#the german government is just constantly ignoring poor people

[schadenfreudich]

Was looking if there is literally any apartment in my area, and there is just none.

(At least based on size, because I can't have any that's bigger than 45 qm, if I remember that correctly, because that's the most the jobcenter would pay for, and there is technically one, but that one is in the far off village with the worst possible public transport and no store in the village, so you have to have a car to be able to live there. Or the little bit of public transport would also be too expensive, because fuck having public transport that is actually usable by people who are most dependent on it, fuck you, germany)

[clandonnachaidh]

Light Across The Seas That Sever (Ch5)

AO3

“Uncle Jamie, mam says ye’ve tae come doon i’ stair!”

Jamie Fraser gave himself a final once over in the mirror, making sure that he hadn’t missed any areas when he’d shaved and that his hair was swept back without it looking too done. The shirt that Jenny had ironed for him, despite his insistence that he would manage just fine, was properly tucked into his jeans, the cuffs of which had been neatly tucked into his beaten-up pair of brown Doc Marten boots that had seen the better part of a few years.

“Nae bad, Fraser, nae bad,” he muttered to himself as he pulled his favourite leather jacket from his bed and opened his bedroom door to find his niece hopping excitedly from one foot to the other.

“Ye’ve nae to mess this up, ken?” Maggie said sternly, her little hands planted on her hips. With a sudden shriek of delight, Jamie pulled her into the air by her arms and plonked her on top of his shoulders.

“Yer like yer mother’s wee parrot, d’ye ken that?” He laughed as he descended the stairs at Lallybroch, setting Maggie back onto her feet as the girl scowled at him.

“Am no’, am like my da,” she huffed, furthering the likeness between her and the woman that gave birth to her.

Jamie smiled down at her, ruffling her dark hair in his hand, “Aye, ye are the both of them. Equal parts Fraser and Murray.”

It was then that he caught sight of Jenny in the doorway, her face full of palpable excitement that nearly made Jamie roll his eyes. Not for the first time, he wondered if she was maybe too invested in this whole thing. It was just one date after all.

“Jamie, ye mind Mary, aye?” She gestured to the woman stood in at the door, wringing her scarf in her hands as though she was as nervous as Jamie was himself.

“Aye,” he smiled kindly at the stranger stood in his house, only really remembering her from the days of their childhood. Mary McNab looked nice enough and there was no doubt that she was a pretty wee thing but she seemed small, as if she was unsure of the space that she was taking up. “It’s nice tae see ye again, Mary. I have to apologise for my sister dragging ye all the way here, I was happy to pick ye up from the village.”

Mary smiled at him in response, looking at him from underneath her eyelashes as though she was nervous to look at him directly, “It’s no bother, really. My brother gave me a lift up.”

“Aye well, shall we?” Jamie shrugged his shoulders into his jacket, trying his hardest to avoid Jenny’s darting eyes between the two of them as he put his hand in the space just shy of Mary’s shoulder, herding her out of the door.

“Have fun!” Jenny shouted, her voice thick with expectation as Jamie opened the door of his Landrover for his date, offering a gentlemanly hand as she made the slight jump up to the passenger seat. Shutting the door behind her, he shot a death glare to his sister who was practically vibrating on the doorstep and got into the vehicle himself, setting off down the track that took him away from the Lallybroch estate and prying eyes.

The restaurant was fine. Dinner was fine. Mary was nice enough and Jamie had tried to be his most charming self but there was still a cloud of awkwardness hanging over the table. Mary was a quiet wee thing and the phrase ‘like getting blood from a stone’ was ringing around Jamie’s head. There had been more than one uncomfortable silence, neither of them able to bring up a topic of conversation that successfully piqued the other’s interest past a solitary follow-up question. It also didn’t help that Jamie had the constant distraction of his phone buzzing audibly against his thigh the entire time, no doubt Jenny was constantly texting him to ask how things were going.

Once the coffees had been drunk and dessert turned down, Jamie had insisted on paying the bill and held the door open for Mary as they left the restaurant. When they walked to his car, Jamie had held the door open again but this time, Mary halted. With a shy peek up at his confused face, she closed the space between them and pressed a kiss to his mouth. It hadn’t registered in Jamie’s consciousness until he felt her push her body against his with a little more force. He flinched, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder and pushing her away slightly to see her gasp for a breath that had alluded her.

A bright red descended over her cheeks, “I’m sorry, I’m-“

“No, lass, it’s fine. Really, it’s…” he trailed off, realising that he was looking at her mouth, open and inviting. How long it had been that he’d kissed a woman and not been half gone with drink? Steeling himself, his hands went to her waist and he pressed her gently against the car, letting his mouth fall onto hers as she whimpered and relaxed beneath him.

Jamie kissed her. He tried his best to be present as his mouth moved against hers, eliciting noises that he hadn’t heard from a woman in a long time. He let his hands drift upwards, cupping her face in his palms and he felt her instinctively move towards him and press herself against him, more boldly this time, her hands coming to the small of his back and pulling him closer to her.

A persistent buzz from his pocket threw cold water over a lukewarm situation. Pulling away, he looked at Mary, ragged breaths bursting from her lungs as he managed to settle himself quickly, retrieving the phone from his pocket and throwing it a quick glance.

Claire calling… Claire (Eight unread messages)

His stomach dropped as he ignored the call and threw it into the car behind Mary, still standing in the open passenger door with something in her eyes that Jamie prayed wasn’t hope.

“Best get ye home, lass,” he said quietly, immediately walking around the bonnet of the car as poor Mary McNab scrambled to collect herself, sitting quietly in the passenger seat.

He drove Mary to her home in silence, tightened his hand on hers once as he said goodnight with a polite smile that he hoped she would understand as an apology and began the drive home, the single-track country roads twisting and turning along with the myriad of thoughts that were running through his head.

The last thing he needed after a frustrating evening was to get stuck behind a baler on the road but he knew better than to swear at the farmer who was driving the huge piece of machinery as fast as he possibly could. As he tawdled along behind the tractor, his ears strained to hear if his phone was vibrating in its holder, eyes darting to check if the screen was going to light up with her name again.

“Mac na galla,” he grumbled to himself as he pulled into a lay-by and watched as the baler trundled down the road. Within seconds, the cab of his car was illuminated against the black of the night outside. He tried his best to ignore the shake in his fingers as he unlocked his phone and opened his messages.

Jenny: Careful and nae wake the bairns when you stumble in!

Jamie fought the urge to rest his forehead against the steering wheel and worried about how he could possibly tell Jenny that the date had been a bust.

Had been, until he’d kissed wee Mary McNab back. Probably confused the poor woman to no end. Why had he done that? She was a nice enough person and he hadn’t had a bad time but there definitely hadn’t been any spark. And that had been before he’d found out that the incessant texts he’d been receiving during their date weren’t actually from his sister, they were from her.

“Swear to Christ, Claire,” he hissed, screwing his eyes shut before they opened again, entirely of their own volition, to look at the other messages he hadn’t read from the evening.

Claire: Hey! I know it’s been ages but don’t kill me! Busy, y’know. Anyway, have you seen the email? Claire: I think I’m going to come over for it, what are you thinking? Claire: Jamie! Claire: Please say you’re going, I don’t want to go stag! Claire: I’m not going to book a flight unless you say you’re going to be there. Claire: Jamieeeeeee! I’ve had a bottle of wine and I am making rash decisions! Claire: Okay, I’m doing it and I hope you know that I blame you entirely. Claire: Flight booked.

His brain was going a mile a minute, sat in his car engulfed by the pitch blackness of the countryside as his fingers furiously clicked onto his emails, eyes scanning through the deluge of special offer gym memberships and an invite to like an old friend’s new business facebook page when he finally saw it.

A reunion of the Graduating Class of 2012!

He gleaned over the information, passing the cheap graphic that had been plastered to the start of the email invite as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

There was to be a reunion of their whole graduating year in two month’s time. Everyone from Alumni to Fellows and tutors invited, partners and families welcome.

Back to rubbing shoulders with some of the best and worst people he’d had the pleasure of knowing, not even able to say that he’d made something of himself five years on from when they’d seen him last. He had graduated with a First, that was true. But he hadn’t moved from his home at Lallybroch and God knows there wasn’t much work for anyone who spoke fluent French and German in the rural Highlands of Scotland. It was true that he’d done a bit of consulting and translating work for the Scottish Government, lending a hand as they began their push for the inclusion of Gael culture into the national curriculum after the introduction of the Gaelic Language Act. But he would’ve been able to do that even without his degree, having grown up speaking both Gaelic and English. It had been a bitter pill to swallow, the knowledge that simply having an Oxford degree had got him on the board in the first place.

Still, he tried to keep his heart from racing as a single thought repeated in his mind.

Claire would be there. And it sounded like she’d be coming alone.

Jamie fought the urge to return her call immediately, his thoughts too scattered to try and figure out what time it was in Boston. Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t remember the last time the two of them had even spoken on the phone. Although they had both promised to keep their phone calls regular after that first one when she’d called to say thank you for the flowers, they had become less and less frequent over the five years since they’d last seen each other. And when they did speak, there was always a tension that would hide in the spaces between their words, one which Jamie was terrified of acknowledging. So he watched what he said and eventually the conversations became routine and dull, neither of them willing to drop a crumb that could potentially lead the other down a path that would end with unspoken truths. Jamie felt drained after every call, lying in bed at night and going over the way her laugh sounded and whether it would have reached her eyes. After a few missed opportunities, the calls became texts which then dissolved into the odd tag on a funny Facebook post and a casual like on Instagram. But nothing of worth shared between two people who, at one point, had been everything to each other.

Two months later, Jamie found himself sat at a large table in the hall of Merton College, where it all began. The fingers of his left hand tapped rapidly against the muscles of his thigh, fingertips numb from rubbing against the scratchy wool of his kilt. He had gone all out, donned his traditional clothing with pride swelling his heart at the sight of the modern Fraser tartan, and sent a prayer of thanks to his parents when he slipped on his Prince Charlie jacket to find that it still fit him across the shoulders. It felt like a lifetime since he’d been at university having parties and society nights in this very hall, the standard stereo system being replaced by the more sophisticated option of a small band situated in the corner, fronted by a beautiful blonde woman who was crooning about it being a marvellous night for a moondance. Jamie certainly wasn’t trying to get drunk but he was already on his second whisky in an attempt to quell the nerves that were brewing in his stomach. He was powerless to the constant roving of his eyes, unable to relax until they found their target amongst the throng of people.

“Are you listening to a word I’m saying?” Jamie looked towards the sound of John’s exasperated voice, ever the perfect Lord in his coat and tails.

John Grey was one of the only people besides Claire that Jamie had kept in contact with since leaving Oxford. The two of them had met on the rugby pitch and had immediately taken a liking to each other. John had been the only person besides Jenny that knew of Jamie’s feelings for Claire although he had once termed it a ‘soft spot’ and Jamie hadn’t corrected him, not wanting him to know how deep the feelings went. He knew that John was gay himself and it had taken an uncouth joke from another member of the rugby team at the expense of John’s sexuality that had seen Jamie ramming a knee a little too hard during a ruck that had fused the two of them as good friends.

“Sorry, I’m wi’ ye now,” Jamie huffed, letting his shoulders relax slightly as he turned his body towards the man sitting across the table from him. “What is it ye were sayin’?”

John’s faux-irritated expression softened as something behind Jamie caught his eye before he smiled at him.

“Looks like you got your wish.”

Jamie could feel the air in the room as it changed, shifted to one full of static energy and promise. Without looking back, he got to his feet and smoothed out his kilt making sure that the pleats were sitting properly.

John rolled his eyes knowingly, “You look fine, stop fidgeting.”

Breath left Jamie’s lungs in a shaky sigh as he expelled the nerves that were sitting in his throat and turned to look upon her for the first time in years.

She was radiant. Not that he was surprised by the fact but he found that he was counting himself lucky just to be in the same room as her. Claire, his Sorcha, dressed in a deep red gown that was cut daringly low at her bust, a neckline that perfectly showed off her bonny wee shoulders and contrasted against her pale velvet skin. He knew that she would’ve paid good money to have someone wrestle her curls into a loose bun on top of her hair but she hadn’t bothered with too much make-up, just a simple blush on her cheeks that almost matched the colour of her lips. Jamie felt something tug in the dead space beneath his ribs, as though the tether that had been separated years ago was suddenly trying to fight its way back to her.

He had the priviledge of seeing her reaction at the moment she caught sight of him, shoulders rise sharply in a quick inhale of breath that she wasn’t in control of. Jamie couldn’t move, finding himself instantly fixed to the spot as she smiled at him, huge and beatific, before making her way across the room to stand in front of him.

“You’re here,” she said simply.

“Of course I’m here. Wouldnae miss it fer the world.”

He immediately cringed at his words as he saw her smile softly. He had forgotten, just for a moment, that this woman knew him and would be able to infer what he was really saying—that he wouldn’t miss her for the world. Suddenly shy, Claire looked away as she offered her open arms. He greedily accepted, crushing her into his chest and fighting the insurmountable urge to bury his nose in her curls and breathe like he was coming up for air.

“It’s so good to see you,” she whispered against his chest, her breath dampening against the material of his crisp white Oxford shirt.

“Aye, it’s good to see ye as well.”

At the sound of someone clearing their throat, Jamie reluctantly let her go so Claire could beam at the sight of John Grey, placing a delicate hand on his shoulder as she kissed him on the cheek in greeting.

“My dear, you look transcendent,” John remarked as a blush of mild rage began to creep up Jamie’s neck. Of course Lord John would have the proper words for this situation, not the awkwardness that tumbled out of Jamie’s mouth. He glared at John who raised his eyebrows as if to say ‘well, you weren’t going to say it’ and Jamie resisted the urge to clip him around the back of his perfectly coiffed head. “Would you like a drink, Claire? Champagne?”

“Please,” she breathed a sigh of relief as John excused himself to the bar.

They were in a room of hundreds of people but in that moment, Jamie felt like they were truly alone. Claire was standing in front of only him and he let his eyes feast on every minute detail, how she was different and how she was exactly the same. Hazel eyes roamed over his face and he tried to control the tingling sensation in the tips of his fingers that were fighting to reach out and touch her.

“How is everyone? Jenny and Ian, the little ones?” Claire asked after clearing her throat.

“Aye aye, they’re all braw. Young Jamie is in school now and wee Maggie is the spit of her mother.”

“I miss them,” she said in earnest, her brows sloping upwards on her forehead, “I think of them from time to time, even if they were too young to remember me.”

“Yer none sae easily forgotten, Sassenach,” he said it without thinking and heard her take a sharp inhale at the sound of his pet name for her. It had been years since the name had left his lips.

“Now there’s something I don’t get called in Boston.”

“No, I imagine not, Doctor Beauchamp,” he grinned as he placed a hand on her elbow and lead her back towards the table. “Tell me everything, I want to know it all.”

The air around them was full of the words that poured out of their mouths, quickly falling into the same groove that had developed between them. It was so easy with her, Jamie thought to himself, like breathing air or falling into bed along the longest day. He was grateful to find that there were no awkward pauses or worries about what to say and what to keep to himself. The first time she hit him on the knee with her bonny wee hand, he nearly felt it jerk towards her involuntarily as if to catch the pressure of her touch again. If she noticed, she didn’t let on and tipped her head backwards to laugh at something he wasn’t even aware of saying.

John returned after a slightly longer than normal trip to the bar, apologising for the delay with the explanation of getting caught with an old friend but the look that he shot to Jamie told him it had been intentional to allow Jamie time with Claire. Jamie thanked him with his eyes but noticed an uneasy look on John’s face as he handed Claire’s champagne to her, placed Jamie’s whisky in front of him and took a deep sip from his own gin and tonic while cradling a fourth glass in his hand.

“There you are, darling.”

The sound of his voice made the whisky in Jamie’s throat burn that little bit more as it went down. Jamie tore his eyes from Claire’s face to see Frank settling himself into a chair, taking his drink graciously from John’s hand.

“Ah James, John mentioned you were here,” Frank nodded his head and glass towards Jamie in a small toast of greeting and Jamie nodded back, trying his hard to smile through the grimace.

“Nice to see ye again, Frank,” he lied.

“Yes, you too. Serendipitous, actually, I wonder if I could pick your brain about a few things?”

Claire cleared her throat and placed a gentle hand on Frank’s knee, “Darling, I don’t think Jamie wants to talk about your work, we’re here to enjoy ourselves.”

“Nonsense, I’m sure he’ll be interested to hear. You see, I’m away to specialise in the immigration of the Scots to the Americas after the Clearances,” Frank leaned across Claire and planted his forearms on the table, effectively blocking her off from the topic of conversation. Jamie tried his best not to glare at him in response and caught a small smile from Claire that told him not to bother, she was used to it.

“Fuadaichean nan Gàidheal,” Jamie muttered before knocking back his whisky in frustration and watching as Frank’s eyes lit up. Claire’s mouth twitched and Jamie had to resist the temptation to smile, knowing that she enjoyed hearing him speak in his mother tongue.

“Oh, wonderful! You speak Gaelic then?”

“Aye. We were speakin’ the Gàidhlig in the house before English, really.”

“Jamie is on a board that’s implementing the legislation that protects the use of Gaelic in Scotland,” Claire chimed in, much to Jamie’s surprise. He hadn’t told her anything about it.

“Keepin’ tabs on me, have ye?” Jamie smirked and she simply winked at him over the rim of her drink before bringing it to her mouth. “Aye, I’m part of the Bòrd na Gàidhlig. Just advising here and there.”

“He’s being modest. He’s been involved in writing a National plan for the Gaelic language over the next five years,” John added, refusing to let Jamie talk down his achievements.

Frank’s eyebrows raised into his forehead, creating deep lines in their wake, trying not to sound too surprised when he said, “That’s very impressive.”

“None sae impressive as a Harvard lecturer and a surgeon,” Jamie beamed at Claire who rolled her eyes in response.

Their collective heads turned towards the corner of the hall as the singer in the band announced the arrival of the President of the university. Welcomes were offered, donors were thanked and information provided about the up and coming renovation of a library that sorely needed funding. Jamie really tried to pay attention to the speech but at the mention of money, he was happy to find himself distracted by the sight of Claire in front of him. She was sat facing away from him and it allowed Jamie to look more closely without her being aware. He followed the line of her neck until it disappeared into her hair line and was struck by a vivid memory of pressing his lips there the night they shared in Amsterdam.

Of course he knew that it was going to be a shock to his system, seeing her in person after so many years. And he had stared his reflection down in the mirror that night, willing his fingers to stop shaking as he tried to fasten the belt that held his sporran, having to consciously take steadying breaths. He had wondered over the years if he had imagined it, had built up their connection in his mind in an attempt to not feel so alone. To have the knowledge that somewhere, out there in the world, there was someone who knew the bones of him, all his black and twisted bits, and not only accepted them but loved him for it.

But being in her presence, even after all these years, simply confirmed what he knew in his heart. What he felt for Claire Beauchamp was painfully real.

The room filled with polite applause and the band started up again with an upbeat song, inviting people to take to the dance floor. Jamie took a sip from his drink and watched as Frank’s eyes caught someone across the room.

“I’m just away to say hello to some friends,” Frank announced as he sent Jamie a wink that slithered sickeningly down his spine. “Keep the old girl out of trouble for me, boys?”

He was off with a shot and John was soon to follow, clearing his throat politely and smoothing down his coat as he stood.

“I believe I’m also overdue with making the rounds, please excuse me you two,” he said with a gracious bow of the head, leaving the two of them alone.

Just as Jamie was thinking of the perfect thing to say, the tone of Claire’s voice shocked him.

“Not very subtle, is he?” Claire remarked as her eyes found Frank across the room, watching as his hand fixed around the elbow of a very pretty blonde woman and his lips came to her cheek, just a little too close to the corner of her mouth. As Jamie looked on confused, he turned to see Claire downing the last of her champagne, something burning behind her eyes that he couldn’t put his finger on. His heart twisted as he realised that he didn’t know her tells anymore.

“What d’ye mean-“

“Dance?” She sent him a dazzling smile that he made his heart stutter but she hadn’t become so alien to him that he couldn’t see the look across her face that said ‘please, don’t ask’. He mumbled something about having two left feet as he stood, the skin of his hand becoming afire when she took it in hers.

Claire settled them on the dance floor, confidently wrapping his arm around the small of her back as she held his other in her hand. He didn’t recognise the song that the band were playing and realised that he couldn’t care less, fervently trying to keep his head even though her body was pressing against his in a way that he realised he’d been starving of since the last time he saw her.

“So, tell me what’s new with you.”

He raised an eyebrow at her, the corner of his lips following its trajectory upwards, “Sounds like ye were keeping an eye on what I was gettin’ up tae anyway.”

“Well, I can’t deny the odd google here and there. Can you blame me? Its not like we know each other like we used to and when I knew that I’d be seeing you again, I refused to act like a stranger.”

He heard the honesty in her tone of voice and nodded soberly, unable to bring himself to look at her and so he pulled her that little bit closer, the added height from her heels allowing her to tuck her chin into the space between his shoulder and his ear.

“Aye, we’ve no’ been great at keepin’ in touch,” he acquiesced. “Mebbe we should try to make more of an effort? I ken yer busy wi’ yer work-“

“I’d like that.”

He let her pull away from his body and look at him, that sad smile playing on her lips that he hated to see.

“Aye, me too, Sassenach.”

As soon as her pet name left his lips, her glass face betrayed her feelings as a huge smile split across her lips, her eyes twinkling.

“I didn’t realise how much I missed that.”

He laughed at her then, spinning her under his arm in a feat of grace that surprised even him and earning a delighted burst of laughter from her mouth before she tucked herself back against him, closer than before. With a strength that he didn’t know that he possessed, he stopped himself from pressing his cheek to the crown of her head.

The upbeat song that they she had dragged him onto the floor to dance to ended and a slower one took its place. He felt the muscles in her body change and melt into his grip as Jamie tried his best to lead her through the dance even though he knew that he wasn’t moving in time with the music. She let him anyway, not seeming to care that they weren’t moving with the same grace as the other couples. Before he even realised that they were shut, Jamie’s eyes snapped open at the sound of Claire gasping.

“Did I step on your toes?” He asked jokingly as he went to look at her, seeing that her eyes were transfixed on something over his shoulder. He craned his neck, following her eyeline to the set of double doors that the skinny blonde was heading through, Frank following closely behind with what could only be described as a ‘shit-eating grin’ on his face.

Jamie’s head swivelled back to her as he searched her eyes for the fury that he knew must be brewing in the pit of her stomach. He was shocked when all that he found was defeat.

“Claire?”

His Sassenach shook her head once before casting her eyes downward and muttering under her breath. The next second, she was looking at him again, her teeth showing in what was meant to be a smile but looked more like a grimace.

“Huh?” she feigned ignorance. Jamie was having none of it.

“Claire, tell me what’s going on.”

She pulled away from him, fully, leaving him bereft. He watched as he squared her shoulders, her eyes determined on the doors that she had just watched her boyfriend disappear through with another woman.

“It’s nothing, I just need to grab Frank and-“

He stopped her as she made to rush past him, closed his hand gently around her wrist to stop her from running after the man that clearly didn’t deserve her.

“Talk to me,” he implored.

Claire looked at him, the rage that had been missing from her eyes now well and truly present. But the surprise was when he realised that it was being aimed at him.

“Let me go, I need to find Frank. Before he-“

“Shags someone else?” Jamie said without thinking, immediately regretting his words at the sight of Claire’s chin lifting into the air in defiance. She tensed the muscles of her arm as if to test the grip he held on her and Jamie immediately let her go, horrified at the concept of her attempting to see how tightly he was holding her. Trying in vain not to jump to conclusions about the dynamics of Claire’s relationship with Frank, he immediately raised his hands, hoping that she would understand what he was trying to say — that nobody should ever be touching her with any sort of force behind it. The look in her eyes made his stomach turn with revulsion.

He moved to close the distance that she had created, wanting to keep her safe, and saw her recoil from him instinctively.

Eyes wide and full of shame, Jamie quickly rectified his error and gave back the gap that he’d made to close.

“It’s just me, Claire. Talk to me, please.”

Christ, she looked like an animal ready to bolt from a burning barn. He could see the frisson of adrenaline moving through her body, her muscles waking up and ready to act, whether the reaction was fight, flight or freeze.

“Don’t look at me like that, I don’t need your pity,” she spat the words at him and Jamie felt his head spin from the speed of which the situation had changed.

“It’s not pity, Sassenach, it’s concern. Tell me yer nae livin’ on the other side of the world wi’ a man who’s— who’s playin’ ye false.”

It might have been because of the fact that Claire had never allowed herself to say it out loud, let alone be on the receiving end of it from someone else, but the rage flamed its way through her body. And Jamie has in the firing line.

“And what am I supposed to do, leave him and live in Boston on my own? I don’t have anyone.”

He couldn’t stop the words from leaving his mouth even if he’d tried, “Ye have me.”

Jamie felt his stomach turn to stone at the sight of the fear that passed across her face.

“It was nice seeing you,” she muttered under her breath as she made to leave.

The frustration bubbled in the pit of his stomach as he seethed, “Dinna do that.”

Claire bristled with indignation as her eyes fixed on him, “Do what?”

“Nice to see me, aye? Fucking hell, Claire.” He ran his hand through his hair in exasperation, the hand that had been wedged in the space between her ribs and her hip bone just a few moments before. “Ye ken fine well ye deserve better.”

“Excuse me?”

“Ye heard me jus’ fine, dinna pretend. Ye deserve better than a man who’d play ye false,” Jamie took a step towards her, lowering his voice so it was barely a whisper. “Ye ken, if ye were mine, it wouldnae even be a question in yer mind.”

The palm of her hand landed on his cheek as a bolt of lightning before he even registered that it happened. Stars burst into his vision but when they finally began to fade, all he could see was the broken look on her face and he immediately regretted his words.

“Fuck you, James Fraser.”

Before his brain could form a response, an apology for speaking out of turn, she was gone from him and he could only watch as she left through the doors that Frank had disappeared through moments before. Jamie made to go after her but was stopped when a hand landed on his shoulder.

“Not here. She’ll be more angry for you making a scene,” John said quietly before nodding a polite smile to the couple that had been closest on the dance floor and had no doubt heard the entire thing. Jamie sighed angrily, forgetting that he was around people that would love to go home with the tawdry gossip of what happened at their university’s five year reunion party. Well, he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction. And he definitely wasn’t going to do it at the cost of Claire’s reputation.

John’s hand exerted a firm pressure on Jamie and he allowed it, letting himself be lead back to their table. Miraculously, John had another whisky waiting for Jamie as he sipped his own drink, closely watching his friend with gentle eyes.

“I thought it might just be a crush but seeing you tonight… I understand.”

Jamie rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes, trying to dull the war in his brain that was pulling him between the notion of chasing after her, making her listen, and giving her the space that she had asked for.

“It’s no’ a crush. Hasnae been fer years.”

“Yes, I can see that now. I do know how that feels, you know,” John agreed quietly causing Jamie to pull his eyes up to meet him.

The look on John’s face told Jamie everything he already knew. John had admitted his feelings about Jamie during their time on the rugby team together, the two drunkenly stumbling to a taxi rank after a night of celebrating a win. John had managed to secure the win by way of a miraculous drop kick, only having the space and time to do so because of Jamie’s perfect blocking. Jamie hoped he’d been gentle in his rejection of John, placing his large hands on either side of the smaller man’s ribcage and keeping him at a distance that stopped him from landing the kiss that he’d tried to deliver.

“Aye, mebbe ye do,” Jamie admitted, smiling slightly at the man who simply laughed. “Does it ever get easier?”

Unsteadied at being on the end of Jamie’s typical Scottish directness, the corners of John’s eyes crinkled as he answered truthfully.

“Not really, no.”

[ramrodd]

What flaws in the ROTC program need to be addressed?

COMMENTARY:

I have deleted a series of responses to Mike Page’s response to his own question.

I never disagree with his ahrgument, per se, especially as far as the advantages his proposal of 2 summer camps are concerned instead of the 4 year program I went through as a liberal arts student majoring in letters and process theology.

The process theology I was getting from RTOC, you dumb fuck. Nothing personal, of course.

The 2 summer camp program he proposes is more fun. I loved summer camp. My only problem was that I had to finish my senior year and my summer camp happened just before the 1968 Democrat Convention which resulted in the police riot the SDS had been designed to create with the 1962 Porort Huron Statement.

Cause and effect. The cause was the Trotsky Insurgence process embedded in the political strategy of the anti-war people. The Trosky Insurgency process is designed to employ sedition and subversion to create the social alienation and polarization that leads to sabotage and violent revolution. The sabotage didn’t really kick in until after Kent State, but the subversion really got traction after Tet ’68 and the SDS began to develop cells recruited to infiltrate the military and professions as active agents in the overthrow of the US government.

I was a Junior at Indiana when Tet hit the campuses. I re a uniform three times a week, looking as strac as I knew how to. I had been on a drill team as a Persishing Rifle and had my dad’s example of what a lifer’s uniform is suppose to look like on the job. I was as squared=away as I could be without having mom come behind me and complete the picture.

I knew Tet was coming. I grew up around headquarters and I was as plugged into the Post Rumor Control as the CG of CONARC. I wasn’t spying: it was osmosis. I got back to campus and everything was hunky-dory, the New Hampshire primaries came off as usual and the gates had open on the run for the white House and, at that moment, not-LBJ was not even a Dark Horse.

1967 was the Summer of Love in a “if you’re going to San Francisco…” flowers in the hair kind of way and Sergeant Pepper had just come out and John McCain had just been shot down. Tet was just about to jump off the Tallihatchie Bridge with Billy Joe McAllister, but Christmas was like the German side in Stalingrad 1942: there was a certain magical thinking that maybe it all had a happy ending if we all just clapped for Tink,

Tet was not the cause of the Chicago Police Riots in 1968, the Port Huron Statement was the cause, if you have any useful acquaintance with process theology, that should be evident to you without too much deliberation, Tet was the seed crystal that set off what amounted a socially supersaturated solution, or critical mass, that had been carefully groomed by the anti-war movement to blow up somewhere, sometime. It only took 6 years to achieve that moment and if the Diem brothers hadn’t been assassinated, the Port Huron Statement would have never gotten any traction.

I watched this stuff happen during a 4 year liberal arts education I was required to attend in order to receive an ROTC commission. ROTC is a direct result of the ideal and the intent of the 2nd Amendment, that is, to ensure for the manpower and mobilization requirements of the federal mandate for the common defense in the original intent of the Founding Fathers that the American Republic would be sustained by citizen-soldiers in the Swiss-Israeli tradition. The 2nd Amendment doesn’t have shit to do with guns: it is entirely a mechanism to supply the worker-patriots to carry the guns. The Civil wWar, on both sides, and First and Second Phases of the World at War was fought by the America citizen soldier, thanks to the 2nd Amendment. My dad got his commision at Indiana. I got mine the same way. We spent 4 years in classroom engagement in the process theology of the military arts and sciences, but the most fun was the practical application of FM 22–5, twice a week.

Just for the record, FM 22–5 comes almost directly from Frederick the Great by way of von Steubin and prior to Jomini. US Army doctrine originates in Prussian staff experience, but is embellished by the French example at Yorktown and the focus on Jomini at the exclusion of Clauswitz until Marshall’s reforms beginning in 1942 and proceeding way beyond any need to reexamine the efficacy of the 4 years ROTC program. It’s not West Point. It’s not intended to be West Point. Or OCS. Or the two-summer camp ROTC program. It is, however, the same intellectual trajectory and learning curve as West Point and that trajectory, combined with the experiential data that has accumulated with the liberal arts program, ensures that the collective unconscious of the US Army is being constantly enriched by the broadest possible universe of high shooling for the dressage of the republican citizen soldier.

Here’s the thing, Mike Page, my impression of you is similar to my impression of Richard Carrier, the evangelical anti-theist and John Bolton and Dumb Ass Don: you’ve never heard a shot fired in anger.

I know you were in the combat arms, but your original profile said you went to Germany instead of Vietnam. You now cite Asia, which means you could have earned a CIB on the DMZ, but you were pretty emphatic that you never got to Vietnam.

Poor you. I wouldn’t have missed Vietnam for the world, and being in GermanY during Vietnam was like a certain kind of Purgatory for someone who had signyd up for a life of derring-do and danger, but we all served the needs of the service, so that’s like Eisenhower, who never go overseas in Phase I.

Vietnam wasn’t a great war, but it was the only war we had.

The other thing I sense in you, Mike Page, is the resentment of an OCS officer without a college degree, going through, for the country-club commission I earned over 4 years and a summer camp. If you are serious about producing the best possible officer to lead soldiers against fire, you should know that everything that happened before you got that rank don’t mean nothing once you get it: how you got there ain’t important. It’s that you showed up and stuck around is all the military requires to begin the process of becoming all you can be.

See, here’s the thing, Mike Page: growing up in the Army, all the chaplains I knew had been combat veterans until I left the Army in 1971. Generally, I’ve done what I can to avoid the military since I left: the prospect of spending time with some lifer like you just makes my skin crawl, even if they have been shot at. But you and Bolton and Richard Carrier share an attitude I never encountered among the chaplains I have known. I saw the same thing being directed at John Kerry by the Swift Boaters and it was an attitude I ran into in the corporate culture from Vietnam-era National Guard pukes, who resented the fact that they had to keep their hair short during a time when getting laid and short hair were not the norm and they blamed Viet vets for their decision to pursue their business careers and not be labeled a long-haired, dope-smoking, anti-war hippy freak in a culture of pro-war business executives. It’s like the military officers who conceived and implemented the All Volunteer Military: they blamed the draftee-citizen solder for the way Vietnam turned out and that it was actually their idea in the first place.

So, if this idea of reforming ROTC represents a big career move for you, my advice to the rest of the world is to ignore it.

There were two coalitions in the Army senior officers during the McNamara tenure in the Pentagon: those who were committed to Marshall’s reforms and what my dad called “Nut Heads”, that is, political opportunists who abandoned the needs of the service in favor of their own ambitions and aligned with the McNamara Whiz Kids and his reforms based on the Harvard management model. These guys were in charge when Tet blew up in LBJ’s face and he dropped out of the race. From 1968 until I got back from Vietnam, these guys were like a Marx brothers meet the 3 Stooges, running around, trying to avoid becoming collateral damage. One of these guys scared me out of a military career in Vietnam, someone with the same crypto-Nazi cognitive organization as Mike Pompeo, Mike Espry and Tom Cotton.

And you. In response to your last reponse in our dialogue, to wit,

>>>Mike Page: “If you had an idea, Tom, it would overwhelm that single brain cell you were born with,….”<<<

You are a retrograde pre-Tet ’68 Nut Head. And the All Volunteer Military seems to be just totally stuffed you guys.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY:

How should the U.S. have handled Communist aggression in Vietnam?

You really don’t know shit about much of anything, do you, Mike Page.

Both Korea and Vietnam sit on the trade routes from the oil in the Persian Gulf to Japan and Taiwan, for one thing, and that oil was the reason for our presence on the Pacific Rim and, in no small measure, a factor in Japan’s vision of their Great Co-Prosperity Sphere that compelled the decision to attack Pearl Harbor.

You’ve presented the SDS version of the Oliver Stone version of Vietnam. The actual version is presented, below.

From 1954 until 1962, the MAG-V mission in the Republic of Vietnam was essentially the same as the K-MAG mission in the Republic of Korea: peace keeping and nation building, Both nations were the result of a negotiated partition and, in the case of the Korean Penisula, a cease fire that persists. This was part of George Kennan’s theory of containment and reflected Marshall’s manifesto delivered at Harvard in 1947. The efficacy of this mission can be measured by the present success of the Republic of Korea, and the continuing K-MAG mission.

In 1962, the commie cocksuckers in Hanoi determined to invade RVN and signaled their intent to that end by tossing frags into Saigon movie theaters. I had friends, other Army brats, living in Saigon at the time, and MAG-V evacuated all the dependents in 24 hours in order to clear the deck for general combat and to avoid a reprise of the Phillipines.

After the assassination of the Diem brothers in 1963, America lost the moral legitimacy of its nation building mission and made it impossible to “win” the battle MAG-V was transformed into MAC-V with the mission to conduct a battle of attrition against the Soviet economy by proxy, the subsequent enterprse being a battle in the larger Cold War.

To this end, General Westmoreland was essentially assigned the task of creating the blood sacrifice of the commie cocksuckers on the field of battle that would compel the Kremlin to continue to commit the material support to their ideological clients that would ultimately bankrupt the Soviet economy, which had not begun to fully recover from WWII.

In the final analysis, Vietnam became a contest between Marxism and the Harvard Business model and Marxism won, but, in the larger context, Vietnam was for the Kremlim what Borodino was for Napoleon: a battle they couldn’t afford to fight and a battle they couldn’t afford to lose.

As a direct result of the American War in Vietnam, the Soviet Union is no more. The fact of the matter is, the Domino Theory did, in fact, manifest, regionally, but was contained by what amounted to entropy.

Now, in reference to my commentary on your ROTC essay (Tom Wilson’s answer to What flaws in the ROTC program need to be addressed?) the mistake that the “Nut Heads” in the Pentagon that aligned with McNamara’s agenda made was to NOT proceed at the same time as the “Search and Destroy” element of the post-Diem brothers strategy with the other two legs of a Clauswitzian solution, that is, to equip the RVN military prodigously and to begin the process of “Vietnamization” on pretty much the same model as the ROK Army that served with such distinction in RVN.

As far as providing aid to all of Vietnam, it’s useful to remember that 1954 was the year of the McCarthy Hearings and people were losing their careers for any hint of political intercourse with commie cocksuckers anywhere in the world and Ho Chi Minh was a commie cocksucker who had just supervised the defeat of the French at Dien Bien Phu. The long haired anti-war hippy freaks of the SDS, and Noam Chomsky, might have found the prospect of providing economic aid to ALL OF VIETNAM appealing, but, well, in 1954, General Ridgeway wasn’t as sanguine of the prospect of success nor inclined to propose the project in the first place.

Just for the record, my self-esteem is perfectly secure. I’ve been dealing with lifers like you since I got off the Freedom Bird in 1971. Just the idea of being around lifers like you makes my skin crawl, but it’s not an impediment to my happiness and personal fulfillment.

[sosayset]

My Little June 6th Social Media Exchange

I’ve got a friend, a former teammate on a hockey team, who is fairly right leaning.  I made a post on June 6th, the anniversary of the storming the beaches of Normandy,  about my feelings on the Republican Party and their current state of true awfulness.  He didn’t respond directly, but definitely threw down on his own so that I could see it.  So I responded to him.  Harshly.  And this isn’t an exchange.  I called him out, didn’t do anything other than to acknowledge there was a response that I ignored, actually multiple because I’m sure that I was mentioned by more than one other mouth breather, and then I doubled down.  And now, because I am still mad, I’m making it public to my audiences.   

My response to his shameless defense of the Republican Party and conservatism in general. 

<My Dude>, on your side of the political divide there are unabashed racists. On your side, there are actual Klansmen. On your side there are actual, literal Nazis; we're talking "wir müssen die Juden ausrotten," Nazis. This isn't up for debate, either, this is absolute FACT. Now, and this is important, this isn't me being accusatory, but me pointing out the bare bones of the issue. These horrible people agree with you and your point of view. They are comfortable with you and your point of view. They *identify* with you and your point of view. They are comfortable with you and standing alongside you and supporting you and your perspective and your political point of view and everything you espouse. Actual f***ing Nazis are there with you, shoulder to shoulder. And this is an undeniable reality of irrefutable empirical evidence.

And all of this begs the question of pretty much anyone who might find themselves in a similar position, in a space where the most contemptible, most reviled, most deplorable, people can find comfort and sanctuary; "what does this reflection say about my values and what I believe?" If actual Nazis are on your side, and your first reaction is NOT to take a step back and ask yourself why they are comfortable on your side and not afraid to be beaten within inches of their life, you are in the WRONG. "Why are Nazis comfortable with me and being in my space?" The answer is, "I'm wrong about something, I need to figure out why and shut the hell up until I know exactly why." That's it.

Me? I'm pretty much okay punching them in the face, no questions asked, and leaving them on the ground bleeding. But that's me, and how I feel with the idea of actual Nazis being on my side...on June 6th...in the US of A. I am not a conservative or 2021 Republican so I don't have to make those decisions.

<My Dude>, take a moment. Take your step back. Take a look at things from the outsider perspective on things, both as they are and through the lens of history you keep saying you have. And then please reevaluate yourself. From where I see things, you are in the bunkers on that beach aiming your weapons at those landing vehicles, repeating to your brothers in arms how right those Austrian and Italian f***s in charge of their nations were and that it was and is worth killing and worth dying for to grow their ideologies, and standing in staunch opposition to those storming that beach in defense of democracy. You ARE on the side of Nazis now, how can you possibly believe or defend the idea that your would not have been 70 years ago?

Personally, I believe you are better than that, given a more lucid frame of reference then where you actually stand, as it is. But for now, it is what it is. It can't be stated more plainly; it is 2021 and you ARE on the side with the Nazis and you would have been 70 years ago, too.

As I said, there was a response.  Maybe more than one.  I ignored them.  I posted this article (the transcript I used, and sources, are all below)

If you've read through this <article> and the source material, or at least given some of them a brief look, you'll know that the consensus definition of fascism in the sources says it hasn't *actually* existed after 1945, and I am inclined to agree.  At most it has morphed into lesser versions espousing *similar* ideological tendencies.  And that's my point in all of this.  We've taken minuscule baby steps away from blatant racism as a foundation, but the idea that there are some who belong, and some who don't, while defined less clearly than the past, still exists, and that mentality still serves as a primary motivator for specific beliefs and even prejudices.  

That said, <my Dude>, I read all of things you post that the algorithms of this site allow me to see regularly, and I can tell you, that through the scope of that version of neo-fascism outright predicated not on race but on the sense of some belonging, and some not, is reflected in all of your rhetoric CONSTANTLY.  All the time.  And maybe you believe it, or maybe you don't, that's not for me to say.  But the fact remains that, as I said before, you are a vocal supporter on the side that has Nazis.  You are on the side that this article basically breaks down as pro-fascist in its core beliefs.  

I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by saying you're actually NOT of that mindset, but to look at just where you're sitting.  The Germans have a saying that goes something like, "if you see a Nazi sitting at a table, and ten other people sitting with him, you see a table of 11 Nazis."  

And my overall point remains unchanged; recognize the table you are sitting at, right now.  

PS- I didn't bother to read yours, or anyone else's responses.  You're sitting at a metaphoric table with those most ideologically aligned currently with 1930s and 40s fascism, along with modern Nazis, and I am calling it out, that's all.  Any response, it either agrees and like me, are asking you to reevaluate, or they are trying to defend sitting at that table without such a reexamination, which isn't worth my time

Be well. 

____

What Is Fascism?

Since before Donald Trump took office, historians have debated whether he is a fascist (1.).

As a teacher of World War II history (2.) who has written about fascism (3.), I’ve found that historians have a consensus (4.) definition of the term, broadly speaking.

Given the term’s current – and sometimes erroneous – use, I think it’s important to distinguish what fascism is and is not.

+Race-first thinking+ Fascism, now a century old, got its start with Benito Mussolini and his Italian allies. They named their movement after an ancient Roman emblem, the fasces (5.), an ax whose handle has been tightly reinforced with many rods, symbolizing the power of unity around one leader.

Fascism means more than dictatorship, however.

It’s distinct from simple authoritarianism – an anti-democratic government by a strongman or small elite – and “Stalinism” (6.) – authoritarianism with a dominant bureaucracy and economic control, named after the former Soviet leader. The same goes for “anarchism,” (7.) the belief in a society organized without an overarching state.

Above all, fascists view nearly everything through the lens of race (8.). They’re committed not just to race supremacy, but maintaining what they called “racial hygiene,” (9.) meaning the purity of their race and the separation of what they view as lower ones.

That means (10.) they must define who is a member of their nation’s legitimate race. They must invent a “true” race.

Many are familiar with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime’s so-called Aryan race (11.), which had no biological or historical reality. The Nazis had to forge a mythic past and legendary people. Including some in the “true race” means excluding others.

+Capitalism is good+ For fascists, capitalism is good. It appeals to their admiration of “the survival of the fittest,” a phrase coined by social Darwinist Herbert Spencer (11.), so long as companies serve the needs of the fascist leadership and the “Volk,” or people.

In exchange for protecting private property, fascists demand capitalists act as cronies (12.).

If, for example, a company is successfully producing weapons for foreign or domestic wars – good. But if a company is enriching nonloyal people, or making money for the imagined subrace, the fascists will step in and hand it to someone deemed loyal.

If the economy is poor, the fascist will divert attention from shortages to plans for patriotic glory or for vengeance against internal or external enemies.

+Might makes right+ Important to most fascists is the idea that the nation’s “patriots” (13.) have been let down, that “good people” are humiliated while “bad people” do better.

These grievances cannot be answered, fascists say, if things remain under the status quo. There needs to be revolutionary change allowing the “real people” to break free from the restraints of democracy or existing law and get even (14.).

For fascists, might makes right.

Since for them the law should be subservient to the needs of the people and the need to crush socialism or liberalism, fascists encourage party militias. These enforce the fascist will, break unions (15.), distort elections and intimidate or co-opt the police (16.).

The historical fascists of Germany and Mussolini’s Italy (17.) extended the might-makes-right principle to expansion abroad, though the British fascists of the 1930s, led by Oswald Mosley (18.) and his British Union of Fascists, preferred isolationism (19.) and preached a sort of internal war against an imagined Jewish enemy of the state. What fascists reject

First and foremost, fascists want to revolt against socialism (20.). That’s because it threatens the crony capitalism that fascists embrace.

Not only does socialism aim for equal prosperity no matter the race, but many socialists tend to envision the eventual extinction (21.) of separate nations, which offends the strong fascist belief in nation states.

Along with getting rid of aristocrats or other elites, fascists are prepared to displace the church or seek a mutually beneficial truce with it (22.).

Mussolini, Hitler and the Falangists in Spain (23.) learned that they had to live with (24.), not replace, the church in their countries – as long as their regimes weren’t broadly attacked from the pulpit.

Fascists also reject democracy, at least any democracy that could potentially result in socialism or too much liberalism (25.). In a democracy, voters can choose social welfare policies. They can level the playing field between classes and ethnicities, or seek gender equality.

Fascists oppose all of these efforts.

+Fascism grows from nationalism+ Fascism is the logical extreme of nationalism (26.), the roughly 250-year-old idea that nation states should be built around races or historical peoples.

The first fascists didn’t invent these ideas out of nothing – they just pushed nationalism further than anyone had before. For the fascist, it’s not just that a nation state makes “the people” sovereign. It’s that the will of righteous, real people – and its leader – comes before all other considerations, including facts.

Indeed, the will, the people, their leader and the facts are all one in fascism.

1. https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/164170 2. https://history.case.edu/faculty/john-broich/ 3. https://www.abramsbooks.com/product/blood-oil-and-the-axis_9781468314014/ 4. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-history-of-twentiethcentury-political-thought/fascism-and-racism/CFB19146B5E63D20089DF0AAC5CD84D9 5. https://www.britannica.com/topic/fasces 6. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Stalinism 7. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/anarchism/ 8. https://books.google.com/books?id=NLiFIEdI1V4C&q=%22racial+thought+for+political+purposes%22#v=snippet&q=%22racial%20thought%20for%20political%20purposes%22&f=false 9. https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.1093/embo-reports/kve217 10. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/review-of-politics/article/abs/racethinking-before-racism/02AAE753AAD57BAFB03A2F003EF12538 11. https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-5/breeding-new-german-race 12. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/herbert-spencer-survival-of-the-fittest-180974756/ 13. https://www.jstor.org/stable/260578?seq=1 14. https://web.archive.org/web/20130930081524/http:/www.themodernword.com/eco/eco_blackshirt.html 15. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14058/14058-h/14058-h.htm 16. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ss-and-police 17. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/01/mussolinis-racial-policies-in-east-africa-revealed-italian-fascists-ambitions-to-redesign-the-social-order.html 18. https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-49405924 19. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/1932729.pdf 20. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/128540/the-anatomy-of-fascism-by-robert-o-paxton/ 21. https://books.google.com/books?id=tH0jwbnj7BgC&q=%22withering+away+of+the+state%22#v=snippet&q=%22withering%20away%20of%20the%20state%22&f=false 22. https://www.npr.org/2014/01/27/265794658/pope-and-mussolini-tells-the-secret-history-of-fascism-and-the-church 23. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/02/spains-civil-war-produced-a-fascist-movement-that-was-disorganized-but-just-as-authoritarian-as-italys.html 24. https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-german-churches-and-the-nazi-state 25. https://theconversation.com/what-or-who-is-antifa-140147 26. https://www.britannica.com/topic/fascism/Extreme-nationalism

[recentnews18-blog]

New Post has been published on https://shovelnews.com/mo-amer-arab-american-stand-up-on-doing-comedy-in-donald-trumps-america/

Mo Amer: Arab-American stand-up on doing comedy in Donald Trump's America

For a Muslim American stand-up, than can be few better comedic breaks than being upgraded on an international flight and finding yourself sitting next to Donald Trump’s second son. Especially, if it happens while the president-elect is rumoured to be planning to introduce a so-called Muslim travel ban.

Mohammed “Mo” Amer immediately recognised both the unlikeliness, and comic potential of the moment. After asking Eric Trump to pose with him for a selfie, Amer quickly posted the image on social media, with the words: “Good news guys Muslims will not have to check in and get IDs. That’s what I was told. I will be asking him a lot of questions on this trip to Glasgow, Scotland. Sometimes God just sends you the material.” The post very quickly went viral.

Two years on, and with a travel ban against several Muslim-majority nations in place after a bitter legal fight over Executive Order 13780, Amer still scratches his head over his encounter with Trump on that flight from Newark to Glasgow, and the upgrade he jokes must have been arranged by a “Hillary Clinton supporter”. 

It was “a surreal experience”, he tells The Independent, saying that Trump’s son told him not too believe “everything you read”, but who did not flinch as he was quizzed about the threats his father had made on the White House campaign trail to ban Muslims from entering the US.

In many respects, the description of the encounter en route to Scotland to begin a UK tour – painfully awkward, honest and brutally funny – sums up a large part of much of Amer’s approach to comedy, as he reveals the travails and challenges of migrants to America, especially Muslims.

As a stand-up who has spent several years opening for Dave Chappelle, he says he tries not to derive too much of his material from Donald Trump – “he does not deserve that much attention” – who is a constant and rich source for many comedians. Yet, he cannot ignore the greater insecurity felt by by friends and relatives, and the poor international perception of the US, since the president’s election win. “We’re supposed to be the global example.”

The 37-year-old recently recorded a live show at Austin’s Paramount Theatre for a Netflix special, The Vagabond. In it, hopping around the stage and constantly dabbing at his brow, Amer recalls the years spent travelling the world as a comedian with only a “travel document” rather than a passport, entertaining US and coalition troops in Iraq and Kuwait, and trying to explain to Japanese immigration officials his profession. (The only US comedian they had heard of was the disgraced Bill Cosby.)

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After his family of Palestinian origin fled Kuwait after the first Gulf War, and moved to Houston, it took him almost 20 years to get citizenship. That struggle, provides a rich vein of material that is both funny and sad.

One of Amer’s talents is a gift for mimicry and accents – a British customs official, a US soldier from Alabama, the Chinese-American woman who is thrilled when he finally wins citizenship, the Latino Houston gang member who cannot decide whether he is one of them or not. All are voices and personas he deploys, apparently without offending anyone, and which people of different ethnic backgrounds are able to laugh out loud at. 

Speaking Arabic and Spanish, as well as English, helps. So does his conversational, almost confessional style. Somehow, an entire theatre can laugh, as he mimics himself threatening to blow up a plane as he recalls heaving with frustration being forced to go through the same ritual of his travel document not being recognised every time he flew.

“It was just something I did. It was not something I ever practiced,” Amer says of ability to switch from (mock) British, to (mock) German to real Houstonian. “I just did it. And I started doing different ones, and they worked.”

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1/50 19 November 2018

A view of the Fuego volcano eruption at sunrise, seen from El Rodeo, Escuintla, Guatemala. More than 2,000 people were evacuated from several villages due to the strong eruption, located 50 kilometers west of the Guatemalan capital

EPA

2/50 18 November 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron is applauded after speaking before the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) as the German parliament commemorates victims of wars and dictatorships in Berlin. The leaders of France and Germany jointly remember the victims of European wars, presenting also a united front in countering global turmoil stoked by US President Donald Trump

AFP/Getty

3/50 17 November 2018

People wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers’ nationwide protest against higher fuel prices, block the Paris-Brussels motorway in Haulchin, France

Reuters

4/50 16 November 2018

People hold banners of Jamal Khashoggi during a symbolic funeral prayer for the Saudi journalist, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul. Turkey has more evidence contradicting the Saudi version of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi including a second audio recording, revealing that the murder had been premeditated, a Turkish newspaper reported on November 16, a contradiction to the statement of the Saudi prosecutor who said that five Saudi officials faced the death penalty on charges of killing Khashoggi but exonerated the country’s powerful Crown Prince of involvement in the murder

AFP/Getty

5/50 15 November 2018

Alexei Navalny leaves the European Court of Human Rights today. The court has ruled that Russia’s repeated arrests of Navalny were politically motivated

AP

6/50 14 November 2018

A crew member escorts a migrant child out of a plane transporting a group of 51 migrants from Niger, entitled to international protection, after its landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome

AFP/Getty

7/50 13 November 2018

Palestinians gather in front of damaged buildings in Gaza City following Israeli air strikes targeting the area overnight. Israel’s aircraft struck Gaza on November 12, killing three Palestinians and wounding nine after a barrage of rocket fire into its territory from the enclave. The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip, at the weekend, that left Hamas vowing revenge

AFP/Getty

8/50 12 November 2018

Floral tributes outside Melbourne’s Pellegrini’s Cafe for Sisto Malaspina, after he was stabbed to death last Friday in an attack police have called an act of terrorism, in Australia

Reuters

9/50 11 November 2018

Heads of states and world leaders attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18

AP

10/50 10 November 2018

Firefighters push down a wall while battling against a burning apartment complex in Paradise, north of Sacramento, California. A rapidly spreading, late-season wildfire in northern California has burned 20,000 acres of land and prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders for thousands of people. As many as 1000 homes, a hospital, a Safeway store and scores of other structures have burned in the area as the Camp fire tore through the region

AFP/Getty

11/50 9 November 2018

A Fly Jamaica plane en route to Toronto crash lands at an airport in Guyana following a technical problem. At least six passengers were injured

Cheddi Jagan International Airport

12/50 8 November 2018

An FBI agent talks to a potential witness as they stand near the scene Thursday in Thousand Oaks, California. where a gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with hundreds of people on “college night,” wounding 11 people including a deputy who rushed to the scene. Ventura County sheriff’s spokesman says gunman is dead inside the bar.

AP

13/50 7 November 2018

Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar is celebrates with her husband’s mother after she won a congress place during the US midterm elections. In doing do she became the first-joint Muslim woman to be elected into congress alongside Rashida Tlaib

Reuters

14/50 6 November 2018

Voters cast their ballots at the Tuttle Park Recreation Center polling location in Columbus, Ohio. Across the US, voters headed to the polls in one of the most high-profile midterm elections in years

AP

15/50 5 November 2018

Members of the group Your Vote Matters encourage people to vote before an event hosted by US Senator Claire McCaskill as she campaigns for the US Senate in Saint Louis, Missour. McCaskill, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley in the November general election

EPA

16/50 4 November 2018

Police officers and rescuers work at the site of where a truck ploughed into cars at a toll booth in Lanzhou in China’s northwestern Gansu province. The out-of-control truck crashed into a 31-car lineup and killed 15 people, with 44 injured

AFP/Getty

17/50 3 November 2018

Simone Biles on the podium with her gold medal from the floor exercise at the gymnastics world championships. She became the most decorated female gymnast in world’s history, as well as, becoming the first American to win a medal in every event at the competition

AFP/Getty

18/50 2 November 2018

A Salvadorean migrant with a girl walks next to Guatemalan policemen as they approach the Guatemala-Mexico international border bridge in Ciudad Tecun Uman. Accoring to the Salvadorean General Migration Directorate, over 1,700 Salvadoreans left the country in two caravans and entered Guatemala Wednesday, in an attempt to reach the US

AFP/Getty

19/50 1 November 2018

Google employees hold signs outside 14th street park after walking out as part of a global protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant

Reuters

20/50 31 October 2018

The “Statue of Unity” portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the founding fathers of India, during its inauguration in Kevadia, in the western state of Gujarat, India

Reuters

21/50 30 October 2018

A scavenger collects recyclable materials along the breakwater amid strong waves as weather patterns from Typhoon Yutu affect Manila Bay. Fierce winds sheared off roofs and snapped trees in half, after thousands were evacuated ahead of the powerful storm’s arrival

AFP/Getty

22/50 29 October 2018

Rescue team members collecting the remains of the crashed plane at Tanjung Priok Harbour, Indonesia. A Lion Air flight JT-610 lost contact with air traffic controllers soon after takeoff then crashed into the sea. The flight was en route to Pangkal Pinang, and reportedly had 189 people onboard

EPA

23/50 28 October 2018

A supporter of Workers’ Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad embraces a fellow weeping supporter, after learning that rival Jair Bolsonaro was declared the winner in the Brazil presidential runoff election. Addressing supporters in Sao Paulo, Haddad did not concede or even mention Bolsonaro by name. Instead, his speech was a promise to resist

AP

24/50 27 October 2018

First responders surround the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a shooter opened fire, wounding three police officers and killing eleven

AP

25/50 26 October 2018

Broward County Sheriff’s office have released a photo of Cesar Sayoc, the suspect who was arrested in connection with the pipe bombs that have been sent to several high profile Democrats and critics of President Trump over the course of this week

AP

26/50 25 October 2018

East Island in Hawaii has been swallowed by the sea following Hurricane Walaka

US Fish and Wildlife Service

27/50 24 October 2018

Police officers stand outside the home of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a “functional explosive device” was attemptedly delivered to the couple

AP

28/50 23 October 2018

Turkey’s President Erdogan today accused Saudi Arabia of plotting the ‘savage’ murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

AP

29/50 22 October 2018

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) delivers a national apology to child sex abuse victims in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra on October 22, 2018. – Morrison on October 22 issued an emotive apology to children who suffered sexual abuse, saying the state had failed to protect them from “evil dark” crimes committed over decades

AFP/Getty

30/50 21 October 2018

A derailed train in Yian, eastern Taiwan. At least 17 people died after the derailment

CNA/AFP/Getty

31/50 20 October 2018

US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One after a “Make America Great” rally in Mesa, Arizona on October 19, 2018. – US President Donald Trump said Friday, October 19, 2018, that he found credible Saudi Arabia’s assertion that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died as a result of a fight

AFP/Getty

32/50 19 October 2018

A Palestinian youth runs past a rolling burning tire during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration after the weekly Friday prayers, in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron

AFP/Getty

33/50 18 October 2018

Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the United States, leave Guatemala City. US President Donald Trump threatened to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the “onslaught” of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed Democrats ahead of the midterm elections

AFP/Getty

34/50 17 October 2018

Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike around the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Israel launched raids against targets in the Gaza strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory that caused damage in a southern city, the Israeli army said

AFP/Getty

35/50 16 October 2018

Ecuador has issued a list of rules to Julian Assange, the famous resident of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The list included cleaning the bathroom, not commenting on foreign political affairs online and taking better care of his cat (pictured). The document states that failure to comply with these rules “could lead to the termination of the diplomatic asylum granted by the Ecuadorian state”

Reuters

36/50 15 October 2018

Israeli soldiers hurl tear gas grenades during clashes following Israeli order to shut down the al-Lubban/al-Sawiyeh school near the west bank city of Nablus, 15 October 2018. According to local sources, 20 Palestinians were wounded during clashes as dozens try to defiance the Israeli order to shut down the school

EPA

37/50 14 October 2018

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after winning his men’s final singles match against Croatia’s Borna Coric at the Shanghai Masters. Djokovic, who has now won four titles this season, will move up one ranking spot to No. 2, pushing Roger Federer back to No. 3

AFP/Getty

38/50 13 October 2018

Demonstrators raising red painted hands and a placard reading “we must change the system not the climate” referring to the need to stop climate change during a march in Bordeaux, southwestern France

AFP/Getty

39/50 12 October 2018

Spanish Unionist demonstrators carry Spanish flags during a demonstration on Spain’s National Day in Barcelona

Reuters

40/50 11 October 2018

Russia has halted all crewed space flights following the failed launch of the Soyuz MS-10 rocket (pictured). Investigations in to the rocket’s malfunction are ongoing

Reuters

41/50

People look on at a damaged store after Hurricane Michael passed through Panama City, Florida. A Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, was the most powerful storm ever to hit the Florida Panhandle

Getty

42/50 9 October 2018

The Darul Muttaqien Mosque was the heart of the community for many in Palu. A lot of the victims were inside their homes or at the mosque when the quake struck. Magareb prayer for many, was their last. Paddy Dowling travelled with UK based charity Muslim Aid to the disaster areas of North Sulawesi to witness the scale of Indonesia’s earthquake & tsunami. They are the only British NGO delivering aid out in Palu through local partners

Paddy Dowling

43/50 8 October 2018

People take part in a candle-light vigil in memory of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova in Ruse

Reuters

44/50 7 October 2018

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party, celebrate in front of his house during the general elections in Rio. The far-right congressman, who waxes nostalgically about the dictatorship, won the vote but not an outright victory. The second-round-run-off will be between Bolsoanro and the leftist Workers’ party Fernando Haddad

AP

45/50 6 October 2018

Demonstrators hold a banner that reads “freedom of the press, not allowed to be trampled” and “shame on the governments vindictive move” past a symbolic ‘political red line’ during a protest after Hong Kong immigration authorities declined a visa renewal for senior Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet, outside the immigration department building in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s decision to effectively blacklist a senior Financial Times journalist required an “urgent explanation”, the UK said

AFP/Getty

46/50 5 October 2018

Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad announced as the winners of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. The pair were awarded the honour “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

AFP/Getty/Reuters

47/50 4 October 2018

Dutch security services expel Russian spies over plot targeting chemical weapons watchdog. This picture shows the four GRU officers who entered the Netherlands at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on April 10, travelling on official Russian passports. On April 13 they parked a car carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague. At that point the Dutch counter-terrorism officers intervened to disrupt the operation and the four GRU officers were ordered to leave the country

PA

48/50 3 October 2018

Quake survivors make their way past a washed out passenger ferry in Wani, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi, after an earthquake and tsunami hit the area on September 28. Nearly 1,400 people are now known to have died as UN officials warned the “needs remain vast” for both desperate survivors and rescue teams still searching for victims

AFP/Getty

49/50 2 October 2018

US first lady Melania Trump holds a baby during a visit to a hospital in Accra, Ghana. The first lady is visiting Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour

Reuters

50/50 1 October 2018

Indian school children dressed like Mahatma Gandhi perform yoga during a event at a school in Chennai ahead of his birth anniversary. Indians all over the country celebrate Gandhi’s birthday on October 2

AFP/Getty

1/50 19 November 2018

A view of the Fuego volcano eruption at sunrise, seen from El Rodeo, Escuintla, Guatemala. More than 2,000 people were evacuated from several villages due to the strong eruption, located 50 kilometers west of the Guatemalan capital

EPA

2/50 18 November 2018

French President Emmanuel Macron is applauded after speaking before the Bundestag (lower house of parliament) as the German parliament commemorates victims of wars and dictatorships in Berlin. The leaders of France and Germany jointly remember the victims of European wars, presenting also a united front in countering global turmoil stoked by US President Donald Trump

AFP/Getty

3/50 17 November 2018

People wearing yellow vests, a symbol of a French drivers’ nationwide protest against higher fuel prices, block the Paris-Brussels motorway in Haulchin, France

Reuters

4/50 16 November 2018

People hold banners of Jamal Khashoggi during a symbolic funeral prayer for the Saudi journalist, killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October, at the courtyard of Fatih mosque in Istanbul. Turkey has more evidence contradicting the Saudi version of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi including a second audio recording, revealing that the murder had been premeditated, a Turkish newspaper reported on November 16, a contradiction to the statement of the Saudi prosecutor who said that five Saudi officials faced the death penalty on charges of killing Khashoggi but exonerated the country’s powerful Crown Prince of involvement in the murder

AFP/Getty

5/50 15 November 2018

Alexei Navalny leaves the European Court of Human Rights today. The court has ruled that Russia’s repeated arrests of Navalny were politically motivated

AP

6/50 14 November 2018

A crew member escorts a migrant child out of a plane transporting a group of 51 migrants from Niger, entitled to international protection, after its landing at the Mario De Bernardi military airport in Pratica di Mare, south of Rome

AFP/Getty

7/50 13 November 2018

Palestinians gather in front of damaged buildings in Gaza City following Israeli air strikes targeting the area overnight. Israel’s aircraft struck Gaza on November 12, killing three Palestinians and wounding nine after a barrage of rocket fire into its territory from the enclave. The flare-up came after a deadly Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip, at the weekend, that left Hamas vowing revenge

AFP/Getty

8/50 12 November 2018

Floral tributes outside Melbourne’s Pellegrini’s Cafe for Sisto Malaspina, after he was stabbed to death last Friday in an attack police have called an act of terrorism, in Australia

Reuters

9/50 11 November 2018

Heads of states and world leaders attend ceremonies at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Over 60 heads of state and government were taking part in a solemn ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the mute and powerful symbol of sacrifice to the millions who died from 1914-18

AP

10/50 10 November 2018

Firefighters push down a wall while battling against a burning apartment complex in Paradise, north of Sacramento, California. A rapidly spreading, late-season wildfire in northern California has burned 20,000 acres of land and prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders for thousands of people. As many as 1000 homes, a hospital, a Safeway store and scores of other structures have burned in the area as the Camp fire tore through the region

AFP/Getty

11/50 9 November 2018

A Fly Jamaica plane en route to Toronto crash lands at an airport in Guyana following a technical problem. At least six passengers were injured

Cheddi Jagan International Airport

12/50 8 November 2018

An FBI agent talks to a potential witness as they stand near the scene Thursday in Thousand Oaks, California. where a gunman opened fire Wednesday inside a country dance bar crowded with hundreds of people on “college night,” wounding 11 people including a deputy who rushed to the scene. Ventura County sheriff’s spokesman says gunman is dead inside the bar.

AP

13/50 7 November 2018

Democratic congressional candidate Ilhan Omar is celebrates with her husband’s mother after she won a congress place during the US midterm elections. In doing do she became the first-joint Muslim woman to be elected into congress alongside Rashida Tlaib

Reuters

14/50 6 November 2018

Voters cast their ballots at the Tuttle Park Recreation Center polling location in Columbus, Ohio. Across the US, voters headed to the polls in one of the most high-profile midterm elections in years

AP

15/50 5 November 2018

Members of the group Your Vote Matters encourage people to vote before an event hosted by US Senator Claire McCaskill as she campaigns for the US Senate in Saint Louis, Missour. McCaskill, a Democrat, faces a challenge from Republican Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley in the November general election

EPA

16/50 4 November 2018

Police officers and rescuers work at the site of where a truck ploughed into cars at a toll booth in Lanzhou in China’s northwestern Gansu province. The out-of-control truck crashed into a 31-car lineup and killed 15 people, with 44 injured

AFP/Getty

17/50 3 November 2018

Simone Biles on the podium with her gold medal from the floor exercise at the gymnastics world championships. She became the most decorated female gymnast in world’s history, as well as, becoming the first American to win a medal in every event at the competition

AFP/Getty

18/50 2 November 2018

A Salvadorean migrant with a girl walks next to Guatemalan policemen as they approach the Guatemala-Mexico international border bridge in Ciudad Tecun Uman. Accoring to the Salvadorean General Migration Directorate, over 1,700 Salvadoreans left the country in two caravans and entered Guatemala Wednesday, in an attempt to reach the US

AFP/Getty

19/50 1 November 2018

Google employees hold signs outside 14th street park after walking out as part of a global protest over claims of sexual harassment, gender inequality and systemic racism at the tech giant

Reuters

20/50 31 October 2018

The “Statue of Unity” portraying Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, one of the founding fathers of India, during its inauguration in Kevadia, in the western state of Gujarat, India

Reuters

21/50 30 October 2018

A scavenger collects recyclable materials along the breakwater amid strong waves as weather patterns from Typhoon Yutu affect Manila Bay. Fierce winds sheared off roofs and snapped trees in half, after thousands were evacuated ahead of the powerful storm’s arrival

AFP/Getty

22/50 29 October 2018

Rescue team members collecting the remains of the crashed plane at Tanjung Priok Harbour, Indonesia. A Lion Air flight JT-610 lost contact with air traffic controllers soon after takeoff then crashed into the sea. The flight was en route to Pangkal Pinang, and reportedly had 189 people onboard

EPA

23/50 28 October 2018

A supporter of Workers’ Party presidential candidate Fernando Haddad embraces a fellow weeping supporter, after learning that rival Jair Bolsonaro was declared the winner in the Brazil presidential runoff election. Addressing supporters in Sao Paulo, Haddad did not concede or even mention Bolsonaro by name. Instead, his speech was a promise to resist

AP

24/50 27 October 2018

First responders surround the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, where a shooter opened fire, wounding three police officers and killing eleven

AP

25/50 26 October 2018

Broward County Sheriff’s office have released a photo of Cesar Sayoc, the suspect who was arrested in connection with the pipe bombs that have been sent to several high profile Democrats and critics of President Trump over the course of this week

AP

26/50 25 October 2018

East Island in Hawaii has been swallowed by the sea following Hurricane Walaka

US Fish and Wildlife Service

27/50 24 October 2018

Police officers stand outside the home of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after a “functional explosive device” was attemptedly delivered to the couple

AP

28/50 23 October 2018

Turkey’s President Erdogan today accused Saudi Arabia of plotting the ‘savage’ murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

AP

29/50 22 October 2018

Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison (C) delivers a national apology to child sex abuse victims in the House of Representatives in Parliament House in Canberra on October 22, 2018. – Morrison on October 22 issued an emotive apology to children who suffered sexual abuse, saying the state had failed to protect them from “evil dark” crimes committed over decades

AFP/Getty

30/50 21 October 2018

A derailed train in Yian, eastern Taiwan. At least 17 people died after the derailment

CNA/AFP/Getty

31/50 20 October 2018

US President Donald Trump waves as he boards Marine One after a “Make America Great” rally in Mesa, Arizona on October 19, 2018. – US President Donald Trump said Friday, October 19, 2018, that he found credible Saudi Arabia’s assertion that dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi died as a result of a fight

AFP/Getty

32/50 19 October 2018

A Palestinian youth runs past a rolling burning tire during clashes with Israeli forces following a demonstration after the weekly Friday prayers, in the centre of the occupied West Bank city of Hebron

AFP/Getty

33/50 18 October 2018

Honduran migrants heading in a caravan to the United States, leave Guatemala City. US President Donald Trump threatened to send the military to close its southern border if Mexico fails to stem the “onslaught” of migrants from Central America, in a series of tweets that blamed Democrats ahead of the midterm elections

AFP/Getty

34/50 17 October 2018

Smoke billows following an Israeli air strike around the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah. Israel launched raids against targets in the Gaza strip in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory that caused damage in a southern city, the Israeli army said

AFP/Getty

35/50 16 October 2018

Ecuador has issued a list of rules to Julian Assange, the famous resident of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. The list included cleaning the bathroom, not commenting on foreign political affairs online and taking better care of his cat (pictured). The document states that failure to comply with these rules “could lead to the termination of the diplomatic asylum granted by the Ecuadorian state”

Reuters

36/50 15 October 2018

Israeli soldiers hurl tear gas grenades during clashes following Israeli order to shut down the al-Lubban/al-Sawiyeh school near the west bank city of Nablus, 15 October 2018. According to local sources, 20 Palestinians were wounded during clashes as dozens try to defiance the Israeli order to shut down the school

EPA

37/50 14 October 2018

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic kisses the trophy after winning his men’s final singles match against Croatia’s Borna Coric at the Shanghai Masters. Djokovic, who has now won four titles this season, will move up one ranking spot to No. 2, pushing Roger Federer back to No. 3

AFP/Getty

38/50 13 October 2018

Demonstrators raising red painted hands and a placard reading “we must change the system not the climate” referring to the need to stop climate change during a march in Bordeaux, southwestern France

AFP/Getty

39/50 12 October 2018

Spanish Unionist demonstrators carry Spanish flags during a demonstration on Spain’s National Day in Barcelona

Reuters

40/50 11 October 2018

Russia has halted all crewed space flights following the failed launch of the Soyuz MS-10 rocket (pictured). Investigations in to the rocket’s malfunction are ongoing

Reuters

41/50

People look on at a damaged store after Hurricane Michael passed through Panama City, Florida. A Category 4 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, was the most powerful storm ever to hit the Florida Panhandle

Getty

42/50 9 October 2018

The Darul Muttaqien Mosque was the heart of the community for many in Palu. A lot of the victims were inside their homes or at the mosque when the quake struck. Magareb prayer for many, was their last. Paddy Dowling travelled with UK based charity Muslim Aid to the disaster areas of North Sulawesi to witness the scale of Indonesia’s earthquake & tsunami. They are the only British NGO delivering aid out in Palu through local partners

Paddy Dowling

43/50 8 October 2018

People take part in a candle-light vigil in memory of Bulgarian TV journalist Viktoria Marinova in Ruse

Reuters

44/50 7 October 2018

Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, presidential candidate with the Social Liberal Party, celebrate in front of his house during the general elections in Rio. The far-right congressman, who waxes nostalgically about the dictatorship, won the vote but not an outright victory. The second-round-run-off will be between Bolsoanro and the leftist Workers’ party Fernando Haddad

AP

45/50 6 October 2018

Demonstrators hold a banner that reads “freedom of the press, not allowed to be trampled” and “shame on the governments vindictive move” past a symbolic ‘political red line’ during a protest after Hong Kong immigration authorities declined a visa renewal for senior Financial Times journalist Victor Mallet, outside the immigration department building in Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s decision to effectively blacklist a senior Financial Times journalist required an “urgent explanation”, the UK said

AFP/Getty

46/50 5 October 2018

Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege and Yazidi campaigner Nadia Murad announced as the winners of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize. The pair were awarded the honour “for their efforts to end the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war and armed conflict.”

AFP/Getty/Reuters

47/50 4 October 2018

Dutch security services expel Russian spies over plot targeting chemical weapons watchdog. This picture shows the four GRU officers who entered the Netherlands at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport on April 10, travelling on official Russian passports. On April 13 they parked a car carrying specialist hacking equipment outside the headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague. At that point the Dutch counter-terrorism officers intervened to disrupt the operation and the four GRU officers were ordered to leave the country

PA

48/50 3 October 2018

Quake survivors make their way past a washed out passenger ferry in Wani, Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi, after an earthquake and tsunami hit the area on September 28. Nearly 1,400 people are now known to have died as UN officials warned the “needs remain vast” for both desperate survivors and rescue teams still searching for victims

AFP/Getty

49/50 2 October 2018

US first lady Melania Trump holds a baby during a visit to a hospital in Accra, Ghana. The first lady is visiting Africa on her first big solo international trip, aiming to make child well-being the focus of a five-day, four-country tour

Reuters

50/50 1 October 2018

Indian school children dressed like Mahatma Gandhi perform yoga during a event at a school in Chennai ahead of his birth anniversary. Indians all over the country celebrate Gandhi’s birthday on October 2

AFP/Getty

Amer says the shows require rigorous preparation, something he learned from his friend, Chappelle. This was especially true for the hour-long, curse-filled live show, filmed in Houston, with his mother seated in the front row and for which The Roots provided original music.

“It’s hard work. But as long as you have them engaged….I know I’m funny,” he says. The worst fear for a comedian, the one thing every one dreads, he says, is a silent audience. 

For all the cultural differences between the many audiences he has performed for around the world, Amer says he believes comedians can be – or even should be – global even in their appeal. 

“I’ve never had any issues with this,” he says. “My mentor in Houston said to me to be universal. At that point, it was in the US. And you had to be a funny in west Texas as you are in New York City.

“That rang true globally for me. The only thing is that in some [places] Jo-Burg was one, they don’t get the set-up.”

Read more

Amer, who is set to begin work with comedian Ramy Youssef on a series that explores the life of a first-generation American Muslim in New Jersey, believes stand-up comedy is enjoying “a golden age”.

He likens improv comedy to jazz, or even hip hop, an art form that has only been around 25 years so. And like self-starting musicians, he says comedians are also seizing the opportunities presented to them by the surging interest in platform such as YouTube.

“YouTube has helped people become very funny,” he says. “And there are no commercials.”

Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/comedy/news/mo-mohammed-amer-netflix-the-vagabond-netfix-muslim-comedian-stand-up-trump-eric-trump-upgrade-a8642031.html

[delwray-blog]

YOU’VE BEEN LIED TO

AMERICA YOU’VE BEEN LIED TO Written here is a critical re-examination of presumed historical facts and existing historiography. America you’ve been lied too, history has been a lie and has become the engine of man’s demise. Corrupt beliefs have become the truth. “Mainstream History is Entirely False” What we’re up against is bigger than any country. In fact, it’s bigger than all the countries in the world. The ruthless powers that be have decided that only they can declare what is true and that it is against the law to disagree with them. The human mind is being locked up for the final time. Amazon, Google, and Facebook are all Jewish entities, and all prohibit objective discussion about the lies told about the World Wars. Utterances that describe the events of World War II that are not approved by the Jews are now called “hate crimes”. Jews most definitely cannot prove what they say about WWII — but we can. Six million! Baloney! 296,081 is Germar Rudolf’s 2003 count, following the International Red Cross count in October 1980 of 273,905. How many billions of dollars have the Jews stolen from the world with this falsehood they have inflicted on everyone with their incessant and fallacious media propaganda? Think about the 66 million, mostly Christians, that the Bolshevist Jews murdered in Russia from 1917-1957. Jews can’t prove there were gas chambers at Auschwitz or anywhere else. The thousands of hysterical Jewish testimonies about concentration camp horrors remain totally refuted by the International Red Cross visits during the war which found German treatment of prisoners far superior to the way Americans treated the Japanese prisoners they interned during WW II. Think about why Ursula Haverbeck, age 89, would risk prison to tell the real story of WW II, in which three Jewish controlled countries, Britain, the USSR, and the USA conspired to eliminate the last viable challenger to Jewish financial control of the world, which was the German economic miracle devised and deployed by Adolf Hitler. Would Mrs. Haverbeck do this because she was insane, or because she was telling the truth? It is even more puzzling, why would the German government insist on jailing an old woman who questioned a simple detail of history unless they were trying to cover up a gigantic lie? For those with eyes to see, the answer is clear. Think too about Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi, both of whom treated their citizens much more kindly than the Jewish-run countries of the West. They followed Hitler’s example of treating their own people well. And they were murdered by the Jewish Deep State using their favorite weapon, the American war machine. Most Americans simply have not realized that all contemporary media, movies, music, TV, even books are controlled by Jews. Those outlets not owned by Jews are statistically insignificant and generally ignored. But now, the Jewish onslaught of trying to erase independent thought from the world has intensified. A whole category of history has been expunged by the Jews from all the electronic media they own, which is practically everything. And honest people are being lined up for incarceration and silence so the Jews may more easily make their fabricated history become the de facto history of the world. Imprisoned by lies Everyone in the world is now prevented by financial blackmail from even contemplating the truth. Jews control all your money, no matter how many non-Jewish intermediaries exist between you and them. Even as you read this, the vise grips clamped around your head begin to tighten. Play ball and you have nothing to worry about. Blow the whistle on these child-eating maniacs and you’re going down hard. They’ll kill your children. A Congressman whose questions were a little too sharp just resigned because of that threat. Remember what happened to Paul Wellstone. Revisionists tend to be idealists. They observe objectively. What they write tends to be clear. They don’t make things up unlike the purveyors of the lies they seek to revise. I’m like everybody else. I believed the propaganda I heard most of my life (or at least since the late 1960s). Took me to middle age to be jarred into realizing I believed in some obvious lies. What if telling the truth will cost you your job? What if your wife and family call you a beast and throw you out of the house for harboring such horrendous ideas? Jews own your soul because they own your money and also have the ability to take it all away from you at any time. They want you to be afraid, to tell the truth. As a replacement, they want you to believe their truth, which is invariably at variance with what actually happened. Both World Wars, 9/11, the fouling of the sky with chemtrails, the poisoning of humanity with Glyphosate, and the capture of the world’s media, these are all Jew poisons you ingest daily. God help you if you start telling people that Adolf Hitler was actually the good guy. It won’t matter to them that it happens to be the truth, because they’re so scared of what will happen to them should they choose to stop living their lie. Mainstream history is entirely false In case you don’t know by now, the Jewish truth is an oxymoron. There is no such thing existing in the world. The Jews’ holiest books command Jews to lie to non-Jews in all situations. Now they’ve swindled the money of every country in the world, which all dance to the puppet’s tune while their leaders steal most of the money. The penetration of Jewish lies in the world mind is nearly complete. Most of what people have been tricked into believing is false. Regarding the empirical facts of World War II, we can prove what we say and they can’t. They can only cast aspersions, trap you in blackmail, or if all else fails, hire some hungry poor person with sociopathic tendencies to murder you. If your offense is somewhat less bothersome, they use the courts, the law, the legal profession, the cops, and the TV stations which will tell everyone what a bad person you are because you disagree with the Jews. In the European Union courts, when it comes to Holocaust disputation, they say the truth is no defense. They put you in jail merely for attempting to tell the truth. How silly is that? Pick an adjective. Insane would be a good one. Jewish scripture urges Jews “to kill the best Gentiles”, which they do, constantly. A game we can’t win The measure of Jewish control of Britain was amply demonstrated by the arrest and continuing harassment of singer Alison Chabloz. This self-appointed Jew organization had to browbeat the government four times before charges were finally pressed. She could have lampooned any other ethnic group and no one would have lifted an eyebrow. And then they staged this phony arrest of Tommy Robinson supposedly protesting the Muslim rape epidemic to make sure Alison got no media coverage. (By the way, why have British authorities allowed the Muslim rape epidemic to continue for more than ten years?) We’re playing a Jewish game with the media, and it’s a game we can’t win. Jez Turner was put in jail for worse. He described Jewish control of British history perfectly and got slammed into jail during a particularly fruitful roundup of Revisionist activists. Now the Schaefer’s are in jail and Arthur Topham, who had been devoutly monitoring the daily status of the recently arrested, remains silent. And this is what these anti-Semitism laws are all about: to prevent discussion of Jewish crimes. Jewish soldiers kill Palestinians for fun. Jewish food producers poison Americans by the millions. Jewish drug manufacturers have addicted the whole world to their poison pills. All Jews are sociopaths because they follow the insane commands of the Talmud. Jews are not allowed to report crimes by their fellow Jews. How can they be good citizens anywhere? They have turned America into a sociopathic country, using the promotion of blacks to retard the culture of whites. People are being lied to. The U.S. is the chief force for evil in the world, mostly because they are doing the bidding of rich Jews who control the world’s money supply. Besides Israel and the Jews in the City of London, I defy you to tell me another power in the world that can make the U.S. military go anywhere in the world and murder those they are ordered to eliminate. Mindless obedience to murderous policies Tell the truth and go to jail! It’s the new party toast. Everything has been reversed. Leave those child molesters alone; they’re the ones in charge of the world. How in the world is anyone supposed to deal with a legal system that declares the truth is no defense. What would Thomas Jefferson say about that? Everything has been reversed. The good people are being put in jail. The bad people are making the laws. So that the freedom of speech and thought once guaranteed to all Americans are no longer in effect. Today, we can no longer criticize Jews for their manic criminality that negatively affects everybody on Earth. We will be arrested if we do. But if we don’t the future promises only mindless obedience to murderous policies from which we may never be able to protect ourselves. Refuse to Believe the Lies the Jewish-Programmed Media “Monsters” want you to believe! It is no more anti-Semitic to expose Jewish Zionist gangsters than it is anti-Italian to expose the Mafia. The Sicilian Mafia and the Jewish Zionist Cabal is basically the same sort of organizations built on tribal loyalty, tribal cronyism, murderous ruthlessness, and secrecy to advance their criminal designs. The true criminals have to be exposed to the majority... Are you afraid to tell the truth? You ought to be: Offend the Jews and your future is in jeopardy. How ironic that the group known as the world’s greatest liars now control the entire world’s media? Recognizing ‘something above your own nature’ helps detoxify the lies you’ve been told. No doubt if you have studied history beyond the mainstream abortion of it, you have had occasion to tell certain people something they simply refuse to believe, because it goes against what they’ve learned in their lifetimes through schools, newspapers, and TV — which mostly echo the lies of scheming politicians and their pathological theoreticians who conveniently shape history to fatten their own financial portfolios. Utterly deceived by the political lies our government tells us every day, we actually have no idea about our own actual history nor, in this useless overproduction of knowledge we are required to master that actually prevents us from thinking at all, do we have any idea what our government is doing at this present moment. We don’t find out later, either, because no matter who is in charge, they lie about everything they say, and insist it’s in the best interests of the people. Is this a species that can be trusted, or relied upon to do the right thing? The evidence says otherwise. Think about it. What is happening in the world is usually 180 degrees out from what our government SAYS is happening. Example, we are bombing Syria because we are fighting ISIS; yet, we are funding ISIS through third-party stooges Qatar, Bahrain, and the evil Saudis. We invented al-Qaida to answer the question of who knocked down the World Trade Center towers, and just today the government was telling us we had to look at al-Qaida, now tens of thousands strong and positioned all over the world, as a positive force in America’s war on Syria. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/09/12/17-years-after-911-us-backs-al-qaeda-in-syria.html And of course the entire sordid drama is overseen by the Israeli puppet masters, who are immune to all logic and laws with their financial stranglehold on most of the politicians in the world. Law enforcement in the United States is a complete joke when the highest officials in the land commit crimes openly and a lapdog press corps constantly looks the other way while feeble police kill innocent bystanders for no reason but their own incompetence and even if they are charged is seldom convicted. Yet still, Americans have yet to understand that what psychopathological criminals do to their enemies they will do to their friends, and this is what everyone is experiencing right now as our society prepares for its final shakedown. The abuse of innocence Which are you? You’re cynical and razor-sharp self or a bruised ego on a mission to nowhere? In any case, you’re likely to trust your own poorly informed ego; you’re not likely to admit your comprehension of history is totally erroneous. Ancient Greece’s great leader, Pericles, spoke of this in his famous Funeral Oration. . . . It is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve. On the other, a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity. Praise of other people is tolerable only up to a certain point, the point where one still believes that one could do oneself some of the things one is hearing about. Once beyond that point, people become jealous disbelievers. But perhaps Pericles’ best remembered piece of advice is this. One’s sense of honor is the only thing that does not grow old, and the last pleasure when one is worn out with age, is not, as the poet said, making money, but having the respect of the people who have known you best. For it is only the love of honor that never grows old; and honor it is, not gain, as some would have it that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness. Though deemed out of fashion in a Wall Street world, this lost honor is what keeps humanity distracted from their own lives by the chains of chaos. Society has been overtaken by its own promiscuity One of the ironies of the creative process is that it partly cripples itself in order to function. I mean that, usually, in order to turn out a piece of work, the author has to exaggerate the emphasis of it, to oppose it in a forcefully competitive way to other versions of the truth; and he gets carried away by his own exaggeration, as his distinctive image is built on it . . . . The problem is to find the truth underneath the exaggeration, to cut away the excess elaboration or distortion and include that truth where it fits. Ernest Becker, the Denial of Death, 1974 The false cry of SIX MILLION DEAD Echoes across time like a nightmare from the mind of a madman. You’ve no doubt seen the story of the history detailing the use of this freighted phrase since the late 19th century, six million Jews in jeopardy of starving by one evil government or another, forever 6 million! Jewish newspapers kept running these stories right up until they could pin it all on Hitler in a triumphant public relations strategy. Becker, a Jewish cultural anthropologist, described the danger of exaggeration correctly. He also inadvertently described the situation of so-called Jewish persecution by the Germans, which was triggered by a Jewish declaration of war against the Germans nine years before World War II ever started. The Red Cross death toll from German camps researched in 1980 came to around 270,000. How much of a Jewish exaggeration is 6 million? And where do the 12 million Germans who were murdered by the ‘allies’ after the war ended fit into your calculations? Also, the blood libel of the Jews wanting to suck the blood of gentile children was falsely blamed on the Germans, who actually were scrupulous in their conduct of prisoners. Because of kosher public relations excellence, virtually the entire world believes the Jewish lies about Hitler, who in fact was the world’s most beloved leader of the 20th century. Name a U.S. president who was so beloved, if you care to try. This habit of overwrought exaggerations is also constantly present in all American rhetoric about Russia, which has been ingrained into our minds as an evil menace as surely as Hitler was demonized, but only by Jewish media and not as a rule by ordinary people around the world, especially now after the heroic Russians saved Syria from American and Israeli perfidy. I’m saying public political palaver today is lost in its own exaggerations which obscure the actual content of what is being said. After all the sensational charges, the fact remains America has propped up Russia throughout the 20th century so that the moneymaking tension keeping us on the verge of constant war kept on generating maximum profits for the Rothschild’s and their weapons manufacturers. This process applies to the two greatest tragedies in recent times — World War II and 9/11 — in which total lies are accepted as fact by a majority of people in the world. Far removed from the time it happened, people are today being slammed into jail for challenging propagandistic lies now called “The Holocaust” that justify the crimes of the Deep State maniacs who seek to turn the world into a giant prison. And the obvious hoax of steel skyscrapers being destroyed by fire is by now seen by all those who care to contemplate the absurdity of the government’s 9/11 hype and the blanket immunity given to Israelis caught by the cops on their way to blow up the George Washington Bridge as classic smokescreens in the fog of war. How can a population be deemed sane when its own government (the USA) has its main enemy (Russia) surrounded by military bases, and yet, Americans are told Russia remains the greatest threat? There are no Russian military bases surrounding the U.S. You know, of course, that back in the days of the czars, Russia was America’s best friend, but that was before the obvious emergence of Jewish power in America. By the time the 19th century turned into the 20th, Rothschild henchman Jacob Schiff had engineered the Japanese defeat of Russia in 1905, not only betraying a reliable old friend but setting up a new patsy for future wars. The cause of the blindness How can it be we’ve been unable to see the scam that continues to be played on us, always it’s the rich get richer and the poor disappear to the impartial ruthlessness of poverty? It hasn’t been by accident. Its one thing to talk about nationhood but quite another to talk about what is best for the human species. From that tangent develops every revolution and every invention known to humanity, as the struggle for personal gain collides with simple facts that keep us alive, such as air to breathe and water to drink. Is it best for our children to hear of our role inflicting cholera on a large part of the population of Yemen for the purpose of securing shipping lanes and oil fields? This is who we are as Americans. But is it who we are as humans? The human tendency is to revel in the misfortunes of others, and there are plenty of sources around to provide them for us. In fact, all commerce is based on strife, the amelioration of desires, which is why, I guess, the cleverest among us have seized upon constant wars as the best moneymaking opportunity out there. It is your choice to let this strategy be the epitaph of an extinct human species. The current political climate might as well be a script for some mindless TV sitcom where the truth is nowhere to be found, only the propaganda programming of perverts trying to turn people into robots, a venomous project which has largely succeeded. The Jews founded all three TV networks and they called it diversity. None of this will be important when we are dead. But the point is to avoid this eventuality for as long as possible, and the first step is doing this is to perceive the world as it really is as best we can, and refuse to accept the hollow lies the Jewish-programmed media monsters command us to believe. John Kaminski is a writer who lives on the Gulf Coast of Florida, constantly trying to figure out why we are destroying ourselves, and pinpointing a corrupt belief system as the engine of our demise.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Western culture is clearly obsessed with rules, guilt, submissiveness and punishment. By now it is clear that the West is the least free society on Earth. In North America and Europe, almost everyone is under constant scrutiny: people are spied on, observed, their personal information is being continually extracted, and the surveillance cameras are used indiscriminately. Life is synchronized and managed. There are hardly any surprises. One can sleep with whomever he or she wishes (as long as it is done within the ‘allowed protocol’). Homosexuality and bisexuality are allowed. But that is about all; that is how far ‘freedom’ usually stretches. Rebellion is not only discouraged, it is fought against, brutally. For the tiniest misdemeanors or errors, people end up behind bars. As a result, the U.S. has more prisoners per capita than any other country on Earth, except the Seychelles. And as a further result, almost all conversations, but especially public discourses, are now being controlled by so-called ‘political correctness’ and its variants. But back to the culture of fear and punishment. Look at the headlines of the Western newspapers. For example, The New York Times from April 12. 2018: “Punishment of Syria may be harsher this time”. We are so used to such perverse language used by the Empire that it hardly strikes us as twisted, bizarre, pathological. It stinks of some sadomasochistic cartoon, or of a stereotypical image of an atrocious English teacher holding a ruler over a pupil’s extended hands, shouting, “Shall I?” Carl Gustav Jung described Western culture, on several occasions, as a “pathology”. He did it particularly after WWII, but he mentioned that the West had been committing terrible crimes in all parts of the world, for centuries. That is most likely why the Western mainstream psychiatrists and psychologists have been glorifying the ego-centric and generally apolitical Sigmund Freud, while ignoring, even defaming, Carl Gustav Jung. Poster of human zoo at Military Museum in Paris (Photo: Andre Vltchek) The extreme form of sadism is a medical condition; it is an illness. And the West has been clearly demonstrating disturbing and dangerous behavioral patterns for many centuries. Let’s look at the definition of sadism, or professionally, Sadistic Personality Disorder (SPD), which both the United States and Europe could easily be diagnosed with. This is an excerpt of a common definition of the SPD, which appears in Medigoo.com and on many other on-line sites: …The sadistic personality disorder is characterized by a pattern of gratuitous cruelty, aggression, and demeaning behaviors which indicate the existence of deep-seated contempt for other people and an utter lack of empathy. Some sadists are “utilitarian”: they leverage their explosive violence to establish a position of unchallenged dominance within a relationship… It is familiar, isn’t it? The Empire’s behavior towards Indochina, China, Indonesia, Africa, Latin America, Russia, the Middle East and other parts of the world. US sponsored coup in Chile on 9-11-1973 (Photo: Andre Vltchek) What about the symptoms? …Sadistic individuals have poor behavioral controls, manifested by a short temper, irritability, low frustration tolerance, and a controlling nature. From an interpersonal standpoint, they are noted to be harsh, hostile, manipulative, lacking in empathy, cold-hearted, and abrasive to those they deem to be their inferiors. Their cognitive nature is considered rigid and prone to social intolerance, and they are fascinated by weapons, war, and infamous crimes or perpetrators of atrocities. Sadists classically are believed to seek social positions that enable them to exercise their need to control others and dole out harsh punishment or humiliation… Just translate “sadistic individuals” to “sadistic states”, or “sadistic culture”. Is there any cure? Can a sadist be effectively and successfully treated? Treating a sadistic personality disorder takes a long time… And many sites and publications carry a clear disclaimer: The above information is for processing purpose. The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency… And humanity is right now clearly at the crossroads, facing annihilation, not only a ‘medical emergency’. The world may soon have to literally fight for its survival. It is because of the SPD of the West and its Empire. ***** So, what is in store for us now; for instance, for Syria? What will the sadistic psychopath do to a country that refused to kneel, to prostitute itself, to beg for mercy, to sacrifice its people? How horrible will the “punishment” be? We have just witnessed 103 missiles being fired towards Damascus and Homs. But that is only what the Empire did to entertain its masses. It has been doing much more evil and cruel things to the nation which constantly refuses to glorify the Western imperialist and its neocon dogmas. For instance, the Empire’s ‘professionals’ have been manufacturing, training and arming the most atrocious terrorist groups and injecting them into the body of Syria. The torture will, of course, continue. It clearly appears that this time the script will be based on some latter adaptation of the Marquise de Sade’s work, on his novel Juliette, not Justine. You see, in Justine, women were ‘only’ tied up, slapped and raped. In Juliette, they were cut to pieces, alive; they were burned and mutilated. While Justine can still be read, no normal human being could go through the 700 pages of pure gore that is Juliette. But our planet has somehow got used to the horrors that have been administered by the sick Western Empire. People watch occurrences in places like Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq or Libya as ‘news’, not as the medical record of a severely ill psychiatric patient. The most terrible ‘novel’ in the history of our Planet has been written, for centuries, by the appalling brutality and sadism of first Europe and then by its younger co-author – the United States. And the human beings in many parts of our Planet have gotten so used to the carnage which surrounds them that they do not throw up anymore; they do not feel horrified, do not revolt against their fate. They just watch, as one country after another falls; is violated publicly, gets ravaged. The mental illness of the perpetrator is undeniable. And it is contagious. Names of, and photos of, murdered Chilean people by pro-US military junta (Photo: Andre Vltchek) In turn, the extreme violence that has been engulfing the world has triggered various neuroses and mental conditions (masochism, extreme forms of submission, to name just two of many) among the victims. ***** Exposure to the constant and extreme violence ‘prescribed’ and administered by the West, has left most of the world in a neurotic lethargy. Like a woman locked in a marriage with a brutal religious fanatic husband in some oppressive society, the world has eventually stopped resisting against the Western dictates and tyranny, and ‘accepted its fate’. Many parts of the planet have developed ‘Stockholm Syndrome’: after being kidnapped, imprisoned, tormented, raped and humiliated, the victims have ‘fallen in love’ with their tyrant, adopting his worldview, while serving him full-heartedly and obediently. This arrangement, of course, has nothing to do with the healthy or natural state of things! Poster of Human Zoo at Military Museum, Paris (Photo: Andre Vltchek) In Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia, bizarre things are happening! People from those nations that have been robbed and devastated for centuries by the European and North American despots, have been flying happily and proudly to Paris, Berlin, London, Madrid, New York and other Western cities, in order to ‘learn’, to ‘study’ how to govern their own countries. There is usually no shame, and no stigma attached to such obvious intellectual prostitution. Many victims are still dreaming about becoming like their victimizers, or even more so. Many former and modern-day colonies of the West are listening, with straight faces, to the Europeans preaching to them (for a fee) about ‘good governance’, an ‘anti-corruption drive’ and ‘democracy’. The media outlets of non-Western nations are taking news reports directly from Western press agencies. Even local political events are explained by those ‘wise’ and ‘superior’ Europeans and North Americans, not by the local thinkers. Locals are hardly ever trusted – only white faces with polished English, French or German accents are taken seriously. Perverse? Is it perverse? Of course, it is! Many servile intellectuals from the ‘client’ states, when confronted, admit how sick the continuous global dictatorship is. Then they leave the table and continue to do what they have been doing for years and decades; the oldest profession in short. Freedom Equality Brotherhood. For French maybe but not for colonized Vietnamese (Photo: Andre Vltchek) Such a situation is truly insane. Or at least it is extremely paradoxical, bizarre, absurd. Even a mental clinic appears to make more sense than our beloved planet Earth. However, clinical psychiatrists and psychologists are very rarely involved in analyzing the neuroses and psychological illnesses of the brutalized and colonized planet. They hardly ever ‘analyze’ the perpetrators, let alone expose them for what they really are. Most of psychologists and psychiatrists are busy digging gold: encouraging human egotism, or even serving big corporations that are trying to ‘understand their employees better’, in order to control and to exploit them more effectively. Other ‘doctors’ go so far as to directly serve the Empire, helping to oppress and to ‘pacify’ the billions living in the colonies and new colonies of the West. In 2015, I was invited as one of the speakers to the 14th International Symposium on the Contributions of Psychology to Peace, held in Johannesburg and Pretoria, South Africa (hosted by legendary UNISA). During that fascinating encounter of the leading global psychologists, I spoke about the impact of wars and imperialism on the human psyche, but I also listened, attentively. And I learned many shocking things. For instance, during his chilling presentation, “Human Rights and U. S. Psychologists’ Wrongs: The Undermining of Professional Ethics in an Era of ‘Enhanced Interrogation’”, Professor Michael Wessells from Columbia University, New York, spoke about U.S. psychologists and their participation in torturing political prisoners. Instead of diagnosing the Empire with SPD and other violent and dangerous conditions, many psychologists are actually helping to torture those who are opposing this unacceptable arrangement of the world. ***** Those who refuse to ‘learn from the West’, to fall in love with it, or at least to serve it faithfully, are being brutally punished. Lashes are hitting exposed flesh. Entire nations are being destroyed, genocides distributed to all continents. East Timor, Afghanistan, Iraq: it never stops. I follow the discourses of the US and especially British UN delegations, ‘discussing’ Syria and even Russia. What comes to my mind is Punjab in India. I recall those old, historic photos of Indian men being hanged by the Brits, pants down, and flogged in public. Flogging-on-Punjabi-man-by-British-colonialist They have been doing this kind of stuff for centuries. They like it. It clearly excites them. This is their democracy, their respect for human rights and for other cultures! If someone refuses to take his or her pants down, they catch the person, rape him or her, then do the flogging anyway. I also recall what my Ugandan friend used to tell me: When the Brits came to Africa, to what is now Uganda, their army would enter our villages and first thing they’d do was to select the tallest and strongest man around. They’d then tie him up, face towards the tree. Then the British commander would rape, sodomize him in front of everybody. This was how they showed the locals who is charge. Brits enjoying Africa How symbolic! How healthy is the culture that has been controlling our world for centuries! One of the most frightening things about mental illnesses is that the patient usually does not realize that he or she is suffering from them. It is about the time for the rest of the world to treat the West as a mental patient, not as the ‘leader of the free and democratic world’. We have to think, to gather, to develop a strategy of how to deal with this unfortunate, in fact, terrible situation! If we refuse to understand and to act, we may all end up in the most dangerous situation: as complacent servants of the perverse whims of a frustrated, extremely aggressive and truly dangerous SPD patient. http://clubof.info/

[caredogstips]

No more monkey business: why primates should never be domesticateds

About 4,500 primates are in private hands in the UK many of them tolerating poor conditions. Is it duration for a prohibit?

Primate owner Laura was searching the internet adverts for monkeys she could try to recovery when she recognized one from a humanity in the Cotswolds who was clearly seeing caring for two common marmosets extremely difficult. This is a common trouble: primates are wild swine and keeping them is complex, expensive and demanding.

She contacted the man and agreed to collect the two adult monkeys one male and one female. They had been kept in a tiny molted in his garden and were in a horrid surrounding. Hed fed them almost entirely on porridge, babe meat and fish thumbs. When I asked if he had given them any return or vegetables, he is recalled that hed occasionally fed them grapes. Neither monkey had ever been viewed by a vet. The male had severe dental problems and his tail was a mixture of matted “hairs-breadth” and bald-headed patches.

Like many of us, Laura( not her real identify) grew up fascinated and enthralled by apes, and although she had never intended to keep primates, she found herself rescuing the two marmosets. She soon realised that the female was pregnant and, two week ago, twin males were born. Soon after, the adult male was booked in for surgery to give his posterior and teeth. While the marmoset was under anaesthetic, the veterinary been observed that his tiny form was riddled with metabolic bone canker caused by good nutrition and inadequate illuminate. Unhappily the male died during the operation though, with his twisted bones and torso bloated by gas, it seemed a slight boon when his centre eventually stopped.

A common marmoset in the Atlantic rainforest, Brazil. Photograph: Alamy

This sad story doesnt stop there. Before he was dead, hed “ve managed” get the female pregnant again and soon another three minuscule males were born. Laura then rescued another adult male( this time from Luton ), and what had started out as a single pair now turned into their own families of seven with the new male acting as a surrogate father.

They all now live in at her family home in Lincolnshire in a specially made enclosure with specialist heating, specific lighting, indoor and outdoor lopes and an ever-changing regiman of feeding and behavioural enrichment. A contraceptive embed has ensured no more little monkeys have since arrived on the situation and now, ultimately, both the monkeys and keeper are happy.

But Laura admits that primates make awful domesticateds: They urinate on everything to label their territory and stink abysmally; they need constant care and easily rate millions of pounds every year to hinder. Parties have this idea that they can touch and cuddle them but I never touch mine as theyre not tame. If I did, Id expect to be burn. Even with my most tighten swine, I wouldnt dream of it as it would stress him out too much. Its such a greedy happen to have them as pets. Get a puppy or have a child simply dont get a monkey!

Welcome to the world of primate ownership: the legal orientation is complex, the moralities troublesome, and even the owners themselves have conflicted perceives about obstructing monkeys at home. Id tried contacting several other primate owneds but, with this one exception , none would speak to me. I got a sense that they knew it was wrong at some level and were uncomfortable talking about it.

I am a primatologist and have worked with chimps in Africa, orangutans in Indonesia and dark-green monkeys in the Caribbean. I enjoy primates and have dedicated years to cooperating with them, but there is not a chance I would want one as a pet.

Squirrel apes are on the dangerous swine directory. Photograph: Alamy

But there are people who want to an estimated 4,500 primates( which covers apes, monkeys and lemurs, bushbabies and lorises) are privately owned in the UK. While some of these are owned by trained experts and represent specialist breed groups, the great majority are babies, living in peoples homes. Often owned by individuals with good-for-nothing more than good goals and the foolish are looking forward to own a cool pet, it is clear that there are very few privately owned captive primates in the UK in such a luck statu as the ones Laura rescued.

Dr Sharon Redrobe a veterinary surgeon and the CEO of Twycross Zoo, Warwicks knows first-hand just how hard primate husbandry is. By explanation, a domesticated is an animal we touch and play with in our the house and in no way is it in a primates best interest to be constantly touched and played with by parties. They require their own social groups, are extremely hard to care for and often grow up to be aggressive and hopeless to restrict. Owneds then take them to a veterinary, expecting them to be magically fastened. Theyre wild animals and, in that respect , no different to tigers. You wouldnt stop a tiger at home, so dont deter a monkey.

Redrobe is speedy to point out that in the past hindering domesticated primates was far more socially acceptable and that situates such as Twycross are really founded by people who liked to keep pet monkeys themselves, but she adds hours have moved on.

The world has changed enormously since the 1950 s and 60 s. We didnt know any better then; now we do. If “youve been” affection monkeys, let them be monkeys. Perhaps used to help by sponsoring one in a zoo or sanctuary.

Despite such involved charge motivations, high welfare concerns and the serious gambles associated with the spread of certain illness between people and non-human primates, it is still legal to maintain primates as babies in the UK regardless of how endangered they are or how dangerous they may be.

The care of primates is covered by the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 and Defras Code of Practice for the Welfare of Privately Kept Primates( the primate code) of 2010. The play, which states that animal owners must thwart wasteful bear and must take all reasonable steps to meet their swine motives, is hard to enforce as most domesticated primates in the UK are kept in secret.

The young capuchin monkey that German permissions confiscated from Justin Bieber in 2013. Photograph: Christof Stache/ AFP

The primate system is primarily to explain the welfare and administration needs of the swine and an infringement of its provisions is not actually an offence though it could be used as evidence in tribunal in animal welfare cases. The code, which applies to everything from gorillas to lemurs, is further faded as it is subject to broad-minded reading specified group are not covered in any real detail.

The maintaining of some primate species, such as capuchins, is thankfully restricted for the purposes of the Dangerous Wild Animals Act( 1976 ), but many, including marmosets are not listed. A 2014 RSPCA report found that 81% of pet primates in the UK belonged to the marmoset group originally from South America.

Other primates, such as cotton-top tamarins, are critically endangered and shall be given the highest level of legal protection from international trade.

With little awareness circumventing laws and a general lack of consequences for those failing to comply with regulations, many feel that the laws and regulations should change and that a complete ban on the obstructing of baby primates in the UK should be introduced.

Rachel Hevesi, the director of Wild Futures, a primate sanctuary in Looe, Cornwall, knows all too well just how weak the current legislation is. Weve had over 150 primates come to us over the years and, without exception, every single one has had physical or psychological difficulties or, in many cases, both, she says.

Hervesi wants to see a full forbidding on impeding primates as babies and reads success lying in a positive index style of legislation, where any specific primate species allowed to be kept as pets would be registered. With no species being proposed as being suitable, this blanket, prohibition-type constitution means that there would be little room for misconception. Such legislation is already present in Belgium and several other European countries and has led to not only a reduction in the overall number of primates being saved as babies, but too to an increase in members of the community reporting unauthorized pet owners.

Primatologist and conservationist Jane Goodall. Image: Diana Sanchez/ AFP

Hevesi is hopeful that the British government will bring a ban into force in the near future. When the primate code was introduced in 2010, it was agreed that the government would review its success after a five-year interval. Defra failed to hold that review in 2015, but had now been promised to reassess the legislation this year.

Key stakeholders including the Primate Society of Great Britain, the RSPCA, the British Veterinary Association, the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums( Biaza ), Born Free and Four Paws all support a ban on domesticated primates and are collecting exhibit and data for the government review.

Hevesi says: The swap relies on the ignorance of the buyer and the desire of the breeders. Weve never met a custodian who has purposely set out to harm their primate pet; its a lack of awareness and skills.

The image of primates as inventive and interactive little human-like swine that can live alongside and play with us may seem request and a recent batch of unthinking celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Beyonc and the Kardashians posing with primates has only added to the problem but without exception, every expert, academic, welfare officer and zoo custodian been agreed that primates are utterly unwarranted as pets.

Whereas hounds and felines have been specially engendered for generations as domesticateds to a time where we have selected specific behavioural and physical peculiarities that become them perfect attendants most primates multiplied as domesticateds are only research results of two or three generations in captivity and are, in most respects, still wild and untamed animals.

Renowned primatologist and conservationist Dr Jane Goodallhas worked with wild and captive primates for decades and knows them better than anyone. Every primate are part of an environment that is as close to a wild decided as is practicable. They are beautiful and intelligent animals, but highly complex with very specific needs. They simply do not belong in our homes as pets.

With such strong opposition to the UK primate pet trade, it is hoped that a censor can soon be drafted and introduced to protect the requirements and welfare of these highly intelligent, though difficult to keep, wild animals.

Read more: www.theguardian.com

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