#still not icons until my internet cooperates

[experimentalfma]

❛ i love you just the way you are, and i'm here to remind you of that whenever you need to hear it. ❜ -- For Havoc <3

Despite himself, Havoc felt a bit of color rise in his cheeks, and his heart started pounding at her words. She loved him as he was? No push to stop smoking or an end date on being with her? And it sounded like she had every intention of making sure that he knew that she really cared. His smile was a bit sheepish, but the warmth in his eyes made it clear she'd struck a chord with him. "That...really means a lot," he responded, running a hand back through his hair and not quite sure what he should say. "I love you the way you are, too. You've always been so sweet and kind to everyone, and that's something I really like about you."

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

Ya know, I truly hope Miss Renesmee Carlie Cullen fully dedicates herself to just....being as out there and iconic as possible

first things first- ANYTHING with the loch ness monster on it, she owns. Posters, shirts, jackets, shoes, folders, buttons, iron-ons, there is always at least 5 pieces of Nessie merch on her at all times

once she gets old enough to start high school, the cover story is her and Edward are siblings that Carlisle and Esme took in, and sometimes her classmates will ask her what her biological parents were like and she will flat out be like 'oh, they're vampires' and Edward and Bella are like. 5 feet away trying not to scream

every Halloween she'll show up to school in an elaborate Nosferatu costume

goes out of her way to photobomb people in increasingly ridiculous ways so there will Always be a photographic record of her and in like 100 years she can get a huge kick out of teens on the internet trying to make a conspiracy about her

joins as many school clubs as she can, even if she has no interest in them- she just Really wants a concrete record of herself to exist lmao

ICONIC at school theater though. One of those demon theater kids that come to rehearsal purely to cause chaos and nothing else, but her voice is incredible so she secures every lead. One time she somehow managed to star in a show while also playing in the school band for it- her classmates still have no idea how she pulled it off

Always brings blood out in public in a CLEAR THERMOS and it stresses her family out so much but everyone else thinks she's just like, weirdly into tomato juice so the Cullens can't stop her

to everyone's surprise...her biggest chaos enabler is Jasper lmao. everyone thought he'd be a logical, responsible uncle but they're just. A Problem together. He'll 100% assist her in any prank she wants to pull, he gets her fake id's when she wants to sneak into a club with friends, he bails her out of jail without telling her parents, they figured out if she gets high and he reads her feelings he'll get high too and it's. So fucking funny.

she's always carrying some random instrument around school- like for a while it's a guitar or a harmonica, fine, but then she'll start lugging a cello around, a tuba (she doesn't even play, she stole it off a guy who was annoying her) and it escalates until one day she's wheeling a piano around the building. no one's even sure how she got in in the doors of the school. She keeps running kids over in the hallway with it

You know the Catherine Tate Lauren Cooper skit with David Tennant? Where she's being a terrible student and then perfectly recites Shakespeare? 100% Nessie

when she starts getting dates Jacob keeps trying to wing man and be over supportive and give her a ton of girl advice and it's embarrassing as hell so one day when he was on a spiel about How To Woo A Lady she looks him in the eyes and goes 'oh really? did that work on my mom?' and the Cullens fucking LOSE IT. Jacob had to go live in the woods for a few days because he couldn't cope

Emmet and Jasper: arrive to school in their jeep. Rose and Alice: arrive in a convertible. Edward: arrives in his dumb volvo. Bella and Jake: arrive to school on motorcycles. Nessie: arrives to school on a unicycle while juggling

one year she ended up getting nominated for prom queen and Edward read the minds of the teachers tallying the votes so he knew she won and he and Bella were so excited!! they're like we're gonna take so many pictures of our baby looking like a princess! And then she emerges from her room, actually drenched in pigs blood. Like she just did it to herself and went to the dance and accepted her crown like that

she regularly commits crimes against fashion. If she comes out of her room and sees Alice contemplating turning herself over to the Volturi, she KNOWS she's picked a great look

somehow gets ahold of Aro's cell number and sends him selfies of her blatantly breaking vampire laws captioned 'whatcha gonna do'. he keeps blocking her but she keeps managing to get through to him somehow

she illegally sells soda out of her locker and does people's homework for cash, while also paying other people to do her homework for her. she organizes every single senior prank. she's never gotten a detention in her whole immortal life because every teacher just Adores her for some reason

had 100% used her powers for deserved evil before. Like, if someone's being a dick at school, she'll sneak into their room at night and give them nightmarea threatening them to be a better person lol

sometimes she'll show up at the hospital unannounced and ask Carlisle, in front of his coworkers, 'yo can I raid the blood bank?'

her bedroom looks like a library. every wall, floor to ceiling books.

she's been publishing trashy romance novels under a fake name for almost 40 years now and no one in her family knows

one birthday Jacob takes her on a trip to vegas and they get wasted, at some point they were laughing about how ridiculous their lives are and they're like 'wouldn't it be fucking hilarious if we had a baby'. they then black out, hangover style, and wake up like a week later with a payment on her card to a fertility clinic. Jacob's like 😱 and Ness is just like 'you get to be the one to explain this to my parents'

Their kid is absolutely hilarious, they were correct, and at some point they realized 'wait...drinks blood..doesn't sparkle...can shape shift...we've somehow created a classic pop culture vampire' lmao

Edward had to threaten them to get them to not name the kid Vladimir

Also to be clear: Nessie and Jacob have the EXACT same dynamic as Will and Grace. that's canon.

says its her goal to star in a live action all female production of mamma mia and Carlisle is like 'honey you know you can't do anything on broadway or in hollywood' and she's like, 'no, in real life. I'm gonna go to greece and attract a bunch of women with abba songs' and he's like,,,,,ah

she loves all music but she goes out of her way to Only play stuff she knows Edward hates lmao

one day she remembers she doesn't need to breathe and can see under water and just. books herself a ticket to scotland and Finds The Loch Ness Monster

she actually personally finds a lot of monsters and cryptids like her hybrid aura just attracts all kind of weird shit and she LOVES it. She stops writing trashy romance novels and starts writing autobiographies of her traveling and hanging out with paranormal beings and everyone just assumes its fiction so she becomes a best selling fantasy author lmao

100% she's very into witchy stuff and only like...half in a trendy way. She's like what if on top of everything I've got going on I can cast spells? Think I deserve that power

when she's a couple decades old she catches Edward looking grossed out one day and she asks him what's up and he's like 'I really dont need to hear what creepy teachers think about my daughter' and she's like. oh. Dad we are gonna get SO MANY pedophiles arrested shdndjdn she gets him to expose teachers and she baits them then calls the police. queen.

She finds out she can get tattoos but they fade completely out of her skin within 5 years so she's always getting crazy tats

posts selfies on social media of her just like. hanging out with mountain lions or chilling on top of the space needle. her classmates think they're all photoshopped obvi but it drives her family insane

imagine you're 15 and you're on a nice hike in the woods and you come across your one classmate half naked, sacrificing a bear in some ritual, blood dripping down her face, bigfoot chilling on the rocks behind her filming the ritual on her phone...like on one hand, what would you do, but on the other hand. you've known this girl for a bit and you aren't surprised at all

anyway. stan Nessie Cullen.

[itsybitsylemonsqueezy]

What Now?

Alright, so, I know I”m a little behind, I’m up to my eyeballs in grading and retail work, now was really the WORST time for all internet infrastructure to crumble under my fingers, but that is genuinely the lest of the issues with this fucking purge.

Anyway, here’s the all important contact info for your pal, Lemon:

Pillowfort: itsybitsylemonsqueezy (I thought I’d make things easy. I have my festive icon up there, haven’t posted much yet, but I have high hopes for the little guy. If you remember LJ, it’s like a tumblr-LJ hybrid and I really do think it has potential. Right now it’s a little slow and there’s no IM function, but, again, room to grow. The more of us use and support it, the more developed it will be. AO3 wasn’t built in a day, after all.)

Twitter: @DemonSoul (Same lemon icon tho, so you should know it’s me. I don’t use it much, but it’s a good plan B for interim moving stuff like this and, hey, maybe someday I’ll be forced to get good at it if this climate of censorship continues)

AO3: MrsSaxon (and various other pseudonyms, MrsSaxon is the main one though and it’s where my Hannibal stuff is)

Facebook: Edwina Cooper (fuck it, just have it. I don’t use it much, I’m trying to use it more to stay close to people, so... have it. I was one of those people who had my tumblr LINKED to my FB until I inadvertently started an abortion debate with my very Catholic extended family. And then No More Of That Shit. I still don’t know how many of them know I’m queer. But if your’e comfortable, friend me. You’ll get some weird out of context updates about my real life so... fun!)

What About Tumblr?

Well... I don’t know. I don’t plan to leave... yet. I only say this because I love you all and many of you either won’t or can’t leave. My fiance is in the former category and the IM on this site, while shitty, does have the advantage of making sharing posts stupid easy. And given she is not taking the kind of content hit that I am, she is unwilling to leave and I like communicating with her and all of you, so... I’m staying. 

But I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what will happen after December 17th. I have taken the precaution of joining pillowfort, where much of my preferred content is going, and trying to get my backups back in use. Part of me thinks that this purge cannot possibly last. Not only is it abruptly and shoddily being done, there’s a billion holes in it already being exploited and I doubt that Verizon or anyone has the motivated manpower to clean up this site on a constant, regular basis. Which only makes this stupid purge even shittier int hat it lacks all conviction. It’s a pointless upset that has inconvenienced if not destroyed the online identities and businesses of many. And if we all go back to Business As Usual in a few weeks then What The Fuck Was The Point? But then, not one purge in history has been effective. Ideas resurface, they always do, content makes a comeback. This is frustrating, yes, and destructive, but by no means permanent. I mourn for what we have lost, but not for long. Fandom is stronger, we are stronger. This is a fence against the ocean. It will not stand.

And then there’s me, personally. As you probably know, I’ve been so fucking busy with life, I haven’t produced hardly any content this year :/ And a lot of my major fandoms are not producing or have destroyed what I loved about them, looking at you Gotham, looking Specifically and Purposely At You. So it’s been pretty quiet down at the Lemon blog. And I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t feel the need to follow me on pillowfort, I quite understand. I haven’t been up to much, so, you’re not missing anything. 

In a way, being busy is good, I’m making money and starting my career and soon, very soon, I’ll get to move out of my abusive home and into a much stabler environment. But I am also overworked trying to balance two demanding jobs and I am sad that I haven’t been able to make content and interact with all of you more. Maybe that will change soon. It won’t in the next few days, but maybe soon... Writing never really goes away. It never really leaves you. I’ll write again. And if you’d like to stick around for that, that’d be cool.

So, TL;DR, this sucks and I”m here but not as here as I’d like to be and I love you. Come with me or stay, do what makes you happy. Genuinely. I mean it. The best revenge is living well, after all.

Oh, and, titty protest as soon as I have a camera and no posts Dec 17!

[crazy-noonoohead]

A year ago, I stood on the corner of 52nd St. and 8th Ave., waiting to go inside for a free first preview of a new Broadway show. I generally prefer to wait until a show officially opens, partly so I can judge a final product, but mostly because a former friend attends early previews and I go out of my way to avoid her. But who can say no to free theatre tickets? (If she was there that night, I didn't see her, so crisis averted.) As always, I was excited to see a new show, but I had some concerns. Did we really need another adaptation of a movie, especially one so beloved by many? I had only seen the movie once, but I still knew it was iconic and completely understood why. Would it live up to the original source material, or would it be as offensively bad as some other adaptations I won't publicly name? I remained cautiously optimistic and eager to find out.

The opening number set the scene with just the right amount of exposition, and the following number was making me laugh, until all of a sudden they had to stop the show. Understandable. It was a first preview, and I figured they were still working some technical kinks out. Then forty-five minutes passed and free drinks were offered. I even considered not waiting at the stage door. At this point, I would already get home late, and I had to be up early for work the following day. The composer, book writer, and director got up on stage and reassured their audience that this never happened in rehearsals. They told us that despite the turntable refusing to cooperate, they would resume the first act concert-style, and then perform five songs from the second act. They also said they would give us all vouchers to come back to a later preview so we could see it the way they wanted us to. The actors had to sit in chairs and couldn't change out of their costumes, but they still gave it their all. Their ability to laugh through the stress and perform as if they were using the full set and choreography blew my mind. I think, "There you are" got the biggest laugh of the night, since all someone did was get up out of a chair. When the lead actor burst into laughter, I knew I was going to wait and congratulate everyone. It would be worth being tired the next day. When I went back a few weeks later, there was another technical stop, but this time it only lasted ten minutes. And I got to see/hear half of one of my favorite songs in the show twice. Still the best car chase I've ever seen, and probably ever will see.

Four months went by before I would see it again, but in that time I listened to the cast recording constantly and memorized the score. It was the show I recommended to friends without hesitation. I even sang the act two opener in acting class with the "Hope" (see what I did there?) that it would encourage people to buy tickets. But it wasn't enough. A week and a half after my third trip to Punxsutawney, the show posted its closing notice, and it hurt way more than I was expecting it to. I went back a lot during its final month, made friends both on the Internet and in real life, and cried with them through the final performance. I managed to see it eight times during its six-month-and-one-day run, and I wish I could have gone more.

This beautiful gem of a show deserved to run as long as Phil was stuck in that time loop. No. It deserved to run even longer than that. The care and detail that team put into every line, every movement, every...everything...continues to amaze me. It's been gone six months (minus one day) now, and I'm still picking up on new details when I listen to it or when my mind happens to wander back to its time on Broadway. A tragedy occurred in Barcelona, and the next day, they changed a line from, "It always makes me think of Barcelona" to, "It always makes me think of Machu Picchu." Something a certain other show I won't publicly name could have learned from. I'm not bitter. It enhanced the original source material, and cast a large, diverse group of kind people who deserve nothing but happiness and success. I will never stop missing it, but I'm forever grateful for the time we had together, even if it was cut far too short.

Revive Groundhog Day.

[maybeyoumissthisf-kingpost]

Why should we disrupt anti-trust laws?

The Antitrust Law was enacted with the aim of preventing monopolies and encouraging competition. Since its inception in 1890, however, history has shown that the Antitrust Law does not prevent monopolies, but is in fact a cultivated conspiracy to limit competition. These laws allow the government to regulate and restrict business activities, including influencing pricing, manufacturing, interfering with product lines or even joint ventures, under the guise of prevent monopolies and stimulate competition. However, it is the fact that it is the government that is the source of the monopoly, through "legally protected" privileged subsidies to interest groups in the economy.The only way to get rid of monopolies is to deregulate and get rid of the so-called Antitrust Law.

What is Antitrust Law?

The Antitrust Law, or Antitrust Law, is a set of US state and federal laws that regulate the conduct and organization of business corporations to promote fair competition for the benefit of consumers. use; In other English-speaking countries, this law is known as the Competition Law.

The legal provisions include: – The Sherman Act of 1890; – Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914; – The Clayton Act of 1914.

Some victims of the Antitrust Law

1. One of the most notorious Antitrust lawsuits in the United States is that of the Standard Oil corporation of the oil king Rockefeller. In 1878, when Thomas Edison invented the first electric light bulb and replaced the kerosene lamp, the oil market at that time was almost in turmoil. In the face of that challenge, Rockefeller's innovations in manufacturing made him one of the most legendary names in business. During the 1880s and 1890s, Rockefeller led Standard Oil to dominate the oil industry through efficient production and brilliant business strategies. Despite a near monopoly on the market, Rockefeller never restricted the supply of fakes to drive prices up; on the contrary, what he does is produce quality products at the lowest possible price. Under his hand, the price of oil fell by nearly 80%. Year by year,Standard Oil grew and gradually acquired competitors, while expanding into many other industries. The rise of Standard Oil has politicians and consumer activists worried about a… utopian prospect, that Standard Oil will manipulate the entire US economy. Thus, an antitrust campaign began to take shape with the goal of taking down Standard Oil. Finally, the oil king Rockefeller's corporation was "submitted" by the Sherman Act under the decision of the US Supreme Court in 1911, forcing Standard Oil to split into 34 different small companies.that Standard Oil would manipulate the entire US economy. Thus, an antitrust campaign began to take shape with the goal of taking down Standard Oil. Finally, the oil king Rockefeller's corporation was "submitted" by the Sherman Act under the decision of the US Supreme Court in 1911, forcing Standard Oil to split into 34 different small companies.that Standard Oil would manipulate the entire US economy. Thus, an antitrust campaign began to take shape with the goal of taking down Standard Oil. Finally, the oil king Rockefeller's corporation was "submitted" by the Sherman Act under the decision of the US Supreme Court in 1911, forcing Standard Oil to split into 34 different small companies.

2. Microsoft is also a good example of Antitrust attacks. In 2001, the technology group of billionaire Bill Gates was accused of integrating Internet Explorer (IE) into the Windows operating system and combining the two into one product, in order to "force" customers to use products. of the firm. It is alleged that Microsoft violated the Antitrust Law, specifically articles 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. Microsoft believes that the integration of these two products is the result of innovation and competition; Microsoft supporters say they're satisfied with getting the extra product at no extra cost, and argue that competitors are just envious of Microsoft's success.Opponents of Microsoft argue that IE and Windows are two completely separate products and do not need to be included in the startup system, asserting that the cost of integrating IE is already included in the costs. marketing and research and development costs. The lawsuit that year caused Microsoft's stock to plummet 14% in just 3 days, and was almost impossible to recover until 2015. The great economist Milton Friedman warned of the verdict. for Microsoft sets a dangerous precedent for increasing government regulation, affecting the free market, and impeding future technological progress.The lawsuit that year caused Microsoft's stock to plummet 14% in just 3 days, and was almost impossible to recover until 2015. The great economist Milton Friedman warned of the verdict. for Microsoft sets a dangerous precedent for increasing government regulation, affecting the free market, and impeding future technological progress.The lawsuit that year caused Microsoft's stock to plummet 14% in just 3 days, and was almost impossible to recover until 2015. The great economist Milton Friedman warned of the verdict. for Microsoft sets a dangerous precedent for increasing government regulation, affecting the free market, and impeding future technological progress.

3. On June 7, 2017, Ms. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition Affairs, fined Google a huge amount of up to 2.4 billion euros for violating the Antitrust Law of the European Union. Europe. This is a record penalty for a technology company. Google is currently accused of three “crimes” of (1) abusing its rights to put its shopping comparison service at the top of the search results order, (2) abusing Android to prevent smartphone manufacturers sell products running on other competitors' operating systems, and (3) restrict their competitors' ads from appearing on third-party websites that have search toolbars installed. Google search. Of course, the Google side completely denies the above allegations.

In addition, there are many other scandals related to Antitrust such as AT&T, Kodak, Xerox, IBM, Minolta, Ricoh, etc.

Countering the Antitrust Theory

The five main issues of the Antitrust Law that make it necessary for it to be repealed are:

1. Antitrust Laws restrict individuals' freedom to choose partners and make business arrangements they want.

2. The Antitrust theoretical system is not sufficient to determine which behavior is competitive or non-competitive.

3. There is no evidence that the Antitrust Law benefits consumers, however, it has become a legal tool to destroy competitors.

4. The Antitrust Law stifles the free market, reduces economic efficiency and slows development.

5. The Antitrust Law encourages entrepreneurs to become increasingly dependent on the government rather than on their own for market share.

Let me quote a passage that Ayn Rand, one of the icons of liberalism, wrote in The Objectivist Newsletter as follows:

“The (supposed) purpose of the Antitrust Law is to protect competition; That aim is based on a characteristic socialist fallacy that a free and unregulated market inevitably leads to the formation of monopolistic enterprises. But, in reality, no monopoly has ever been or can be created through free trade in a free market. All monopolies were created by government intervention in the economy: by special privileges such as franchises or subsidies, which prevented competitors from entering the economy. entering certain markets through legislation” (Ayn Rand, 1962).

Most Antitrust cases are aimed at corporate valuations. If a company sells products at a higher price than competitors but is still chosen by customers, it is considered a monopoly (e.g. pharmaceutical companies). If a company sells products at below-market prices, it is said to be "conspiring" to monopolize (e.g. Wal-Mart). If many businesses set the same price, they will receive accusations of price control (for example, the airline industry). This is precisely the absurdity of the logic of the Antitrust theory.

In the first case, if the firm sets a high price, new competitors will have the opportunity to enter the market.

In the second case, the business is simply implementing competitive strategies, and consumers will benefit from the competition of the businesses. Unfortunately, however, this practice is often labeled “predatory pricing” – which refers to pricing products below production costs temporarily in order to knock out all competitors. then push the price up when monopolizing the market. In the long term, a takeover pricing strategy will not be feasible because the business cannot bear losses in the long run; and in fact, if the business raises prices, competitors will have the opportunity to enter again, including companies that have been defeated before. Additionally, in a study entitled “The Myth of Predatory Pricing:An Empirical Study by Ronald Koller has shown no evidence that a business can monopolize through takeover valuation since the introduction of the Sherman Act in 1890.

In the third case, there is nothing wrong with businesses agreeing to increase profits, which is no different from the form of a joint venture, partnership, or joint stock company. However, these forms of cooperation are also difficult to be sustainable over time because of the high probability that one of the parties will cheat in the cooperation process. For customers, the positive side is that they will not have to spend a lot of time searching for information and comparing; Besides, if there is no government intervention, the market is completely free, customers can still choose products from other companies that suit their needs.

In my opinion, it should be called “Anti-Consumer Law” rather than Antitrust Law. It is a fact that no monopolist can stay in the market forever unless it is protected by the government . Therefore, the government itself cannot prevent monopolies through sanctions.

In addition, Antitrust also intervenes in the joint venture process between businesses. In fact, there is nothing wrong with a company acquiring competitors, because this activity takes place on a completely voluntary basis, without coercion. Moreover, this will help to restructure inefficient businesses.

An example of this is vertical mergers – an activity that takes place between businesses across a value or supply chain to expand the size of the merging business. forward or backward of the value/supply chain. This includes two types: forward integration, where the company acquires its client company, and backward integration, where the company acquires its supplier. Antitrust advocates allege that a supplier acquisition by one company will block the supply of raw materials to other rival companies. They believe that after acquiring a supplier, the supply of raw materials will now focus on a single manufacturer, while other manufacturers will not find other alternative sources.This conclusion completely lacks practical logic. Because the market is always fluctuating, as long as there is a demand, there will always be someone willing to supply. Without one supplier, another would be willing to jump in. That is the power of the market.

In addition, another form that Antitrust often acts on is binding contracts – agreements between buyers and sellers to integrate multiple products into one product package. This action is considered a violation of Antitrust, as in the case of Microsoft (mentioned above) and Kodak (case of 1954). It can be seen that blocking distribution agreements not only impedes the distribution of goods and services, delaying technological progress, but also negates the individual freedom of citizens in matters of law. negotiation, negotiation.

Conclude

Antitrust Laws are a collection of ambiguous, contradictory, complex and aimless laws that any business can fall victim to if they do better than their competitors. – and in fact, the law is so vague that a business can only know it is in violation when the activity is declared illegal. In addition, we see that the practical aspects that Antitrust affects are the core factors that make up the competition. As a result, instead of preventing monopolies, Antitrust becomes a tool to protect inefficient businesses, thereby harming consumers. Meanwhile, the essence of the monopoly problem is the existence of legal barriers to competition. These hinder the production market,distribute and use information (or market signals) to enable individuals to plan and make decisions. Not to mention it also creates bureaucracy in the administrative apparatus.

Only by abolishing the Antitrust Law and ending government funding of business will the monopoly problem be solved by the mechanism of the free market.

All credit goes to trantuansang.com.

[imtheperfectvoid]

So I’ve been REALLY fixated on Danganronpa the last few weeks (replayed the last two games and recently finished DRV3 as well) and I realized I have many many thoughts about certain characters and their respective arcs/stories/behaviors/etc. and bc I enjoy shouting my thoughts into The Void That Is The Internet I’m just gonna mash em into one post and send it out to sea. Spoilers for DR1, SDR2, and DRV3 under the cut (and sorry, it gets looooooong)

DR1:

My biggest thought I’ve had is that, over time, I’ve slowly begun to realize that I just... don’t like Kyoko as much as I thought I did. Like, when I first played the game back a couple years ago, I thought she was pretty alright. Not a favorite, but perfectly fine. However, after replaying recently, I kinda realized she just... rubs me the wrong way? I guess? Like, I understand why she is the way she is, but she just constantly comes across as being so abrasive and distant and mildly unwelcoming. Byakuya is the same way, though - hell, he’s even more abrasive and unwelcoming - but I enjoy his character more. I couldn’t figure out why until it hit me about nearish the last chapter; it’s because Kyoko switched gears and started opening up to Makoto in a way that just didn’t feel natural or earned, y’know? Byakuya was an absolute shitheel, through and through, but his character shift (as small and hardly noticeable as it was) still made sense because he came to realize that him neglecting the feelings and thought processes of others can really bite him in the ass (a la Sakura’s trial) and he starts to cooperate a bit more with everyone. Kyoko, on the other hand, just kinda... decided to open up to Makoto a bit too fast for not really any clear, distinctive reason. Maybe I glossed over it? Maybe I just didn’t read deep enough into her lines or take enough interest in her Free Time events? I don’t know. All I know is this: Kyoko’s character development in terms of her connection with Makoto and the others felt too forced and disingenuous overall, like it lacked sincerity.

I enjoy Hagakure. Like, people seem to generally find him irritatingly dumb, which I get, but honestly? Sometimes his shit is just so wild that I can’t help but enjoy it.

Same with why I like Byakuya so much. He’s a dick, but he’s pretty entertaining to watch and listen to, especially when he’s thrown off guard. That shit’s the best.

I have no idea why but... I also would’ve liked to learn more about Ishimaru? He just seemed fascinating to me, especially in his Free Time events when you learn about his family and his history of harassment and whatnot

Junko being the mastermind was really unexpected and I enjoyed that twist a lot. I did not see it coming when I first played, and the small clues they left throughout the game pointing to her were very clever!

This first game will forever be iconic in many ways, but it is sadly my least favorite of the trilogy only because they just kept getting better

SDR2

*slams fists on table* I! WANT! MORE! GUNDAM! TANAKA! (I am fully aware that he was given quite a decent amount of development, both throughout the story as well as in Free Time events, but god, I don’t know what it is but I just fucking love this guy)

People seem surprisingly divided on Kazuichi??? Which is understandable but I liked him plenty. Sure, his thing with Sonia was a bit... much... but aside from that, he’s pretty enjoyable and funny. Like Hagakure, but less dumb, I suppose.

Honestly??? I wish the blackened in chapter 4 had been Sonia- please hear me out on this one. By no means do I dislike Sonia - she’s great, I love her! - HOWEVER, I think this could’ve led to a lot more interesting development for everyone. Imagine the insanity of realizing Nekomaru, a giant, strong, agile, keen robot who couldn’t even be killed by a bazooka to the chest being killed by Sonia goddamn Nevermind. That would be a mindfuck and a half (granted, they’d have to do some serious explaining on how she’d have done it. I don’t doubt she’d take on the Final Dead Room, though - she seems plenty capable of challenging that tbh). Not only that, giving her the same motive Gundam had is just as fitting and sad enough to boot - she’s the Ultimate Princess, of course she’d want to motivate everyone and use her influence to keep their morale up in such a seemingly hopeless situation, right? Hearing her post-vote explanation for why she did it would be heartbreaking. And possibly my biggest reason for wanting Sonia to be the blackened? Imagine Gundam and Souda after her execution. Now wouldn’t that just be a moment of despair? Gundam, likely, would be very steely and unflinching on the outside, probably saying something about how “the Dark Queen no doubt knew this was her moment to take flight from this world and prevent you mortals from abandoning the lives you’ve been so fortuitously bestowed” or whatever, but god, I genuinely feel like he’d be torn up about it inside (I should add: I’m not a sondam shipper, by any means - I don’t ship Gundam with anyone - I just like the idea that Gundam is so unaccustomed to kind gestures and compliments that he just gets nervous about them coming from literally anyone (like with Hajime in Free Time events)). And Souda???? He would either try to play it tough or he would be a fucking wreck. And as much as I like Souda, I’d love to see how he carries through the rest of the game after Sonia’s execution.

Komaeda is vastly overrated. Like, don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy his character - I think he’s complex and interesting and his batshit insanity is goddamn hilarious at points, but he’s waaaaay too overhyped. Bouncing off this thought, I also feel like his character went through a lot of ups and downs in terms of enjoyability. Like, first trial? Very enjoyable - we learn he’s fuckin cuckoo for Hope Puffs and it’s great but also awful but also great. Fifth trial? We see how far he’s truly willing to go to fuck with others and bring despair so that hope can shine through, and it’s fascinating. There are other times, though, where he’s just... annoying. Not really adding anything new and just babbling about hope and despair and saying the same tired shit again and again. But what makes him a neat character is that he’s at least fun to hate. Granted, not all the time, but most of the time, yeah, it’s fun to hate this guy. Getting frustrated at how he holds back information crucial to a case or how he turns his nose up at those he thinks are below him - it’s done in a way that I at least don’t get annoyed by hating him, and I have a good time doing so.

Y’know who’s not fun to hate, though? Saionji. I fuckin hate Saionji. I honestly do. Nothing fun about hating her. Nothing fun about her at all.

I am fascinated by Twogami/Imposter’s story and character as a whole. I would love to know even more about them.

Junko being brought back again was a bit... much, yeah, I’ll agree - I as a bit disappointed that they just made her the Big Bad again, but honestly? The whole Izuru Kamukura twist made up for it. Same goes for the simulation twist; yeah, had it just been “it was all a game!! nothing really happened!! your friends are fine and monokuma ain’t real lmao”, that would’ve been real shitty, BUT by making them all Remnants of Despair, leaving the dead people most likely dead (though it’s implied that they can actually wake up, it’s just unlikely), and making Hajime technically the mastermind behind this killing game, it became a really good twist ending.

This game had some bomb-ass music, especially with the 8-bit mixes and stuff. V v good

FUCK (IMPROVED) HANGMAN’S GAMBIT. “””IMPROVED””” MY ASS. YOU RUINED A PERFECTLY GOOD GAME MECHANIC IS WHAT YOU DID. LOOK AT IT - IT’S GOT UNFAIR PLAYABILITY

This game used to be my favorite of the installments, but then... but then...

DRV3

Yup. This game’s my favorite. It’s got the best overall cast (but I’ll give SDR2 credit for having my favorite character of the whole series - my sweet boy Gundam), best music, best debate game mechanics, AND best post-game content.

GONTA GOKUHARA IS A BIG FRIEND WHOMST I LOVE VERY MUCH

A lot of people seem to be divided on how the protag switch from Kaede to Shuichi was either good or bad. Personally? I liked it. Yeah, it would’ve been really cool to have a female protag for a change, but Kaede felt too... complete, I guess? She felt like a very self-realized, confident character. While yeah, that would also be cool to see, having a very confident, strong character as the protag from the get-go, I like seeing a protag go through something like this starting out weak or unrealized and coming out on top with more of a complete character than they started with. I love Kaede, and I love Shuichi. I thought the protag switch was acceptable.

People also seem to be divided on how they feel about Ouma. And by “divided” I mean a lot of people love him a lot and some people hate him a lot. I really liked Ouma’s character a lot. I don’t like Ouma as a person - God, Christ, I do not like Ouma as a person - but his character was absolutely fascinating to me. Having a character being the total embodiment of a lie was so interesting, especially in a situation where truths and lies can gravely affect the outcome of a vote. And much like Komaeda, he was enjoyable to hate, but to an even greater extent. So many moments with Ouma were fucking hysterical. He’s got some of the best lines (”Stop making such dumbass comments and keep your smelly breath in your dirty mouth” still cracks me up with the delivery he gives for it. Also any time he yells and his voice does the screechy thing is fuckin great) and his sprites are a goddamn trip (his creepy smile sprite that just keeps getting creepier over time???). There’s a lot I can say about Ouma but I’ll just keep it at that. I don’t love him by any means, but I greatly enjoy watching him throughout the game.

People are also very divided on the ending. I loved it. I love when shit gets so meta that it blows me outta the water. And it’s really easy to fuck up a metagame ending like that, but I don’t think DRV3 did (well, I’m a bit let down by the post-credits bit - kinda would’ve preferred for it to just cut off where it did before the credits - but even that wasn’t enough to really detract me) I even liked the twist of the mastermind (even though I definitely had my suspicions solely bc Tsumugi was just too boring, and Danganronpa wouldn’t make such a nothing character for no reason, even if being plain and boring was literally her character trait, y’know what I mean?)

I’m gonna be real upfront about this - I really liked Korekiyo at first and am subsequently really disappointed with how they chose to develop his character. Granted, the whole “I’ve killed nearly 100 women in order to appease my dead sister whom I was supposedly in an incestuous relationship with and is also a tulpa in my own mind who speaks through me sometimes” was definitely something that threw me for a loop and a half and was a surprising twist, but “surprising” doesn’t equate to “good”, not in this case. See, I loved the mysterious and creepy vibes Korekiyo gave off - doing his Free Time events, I saw how intelligent and composed and fascinating he was to interact with. His views on humanity, his views on a lot of things, were just so interesting. I wanted to see more into him, see what more he had to offer, and I thought we’d get something like that in chapter 3 when we unlocked his research lab, and I was really looking forward to it. When they threw that twist out there, I was... really let down. Making him something that was just so objectively vile and inhumane seemed unfair and not as interesting as it could’ve been. I was expecting him to be more Gundam-like (looks like they’d kill you but is actually pretty nice and likely would not kill you) or maybe even slightly Komaeda-like (his obsession with the beauty of humanity drives him to say and do some weird shit, which ended up being kind of true, but not to the extent I was expecting) Kiyo’s development felt too over-the-top, too, in that sense; like, it wasn’t enough that he’d killed nearly 100 women - he also had to have a tulpa who was his sister that encouraged him to do these things, and he also had to be in an incestuous relationship with said sister when she was still living. That’s just... a lot. Like, waaay too much. Had they thrown that out, kept his weird shtick about how “humanity is beautiful, even when ugly” and all his other overall strangeness, I think he could’ve had a far more compelling backstory and character arc. Honestly, maybe get rid of the serial killer bit, get rid of the incest, and he becomes more interesting while still being a character who eventually kills someone for the wrong reasons (i.e. maybe to see “the beauty of a life leaving its physical body” or something, not for his own survival or escape). Hell, maybe even keep the tulpa to give a twist on his story that focuses on how he’s unhealthily coped with his sister’s death. Maybe his sister tells him to do these things but he doesn’t listen to her and tries to avoid causing harm to others and block her out. Or maybe she’s more rational. Or maybe it’s not a tulpa and Korekiyo knows she’s not really with him but he pretends to help himself cope. Any of these would’ve been interesting to delve into (albeit assuming they’re done properly, as well). I didn’t anticipate to linger on this for so long but goddammit, I really wanted a cool character out of Korekiyo and was cheated out of it and it really disappointed me.

(also some people like korekiyo way too much and it frightens me)

(same with ouma like guys c’mon)

But on the bright side, I do love me some good “seesaw” memes

I’m also amazed at how there wasn’t a single character in this game that I didn’t enjoy to some degree. DR1 had Kyoko, Hifumi, and Celeste whom I never ended up feeling very strongly for one way or the other (though Celeste freaking tf out in the 3rd trial is always enjoyable to watch), SDR2 had Saionji and also had Mahiru and Akane who were kinda “meh” for me. But DRV3? Yeah, Angie got pretty annoying in chapter 3, and yeah, I can see in what ways people would get annoyed by Tenko or Himiko or Ouma or Miu or... most of them, really, but everyone in this cast was interesting and enjoyable for extended periods of time. Some, all the way through the game! (Looking at you, Gonta, Miu, and K1-B0)

THE DEBATE SCRUM SONG IS A FUCKIN BANGER

AND THE DEBATE SCRUM IN GENERAL IS AWESOME

Thank God they fixed Hangman’s Gambit

A lot of the music in this one was really really good!! I have the soundtrack CD in my car and I very much enjoy it and will probably blast it during my drive back to campus on Monday

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

[newstfionline]

Slavery Ensnares Thousands in U.K. Here’s One Teenage Girl’s Story.

By Ceylan Yeginsu, NY Times, Nov. 18, 2017

LONDON--Every Friday morning, as commuters arrived in London Victoria station, a teenage girl would board a train to Eastbourne, a coastal town about 60 miles outside the city.

Dressed in her sports uniform and carrying a shoulder bag covered in badges of pop icons, she tried to give the impression that she was on her way to school. But this teenager was already three hours into her workday.

Armed with a knife and carrying a large supply of Class A drugs, the 14-year-old girl had been instructed to travel to Eastbourne to sell crack and heroin.

If she failed to meet steadily increasing demands set by her boss at the time, a 48-year-old gang leader who lured her through a social media app, she was either beaten or sexually assaulted.

A report by a British government commission on modern slavery and human trafficking, released last month, described a sprawling practice that ensnares tens of thousands of people in Britain.

Many are immigrants. But the high number of victims from Britain was an unexpected shock--cases involving British citizens like the teenage girl were the third-largest grouping, after those involving Albanians or Vietnamese.

A majority of child-trafficking victims were also found to be British.

From nail salons and carwashes to farms and construction sites, thousands of vulnerable adults and children are being traded as commodities and are often subjected to violence and abuse, the report found.

“We kind of let it slip that we have vulnerable people in our own communities,” Kevin Hyland, Britain’s first independent antislavery commissioner, said in an interview. “And they are vulnerable for a number of reasons, not just because they come from poverty. It may be that they have learning difficulties, educational issues or addiction.”

For months, no one noticed as the 14-year-old girl, whose identity is being concealed for her protection because her captors are still at large, sneaked out of her apartment before dawn, skipped school and came home late, once with bruises all over her body. No one saw the deep scratches on her arms and legs when she started to hurt herself.

Her mother acknowledged neglecting her daughter at times, occasionally staying away from their home for several nights at a time and ignoring calls from her daughter’s school reporting that she had failed to attend.

Then, during the school holidays in July last year, the teenager disappeared. It was not until seven months later, after her mother said she had resigned herself to the fact that her daughter might be dead, that a detective told her that she had been kidnapped and enslaved.

“Enslaved?” the mother, whose identity is also being concealed to protect her daughter, recalled asking the officer. “I just kept repeating that word. I didn’t understand it,” she said in a London park where she often goes to try to manage a panic disorder that developed after her daughter’s disappearance.

During the months when her daughter was missing, “I thought about every possible scenario that could have happened to her,” her mother said. “But slavery? I didn’t even know that happened in England.”

Britain recorded 2,255 modern slavery offenses across England and Wales last year, a 159 percent increase from the previous year. According to the government commission, the rise suggests that, while slavery might be increasing, so is awareness among the police and public. The report also said that different agencies were cooperating better.

But a recent inspection of police practice found significant deficiencies and inconsistencies that left many victims exposed and vulnerable to further exploitation.

“Victims who come into contact with the police are not always recognized as such and therefore remain in the hands of those who are exploiting them. Others are arrested as offenders or illegal immigrants,” the British Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services found.

Analysts say that some of the most vulnerable people are those who depend on welfare benefits and lack family life and support. As a result, they are easily influenced by people who suddenly appear in their lives.

“People often get picked up when they are hanging around, either at hostels or soup kitchens,” said Anne Read, an anti-trafficking response coordinator for the Salvation Army, a charity that manages the government support system for adult victims. “And, of course, now there is the internet, which enables predators to enter people’s homes,” she added.

That is how the teenager met her captor more than a year ago, through a messaging app on her phone.

Her mother, who had just lost her job at a bakery, had cut off her weekly allowance of about $26. That caused the girl to spend less time with her friends and more time on the internet.

“I was broke, I couldn’t do nothing,” the girl, now 15, said in an interview with her caseworker by her side. “I got bored and started chatting to people on my phone, and that’s how I met him,” she said, referring to her captor, who has not been taken into custody and whose real name is unknown to investigators.

“He was really sweet when I met him,” she added with the slight stutter she developed in the months she was away. “He kept buying me phone credit, and told me he would look after me and teach me how to make money.”

The first day they arranged to meet, he took her to her favorite fish and chip restaurant and ordered the large family menu, just for the two of them.

The man was grooming the teenager to “go country,” meaning that she would become a drug runner. While most British citizens are trafficked for labor or sex, an increasing number of young people are being drawn into the drug world because of the relatively new phenomenon of distributing narcotics from urban hubs to small towns.

“What we have are criminals who are predators, and who use other people as their instruments of crime,” Mr. Hyland said. “They will use them however they can in whatever way they want to make money.”

The teenager’s boss promised her about $175 for every day she worked. The gang he ran made profits of about $2,400 a day, said her caseworker, who requested anonymity because she was not allowed to speak to the news media while the investigation into the teenager’s disappearance was underway.

In the first four months of working for the gang, she earned around $2,500 and received a new phone with unlimited data and a gold bracelet, which she still wears.

But one day last year, after making a drug run to Eastbourne, she was told by a gang member that the police had caught her on camera and were waiting to arrest her at her home in South London.

The teenager believed him.

The man, whom she knew as Ziggy, took her phone and money. He then drove her to a dark, squalid garage with no windows, where she lived for the next seven months with various drug addicts.

“Everything changed,” the girl recalled. “Ziggy started to beat me and told me I wasn’t worth anything to them anymore.”

She was then taken off the runner rotation and forced into servitude, preparing drug supplies, transferring them between houses in the area and cleaning up after the addicts who lived there.

One night, as she slept on a mattress in the corner of the cold garage floor, Ziggy appeared and lay down next to her. “First he undressed me and made me do things to him, but then he raped me,” she said, as tears streamed down her face and her hands started shaking.

“I thought about escaping so many times, but I had nowhere to go,” she said. “I thought they would either kill me or the police would arrest me.”

When members of the gang and different drug addicts started to rape her every night, she finally decided that nothing could be worse. The next day, she went to a local laundromat and asked to use the phone to call the police.

She returned home only after spending several months in a safe house undergoing a rehabilitation program. Her mother has had to move from their former home in South London because members of the gang that abused her daughter are still at large.

[cemeterygatesmedia]

A Guide for New Fans of the Friday the 13th Films

The only element which the 11 or 12(debatable) Friday the 13th movies have in common is Jason’s iconic hockey mask. You’re curious about the series’ cult status, still going strong after forty years, but you’re uneducated in the lore of the masked, machete-wielding maniac. Maybe you recall seeing one of the films on USA Network in the mid-90s as a kid, or caught bits and pieces of one while your older brother Chet watched a video rental with his cool, cigarette smoking friends. You’re internet savvy, you know pop culture, you’ve likely stumbled upon a few gifs of Jason’s best kills around the dawn of Internet 2.0. So, you know that Jason kills, and that he wears a hockey mask. The producers of the Friday the 13th films know that you know this, so when they remade the original three films into Friday the 13th (2009) they seemingly did so, with the intent of undoing the fact that Jason wasn’t the killer in the 1980 film and didn’t don his hockey mask until the third installment in the series.

For a pop-culture aficionado who is interested in sampling from the series, I would strongly recommend that they not watch the 1980 film first. Even if you’ve never seen parts 3-8, the original movie will probably feel like a prequel. You will be letdown by the director’s choices. There are some realistic criticisms to be made, but I’m talking about some not so valid criticisms: namely, the fact that he didn’t make a hockey masked killer named Jason, the one stalking camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake. So, what is one to do, when they can’t start with the original? I will give my best argument for why a prospective fan should begin their journey with Part IV: The Final Chapter.

The second, third, fourth, and seventh installments are so rigidly formulaic, so similar in tone, pacing, and lacking character; that viewing any one of these four, will likely not inspire a new viewer to want to see more. To become a die hard fan of Friday the 13th you either have to be charmed by the schlock, or enamored by the seriousness of the gore and wild libertine violence.

Jason Takes Manhattan, Jason X, Jason Goes to Hell, and Freddy vs. Jason are likely too campy, borderline absurdist, to inspire a look back at the earlier installments. I’d venture to say, that these four movies made no new fans of the franchise. I can’t imagine someone walking out of Jason X or Jason Takes Manhattan telling themselves, “The movie I just saw was iconic!” or “Jason X is such a breathtaking genre piece, that I need to see the other ten or so films.”

So, if you’ve made it this far, you might wonder why I recommended that a new viewer watch Part IV first and then seemingly walked it back, saying it was rigidly formulaic and not inspiring. But I’m going to stick with it. You should, as a new viewer, probably watch Part IV: The Final Chapter, first -- with the caveat, that no matter what, you’ll watch Part V and Part VI afterward. Oh, wait. Did I really just recommend watching Part V: A New Beginning -- the one with the big twist at the end which was universally hated? You might not hate it, as you don’t yet have the prejudice of having seen the first three films. You’re now invested in Tommy Jarvis, you know about his childhood traumas, and you’re watching his teenage fears play out, unraveling his already tenuous grasp on sanity...and there’s a hockey masked killer named Jason doing his iconic thing.

Now we get to the end of the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, and my personal favorite Friday the 13th film. The movie which somehow merges the schlock and camp of the later entries, with the genuinely scary atmosphere, and fun Camp Crystal Lake hi-jinx of the first few films. Part VI: Jason Lives is Tommy Jarvis’ final appearance. He’s a grown man now, and he seems much better adjusted than he did in the previous two films, though he does begin the movie by digging up Jason’s corpse, in an attempt to make sure said corpse is actually dead. Boner move, bro. The movie is fast-paced, has plenty of gore, many of the comedic bits still seem to work, and the utter schlock of Alice Cooper’s music and a stoner dude trying to score in an RV is icing on the cake. The best part of the movie is the fact that there are kids and camp counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, while Tommy faces off with Jason like he has just completed his training, and they’re finalists at the All Valley Tournament.

By the time you’ve experienced the Tommy Jarvis trilogy, you might just be a Friday the 13th fan. To complete your journey through the mediocre storytelling, unbearable dialogue, and at times, horrendous pacing of most Friday the 13th films, I’d recommend you next watch parts 1-3, then Friday the 13th (2009), so you can compare the remake for a laugh, then Part 7: The New Blood. But you should probably take a breather at this point and watch Nightmare on Elm Street parts 1, 3, 5, and 6. If you’ve survived your journey through these inextricably connected pop-culture film series’, you should watch Freddy Vs. Jason. It’s a level of mediocrity on par with a Friday the 13th part 3 or 7, but you’re a die hard fan now, so it’s special to you.

My final thoughts and recommendations for new fans to the Friday the 13th series are: don’t watch Jason Goes to Hell or Jason X, and only watch Jason Takes Manhattan if you can find a fellow Friday the 13th fan to watch it with. It really should be another die hard, so you can talk about the other Friday the 13th movies, characters, scenes, and kills that you actually like, while Jason wanders around a boat, goes for a swim, stumbles through back alleys, punches a dude’s head off, makes self-referential nods to his culturally iconic status, and reveals his melting, dragon/lizard face before unceremoniously dying in a sewer. Oops, sorry ‘bout that spoiler -- but the dude dies at the end, he always dies.

PS. Freddy Vs. Jason isn’t a Friday the 13th film. I wish we could toss out a few more... 

-Joe Sullivan

Author of spook books, available on Amazon, and a fully illustrated book of horror tales inspired by Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, currently live on Kickstarter   

[ursafilms]

Chapter 4 - Is That a Knife?

Roger Davenport became an official resident of lower Manhattan, when he moved his belongings into an apartment at 90 John Street, the Thursday before Memorial Day. The building sat on a narrow street between Pearl and Gold, and had a spectacular view of another apartment building.

The sounds of construction work filled southern Manhattan, John Street being no exception. Roger spent most of the day getting settled; dodging cement trucks and getting redirected through a series of detours by a collection of unhappy police officers. The pathway to and from his apartment resembled a Tetris game, with the pieces represented by backhoes, mini-bulldozers, and barricades constantly on the move.

The last of Roger’s boxes got dropped off on the Friday before the start of the Memorial Day weekend. He’d missed most of the latter part of the workweek with the move. Gary Kaplan gave him the time off, and Roger needed it because like most Manhattanites he had become very insular in his previous neighborhood, the Upper West Side. His geographical illiteracy outside of UWS, as it was called, had him taking longer to find grocery stores and set up cable and internet and other services. He knew little about the world below Lincoln Center; East of Central Park; and North of Zabar’s.

He spoke with his boss about the area of southern Manhattan as he sat in a rented barca-lounger and looked at the large open floor plan detailing the 10thfloor of 90 John Street. The apartment he occupied.

“You’ll figure it out, Roger,” said Gary. “After all you figured out the Upper West Side. How long did that take? Only four or five . . . years?”

“That’s funny, chief.”

“Come on. It is on the same island as the Upper West Side. It has bars and restaurants and grocery stores,” said Gary. “At least I think it does. I understand they’re getting television reception there next year.”

Gary heard nothing for a moment, except Roger pushing things around his new apartment.

“Look, Roger,” he said. “Another employee used Google Earth to help them get used to a new place in an unfamiliar part of the country. I’m sure it can aid with southern Manhattan.”

“Google Earth?” He asked. “How did that help?”

Roger got out of the barca-lounger and walked the obstacle course from the living room into the small clubman kitchen. He managed to find the coffee maker during his first feeble attempt at unpacking. He poured another cup, which he would have to drink black until he found a grocery store.

“She said it gave her a more realistic idea of the locale. Where things actually were in relation to her new apartment. Was the grocery store really just down the block, or did she have to go around something to get to it? Was there something closer that might be easier to deal with, but might be more expensive.” Gary continued. “Google Earth gives you the terrain along with a lot of the businesses and subway and bus stops. It’s updated constantly. Not just the photography, but if something new opens, Google isn’t far behind in getting the information onto the application.”

“When did you become such an expert?” Asked Roger as he sucked down the coffee. “God, this is awful.”

“What?”

“Black coffee. I really do have to find a grocery store. Go on.”

“It’s easy to use, Roger. For a creative guy who has an awfully good grasp of so many digital tools, you can be a Luddite.”

“Okay, Gary,” said Roger. “I’ll give it a go. I just have to some of these boxes unpacked and I’ll open up the laptop and take a look.”

“Good,” said Gary. “Call me back if you can’t find Wall Street. I’m pretty sure I know where it is.”

“Not helping.”

“No?”

“No.”

Gary ended the call. Roger walked over to the sink; moved an unopened box out of it; and tossed the remainder of the coffee into the drain.

“Google Earth? Ah, what the heck,” he said as he watched the liquid disappear.

Roger negotiated the obstacle course back towards the barca-lounger. Along the way he gathered up his work backpack and pulled the laptop out of it. He signed in and a bright Red, White and Blue graphic flashed onto the proclaiming the advent of the Memorial Day Holiday and just around the corner, The Fourth of July break as well. Digital reminders that every year for the past 15, he, Patricia and however many kids they had at whatever age they were, ventured down to Cape May, New Jersey to spend both Memorial and Independence Days with his parents and his sister. This year that would not happen, unless they settled things by the 4thof July.

“That is unlikely,” he said to the screen in front of him.

Memorial Day and Independence Day were also the anniversaries of his wedding and engagements to Patricia Davenport nee Hitchcock, respectively.

Another twinge and Roger hit the space bar to clear the screen. He opened a browser and typed in www.googleearth.com. Which did not work, but did redirect him to the company’s main page with a helpful instruction to type Google Earth into the search bar.

And received the requisite message informing him he’d have to download the application, and a Pro version would be available as well . . . for a small fee.

He clicked on the link and it took him to the page where he could download Google Earth. Roger did as instructed and had the icon on his desktop in minutes. He double-clicked on it.

Seconds later the big blue marble of planet Earth spun in front of him. He put the address of 90 John Street in the search window. It gave him the view from over the top of his building and displayed about 16 square blocks of the immediate neighborhood.

If anything could be called square in southern Manhattan. People told Roger, when they found out where he moved that the charm of the Wall Street area existed in the fact that nothing laid out in a grid. It was an old Dutch village and still retained some of the cobblestone streets; blind alleys; and narrow thoroughfares of the original settlement.

“Yes,” he said again to the screen. “Very charming. No straight lines. Dead-ends. Ankle-twisting cobblestones. Charming indeed.”

He opened another browser window and did a standard Google search for ‘Grocery Stores near me.’ A Jubilee had just opened down the block right on John Street and the same for a Gristede's a few blocks away on Cedar. As if he had any idea where Cedar Street sat in relation to John, but that’s what Google Earth was going help him wi—

Then he saw it, or saw him, rather. Over on a street called Theater Alley, northeast of his apartment. The search window on his laptop just large enough to show a section of the grid that boasted of a grocery store called Brother Food Vendor on Ann Street.

When Roger moved over to take a closer look by zooming in on Ann Street, the location of the store, he did a double take. On Theater Alley, which runs perpendicular to Ann, he saw the figure of a man leaning over someone.

Roger increased the size of the image on screen to get more detail. He refreshed the browser, which is a mistake, because it took him all the way back out to a 10,000 foot view. He quickly hit the ‘+’ on the application screen until he’s back down to the level where Theater Alley is dominating the upper left corner of the interface.

He pulled his screen in the northeast direction and hit the “+” button again. A person is bent over a prostrate figure, half of who is lying on the curb and half in the street on Theater Alley. A knife, identifiable even by its blurry profile . . . is raised above the assailant’s head.

The person is in mid-strike. The body language is more forward then backward. A thin grayish streak shows underneath the assailant. It must be the victim’s blood. The attacker has already stabbed his prey.

“I read something about this. Google Earth had captured a murder on the streets of Berlin. It turned out to be just an assault, but the image did help the police capture the criminal.”

While talking to himself, Roger does a search. He is looking for a number for Google Earth or Google. Nothing. At least nothing readily apparent. He does not want to call the police. They would never believe him.

He wipes his forehead with the back of his left wrist. Roger is sweating. He searches again for a call center. Nothing at Google. Not even a 1-800 number.

He wants to save the image as evidence, but Roger can’t remember the method of screen capture. It’s a simple series of keystrokes but it has flown out of his head. It is something he has done a hundred times for work, and yet it is now gone.

Roger exhales; tosses a few boxes and articles of clothing out of his way; and picks up the land line in his apartment. He dials 911.

“911. What is the nature of your emergency?” The dispatcher, a woman, asks.

“I’m witnessing a murder,” he blurts out before he can think.

“Where is this taking place, sir?” The dispatcher asks.

“Uh, Theater Alley. Just north of Ann Street,” he replies.

“What is your name, please?”

“Uh, I’d really prefer not to give it.” Roger replies. “I’m really not sure what I’m looking at.”

“Hold, please,” she says.

Roger paces around the apartment. He squeezes the handset repeatedly.

“Please don’t trace this call,” he says out loud. “I will hang up this phone and dash over to Theater Alley myself.”

He reaches towards the ‘End’ button, when a voice comes on the phone.

“Detective Cooper, homicide.”

The voice is New York, born and raised. Bronx.

“Detective Cooper, HOMICIDE!”

“I’m sorry, Detective,” says Roger. He pauses, until he hears heavier breathing coming from Detective Cooper. “This is Mike Williams. I believe I’m looking at a homicide on Google Earth.”

“A homicide on Google Earth?” Asks Detective Cooper. “What’s that mean, Mister Williams? Google Earth?”

“I was doing a search of my neighborhood. Looking for grocery stores. I, uh, just moved in.”

“Where do you live Mister Williams?” Asks Cooper.

Roger reaches for the ‘End’ button again. But stops.

“Please, detective, I’m not sure what this is,” says Davenport.

Cooper turns and motions to his partner, Dave Acheson, who is standing at the door of the detective’s office. He has an unlit cigarette in his mouth. Cooper puts the handset under his chin and scratches out “Google Earth and Theater Alley, NYC” on a notepad. He extends it to Acheson, who walks over to Cooper’s desk.

The detective, Cooper’s longtime partner, mimes a question mark in the air in front of him. Cooper says nothing and stares at him. Cooper makes the police sign for a trace. Acheson leaves the office. He sits at a desk in the interior of the floor and runs the program for a trace of his desktop computer. A policeman behind Acheson dons a headset. He lifts his right hand and makes a one handed clapping motion, the sign for Cooper to keep talking.

“We’re not finding anything here, Mister Williams,” says Cooper, just enough sarcasm when he says ‘Williams’ to set off Roger’s alarms, “You should tell me what this is really about?”

Roger has hung up.

“Did we get an address?” He yells across the room.

“Sorry, Dennis, not on the line long enough.” The policeman wearing a headset yells back.

“We have got to get better at this,” says Cooper, in the direction of the officer with the headset.

“Oh yeah?” Replies the officer. “Well, maybe you should think to ask for the trace earlier? Maybe that’s something you should get better at?”

There’s an escalation of shouting in the room, before someone says something along the lines of, “Yeah, maybe you should all kiss my –“ Cooper slams the door to his office and cuts off the noise coming from the precinct bullpen.

***

Roger returned the phone to its charger. The image of the murder, if that’s indeed what it is, has disappeared from his laptop. He sits in the Barcalounger and looks out at the apartment building across the way.  The home he shared with Patricia, Tyler and Max had a view of Riverside Park. A tear filled his right eye. He pressed the palm of his hand to it.

Roger fully extends the Barcalounger, and looks at the newly painted ceiling. It is the last thing he remembers before falling asleep.

[morganbelarus]

Is Lady Gaga In Love With Bradley Cooper? An Investigation Betches

Ever since Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper started doing press for A Star Is Born last fall, it’s been clear that they have a very special connection with each other. They both respect the work that the other does, and it also really seems like they could be f*cking. Or at least, it really seems like Lady Gaga wants to f*ck Bradley Cooper. The internet has been full of memes and jokes about them being in love for months now, and I’m here to look at what actually might be going on. Of course, I don’t actually know anything about any of this, so please don’t attack me in DMs. I’m just your average person with two eyes and access to the internet.

100 People In A Room

anyone: lady gaga: THERE CAN BE 100 PEOPLE IN A ROOM AND 99 DON’T BELIEVE IN YOU BUT ALL YOU NEED IS ONE WHO DOES AND BRADLEY WAS THAT ONE FOR ME

— ⭐️ (@soulcondition) October 23, 2018

I start my dissertation with the Lady Gaga line heard ’round the world. And that’s because she’s literally said it in interviews and speeches around the world. For someone who has become a global icon for writing her own songs, you’d think she could get a little more creative here. The analogy is that Bradley Cooper has always truly believed in her, even when everyone else didn’t, and no matter how canned this line is, I think Gaga really believes it. She seems like a pretty sincere person most of the time, and I don’t think she would fake her admiration for Bradley.

Body Language

I won’t pretend to be some sort of body language expert from Criminal Minds, but I’m familiar with social interaction. Watch that video compilation above, and tell me with a straight face that Lady Gaga does not want to see that man naked. Well, I would bet money that she’s already seen him naked, even if it was in a platonic scenario, but she wants him. I just know it! This whole awards season, Gaga has interacted with Bradley like he’s some kind of god, and I’m kind of over it. Like, girl, you’re so talented and successful, who cares about this decent-looking white dude! But I’m not here to judge, just to analyze, so let’s continue.

The Tattoo

View this post on Instagram

Happy Valentine’s Day. A tattoo toast to “la vie en rose” by the beautiful @winterstone my spinal cord is now a rose

A post shared by Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) on Feb 14, 2019 at 11:30am PST

If you haven’t seen A Star Is Born, fyi that I’m about to spoil something that happens in the first 20 minutes of the movie. You’ll live. The first time Jackson (Bradley Cooper) sees Ally (Lady Gaga), she’s singing “La Vie En Rose” in a drag bar. They lock eyes during the performance, and they’re basically in love from that moment on. Earlier this month, Lady Gaga celebrated Valentine’s Day by getting a “La Vie En Rose”-inspired tattoo down her spinal cord. Gaga obviously has a deep connection to this song, and it seems like it would be closely intertwined with her and Bradley’s relationship. The choice to get the tattoo on Valentine’s Day is especially important, given my next point…

The Breakup

Until recently, Lady Gaga was engaged to agent Christian Carino, but they announced their breakup earlier this month. Speculation began after Gaga appeared without her engagement ring at the Grammys, and her publicist confirmed the news last week. I won’t pretend to know what went down between Lady Gaga and Christian, but we know for sure that the engagement is over. That means Gaga is free to do whatever she wants, but Bradley Cooper is still going strong with Irina Shayk, who is the mother of his child. Sad!

The Oscars

At last night’s Oscars, Lady Gaga was easily one of the biggest stories to follow. As expected, she won her first Oscar for Best Original Song, though A Star Is Born didn’t win in any of the bigger categories. Gaga and Bradley walked the red carpet separately, so Lady Gaga got her diva moment, and Irina Shayk got to keep Bradley on an appropriately short leash. During the actual show, Irina was seated right in the middle of our two alleged lovebirds, which is shady as hell and I’m here for it. However, the most important moment of the night was when the two of them performed “Shallow” together, and it was everything I was hoping for. The performance was great, but the way she looked at him at the end…I can tell you right now homegirl was wet under that gown. There were way more than 100 people in that room, but Bradley was the only one in Gaga’s heart.

The Verdict

The way I see it, it seems extremely likely that Lady Gaga has feelings for Bradley Cooper. Literally all the signs indicate this, and I don’t think she’s that good of an actress. Don’t @ me. To me, the bigger question is whether Brad and Gaga have acted on their forbidden love connection. I won’t make a prediction, partially because I don’t want to get sued, but also because I truly can’t figure it out. This could be a love story for the ages, or they could never be seen together again after last night. Only time will tell!

Images: Shutterstock; @soulcondition / Twitter; Betches / YouTube; @ladygaga / Instagram; Giphy

Original Article : HERE ; This post was curated & posted using : RealSpecific

Is Lady Gaga In Love With Bradley Cooper? An Investigation Betches was originally posted by MetNews

[smelllikeholyhell-blog]

Theory, Or: Interclass Activism and a Punk Development

This post serves mostly as any other post on any other website; I wanna write stuff and feel special I guess. That said, allow me to give my background as to why I consider my stance on this to be one of any more-than-minor experience regarding anything.

In my childhood, with an obscene absence of parental or adult authority of any kind, I turned (more often than not) to local punks because that’s what I wanted to be when I grew up. As a result my path through politics has been one of increasingly weird twists and turns that really don’t make a lot of sense. From a small period of christian conservatism in the late 00s, to a nihilist in the early 2010s, an almost groomed-to-be neo nazi as a stepping stone between the two. I had a lot of voices going in and out of my ear and a lot of influences in my path that ultimately led me to where I am today; I smell like shit and I’ve thrown a lot of shit at cops. If I had to choose how to summarise my politics it would be that.

A short disclaimer before going further: Growing up I was a “white, working class” child with no family. The “white working class” myth in America is not only a disgusting, pandering myth. It’s an outright erasure of every non-white citizen within the working class and an attempt to arrange a hierarchy of importance based on outmoded racial demographics. That said I’m not entirely sure on how to approach my birthright identity in any a way more constructive than that, so bear with me while I stumble through that phrase with an increasing reaction of stomach bile every time.

As mentioned; I was ‘white working class’ as a child, this is in the 2000s so that’s hardly of any significance or importance, but when I say working class that is a stretch. My mother was a crackhead, in and out of rehab and only around to be abusive and steal. My father was also a crackhead, albeit the kind that can hold a job. My uncles were drug dealers, my grandma had a weird fucking life and I don’t want to get into that but she was a worker, and the only grandparent alive at the same time as me. This structure in my home life left a large gap of leadership, guidance or comfort and my childhood was divided evenly between time spent outdoors trying to be anywhere but home, and time spent locked in my room hiding from the world. I was diagnosed with ADHD in early childhood, major depressive disorder at 8, generalised anxiety at 11, PTSD at 13 and BPD at 17. Suffice to say balancing all of these things in different intervals, being bounced between different facilities and (as a result) not receiving a continued treatment for anymore than one concurrent issue led to a lot of issues with conventional learning.

This did not stop me from learning, early into my adolescence I established myself as a well-spoken and stalwart voice in my communities (both online and irl) for what I considered to be moral and practical political guidelines. But the formation of the politics that served as the soapbox for those guidelines was something of an event itself that can be traced back to a Ramones CD I received as a birthday gift when I was 5. The case was cracked, the CD was scratched, but I could make out enough of the songs to love it and listen to it everyday until I turned 7 and received a Rancid CD from an uncle who was tired of hearing the Ramones. Shortly after, when I turned 8, a local gave me a Crass CD burnt (very poorly) onto what was a Mariah Carey CD at some point or another. This CD was defaced very horribly and was quickly thrown out within 4 months of coming home with me, but such is life. 

The Crass CD contained a few songs. Banned from the Roxy, General Bacardi, Do They Owe Us A Living, but most importantly for my impressionable young self; Big A Little A. An iconic and time-tested anthem of independent thought and self-sufficiency, a song that rails simultaneously against the systems of oppression so prevalent in the 70s and 80s in the UK, and a song that promotes free expression. It absolutely devastated me in a way I can never put into words, it was transformative like very few things ever have been since and very few things ever will be again. But most importantly it began my path towards anarchism as a school of thought and general principle.

Let’s derail to more relevant information; as a child I struggled to read. Not because I couldn’t or didn’t know how to, I read very well in fact. But I was terminally bored. No matter what it was or what was on the line or what I had to do. I was bored. I would start a book, get 5 pages in, close it and go back to my computer. Go back to the music or the game or whatever, as long as it wasn’t that. As I’ve gotten older I’ve just accepted that I really...don’t like reading. I enjoy writing, I love it, but the act of reading as a way to pass time is one of the most intensely draining and soulsucking experiences in my life, valid as it may be. Most of my political upbringing was based around a mixture of things. Music, conversations, speeches and most importantly a system of failure that is uniquely experienced by every person in the lower classes regardless of identity and race. The system of having your infrastructure devastated, your schools packed, your teachers dismissive of you based on your financial ability to retaliate, and the saving grace of free lunches. Lunches which would be your only food everyday for weeks, sometimes. And in my formative years I spent many weeks and months homeless, not quite “fighting” for survival and in a situation comparatively far less severe than what my nonwhite counterparts have endured, but a difficult one nonetheless.

In many ways around this time I was extremely lucky to grow up in an area as diverse as can be. In a lot of classes I was one of maybe 4 white kids, where most children were latinx or black. I owe this time period a great deal as it allowed me the freedom to learn early how to hold other cultures in a good amount of respect, while also understanding my place at a maintainable but appreciative distance from them. I would later undo this through several years of drug fueled abuse of being given the oh-so-fabled n-word pass by a few black friends, though I can graciously say I moved past that and physically shudder every time I think about that time. But being homeless in this situation, in this region of America and with the great deal of privilege I was handed at birth, offered me an equally great deal of autonomy and my ability to learn where I wanted to learn and how I wanted to learn. If it meant staying up until 5 AM to go on scene trips to the local campus after hours then so be it, but if I wanted to hear what someone had to say I heard what someone had to say. This learning process, while informal and atypical, was the deciding factor in who I became to this day. But there are interclass repercussions for how I’ve learned.

As a young anarchist I attended every event I could. If it was a black bloc I was there. A protest, I was there. Vandalising, squatting and stealing were my favourite pasttimes and I regret absolutely none of it. I can say I’ve punched a cop or two in my time and that’s a pretty fun thing to say albeit entirely alienating when talking to people who aren’t anarchists. Most importantly though; I didn’t show my face. I learned security culture, I learned how to load a gun, I learned how to hide. I did all of it without books and I can say that most of my personal friends have a decent theoretical idea of practise and absolutely no idea how to sustain the execution of it. This, unsurprisingly, has not stopped those people from looking down on me at some point or another. Most still to this day with varying levels of severity. Usually when the topic of anarchy is prevalent I’m asked to give very diplomatic answers or partake in very diplomatic discussions

“What would happen to me in this situation?”

“How would this situation be handled?”

“Who’s your favourite writer?”

“Are you a syndicalist or a mutualist or an egoist?”

At the end of the day most of these discussions generally serve an entirely hypocritical and self-defeatingly toxic pecking order in anarchist circles. Who can theory the other person to death first? so to speak. At its best this behaviour is pedantic and childish. At its worst it just serves to divide current groups and prevent them from further cooperation, the very same cooperation which every single anarchist community inherently relies on for the most minor accomplishment of basic survival. In the last couple of years I’ve adopted a way of dealing with this which is simply in saying; I don’t have time for theory. This isn’t a lie, it isn’t a deflection, it’s the truth. My own time on a day-to-day basis is preoccupied with self-preservation in any capacity that that happens. If self-preservation is a complete distraction from my problems then so be it, no one will ever enforce a schedule on how I deal with my problems unless it’s me or my biological clock. If self-preservation is getting drunk when I wake up, that’s that. If it’s disappearing to go work on something for a few days, that’s that. If it’s networking with other anarchist to establish a network of ideas that’s that. But self-preservation is self-preservation, it is at its core just the act of survival in a capitalist society, one which is built to ensure anything but that survival.

I have noticed that my approach to this is not entirely uncommon in working class circles of anarchist praxis, it’s actually the overriding majority. The anarchists filling potholes are not the same as the anarchists lecturing one another. Debates on the internet for sport do nothing to help communities that are hopelessly marginalised into nonexistence on an hourly basis around the world, so we have to ask ourselves; Where did that mentality come from?

Where is that needless competitive edge in anarchist circles emerging from? My honest input on the matter is muddied, incomplete and unproductive but if I had to place my bet on where it comes from I would place it on a combination of two things. Both of equal performance and importance in their role to this toxicity; the inane publicity of debates, writings and lectures. And the role of competition in capitalist society--the ‘drive to win’ that is drilled from birth. It seems to me most anarchist circles in America and the UK are plagued by self-serving ideologues. People who look at the reputation of Marx, Paine and Chomsky and think to themselves that those people have contributed even a fraction an amount of the importance that unions have in leftist and post-leftist thought and praxis. People have conflated the “teachings” of these men (dogmatic as they are) with the tangible benefits and visibly positive effects that organisations like the IWW have had.

Obviously the teachings of Marx can inextricably be tied to the rise and solidification of union labour in the west, and I will never shortsell that fact no matter how much spite or disdain I hold for marxism. That said the execution, the maintenance and the daily operation of those organisations are independent of their foundational teachings. A framework is not praxis. A foundation is principle, it is logic, but it is not maintenance. To sustain an organisation like the IWW for as long as it has existed is an act not only of spite for a damaging system, it is done out of a sheer perseverance. The ability to transcend the fundamentalist teachings of labour thought and dogma. More importantly it demonstrates the ability to adapt across eras. People familiar with the radical changes, shifts and constant ebb/flow war on unionisation in America can truly appreciate how well the IWW has withstood the test of time.

While the IWW is a far-from-perfect organisation and still presents me with the constant hang-up of withholding total freedom from the working class, it still also presents me a security and benefit that will not happen anywhere else, anytime else. It’s an organisation whose legacy lives on through song as much as any other medium, yet people who are influenced by music and speech are looked down on in so many circles. Obviously this post has to end somewhere so it should end productively.

The total deconstruction of the snide self-serving ideologue status of white anarchists (ironic as it is to pin as a culprit given this post’s existence) is this; It is inherently ableist on its best day and it is gatekeeping classism on its worst. It is both counterproductive to cooperative efforts and a complete betrayal of the concept of solidarity by way of competition.

If you find yourself in this position or confronted after having taken that position, ask yourself the following;

Does the child of the average working class family have the time for theory? Will theory tangibly help them survive? Has theory protected them from homelessness, hunger or sickness? Will theory provide for their family?

The answer to these questions, historically and demonstrably is ‘No’. It will continue to be ‘No’ for as long as the working class is trapped in a system that enslaves us all. Theory can help structure direct action, but theory on its own is a waste of time that will not benefit anyone who truly needs the benefits they can receive, in a system that will happily kill them.

[ninja-suffragette]

News From The US

May 2017 

Stance App Allows You To Record a Message And Then Keeps Calling Your Congressional Representative Until It Gets Through

SAVE THE ACA: DIE-IN PLANNING GUIDE (Tumblr Link) 

Politics

Trump is pulling U.S. out of Paris climate deal - Axios     31st May 2017

I’ve only recently regained the motivation to look at the news cycle so I thought I would share some of my favorite headlines that I have collected so far (AKA a collection of weird shit that happened in US politics this month) - future-geometries on Tumblr

A Texas Lawmaker Said He'd Shoot A Colleague Who Threatened Him During An Immigration Protest - Buzzfeed   29th May 2017 

Tillerson declines to host Ramadan event at State Department - Reuters     29th May 2017 

8th graders refuse to take a photo with Paul Ryan because they don't "want to be associated with him" - Mashable (Tumblr Link)      28th May 2017

“Trump, in statement wishing “all Muslims a joyful Ramadan,” repeatedly references violence and terrorism” - Bradd Jaffy‏ (NBC News) on Twitter     25th May 2017 

Republican candidate charged with assault after 'body-slamming' Guardian reporter - The Guardian (Tumblr Link)     25th May 2017

Trump Budget Based on $2 Trillion Math Error - New York Magazine(Tumblr Link)    25th May 2017

Donald Trump’s Base Is Shrinking - fivethirtyeight       23rd May 2017 

Texas Senate approves 'religious refusal' adoption measure; The law that allows publicly funded foster care and adoption agencies to refuse to place children with non-Christian, unmarried or gay prospective parents because of religious objections. - ABC13 (Tumblr Link)     22nd May 2017

Conspiracy outlet InfoWars was granted temporary White House press credentials - Business Insider (Tumblr Link)     22nd May 2017 

Notre Dame Students Walk Out of Mike Pence Commencement Address - New  York Times (Tumblr Link)     21st May 2017 

Anderson Cooper to Jeffrey Lord: “If [Trump] took a dump on his desk you would defend it” - CNN via Tumblr     20th May 2017     He’s now apologised for this which I frankly think is tragic. 

Michelle Alexander: We Must Respond Forcefully & Challenge Jeff Sessions’s New War on Drugs - Democracy Now (Tumblr Link)     19th May 2017

U.S. Is Denying Visas To Gay Men Fleeing Kidnapping And Torture In Chechnya - Buzzfeed (Tumblr Link)     18th May 2017 

Something for all the “But Mike Pence!!!” types still arguing that we shouldn’t try to impeach Trump - New Republic (comments)     18th May 2017

Betsy DeVos Wants to Kill a Major Student Loan Forgiveness Program - Slate (Tumblr Link)     17th May 2017

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP) has been issued a “cease and desist” letter by Jeff Sessions’ Department of Justice. - Tumblr (sourced from The Stranger)      17th May 2017 

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) on Tuesday announced a new bill that would require President Trump to reimburse the government for public money spent on his travel to properties he owns, such as his beloved Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. -  The Hill (Tumblr Link)    16th May 2017

The head of the Census Bureau just quit, and the consequences are huge - Vox (Tumblr Link)    11th May 2017 

Reporter Arrested for Asking Trump Cabinet Members A Question -  ACLU (Tumblr Link)   9th May 2017

All of Trump’s campaign statements just vanished from his website. So let’s remember them. - Washington Post        9th May 2017

Trump campaign erases call for Muslim ban from website 'minutes' after reporter brings it up - The Independent  (Tumblr Link)     8th May 2017

"I'm facing jail time after laughing at Jeff Sessions. I regret nothing." - Vox (Tumblr Link)    8th May 2017

E.P.A. Dismisses Members of Major Scientific Review Board - The New York Times      7th May 2017

The Trump administration deleted the EPA’s climate change website. So, Chicago published it instead -  Mic  (Tumblr Link)      6th May 2017

FCC to investigate, 'take appropriate action' on Colbert’s Trump rant (AUTOPLAY) -  The Hill    5th May 2017

Should We Be Worried About the FCC’s Investigation Into Stephen Colbert’s Trump Joke? - The Mary Sue    8th May 2017

Congress Just Ignored Trump And Boosted America's Science Funding - iflscience (Tumblr Link)       1st May 2017

Trump administration memo calls for ending Michelle Obama's girls education program - CNN (Tumblr Link)     1st May 2017

Trump's Links to Russia

Time Magazine (Tumblr Link)     18th May 2017  

“Trump describing in detail what would happen if we elected a president who inappropriately shared classified information” -  Late Night with Seth Meyers     18th May 2017  

On impeaching Trump - “ When given the choice between an unpredictable asshole and a predictable one, you always take the predictable one! “ - Tumblr      17th May 2017

Trump Told Russians That Firing ‘Nut Job’ Comey Eased Pressure From Investigation - The New York Times      19th May 2017 

Russia probe reaches current White House official, people familiar with the case say - The Washington Post      19th May 2017

House majority leader to colleagues in 2016: ‘I think Putin pays’ Trump - Washington Post (Tumblr Link)     17th May 2017 

@nytimes and @washingtonpost each dropped bombshells moments after Air Force One was wheels up. - Twitter (Tumblr Link) 

Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador - The Washington Post (Tumblr Link)    15th May 2017

Behind Comey’s firing: An enraged Trump, fuming about Russia - Politico    10th May 2017

(Tumblr Link)

The Long, Lucrative Right-wing Grift Is Blowing Up in the World's Face - Fusion.Net (Tumblr Link)     4th May 2017 

Net Neutrality 

Comcast tries to censor pro-net neutrality website calling for investigation of fake FCC comments potentially funded by cable lobby - Fight4Future (Tumblr Link)   23rd May 2017

FCC votes to dismantle net neutrality as critics cry 'war on open internet' - The Guardian (Tumblr Link)     18th May 2017 

Anti-net neutrality spammers are impersonating real people to flood FCC comments - The Verge (Tumblr Link)    18th May 2017

These 9 Senators proposed a bill to kill net neutrality called the “Restoring Internet Freedom Act” - privateinternetaccess.com (Tumblr Link)      2nd May 2017 

John Oliver on Last Week Tonight has once again gifted us a way to fight for Net Neutrality - Tumblr 

Affordable Care Act

(Tumblr Link) 

Jimmy Kimmel “apologizes” to critics for saying kids should have health care - Mic    (Tumblr Link)   9th May 2017

In Trump’s America, Rape Is a Preexisting Condition - New York Magazine (Tumblr Link)    4th May 2017        - Likely consequences by Linda Tirado on Twitter

House Republicans just passed Trumpcare. So what’s next? - Tumblr     4th May 2017

Want to take immediate revenge on House Republicans who voted to destroy health care? Here's how - The Daily Kos (Tumblr Link)      4th May 2017

Don’t Mourne. Fight. - Ben Wikler on twitter (Tumblr Link)      3rd May 2017

Black Lives Matter

Texas Police Chief Under Investigation for Arresting Miss Black Texas and Calling Her 'Black Bitch' - The Root (Tumblr Link)  24th May 2017 

Tulsa police officer acquitted in death of unarmed African-American man  - ABC News (Tumblr Link)        18th May 2017 

Black lawmakers walk out after vote Louisiana House passes bill banning the removal of Confederate statues - MSN News      16th May 2017 

Philadelphia Marks 30th Anniversary Of MOVE Bombing - NPR (Tumblr Link)   16th May 2017 

Black Lives Matter Activists Bail Black Women Out of Jail for Mother’s Day - The Root (Tumblr Link)      11th May 2017 

Ferguson protester pictured in iconic photo found dead from self-inflicted gunshot wound - The Independent (Tumblr Link)        5th May 2017

Several men who have been accused of physical or sexual assault have been signed while Colin Kaepernick has not -  USA Today - Twitter (Tumblr Link)       3rd May 2017

The police officer who killed 15-year-old Jordan Edwards has been charged with murder - Vox               5th May 2017

How Calling Jordan Edwards the ‘Perfect Victim’ Perpetuates Racism - Teen Vogue         3rd May 2017 

Jordan Edwards Was Shot and Killed by Police in Texas - Teen Vogue (Autoplay)  (Tumblr Link)         1st May 2017 

The Far Right Racism and Hate Crimes

The Numbers Don’t Lie: White Far-Right Terrorists Pose a Clear Danger to Us All - The Intercept (Tumblr Link)     31st May 2017

Portland is 76% White. Why didnt the White community report this White Supremacist? Where are the moderate white leaders? /s #PortlandAttack -   Qasim Rashid, Esq. on twitter (Tumblr Link)    27th May 2017 

The man accused of the brutal hate crime slayings of two people at the Hollywood Transit Center on Friday afternoon is a known local white supremacist - The Portland Mercury (Tumblr Link)    27th May 2017

Click here to support Girls who survived Portland's MAX Attack - You Caring (Tumblr Link)

Prof gave 'F' to student because she's Muslim, lawsuit alleges - NJ.com (Tumblr Link)   24th May 2017 

White nationalist Richard Spencer leads torch-bearing protesters - The Washington Post (Tumblr Link)      14th May 2017

White Male Terrorists Are an Issue We Should Discuss - Teen Vogue (Tumblr Link)    9th May 2017

Everything Else

Inside Hillary Clinton’s Surreal Post-Election Life - New York Magazine (Tumblr Link) 26th May 2017

“Make America Great Again” Hat Variations - Tumblr     25th May 2017

Roger Ailes Was One of the Worst Americans Ever - Rolling Stone (Tumblr Link)    18th May 2017

A class-action lawsuit says Walmart discriminated against pregnant employees - Mic (Tumblr Link)    18th May 2017

A Jewish Principal Is Accused of Being a Communist, Rattling a Brooklyn School - New York Times (Tumblr Link)   4th May 2017

It's Been 50 Years Since the Biggest US-Backed Genocide You've Never Heard Of - Mother Jones  (Tumblr Link)   1st October 2017

Facing Facts: American Identity is Based on Alternate History -Tor  (Tumblr Link)     4th May 2017

[lanesmithvisual]

The Xanax fizzled as it dropped into the whiskey wedge of worldwide rap superstar DonZilla. He stared despondently out the window of his Gulfstream-G IV as the poisoned sunset of Los Angeles sunk into the horizon.

“It’s all bullshit. I want out. I don’t want this life. My soul can’t keep feeding off pussy and Percocet. These numbskulls don’t love me, they never did. All the merch, all the music, it’s all just-“

“Save me on the sermon kid,” Marco Deodato interrupted, “I’ve heard it a thousand times. You’re just another unicorn on the carousel of false idolization that’s been spinning since the beginning of time.” He took a sip of Hennessy to nurse his splinting headache, the sleep depreciation from the graveyard shift he had spent in the Hollywood hills.

Marco was overworked and irritable, his favorite Cuban collared shirt was still stained with thousand island dressing, oatmeal, corn syrup and “Two Buck Chuck” Charles Shaw merlot. These ingredients made up the primo concoction of fake blood and vomit which he had then loaded into an archaic fire extinguisher and sprayed upon the walls of teen pop icon Sissy Sparkles estate, before dropping a false cadaver and setting the place ablaze. Just another day on the office at the Phoenix agency.

“Look Mr. Zilla,” Marco lowered his tinted square frames to lock eyes with ink stained MC, “I don’t know who the fuck or how the fuck you got my number. This is no joke, understand that now. No take-backs, you give this up, and you leave the game, you’re precious little ego ends up at the bottom of the pacific. We have a pile of parachutes and explosives in the lavatory and fishing charter lined up with some of the most talented plastic surgeons in the northern hemisphere. And that’s not even getting into your relocation program, capiche pretty boy?”

DonZilla flipped another card on his flight tray game of Devil’s Grip, medication in bubbling decay at the bottom of his bourbon. The mayday calls echoed from the cockpit to the cabin and the world watched as their beloved icon spent what could be his final hour humming in the headlines with a supposed failed primary engine.

Marco thumbed through the alligator skin briefcase of case that had been provided upon boarding. He hit at several security threads at random with a black light, and then continued, “At your price point, we only can achieve a thirty second media glitch. That portion of the service of course is non refundable, I’m on a tight schedule this week. Holiday pricing... you understand. You’ve got two minutes until we hit our sweet spot, if you could be so kind as to sign this NDA I will be slipping out the rear hatch with or without you and Captain Chaos up there. Can you believe this fucker went to Juliart?” He chuckled.

Captain Chaos, a retired Delta airlines pilot with long abandoned dreams of Broadway, was assaulting the air waves with a full production of May-Days interrupted with incoherent rants. “May Day, May Day, -and while you’re at it tell my bitch wife that anyone with eyes can tell that “my son” is a spitting image of the UPS man. And the truth is there are no rabid coyotes in Pasadena, I shot and buried that precious Terrier of hers in the backyard behind the tomato plants.”

“A little over the top if you ask me,” Marco remarked rolling his eyes, “Good help is hard to find good talent these days. Let’s get this over with Mr. Zilla, make the call.”

The deposit secured he was already disappointed with this latest gig. Another day, another appointment, and yet he could already sense his failure to stage a masterpiece of illusion. He lived in the looming shadow of the family business. How could he ever succeed his fathers’ work, the mass commercial deception of Cannibal Holocaust? The rogue relocation of Tupac to Cuba? The timeless mystique of Kurt Cobain’s staged shot gun blast? And here we was, babysitting some auto-tune hack who hardly had the gumption to go through with it, hence the two million dollar non-refundable deposit. A best practice in this line of work.

DonZilla sighed in his own thoughts, he thought of his single mother Donna, who had worked double after double at Rockie’s diner to put his first 8-Track under a dollar store, acrylic Christmas tree when was twelve. From his chest pocket he pulled a time stained Polaroid of that morning. No Red Rider BB Gun on the planet could have achieved the pimply, brace faced smile that this 8-Track did. On the backside of the Polaroid his mother had inscribed in runny ink a message from her favorite Robert Munsch children’s book, it read,

“I love you forever. I love you for always. No matter what happens, my baby you’ll be. Go get ‘em. Love, Mom.”

A tear dripped down the old English tattoo script on his cheekbone. His mind shifted to his beloved pit bulls, Mitzy and Bella who would likely end up in some Hollywood zoo with Bubbles the monkey when it was all said and done. And then he took one last glance at his Twitter, a CNN screenshot of his jet was littered with internet trolls wishes for his imminent demise accented with a sense of collective sense of good riddance. His blood began to boil...

“I’m sorry Mr. Deodato. Enjoy, I can wire you a bonus for your trouble. I’m not done. I haven’t even started.”

Marco checked his watch, “Fair enough, best of luck. Of course, the agency will have to keep tabs on you for the next three months to ensure your cooperation in our confidentiality clause. Nothing personal of course. Here comes our glitch, I must be going.” He strolled casually to the back lavatory and disappeared. A stealth emergency door and small parachute slipped off into the glowing atmosphere of pollution, power temporarily cutting as darkness and turbulence rattled the small jet.

Within the hour, DonZilla’s aircraft made an emergency landing only to be greeted by hoards of adoring fans and media teams. Scandalously clad teenie bobbers pierced the air with screaming rejoice, eyes dripping with mascara and tears at the sight of the icon stepping onto the runway.

Upon the first microphone raised to his mouth, DonZilla raised his middle finger to each and every camera lens and rebutted to the Twitter trolls, “Fuck you, not today!” The crowd rejoiced as DonZilla embraced his mother and dropped to his knee to receive the slobbery embrace of his precious pitbull pups. He felt overwhelmed with a sense of sincere and absolute love.

And then there was three consecutive gunshots, and absolute silence. From a crowd of awestruck teens emerged what appeared to be an awkward, knock off of DonZilla. The awkward, pasty incel, with a matching half shave and unmistakably placed replica tattoos, screamed, “No! It was mine time! It is my time! I love you! I am you! This is my time!” Smoke billowed from the chest of DonZilla as he collapsed into the arms of his howling mother. Immediately the imposter was disarmed and fed landing strip asphalt by authorities. DonZilla’s pupils dilated, his mothers blouse soaked in blood, she reduced her howl to a soft reassurance and whispered,

“I’ll love you forever. I’ll love you for always. No matter what happens, my baby you’ll be.”

[mymoviesnob]

A Movie Snob Predicts the Oscars – 2019 Edition

Hello fellow movie lovers! It’s been another busy award season. There were 121 nominations and I got to see all but 9 of the films this year.  Not too shabby, all things considered.  

This season, like the ones before it, was full of pleasant surprises, a few hours I can’t get back and films shining a bright light on topics which were painful to watch.  

Now, for the four of you who still read this each year, let’s get to the movies! J

 Best Picture:

·         Black Panther – The first Marvel movie to be nominated for Best Picture. I don’t see this as the winner.

·         BlacKkKlansman – Based on a true story, about a black cop, impersonating a white cop, to infiltrate the KKK.

·         Bohemian Rhapsody – I loved this movie. I love Queen. I wish Freddie Mercury had been able to grace us with his presence for more than we were lucky enough to receive.  I would love to see this beat Roma but unfortunately, the Director’s alleged shenanigans will get in the way.

·         The Favourite – Dark and witty, full of strong performances. This however, was not my favorite. (Yes, pun intended…I know, I’m hilarious)

·         Green Book – Another based on a true story, about a black performer in need of a driver/ body guard as he tours the deep South and how their friendship was formed.  I really enjoyed this film. Mahershala and Viggo were both fantastic. I kept wondering how I had never heard of these men before watching this.

·         Roma – While I can’t call this my personal favorite film in the bunch, I do think it will take the top prize this year. It’s been so lovingly received by critics while others on this list have been subject to controversy moving Roma to the top of the pile.I did enjoy it, just not as much as others here. 

·         A Star Is Born – I loved this too and when I saw it, I thought it would be a lock for Best Picture… until I saw the competition. I was equally surprised by Lady Gaga’s acting and by Cooper’s singing. I’ve seen the previous versions of this film and while I typically dislike remakes, this was well done. Cooper should have received a Director nod here.

·         Vice – Based on the life and career of the notoriously private Dick Cheney.  Something tells me he will never endorse this one, or confirm any of its story line. If you like Cheney, you will hate this movie. And if you hate him, it will make you question just how awfully distasteful you can find another human being to be.

 Lead Actor:

·         Christian Bale – Vice –When I first read that Bale was going to play Dick Cheney in a movie, I thought Central Casting was delusional. Then I saw it. If anyone is going to give Malek competition, it’s Bale. You literally forget it’s him buried behind the makeup.  

·         Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born – Cooper will get his Oscar one day and I thought he was fantastic in this movie, but this is not his time.

·         Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate – He’s always great, this time as Vincent van Gogh

·         Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody – Malek became Freddie Mercury. Every detail of his iconic performances, recreated to the letter. He must have studied Mercury’s every move. The commitment to getting that right is stunning and I think this win will be well deserved.

·         Viggo Mortensen – Green Book – Another great performance by an actor who seems to be able to play anyone.

 Lead Actress:

·         Yalitza Aparicio – Roma

·         Glenn Close – The Wife – I didn’t want to like this one. I don’t care for her, ever since she boiled a bunny back in the day, but she was amazing.

·         Olivia Colman – The Favourite – I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll be seeing much more of her.

·         Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born – She was surprisingly great in this movie, but it wasn’t really much of a stretch… playing a singer and all. Don’t get me wrong. She’s an incredible talent and deserving of this nomination, but I’m curious to see how her film career progresses playing roles outside of the scope of her ‘day job”.

·         Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me? – Another true story and another surprise. McCarthy in a serious role as the caustic (not to mention desperate) author, Lee Israel, as she resorts to forging letters for profit. If you haven’t seen this one, watch it. And someone please sign her up for more roles outside of the comedic space!

 Supporting Actor:

·         Mahershala Ali – Green Book – Everything I’ve seen him in has been excellent. This was no exception.

·         Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman – I love, love, love Driver.

·         Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born – About time you nominated him, Academy!

·         Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me? – I’m not sure I’ve seen him before but watching him here made me want to find everything else he’s ever done. I don’t think he will beat Ali, but if he did, I wouldn’t be disappointed.

·         Sam Rockwell – Vice – Another consistently consistent character actor, this time as a weirdly convincing G.W. Bush. I love it when the Indy guys get the attention they deserve!

 Supporting Actress:

·         Amy Adams – Vice – We get it… the Academy adores Amy Adams. She did not blow me away in this movie.

·         Marina de Tavira – Roma

·         Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk – I must confess that this was one of the films I was not able to see. It left the theater too soon, and as you may know, I won’t use bootlegs on this journey each year. I’ve chosen her for a few reasons… one, she’s won virtually every other award known to man for this performance. And two, this has been a long time coming. She’s always great!

·         Emma Stone – The Favourite – Stone and Weisz here a glorious team.  

·         Rachel Weisz – The Favourite  - She’s married to Daniel Craig so she’s basically already won at life.

 Director:

·         Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman - Spike Lee is finally nominated here! I do believe he will take home a statue one day but I don’t think it will be this year.  

·         Pawel Pawlikowski – Cold War

·         Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite

·         Alfonso Cuaron – Roma

·         Adam McKay – Vice

 Animated Feature:

·         Incredibles 2 - this gets my kid’s vote, just for the record. 

·         Isle of Dogs – Another year where I have the opportunity to declare my love for Wes Anderson. Another year where he will go home empty handed.

·         Mirai

·         Ralph Breaks the Internet

·         Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – I can’t believe I’m choosing a non-Disney / Pixar for the win, but I am. It’s visually stunning.

 Animated Short:

·         Animal Behaviour

·         Bao – Pixar for the (predictable) win. Every one of the films in this category is a gem! Watch them all!!

·         Late Afternoon

·         One Small Step

·         Weekends

 Adapted Screenplay:

·         The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would recommend it.

·         BlacKkKlansman – This category is tough. I think this may be where Lee picks up a win, but…

·         Can You Ever Forgive Me? – … I really loved how this was written… and I think it can bump Lee out of the top spot.

·         If Beale Street Could Talk

·         A Star Is Born

 Original Screenplay:

·         The Favourite – The quick witted dialogue may push this one over the top to win.

·         First Reformed – I want my two hours back

·         Green Book – The Favourite is the favorite in this category, but I think the story line in our current climate will give this screenplay well warranted votes

·         Roma

·         Vice – Another film where the writing definitely shined!

 Cinematography:

·         Cold War

·         The Favourite

·         Never Look Away

·         Roma - There is just something about the way this movie was shot which immediately grabbed me at the opening scene. The very things I loved about it are things that others found to be a turn off, but the crisp black and white, tight, artsy shots were mesmerizing. Maybe it’s my love of photography, particularly B&W, but this film made it easy to see the beauty in the mundane.

·         A Star Is Born

 Best Documentary Feature:

·         Free Solo – Will probably win, but…

·         Hale County This Morning, This Evening – A film about regular people doing regular things. I hope the point is not lost on those who see it.

·         Minding the Gap - This is an interesting narrative on the leap into adulthood and just how hard that is to navigate.

·         Of Fathers and Sons – Watching this literally made me feel physically ill. If you question whether or not hatred can be taught, this confirms it.

·         RBG - … I’m rooting for RBG, tonight and every single day for every single reason! Someone please put this woman in a bubble and preserve her for all of eternity... or at least until the next administration.

 Best Documentary Short:

·         Black Sheep - The Shorts this year were difficult to watch. This is about a young black man and his experiences growing up in a suburban white British town.

·         End Game –This film is about the painful process of helping a loved one through the last days of their life and the humanity of the doctors and nurses who are walking alongside them. This is my vote.  

·         Lifeboat –About refugees fleeing their war torn home in the hope of a better life. 

·         A Night at the Garden – Actual footage of a 1939 Nazi rally at “The World’s Most Famous Arena”. The fact that this actually happened in this country, and so long ago, hurts my heart.

·         Period. End of Sentence – About young women in India just trying to survive being a girl in a culture that demonizes something which is utterly (and biologically) out of their control.

 Best Live Action Short Film:

·         Detainment – A reenactment of the interrogation of two ten year old boys in Ireland, accused of murdering a toddler. Terrifying. And true.

·         Fauve  - this won at Sundance, but…

·         Marguerite – my pick to win

·         Mother – As a parent of a 6 year old boy, this one kept me up at night.

·         Skin

 Best Foreign Language Film:

·         Capernaum

·         Cold War

·         Never Look Away

·         Roma – If this doesn’t win I’ll be shocked, but since it’s a likely winner in other categories, voters may spread the love and throw Cold War a bone.

·         Shoplifters – I really liked this one, about an unlikely group of outcasts in Japan, trying to survive on stolen items while flying under the radar.

 Film Editing:

·         BlacKkKlansman

·         Bohemian Rhapsody

·         Green Book

·         The Favourite

·         Vice

 Sound Editing:

·         Black Panther

·         Bohemian Rhapsody

·         First Man

·         A Quiet Place – I’m selecting this because of how profoundly important sound was to the entire concept of the film. I know I’m probably wrong... it will probably be Black Panther

·         Roma

 Sound Mixing:

·         Black Panther

·         Bohemian Rhapsody – Because of the music

·         First Man

·         Roma

·         A Star Is Born

 Production Design:

·         Black Panther

·         First Man

·         The Favourite – Period piece + Castle = Win

·         Mary Poppins Returns

·         Roma

 Original Score:

·         BlacKkKlansman

·         Black Panther

·         If Beale Street Could Talk

·         Isle of Dogs

·         Mary Poppins Returns

 Original Song:

·         All The Stars

·         I’ll Fight

·         The Place Where Lost Things Go

·         Shallow – if there is one certainty about tonight, this is it.

·         When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings

 Makeup and Hair:

·         Border

·         Mary Queen of Scots

·         Vice – Because I forgot Christian Bale was in there….

 Costume Design:

·         The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

·         Black Panther – This is hard because any one of these could take it, but this is my gut feeling

·         The Favourite

·         Mary Poppins Returns

·         Mary Queen of Scots

 Visual Effects:

·         Avengers: Infinity War

·         Christopher Robin

·         First Man

·         Ready Player One

·         Solo: A Star Wars Story

  I’m sad to see this season come to an end as the summer blockbusters approach. Here’s hoping there are some hidden gems among the moneymakers this summer to keep me company! 

Thanks for sticking with me to the end, all four of you. :) 

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 17th February 2019

We have a new #1, and a very busy week before the BRITs. Let’s get on with it.

Top 10

As I said, there’s a new #1 hit today on the UK Singles Chart – for its first week on both the #1 spot and the chart overall (Yup, it is a debut), it’s “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” by Ariana Grande, becoming her 18th Top 40 hit and fifth #1 (Second to debut at the spot this year). This is because of her incredibly successful thank u, next album, which was the most-streamed album of all time for a female artist, and is currently occupying all top three spots on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. Now that’s impressive, although it did sell a bit less than I thought at more than 300k+... also the album sucked, it was a strong four at best. I’ll talk more about it later.

This means that Ariana Grande has blocked herself at #1, in fact has pushed herself off, as “7 rings” is down a spot to number-two.

Surprisingly, Lewis Capaldi enters the top three with “Someone You Loved”, up six spots to number-three. The album’s out soon so expect this to hit the top.

Sam Smith and Normani’s “Dancing with a Stranger” is down one space to number-four.

At number-five is where Mabel stays since last week, with “Don’t Call Me Up”.

Calvin Harris and Rag’n’Bone Man’s “Giant” is down two spaces to number-six.

Also down one space to number-seven is “Wow.” by Post Malone.

Now we have our second top 10 debut by Ariana Grande, “needy”, also from the album thank u, next. It’s at number-eight, and is Grande’s 19th Top 40 hit and 12th Top 10 hit. We’ll talk more about it later.

Unfortunately due to Grande and Capaldi, two good songs are barely hanging on at the end of the top 10. Mark Ronson and Miley Cyrus’ “Nothing Breaks Like a Heart” is down one space to number-nine.

Billie Eilish’s “bury a friend” is also down three spaces to #10, rounding off our top 10.

Climbers

Well, there’s more than I expected to be on this week specifically, but there’s not all too many. “Going Bad” by Meek Mill and Drake is up five spots to #13, probably because of the video, while possibly due to awards season, Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s “Shallow” is also up five spots to #21, “Grace” by Lewis Capaldi is up 14 spaces to #26. Then we have recent debuts like “Swervin” by A Boogie wit da Hoodie featuring 6ix9ine up seven spots to #27, “a lot” by 21 Savage featuring J. Cole up seven spots to #29 and “i’m so tired...” by LAUV and Troye Sivan up six spaces to #33, all of which I’m rooting for.

Fallers

I expected a LOT of these due to the sheer amount of new arrivals (There’s seven), and I mean, eh, we got some, mostly due to streaming cuts though. After a couple weeks, the UK Singles Chart makes the importance of streaming in a song’s chart placement lessen, if that makes sense, and this has happened to “Sweet but Psycho” by Ava Max down nine spaces to #11, Post Malone and Swae Lee’s Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse cut “Sunflower” down 13 spaces to #23, and potentially “Without Me” by Halsey down 11 spots to #28, this week. Otherwise, well, we have the fortunate five-space fall for “Undecided” by Chris Brown to #25, and falls for The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein with “Lost in the Fire” down 11 spaces to #35, as well as Kehlani and Ty Dolla $ign’s “Nights Like This” down eight spots to #38. I’m almost sad that song didn’t drop 15 spaces so I could make one of those awful quips about Ty Dolla $ign serving 15 years in prison for cocaine possession.

Dropouts

Streaming cuts also hurt “Close to Me” by Ellie Goulding, Diplo and Swae Lee, out from #27 (Peaking at #17), while “One Kiss” by Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa is out from #38 (Peaking at #1) – about time. Oh, I might as well say that whilst “thank u, next” by Ariana Grande did drop out from #28 (Peaking at #1), it’s not because it’s less popular now, it’s because that there are at least three more popular songs from the thank u, next album, and that’s all the UK Singles Chart allows at once. This is a good rule because it prevents album bombs, but it means the chart is less accurate in actually showing what people are listening to. I bet that song comes back next week anyway. Oh, and there’s more drop-outs: We have “Leave Me Alone” by Flipp Dinero out from #38 (Peaking at #30), “Saturday Nights” by Khalid out from #35 (Peaking at #31) and “18HUNNA” by Headie One and Dave out from #32 (Peaking at #6). These are all premature, so expect these come back, or at least one of them. Fredo’s “All I Ever Wanted” featuring Dave is out from #15 (Peaking at #15) after the album’s hype died down, whilst streaming cuts have pushed both “Hold My Girl” by George Ezra out from #23 (Peaking at #8) and “ZEZE” by Kodak Black featuring Offset and Travis Scott out from #21 (Peaking at #7) off the chart.

Returning Entries

The only returning entry this week is due to the tragic death of rapper Cadet at 25, whose passing has caused his song with Deno Driz, “Advice”, to return at #36. Rest in peace. Now, on a lighter note, here are our returning entries:

NEW ARRIVALS

#40 – “Thotiana” – Blueface

Hell yeah, Blueface, baby. Okay, so you know Blueface, don’t even say you don’t – you’re a filthy liar if so, because he has been all over the Internet due to viral videos of him rapping, because he doesn’t tend to rap conventionally, and he often has funny one-liners. There are purposeful off-beat moments throughout his songs, especially “Deadlocs”, but it’s mostly just inspiration from people like E-40 who would rap in a different way when they came across a beat that fit their unorthodox flow. Anyways, despite his most on-beat song to date, “Bleed It”, being an obvious contender for breakout hit, it seems like “Thotiana” has got the most traction, and hence, here it is. It’s been in the top 40 in the US for a couple weeks, and has got remixes from Desiigner, YG and even Cardi B (Who, by the way, absolutely kills it with an outrageous and hilarious verse, which I unfortunately can’t repeat any lines from because Tumblr might flag me with an adult content restriction – yeah, they’re that nasty). Despite that, it seems to be that the original version is the one that landed in the top 40. It’s obviously his first hit, and, to be honest, I love it to death. It’s barely two minutes and only consists of gliding pianos and smooth keys under a West Coast beat (With some banging percussion), as well as a slightly shrill synth, yet it feels so full, probably because of Blueface and all his ad-libs, including the iconic “Yeah, aight”. The hook is insanely catchy and beyond the meme, Blueface’s flow is great, somewhat complex at points and borders on spoken word in his verse, with so many references of what he says being “on the gang” that you’d think he has a verbal tic. This probably isn’t his funniest or most memorable song but it is a damn great one. Oh, but there’s also this:

Ain’t no runnin’, Thotiana, you gon’ take these damn strokes

Uh, yeah, well, um... Yikes, okay, I’m just going to leave it there. Great song, check it out. Check out the Cardi B remix though, it’s even better.

#37 – “Breathe” – CamelPhat and Cristoph featuring Jem Cooke

Damn, CamelPhat, I love these guys. Every song they’ve released that hit the charts has been some of the best EDM I’ve heard come out of the UK electronic scene in years, and they know how to make a fun, catchy dance song feel cinematic and in the case of songs like “Cola” with Elderbrook, almost avant-garde.  A lot of UK dance by more obscure names has hit the charts last year, and impressed me as well, especially Loud Luxury, so I’m excited to see what CamelPhat have got up their sleeves this time for their third top 40 hit, and the first for Cristoph and Jem Cooke.

Yeah, so, this feels oddly 90s at the start, with those nice warm synths, then the indie-pop singer of the week comes in with her raspy voice covered in reverb, with pretty much no build-up before we get to a deep bassline and finger-snaps come in, almost like a sped-up Chicago house beat. The beat increases in intensity with a higher pitched bass as the chorus comes in but there’s not really a drop, just a continuation of the instrumental, because it still feels restrained and isolated, despite the theatricality of the whole ordeal, and that really fits the title because it’s an anxious song, and it takes a damn long while for that tension release to come in. Unlike “breathin” by Ariana Grande from last year, that was also about anxiety and self-help, this isn’t repetitive to a fault, rather while Jem Cooke yells at herself that she needs her to breathe again, the beat is almost like a train pushing down the tracks and the finale climax when her vocals echo, “Again, again, again, again”, is the train hitting her and killing her. Grande’s song was a pump-up anthem but this is just a pure burst of self-frustration hurled at the listener, and while it’s nowhere near as good as “Panic Room” in expressing panic, isolation and anxiety (Yeah, it is kind of a retread), this is still pretty great.

#34 – “Who Do You Love” – The Chainsmokers featuring 5 Seconds of Summer

Oh, these seven guys again. Look, I like enough of both of these artists’ songs to give them a pass, but a collaborative single between the two is just a mediocrity sandwich. It’s not going to be anything interesting or new or even worthwhile, it’s just going to be a two-dude EDM duo producing for one dude called Luke or something with four other dudes (Who supposedly play instruments on any of their singles – yeah, right). This is the Chainsmokers’ ninth top 40 single in the UK and 5 Seconds of Summer’s ninth as well, and it kind of sucks. What a surprise. We start off promising with distorted piano, a deep 808 bass and what sounds like a high-pitched, siren-like guitar, with Luke crooning, until... it has an acoustic breakdown in which Luke has too many vocal effects put onto him for it to work, and he sounds too fast, like a lot of these EDM guys make people sound like... until, that weak drop with an unfitting build-up. It just sounds like all five seconds saying “Blam-blam, hoopty-doopty, doo-doo” in unison over some cloudy synths and an ugly bass wobble. I know that’s the point, but this song is supposed to be taken seriously, and I don’t think any of the seven dudes involved noticed that at any point. Chainsmokers, guys, you’ll never top “Everybody Hates Me” (Note that their best song isn’t supposed to be taken seriously... or at least I hope not). Blech, I hope this goes away, this really is not worth any staying power.

#30 – “Just You and I” – Tom Walker

Both this and his other song, “Leave a Light On”, were featured in advertisements, boosting their place on the charts. This one has an album attached to it. That should tell you all you need to know about boring singer-songwriter, Tom Walker, trying to get on that “Genuine white guitarist man” money that Rag’n’Bone Man and Ed Sheeran currently store in the safe, although unlike those two, he’s more electronic and more plastic. He’s a rip-off? Yeah. Is he an industry plant? I mean, I don’t like that term, but it sure seems like it. If not, he’s just marketed perfectly. Anyway, this song is his second top 40 hit and some fake acoustic guitar and fake handclaps complement Tom Walker’s slightly nasal and... mildly urban-Irish (???) voice and the piano... and yeah, no, it doesn’t exist. I hear this song and nothing witty is produced, there’s nothing of interest in my brain, I feel like my ears have just had a long string of nothing twisted through them. The “Drop” is just a chorus, this time, although it still feels like a drop because Walker isn’t saying anything of interest. Oh, yeah, and the two parts of the chorus feel really jankily attached, it’s like two halves of a chorus put together. Next.

#16 – “Talk” – Khalid and Disclosure

Oh, hey, a great song by two amazing artists, that’s good to see. So, this is R&B singer Khalid’s tenth UK Top 40 hit and Disclosure’s sixth, and it’s funky, smooth and fun as hell. It starts with a synth that is ripped straight from the 80s, then some keys come in and a clap, until Khalid starts singing with that sultry voice, although it’s in a higher-pitched and more emotive falsetto this time, with a slightly off-kilter bass when partnered with the synths, almost reminding me of future bass. Khalid sounds absolutely fantastic over this beautiful instrumental, with all the extra touches like the drum pattern finishing off with a repeated snare, kick and bass hit at the end of the chorus as a climax, the extra synth melodies added throughout the chorus that give the song so much more “Oomph” and groove to it. The song is joyful, danceable and I don’t care about what the lyrics say at all, but since I clearly don’t have all that much to say about the song other than “This is gorgeous and amazing and brilliant”, I might as well say that the subject matter may be unfitting, because it’s about having a talk about where the relationship is going, which isn’t necessarily as smooth, cute and glamorous as the song could paint it out to be, but there definitely is that off-kilter and quirky vibe to it that does add that sense of panic, despite how mostly chilled it is. That works well, actually. Yeah, check this out because this is the best song either of these guys have put out. If this has longevity in the US, it’s a contender for the top of my best list, because I doubt anything better will come along. Perhaps “bury a friend” and “a lot” could end up there? Who knows? It’s shaping up to be a pretty good year, though, so we’ll see.

#8 – “needy” – Ariana Grande

Ariana Grande finally finds her sound after years and four albums of having the inability to be cohesive or unique, years and years of having a wasted voice due to cluttered, messy and generic instrumentals provided to her by producers who don’t know what they’re doing, and... her albums still suck. Well, her fifth album is a disappointment, yes, and it’s also incredibly mediocre. It lacks a lot of substance, is inconsistent (It either has too much polish or not enough), has a few irritating instrumentals like “bloodline”, as well as once again, it has Grande’s great voice being put to the side due to light-weight trap beats like “7 rings”, for which Grande is forced to lose all of her natural charisma in order to fit on. There, that’s what I think of the album. Now, “needy” is not one of the worst on the album, but it is bad, and you can tell that right off the jump with its over-simplistic, toy-box melody that starts it off, and gets irritating quick, with not enough drowning it out. I like the pre-chorus, it’s pretty cool, but the finger-snaps are fake and pointless, with the borderline doo-wop vocals in the background adding nothing but volume. Someone tell Ariana Grande that her “Yuh” ad-libs should never be used again, please. They worked in “God is a woman”, but that’s the only time they worked, and will ever work. The subject matter is decent here, but I don’t think the beat fits it – because it doesn’t have a beat, really, there’s barely any percussion, and then it has an abrupt, pointless orchestral outro. Yeah, you can tell this album was finished in two weeks. It has a lot of moments like that.

#1 – “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored” – Ariana Grande

Fitting title. Okay, so what’s the need for build-up, am I right? When it works, over-whelming the listener with the beat immediately crashing in is great. That’s when it has build-up, it never works when it’s just the song starting with bass and percussion immediately, without much reason. No, it doesn’t make sense in the context of the album either, because the song before it fades out. Anyway, so over a weak, discount Playboi Carti type beat with the flute (???) mixed so low that it essentially doesn’t exist, Grande raps with a rather concerning accent considering the blackfishing controversy, biting freaking Quadeca’s flow (I know - Out of all people?), with again, those cringeworthy ad-libs placed in empty spaces. Then it cuts to 16-bit chiptune pianos that aren’t used throughout the song, just in this section, for the pre-chorus, it just feels kind of worthless to have this here, it’s like it’s part of another song they spliced in (A better song, may I add). Oh, and that chorus is sickeningly annoying. I don’t care about the lyricism here as much as I should (Because it is pretty douchey, at least on the surface), but she sounds nasal with that elongated syllable melody that makes me just coil. I don’t like the backing vocals or echoes, either, sorry for the nitpicking but they feel like quick edits just to fill in empty space, especially that male “Hey” (or “Care”, or “Yeah”, I can’t tell), it’s added abruptly and cuts the beat out for no reason. The bridge wouldn’t be bad without that incessant and constant percussion pounding through it. I shouldn’t be this negative, Grande’s performance is okay, I guess, but, damn, this is awful. It doesn’t develop or even end properly, it feels like a bonus track on the standard version – because, yes, somehow this is what they chose as a fitting climax to the record. What a waste of studio time, and what a bad #1. Listen, UK, I didn’t like “7 rings” either, but at least it wasn’t this.

Conclusion

Man, I feel bad for doing so but Ariana Grande gets Worst of the Week for “break up with your girlfriend, i’m bored”, and screw it, Dishonourable Mention for “needy”. Nothing else is all that bad, so the Chainsmokers get away scot-free here, with Honourable Mention being tied and going to both Blueface for “Thotiana” and CamelPhat, Cristoph and Jem Cooke for “Breathe”. Best of the Week should be pretty obvious, but yeah, it’s going to Khalid and Disclosure for “Talk”. See you next week.

[ncmagroup]

  by Jamie Moses

  For years, media outlets desperately chased the clicks promised by Facebook; now the social media giant threatens to destroy them

As with any toxic relationship, the possibility of a breakup sparks feelings of terror — and maybe a little bit of a relief.

That’s the spot that Facebook has put the news business in. Last month, the social media behemoth announced it would once again alter its News Feed algorithm to show users even more posts from their friends and family, and a lot fewer from media outlets.

The move isn’t all that surprising. Ever since the 2016 election, Facebook’s been under siege for creating a habitat where fake news stories flourished. Their executives were dragged before Congress last year to testify about how they sold ads to Russians who wanted to influence the U.S. election, and so, in some ways, it’s simply easier to get out of the news business altogether.

But for the many news outlets that have come to rely on Facebook funneling readers to their sites, the impact of a separation sounds catastrophic.

“The End of the Social News Era?” a New York Times headline asked. “Facebook is breaking up with news,” an ad for the new BuzzFeed app proclaimed.

When a giant like Facebook takes a step — until recently, the social media site had been sending more traffic to news outlets than Google — the resulting quake can cause an entire industry to crumble.

Consumers, meanwhile, have grimaced as their favorite media outlets have stooped to sensational headlines to lure Facebook’s web traffic. They’ve become disillusioned by the flood of hoaxes and conspiracy theories that have run rampant on the site.

A Knight Foundation/Gallup poll released last month revealed that only a third of Americans had a positive view of the media. About 57 percent said that websites or apps using algorithms to determine which news stories readers see was a major problem for democracy. Two-thirds believed the media being “dramatic or too sensational in order to attract more readers or viewers” was a major problem.

Now, sites that rely on Facebook’s algorithm have watched the floor drop out from under them when the algorithm is changed — all while Facebook has gobbled up chunks of print advertising revenue.

It’s all landed media outlets in a hell of a quandary: It sure seems like Facebook is killing journalism. But can journalism survive without it?

“Traffic is such a drug right now,” says Sean Robinson, a 53-year-old investigative reporter at the Tacoma News Tribune. “The industry is hurting so bad that it’s really hard to detox.”

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

It’s perhaps the perfect summation of the internet age: a website that started because a college kid wanted to rank which co-eds were hotter became a global goliath powerful enough to influence the fate of the news industry itself.

When Facebook first launched its “News Feed” in 2006, it ironically didn’t have anything to do with news. At least, not how we think of it. This was the website that still posted a little broken-heart icon when you changed your status from “In a Relationship” to “Single.”

The News Feed was intended to be a list of personalized updates from your friends. When Facebook was talking about “news stories,” it meant, in the words of Facebook’s announcement, like “when Mark adds Britney Spears to his Favorites or when your crush is single again.”

But in 2009, Facebook introduced its iconic “like” button. Soon, instead of showing posts in chronological order, the News Feed began showing you the popular posts first.

And that made all the difference.

Facebook didn’t invent going viral — grandmas with AOL accounts were forwarding funny emails and chain letters when Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg was still in grade school — but its algorithm amplified it. Well-liked posts soared. Unpopular posts simply went unseen.

Google had an algorithm too. So did YouTube.

Journalists were given a new directive: If you wanted readers to see your stories, you had to play by the algorithm’s rules. Faceless, mystery formulas had replaced the stodgy newspaper editor as the gatekeeper of information.

So when the McClatchy Company — a chain that owns 31 daily papers including the Tacoma News Tribune and the Bellingham Herald — launched its reinvention strategy last year, knowing how to get Facebook traffic was central.

“Facebook has allowed us to get our journalism out to hundreds of millions more people than it would have otherwise,” says McClatchy’s Vice President of News Tim Grieve, a fast-talking former Politico editor. “It has forced us, and all publishers, to sharpen our game to make sure we’re writing stories that connect with people.”

With digital ad rates tied to web traffic, the incentives in the modern media landscape could be especially perverse: Write short, write lots. Pluck heartstrings or stoke fury.

In short, be more like Upworthy.com. A site filled with multi-sentence emotion-baiting headlines, Upworthy begged you to click by promising that you would be shocked, outraged or inspired — but not telling you why. (One example: “His first 4 sentences are interesting. The 5th blew my mind. And made me a little sick.”)

By November of 2013, Upworthy was pulling in 88 million unique visitors a month. With Facebook’s help, the formula spread.

The McClatchy-owned Bellingham Herald headlined a short crime story about the arrest of a carjacker this way: “Four people, two cars, one gun. What happens next?”

A short Herald story asking for tips about a recent spree of indecent exposure was headlined, “She was looking at her phone, but the man wanted her to watch him masturbate.”

Even magazines like Time and Newsweek — storied publications that sent photojournalists to war zones — began pumping out articles like, “Does Reese Witherspoon Have 3 Legs on Vanity Fair’s Cover?” and “Trump’s Hair Loss Drug Causes Erectile Dysfunction.”

Newsweek’s publisher went beyond clickbait; the magazine was actually buying traffic through pirated video sites, allegedly engaging in ad fraud.

On Monday this week, Newsweek senior writer Matthew Cooper resigned in disgust after several Newsweek editors and reporters who’d written about the publisher’s series of scandals were fired. He heaped contempt on an organization that had installed editors who “recklessly sought clicks at the expense of accuracy, retweets over fairness” and left him “despondent not only for Newsweek but for the other publications that don’t heed the lessons of this publication’s fall.”

Mathew Ingram, who covers digital media for Columbia Journalism Review, says such tactics might increase traffic for a while. But readers hate it. Sleazy tabloid shortcuts gives you a sleazy tabloid reputation.

“Short-term you can make a certain amount of money,” Ingram says. “Long-term you’re basically setting fire to your brand.”

One strategy throughout the industry is to downplay the location of a story: readers in other markets are more likely to click if they don’t know it happened thousands of miles away.

Robinson, the veteran Tacoma News Tribune reporter, says local cops have complained about crime stories from elsewhere that were being shared on Facebook by local TV stations without context — worrying local readers were being misled into thinking they happened in Tacoma.

Grieve, the McClatchy executive, says that he doesn’t ever want to sensationalize a story. But he also says that “internet and social media are noisy places,” and papers have to sell their stories aggressively to be heard over the din.

“If you’re writing stories that aren’t getting read,” Grieve says, “you’re not a journalist — you’re keeping a journal.”

CLICKBAIT AND SWITCH

Plenty of media outlets have tried to build their business on the foundation of the News Feed algorithm. But they quickly got a nasty surprise: That foundation can collapse in an instant.

As Facebook’s News Feed became choked with links to Upworthy and its horde of imitators, the social network declared war on clickbait. It tweaked its algorithms, which proved catastrophic for Upworthy.

“It keeps changing,” Ingram says, “Even if the algorithm was bad in some way, at least if it’s predictable, you could adapt.”

A 2014 Time magazine story estimated that two to three global algorithm tweaks on Facebook were happening every week.

Six years ago, for example, KHQ, a TV news station in Spokane, Washington, told readers they’d have “an ENTIRE day here on FB dedicated to positive local news” if the post got liked 500 times. It worked. The post got more than 1,200 likes, and KHQ followed through a with a puppy-picture-laden “Feel Good Friday!!!”

Under the current Facebook algorithm, that tactic could get their entire page demoted. So could using shameless “you-won’t-believe-what-happened-next” style phrases.

Much of the time, Facebook and Google don’t announce their shifts up front. Media outlets often have had to reverse-engineer the changes, before issuing new commands to their troops in the field.

“Oh, they changed their algorithm again?” Robinson says. “Oh, what is it today, coach? OK, it’s 50-word [headlines] instead of 60?”

A pattern emerged. Step 1: Media outlets reinvent themselves for Facebook. Step 2: Facebook makes that reinvention obsolete.

Big publishers leaped at the chance to publish “Instant Articles” directly on Facebook, only to find that the algorithm soon charged, rewarding videos more than posts and rendering Instant Articles largely obsolete. So publishers like Mic.com, Mashable, and Vice News “pivoted to video,” laying off dozens of journalists in the process.

“Then Facebook said they weren’t as interested in video anymore,” Ingram says. “Classic bait and switch.”

Which brings us to the latest string of announcements: The News Feed, Zuckerberg announced last month, had skewed too far in the direction of social video posts from national media pages and too far away from personal posts from friends and family.

They were getting back to their roots.

And now, news organizations who’d dumped a lot of money into the eye-catching pre-recorded video would suffer the most under the latest algorithm changes, Facebook’s News Feed VP Adam Mosseri told TechCrunch last month, because “video is such a passive experience.”

Even before the announcement, news sites had seen their articles get fewer and fewer hits from Facebook. Last year, Google once again became the biggest referrer of news traffic as Facebook referrals decreased. Many sites published tutorials pleading with their readers to manually change their Facebook settings to guarantee the site’s appearance in their news feeds.

“Some media outlets saw their [Facebook] traffic decline by as much as 30 to 40 percent,” Ingram says. “Everybody knew something was happening, but we didn’t know what.”

It might be easy to mock those who chased the algorithm from one trend to another with little to show for it. But the reality, Ingram says, is that many of them didn’t really have a choice.

“You pretty much have to do something with Facebook,” Ingram says. “You have to. It’s like gravity. You can’t avoid it.”

Zuckerberg’s comments that stories that sparked “meaningful social interactions” would do the best on Facebook caused some to scoff.

“For Facebook, it’s bad if you read or watch content without reacting to it on Facebook. Let that sink in for a moment,” tech journalist Joshua Topolsky wrote at The Outline. “This notion is so corrupt it’s almost comical.”

In subsequent announcements, Facebook gave nervous local news outlets some better news: They’d rank local community news outlets higher in the feed than national ones. They were also launching an experiment for a new section called “Today In,” focusing on local news and announcements, beta-testing the concept in cities like Olympia.

But in early tests, the site seemed to have trouble determining what’s local.

Seattle Times’ reporter Joe O’Sullivan noted on Twitter that of the five stories featured in a screenshot of Facebook’s Olympia test, “NONE OF THEM ARE OLYMPIA STORIES. ZERO.”

The Seattle Times and other outlets say they’re taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the latest algorithm, analyzing how the impact shakes out before making changes. They’ve learned to not get excited.

“It just, more and more, seems like Facebook and news are not super compatible,” says Shan Wang, staff writer at Harvard University’s Nieman Journalism Lab.

At least not for real news. For fake news, Facebook’s been a perfect match.

FAKING IT

There was a time Facebook was positively smug about their impact on the world. After all, they’d seen their platform fan the flames of popular uprisings during the Arab Spring in places like Tunisia, Iran, and Egypt.

“By giving people the power to share, we are starting to see people make their voices heard on a different scale from what has historically been possible,”  Zuckerberg bragged in a 2012 letter to investors under the header, “we hope to change how people relate to their governments and social institutions.”

And Facebook certainly has — though not the way it intended.

A BuzzFeed investigation before the 2016 presidential election found that “fake news” stories on Facebook, hoaxes or hyperpartisan falsehoods actually performed better on Facebook than stories from major trusted outlets like the New York Times.

That, experts speculated, is another reason why Facebook, despite its massive profits, might be pulling back from its focus on news.

“As unprecedented numbers of people channel their political energy through this medium, it’s being used in unforeseen ways with societal repercussions that were never anticipated,” writes Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s product manager for civic engagement, in a recent blog post.

The exposure was widespread. A Dartmouth study found about a fourth of Americans visited at least one fake-news website — and Facebook was the primary vector of misinformation. While researchers didn’t find fake news swung the election — though about 80,000 votes in three states is a pretty small margin to swing — the effect has endured.

Donald Trump has played a role. He snatched away the term used to describe hoax websites and wielded it as a blunderbuss against the press, blasting away at any negative reporting as “fake news.”

By last May, a Harvard-Harris poll found that almost two-thirds of voters believed that mainstream news outlets were full of fake news stories.

The danger of fake news, after all, wasn’t just that we’d be tricked with bogus claims. It was that we’d be pummeled with so many different contradictory stories, with so many different angles, the task of trying to sort truth from fiction just becomes exhausting.

So you choose your own truth. Or Facebook’s algorithm chooses it for you.

Every time you like a comment, chat or click on Facebook, the site uses that to figure out what you actually want to see: It inflates your own bubble, protecting you from facts or opinions you might disagree with.

And when it does expose you to views from the other side, it’s most likely going to be the worst examples, the trolls eager to make people mad online, or the infuriating op-ed that all your friends are sharing.

That’s partly why many of the 3,000 Facebook ads that Russian trolls bought to influence the election weren’t aimed at promoting Trump directly. They were aimed at inflaming division in American life by focusing on such issues as race and religion.

Facebook has tried to address the fake news problem — hiring fact checkers to examine stories, slapping “disputed” tags on suspect claims, putting counterpoints in related article boxes — but with mixed results.

The recent Knight Foundation/Gallup poll, meanwhile, found that those surveyed believed that the broader array of news sources actually made it harder to stay well-informed.

And those who grew up soaking in the brine of social media aren’t necessarily better at sorting truth from fiction. Far from it.

“Overall, young people’s ability to reason about the information on the internet can be summed up in one word: bleak,” Stanford researchers concluded in a 2016 study of over 7,800 students. More than 80 percent of middle schoolers surveyed didn’t know the difference between sponsored content and a news article.

It’s why like groups like Media Literacy Now have successfully pushed legislatures in states like Washington to put media literacy programs in schools.

That includes teaching students how information was being manipulated behind the scenes, says the organization’s president Erin McNeill.

“With Facebook, for example, why am I seeing this story on the top of the page?” she asks. “Is it because it’s the most important story, or is it because of another reason?”

But Facebook’s new algorithm threatens to make existing fake news problems even worse, Ingram says. By focusing on friends and family, it could strengthen the filter bubble even further. Rewarding “engagement” can just as easily incentivize the worst aspects of the internet.

You know what’s really good at getting engagement? Hoaxes. Conspiracy theories. Idiots who start fights in comments sections. Nuance doesn’t get engagement. Outrage does.

“Meaningful social interactions” is a hard concept for algorithms to grasp.

“It’s like getting algorithms to filter out porn,” Ingram says. “You and I know it when we see it. [But] algorithms are constantly filtering out photos of women breastfeeding.”

Facebook hasn’t wanted to push beyond the algorithm and play the censor. In fact, it’s gone in the opposite direction. After Facebook was accused of suppressing conservative news sites in its Trending Topics section in 2016, it fired its human editors. (Today, conspiracy theories continue to show up in Facebook’s Trending Topics.)

Instead, to determine the quality of news sites, Facebook is rolling out a two-question survey about whether users recognized certain media outlets, and whether they found them trustworthy. The problem, as many tech writers pointed out, is that a lot of Facebook users, like Trump, consider the Washington Post and the New York Times to be “fake news.”

The other problem? There are a lot fewer trustworthy news sources out there. And Facebook bears some of the blame for that, too.

FEAST AND FAMINE

It’s not fair, exactly, to say that Facebook killed the alt-weekly in Knoxville, Tennessee. But it probably landed the final blow.

The internet, obviously, has been killing newspapers for a very long time. Why, say, would you pay a monthly subscription to the Daily Cow, when you can get the milk online for free?

It killed other revenue sources as well. Craigslist cut out classified sections. Online dating killed personal ads. Amazon put many local mom-and-pop advertisers out of business.

Yet the Metro Pulse, Knoxville’s longtime alt-weekly, was still turning a slight profit in 2014 when the E.W. Scripps Company shut it down. So editor Coury Turczyn and a few other staffers set out to start their own paper.

But in the six months, it took to get the Knoxville Mercury off the ground, the market had changed.

“We lost a lot more small-business advertisers than we expected,” Turczyn says. Facebook had captured them.

At one time, alt-weeklies could rake in advertising money by selling cheaper rates and guaranteeing advertisers to hit a younger, hipper, edgier audience. But then Facebook came along. The site lets businesses micro-target their advertisements at incredibly specific audiences.

Like Google, Facebook tracks you across the web, digging deep into your private messages to figure out whether to sell you wedding dresses, running shoes or baby formula.

“You go to Facebook, you can try to pick your audience based on their geographic location, their interests,” Turczyn says. It’s cheaper. It’s easier. And it comes with a report chock-full of stats on who the ad reached.

“Even if it doesn’t result in any sales and foot traffic, it at least has this report,” Turczyn says.

Mercury ad reps would cite examples of businesses who advertised in print and saw their foot traffic double the next day — but the small businesses wouldn’t bite. Attempts to rally reader donations weren’t enough. The Mercury shut down in July.

“It’s just more of the same sad story,” Turczyn says. “It’s a slaughter, there’s no doubt about it.”

Turczyn says two decades of journalism experience hasn’t helped much with the job search. Journalists aren’t what outlets are looking for.

“The single biggest job opening I see consistently is social media manager. Or ‘digital brand manager,’” Turczyn says. “Those are the jobs on the marketplace right now.’

It’s not that nobody’s making massive amounts of money on advertising online. It’s just that only two are: Facebook and Google — and they’re both destroying print advertising.

The decline in print advertising has ravaged the world of alt-weeklies, killing icons like the Boston Phoenix, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the Philadelphia City Paper and the Baltimore City Paper.

Dailies keep suffering, too, no matter how prestigious or internet-savvy.

The West Virginia Gazette-Mail won a Pulitzer Prize last year for reporting on the opioid crisis. It filed for bankruptcy last month. Eleven staffers were cut from the Oregonian on Jan. 31, the same day Silicon Valley’s San Jose Mercury News slashed staff.

McClatchy’s made a lot of cuts in the last year, too, though Grieve declined to say exactly how many positions have been eliminated. He, for one, doesn’t blame Facebook.

“Our newsrooms are smaller than they once were, but because we’re so focused on serving the needs of our communities, we’re actually reaching more readers than we ever have before,”  Grieve writes in an email.

Yet the convergence of layoffs with the pressure to get web traffic, Robinson says, has influenced coverage. When potential traffic numbers are an explicit factor in story selection and you’re short-staffed, you have to make choices. Stories about schools don’t get many clicks. Weird crime stories do.

But as a long-time reporter, Robinson knows that bombshell scoops can sometimes begin with mundane reporting. Fail to report on the dull stuff, and you don’t know what else you’re missing.

“The media companies want the traffic, the traffic, the traffic,” Robinson says. “The stuff [readers] need to know — but don’t know they need to know — disappears.”

Asked if there’s any reason for optimism, Ingram, at the Columbia Journalism Review, lets out a wry laugh.

If you’re not a behemoth like BuzzFeed, he says, your best bet is to be small enough to be supported by die-hard readers.

“If you’re really, really hyper-focused — geographically or on a topic — then you have a chance,” Ingram says. “Your readership will be passionate enough to support you in some way.”

That’s one reason some actually welcome the prospect of less Facebook traffic. Slate’s Will Oremus recently wrote that less news on Facebook would eventually cleanse news of “the toxic incentives of the algorithm on journalism.”

Maybe, the thinking goes, without a reliance on Facebook clicks, newspapers would once again be able to build trust with their readers. Maybe, the hope goes, readers would start seeking out newspapers directly again.

But even if Facebook suddenly ceased to exist, there are other sites with other algorithms that can drive traffic and shape coverage. As traffic referred by Facebook falls, the focus at McClatchy is already shifting. You can optimize your news coverage to appear high in the Facebook News Feed — but you can also optimize it to appear higher in the Google search results.

“We’re all about Google, again,” Robinson says. “Google, Google, Google.”

The Value of Real News

The experiment has escaped the lab and is running amok across our great land. Thanks, Facebook. Many once thought that social media would save us — that it would break down borders, unite the globe, make us smarter, happier and more engaged in the world.

I’m not sure anyone believes that anymore. Turns out, it hasn’t broken down borders, but rather helped create social bubbles where our beliefs harden. It hasn’t united us but revealed how polarized we’ve become. It often hasn’t made us smarter but instead tricked us with clickbait.

At this point, it’s clear that even Facebook’s founder didn’t anticipate how the site would be used and abused, or how foreign agents looking to sow some good ol’ chaos would game Facebook’s algorithms to subvert American democracy. Further, it’s apparent now that Facebook — and Google and Twitter, for that matter — didn’t look too closely at the money being exchanged to see who was paying and who was profiting from all the fakery.

Yet, at the same time these platforms — Google and Facebook, especially — were spreading misinformation and fake news like wildfire, they were also draining digital advertising dollars from the very news outlets that could combat those forces with real journalism.

That’s not exactly new: The news business has long been outwitted by these tech giants — lured by vast internet audiences, they’ve essentially provided free content to Facebook and Google, while the duopoly courted their advertisers — but I believe that the journalists who confronted that impossible choice ultimately wanted to deliver the news, even at their own expense.

And now Facebook is poised to change the rules of the game yet again. Struggling to repel fake news and the antagonism permeating the site, founder Mark Zuckerberg announced last month that it would deprioritize news in favor of posts from friends and family. It’s sent a shockwave through the news industry, much of which has strategically aligned its priorities with Facebook’s and raised serious questions for consumers, for news outlets and for our democracy.

The situation is still shaking out, but the hope is not lost. Indeed, the value of actual journalism — say, the New York Times or the very paper you’re reading — becomes really obvious when held up against flawed algorithms and fake news. With change coming to Facebook, however, you may have to directly seek out the news sources you like to follow, rather than counting on them to appear in the site’s revamped News Feed.

Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

FACEBOOK Fake News Feed Frenzy, & The Damage Done To Real News Outlets   by Jamie Moses For years, media outlets desperately chased the clicks promised by Facebook; now the social media giant threatens to destroy them…