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blackhholes · 1 year ago

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Agency and Autonomy in Teen Wolf

Agency and Imagination in the Films of David Lynch by James D. Reid & Candace R. Craig / Redefining Biological Horror: The Aesthetic Evolution of an Infected Body in HBO’s The Last of Us by Flavius Floare / Superfluous Bodies and Loneliness in Under the Skin by Donald Prentice / ‘We are not who we are’: Lovecraftian Conspiracy and Magical Humanism in The Cabin in the Woods by Christopher Lockett

Agency and autonomy are brought up repeatedly throughout the show. The catalyst of the narrative is when Scott is bitten by Peter against his will and turned into something he doesn’t even recognise anymore. This idea is repeated throughout the show when characters repeatedly have their agency stripped from them by other characters. In just the first season we see peter repeatedly forcing Scott to turn, inducing homicidal urges and triggering amnesia. Both of these actions are then later in the show repeated by Scott on other characters, though the reasoning is different in such a capacity we as the audience are made aware that the loss of autonomy does not stem from bad faith. When Scott forces Malia to turn and when he bites Liam, it is done because it is the only way for him to save their lives. This is an important distinction as when Peter did this he only ever did it as a way to make himself more powerful, he needed a pack and for Scott to be part of that pack so he’d be strong enough to take on the hunters and Kate. It is also important to note that Liam and Malia are allowed within the narrative framework of the show to be angry about this. Liam directly at Scott when he is initially turned and Malia at Stiles as a sort of proxy-Scott within Eichen House. Because they are allowed to show their grief and anger at losing part of themselves, they are then later able to reconcile this anger they’ve felt with the reasons Scott acted as he did and they both become important members of the pack.

Body horror usually follows instances when a character is stripped of agency, their body physically turns on them and they’re no longer able to control the things it does. This further visualises the invasiveness of what happened to the character for the audience, we now have a visually gruesome component to the incidents taking place, making it much more horrific for us to witness. This is particularly highlighted in season five with the chimeras. Chimeras within the show are repeatedly stripped of their agency and autonomy in an effort for the dread doctors to perform experiments on them. They don’t have any recollection of this happening to them, without their knowledge their bodies are changed and begin acting without their conscious decisions. When the pack brings Tracy to Deaton it’s a particularly repulsive image that greets the viewer, her back cracks open, all her bone and muscles are on show for us and a tail grows out of nowhere. When a character consents to something like the bite we don’t actually see the changes happening to their bodies. Isaac, Boyd and Erica are never given the same initial scenes as Scott of bodily changes, they simple weren’t werewolves then they are. The closest we get to this is the scene in the train car during the full moon, but during that scene it is not their bodies turning on themselves, it’s them turning on Derek. The violence is not turned inwards it’s turned outwards.

Then how come a character like Jackson who wanted the bite has multiple body horror scenes throughout season two? Jackson wanted to become a werewolf, the bite was merely the means to an end. Assuming Derek never told him it’s clear he had no idea there was a possibility he might turn into something like the kanima. He is not only turning into something he never wanted he is also in a sense being possessed. He is no longer the only occupant in his body, the kanima is someone he initially has no knowledge of, a creature that is basically using his body to commit murders at the will of Matt. Matt too becomes one of the theoretical entities possessing Jackson’s body as the show makes it clear to the viewer in Raving that the kanima and Matt have a sort of telepathic connection.

Stiles’ possession by the nogitsune in three b is interesting because it is a clear instance of a character within the show having both agency and autonomy stripped from them but there are hardly any distinct body horror scenes to visually showcase this. The effect of the nogitsune’s possession has a more hidden and somewhat downplayed effect on his body than that of other creatures seen in the show. Stiles begins to look sickly as the season progresses, the bags under his eyes grow more pronounced, he becomes paler. The only true body horror scene the audience sees is when the nogitsune splits the two and starts ripping bandages from its throat in a sort of gruesome circus act. After this Stiles’ body continues deteriorating until he is no longer able to stand on his own and he looks like he’s on the brink of death.

Lastly it would be impossible to write a post about agency and autonomy in Teen Wolf without discussing Lydia. It could be argued that the instances where Lydia is stripped of autonomy are less grand in comparison to other events in the show but it happens repeatedly to her and to such a degree that leaving her out would be a major disservice. The two major ones in my opinion are the season one finale where Peter bites her, and then uses her to resurrect him; and when she is in Eichen House in season five and Valack performs trepanation on her to make her more powerful. Peter’s action was done for the same reason he bit Scott, it was a way for him to gain power, to keep the upper hand. The following resurrection plot then becomes an event which even further strips Lydia’s autonomy, she now acts only according to what Peter wants, poisoning her friends to keep them distracted on the full moon for her to perform the resurrection. When Valack performs trepanation on her in Eichen House it’s despite Lydia’s many vocal no’s. He does not care if Lydia dies because of it, he even believes that doing something that will likely kill her is worth it and the good thing to do if she can find out who the beast is. It’s also interesting to note in regards to the trepanation that within psychiatry trepanning was the precursor to the lobotomy. Something which wound be a very interesting thing to look at from the perspective of a character analysis of Lydia.

[Also this is me barely scratching the surface of this topic,,, both in the webweave above but also in the essay i wrote. like i could write an entire thesis about this topic i'm not even kidding and i had to hold myself back from using even more quotes than this even tho this is def the longest post i've ever made.]

#teen wolf #teen wolf meta #twmeta #agency #autonomy #scott mccall #lydia martin #stiles stilinski #mason hewitt #corey bryant #jackson whittemore #gerard argent #there's a small thesis in the read more in case anyone wants to read more of my thoughts on this subject #web weave #web weaving #mine #teen wolf academia

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rauthschild · 3 months ago

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THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH ABOUT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.....CAROL SWAIN

When you think about racial equality and civil rights, which political party comes to mind?

The Republicans? Or, the Democrats? Most people would probably say the Democrats. But this answer is incorrect.

Since its founding in 1829, the Democratic Party has fought against every major civil rights initiative, and has a long history of discrimination.

The Democratic Party defended slavery, started the Civil War, opposed Reconstruction, founded the Ku Klux Klan, imposed segregation, perpetrated lynchings, and fought against the civil rights acts of the 1950s and 1960s.

In contrast, the Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. Its mission was to stop the spread of slavery into the new western territories with the aim of abolishing it entirely. This effort, however, was dealt a major blow by the Supreme Court. In the 1857 case Dred Scott v. Sandford, the court ruled that slaves aren’t citizens; they’re property.

The seven justices who voted in favor of slavery? All Democrats. The two justices who dissented? Both Republicans.

The slavery question was, of course, ultimately resolved by a bloody civil war. The commanderin-chief during that war was the first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln – the man who freed the slaves.

Six days after the Confederate army surrendered, John Wilkes Booth, a Democrat, assassinated President Lincoln. Lincoln’s vice president, a Democrat named Andrew Johnson, assumed the presidency. But Johnson adamantly opposed Lincoln’s plan to integrate the newly freed slaves into the South’s economic and social order.

Johnson and the Democratic Party were unified in their opposition to the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery; the 14th Amendment, which gave blacks citizenship; and the 15th Amendment, which gave blacks the vote.

All three passed only because of universal Republican support.

During the era of Reconstruction, federal troops stationed in the south helped secure rights for the newly freed slaves. Hundreds of black men were elected to southern state legislatures as Republicans, and 22 black Republicans served in the US Congress by 1900. The Democrats did not elect a black man to Congress until 1935.

But after Reconstruction ended, when the federal troops went home, Democrats roared back into power in the South. They quickly reestablished white supremacy across the region with measures like black codes – laws that restricted the ability of blacks to own property and run businesses. And they imposed poll taxes and literacy tests, used to subvert the black citizen’s right to vote.

And how was all of this enforced? By terror -- much of it instigated by the Ku Klux Klan,

founded by a Democrat, Nathan Bedford Forrest.

As historian Eric Foner - himself a Democrat - notes:

“In effect, the Klan was a military force serving the interests of the Democratic Party.”

President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, shared many views with the Klan. He re-segregated many federal agencies, and even screened the first movie ever played at the White House - the racist film “The Birth of a Nation,” originally entitled “The Clansman.”

A few decades later, the only serious congressional opposition to the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 came from Democrats.

Eighty percent of Republicans in Congress supported the bill. Less than 70 percent of

Democrats did. Democratic senators filibustered the bill for 75 days, until Republicans mustered the few extra votes needed to break the logjam.

And when all of their efforts to enslave blacks, keep them enslaved, and then keep them from voting had failed, the Democrats came up with a new strategy: If black people are going to vote, they might as well vote for Democrats. As President Lyndon Johnson was purported to have said about the Civil Rights Act, “I’ll have them n*****s voting Democrat for two hundred years.”

So now, the Democratic Party prospers on the votes of the very people it has spent much of its history oppressing.

Democrats falsely claim that the Republican Party is the villain, when in reality it’s the failed policies of the Democratic Party that have kept blacks down. Massive government welfare has decimated the black family. Opposition to school choice has kept them trapped in failing schools. Politically correct policing has left black neighborhoods defenseless against violent crime.

So, when you think about racial equality and civil rights, which political party should come to mind?

I’m Carol Swain, professor of political science and law at Vanderbilt University, for Prager University.

#blacklivesmatter #blackvotersmatters #donald trump #joe biden #naacp #blackmediamatters #blackvotersmatter #news #ados #youtube

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jabbage · 1 year ago

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#Letters from Watson #lettersfromwatson

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mitchelldailygames · 12 days ago

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2024 Book Round-Up

I’m doing this again! These are things I read this year, not books that came out this year. They’re not in any particular order.

The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross I read this book and the next from this series (the Laundry Files) this year and kind of fell in love. It’s about an agent and IT guy from a secret British agency in charge of stopping demons and other monstrosities summoned by computers from destroying the world. The horror has a very cosmic/eldritch vibe. I also find it quite funny with almost Pratchett-like dry humor, though with a pitch black coat of paint on it. Office politics is also a big part of the stories, but resolved in much more grisly ways than hopefully you’d find in your workplace. There are a lot of books in this series, so I have a lot to look forward to.

Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert Just finished this one. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as I did. A lot of the book happens inside Paul’s head or through political conversations, but I felt the story still moved along well and had interesting twists and turns. The weirdness of the Dune universe also takes a big step forward which I appreciated here. You could leave the first book still debating if Paul still fits in the typical white savior narrative, and this book shatters that really effectively.

Erasure by Percival Everett I think I heard about this one from an interview with the author on the On the Media podcast. The basic premise is a Black author is critically well-received but not commercially because he writes experimental fiction that publishers and distributors find to be not reflective enough of the African-American experience (something that he’s not trying to write about). He hits a point when he needs money after tragedy hits his family and is frustrated by the market and writes a book about a young man in the hood full of stereotypes that he intends as a scathing parody of other books that are selling well. Minor spoilers, people love the book and take it as an authentic look at the African-American experience. This was more experimental than I was expecting—the entirety of the terrible book the character writes is in this novel—but I found it really compelling. The tension in the last scene had my heart hammering.

Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller Another book that landed on my list by way of podcast a long time ago, this book is part biography of ichthyologist David Starr Jordan, part memoir, and part critical examination of taxonomy, eugenics, and the western obsession with classification and hierarchy. It’s a pretty beautiful work that I find myself thinking about and referencing quite often.

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch Want a fantasy book that’s about all rogues? This is that book. It’s a crime/heist thriller in a really well-built world. There’s a great mix of high highs and low lows in this book (warning, it gets dark), and it uses tension really well. The heisting and scheming is all really fun, the magic and monsters of the world are really cool balancing an overall pretty harrowing story.

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus OK, like most of these I heard about on a podcast. Jamie Loftus has been one of the most common voices coming through my speakers/headphones this year and she narrates the audiobook for her book. This book is about hot dogs, told through a cross country hotdog tour. It’s also about the meat industry, COVID, a relationship at its end, and America’s relationship with consumption. It’s very well written and a good encapsulation of what I love about Jamie’s brand of journalism and storytelling.

Escape from Incel Island by Margaret Killjoy Margaret Killjoy is another favorite person to listen to/read. This book is a pretty short, pulpy romp about a future where all of the incels get tricked by the government into getting trapped on an island and a woman and a non-binary mercenary who are sent to the island and then have to escape. It’s violent, sometimes scary, but doesn’t take that side of itself too seriously. Woven through are some really compassionate and poignant examinations of gender, masculinity, and the complexity of people.

Reading Now/On the Shelf I’m currently reading Lessons in Birdwatching by Honey Watson and loving it. It’s a really cool far-future sci-fi book about research students stationed on a planet where the residents appear to experience time nonlinearly. It will probably be the first book I finish in 2025 and will show up on this list next year.

Also on the shelf are The Sapling Cage by Margaret Killjoy which is marketed as a young adult fantasy novel and The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers, the author of A Psalm for the Wild-Built which I read last year. I’m really looking forward to both!

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article1111 · 25 days ago

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An Urgent Call for Justice: Addressing Corruption, Defamation, and Threats to Safety

By Enzo Vincenzi

Corruption, defamation, and threats to safety have no borders. The devastating impacts of these crimes are far-reaching and undermine justice, eroding the foundations of lawful governance and human rights. In my own experience, systemic corruption in both the United States and Costa Rica has not only disrupted my life but has also exposed troubling patterns of misconduct involving public officials, law enforcement agencies, and international representatives.

This article details the injustices I have endured and underscores the need for swift action to uphold justice and restore integrity to our institutions.

Systemic Corruption in the United States

My ordeal began in Lee County, Florida, where I faced an orchestrated campaign of corruption and harassment. Key individuals involved include Sheriff Carmine Marcino, former Sheriff Mike Scott, and an unlawful immigrant named Miriam Pacheco. These parties participated in organized fraud, drug trafficking, and even a conspiracy to commit murder. Despite public exposure of these crimes, including documented solicitation of murder-for-hire (Case No. #53–35825) reported in The Naples Daily News, justice remains elusive due to the complicity of high-ranking officials like former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and former FBI Director James Comey.

My false arrest photo, unlawfully publicized by Sheriff Carmine Marcino, has had devastating consequences. The fabricated charges of obstruction of justice and resisting arrest have destroyed my reputation, severely limiting my professional opportunities. This defamatory action represents a blatant abuse of power and highlights a systemic failure to protect the rights of innocent citizens.

Escalating Threats in Costa Rica

Seeking refuge from corruption in the United States, I relocated to Costa Rica with hopes of rebuilding my life and business. Unfortunately, the misconduct followed me. Despite my repeated appeals for protection and assistance, I faced obstruction from U.S. Ambassador Cynthia A. Telles and her staff at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica. Their dismissive and negligent handling of my case exacerbated my vulnerability, leaving me exposed to threats and harassment.

Local officials and attorneys in Costa Rica, including Richard Seaton, Carly Huba, and James Huba, have targeted me with fabricated criminal charges and defamatory campaigns. These coordinated attacks are part of a broader scheme to seize my hotel business and property. This conspiracy has not only harmed me personally but has also jeopardized the investments of U.S. citizens who trusted Costa Rica’s legal system.

The Human Cost of Corruption

The ramifications of this corruption extend beyond individual cases. In Costa Rica, greed-fueled corruption has contributed to an alarming rise in crime, including organized murder and fraud. Public officials and attorneys, driven by avarice, have exploited the legal system to rob citizens and investors of their rightful properties. As widely reported in the media, these crimes have escalated the country’s murder rate and endangered countless lives.

Evidence from surveillance footage and public records reveals a disturbing pattern of cover-ups, conspiracies, and violent crimes. The involvement of minors in contract killings highlights a shocking disregard for human life and the rule of law. These atrocities must be met with decisive action to restore justice and protect innocent citizens.

A Demand for Accountability

To address these injustices, it is imperative to hold all responsible parties accountable. The evidence I have presented includes court cases, police records, and witness testimony, all of which document the corruption and misconduct I have faced. My appeals to authorities, including Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves and Judicial Investigation Office (OIJ) Director Randall Zúñiga, emphasize the urgent need for justice.

Key figures such as Sheriff Carmine Marcino and Ambassador Cynthia A. Telles must answer for their roles in perpetuating these crimes. The documented misconduct of these officials, including defamation, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy, represents a gross violation of ethical and legal standards. The integrity of our institutions depends on holding these individuals accountable.

Evidence and Appeals for Justice

On September 14, 2024, I submitted a comprehensive criminal complaint to multiple authorities, including President Rodrigo Chaves and OIJ Director Randall Zúñiga. This complaint contains:

Five Costa Rican court cases with supporting documentation.

Public records from the Costa Rica Supreme Court, Jaco Court, and Jaco Police Department.

Witness testimonies attesting to the hate crimes and conspiracies against me.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, justice remains elusive due to obstruction and negligence by officials such as Fiscal Eduardo Mora Casconte. These failures have emboldened corrupt parties to continue their schemes, jeopardizing the safety and investments of countless individuals.

On September 6, 2024, I also submitted a formal complaint to the Costa Rica College of Attorneys, detailing the roles of Francisco Eiter Cruz Marchena and Carlos Villegas Méndez in facilitating fraud and conspiracy. This complaint was forwarded to U.S. Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken and the FBI to ensure transparency and accountability.

Unlawful Watch List Placement and Defamation

In addition to facing threats abroad, I have been unlawfully placed on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security watch list. This flagging, based on falsified information from Sheriff Carmine Marcino, violates my constitutional rights, including the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection and the 4th Amendment’s protection against unreasonable searches and seizures.

A TSA officer confirmed that fraudulent charges of obstruction and domestic violence, filed by Miriam Pacheco and supported by Sheriff Marcino, remain in their database despite being dismissed. This defamatory labeling not only restricts my freedom to travel but also places my safety at risk by portraying me as a threat to law enforcement.

Legal Demands and Call to Action

I am calling for immediate action to rectify these injustices:

Thorough Investigation: A comprehensive investigation into the actions of Sheriff Carmine Marcino and other complicit officials.

Record Corrections: Removal of all false and defamatory information from public and government records.

Protection of Rights: Upholding my constitutional rights and ensuring fair treatment under the law.

Public Disclosure: Transparency in disclosing defamatory statements and clearing my name.

Additionally, I urge authorities to investigate and prosecute those involved in corruption and conspiracy, both in the United States and Costa Rica. The safety of U.S. citizens and the integrity of international investments depend on our collective commitment to justice.

Conclusion

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The corruption and defamation I have faced threaten not only my personal safety but also the principles of fairness and integrity that define our societies. I appeal to President Donald J. Trump, President Rodrigo Chaves, and all relevant authorities to take decisive action. Justice must prevail to protect future generations and uphold the rule of law.

May this call for justice serve as a testament to resilience, truth, and accountability in the face of adversity.

God Bless the United States of America and Costa Rica.

Enzo Vincenzi Ocean Beach Jaco Hotel, Costa Rica

Click here for the extended version

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lynchinsuranceagency · 4 years ago

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#apartment insurance #for rent #greenwood insurance agency #greenwood renters insurance #Lynch Insurance #rental #Renters Insurance #renters liability insurance #renting a home #renting an apartment #scott lynch agency

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 3 years ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

August 30, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

At 3:29 ET on August 30, 2021—early on the morning of August 31 in Afghanistan—the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan ended. It was the longest war in American history.

Among the last to come home were the 13 Americans killed in an ISIS-K attack last Thursday. They arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware Sunday morning from Germany. President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and 8 aides attended the dignified transfer between the plane and a waiting vehicle.

In the last 17 days in Afghanistan, U.S. troops evacuated more than 120,000 people, making up the largest airlift in our history. For comparison, as Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post pointed out, the U.S. evacuated no Americans from the civil war in Yemen in 2015, and only about 167 from Libya in 2011.

While critics have suggested that America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan will hurt American credibility abroad, President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have called for combatting terrorism through financial sanctions, bombing, and drone strikes like the one they used to retaliate against ISIS-K for the attack on the Kabul airport that killed more than 160 Afghans and 13 Americans last Friday, and by strengthening democracy at home.

There is plenty of work to do on that last front.

Last week, Peter Wehner, who served in the Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush administrations, pointed out in The Atlantic that the right wing has moved to such extremism that former president Trump, whose behavior seemed so shocking in 2015 and 2016, is now being sidelined by lawmakers and pundits who are even more extreme.

Yesterday, in an event hosted by the Macon County Republican Party, Representative Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) insisted that the January 6 rioters are “political hostages” and said he wanted to “bust them out.” When someone in the audience asked “When are you going to call us to Washington again?” he said, “We are actively working on that one…. We have a few plans in motion that I can’t make public right now.” He called for removing Biden from office under the 25th Amendment and added, “when Kamala Harris inevitably screws up, we will take them down, one at a time.” He concluded by saying: “The Second Amendment was not written so that we can go hunting or we can shoot sporting clays…. The Second Amendment was written so that we can fight against tyranny.”

Increasingly, right-wing agitators are calling for violent overthrow of the government.

Today in Pennsylvania, Steve Lynch, a candidate for Northampton County executive, said: “Forget going into these school boards with freaking data. You go into these school boards to remove them. I’m going in with 20 strong men and I’m gonna give them an option—they can leave or they can be removed.”

At a protest in Santa Monica yesterday before a vote on a mask mandate, a man held a sign with the names and home addresses of each Los Angeles City Council member and said protesters would go to the homes of anyone who voted for the mandate and, if it passed, “Civil War is coming! Get your guns!”

This sort of street-level violence is known for radicalizing individuals as they get swept up in it and then later embrace the larger political arguments behind it. It also forces more reasonable individuals out of government positions as they conclude that their position on a school board, for example, is not worth threats against their families and their lives.

Far from trying to tamp down this violence, right-wing leaders are egging it on. Tonight, on the Fox News Channel, personality Tucker Carlson told his audience that no leader had apologized for “these terrible decisions” in Afghanistan. “This can’t go on,” he said. “When leaders refuse to hold themselves accountable, over time, people revolt…. We need to change course immediately… or else the consequences will be awful.”

The images on the screen behind Carlson were of President Biden, Secretary of State Blinken, Defense Secretary Austin, and Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Milley. Carlson often tries to undermine the current leadership of the military, suggesting that he would welcome its replacement by officers he finds less objectionable.

Republican offense may be an attempt at defense.

Today, Representative Bennie Thompson (D-MS), chair of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, announced that the committee has demanded that 35 major communications companies preserve their records from April 1, 2020, to January 31, 2021, for people involved in the January 5 and January 6 rallies in Washington, D.C., or “potentially involved with discussions” about stopping the electoral vote count on January 6 or otherwise “potentially involved with discussions" in planning the January 6 insurrection. According to CNN, the companies affected include cell phone giants Verizon Wireless, AT&T, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Sprint. Social media companies covered under the request include Apple, Google, Facebook, Signal, Slack, YouTube, Twitch, and Twitter.

CNN reports that members of the committee have requested preservation of the records of representatives Cawthorn, Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Mo Brooks (R-AL), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Jody Hice (R-GA), and Scott Perry (R-PA). They have also asked the companies to preserve the records of former president Trump; those of his children Ivanka Trump, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump; and those of his daughter-in-law Lara Trump and Don Jr.’s girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, who worked on the campaign.

Those determined to regain control of the country from the Democrats also have to contend with continuing good news from Biden’s policies. A new study from the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia University shows that the first child tax credit payment kept 3 million children from falling below the poverty line and that the child poverty rate dropped from 15.8% in June to 11.9% in July. Coronavirus relief measures kept another 3 million children from poverty. Families are using the money to buy food and pay off debt.

The administration is also coordinating aid to the states hit hard by Hurricane Ida, which brought up to 15 inches of rain to parts of Louisiana and knocked out the state’s power grid. The administration deployed more than 3,600 employees of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, who prepared more than 3.4 million meals, millions of liters of water, more than 35,700 tarps, and roughly 200 generators in the region before the storm hit. They have moved ambulances and search and rescue teams into the area and have opened shelters. The Army Corps of Engineers has mobilized personnel to remove debris and to provide temporary roofing and housing.

The administration is shifting its focus from unilateral military might to multilateral alliances to deal with common problems. Tomorrow, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will leave for Asia, where he will meet with leaders from Japan and then China to bolster international cooperation on climate change before the meeting of the 2021 U.N Climate Change Conference in early November.

—-

Notes:

Kyle Griffin @kylegriffin1CENTCOM's Gen. McKenzie: In total, 123,000 civilians were evacuated from Afghanistan over the last 18 days.

869 Retweets3,334 Likes

August 30th 2021

Aaron Fritschner @FritschnerAt Macon County GOP event yesterday, Madison Cawthorn called January 6 rioters “political hostages,” and spoke of trying to “bust them out.” Then- Attendee: “When are you gonna call us to Washington again?" Cawthorn: “We are actively working on that one.”

4,235 Retweets7,587 Likes

August 30th 2021

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cawthorn-calls-jan-6-defendants-political-hostages-muses-about-trying-to-bust-them-out

Scott MacFarlane @MacFarlaneNewsALERT: House Select Jan 6th Committee asks 35 major communications companies (including major cell service providers, Twitter, Parler, etc) to preserve records for "individuals potentially involved with discussions" in planning Jan 6 Sweeping request (more)

1,408 Retweets3,875 Likes

August 30th 2021

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https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/statement-by-president-joe-biden/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/fact-check-biden-dover-afghanistan-kabul/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/28/world/asia/kabul-airport-attack-isis-us-strike.html

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/30/politics/january-6-phone-records-members-of-congress/index.html

Ron Filipkowski @RonFilipkowskiAt protest in Santa Monica today before the vote on mask-mandate, Jason Lefkowitz has the home addresses of each LA City Council member on his sign. He says they are going to the homes of whoever votes for it, and if it passes, it’s “civil war, get your guns.” From @chadloder

3,407 Retweets5,941 Likes

August 30th 2021

Andrew Lawrence @ndrew_lawrencethe most watched cable news host in america justifies a coming "revolt" unless we "change course immediately"

261 Retweets957 Likes

August 31st 2021

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/01/american-civilians-yemen-left-behind

https://www.npr.org/2021/08/30/1032615984/house-panel-investigating-the-capitol-attack-orders-35-companies-to-preserve-rec

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/30/how-evacuation-americans-is-going/

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/08/radicalism-post-trump-gop/619891/

https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/monthly-poverty-july-2021

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/08/30/readout-of-president-bidens-briefing-with-gulf-coast-elected-officials-on-hurricane-ida/

https://www.businessinsider.com/child-tax-credit-expansion-reduce-child-poverty-rate-research-2021-8

https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-ida-louisiana-new-orleans-c43c2c68946ceb6100c2239534c6c290

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#extreme right wing #corrupt GOP #criminal GOP #January 6 2021 #January 6 Commission #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson

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fuckyeahmarxismleninism · 4 years ago

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Defend activists and organizers under attack! Defend Black lives!

As the anti-racist uprising of 2020 roiled business as usual in cities across the U.S., many protesters have been hit with severe charges after being arrested for offenses that would normally be considered violations or misdemeanors. Many arrestees are facing possible sentences of years in prison or even life sentences.

In a dangerous attack on our right to protest, Attorney General William Barr in a recent conference call with U.S. attorneys across the country even encouraged sedition charges be widely used against anti-racist protestors. Sedition means conspiracy and intent to overthrow the U.S. government and can result in life imprisonment.

The Socialist Unity Party has issued an appeal to all revolutionary left organizations and activists to unite in defense of those facing repression from the capitalist state and its allies in the white supremacist-fascist movement. (Read the appeal in English or Spanish)

Please share widely. This list will be updated regularly. If you know of a case that should be added, send details to: [email protected].

Here are some important cases and actions that your organization or you as an individual can publicize to help:

San Diego

Denzel Draughn, a well-known San Diego anti-racist activist and supporter of the African People’s Socialist Party, was arrested Aug. 28 at a demonstration in solidarity with the movement in Kenosha, Wis., calling for justice for Jacob Blake, who was shot seven times in the back by police. Draughn is charged based on the ridiculous claim that he pepper-sprayed nine cops. He is facing 19 felony charges as a result. The allegations stem from an incident when a group of demonstrators tried to defend themselves against a violent police assault. Ten people were arrested, but Draughn has been singled out for the harshest treatment. At the request of San Diego cops, his bail is set at the outrageous amount of $750,000 – an amount usually reserved for kidnapping or murder.

● WATCH: Interview of Muambi Tanga of African People’s Socialist Party about Denzel Draughn case

● Donate to $ParrishDavis on CashApp, @Parrish-Davis on Venmo or the Dede McClure Community Bail Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-raise-funds-to-support-our-community

Denver

On Sept. 17, police agencies in the Denver area arrested anti-racist organizers in a coordinated assault. Russell Ruch was arrested while in a parking lot at a Home Depot. An hour later, five police cars surrounded and arrested Lillian House while she was driving. That afternoon, S.W.A.T. teams arrived at Joel Northam’s home and arrested him. Eliza Lucero has also been arrested. All four are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation and organizers of protests to demand justice for Elijah McClain, who was brutally murdered by the Aurora Police Department. They are still in jail, with the exception of one person, and face multiple felony charges and years in prison in an obvious frame-up aimed at stopping the movement for justice for Elijah McClain.

● Emergency Mobilization at the Colorado State Capitol Building in Denver, noon Saturday Sept. 19.

● Sign the petition to drop the charges: https://www.pslweb.org/dropthecharges

● Donate here to the legal and political support campaigns for these organizers: https://www.pslweb.org/donate4denver

Tallahassee, Fla.

On Sept. 5, Tallahassee police and Leon County sheriffs attacked a peaceful Black Lives Matter demonstration. After pulling a Black woman organizer from her car, 300 police attacked around 75-100 protesters. Fourteen were arrested on the spot and five more have been arrested since, including members of the Students for a Democratic Society and Freedom Road Socialist Organization. The majority are facing multiple charges, including felonies, that could result in fines of $10,000 and 10 years in prison. Others face up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each misdemeanor they’re charged with. The demonstration was to protest a grand jury decision not to indict the police officers who murdered Tony McDade, Mychael Johnson and Wilburn Woodard. The three were gunned down by Tallahassee police in March and May of this year.

● Call State Attorney Jack Campbell at 850 606-6000, or email [email protected]

● Click the “File a Complaint” button on Tallahassee Police Department webpage at https://www.talgov.com/publicsafety/tpd-compliment.aspx

● Go to the GoFundMe page to help with the legal fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/community-supportfor-blm-protestors-in-tally

Portland, Ore.

The battle against police racism is raging in Portland. Nightly demonstrations have entered their fourth month. Since the end of May, hundreds have been arrested. In August, hoping to quell the protests, incoming Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt dropped charges against protestors. Demonstrations continued to challenge systemic racism, arrests and brutality continued, and charges have become more severe. On Aug. 27, a news release by the U.S. Attorney’s District of Oregon office announced that it is going ahead with prosecutions of 100 people who were arrested since May, many by Trump’s federal officers. Seventy-four of them are facing felonies that could result in prison sentences of years. A Sept. 5 NPR audit of the felony charges concludes that the actions protestors were accused of and arrested for were minor and should never have resulted in felonies.

● Call the District Attorney’s office at (503) 727-1000 or comment on the U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Oregon website by emailing [email protected] to demand that charges be dropped against anti-racist protesters.

Oklahoma City

In Oklahoma, where the entire Black community of Tulsa was burned in 1919, and where a white supremacist attack killed 168 people in 1995, Oklahoma County District Attorney Lewis Prater has charged three teenagers, Malachai Davis, Haley Lin Crawford and Sydney Lynch – as well as two other participants in protests against the police murder of George Floyd -- with terrorism. The bond amounts for a dozen other arrestees are between $200,000 and $1 million. The harshest treatment has been directed at those arrestees who are African American. Terrorism convictions could mean years or even decades in prison for charges that should have been misdemeanors. In May, DA Prater refused to charge cops who killed Isaiah Lewis during a mental health crisis in September 2019. When 42-year-old Derrick Scott was in custody of Oklahoma City cops in May 2019, he told them he couldn’t breathe and asked for his medicine. The cop’s response was “I don’t care.” Scott died soon afterward, but Prater brought no charges against those cops either. In August of this year, James Harmon was shot in the head by cops, also in Prater’s jurisdiction, and there is no indication that charges will be brought against the cops who killed him.

● Call DA Lewis Prater’s office at (405) 713-1600 and demand he drop all charges against anti-racist protesters and bring charges against killer cops.

Salt Lake City

In Salt Lake City, a group of protestors are charged with felony criminal mischief. District Attorney Sim Gill added a “gang enhancement,” which could mean life sentences for seven people who were protesting Gill’s decision not to file charges against two SLC cops who shot Bernardo Palacios-Carbajal in the back and killed him. Gill justifies the gang enhancement by saying the activists conspired to splash red paint and break the windows of a building. The gang enhancement is an inherently racist feature of the criminal justice system, and the fact that it is being used against people protesting police murders of people of color is a further travesty of justice. More than 30 others in Salt Lake City have been hit with serious charges stemming from recent anti-racist demonstrations, including some felonies.

● Call District Attorney Sim Gill’s office at (358) 468-7600 to demand he drop charges against anti-racist protesters.

Miami

Jonathon Gartrelle, a leading gay, African American, anti-racist activist in Miami, is charged with strong-arm robbery and escape – both felonies – as well as two misdemeanors. Jonathon is accused of removing two Trump flags from parked vehicles and dropping them on the ground while counter-protesting at a pro-Trump caravan. Gartrelle himself was hit by an SUV, which drove away and was not pursued by the cops, who are falsely claiming that Gartrelle declined to press charges. Gartrelle wanted to press charges but refused to go with them in a police cruiser to fill out a report at a precinct.

● Sign the petition: https://www.change.org/p/miami-police-department-justice-for-jonni

● Call Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundel at (305) 547-0100 to demand she drop charges against Jonathon Gartrelle

Appeal to revolutionaries: We must defend each other from state attack

Llamado a los revolucionarios: debemos defendernos unos a otros del ataque estatal

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aboyandhisstarship · 5 years ago

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and old idea now in progress

this is a story i’ve had bouncing around for a while, and now the first part is coming.

here we go:

Gwen woke up in her motel room in the shitty county…honestly she was a techy, Intelligence and analysis so she figured she would never have to leave the office, but nope Agent Johnson needed someone with her skills in the field and here she was, she poured herself a cup of coffee, before thinking she should probably meet up with Agent Johnson …Scott she corrected herself with a shake of her head as she pushed open her room door.

What happened next was not something she would ever forget; as she swung the door opened a lynched body moved with the motion leading in front of the FBI agent who jumped dropping her coffee. The face was burned and bloody with a black cross tattooed on his forehead…the same Tat they make the new cultists wear, but Gwen recognized the puff of blond hair, and said quietly “Agent Johnson ?” before turning around and vomiting hard.

Gwen cleaned herself up before coming to the logical conclusion “if they knew about him…they knew about me.”

She grabbed her gun with shaky hands and a sat phone and made a break for it.

Clearing an hour later:

Gwen sank against a tree still dressed in her pajamas a gun in one hand and a phone in another, she took a deep breath pressing the redial button and a voice answered “director Philips.”

Gwen took a deep breath saying “sir…it’s agent Santos…” and then started to freak out “they killed him! They lynched him! Tortured him, FUCCCCKKKKK”

The director said quickly “slow down Agent…who…are you ok?”

Gwen answered in a half shout “Agent Johnson…oh god they killed him…sir it was brutal…every time I close my eyes.”

Philips sighed “ok Agent stay calm…are you ok?”

Gwen nodded “uhh yes sir…I’m still in my pajamas…they left the body on my door step I grabbed my gun and my phone and bolted.”

Philips nodded “Agent stand by…these guys are well armed…but we can get the National Guard out there and shut them down.”

Gwen yelled “SIR YOU CAN’T!”

Philips asked “why not agent…?”

Gwen sighed “sir…Agent Johnson had my look over some Intel some locals got…it is nothing confirmed…but the cult may have smuggled in nuclear weapons.”

Philips paused before saying “Agent… get somewhere safe…we will be in touch.”

The Director hung up his phone saying “Get me the Pentagon!”

Safe house:

Gwen supposed the word House was subjective…it was a spot her and Scott used to monitor Cult activity…no one knows about it but them, and if the cult did they would have destroyed it already…so she felt mostly safe. She had food, real clothes (Jeans, a shirt and her FBI jacket) and her bosses were getting back to her soon…hopefully with an escape plan.

Then as if on cue her phone beeped and she answered shakily “Agent Santos…”

A Voice answered “Agent Santos…My name is General Casey.”

Gwen blinked “General…”

Casey spoke simply “Agent…help is coming four of our finest will be coming in VIA parachute to assist you and any other assets in the region…this is your Mission so just point them in the right direction.”

Gwen said “Sir…I’m barely a field agent surely there is someone else for this…”

Casey answered “you have your ear to the ground Agent… these men are pro’s trust them…”

Gwen nodded “ok sir…”

Casey finished “by the way no Names Agent…the leader is a red head…call him Nomad.”

And with that Casey hung up as Gwen cruelled into a ball and cried.

Safe house 2 hours later:

Gwen was mumbling “I have an ear to the ground…really! This Is nuts…and who on earth are they sending! No names! That can’t be good…”

She sighed “just stay cool…these guys are pros…whoever they are.”

Just then she heard a thump, followed by 3 more thumps. Gwen grabbed her gun taking a deep breath as a voice knocked on the door saying “Agent Santos?...it’s Nomad.”

Gwen lowered her gun carefully and opened the door ready to fire, what she saw was a red head about her age dressed in black, with a black hat covering his hair, he was armed with a suppressed Assault rifle and a pistol strapped to his leg, the rest of his team were dressed similarly, there was girl with a blond hair, another blond man, and burley man in the back.

Nomad smiled at her gently saying “Cool Breeze, Redcap…burry the chutes, Dirt diver your on watch.”

Gwen nodded gesturing into the odd Bunker with the Solider behind her. Gwen tried to stay calm as she briefed “This morning I found my boss Agent Johnson…dead…the cult offed him.”

Nomad reached out gently “Agent Santos…”

Gwen said simply “call me Gwen…Nomad.”

Nomad smiled “Ok Gwen…this is hard for you…your file says you are rather new to the agency, that is part of the reason why my team were brought in so quickly. We are here to help you, but we need to know everything you do.”

Gwen sighed “right…the cult is built more like a militia…they own the entire county and have it divided into four regions one is central and where that snake Daniel is…the other 3 are run by his ministers…”

David smiled gently as Gwen explained “Agent Johnson and I referred to them simply as A,B,C the cult has some name for them…but I’d rather call them A, B,C…A is run by a punk by the name of Pike man…he was military, no idea what happened to him…but he ended up here and runs the cult training center…and they train hard. there forces are an army in every sense of the term it is nuts…B is run by an Ex Con known on the streets as dirty Kevin…he is the reason the bureau got interested in the cult to start with…we think the cult and Dirty Kevin are using his drug connections to produce and ship massive amounts of a designer drug called Haze… Haze maybe how the cult is funding there other…areas, Area C is the intro area it’s there where new cultists and brainwashed and assigned there new jobs…the region is run by Daniel wife… a woman named Jen…I have next to nothing on her…so there you go that’s the run down…”

Nomad touched her arm gently saying “thank you…our briefing mentioned a group of locals, resistance fighter’s types?”

Gwen nodded “Sleepy Peak county fireballs…local bowling league before all this… the leader is an old tough guy type…I think he was a marine.”

Nomad rolled his eyes “figures”

Gwen chuckled as she kept going “they got guns and the motives to fight the cult…and have and do…me and Agent Johnson made contact…Quartermaster likes me…I think.”

Nomad nodded “right then Gwen…just remember we are not here…that means the locals did everything understood?”

Gwen nodded “right…”

Nomad smiled “we should make contact and start coordinate…”

Gwen asked gently “I can do that…but you sure you want to go dressed like that.”

David blushed asking “do you another option?”

Gwen pointed to the back as the rest of his team chuckled amused.

David came out wearing a pair of jeans and a red plaid shirt he concealed his pistol under his shirt, he shoved his hat into his pocket asking “shall we?”

Gwen nodded stunned honestly he looked cute…enough she could almost forget he was a trained killer who was here to literally destroy an entire cult.

The pair left the safe house climbing into a jeep with David driving who said calmly “Gwen…if anyone asks my name is Michael…I was camping and came down and stumbled into you in the woods…you then filled me in on everything.”

Gwen frowned testing the name “Michael…is that your name?”

David chuckled lightly “do I look like a Michael?”

Gwen paused before conceding “No you do not…then what do you look like?”

David shot her a wink “Nomad…”

Gwen rolled her eyes “I should have seen that coming…well your entire team has cool call signs…do I get one?” She half joked.

David kept driving asking gently “do you want one Ma’am?”

Gwen was rocked back into her new position she mumbled “right my op…uhhh do you think it is wise…Nomad?”

David slowed down slightly looking at her directly “Honestly Gwen…You don’t need to worry about our coms being tapped…and they likely already know about you…but if it makes more comfortable than absolutely.”

Gwen nodded “can I get back to you on this Nomad?”

David nodded “anytime…alright we are here…Sleepy peak…the town of.”

The jeep pulled over into the small town some locals looked at him with looks of vague fear before seeing Gwen and there expression’s turning into relief, Gwen sighed “QM should be in the local bar…come on, Nom…Michael.” She corrected herself.

David fired her a smile “relax…the others are nearby…if things get hot they will be able to back us up.”

Bar:

David walked in and made contact with the man known as Quarter master, he was older and had a hook for a hand as he drank a beer; he took one look at David and said casually “Let me guess, Force recon, no Seal.” Opening and offering David and Gwen a Beer

David sat next to him declining the beer “No comment.”

Gwen accepted and chugged the beer nervously as Quartermaster grumbled “figures, damn operator’s, let me guess officially you’re not even here?”

David nodded “yep that’s the op.”

Quartermaster grinned evilly “Yea sounds good…so what are you called?”

David reached out to his hand “Nomad.”

Quartermaster didn’t accept the hand saying “Quartermaster.”

Gwen sighed “you made me come up with a whole story only to not even use it!?”

David shrugged “Quartermaster knows the deal…”

Quartermaster grunted “is what it is.”

David asked “so what are we looking at.”

Quarter master pushed over a file “this is who we have been trying to get at for months now and we finally have an opening.” As he took a big beer sip

David read the name “Sasha Monty…Who is she.”

Quartermaster grumbled “rich Prick of a girl.”

Gwen cut in “Sasha monty, real live daddy’s girl from California, or at least that’s what everyone figured until one day she killed her parents, burned down her boarding school and disappeared off the grid. About four months later the DEA got a tip that she was dealing cookies laced with Meth, disguised as flower scout cookies.”

David blinked “are you kidding me? That’s a 180”

Quartermaster grumbled “they were not even good cookies.”

Gwen nodded “yep…Well naturally the DEA tried to grab her in Texas, but after a firefight she escaped to Mexico where she met Dirty Kevin…who showed her the light…now we think she is a big name in the cult smuggling operation.”

David said “so she is smuggling Haze?”

Gwen shrugged “that is what the Intel suggests.”

David sighed “alright...what do you need us to do.”

Gwen pulled up her laptop typing quickly before saying “the cult owns a rail company, about 40 miles due west of here… destroy the haze before it leaves and when Sasha comes to investigate….Take her alive if possible.” Gwen said hesitantly

David nodded “A stockpile like that is bound to be guarded.” Addressing both Quartermaster and Gwen

Quartermaster shrugged “armed goons, likely Ak’s…”

David asked “Level of force against the guards Gwen?”

Gwen breathed deeply before saying “Nomad…I leave it to your judgement…just bring me Sasha.”

David stood up “Yes ma’am…take the Jeep back to the RV…my team and I will secure our own way.”

And with that David walked out saying “you guys hear that?”

Jasper responded “roger Nomad…we heard…we got a ride and your equipment…meet on the edge of town.”

Tree line:

David adjusted his Jeep hat as he whispered “redcap report.”

Tabii looked up from her drone control saying “the place is woefully under guarded nomad…I see four guards AK…there half asleep.”

David nodded “dirt Diver.”

Nurf nodded “charges are ready.”

David lifted his rifle “pick your targets on my count.”

David turned his hat to face backwards as he looked down his scope picking his target “ready?”

The team all answered “yes.”

David said simply “on my count, 3,2,1, execute execute execute.”

4 suppressed gun shots later the guards dropped dead.

David moved to his feet advancing towards the depot as his team quickly swept the building before he nodded “clear…dirt diver…let’s do it.”

30 minutes later:

David hid it the shadows as Sasha drove up yelling “what in the actual fuck did you idoits do!”

David slowly pulled out his pistol as Sasha threw open the door to the burned out drug stash where David hid “where are you morons jeez.”

She was answered by David grabbing her pressing a gun to her head, she yelled “it’s me idoits.”

David answered “trust me I know.”

Sasha said “who the hell are you?”

David forced her to move “I’m your uncle Sam and we need to have a conversation.”

Sasha said fought but was forced into the trunk of a car and taken to the safe house

Safe house:

David pushed her into the small building forcing her into a small chair he aimed at her, if she made a move he would shoot her.

Gwen entered glaring “hello Sasha.”

Sasha tilted her head “Awww the FBI Hoe.”

Gwen sighed “really Hoe…that’s the best you come up with?”

Sasha scoffed “I thought we run you out when we killed that other agent…what was name.”

David could tell Gwen was getting angry as he said calmly “Gwen…”

Gwen nodded “Nomad…I got this.”

Sasha demanded “who the fuck is Nomad!?”

Gwen paused before saying “that is a fun question to answer, you see your cult buddies did something stupid…very stupid.”

Sasha shook her head “…these guys are not Swat…”

Gwen smiled evilly “oh no, they are some of this great country’s finest Special forces, and they have a single mission here…fucking up the cults day.”

Sasha looked over at David who firing her small wave with the hand he was not holding his sidearm with, Sasha sighed “killing one agent…is not worth this response.”

Gwen nodded “your right…do you know what this is?” Plunking a picture on the table

Sasha looked before shrugging “no clue.”

Gwen said coolly “it’s a warhead, a nuclear warhead that was stolen 3 months ago…and recently popped back on our grid…can you guess where?”

Gwen didn’t wait for Sasha to answer saying “you are all a threat to national security…more than a threat really…so if you want to live you are going to start talking.”

Sasha held up her hands “I don’t know anything about any nukes…If anyone did that…it was Daniel.”

Gwen narrowed her eyes “what can you tell us?”

Sasha said “Dirty Kevin…I know where his lab is…”

#Gwenvid #Camp camp #Kinda mix between farcry 5 and ghost recon wildlands #both fun af Games #Camp camp Gwen #Camp Camp David #Nomad!David #FBI!agent gwen

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neuxue · 6 years ago

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Do you have any recommendations for fantasy reads that are dark but not all the way grimdark? You seem like someone who would have suggestions!

I do indeed! That’s a broad category so I’ve put together a list that should span at least something of a range of different types of ‘dark’. I’m not including comprehensive content warnings, because given the nature of this list it would take all day, but feel free to ask if you want more detailed warnings for any of these.

I’m also only including books I’ve read (I have lots on my to-read list that supposedly fit the dark-but-not-grimdark description), so anyone else should feel free to add your suggestions (I say somewhat selfishly, as this is a genre I am also always in the market for recommendations for).

In alphabetical order:

Baru Cormorant (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, The Monster Baru Cormorant; more to come) by Seth Dickinson. There are books that are dark because of the world they’re set in; there are books that are dark because of the things that happen to the characters…and then there are books that are dark because they focus on the darkness within those characters. This is one of those; Baru Cormorant is savagely intelligent and competent, single-minded in her goals but wide-ranging and creative in her ways of accomplishing them, and will not hesitate to set fire to everything, including herself, to see her ends achieved. The books are a sort of…loving deconstruction not of a villain but of an entire set of traits that are usually ascribed to villainy, in a way that holds nothing back and exposes the sharp edges to show both the bloody ruin and the beauty they make. It’s also a rare chance to see a female character cast in this particular archetype. Book 2 is…darker but also really fucking weird. You’ve been warned.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood and Starlight, Dreams of Gods and Monsters) by Laini Taylor. These fall into the category of ‘aesthetically dark’, and lean more towards the YA/romance (with a healthy side of celestial war), but the world is pretty and magic is pain, so there’s that.

Doctrine of Labyrinths (Mélusine, The Virtu, The Mirador, Corambis) by Sarah Monette. Three books hurt, one book comfort. Very very dark, in the way that fantasy of this time period often is, but done…well, I’m not going to say tastefully, because that would imply that Monette shies away from literally anything at all, which she very much does not, but done in a way that doesn’t shy from consequences either. More character-driven than plot-driven, but the characters include a character who is very much My Type (as well as being pretty much the textbook definition of 'disaster gay’), if that tells you anything, and the relationship between the two protagonist brothers, as it unfolds, is messy and complicated and beautiful.

Gentleman Bastard Sequence (The Lies of Locke Lamora, Red Seas under Red Skies, The Republic of Thieves; more books to come) by Scott Lynch. Dark with a huge side of sarcastic humour. And heists. Lots of heists. Locke is an absolute disaster of a protagonist (really just an absolute disaster full stop), and watching him is like watching a train wreck that turns out to be a Rube Goldberg machine. These probably lean a little closer to grimdark than some of the others on this list (characters die; you’ve been warned), but I think they still ultimately toe the line.

His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman. So technically these are children’s books, but I’d argue they definitely deserve to be described as 'dark’, if in a different way than some of the others on this list. Probably not for you if you’re offended by blasphemy against Christianity (in the words of a friend, these are 'Pullman’s extended callout of the Catholic church’), but if that doesn’t bother you these are probably the first on my list of Formative Fantasy Influences and I love them to pieces. Contains a rather excellent dark Power Couple that, in retrospect, probably defined a lot of what would become My Type in fictional characters. Also gay angels.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. Another one that is probably best described as 'aesthetically dark’. Really interesting setting and characters; if you like dysfunctional families and hot chained gods, this book is for you. It’s the first of a series, but the only one I’ve read so far so I can’t vouch for the others. That said, it reads well as a standalone so you can try it and see if you want more.

Kushiel (Kushiel’s Dart, Kushiel’s Chosen, Kushiel’s Avatar) - Jacqueline Carey. Politics a la Game of Thrones, but told from the perspective of a courtesan, in a world where the whores have voices and agency. Beautiful prose, lots of sex (including the associated content warnings, but focused largely on the power dynamics rather than the sex itself), and political intrigue set in a secondary-world variant of Europe (with forays further afield). Tends to divide opinion: if it’s your thing it’s very much your thing, and if it’s not you’ll probably hate it.

Machineries of Empire (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun) - Yoon Ha Lee. In theory this is scifi rather than fantasy, but it’s heavily fantasy-leaning scifi, so it counts. Very definitely dark, to the point of reading like idfic in the best way possible. Every single content warning you could possibly think of probably applies at some point, in some way. It’s a lot, and I love every single weird, fucked-up thing it chooses to be. There are also some excellent characters spanning the full range of My Type, which, given usually I get one or maybe two of those in any given book/series, is a fucking treat. All kinds of pain, exploration of identity and agency, politics and game theory…something for everyone, is what I’m saying (though also very much not a series I’d recommend to everyone).

Realm of the Elderlings by Robin Hobb (too many to list, but you can find a suggested reading order here). I tend to think of Robin Hobb’s books as not so much 'dark’ as 'heavy’, and it depends on which sub-series you’re reading, but I’m throwing them on this list because Robin Hobb is another one of those authors who doesn’t shy away from things. She doesn’t skim the surface of torturing her characters, or subjecting them to consequences, or allowing everything and its dragon mother to go to absolute shit; no, she doubles down and commits. Which sometimes is exactly what you want, as a reader, and sometimes means it’s time to take a break and go get a cup of tea. Her books definitely aren’t for everyone, but I love what she’s done with the world she builds, and the way it starts out feeling like Just Another Fantasy Setting until it’s too late, you’re invested now, and when the tables start turning there’s nothing you can do but hold on for the ride. Also, really fucking awesome dragons.

A Resurrection of Magic (Skin Hunger, Sacred Scars, incomplete) by Kathleen Duey. I hesitate to put this on the list because it’s an incomplete series and likely to stay that way, but it’s interesting and has a specific…flavour to its darkness that I very much enjoy. The story is told alternating between two narrators and timelines, one in which magic has been banned and largely erased from the world and one in which it has been brought back in a tightly controlled school where mere survival is a high mark of success.

Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Urban fantasy that is its own coffeeshop AU, in a way that is almost but not quite entirely unlike everything that description would evoke. Dark and arguably quite gritty, but with balancing moments of absolute beauty, an impressively rich urban-magic world, and a unique narrative voice. Leaves an astonishing number of loose ends and unanswered questions for a standalone novel; some love that and some hate it.

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. Friends-to-enemies with superpowers, written by an author who clearly loves villains and villainy and explorations thereof. Weirdly a little lighter in some ways than others on this list, but definitely enjoyable. Has a sequel (Vengeful) which I’ve yet to read. Her Darker Shade of Magic series is also worth a read; the plots are simple but the characters are interesting, and again there’s some loving attention paid to all the different variations of the darkness within.

Wind on Fire (The Wind Singer, Slaves of the Mastery, Firesong) - William Nicholson. This is another series that is ostensibly for younger readers (the first book is probably best described as 'children’s horror’), but one of those where you look back a decade or so later and think 'oh, okay, that was uh…darker than I realised at the time’. I should caveat that I haven’t re-read these books since first reading them around age 10 or 12, so take this recommendation with a grain of salt.

#hm I should reread some of these #anyone else feel free to add!#book recs #not tagging them all bc too many #asks #anon #recommendations

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makistar2018 · 5 years ago

Link

It's a Love Story: The History of Taylor Swift's Fiercely Tight Bond With Her Parents

by NATALIE FINN Aug. 13, 2019

Taylor Swift has gotten a ton of musical mileage out of the romantic relationships that have come and gone in her life, but those guys haven't been the truly essential players in her journey to the top of the pop star pyramid.

Instead, it's Scott and Andrea Swift, Taylor's parents, who have championed their daughter since day one, believing in her so much that they left their palatial house in Reading, Penn., for Nashville, where a determined 14-year-old Taylor felt she had to be to make her dream a reality.

Talking to CMT, she said her parents weren't just indulging her for the sake of being supportive. "My parents actually believed it," she said.

Before her Reputation Tour touched down in Philadelphia last year, she took a few friends to visit her childhood home, a Christmas tree farm in Wyomissing, where the new owners were apparently happy to let the famous former resident in to take a look at her old room.

"I went to the house I grew up in. I got emotional when I went into my bedroom, and there's another little girl's things in there," Swift told the sold-out crowd one night at Lincoln Financial Field. "It's not my family farm anymore. We sold it when we went to Nashville. I've been thinking about how cool it is to be back where I started writing songs."

She told CMT that, back in the day, her parents never pushed her, but "I would not leave them alone."

Taylor was barely out of grade school when Andrea Swift (née Gardner Finlay) first took her to Nashville to drop off the CDs she had made of her singing karaoke with record labels, having seen in documentaries about Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes that Music City, U.S.A., was where she needed to be.

"My mom waited in the car with my little brother while I knocked on doors up and down Music Row," Swift recalled to Entertainment Weekly in 2008. "I would say, 'Hi, I'm Taylor. I'm 11; I want a record deal. Call me."'

Well, the world wasn't ready for it just yet.

"She came back from that trip to Nashville and realized she needed to be different, and part of that would be to learn the guitar," Andrea told EW. "Now, at 12, she saw a 12-string guitar and thought it was the coolest thing. And of course we immediately said, 'Oh no, absolutely not, your fingers are too small—not till you're much older will you be able to play the 12-string guitar.'

"Well, that was all it took. Don't ever say never or can't do to Taylor. She started playing it four hours a day—six on the weekends. She would get calluses on her fingers and they would crack and bleed, and we would tape them up and she'd just keep on playing. That's all she played, till a couple of years later, which was the first time she ever picked up a six-string guitar. And when she did, it was like, 'wow, this is really easy!'"

Swift performed in venues all over Pennsylvania, wherever she could get a gig, and wrote her little heart out. She went back to Nashville at 13 and got a development deal at RCA Records, which she declined to re-up after a year, wanting to record only songs that she had a hand in writing. At 14 she became the youngest person in the roster at Sony/ATV Publishing.

So, the whole family—Scott, Andrea, Taylor and her brother, Austin Swift—eventually relocated to Hendersonville, about 20 miles outside Nashville, in 2003. But they didn't explicitly put it that way at the time.

"I knew I was the reason they were moving," Taylor later told Self. "But they tried to put no pressure on me. They were like, 'Well, we need a change of scenery anyway,' and 'I love how friendly the people in Tennessee are.'"

"I never wanted to make that move about her 'making it,"' Andrea explained to EW. "Because what a horrible thing if it hadn't happened, for her to carry that kind of guilt or pressure around. And we moved far enough outside Nashville to where she didn't have to be going to school with producers' kids and label presidents' kids and be reminded constantly that she was struggling to make it. We've always told her that this is not about putting food on our table or making our dreams come true.

"There would always be an escape hatch into normal life if she decided this wasn't something she had to pursue. And of course that's like saying to her, 'If you want to stop breathing, that's cool.'"

Swift ended up fatefully signing with Big Machine Records, run by Scott Borchetta, who had just left Universal Music Group to start his own label.

"They only had 10 employees at the record label to start out with, so when they were releasing my first single, my mom and I came in to help stuff the CD singles into envelopes to send to radio," Taylor recalled to EW. "We sat out on the floor and did it because there wasn't furniture at the label yet."

Meanwhile, Scott and Andrea—formerly a marketing manager at an advertising agency—had already set up Taylor's website and MySpace page (with Taylor writing her bio, updates and responses to fans herself, of course).

"The mom and dad both have great marketing minds," Rick Barker, Swift's manager at the time, told EW. "I don't want to say fake it until you make it, but when you looked at her stuff, it was very professional even before she got her deal."

Andrea said that her daughter relished the recognition, the selfie requests and the otherwise positive attention from fans of her music, "but she never in her life ever said, 'I want to be famous' or 'I want to be rich' or 'I want to be a star.' Those words absolutely never came out of her mouth. If they had, I would have said, 'Honey, maybe you're doing it kind of for the wrong reasons.'

"For her, the happiest I ever see her is just after she's written a killer song. As a parent, I felt really good about that. If that's where she draws happiness from, she'll have that the rest of her life. She's not always gonna have the awards, or the attention, or the celebrity, but she will always have the ability to write a song."

Swift has credited her mother for instilling in her the importance of maintaining her independence, financial and otherwise, saying, "She raised me to be logical and practical. I was brought up with such a strong woman in my life and I think that had a lot to do with me not wanting to do anything halfway."

Andrea's mother, Marjorie Finlay, was a professional opera singer and a magnetic presence in every room—a quality Taylor shared with her grandma, Scott Swift once said. "The two of them had some sort of magic where they could walk into a room and remember everyone's name," he said. "Taylor has the same grace and physique of Andrea's mother."

Taylor described her dad, meanwhile, as "just a big teddy bear who tells me everything I do is perfect." That being said, she added, "business-wise, he's brilliant."

Once Taylor's career started to take off, Scott, who had relocated his business to Nashville, stayed in town with Austin while Andrea accompanied their daughter on tour, helping her finish high school on the road.

"She was always singing music when she was 3, 5, 6, 7 years old," Scott, an investment banker with Merill Lynch who ran The Swift Group under the company's umbrella, told the University of Delaware's UDaily in 2009. "It's Taylor doing what she likes to do." (When she was quite little, Taylor recalled, she would tell people she was going to be a financial advisor, even though she didn't know what that meant.)

"We had a kid that was really passionate about it," he said. Getting that first deal at 13 "was the confirmation that maybe she wasn't crazy, because her writing is why she got it."

Swift was 16 when her self-titled debut album came out in October 2006. Less than a year later, she opened for Brad Paisley at the Allentown Fair, a big-ticket gig in her home state.

While "Tim McGraw," her first-ever single, eventually drew the most attention, her second single, "Teardrops on My Guitar," was her first top-15 single (peaking at 13) and the next, "Our Song," became her biggest hit on country radio to date, her first No. 1 on the Hot Country Songs chart.

Scott Swift hasn't had to do much lately when it comes to Taylor's ridiculously successful career, but he helped out where he could early on (not including the unconfirmed reports that he advised Harry Styles to not rush things when he and Taylor started dating). He told UDaily that he helped arrange Taylor's prime-time gig singing the national anthem during Game 3 of the 2008 World Series, a home game for the Philadelphia Phillies (who went on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays in five games). Scott went to college with the Phillies' facilities manager.

"The reason she sang the anthem is because two University of Delaware alumni kept in touch over the years," Scott told the paper. But as time went on, Taylor's reputation preceded her. "I've heard from a lot of great alumni, and I'm convinced they live in every city, because whenever Taylor's rolling into wherever she is, we'll hear from them," her dad said. "It's really powerful."

Scott and Andrea are hardly the unsung heroes of Taylor's life, though—quite the opposite, in fact.

You'd have been forgiven for assuming that "The Best Day," off of 2008's Fearless, centers on the father-daughter bond (going by the line "I have an excellent father / His strength is making me stronger"), but it's really a sweeping ode to Andrea, the one who waited in the car while tween Taylor knocked on doors.

"'The Best Day' is a song that I wrote without telling my mom," Swift shared in 2011. "I wrote it in the summertime, and I recorded it secretly, too. I had this idea that I wanted to play it for her for Christmas. So, when I got the track I synced up all of these home videos from when I was a little kid to go along with the song like a music video, and played it for her on Christmas Eve and she was crying her eyes out."

She eventually had to stop playing it live because Andrea was always dissolving into tears backstage.

Taylor continued, "Remembering all the times that we had when she was my only friend when I was 13 and I couldn't understand why my friends were being so mean to me. She would just take me on these adventures and we would drive around and go to towns we'd never seen before.

"Those adventures and those days of just running away from my problems—you're not supposed to run away from your problems, but when you're 13 and your friends won't talk to you and they move when you sit down at the lunch table, and your mom lets you run from those problems, I think it's a good thing... My mom was my escape in a lot of ways."

Andrea recalled the days when Taylor's friends seemed to be turning on her, telling Elle Girl she'd have to "pick [Taylor] up off the floor," she was hurting so badly.

When she was 21 she bought her parents a $1.4 million house in Nashville, around the same time she bought her first house in Los Angeles.

By 2011, the Taylor road show ran like a well-oiled machine, in no small part because of Andrea's watchful eye.

"Well, you know, she's just been doing this for so long that, to me, this is just like soccer practice," Swift's mom shrugged to the New Yorker in a 2011 profile.

After which Scott quipped, "I'm not taking her money, if that's what you're saying."

The writer noted that at least either her mom or dad was at every show that she attended, but Taylor said that they were "staying home more" than they used to.

Through the years, Andrea has become a familiar face to everyone who follows Taylor's career, from the Swifties to the paparazzi, but neither mother nor daughter has made a habit of sharing too much personal information about their family—and they, unlike some celebrities' parents, Andrea and Scott haven't been clamoring to share the spotlight.

So it was only under the greatest of emotional strains that Swift shared in 2015 that Andrea was battling cancer.

"Usually when things happen to me, I process them and then write music about how I feel, and you hear it much later," Swift wrote on Tumblr. "This is something my family and I thought you should know about now." She explained how she had encouraged her mom to go to the doctor, "just to ease some worries of mine. She agreed, and went in to get checked. There were no red flags and she felt perfectly fine, but she did it just to get me and my brother off her case about it. The results came in, and I'm saddened to tell you that my mom has been diagnosed with cancer."

Part of the message was to explain why Andrea wouldn't be at as many shows as usual, so enmeshed she was in the Taylor tour fabric.

"I'd like to keep the details of her condition and treatment plans private, but she wanted you to know," Swift explained. "She wanted you to know because your parents may be too busy juggling everything they've got going on to go to the doctor, and maybe you reminding them to go get checked for cancer could possibly lead to an early diagnosis and an easier battle."

A little over a week later, Andrea introduced her daughter at the Academy of Country Music Awards, where Taylor was one of seven being honored with the Milestone Award.

"I've watched this milestone artist from the time she was a tangled-hair little girl...Full of imagination and creativity until right now when she prepares for her next world tour," Mama Swift said. Tears starting to build, she concluded, "I'm a very proud mom."

The whole family gathered a month later to cheer Austin's graduation from Notre Dame.

On Mother's Day in 2015, Taylor personally responded to a message from a fan who had lost her own mom and was understandably having a rough day. The singer wrote back on Tumblr, "I love you so much and can't imagine what you must be feeling today. You've lived through my worst fear. I'm so sorry you can't spend today with her. It's not fair, and there's no reason why you should feel okay about it. No one should ever expect you to feel normal today."

Andrea sightings did become less frequent, but when she was spotted (having dinner with Taylor and Tom Hiddleston in L.A. in the summer of 2016, for instance), she looked like her usual self. And in 2017 she was by Taylor's side in Colorado when her daughter's dueling lawsuits with a D.J. she had accused of groping her went to trial.

Andrea testified that Taylor had told her right away that the D.J.—who sued Swift for $3 million after he was fired over the incident, after which she countersued, alleging sexual assault—had grabbed her butt while they were taking a photo during a meet-and-greet in 2013.

Explaining why they didn't immediately report him to police, Andrea said, "I did not want her to have to live through the endless memes and GIFs and anything else that tabloid media or trolls would be able to come up with...making her relive this awful moment over and over again."

"I was upset to the point where I wanted to vomit and cry at the same time," she added. "We felt it was imperative to let his employers know what happened."

The jury decided in Swift's favor, awarding her the symbolic $1 in damages she had asked for.

Andrea successfully completed treatment, but Swift revealed in March in her "30 Things I Learned Before Turning 30" essay for Elle that the cancer had returned. And, she shared for the first time that her dad had battled cancer as well.

"Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again," she wrote. "It's taught me that there are real problems and then there's everything else. My mom's cancer is a real problem. I used to be so anxious about daily ups and downs. I give all of my worry, stress, and prayers to real problems now."

Still, the now almost 30-year-old artist—winner of 10 Grammys, seller of millions of albums—won't go into too much detail when it comes to her parents' personal lives.

"There was a relapse that happened," Swift told Vogue for its 2019 September issue when asked about her mom's health. "It's something that my family is going through."

And that's a whole other kind of love story.

E! News

#taylor swift #scott swift #Andrea Swift #swift family #2019.08.13

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newstfionline · 5 years ago

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Headlines

The world’s most expensive cities (Economist) For the first time in its 30-year history, the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey from The Economist Intelligence Unit gives the title of the world’s most expensive city to three places. Singapore marks its sixth straight year at the top of the rankings, and is joined there by Hong Kong and Paris. The survey, which compares prices across 160 products and services, finds that living costs in all three cities are 7% higher than in New York, the benchmark city. Two Swiss cities, Zurich and Geneva, and Osaka in Japan also have higher prices than New York; Copenhagen and Seoul cost the same as the Big Apple. Strong economic growth in the United States in 2018 led to a sharp appreciation of the dollar and a rise up the rankings for 14 of the 16 American cities for which prices are collected. The highest climbers were San Francisco (up 12 places to 25th) and Houston (up to 30th from 41st); New York itself moved up six spots to seventh and Los Angeles rose by four places to tenth.

Donald Trump impeached (Foreign Policy) President Donald Trump became just the third president in U.S. history to be impeached on Wednesday, as the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230 to 197 and 229 to 198 to charge him with obstruction of Congress and abuse of power, respectively. The votes mostly fell along party lines, after lawmakers engaged in nearly 12 hours of debate over the articles of impeachment. But Trump, the first to face impeachment heading into an election year, is almost certainly not going to be removed from office after a trial in the Republican-held Senate.

U.S. deports Mexicans far from border, may send others to Guatemala (Reuters) The United States began flying Mexican deportees to the interior of Mexico on Thursday and a senior U.S. official said Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum could be sent to Guatemala, as the Trump administration seeks to further limit border crossings.

Chilean lawmakers approve popular vote on Pinochet-era constitution (Reuters) Chile’s Congress on Thursday gave the green light to a referendum on changing the country’s constitution next year, a central demand of protesters whose mobilizations brought the nation virtually to a standstill over the past eight weeks.

Scottish leader calls for second independence referendum (Foreign Policy) Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon will demand the right to hold a new independence referendum today--a challenge to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the British Parliament, which must approve of any plan for a new vote. Sturgeon will request that Parliament transfer that power to Scotland’s legislature, setting up a potential constitutional showdown.

Catalan separatist leader jailed by Spain had immunity as an MEP: EU court (Reuters) A Catalan separatist leader jailed by Spain was entitled to immunity as a member of the European Parliament, the EU’s highest court ruled on Thursday in a decision that could put Brussels on a collision course with Spanish authorities.

French PM, unions fail to break pension strike deadlock as Christmas looms (Reuters) The French government failed to break the deadlock over a planned overhaul of the pension system on Thursday, prompting union leaders to reaffirm the continuation of strikes over the Christmas holiday season.

Lights out for multilateralism? Alarm as U.N. faces cash squeeze. (Reuters) During talks on disarmament at the U.N.’s Geneva headquarters last month, alarm bells went off in the chamber to indicate that delegates had infringed new cost-cutting rules that restrict the length of meetings. Screens and microphones were also shut off, forcing ambassadors to shout their speeches across the hall.

Russian security officer dead, 5 injured in Moscow shooting (AP) An unidentified gunman opened fire Thursday outside the Moscow headquarters of Russia’s top security agency, killing one officer and wounding five others, officials said. The FSB said the shooting occurred near its main headquarters on Lubyanka Square, less than one kilometer from Red Square.

Turkey pitches refugee resettlement plan (Foreign Policy) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently presented the United Nations with a detailed plan to resettle 1 million Syrian refugees along a 20-mile stretch of Turkey’s border with northern Syria, FP’s Colum Lynch and Lara Seligman report. The plan would require more than $26 billion in foreign aid, with Turkey promising access to schools, hospitals, mosques, and sports arenas. If it goes forward, it would be one of the largest public construction projects on occupied land in modern history.

India’s Protesters Dig In Their Heels (Foreign Policy) Thousands of people nationwide marched against India’s new citizenship law again on Wednesday, in part in response to alleged police brutality against student protesters. In recent days, India’s government has sought to clamp down on the protests. Authorities in New Delhi imposed an emergency law that prohibits large gatherings after clashes between demonstrators and police--many on Muslim-majority university campuses. Today, the state of Karnataka enacted a similar ban in at least three cities including Bengaluru, where multinational companies such as Uber and Walmart’s Flipkart are based. India has also responded with its preferred tactic: shutting down the internet in affected areas.

Nationwide digital surveillance (NYT) China is ramping up its ability to spy on its nearly 1.4 billion people to new and disturbing levels, giving the world a blueprint for how to build a digital totalitarian state. Chinese authorities are knitting together old and state-of-the-art technologies--phone scanners, facial-recognition cameras, face and fingerprint databases and many others--into sweeping tools for authoritarian control, according to police and private databases examined by The New York Times. Once combined and fully operational, the tools can help police grab the identities of people as they walk down the street, find out who they are meeting with and identify who does and doesn’t belong to the Communist Party. The United States and other countries use some of the same techniques to track terrorists or drug lords. Chinese cities want to use them to track everybody.

2 Firefighters Die, 3 Hurt as Wildfires Ravage Australia (AP) Two volunteer firefighters died Thursday while battling wildfires ravaging Australia’s most populous state, forcing Prime Minister Scott Morrison to cut short his family holiday as authorities braced for temperatures to soar in New South Wales at the weekend.

Libyan Force Attacking Tripoli Gives Militias 3-Day Deadline (AP) A Libyan force fighting to capture the country’s capital from the U.N.-supported government based in Tripoli on Friday gave the militias defending the city a three-day deadline to pull out.

Nigeria’s Ex-Attorney General Held by Financial Crimes Agency Over $1.3 Billion Oil Deal (Reuters) Nigeria’s former attorney general was detained by the country’s financial crimes agency upon his return home on Thursday, the commission said in a statement, as part of an investigation into one of the oil industry’s biggest suspected corruption scandals.

#headlines #news

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hellyeahheroes · 6 years ago

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Best Ongoing Team Books of 2018 - In text because I cannot make it in video

Okay, so my mic is broken, I have barely time to make it work with how many ever hours I’m working recently, so screw it. Last part of my promised list is long overdue anyway, so I’ll just drop it as a text. Apologies for this but yeah, sometimes stuff just piles up. I hope you’ll still enjoy my picks and check the 3 parts that made it to the video

Welcome to Best Books of 2018, the long-awaited final part. I’m terribly sorry it took me so, so terribly long but I had been forced to take many over hours at my day job and it just ate in my time. The rules are as before. The book must still be ongoing in 2018, even if only for a single issue. It also must have more than two issues published in two thousand eighteen. However, if a book got relaunched as effectively the same title, they count as one. This time we’re doing team books. So if you can, go check those titles out at your local store.

Number Ten: Super Sons and its continuation, Adventures of the Super Sons. Work of writers Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason with artwork by Carlo Barberi with issue twelve of the first series draw by Tyler Kirkham. Super Sons continue to be an absolute joy. The greatest asset of this story is that Jon and Damian are written as a pair of actual kids, with behavior we would find too childish with other people but appropriate with them. Which only adds charm to an already book that captures joys of being a kid and going on adventures and that embraces silver age weirdness with all kinds of strange stuff, from a bunch of alien kids idealizing Earth supervillains and modeling themselves after them to an alien versions of Cain and Abel and their House of Secret Mysteries. It is a book that you can just pick up, relax and enjoy, lose yourself in fluffy fun. Its time is limited as Adventures is just a mini but I think if there is one title on this list that is just pure escapism, bar themes touched in an issue where our heroes meet their future selves, it is this one.

Number Nine: House of Whispers by writer Nalo Hopkins and artist Domonike Stanton. One of my favorite out of the new Sandman Universe books, it tells a story of a spell gone wrong that results in the tied fate of goddess Erzulie from Vodou religion and girl named Latoya. The former ends up trapped in the Dreaming, cut from her worshippers and desperately needing to come back before she starves without worship. The latter loses her soul in the same accident and now is affected by Cotard’s delusion, a mental disorder that makes a living person believe they’re dead and worse, she can spread it like an infection. While absolutely fantastic with the weaved narrative I will say that at the time it might be even too heavy as the parts that deal with people affected by the delusion, especially Latoya and her girlfriend Maggie, often feel so outright depressing I had to put the book down and take a break. It is not a bad thing, not every comic book has to just make you feel entertained, especially not one aiming at evoking different emotions. But I need to recommend this one with a warning it is not for everyone as people who already feel down might only feel worse. Still, if you are looking for a book either heavily using themes from religion by far underexplored by literature and pop culture in a respectful way or for a book that might leave you shaken and made think, appreciate your life even, this is a book for you.

Number Eight is a tie: Justice League Dark by writer James Tynion the Fourth and artists Alvaro Martinez and Daniel Sampere as well as Justice League Odyssey by writer Joshua Williamson and artists Stjepan Sejic and Philipe Briones. Two of the new Justice League titles have their problems, I’ll admit it. The main villain in Justice League Dark comes off as invincible for the sake of it and the establishment of the Sisterhood of the Sleight hand only to destroy it rubs me the wrong way and Odyssey feels to have missed its impact moment due to delays and artist change. However, both books are still excellent in what they set to do, opening this new age in Justice League books and bringing them back to the flagship role. Be it dark atmosphere of JLD that isn’t mitigated by inclusion of either Detective Chimp or Wonder Woman, in fact it is a stroke of genius to have her confront the darker side of magic, or the outlandish space opera of Odyssey, with super likable cast playing game of cat and mouse with Darkseid himself, the books do bring new to the table and truly make the Justice League currently one of the strongest if not the strongest lines in the big two.

Number Seven: Rogue & Gambit and its continuation Mr & Mrs. X by writer Kelly Thompson and artist Pere Perez on the former and Oscar Balduza and David Lopez. I’m counting it as one book even if an important part, the wedding, took place in a different title and was fairly controversial. But Kelly Thompson has really shown that she feels the two and their relationship and uses as much of their history as possible to build on and inform said relationship. It is in how natural it comes off as, how strong their bond is but also how unafraid of testing it through their adventures Kelly Thompson is that really makes this book so unique. With the cancellation of X-Men: Red and Exiles and with how Uncanny X-Men and Age of X-Man seem in a contest who can drop more balls, this book is now the best ongoing in the X-Line and you will be doing yourself a disservice if you won’t check it out.

Number Six: Justice League by writers Scott Snyder and James Tynion the Fourth and artists Jim Cheung, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Mankhe, Mike Janin, Francis Manapul, Fazer Irving and Guillem March. This book decided to bring the Justice League back to its greatness and to my great surprise, it succeeded. Scott Snyder’s over the top imagination is a perfect fit for this title and in just a few issues he proved he is not afraid of breaking established boundaries and showing us that cosmology of DC Universe is much greater and more amazing than we might have thought, that everything we thought we know hides more secrets and there is always a new adventure right behind the corner. It asks important questions that, while not intended to be political, by Snyder’s own admission, I feel are still questions about life, a current state of the world and our expectations and ourselves. Upon seeing how flawed the world is, how flawed other people are, how flawed, in the end, we ourselves are, what is a correct course of action? Deny it and try to grind yourself into the idea of perfection you want to be even if it is impossible? Embrace your worst and care only about yourself? Or accept you have flaws, that you feel pain and trauma and realize you can still be a good person regardless? That is the theme of Justice League that makes me enjoy this book so much.

Also, they have hired Ferdinand the Minotaur to work at their cafeteria, that’s awesome.

Number Five: The Dreaming by writer Simon Spurrier and artist Bilquis Evely. The Dreaming is in peril. Dream of Endless has left his dominion, there is a hole in it through which strange things come, citizens find themselves in state of unrest and all beloved characters, from Lucien and Matthew to Merv Pumpkinhead and Eve to Cain and Abel are set on a course that will challenge them and will change them in unexpected ways, all while old faces like Glob and Brute come back and new ones like mysterious Dora and merciless Judge Gallows leave their mark on the place. The Dreaming plays with obvious political undertones but on a meta sense, it is another case of what Simon Spurrier is driven to do, to deconstruct the darker corners of comics and try to explore questions of responsibility and morality through it like he did with Legion and X-Force. This new, heavier, darker take on the Dreaming sucked me in instantly and I really hope the ride Spurrier has prepared for us is a long one.

Number Four: Exiles by writer Saladin Ahmed and artists Javier Rodrigues, Rod Reis and Joe Quinones. Exiles had another short-living comeback and it saddens me to see that it has already been cancelled, though not before qualifying on this list. I love Exiles as a series and a concept and the return with all-new cast and Blink was a welcome one. With adventures that are in equal parts fun and serious and characters with such amazing charm as a cartoon kid Wolverine or Valkyrie. What’s more is that the book had such amazing creative artwork, with Rodriguez especially giving it his all and creating some amazing visuals that truly matched increasingly crazier visions that Ahmed has weaved in front of him through the script. This was a top-notch creative team that I sure hope we’ll see them team-up once again on another project in the future. Meanwhile, while brief it it was still a pleasure to come back to this team of weirdos and outcasts hopping between dimensions, one crazier than the other.

Number Three: Wild Storm by writer Warren Ellis and artist John Davis Hunt. Now here is a book that benefits from its stated twenty four issues run. Wild Storm is a slow burn. But it is by far one of the most glorious slow burns in the history of comics. Ellis continues to create a gritty narrative that combines aliens, conspiracies, secret agencies, technological inventions and movie-like decompressed storytelling into a chilling, dark story that absolutely dominates with the atmosphere. The vision of Wildstorm Universe Ellis and Hunt created for us is absolutely captivating and the feel of the world at the verge of total war between two agencies that long time ago stopped caring for common folk, while Jacob Marlowe, Jenny Sparks, and John Lynch, each in their own way, race to stop them or deal with problems they unleash, is unlike any other. There is plain and simply no other book like this on the shelves right now and it is very unlikely there will be such a book soon after it ends.

Number Two: The Terrifics by writer Jeff Lemire and artists Ivan Reis, Evan Doc Sharner, Joe Bennett, Dale Eaglesham. Out of all New Age of Heroes Books this is undeniably the best one. A loving tribute to the original Fantastic Four stories that finds a new quality through use of characters that may fill similar archetypes but are different enough that each brings their own thing to the table, creating new dynamics that liven up known narratives while at the same time the artists manage to get creative, especially the issue that divides each page into a sort of camera following each of the four protagonists one panel per person and uniting them and dividing as they join together or split up, pushing the very boundaries of graphic storytelling as we know it. It is also a book full of warmth and joy and optimism we often do not see in books like that. It is truly a title that has a heart and imagination on its side and it is using them to their full potential.

Honorable Mentions: West Coast Avengers, Champions, Teen Titans

And our Number One is Runaways by writer Rainbow Rowell and artists Kris Anka and David Lafuente. It couldn’t be anything else. Runaways this year was plain and simply the best book on the shelves. Kris Anka’s beautiful art brings to life Rainbow Rowell amazing heart for these characters as she lets them face new challenges in their lives, creating story if teenagers at the verge of adulthood as they try to wrestle less with supervillains and more with their own fears and insecurities and this feeling of childhood and innocence lost for superhero life they never wanted, all as they try to rebuild and maintain their family. It is a story where greatest victories are not supervillain battles, which they seem to win by a fluke most of the time anyway, but to take a step forward, overcome your fear and doubt and admit to yourself that yes, you are worthy of happiness and you will be happy. In that Runaways is without a doubt the book that speaks to me the most and one I wait for every month. I cannot recommend this book enough.

So here are my final picks. I’m exhausted. I will say that recently all stuff in my life made working on the videos harder, especially now that i’m trying, against any better reason to record myself and I might not be able to do it as regularly. I might think of reinventing the format and maybe relegate the channel to a different role in relation to my blog, which I think is by now much more popular. I still have learned a lot in that time of doing these videos and I wish to continue, maybe with a more focused vision. Thank you all for being so long with me and putting up with my nosense and rest assured, I shall return.

- Admin

#Runaways #The Terrifics #Wild Storm #Exiles #the Dreamind #Justice League #Rogue & Gambit #mr. and mrs. x #Justice League Dark #Justice League Odyssey #House of Whispers #Super Sons #Adventures of the Super Sons #Marvel #DC #Vertigo #Sandman Universe #Dark Matter #New Age of DC Heroes

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tsghuntsvillealabama · 5 years ago

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Scout Is Out!

We are very pleased to release The Scout Guide Huntsville - Volume 2 to our community on August 27, 2019. The complimentary guide can be picked up at the following locations beginning August 27 and throughout the year until supplies run out.

If you own or know of a business that we be interested in being a distribution location, please email us at [email protected].

Accents of the South

Acupuncture and Wellness Center

Anytime Fitness Jones Valley

Anytime Fitness Hampton Cove

Bragg’s of Huntsville

Brooks and Collier

Bullet and Barrel

Burritt on the Mountain

Carole Forêt Fine Art

Carriage House

Church St Wine Shoppe

Creative Lane by Lexus of Huntsville

Crush Wine and Food Festival

Dental Professionals on Whitesburg

DePriest Robbins

Domaine South

Elitaire Boutique

Faith Woods Events

Fantasy Playhouse Children’s Theater & Academy

4site, a Schoel Co.

FOW WOW Designs

Gina’s Balloon Decor

Golden Griffin

Good Company Cafe

Gray Analytics

GrubSouth

Haley’s Flooring & Interiors

Heritage Kitchen + Bath

Home Choice Windows & Doors

Huntsville American Cabinets

In Bloom

Interior Marketplace

Interiors By Consign-Huntsville and Madison locations

Jill’s Studio of Dance

Johnson Orthodontics

Jones, Paparella and Thomas Group | Merrill Lynch

K Butler Interiors

Keller Williams Realty | InTown Partners Real Estate Group

Lankford & Battle Allstate Insurance Agency

life as paper

Lindsey Jennings Art and Design

Lowe Mill ARTS & Entertainment

Lyn’s Gracious Goodness

Main Street South

Matheny Goldmon Architecture + Interiors

Maynor and Mitchell Eye Center

Mazzara’s

Moderne Jouel

MixItUp.Fun

Move Digital Group

Nesin Therapy Services, P.C. -Huntsville, Madison and Research Park

Offbeat Coffee Studio

Old River Interiors

Pillar and Peacock

Piper and Leaf-Downtown, Lowe Mill and Madison locations

Pizzelle’s Confections

Progress Bank

Purveyor

R City Eye Care

Radiant Day Spa

Randolph School

Regenesis

Roosevelt and Co.

Southern Essentials Company

Southern Reclaimed Salvage Barn

Straight to Ale & Shelta Cavern Spirits

Sweet City Micros

The Artnasium

The Chameleon Fabrics and Interiors

The Ledges

The Pourhouse

The Topiary Tree

The WEDC Foundation

TOC Spine Center/Larry Parker, M.D.

U.S. Space & Rocket Center

VanValkenburgh & Wilkinson Properties, Inc.

Vertical House Records

Westmark Construction

White Rabbit Studios

Windham Travel and Leisure

Limited quantities will also be replenished monthly at the following locations:

1892 East

AC Hotel

Al Christopher

Alison Wellness Clinic

Anthropologie

Arts Huntsville

Belk Hudson Lofts

Cafe 153

The Catalyst Center for Business & Entrepreneurship

Cil

Clean Juice

Cabana Wax

Cork and Crust

Downtown Huntsville Inc.

Edgar’s Bakery

Embassy Suites

Envy Boutique

Fresh Starts Coffee

Gold Sprint Coffee

Green Pea Press

Grille 29

Holtz Leather

Honest Coffee

Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau

J. Whitener

Kendra Scott

Mason Dixon

Melt

Metro Diner

Mezza Luna

Moe’s Barbecue

Moon Bake Shop

Neo Mode Hair Salon

Orange Theory

Oshi Poke Bowl

OTBX

Poppy

Preservation Company

Pure Barre Huntsville

Pure Barre Madison

Queen Bee of Beverly Hills

Shea’s Express

ShoeFly Huntsville & Madison

SiP

Starbucks

Stovehouse

Sweet Pineapple

Tangled Strings Studios

Terra Me Jones Valley

Terra Me Parkway

The Artisan Apartments

The Avenue

The Juice Bar

The Little Green Store & Gallery

Tropical Smoothie Cafe

Uncorked Wine Shop and Tasting Room

Valley Sole

Victoria’s Interiors

Vintage Cigar Lounge

Vintage West Interiors

Walker’s Market

Westin Hotel

Yellowhammer

Zoom Fitness

#scout is out #huntsville al #tsghuntsville #love

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losttoy · 7 years ago

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Black people killed by police in 2018 (as of April 12, 2018)

Steven Brooks, 45, PA, Dashaun Shepard, GA Grechario Mack, 30, CA Elijah James Smith, 20, UT Juan Markee Jones, 25, VA Brenda Jenette Harrison-Bumbray, 50, MD “unnamed”, CA Saheed Vassell, 34, NY Bobby Hinton,60, LA Timothy Orlando Wyatt, 41, FL Christopher Lamarr Hall, 34, MI Brian Bellamy, 41, NC Edward Van McCrae, 60, NC Rodney Toler, 39, WV Jallen Jones, 31, CT Linus Phillip, 30, FL Danny Ray Thomas, 34, TX Rueben T. Ruffin Jr., 24, KY Jermaine Massey, 35, SC Stephon Clark, 23, CA James Vaughn, 49, TN Shermichael Ezeff, 31, LA Shali Vladimir Frances Tilson, 22, GA Jontell Reedom, 27, CA Michael Delloyd Ward, 46, NY Decynthia S. Clements, 34, IL Solomon Agwomoh, 51, IL Christopher Eisinger, 35, CA Qawi A. Muhammad, 48, FL Marlon Smith, 29, TX William Watson Jr., 40, MO Haydon Taylor, 25, OK Lee Edward Bonner, 37, MS Mario Dantoni Bass, 37, VA Darion Baker, 22, TX Lonnie James Smith Jr., 21, AL Glenn Tyndell, 37, MD Trey Pringle 24, SC Juan McCray, 31, CT Jimmy Terry, 30, IN Ronnell Foster, 32, CA Robert Young, 29, FL Mark Daniels, 39, PA Sidney T. Richardson IV, 48, FL David Darden, 36, GA Tierre Guthrie, 39, GA Anthony Jacob Weber, 16, CA Dominic Jerome “DJ” Broadus II, 31, FL Brett Dontae Bush, 28, GA Anthony Williams, 37, TX Daniel O. El, 33, IL Albert Morton Jr., 31, PA Sterling Michael Hansford Jr., 52, NY Khalil Lawal, 31, PA Dwayne Pritchett, 48, NY Billy Lewis Rucker, 33, MD Crystaline Barnes, 21, MS William Pollard Jr., 45, IN, Nathaniel T. Edwards, 43, IL Corey Mobley, 38, FL Ricky Jerome Boyd, 20, GA Arther McAfee Jr., 61, TX Kevin Sturgis, 31, PA Geraldine Townsend, 72, OK Donte Shannon, 26, WI, Jihad Mustafa Merrick, 29, IA Bryan Johnson Gregory, 33, TN Marconia Kessee, 34, OK James Hawkins, 35, NC Thomas Yatsko, 21, OH Terry Amons, 43, CA Amanuel Dagebo, 22, OH Jonathan Bennett, 23, NC Shalun Dique Smith, 21, CA “unnamed”, MS Trayvon Mitchell, 38, FL

Charles Smith Jr., 17, AR Ledarren Mixon, 28, OH Sahleem Tindle, 28, CA Derrick Staton, 16, MD Mark Steven Parkinson, 65, GA Deautry Charles Ross, 34, CA

Notes 1-This was put together on April 15th using information from http://killedbypolice.net. This is a good source because it only takes names from confirmed news sources. 1.1-About half of reported civilian deaths by police officers do not include the race. There are most definitely more that we do not know of. 2-Police are not required to report the people they kill, so we know that there has to be more than this that is not reported. Currently the best government data we have on police killings is from the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting but these killings are self-reported by law enforcement and participation in the database is voluntary – only about 750 agencies contribute to it, a fraction of the 17,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States. 3-This passes no judgment on guilt or innocence, just a full list. I am sure some of these names are actual criminals, but the world will never know other than taking the police’s word. Police are not the judge, jury and executioners and these people should be alive to face their crimes or prove their innocence in a court of law. (We have also learned from Walter Scott that police lie on the reports and plant evidence) 3.1-IF they were criminals, does not excuse the police from violating these people’s Fifth Amendment Rights. They were deprived of life without due process of law. Many of these people are shot in the back (which is against the law according to Tennessee v. Garner of 1985) or unarmed (see below). The major problem is we have violent White criminals like Ted Kaczynski, Timothy McVeigh, James Eagan Holmes, Jared Lee Loughner, Dylann Storm Roof, Robert Dear, Jason Dalton and other who are all terrorists who collectively killed hundreds of people and were apprehended without being shot. Meanwhile, black people are being shot for non-violent crimes like jaywalking, having a busted taillight and so on. 3.2-Police should be able to deescalate a situation and use non-lethal force. They carry stun guns, billy clubs, etc. and wear bullet proof vests. If they are too afraid or too trigger happy, they should not be on the force. 4-This does not include police brutality cases like Floyd Dent, Martese Johnson or so many more. 5-This not include people like Travon Martin or Jordan Davis, who were killed by “stand your ground” laws by civilians. 6-This also does not include people like Lennon Lacy and Otis Byrd in what looks like lynchings 7-yeah, yeah … not all cops. I am sure they have a hard job, but it does not excuse this list or especially how long it is. There were 127 total police deaths in 2014, including unrelated car accidents, heart attacks and even one 9/11 related illness. It is MUCH more dangerous to be black than a police officer. 8-Yes, there were plenty of white people killed by police. “All lives matter”, BUT black people are 3-4x more likely to be killed by police than whites. In 2014, 47% of black people killed were unarmed when only 16% of white people killed were unarmed. There are deep racial disparities that come from a system of oppression.However, this list is important. Sure Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray get the headlines, but every name needs to be remembered.

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