from the plan without letting everyone know. We didn’t account for you and Raja hearing the first explosion, or for Willam’s yell when it went off too close to her. Raja told me how much that scared you both.”

Sharon stayed quiet. She didn’t know how to reply without being overwhelmed in emotion.

“It was irresponsible and it could have gotten you hurt.”

Hearing Alaska in this executive position was definitely strange. Everyone knew she was the best person to lead the operation-level headed, calm, intelligent beyond belief, able to make difficult decisions-that’s why she had unspokenly been accepted as such. But Sharon still saw that fierce tranimal in the PIttsburgh clubs, breaking the rules and laughing about it. Watching her become this grownup…

“And I just wanted to apologize.”

“Alaska…” Sharon could feel her eyes welling up, meeting the wide blue specs of her former boyfriend, someone she never thought she’d see again…

The only words she could choke out, “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

They both stayed silent for a moment, making and breaking eye contact, flitting in and out of the past.

Sharon finally broke the silence. “Do you remember how we used to go up to Lake Erie over the summer?”

“Yeah and you’d bitch and moan about getting too tan and how your fans would be upset if you showed up anything other than ghost white.” Alaska laughed.

“That’s not… really?” Alaska kept laughing at Sharon’s incredulous confusion.

“Yes, and you wouldn’t go in the water because it was too cold.” Alaska kept laughing breathlessly.

“Do you… do you remember any good things?” Sharon took a shallow breath, distraught thinking that she had misremembered it all.

Alaska stretched out her arm, touching Sharon’s cheek gently with cold hands. “Of course.” She said quietly. “Of course.

“We’d sleep in my childhood room because we couldn’t afford to rent a beach house, and you whispered into my pillow, like it was a telephone to the past, that baby Justin shouldn’t worry so much about fitting in, because one day I’d find you and I’d be happy. And my mom would make us pancakes every morning, and you’d eat them even though you hate pancakes, just to make my mom happy. And you’d kiss me every time you saw a seagull and said it was for good luck, even though we both knew you made that up. And one summer you made me laugh so hard I peed myself in that candy shop, and I can’t even remember what the joke was about.”

Alaska blue eyes gazed into Sharon’s, inches away. Her slow voice drawled over the words preciously, giggling intermittently. Her hand still rested on Sharon’s cheek. The world had faded into that fog, leaving the only the two queens.

“Don’t you miss all that?” Sharon asked, barely audible.

“I can’t afford to think about that any more.” Alaska said, her lips only slightly parting around the weight of the sentence.

“I can’t afford to stop thinking about it.” Sharon said, surprised at her honesty.

The sentence hung heavy in the air. It was true, Sharon thought. The thought of reaching Alaska again was the only thing that had kept her going all those months.

Alaska pursed her lips softly, curling her hand off Sharon’s face and back into the bed sheets.

After moments of silence, Sharon broke eye contact, yawning deeply.

“You’re tired.” Alaska chewed her bottom lip before opening her arms, pushing back into the depths of the bunk. “I know the couch isn’t very comfortable. You can sleep here if you want.”

Sharon, slightly shocked, moved from her crouching position into the small bunk and Alaska’s arms, careful of the broken one. Alaska’s long arms tentatively crept around her waist. Sharon gripped at the other’s hands, overwhelmed that after day upon week upon month of imagining Alaska’s body next to hers, it was finally there.

Her hands were shockingly cold, but she still somehow smelled the same.

Sharon felt the other’s forehead nudge against the back of her neck, pressing her nose into Sharon’s spine. Alaska’s voice softly whispered into Sharon’s messy hair,

“The world doesn’t stop for two lovers gone wrong.”

Sharon laid silently for a moment, absorbing the thought. “Do you think we can try to get it right again?” Sharon replied quietly, but Alaska had already fallen asleep.

[qabumble899]

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Hi, I am a kind,caring woman..I am just looking to get back into the dating world. I am seeking a long term relationship. The dating world can be a challenge as we all know. I feel that great communi..

Liz2180 40

FSM

Last Login: 6 days ago

Rockledge

, United States

My hobbies are crafting,gardening, an creating a great circle of friends , now that I'm divorced I would like to try enjoy a new life an have fun doing a lot of fun things with someone that would like..

1nancy 63

FSM

Last Login: 3+ months ago

Citra

, United States

Princess Dating Orange City Florida Website

hi my name is angie, I am 47 years old,i am a hopeless romantic have 2 dogs they are my life my kids,.. I love to go fishing ,and camping, and having bon fires,..I don't believe in lying or cheating..

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Last Login: 3+ months ago

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[growlegalweed-blog]

Legal Weed Resources

Check out... https://legalweed.gq/420/son-of-former-pablo-escobar-associate-is-south-florida-lawyer-now-lobbying-the-gop-in-dc-on-regulated-cannabis/

Son of Former Pablo Escobar Associate Is South Florida Lawyer Now Lobbying The GOP In DC On Regulated Cannabis

For report…….In a true-life storyline more befitting a Hollywood biopic, a man whose father was once a top pot smuggler for Pablo Escobar is an attorney and lobbyist working to flip the Washington, D.C. political establishment into supporting marijuana legalization.

Pablo Escobar

South Florida attorney Brady Cobb is the son of Clyde Walton “Bill” Cobb, who back in the 1970s and early 80s ran a huge pot smuggling operation in the Florida panhandle, using everything from shrimp boats, aircraft and old Prohibition-era moonshine routes to move more than a million pounds of Escobar’s pot. Brady Cobb estimates that before his dad was finally busted, in 1983, he had pulled in more than $300 million of Escobar’s drug money.

“The DEA couldn’t figure out at first why a bunch of rednecks in Cottondale, Florida, had 24-carat gold Rolex watches and were driving Mercedes S500’s, Cobb told Fox News in a recent interview. “They had to open a field office in Pensacola because of dad – they all got sick of driving up from Miami.”

Cobb said his father inadvertently happened into the drug business in 1976, after scoring the exclusive Fort Lauderdale to Key West distributorship for an iconic suntan lotion brand.

“Dad was a redneck, and of course he had to have three acres and a barn, even while living in Key West. The Colombians were moving a load down the road – 50,000 pounds of weed on a tractor trailer – it broke down and they saw he had a barn,” Cobb recounted. “They said they would give him $70,000 if they could throw it in there. Obviously, in 1976, it was a sizeable amount of money. And that is how he got his start in cannabis. That cannabis came right from Pablo Escobar’s Medellín.”

…./….

  Brady Cobb has been “a key part of the conversation” in Washington as momentum supporting pot legislation has changed in recent years, according to a former White House staffer.

”Brady is a common-sense guy, who can speak to people in a way they understand. He has become a kind of off-the-record source who really want to know how this process works from the trenches and the medical uses from treating epileptic seizures to PTSD, ” the former staffer said. ”Uses outside of medical are more difficult, but Brady is key in explaining it all in a common-sense way.”

And while Cobb and others lobby federal lawmakers, there’s been movement at the state level in the last year. Three red states – Missouri, Utah, and Oklahoma – all authorizedmedical cannabis ballot measures in 2018. And in the November election, Michigan became the first Midwestern state to permit recreational pot use.

“There is no road to the White House that doesn’t involve carrying those states,” Cobb said. “All of a sudden, after that, there was interest in moving something because of those key states.”

Cobb said the effort to win over key GOP players focuses on the idea of states’ rights to make their own decisions on marijuana use. “I knew we weren’t going to convince some very conservative members on cannabis. But we could convince them on state’s rights,” he said. “As for the Democrats, it has been about tempering their expectations.”

Cobb has been recognized for his efforts to gain support for the Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, which will allow pot businesses to bank freely, like any other legitimate business. “The Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act is a strong first step in providing legitimate cannabis related and state-licensed farmers, business, and consumers with access to an efficient and safe banking system, and traditional loans and capital markets – I appreciate Brady’s advocacy on this important legislation,” said a statement from Nikki Fried, Florida Commissioner of Agriculture.

Full Report https://www.foxnews.com/politics/how-a-florida-attorney-trained-by-father-pablo-escobars-top-us-trafficker-is-flipping-congressional-republicans-into-supporting-marijuana-legislation

  Here’s his bio on his law firm page

WHO WE ARE

Brady Cobb

http://cobbeddy.com/who-we-are/brady-cobb/

Brady J. Cobb is an attorney, lobbyist, strategist and consultant based in South Florida who focuses his practice in the areas of regulated medical cannabis, Federal and State government relations and regulatory/administrative matters, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions and related commercial transactions. He serves as Chief Legal Officer to Liberty Health Sciences, Inc., which is one of the largest publicly traded medical cannabis companies with operations in the United States. Brady is embedded in the medical cannabis marketplace in the United States and Canada, and focuses his practice on state and federal lobbying and policy making, the development of regulatory systems and compliance with the same, complex license transfer/change of ownership transactions and related mergers and acquisitions, capital markets transactions and compliance/shareholder disclosure issues with the TSX, CSE and NASDAQ.

Mr. Cobb has taken a lead role in the current United States Federal marijuana policy reform via his extensive network of political relationships in Washington D.C. and has formed a strategic relationship with the DC based governmental relations powerhouse the BGR Group, which is headed by Fmr. Governor Haley Barbour. Brady is deeply entrenched on a daily basis in a number of pending federal policy making initiatives including: (a) the passage of the Rohrabacher-Leahy amendment in the 2018 omnibus appropriations process to afford protections to the medical cannabis marketplace from DOJ enforcement actions, (b) the development and promulgation of new FINCEN banking guidance and/or legislation to foster a more favorable banking environment for medical cannabis companies as well as opening up the credit card processing marketplace to medical cannabis companies, (c) the development and promulgation of standards and best practices by the FDA for medical cannabis products with an aim towards the de-scheduling of cannabis for medical purposes from schedule 1 to schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act, and (d) the long term overhaul of current federal policy towards medical cannabis from prohibition to a regulated industry with all of the attendant benefits that come with a removal from schedule 1 including banking, tax benefits, removal of the risk of prosecution for state legal actors and related benefits.

Brady has also litigated complex cases in both federal and state courts across the United States and routinely handles administrative and regulatory matters before state and local governmental agencies. He has served as lead or co-counsel in over 15 jury or non-jury trials that were held in federal and state courts, as well as serving as lead counsel in dozens of administrative and quasi-judicial final hearings before state and federal agencies. Notably, Brady has been named to Florida Super Lawyers Rising Stars since 2015 and to Florida Trend’s Legal Elite and is regularly mentioned national and statewide news publications as an medical cannabis, insurance, litigation, legislative and regulatory law expert. Prior to forming Cobb Eddy, Brady was a director at Tripp Scott, P.A. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida which is a nationally recognized law firm that specializes in governmental relations, business law, and complex business litigation. Cobb still actively participates in the political process and serves on the host committees for candidates running for federal, state or local elected office.

Cobb holds a law degree from Barry University School of Law, where he was awarded the Book Award for earning the highest grade in White Collar Crime and an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Florida State University. Cobb was also a member of the track and cross country teams at Florida State University.

  Memberships and Admissions

Florida Bar

United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida

United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida

United States District Court for the Northern District of California (pro hac vice)

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin (pro hac vice)

Registered Lobbyist before the Legislature and Executive Branch in Florida and the Federal Government

[shippinginsurancecompanies-blog]

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Thinking Of Early Retirement? 10-Minute Quiz Establishes Your Readiness

( ARA) - If you've postponed preparing for retired life because it makes you really feel a) old or b) economically inefficient, reconsider. With a little insight, you could be out there appreciating life like other people-- perhaps even prior to you reach the supposed "old age."

Like many individuals in the prime of life, it's not uncommon to think about retired life thus a far-off idea that you avoid conserving for it till next week, next year, following job. Nevertheless, who's got time to think of the "R" word? In reality, it's never far too late, or prematurely, to begin preparing for retired life.

Retired life made use of to be defined as what a person was no longer doing. Increasingly more, however, retired life has actually involved imply what an individual is can do. Choosing a 2nd job. Traveling to see the world. Offering in the area. Handling a brand-new pastime. Caring for grandchildren.

If Mondays find you going to the freeway to function, however you 'd rather be going to the fairway to play, it could be time to consider your economic future-- also if you're amongst the 3 out of 4 Americans who dislike financial planning. Visit: homes with motorhome garages

" You don't need to be a monetary wizard to begin thinking about early retirement," states Randy Schuldt, vice head of state with IHateFinancialPlanning.com, a Web site committed to the 75 percent of Americans that hate financial preparation. "With some simple steps, you can take control of your economic future prior to it begins managing your desires."

To help much better understand what's associated with retired life planning, IHateFinancialPlanning.com has developed a 10-minute quiz-- a layoff calculator of sorts-- that will aid identify your state of preparedness. If your score indicate a life time of enduring the day-to-day grind, a browse through to IHateFinancialPlanning.com or a meeting with a financial planner may aid liven up your economic future.

IHateFinancialPlanning.Com Layoff Preparedness Calculator

I dream about my retirement

All of the moment

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Individual Retired Life Account

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Individual Retirement Account-- you suggest my cousin Ira?

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Never

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False

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Real

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The nation's Social Security program.

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Winning the lotto.

RATING:.

Give on your own 3 factors for every single "A" answer; 2 factors for every "B" answer; 1 point for every "C" answer.

36 points: Kiss work goodbye? You might be headed right for the beach. We would certainly inform you to pack suntan lotion for when you leave, yet after that, you've most likely already prepared that, also.

25 to 35 or even more factors: So near, yet until now. While you might have a good understanding of what a retirement plan needs to consist of, it's time to put your concepts into activity. Have a look at IHateFinancialPlanning.com for some easy to understand, non-intimidating ways to load the gaps of your strategy.

16 to 24 factors: Minimum initiative may not obtain you where you intend to go. Your strategies could still make use of some expanding. You may intend to take into consideration talking with a professional to assist solidify your desires. Keep your retirement goals in mind and also obtain an economic strategy that will certainly maintain you headed in the ideal instructions.

12 to 15 points: Layoff, or any type of sort of retired life, could not remain in your future. Get thee to a monetary expert! If the plain thought of it makes you restless, a minimum of do this: mark your calendar for Feb. 3-10. That's the official celebration of I Dislike Financial Planning Awareness Week, a week devoted to helping individuals that dislike economic preparation find out just how to take care of money matters and how to take care of and spend money. You'll locate more info as well as methods to cope at IHateFinancialPlanning.com. It also has an on-line panic switch that you can push to go out your economic irritations.

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

#5yrsago Orange-American John Boehner rents apartment from tanning industry lobbyist

Speaker of the House John Boehner denies that his supple, tangerine skin is the result of sunless indoor tanning. The Ohio Republican says he spends a lot of time outside. But "not only has he accepted campaign contributions from a group called the Indoor Tanning Association, Boehner actually lives in a D.C. apartment owned by a lobbyist for the American Suntanning Association," The Daily Caller reports.

https://boingboing.net/2013/12/18/orange-american-john-boehner-r.html

[juditmiltz]

Will real estate developers seize on “Opportunity Zones” tax incentive?

The Opportunity Zones program could spur on major development in historically distressed areas such as Little Haiti (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

A short drive from downtown Miami, colorful murals highlight the Haitian diaspora and pink and yellow island-themed buildings dot Second Avenue in Little Haiti.

Among the traditional Creole eateries, some millennial-focused restaurants have emerged, advertising craft beer and featuring organic rotisserie chicken and jalapeno jam on their menus. The slow transformation has not gone unnoticed.

As some see the area poised to become the next Wynwood, Little Haiti has piqued developers’ interests in recent years.

But with an unemployment rate hovering at more than 20 percent — the city average stands at about 5 percent — developers have yet to begin building major ground-up projects in the neighborhood.

That could change, however, thanks to a little-known provision in President Trump’s tax plan that is designed to increase private investment in low-income communities nationwide.

Known as the Opportunity Zones program, it would provide tax incentives to developers who invest in historically distressed neighborhoods like Little Haiti, Little River and the city of North Miami, setting the stage for what could be massive redevelopment in those areas.

“There is a significant and potentially huge tax advantage to a developer building a project within these opportunity zones,” said Jon Chassen, a partner with the Miami law firm Bilzin Sumberg’s real estate and distressed property group.

Opportunities abound

Tucked away in the $1.5 trillion tax overhaul, the Opportunity Zones program was the brainchild of South Carolina Republican Sen. Tim Scott, meant to increase investment in low-income areas.

It works to incentivize investors by allowing them to defer their capital gains taxes — or taxes on gains made from the sale of certain types of assets — into Opportunity Zones funds. One Washington, D.C. nonprofit, the Economic Innovation Group, projects that U.S. investors have more than $2 trillion in unrealized capital gains just from stocks and mutual funds alone

For real estate developers and other investors, there are two major tax benefits from utilizing Opportunity Zones funds. The first is that the program allows investors to defer paying capital gains taxes until 2026, if they reinvest the gains in Opportunity Zones projects. The second is that investors can permanently forgo paying capital gains taxes on the sale or exchange of their investment in Opportunity Zones Funds, provided they hold the investment for at least 10 years.

According to the Economic Innovation Group, after 10 years an investor could see an added $44 for every $100 of capital gains reinvested into an Opportunity Zones program, compared to an equivalent investment in a traditional stock portfolio. That assumes the investment has annual appreciation of 7 percent.

“The real big incentive comes after 10 years. The kind of investments that are being held for 10 years are real estate investments,” said Brett Theodos, a principal research associate at the Urban Institute’s metropolitan housing and communities policy center.

There have been numerous past government efforts to encourage private investment in economically disadvantaged areas through tax incentives. What differentiates the Opportunity Zones program is that it encourages real estate construction or “substantial rehabilitation” of an existing property, some experts said.

“As a general rule, the intent is to spur new development,” Chassen said.

But it remains unclear which type of projects would benefit most from this tax break or whether existing projects might qualify. The U.S. Treasury Department is expected to release further guidance on the Opportunity Zones program in the coming months to provide more clarity.

So far, the law prohibits certain businesses from inclusion in the initiative such as private or commercial golf courses, massage parlors, along with suntan and gambling facilities.

State governors quickly nominated Opportunity Zones for Treasury Department approval. The zones are designed to be in areas that have a poverty rate of at least 20 percent or that has a median income that does not exceed more than 80 percent of the metro area. In total, there are 8,700 Opportunity Zones in the United States, both in rural areas and large metro areas.

“The challenge will be what products work best,” said John Balboni, a partner at Sullivan & Worcester, a Boston-based law firm that specializes in real estate and corporate practice. “Multifamily, warehouses, and self-storage will all take a look at this.”

While experts suggest that retail or multifamily may best fit these guidelines, some say that luxury condominiums would not be excluded from meeting the Opportunity Zones fund’s criteria. That raises questions about whether the program will really provide economic benefit to the region or would instead just be a boon to wealthy developers.

Adding to the capital stack

Shortly after the new law was announced, Avra Jain’s phone started ringing. The Miami developer, who made a name for herself redeveloping old motels on Biscayne Boulevard in the MiMo neighborhood, focuses on value-add projects in transitional neighborhoods such as Little River, Little Haiti and MiMo.

“When the law came out, the people who actually did read about it said Avra was on the top of the list to call,” Jain said. A former bond trader on Wall Street, Jain said that one of the biggest benefits of the program is that it could potentially allow her to access a new capital source.

Many banks have dialed back on their construction lending and other capital funding — such as the EB-5 visa program — has become more difficult to access because of regulatory restrictions. Now, developers, especially those with projects in low-income areas, may turn to Opportunity Zones funding to finance gaps in their project costs.

For developers like Jain, the new law could also mean that more banks and lenders are more willing to provide financing for projects in those low-income areas. “It makes what we do faster and easier,” she said.

South Florida zones

Florida has 427 designated Opportunity Zones in total that would qualify for the federal tax incentive program.

In South Florida, the Opportunity Zones map includes some in historically distressed areas such as Liberty City, Opa-Locka and Carol City. It also includes Little Haiti, North Miami and Aventura, where major mixed-use projects have already been proposed.

(Click to enlarge)

(Click to enlarge) Source: Map data provided by the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity and OpenStreetMap contributors. Maps and research by Haru Coryne.

“There was a lot of lobbying, some from the private sector and the public sector as to which ones could get the benefit,” said Andrej Micovic, an attorney with Bilzen Sumberg’s land development and government relations group.

In Little Haiti, Dragon Global’s Magic City Innovation District sits squarely in an Opportunity Zones tract on Second Avenue. The development firm, led by Tony Cho and Bob Zangrillo, is planning to build a $1.3 billion mixed-use entertainment center in Little Haiti that will have 20 buildings, including a 15,000-square-foot innovation center that will be home to startups. The project received initial financing from Arkansas-based Bank of the Ozarks in February, but has not broken ground. The project is expect to take 10 years to build.

Another project that could possibly qualify is SVP Realty’s plan to redevelop the nearby Design Place apartments at 5045 Northeast Second Avenue. It will be turned into a major mixed-use complex, with 2,798 residential units, 418 hotel rooms and 284,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

Just north of Little Haiti, an Opportunity Zones tract encompasses the site of the $4 billion SoLe Mia mega-project at 15045 Biscayne Boulevard in North Miami. It received construction financing last year from Wells Fargo and the first phase of development is under construction. Most of the ground-up work, which will include a 10-acre lagoon with beaches, 12 residential buildings and 4,300 units — along with more than 1 million square feet of retail — has not begun.

Micovic said the question is, “If there are existing projects, are these laws going to allow for further investment in these Opportunity Zones buckets.” That remains unclear.

Economic impact

While the program would likely provide big benefits to developers already investing in these areas, some wonder whether the added tax advantages would be enough to justify new investment.

Jain, the Miami developer, said the program won’t alter where she is looking to build.

“I am not going to go buy a property just because it’s in an Opportunity Zone,” she said. “It doesn’t change my style.”

Darryl Jacobs, an attorney with the Chicago-based firm Ginsberg Jacobs, said he’s been fielding calls from property owners about the new zones, but added that it may take more than tax sweeteners for developers to start building.

“It’s going to make money less expensive for deals that are already happening in those areas, and I certainly think there will be some social impact investors coming into neighborhoods that could turn the corner soon,” Jacobs said. “But is a 10 percent or 15 percent avoidance worth it to take that risk? I just don’t know.”

The new program does makes real estate a more attractive investment option at a time of rising interest rates, according to Josh Migdal, a partner at the Miami law firm Mark, Migdal & Hayden.

“It’s a huge opportunity for development in certain pockets of Miami,” Migdal said. “It also allows investors to get a return that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to get, which will entice them to invest in real estate when we are near the end of the cycle.”

Neisen Kasdin, a managing partner at Akerman’s Miami office, adds the new program may further incentivize people to invest in areas that developers are already considering.

“That sweetens the investment,” he said. “That would be particularly the case for a project that doesn’t have an established market,” he added, “where investing there is riskier.”

Alex Nitkin contributed reporting

from The Real Deal Miami https://therealdeal.com/miami/2018/07/16/will-real-estate-developers-seize-on-opportunity-zones-tax-incentive/ via IFTTT

[euroman1945-blog]

The Daily Thistle

The Daily Thistle – News From Scotland

Sunday 8th July 2018

"Madainn Mhath” …Fellow Scot, I hope the day brings joy to you…. Well my suntan is looking good and after I lay on the beach again today, it will be even better.. but lots to do today, Formula One is on the TV from Silverstone and Soccer from Russia.. the World Cup of course… in between I shall walk Bella, she’s been in season for the past month and that makes things difficult, for her and me.. the first time it happened I had a trail of digs following us around the town, and this was at 4:00am so I am certainly reluctant to walk to far in the day time.. but she appears to be over it, but trust me I shall be careful…

HUNDREDS OF GUNS HANDED IN DURING SCOTTISH AMNESTY…. Hundreds of illegal firearms and air weapons have been handed in to police during a two-week amnesty campaign. A total of 474 firearms, 690 air weapons and 337 lots of ammunition were received at police stations around Scotland. These included a machine gun, an AK47 assault rifle, and a pistol dating back to World War One. Supt Ronnie Megaughin said getting the weapons off the streets "lowers the risk of harm within our communities". He said: "Although the surrender campaign has now come to an end, we continue to work to remove illegally held weapons circulating in Scotland." One elderly man in Fife handed in nine firearms to his local station in Glenrothes, including several pistols and rifles. Police said guns were often found in attics or garages and had been handed down through generations within families, but noted that "there is always the possibility that weapons can fall into the hands of criminals either through lack of security or other criminal means". Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: "Whilst firearms offences are at historically low levels in Scotland, we will continue to work with Police Scotland to keep Scotland's streets safe."

APPEALS FOR INFORMATION AFTER CAT ATTACKS IN AYRSHIRE AND FIFE…. Authorities are investigating two separate cases of cruelty to cats. The Scottish SPCA is appealing for help after six cats were poisoned with antifreeze in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire. Meanwhile, police in Glenrothes are looking for witnesses after a Bengal cat was picked up and repeatedly thrown to the ground. The animal suffered a fractured skull and may potentially lose an eye after the attack at 00:45 on Sunday 1 July in Minto Crescent. Officers were contacted after the owner of the light-grey female cat called Kameere, heard her pet in distress. After looking out of her window she saw a man picking her cat up and repeatedly throwing it to the ground. He is described as white, 6ft tall and with a slim build. Following the incident he ran off towards the Glenwood Shopping Centre. Sgt Kirk Donnelly from Glenrothes Police Station said: "This is an absolutely sickening and violent attack on a defenceless animal, that has left the cat with very serious injuries. "We would ask that anyone who witnessed what happened, or who saw any suspicious activity within Minto Crescent during the early hours of Sunday morning, to contact police immediately."

LOCHINVER ROWER TRAVELS 1,000 MILES ACROSS THE ATLANTIC…. A Scottish amateur rower has travelled 1,000 miles (1,609 km) in his bid to cross the Atlantic from the USA to Scotland in a boat he built himself. Duncan Hutchison has about 2,000 miles (3,218 km) left to row to reach his home village of Lochinver. He spent three years building his boat, which is named Sleipner after an eight legged horse from Norse mythology that could glide across the sea. Mr Hutchison's venture is raising funds for Wateraid. He was rescued earlier in his attempt when he got into difficulty in stormy weather off New Jersey. His boat with all his belongings was even lost for a time, before washing up on a beach.

TREASURY TO COVER POLICING COST OF TRUMP VISIT TO SCOTLAND…. Donald Trump visited his Turnberry golf course when he was Republican candidate for the presidency. The Treasury has confirmed it will fund policing costs of up to £5m if US President Donald Trump visits Scotland. It is believed Mr Trump will head to Scotland after meeting Prime Minister Theresa May in London next week. Concerns were raised that any such visit could require at least 5,000 officers to police, costing Scotland's national force up to £5m. However, Treasury Secretary Liz Truss has now confirmed that money would be made available for policing any visit. Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf had written to UK counterparts saying it would be "completely unacceptable" for the Scottish government to carry the costs of policing the visit. Mr Trump is currently scheduled to have talks with Mrs May at Downing Street on 13 July. It has been suggested that he may then visit at least one of his golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire. Mr Trump's mother was born on the Isle of Lewis, and he made several visits to his "ancestral home" before he became president. He last visited Trump Turnberry in June 2016 - on the day after the EU referendum - on his first foreign trip as the Republican presidential candidate. That trip was the subject of a small protest, but if he travels to Scotland much larger rallies are expected in a number of locations now that he is in office - all of which would need to be policed.

APPEAL AFTER BAYONET FOUND IN KIRKWALL GARDEN…. Police have appealed for information after a "military-style bayonet" was found in a garden in Orkney. It was discovered by a member of the public in the Thoms Street area of Kirkwall. PC Kenneth Macleod said: "Orkney has a rich military history and we know that a number of items of memorabilia are held in the islands. "However, we are keen to understand how this bayonet came to be where it was."

REDUCED DUMFRIES TO EDINBURGH BUS SERVICE 'RELUCTANTLY' AGREED…. A transport body has "very reluctantly" agreed to a journey reduction on a bus service at the centre of a campaign to ensure its survival. The Dumfries to Edinburgh route will see two weekday journeys removed from its timetable in both directions. Scottish Borders Council - which cut its support by £100,000 - said the new service represented an improvement. However, south of Scotland MSP Colin Smyth described the change as "frustrating" and "short-sighted". The 101/102 Stagecoach bus service has been at the centre of a campaign to ensure it continued since it emerged SBC did not intend to continue its financial contribution of £135,000. Campaigners call for improvements to local bus services Rural areas of Scotland 'let down' by bus services Although it starts and ends outside the region, it has a number of stops in the Borders. A series of options were considered with one where the local authority cut its share of funding to £35,000 eventually being accepted by the South West of Scotland Transport Partnership (SWestrans). It means that services from Monday to Saturday between Edinburgh and Dumfries will be cut from six to four in both directions. Two Sunday services will be retained but at different times when the new timetable starts in August. Andrew Wood, who chairs the SWestrans board, said: "Although we are satisfied that we can still provide a regular service, with the four through journeys per day to Edinburgh from Dumfries, we are extremely disappointed that the funding is not available to continue with this service as it stands now.

On that note I will say that I hope you have enjoyed the news from Scotland today,

Our look at Scotland today is of another Oliver Jones special of the “FireBow” that lite up the sky over Scotland last week..

A Sincere Thank You for your company and Thank You for your likes and comments I love them and always try to reply, so please keep them coming, it's always good fun, As is my custom, I will go and get myself another mug of "Colombian" Coffee and wish you a safe Sunday 8th July 2018 from my home on the southern coast of Spain, where the blue waters of the Alboran Sea washes the coast of Africa and Europe and the smell of the night blooming Jasmine and Honeysuckle fills the air…and a crazy old guy and his dog Bella go out for a walk at 4:00 am…on the streets of Estepona…

All good stuff....But remember it’s a dangerous world we live in

Be safe out there…

Robert McAngus

#Scotland #love #Crime #News #Blog #Highlands #Guns #Crime

[brisbanecollection-blog]

The Aussie mayor who wants America to get tough on guns

Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley speaks to reporters near the scene of the Capital shooting. Photo: AP Mass shootings happen with numbing regularity in the United States: 59 people killed at a music festival in Las Vegas in October, five at a Pennsylvania car wash in January, 17 at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in February. But in Annapolis, with its holiday village vibe and some of the toughest gun laws in the country? "If youd asked me if this could happen here, Id say no way," Buckley told Fairfax Media in an interview in his City Hall office. He had barely slept since the attack. While almost 300 local newspapers across America have shut down since the mid-'90s, TheCapitalremains a central part of Annapolis life, sending reporters to cover sporting events and council meetings. That made the shooting feel like an attack on the entire community, Buckley says. He assumed he could immediately lower all the flags in the city to half-mast in honour of the victims, but it turned out a presidential proclamation was needed to lower federal flags. He requested one, but was told on Monday it had been denied - a decision that infuriated him. "I nearly went up the flagpole and pulled them down myself." A few hours after Buckley went public with his disappointment, White House press secretary Sarah HuckabeeSanders called him to discuss the issue. The next day a proclamation was issued. Buckley suspects US President Donald Trump heard about the refusal on TV and demanded it be reversed. Since the shooting, Buckley, who is a Democrat, says he has resisted invitations to attack the President, so that the focus will be kept on the victims. Reversed decision: US President Donald Trump. Photo: AP He wasn't always so disciplined. Buckley - whose mother was from Ireland and father from New Zealand - was born in South Africa and spent his early years in London. When he was eight, the family emigratedto Perth and settled in the working class suburb of Belmont ("as 'westie' as it gets"). "I got kicked out of a couple of high schools - the Catholic School, then the public high school. I even got some of my mates kicked out," he says with a laugh. After flipping burgers at Hungry Jacks, Buckley undertook the rite of passage of a backpacking trip through Asia and Europe. While working in a bar in Scotland, he and some mates came up with an idea for a summer job: go to the south of France and spray beachgoerswith suntan oil. Calling themselves the Sunbusters, after the Ghostbusters, they wore white jumpsuits and sprayed lotion on people for $1 using repurposed fertilisersprayers. It proved a hit in France but when Buckley tried to reproduce the success in Florida it didn't work out. That's how - after stints shucking oysters and doing farm labour - he ended up in Annapolis. Loading His first business venture was opening the city's first coffee shop ("the type that had poetry readings in it"). He then opened a trendy Japanese restaurantnamed Tsunami and covered the building's facade with a mural of the Buddha. The ensuing stoush with the local heritage society made him a local celebrity. Last year he ran for mayor on a platform of spicing up the city while protecting its history. "Im a preservationist but cities like Paris, London and Prague manage to balance their history with contemporary art. I thought we could offer something more eclectic here than Irish pubs and sports bars." Despite having no political experience, Buckley easily defeated a six-term state senator in the Democratic primary before unseating the incumbent Republican mayor in November's general election. 'My job is to keep the story going': Annapolis mayor Gavin Buckley. Photo: Matthew Knott "Although their politics are very different, there are parallelswith Donald Trump," saysChase Cook, a political reporter at The Capital. "Gavin was a businessman, a political outsider running on big ideas against a well-established public servant. He is a big personality, very gregarious." During the campaign, Buckley's Republican opponent distributed fliers portraying him as Crocodile Dundee and saying he "had a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock". Buckley - who still speaks with a broad Australian accent - says the tactic backfired spectacularly: "People are very nice to Australians here, it's a good thing to milk in this country." (While he is a naturalised American, Buckley says "I still consider myself an Australian." He and his wife lived in Perth for five years and visit regularly.) Like many born outside the US, Buckley remains baffled by the fact the country tolerates such huge numbers of gun deaths. He attributes much blame to the National Rifle Association, which opposes even modest gun control measures.He sums up the lobby group's approach as "macho bullshit". A woman wears a necklace at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting in Dallas, Texas, in May. Photo: Bloomberg "In life everybody has to compromise - in our work, in our marriages. You need to compromise to have credibility. That organisation doesnt have a millimetre of compromise in it." He says legislators should examine whether a gun buyback scheme - similar to the one the Howard government launched after the Port Arthur massacre - would work in the US. And he wants more stringent background checks on gun sales to people with mental illnesses. "Arming teachers and journalists, for Gods sake that cant be the future. The suspect in this shooting had so many red flags, he shouldnt have been able to buy a butter knife." Buckley is now planning a music festival - hopefully with major international artists - to celebrate press freedom and commemorate the shooting victims. "My job is to keep the story going," he says. "I dont want us to just be the next statistic, the 150th massacre or whatever. "To be working at a newspaper in a small town and be killed by a guy who had every warning sign, we just cant let that go. We have to make a difference."

Matthew Knott is a federal politics reporter currently on sabbatical studying a Masters of Journalism at Columbia University in New York. Most Viewed in World Loading Morning & Afternoon NewsletterDelivered MonFri. https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/north-america/the-aussie-mayor-who-wants-america-to-get-tough-on-guns-20180706-p4zptq.html?utm_medium=rss&utm_source=rss_feed

[kidsviral-blog]

How “Black-ish” Reflects My Own Experience As A Black Person In America

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/how-black-ish-reflects-my-own-experience-as-a-black-person-in-america/

How “Black-ish” Reflects My Own Experience As A Black Person In America

ABC’s new family sitcom — the No. 1 new comedy of the season — isn’t just challenging the largely lily-white comedy lineup of the networks, it’s doing something more: reminding me of my own childhood.

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ABC, Carsey-Werner Productions, Courtesy of Kelley Carter

Grandma Louise’s voice comes in just as clear as day, when I overheard her talking to my parents, describing my childhood experience: fly in the churn of buttermilk.

I was the fly. The buttermilk was the all-white world I was growing up in. I would never know the struggle that my parents did — Dad grew up in the South and was a college freshman in Montgomery, Alabama, by the time the civil rights movement hit its height, and Mom grew up on Detroit’s lower west side, where they were busing kids all over the city in order to force segregation.

My life was vastly different, and it came with its own set of problems. In your formative years, you often see yourself through the prism of your friends. In third grade, we had a project where we all had to write about ourselves as if we were entries in a dictionary. In my description, I wrote I had blonde hair and blue eyes. In sixth grade at a school dance — one of the first times I wasn’t one of the only black kids in class — a group of my friends and I all were dancing, trying to imitate what we saw the black kids doing. I was surprised when one of the girls strolled up to me and whispered, knowingly, “Look at them trying to dance like us.” She looked at me like I was crazy when I gave her my reply. “I’m trying to dance like y’all too. Teach me.”

I was the fly.

My parents unknowingly signed up for this battle when they decided that having a decent salary and good academic pedigree meant taking your family out to the suburbs. With few exceptions in this country, when you’re black, that typically means being sans people who look like you.

That’s why I laughed. I laughed loud and hard last weekend when I finally gave ABC’s new show Black-ish a second chance. I’d seen the pilot months ago, and while I was intrigued and, well, publicly championing a show that featured an affluent black family with a prime spot on network TV to anyone who asked me, I wasn’t quite sold on it. The pilot was loaded, and featured lesson on top of lesson on top of lesson. Dre (Anthony Anderson) is from the ‘hood. Dre promised his mom and dad (Laurence Fishburne) he’d get a good education and get out of the ‘hood. Dre is married to Rainbow (Tracee Ellis Ross), who is a doctor. Ooh, look: Black people can earn college degrees! See?!

Then there was the teen son who wanted a bar mitzvah, and the African rites of passage ceremony, and the lesson on keeping it real.

I thought it was doing too much. The couple’s oldest son prefers field hockey to hoops. Then there was the honorary brother handshake. The wannabe honorary brother who whispers when he wants to know the mundane: “How would a black guy say ‘good morning’?” All in the first episode.

It was funny. But, yawn. Most of us live this without a laugh track. And to me, there wasn’t much else to say. I wasn’t keen on the idea of a weekly show that essentially could end with “…and that’s your lesson of the day on black people, America…” because quite frankly, I get tired of tutorials.

Still, I made a commitment to watch the show. I want it to do well. As a black journalist who covers the entertainment industry, I need it to do well — it gives me a chance to write and report on stories that are important to me, and to the readership I hope to serve. Plus, at the end of the day, I do like seeing reflections of myself, my family, and my social circle play out on screen.

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Justine Zwiebel for BuzzFeed

The early success of Black-ish is undeniable. It’s ABC’s No. 1 new comedy and has attracted an audience as diverse as, well, America.

So I watched. And I fell out (and tweeted it out) when Anderson’s Andre Johnson uttered my grandmother’s buttermilk phrase almost verbatim, in reference to his children’s academic experience. And I chuckled when I watched Andre and his wife Rainbow bumble their way through executing disciplinary action on their kids, because they were whipped as kids, but didn’t know if that was the right course for them. It was hilarious when Dre wasn’t quite so sure that his kid’s teacher could teach a lesson on Harriet Tubman (in spite of her impressive academic background) because, well, she isn’t black. And I audibly LOL-ed when Dre tried to teach his son Andre Jr. (who would rather be called Andy because it sounds “more approachable”) the importance of the Negro head nod.

But the best part was in a recent episode where Dre is concerned his son doesn’t have any black friends and goes out to find some for him. (Hi, Mom.)

That so was my parents.

Yes, Dad grew up in small-town Alabama and Mom in big-city Detroit, but her parents migrated from Alabama themselves, hoping to escape the carnage of the pre–civil rights south. My folks met in grad school, a few years after Dad — who pledged the same fraternity as Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall, both of whom came to fraternal meetings to inspire their young brothers to get involved in the movement — moved to Detroit.

They connected because they were both the second-born children in their large families, and my mom says that she fell for my dad’s strong sense of family. They were their parents’ dreams; the very idea that two kids from the sticks and the ghetto, respectively, could grow up to be well-educated black folks with letters behind their names, was feted in my family.

By the time I came along, they were living in a two-story house with a two-car garage and a pool in the back. It all felt so… American Dream-ish. We moved around a lot, mostly living in college towns, and our neighborhoods often had one thing in common: lack of diversity. That speaks more to the socioeconomic realities of our country, and less about my parents trying to escape black people. They weren’t. But what they were trying to do was allow their daughter to grow up in the best neighborhoods they could afford. The unexpected turn of that were the things I’m sure my parents hadn’t accounted for. My life was being a Brownie (and the only brownie in the bunch!), longing for blonde hair and blue eyes (like my BFFs!), and wanting to put suntan lotion on my chocolate brown skin (my friends all did it!).

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Guess which member of this Brownies troop I am? Kelley L. Carter

That brings me back to Black-ish. I get it and it speaks to me. Loudly. One of my favorite throwback sitcoms was Family Ties. Brilliant show, that was: Two former peacemaking hippies grow up to rear children under a Republican presidency in the 1980s. Masterful. And funny. And that built-in tension coupled with relatable storylines? Magic. And I’d be remiss if I failed to mention The Cosby Show, which premiered on my birthday. I can still remember watching in awe a family that actually was my family. That premiere came 30 years ago, and proved that American families may look different, but share innate commonalities. It also illustrated that nuclear families can also be brown. And… upper-middle class. More importantly, I’m guessing it made the pitch for a show like Black-ish, perhaps its spiritual descendant, all the easier. There was no need to explain that black people can carry a sitcom in spite of their blackness.

With Black-ish, you have two parents who were able to attend college and navigate fantastic careers — she’s an ER doctor, he’s an SVP for a marketing company — and because of that success, they’re able to live in the best neighborhood their salaries can afford. But here’s the rub: You’ve got four brown children who stand out. And who don’t share your struggles. And who sometimes look at you cockeyed because when you describe your struggles or the struggles of your parents, they don’t get it. The president is black. The President, man. “Obama’s the first black president?! He’s the only president I’ve ever known,” little Jack (Miles Brown) says over a dinner of baked fried chicken. The leader of the free world looks like them, has a family who looks like them, and by the way, so do a whole lot of other successful people we collectively celebrate.

But there’s still this idea of knowing where you come from. You have to be armed with it, no matter how flowery your childhood is. There’s almost nothing more jarring than to be the kid who grew up in Utopia, who never had a moment of friction, and then go off to a PWI — Predominantly White Institution — and discover at 18 that you’re black. You know… black. And what being black means.

Thankfully, that wasn’t my experience, because the second my mother saw me lathering suntan oil on my arms and spritzing my Jheri curl (it was the ’80s!) with Aqua Net, she rounded me up, took me to the bookstore, and bought up everything in the African-American collection. It was important to my parents that in spite of the world they were able to allow me to exist in — and become an adult in — that I carry the most important pieces of me, with me.

And of course, to be OK with my blackness. Not my “blackishness,” but my blackness. Because even though being black isn’t a monolith experience — there’s an important, shared cultural experience that we all should be equipped with, be mindful of, and celebrate.

Just like Blackish‘s Dre and Rainbow are trying to do.

ABC / yugottabesonice.tumblr.com

ABC / yugottabesonice.tumblr.com

  Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/kelleylcarter/how-black-ish-reflects-my-own-experience-as-a-black-person-i