#the signs are every where for trump but it's very misleading because when you actually look they aren't attached to a family

[cinemaocd]

Anyone else notice the amount of Trump signs/flags etc. on abandoned houses/properties?

[thethinkingman]

Do you dislike President Trump Because....

FOR ANYONE NOT SUPPORTING TRUMP:

Do you dislike that he made cruelty to animals a FELONY?

Do you dislike he gave billions to stop the opioid crisis?

He destroyed ISIS, killed how many terrorists without going to war and oh wait, everyone said we’d be in World War III by now with North Korea?

Do you dislike him because we are the Largest producer of oil?

Do you dislike him because he wanted to build a wall to keep criminals and drugs from coming in?

Do you dislike him because he just slashed the price for medications and some cases 50%, which is driving big Pharma nuts?

Do you dislike that he signed a law ending the gag-order on pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving options on prescriptions?

Do you dislike that he signed the Save Our Seas Act which funds 10 million per year to clean tons of plastic and garbage from the ocean?

Do you dislike that he signed a bill for airports to provide breast-feeding stations for nursing moms?

Do you dislike that he signed the biggest wilderness protection and conservation bill in a decade designating 375,000 acres as protected land?

Do you dislike that he loves America and puts Americans first?

Do you dislike that he made a gay man the ambassador of Germany and then asked him to clean up national security and unclassified as much of it as possible for transparency?

Do you dislike that he’s kept almost every campaign promise (with ZERO support from Congress who work against him daily!) plus 100 more promises because Washington was much more broken than he thought?

Do you dislike like that he works for free, donating his salary to different charities?

Do you dislike that he’s done more for the black community than every other President?

Do you dislike that he listened to senator Scott and passed Invest In Opportunity Zones to help minorities?

Do you dislike that he passed prison reform, which gives people a second chance and has made quite a huge difference for the black communities?

Do you dislike that he passed VA reforms to benefit the very people who served our country and defend our freedom?

Do you dislike that he’s winning and signing new trade deals that benefit Americans, instead of costing us more?

Do you dislike that he loves his flag and his country?

Do you dislike that he calls out and has shown all of us that they ARE Fake News, and they twist the truth to control and mislead the people and he is trying to protect us from this?

Do you dislike that he’s ending wars?

Do you dislike that he has made a commitment to end child-trafficking and crimes against humanity and has made 1000’s of arrests already?

Do you dislike he’s brought home over 40 Americans held captive, the last one from Iran?

Do you dislike that he’s proven he was right about the Deep State and he was spied on?

Do you dislike that he was a Billionaire before he ran for President and now is worth at least 1/3 less... because he loves America THAT MUCH?

Do you dislike that he’s making the world pay their fair share for the UN for protection?

Do you dislike that he respects cops, veterans, ICE & First Responders?

Do you dislike that he does not sell out America to other countries, like the leaders prior to him have done?

Could it be possible that the ones who SELL OUT America to line their pockets OWN THE MEDIA AND HOLLYWOOD and hate him so much for trying to expose them and hate him for putting the PEOPLE first that they manipulate our thinking and control the information we get to steer US to hate him?

These people benefit when you hate the man trying to stop them... so they won’t have to give up the wealth they have gotten and continue to get thru mass taxation and control. Wouldn’t you at least want to RESEARCH this possibility?

Could 65,000 Americans already know the TRUTH... that he has done more for blacks in the last 20 years than our last 5 Presidents put together and is actually NOT a racist but you believe he is because it has been drilled into your head and yet you’ve never researched his accomplishments?

You can start by watching those daily briefings he did during the lockdown (all on line) and then watching the coverage on the Main Stream Media and how they twisted it.

Do you actually believe the President encouraged America to inject bleach?

Did you research the effects of UV LIGHT which is used to disinfect SCHOOL BUSES and medical equipment and is also being used as a treatment for bacteria and respiratory infections by injecting it into humans (search Healight but don’t use Google... they are part of the Deep State and manipulate what we see! And they sell our info, which is why you see merchandise pop up the day after you searched for something! Use Duckduckgo)!!! They want you to believe he is stupid, because if you figure out that he isn’t, they will lose billions of dollars and all their control.

I know... it is hard to let go of what you believed to be true for most of your life. You are not alone. But your BLIND hatred of this man who is literally trying to save us from the far Left, radical Socialists is going to be detrimental to our country if you continue to support their hatred.

They are teaching hatred and separation... even in families!

You are not allowed to agree with “part” of their agenda and think for yourself; you must repeat their FULL belief system or name-calling and insults ensue... this is the definition of a cult! All or nothing!

They despise LAW AND ORDER. Just look around you. He supports it, so we are safe and can live in a civilized society. He stands for unity and America first.

You will be amazed at how much more peace comes into your life when you turn off the FAKE NEWS and turn on the true America, where we focus on what unites us, not what divides us. The media hates him from day one. Impeachment was on the table before he was elected.

They said Impeach the mother Fuc#^*r.... but his rhetoric is bad?

He’s never given a chance yet he’s done more in 4 years than any president with zero help from the media, or democrats.

How dare he care so much about America. Love it or leave it. Do your research... I have!

All of these are verifiable things Trump has done! And it’s verifiable that the media twists his words!

AND THE LIST GOES ON...

#Trump #President Trump #media #elections #election2020 #hate #medialies #media #news #news media #fake news #MAGA

[atheistforhumanity]

I Address Trump’s Address on Iran

If were not able to listen to or read about Trump’s address yesterday on his Iran strategy, let me quickly bring you up to speed. The bottom line of their strategy is to immediately impose economic sanctions on Iran, and at the same time announce the need to a new deal with Iran that will bring peace and an end to their nuclear ambitions. 

Let me first acknowledge that I was pleasantly surprised when Trump did not announce a massive bombing or other military strike against Iran. After Iran made it’s attack on two Iraq bases, which had no casualties, they immediately announced that they did not want to escalate the conflict any further. So I was glad that Trump resisted to push the conflict further. 

Trump seemed to be sending two messages at once. On one hand he made significant threats against Iran. On the other he talked about the need for peace and Iran having the prosperous nation they deserve to have. This is somewhat understandable given the current situation. 

The ironic part of Trump’s call for peace and a new agreement is that this was relatively achieved in the Obama administration. Trump entered his presidency ranting and raving about the Iran Nuclear deal with no legitimate criticism. The deal had Iran’s nuclear program under control and would have kept them under weapons grade for around 15 years. This was an agreement that the US, and other countries, reached after years of diplomacy. This is not something that’s achieved over night. It was Trump that tore that deal up, even though it was actually working. Now he announces that they need the same type of deal again. 

I will say that I am not against sanctions on Iran, they definitely bring it upon themselves. However, before Trump came into office we were in a place with Iran where we did not need extreme sanctions. Trump has personally dissolved any positive relations that had been built with Iran by himself. For anyone who knows anything about the history of conflict between the U.S. and Iran, they would know they are not the type of country that will be dictated to, no matter how powerful their enemy. Sanctions can be effective, and they are much more preferable to war, but suspect Trump believes they will simply roll over under the pressure. That will definitely not happen, and I suspect President Rouhani will do everything to ride out this situation until our election. 

My sincere concern is about how patient Trump will be and how he will react over the next month or two as Iran furthers its nuclear capabilities. There is a real chance that his temper will overwhelm him before he gets anywhere with diplomacy. We’ve seen from North Korea that Trump’s skill at diplomacy is much less than desired. 

Overall we are in a much better place than we could have been, and my hope is that both Trump and Rouhani will take very little action at all, and they will both tough it out until the election. I definitely do not see Trump making any progress with Rouhani. 

Lies and Inaccuracies

Trump’s speech was relatively short, but still contained a few significant lies or misleading comments. I believe it’s important to highlight these for two reasons. One, cataloging them proves our stance that he is liar. Two, his lies are specifically meant to make himself look better and Obama worse. This type of manipulative propaganda has wreaked havoc on our country. Some of these might seem insignificant, but the truth is that they show a high level of dishonesty and purposeful deception. 

Trump tried to minimalize the effectiveness of the Iran Nuclear Deal by saying it was ending shortly anyway. Well, if you think of 15-25 years as shortly then fine, but that is not the word I would use. This is part of constant attack Trump has made on the deal with misinformation and lies. 

Maybe the most significant lie is when he said, “Iran’s hostilities substantially increased after the foolish Iran nuclear deal was signed in 2013, and they were given $150 billion, not to mention $1.8 billion in cash.” This is seriously misleading, because he phrases this in a way that sounds like the U.S. or Europe paid Iran this vast amount of money to get them to comply. That’s not accurate in any way. When the original Iran Nuclear Deal was signed, part of the incentive for Iran was to loosen the current sanctions on them. This unfroze money that had been in limbo that belonged to them. We did not give a penny to Iran, that was money that already belonged to them due to normal trade. Trump is trying to frame the Obama administration for giving away money to terrorists. This is actually a falsehood that’s been debunked many times in recent years. This is a part of a much larger issue of the Republican party constantly pushing known conspiracy theories. 

“Over the last three years, under my leadership, our economy is stronger than ever before and America has achieved energy independence. These historic accomplishments changed our strategic priorities. These are accomplishments that nobody thought were possible. And options in the Middle East became available. We are now the number-one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world. We are independent, and we do not need Middle East oil.“

As you can see from the quote above, Trump boasted about our oil production and energy self sufficiency. He clearly made it sound like his administration made of all of this happen. In reality, America achieved becoming a leading petroleum producer in 2013. Measuring independence is tricky, but no one thought it was impossible, we’ve been making steady progress on that front for years. Again, Trump is telling bold faced lies about his accomplishments. 

Trump also claimed that under his presidency they completely rebuilt the military, saying, “the American military has been completely rebuilt under my administration, at a cost of $2.5 trillion.” This is a ridiculous claim, as nothing fundamental about the military has been rebuilt. They did add additional funding to the military, but this is a far cry from “rebuilding” the military. Trump was recently called out for lying to soldiers overseas about them getting brand new planes. Mostly the military refurbishes equipment and there has not been substantial wave of new assets. I also haven’t seen a large portion of this funding go toward vets. 

In addition he claimed that we currently producing “many” supersonic missiles. The truth is that this technology is still in the testing phase and there are none available for use. Again, trying to give himself an accomplishment that hasn’t happened. 

He also claimed to have destroyed 100% of ISIS, which is clearly not true. Although they’ve been badly defeated, they clearly still exist throughout the middle east. Trump bragged about all the ISIS members killed and captured in his administration, however, when he suddenly pulled out troops that allowed Turkey to slaughter Kurds, ISIS fighters being held by the Kurds escaped. 

End

I just want to stress that for such a short speech on such a serious matter, this is a shameful amount of lying that all serves to bolster his supporter’s image of him. This is a perfect example of how we liberals are always saying that Trump lies constantly everyday. He could not even lay out a simple strategy without dropping lies on every subject he brought up.

[queen-susans-revenge]

I don’t have time to do it right now but one of these days I really need to write down everything I learned from alt.tarot back in the day Some of it is about tarot but more of it is about how to fight with people on the Internet. I was reminded re-reading the Dickwolf Discourse and how Mike’s hard-won lesson from that is that he could have Just Stopped much earlier. Just Stopping is a great skill that I learned through many bruising fights on Usenet and specifically alt.tarot. See, most people who think they are Knowledgeable About Tarot in fact are Jon Snows to the subject: they know nothing. The received wisdom on tarot is complete garbage; you can easily spend years and read dozens of published books and come away believing things like “tarot was invented by gypsies and contains secret wisdom smuggled out from the fall of the Library of Alexandria.” Insert Luke Skywalker gif: every part of that is wrong. Playing cards were actually invented by the Chinese, reached Europe around 1360, and in the middle of the fifteenth century Italian nobles started using tarot decks to play a trick-taking game resembling bridge. The so-called Major Arcana, or trump cards, were mostly drawn from Petrarch’s poem I Trionfi which translates to “The Triumphs” (triumph=trump). I Trionfi was enormously popular, especially in Italy, and you see imagery from it everywhere during the time period and all kinds of card decks using it. (Looks down at wall of text I have just produced. Whelp. Time for a read-more!)

So almost nobody knows this basic fact, that the structure of the Major Arcana and a lot of the imagery on the cards comes from Petrarch originally. Instead they spend years reading dumb newage books that all regurgitate the same content, like, “Death doesn’t mean death, it means change.” To Petrarch, and to the Renaissance Italians, and to the likes of Waite and Crowley, Death literally meant death. Now they all believed that there were things like Christian faith that could triumph over/trump even death: Petrarch’s poem is structured like a Roman triumphal parade except with metaphysical forces involved, so like the great conquering emperor is brought low by the power of love, and the lovers in turn are brought low by the power of chastity, and the chaste in turn are brought low by the power of death, but death is conquered by fame, and fame is conquered by time, and time is conquered by the eternal Kingdom of God. This is the basic procession that you see in the trump cards. And yes this does mean that tarot was also explicitly Christian, from the beginning, and remained so even as the robes-and-wands set started appropriating Jewish kabbalah and mapping tarot onto it. That happened in the eighteenth century, in France. The two dudes responsible are Antoine Court de Gébelin and M. le Comte de Mellet, two more names that most people who think they know a lot about tarot will never have heard of. The line goes from them through Eliphas Levi, Papus, Wirth, those guys, through to Waite and then Crowley. Now all these dudes were occultists, and occult means clandestine, hidden, secret, so as you might expect they were not at all good at clearly explicating their beliefs. Back on alt.tarot I used to use a Waite quote as my signature: “Superfluities and interpretations notwithstanding, it is directly, or indirectly, out of the recent view, thus tentatively designated, that the consideration of the present thesis emerges as its final term, though out of all knowledge thereof.” (That’s from The Hidden Church of the Holy Graal. It’s all like that.) So, it’s definitely not their fault that most people don’t know about Petrarch and kabbalah and what Crowley really meant when he made such a big goddamn deal about how “Tzaddi is not The Star.” Even when the likes of Crowley or Waite did write books supposedly detailing the meaning of the symbolism of their decks, they threw in lots of misdirection and outright lies “to mislead the uninitiated.” Kabbalah is the key, they’ll tell you, but they won’t tell you that they used it as an athbash--forward and back, just like the Fool’s Journey goes both up and down the Tree of Life; divine power can be called down into Malkuth, the physical world, but one born into Malkuth can also ascend to Kether, unmediated experience of the divine. (So The Star is both Tzaddi and Heh.) Anyway, if you can’t trust the newage books and you can’t trust the occult books, are there any good books on tarot? Yes, there are two: Gertrude Moakley's groundbreaking (and out of print) book The Tarot Cards Painted by Bonifacio Bembo for the Visconti-Sforza Family: An Iconographic and Historical Study, and the equally groundbreaking and equally out of print Rhapsodies of the Bizarre, a collection of essays by Court de Gébelin and M. le Comte de Mellet, with translation and commentary by J. Karlin, the terror of alt.tarot. Jess Karlin was not his real name. He knew more about tarot than, I gradually came to believe, anyone else in the world. He was a jerk, and proud of being a jerk: Thelema is a religion of war, he said, and he came not to affirm but to destroy. He was my teacher, and he taught me a lot, and I tried to repay him both with money and by acknowledging the debt whenever the subject comes up, like now. One of the things he taught me was how to learn from someone who is giving you an actual answer but insulting you while they do it. (Try ignoring the insult and saying thank you, for the answer. They may have more to teach.) I say Karlin knew more than anyone else in the world because the academics after Moakley were disappointing; the field became dominated by playing card historian Michael Dummett, who was so invested in debunking the occultists that he really doubled down on trying to argue that no link between tarot and fortune-telling existed before the French guys came along. Which is stupid, because the links between games of chance and systems of divination have always been super tight--Fate and Luck are the same damn bitch. And you can find (and Karlin did find) very early references to witchcraft performed with playing cards. So because the playing card historians would have nothing to do with the occultists, and Karlin was doing these serious deep dives into formerly-untranslated eighteenth century French occult texts and even earlier stuff, he ended up understanding the iconography and symbolism of tarot way better than the people like Dummett who were much too serious to touch the occult traditions. That was another thing Karlin taught me: that academic consensus can sometimes be just as wrong as newage gobbledegook, and it really is possible, when you start doing deep dives into niche subjects, to outstrip the experts. Sometimes it’s not just possible but frighteningly easy. Anyway, he knew a ton--and he knew it in a field where the vast majority of people think they understand the material, but are very wrong. I think this had the effect of making him quite crabby. Some people came to alt.tarot saying they wanted to learn tarot; and those people, J. Karlin was willing to teach, although he might yell at them some for believing stupid things, if they did. And they probably did--I remember being twenty-one, a shiny new-minted college graduate, proud of my A in an undergraduate Quantum Mechanics For Non Physics Majors class, trying out some “maybe fortunetelling is a quantum effect” angle and getting my ass handed to me, deservedly so. But many, many more people came to alt.tarot back in the day thinking they already knew tarot. And they very much did not want to be corrected. They just thought the cards looked cool and they were perfectly content with their own “I’ll just intuit what I think the cards mean” approach to tarot. And to those people, Karlin was a relentless asshole. Because the symbols did in fact have an original meaning, and it is possible to trace the evolution of the iconography through time, and in fact all those centuries of artists and writers and...I dunno, warlocks and whatnot...working on the cards has created a much, much, much deeper and richer symbolic framework than what most people can make up off the tops of their heads just by looking at a random image from The Tarot of the Cat People or whatever. So that was maybe the first important thing he taught me: there is a truth. Even in symbolic matters, even in stuff that was all “just made up” at some point, it is possible to distinguish what’s important and true from what’s just people spouting off the tops of their dumb heads. And fourth or fifth was that if you argue with someone long enough and you find yourself getting boxed into a corner, fighting desperately to support propositions you’re not even quite sure how you ended up needing to defend, you can just...stop. Usually that’s the cleanest and clearest path. Karlin would not let people save face and he would not let them have the last word: if they were wrong, they’d either have to admit it, or they’d have to flounce off to another Usenet group, orrrr...they’d have to learn how to fucking shut up. It’s a good skill to have. I learned it in alt.tarot, being wrong a lot. I had many fights with Jess Karlin on alt.tarot. But to my knowledge I was the only one from that group that he offered to formally initiate into Thelema. If I have siblings in this lineage I don’t know them; and I never considered myself a Thelemite, even after the initiation. But I have tried to pass on what he taught me. Crowley wrote that the adept “must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals” and I always sort of thought Karlin was living by that principle. At the same time he liked to point out that it’s not necessary to hide your pearls from swine: they won’t take ‘em no matter how brightly you polish and how neatly you letter the sign, FREE PEARLS OF WISDOM, PLEASE TAKE. My worst fights with J. Karlin were always when I was trying to do something nice for him. I still wince remembering when I tried to give him a copy of Alan Moore’s Promethea; that ended with us not speaking for several years. So if he reads this he’ll probably be mad at me all over again but anyway he eventually started using his real name, Glenn Wright, for his Internet writings instead of the Karlin nym. He hops around websites too fast for me to keep track, but as recently as 2015 he had a blog on Tumblr​. Sometimes he offers tarot readings for sale--one card, yes or no question only. I recommend these without question whether you “believe” in tarot or not. (I’ve grown out of my quantum woo days and I don’t now think the cards are anything but a fantastic system for self-reflection). This is super long so I’m gonna stop now. Maybe it’ll do for that “what I learned from alt.tarot” post I always meant to make.

[thegreymoon]

Sorry, You didn't really say or do anything to make me think that you are Asian. I thought that I read sth in your lj where u said that you were and just run with it. It was a long time ago and I must have misread. Also, you don't really post a lot political stuff, it is more like I notice it more because when I visit your page I skip all Merlin related stuff and am interested in the rest so again my fault. As for my ise of imaginary- yeah, it was passive agressive, altough not intentionally so

… my bad. I rarely engage in political conversations online because it never ends well, especially when my views clash with 90% of tumblr users so I am used to combative tone and it was unnecessary.. As for SJW I am not sure if that is dissmissive term as it discribes the “movement” well? I am not native speaker and am aware that it can be used as derogative term, but was also convinced that it is used by people on the left if political spectrum. I asked you why you are mainy interesetd in USA because I was working under the assumption that u are Asian it seemed to me weird that a person coming from China/Japan etc would be championing social justice in USA when it not that big of a problem(or at all IMO) whie ignoring very real problems in their own country. But since you are not Asian and you post political stuff rarely you are right it is a silly discussion. The fault is completely on my side. I am allergic to these kind of stuff and you are one of my favourite writers so I exaggerated. Once again sorry.

As for the rest of your response: I also come from relatively poor country that was screwed over by both Britain and USA and many other countries, and I don’t agree with many of their policies (or most) but I don’t hate them and believe that as much as people like to say they start wars for the oil etc it is not really true. There are many political and global players and everyone single country is motivated by greed it is only that not every country can exercise their power.  

Relatively they are not the worst, it is just that since USA tries to paint themselves as heroes they are held to different, much higher standards than other countries. To sum it up, I am not defending their foreign policies, they have done a lot of wrong and are shortseighted but I still think that are better than other superpowers that will soon take over like China or maybe India. Also, I don;t understand why would you include global warming in your answer?why do you believe it is their fault

I am trying to leave as “green” as I can, I am a vegetarian and I believe we should do everything to preserve environment, but I wouldnt want my country to sign any deals concerning CO2 emission as long as other countries do not do the same. Otherwise, they would just cripple their economy and not help the world? As for Trump(if you are still interested) I find him the epitome of self-important, conceited stereotypical american but still so much better than alternative and despite distaste. would still vote for him. Because he at least apppears to be anti globalist and has a much higher moral ground than Hillary. what are his SPECIFIC actions that you find so abhorrent? Anyway, what I alluded to in my message was not politics of USA but the social justcie issues, like support BLM or me to movement(I am not sure if you posted enything regarding that, so srry if I presume wrongly) which I find are absolutely not based on facts and despite that people still perpetuate that, and if u don’t agree you are racist and sexist. No arguments whatsoever. It is also silly to me when I see the posts about the West being this cesspool of sexism while honour killings or FGM is nearly a non issue on social media or racism when considering the West is still the least racist place in the world when you compare it to China/India/SA or any other place. So, I find the social media effort to be misdirected and controlled by emotions. Even the indigineous people issued you mentioned. Americans get so much shit for their history, while pretty much every single country that exist was created by conquering or displacement of the previous population(u just have to go far enough down the history). So, yeah wht happend to Indigenous people and dissappearance of their whole civilization is a great tragedy but not the first and unfortunately not the last in human history. Why are we hearing about it but not about Anuit people or Persian or Byzantians? it is so imbalanced. Ok, anyway, sorry for the rant it shouldn’t be directed at you and tumblr is definitely not the place for it. Sorry if I offended to you. As I said I love your writing, “DC” is my all time favourite fic, and because I creepely once read through all of your lj(including asks and responses) I(like an internet creep and stalker)liked you and thought you seemed smart, well balanced and knowledgeable so I guess I felt entitled to to make the ask. Wish you all the best in life. 

No worries, I’m sorry I came off so aggressive in my answer. I did actually live and work in China for a while during my LJ days and it’s entirely possible I may have tagged myself as being there on my fandom profiles at the time. It was a happy period for me and I talked about it a lot to anyone who had the patience to listen, so it’s very plausible that you have read something about it on my LJ! I’m very sorry if it was misleading, but I was only ever an expat there!

I used to be a lot more open about my real name and real-life dealings in fandom communities, but that almost backfired spectacularly, so I locked down a lot of stuff because it could do me quite a bit of damage. 

OK, I concede your point that if you remove the Merlin stuff, a lot of what is left on my Tumblr is going to be either me reblogging cats or raging about social injustices (oops) 😅

I’d just like to make it clear that I absolutely do not hate either the USA, the UK or any other country in the world. Like I said, people are people, and disgusting policies are disgusting policies and every single country is guilty of them. It’s just that some have a bigger impact and are more visible. My own country is a source of so much shame and anger for me, it far outweighs anything the UK and the USA could have ever done because it’s personal, but our nonsense is just not something that I come across when casually scrolling through Tumblr, so I don’t reblog it. It’s possible to love a nation and its people and still be critical of the evil they have done. 

Also, let me just clarify that I’m bothered by all injustices and human rights violations everywhere, but usually there isn’t a post about them when I’m scrolling at 2 am at night that I can reblog. The USA is just… low hanging fruit, and let’s face it, from where I stand, hating on their president, the white supremacists, the Nazis, fundamental Christians, racists and the Republicans in general after what they have turned into is not hating on the USA, but rather cheering on the sane part of the country to get rid of this toxic waste ASAP. The same goes for Brexiteers in the UK and I am so, so sad for all the people that are going to suffer because of it. 

Of course, I’m aware that China and Japan have issues and human rights violations that are mind-boggling, but again, they just don’t appear on my dash very often, or at least not in English or from a source I can easily fact-check. The Japanese and Chinese stuff I follow is mostly art, nature and pictures of pretty clothes. My knowledge of either of these countries is very superficial compared to Western countries, which impact me directly, so it really isn’t my place to appoint myself as a champion of human rights in the Far East when my own country and continent are a growing dumpster fire that cannot be contained.  

On the subject of global warming, I’m not blaming the USA (entirely, because they, of course, played their part, but so did the rest of humanity). I’m enraged by their governing body’s rhetoric as of late, the denial of climate change, every single action that Trump took since taking office (such as withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement), him making ignorant, snide remarks in the middle of the polar vortex just days ago while people were suffering, deliberately sabotaging scientists and spreading dangerous, false information when each and every single country should be all-hands-on-deck if we want to avert a disaster of global proportions (especially with all the signs pointing to us being too late already). Nobody is suggesting that the USA should unilaterally reduce carbon emissions, all countries in the world must do it and develop the technology to make it feasible to convert to clean energy. And yes, the USA, China and other giants have to lead the way because they are the ones with the power! My poor, tiny country is not the one that can impact anything, so yes, the USA is absolutely more responsible to lead the way forward, but instead of at least moving in the right direction, Trump is deliberately lying and sabotaging all effort because he likes the money he gets from Big Oil companies, and he’s giving a platform to religious nutcases for votes, who think that there won’t be a global disaster of epic proportions in the near future because God promised Noah he would never again flood the entire Earth in the Old Testament. It’s not even the outright evil that is bothering me the most right now, but the mind-numbing stupidity. 

I have nothing but loathing for both of the Clintons. They have caused so much destruction in my country and I do not want good things for either of them, ever. I will never pretend that Hillary Clinton is anything even resembling a good person because you do not reach that level of power by having a conscience, but at the very least, she is not a rapist and paedophile that the general public knows of (which is more than we can say for her husband, btw). Trump has no moral high ground whatsoever, IMO. He has done everything imaginable, from scamming charities (this was proven in court) to raping minors (see Epstein). He has no redeemable human characteristics and is not even intelligent enough to pretend that he does, which is at least one thing that Hillary has going for her. I’m not going to sit here and list all the reasons why Trump is abhorrent because a) it cannot fit in a Tumblr post b) I would be sitting here for years. 

I will also not engage in discussion about whether or not BLM is a valid movement, ever. I don’t understand what you mean when you say it isn’t based on ‘facts’. Which, facts are in doubt, exactly? It’s based on multigenerational, still ongoing trauma and persecution of an entire race of people! I’m neither black nor an American, but I believe African-American people when they talk about the terror they experience on a daily basis in their own country. I have eyes and I have ears, I know plenty of white people and have insight into how they think because I too am white and have been raised with similar bullshit. I have lived in Africa for years and seen things with my own eyes. I will never not take the side of black people when they protest racism anywhere and I will never not believe them when they talk about police brutality, race-based violence and systemic racism in countries built on slavery. 

Of course, I’m not saying racism doesn’t exist in other places and in other forms, but talking about one does not negate the other. 

Also, I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make about the West not being sexist because other places have it worse? I’m sure I misunderstood this, so forgive me if that is the case. FGM is terrible, yes, but that in no way invalidates other types of gender violence that still ruins the lives of countless women. Just because the women in, say, Saudi Arabia have it worse, that doesn’t mean that the women here or in the USA should not talk about issues that directly affect them (and, btw, I have absolutely been outraged about Saudi Arabia and FGM and shared posts about both). All are bad! This is not a competition. 

On the topic of you saying that America gets so much shit for its history, which you think is unjust, I have to mention that European settlers killed up to 95% of Native Americans in some areas in relatively recent history. Just days ago, I was reading an article about how they killed so many people, it actually changed the global climate! This is genocide on such a massive scale, my brain can’t even comprehend it, and yet here we are today, with Columbus Day and Thanksgiving as holidays while the surviving Native Americans suffer all kinds of indignity and discrimination, so no, I don’t think we are talking about it enough and I feel that America deserves all the shit it gets for its history. IMO, it is not getting enough shit! The fact that there are other issues out there that need to be talked about too and are being silenced does not in any way take away from any of this. 

Anyway, let’s not argue about which country is The Worst™ and which human rights issues are more worthwhile than others because that is pointless. We already agree that all governments are corrupt, that evil happened and is still happening all over the world and that all human rights issues are important. I firmly believe that if they were to be evaluated by a psychiatrist, 99% of all high-ranking politicians would be diagnosed with serious clusters of antisocial personality disorders. Most of them would do anything and the only thing stopping them is whether or not they can get away with it. The remaining 1% cannot really do much and keep both their conscience and political power intact. 

In any case, the last thing I want in life is to get into Tumblr discourse with LJ people, so how about we just put this behind us? Let’s agree to disagree on who is worse, Trump or Hillary, because that is a pointless disagreement, especially since neither of us is an American and this is getting out of hand. I feel like we are actually miscommunicating and talking about different things. We seem to be arguing different points, so all of it is coming off worse for both of us than it really should be. Also, I wish you hadn’t sent me this ask anonymously, because I now have no way of responding to you except publically, and Tumblr is seriously not a good place for this. 

On a happier note, I’m very glad that you enjoyed DC! I’m very sorry for the extremely long hiatus! Unfortunately, I’ve been going through things that stopped me from writing for a long time. I hope that one day I can still come back and finish that story, in spite of everything! Have a good day/night! :)

*hugs*

[hecktorr22]

THE AUDACITY OF THIS MAN TRUMP

By E. P. UNUM

December 13, 2020

I’m still trying to understand what 80 million voters disliked about President Trump so much that they decided to cast their votes for a man who served forty-seven years in government and has done absolutely nothing for the American people. And, I’m still flabbergasted that those same people would vote for a woman to serve as Vice President, a heartbeat away from the Presidency, with a rather checkered and not so moral past. I wondered why they despised and hated President Trump so much.

And so, I have many questions:

Did you dislike that Trump made cruelty to animals a felony?

Did you dislike he raised billions to stop the opioid crisis?

Perhaps you feel that he destroyed ISIS, killed terrorists, including the leader of ISIS and the Iranian General responsible for thousands of American deaths, all without going to war?

Did you dislike the fact that the media and democrats, Joy Behar and Whoopi Goldberg, Chris Cuomo, and Jim Acosta said we’d be in World War III by now with North Korea, and their prophecies did not come to pass?

Did you dislike Trump because under his leadership we became energy-independent and an exporter rather than an importer of oil, no longer relying on the Middle East for our petroleum needs?

Did you dislike him because he wanted to build a wall to keep criminals and drugs from coming into our country?

Did you dislike him because he just slashed the price for medications in some cases by 50%, which is driving big Pharma nuts?

Perhaps you dislike that he signed a law ending the gag-order on pharmacists that prevented them from sharing money-saving options on prescriptions?

Is your dislike for President Trump based on the fact that he signed the Save Our Seas Act, which funds $10 million per year to clean tons of plastic and garbage from the ocean?

Did you dislike that he signed a bill for airports to provide breastfeeding stations for nursing moms?

How about the fact that he signed the biggest wilderness protection and conservation bill in a decade, designating 375,000 acres as protected land, was that why you dislike him?

Did you dislike that he loves America and puts Americans first?

Did you dislike that he made a gay man the ambassador to Germany and then asked him to clean up national security and un-classify as much of it as possible for transparency?

Did you dislike that he’s kept almost every campaign promise (with zero support from Congress who work against him daily!) plus 100 more promises because Washington was much more broken than he or any of us thought?

Do you dislike that he works for free, donating his entire $400,000 salary to different charities?

Did you feel that he did this for four years because he was “showboating?”

Do you dislike that he’s done more for the black community than every other President?

Do you dislike that he listened to senator Scott and passed Invest In Opportunity Zones to help minorities?

Do you dislike that he passed prison reform, which gives people a second chance and has made quite a huge difference for the black communities?

Do you dislike that he passed VA reforms to benefit the very people who served our country and defend our freedom?

Do you dislike that he’s winning and signing new trade deals that benefit Americans, instead of costing us more?

Did you dislike him because, unlike all of the presidents who came before him, he recognized Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel, relocated the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv there, and then proceeded to negotiate four peace accords between Israel and Arab Nations when many in the media were predicting there would be war? Was that why you disliked him?

Do you dislike that he loves his flag and his country?

Do you dislike that he calls out and has shown time and time again that the mainstream media in our country has become corrupt and incompetent, twisting the truth to control and mislead the people and he is trying to protect us from this?

Do you dislike that he has been a President totally committed to ending wars and bringing our troops home?

Perhaps you dislike the stern way he spoke, publically to NATO allies to step up and pay their commitments to defense rather than expecting America to do it for them, something we have done for over seventy-five years?

Do you dislike that he has made a commitment to end child-trafficking and crimes against humanity and has made 1000’s of arrests already?

Do you dislike he’s brought home over 40 Americans held captive, the last one from Iran?

Do you dislike that he’s proven he was right about the Deep State and he was indeed spied on before, during, and after he became President?

Do you dislike that he was a Billionaire before he ran for President and now is worth at least 1/3 less... because he loves America?

Do you dislike that he respects cops, veterans, ICE & First Responders?

Do you dislike that he does not sell out America to other countries, like the leaders prior to him have done?

Could it be possible that the ones who sell out America to line their pockets own the media and Hollywood and hate him so much for trying to expose them and hate him for putting the American people first that they try to manipulate our thinking and control the information we get to try to cultivate hatred for him? These people benefit when you hate the man trying to stop them... so they won’t have to give up the wealth they have gotten and continue to get thru mass taxation and control. Wouldn’t you at least want to research this possibility?

Could 75 million Americans already know the truth... that he has done more for blacks in the last 20 years than our last 5 presidents put together and is actually not a racist and never has been one… but you believe he is because it has been drilled into your head and yet you’ve never researched his accomplishments?

You can start by watching those daily briefings he did during the lockdown (all online) and then watching the coverage on the Main Stream Media and how they twisted it.

Do you actually believe the President encouraged America to inject bleach?

Did you research the effects of UV light which is used to disinfect school busses and medical equipment and is also being used as a treatment for bacteria and respiratory infections? They want you to believe he is stupid because if you figure out that he isn’t, they will lose billions of dollars and all their control.

I know... it is hard to let go of what you believed to be true for most of your life. You are not alone. But your blind hatred of this man who is literally trying to save us from the far left, radical Socialists is going to be detrimental to our country if you continue to support their hatred.

They are teaching hatred and separation...to our children and even to our families! You are not allowed to agree with “part” of their agenda and think for yourself; you must repeat their full belief system, or name-calling and insults ensue.

This is not an informed debate. It is not a reason. This is the very definition of a cult! All or nothing! They despise law and order. Just look around you. He supports law and order, not looting, rioting, and chaos, so we are safe and can live in a civilized society. He stands for unity and America first. Is that why you dislike him?

You will be amazed at how much more peace comes into your life when you turn off the fake news and tune into what America stands for, where we focus on what unites us, not what divides us. The media has despised him from day one. Impeachment was on the table before he even took the oath of office in January 2017. They said Impeach the “motherfuc#^*r”....but then they turn around and say his rhetoric is bad? He was never given a chance, yet he’s done more in 4 years than any president with zero help from the media or democrats. Results don’t lie.

The media and democrats consistently complain about Trump “mismanaging the Covid Crisis." Nothing could be further from the truth. The man has been a rock and his leadership has kept the nation from the abyss. He promised a vaccine before the end of 2020. They said it could not be done. He proved them wrong once again….doses of the vaccine are being delivered now in mid-December!

He built hospitals in NYC and California, sent retrofitted Navy Hospital Ships which went unused, initiated Operation Warp Speed that produced PPE and therapeutics in record time along with thousands of ventilators, far more than we needed, and which are now being sent all over the world. And the overall death rate from Covid stands at less than one percent!

How dare this man, the President of the United States, care so much about the American people and our Country. How dare he stand at attention and salute our Flag, support our troops, honor our veterans, put God back into our lives, protect the unborn, give people second chances and take seriously his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

How dare this man show up at 2:00 AM at Dover Air Force Base to welcome home hostages held in foreign lands and the remains of our fallen soldiers.

How dare this man develop and implement plans and programs to create the greatest most prosperous economy and standard of living in the history of mankind.

How dare he reduce unemployment to 3.4% and lower unemployment for Black, Asian and Hispanic communities in fifty years!

You would think this man was trying to actually do things rather than speak eloquently and act “Presidential” and “Cool” about such things.

How dare he!

One would think this President was trying to provide leadership.

How crass.

The audacity of this man.

You would think he is trying to be a leader or something.

[presssorg]

Twitter terror: Arrests prompt concern over online extremism

Twitter terror: Arrests prompt concern over online extremism GREECE, N.Y. — A few months after he turned 17 — and more than two years before he was arrested — Vincent Vetromile recast himself as an online revolutionary. Offline, in this suburb of Rochester, New York, Vetromile was finishing requirements for promotion to Eagle Scout in a troop that met at a local church. He enrolled at Monroe Community College, taking classes to become a heating and air conditioning technician. On weekends, he spent hours in the driveway with his father, a Navy veteran, working on cars. On social media, though, the teenager spoke in world-worn tones about the need to “reclaim our nation at any cost.” Eventually he subbed out the grinning selfie in his Twitter profile, replacing it with the image of a colonial militiaman shouldering an AR-15 rifle. And he traded his name for a handle: “Standing on the Edge.” That edge became apparent in Vetromile’s posts, including many interactions over the last two years with accounts that praised the Confederacy, warned of looming gun confiscation and declared Muslims to be a threat. In 2016, he sent the first of more than 70 replies to tweets from a fiery account with 140,000 followers, run by a man billing himself as Donald Trump’s biggest Canadian supporter. The final exchange came late last year. “Islamic Take Over Has Begun: Muslim No-Go Zones Are Springing Up Across America. Lock and load America!” the Canadian tweeted on December 12, with a video and a map highlighting nine states with Muslim enclaves. “The places listed are too vague,” Vetromile replied. “If there were specific locations like ‘north of X street in the town of Y, in the state of Z’ we could go there and do something about it.” Weeks later, police arrested Vetromile and three friends, charging them with plotting to attack a Muslim settlement in rural New York. And with extremism on the rise across the U.S., this town of neatly kept Cape Cods confronted difficult questions about ideology and young people — and technology’s role in bringing them together. —— The reality of the plot Vetromile and his friends are charged with hatching is, in some ways, both less and more than what was feared when they were arrested in January. Prosecutors say there is no indication that the four — Vetromile, 19; Brian Colaneri, 20; Andrew Crysel, 18; and a 16-year-old The Associated Press isn’t naming because of his age — had set an imminent or specific date for an attack. Reports they had an arsenal of 23 guns are misleading; the weapons belonged to parents or other relatives. Prosecutors allege the four discussed using those guns, along with explosive devices investigators say were made by the 16-year-old, in an attack on the community of Islamberg. Residents of the settlement in Delaware County, New York — mostly African-American Muslims who relocated from Brooklyn in the 1980s — have been harassed for years by right-wing activists who have called it a terrorist training camp. A Tennessee man, Robert Doggart , was convicted in 2017 of plotting to burn down Islamberg’s mosque and other buildings. But there are few clues so far to explain how four with little experience beyond their high school years might have come up with the idea to attack the community. All have pleaded not guilty, and several defence attorneys, back in court Friday, are arguing there was no plan to actually carry out any attack, chalking it up to talk among buddies. Lawyers for the four did not return calls, and parents or other relatives declined interviews. “I don’t know where the exposure came from, if they were exposed to it from other kids at school, through social media,” said Matthew Schwartz, the Monroe County assistant district attorney prosecuting the case. “I have no idea if their parents subscribe to any of these ideologies.” Well beyond upstate New York, the spread of extremist ideology online has sparked growing concern. Google and Facebook executives went before the House Judiciary Committee this month to answer questions about their platforms’ role in feeding hate crime and white nationalism. Twitter announced new rules last fall prohibiting the use of “dehumanizing language” that risks “normalizing serious violence.” But experts said the problem goes beyond language, pointing to algorithms used by search engines and social media platforms to prioritize content and spotlight likeminded accounts. “Once you indicate an inclination, the machine learns,” said Jessie Daniels, a professor of sociology at New York’s Hunter College who studies the online contagion of alt-right ideology. “That’s exactly what’s happening on all these platforms … and it just sends some people down a terrible rabbit hole.” She and others point to Dylann Roof, who in 2015 murdered nine worshippers at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina. In writings found afterward, Roof recalled how his interest in the shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin had prompted a Google search for the term “black on white crime.” The first site the search engine pointed him to was run by a racist group promoting the idea that such crime is common, and as he learned more, Roof wrote, that eventually drove his decision to attack the congregation.

The latest on Sri Lanka's bombing investigation Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau issued a travel warning for Sri Lanka on Thursday, raising the threat level to indicate a "high concrete threat," ... In the Rochester-area case, electronic messages between two of those arrested, seen by the AP, along with papers filed in the case suggest doubts divided the group. “I honestly see him being a terrorist,” one of those arrested, Crysel, told his friend Colaneri in an exchange last December on Discord, a messaging platform popular with gamers that has also gained notoriety for its embrace by some followers of the alt-right. “He also has a very odd obsession with pipe bombs,” Colaneri replied. “Like it’s borderline creepy.” It is not clear from the message fragment seen which of the others they were referencing. What is clear, though, is the long thread of frustration in Vetromile’s online posts — and the way those posts link him to an enduring conspiracy theory. —— A few years ago, Vetromile’s posts on Twitter and Instagram touched on subjects like video games and English class. He made the honour roll as an 11th-grader but sometime thereafter was suspended and never returned, according to former classmates and others. The school district, citing federal law on student records, declined to provide details. Ron Gerth, who lives across the street from the family, recalled Vetromile as a boy roaming the neighbourhood with a friend, pitching residents on a leaf-raking service: “Just a normal, everyday kid wanting to make some money, and he figured a way to do it.” More recently, Gerth said, Vetromile seemed shy and withdrawn, never uttering more than a word or two if greeted on the street. Vetromile and suspect Andrew Crysel earned the rank of Eagle in Boy Scout Troop 240, where the 16-year-old was also a member. None ever warranted concern, said Steve Tyler, an adult leader. “Every kid’s going to have their own sort of geekiness,” Tyler said, “but nothing that would ever be considered a trigger or a warning sign that would make us feel unsafe.” Crysel and the fourth suspect, Colaneri, have been diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a milder form of autism, their families have said. Friends described Colaneri as socially awkward and largely disinterested in politics. “He asked, if we’re going to build a wall around the Gulf of Mexico, how are people going to go to the beach?” said Rachael Lee, the aunt of Colaneri’s girlfriend. Vetromile attended community college with Colaneri before dropping out in 2017. By then, he was fully engaged in online conversations about immigrants living in the U.S. illegally, gun rights and Trump. Over time, his statements became increasingly militant. “We need a revolution now!” he tweeted in January, replying to a thread warning of a coming “war” over gun ownership. Vetromile directed some of his strongest statements at Muslims. Tweets from the Canadian account, belonging to one Mike Allen, seemed to push that button. In July 2017, Allen tweeted “Somali Muslims take over Tennessee town and force absolute HELL on terrified Christians.” Vetromile replied: “@realDonaldTrump please do something about this!” A few months later, Allen tweeted: “Czech politicians vote to let citizens carry guns, shoot Muslim terrorists on sight.” Vetromile’s response: “We need this here!” Allen’s posts netted hundreds of replies a day, and there’s no sign he read Vetromile’s responses. But others did, including the young man’s reply to the December post about Muslim “no-go zones.” That tweet included a video interview with Martin Mawyer, whose Christian Action Network made a 2009 documentary alleging that Islamberg and other settlements were terrorist training camps. Mawyer linked the settlements, which follow the teachings of a controversial Pakistani cleric, to a group called Jamaat al-Fuqra that drew scrutiny from law enforcement in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, Colorado prosecutors won convictions of four al-Fuqra members in a racketeering case that included charges of fraud, arson and murder. Police and analysts have repeatedly said Islamberg does not threaten violence. Nevertheless, the allegations of Mawyer’s group continue to circulate widely online and in conservative media. Replying to questions by email, Mawyer said his organization has used only legal means to try to shut down the operator of the settlements. “Vigilante violence is always the wrong way to solve social or personal problems,” he said. “Christian Action Network had no role, whatsoever, in inciting any plots.” Online, though, Vetromile reacted with consternation to the video of Mawyer: “But this video just says ‘upstate NY and California’ and that’s too big of an area to search for terrorists,” he wrote. Other followers replied with suggestions. “Doesn’t the video state Red House, Virginia as the place?” one asked. Virginia was too far, Vetromile replied, particularly since the map with the tweet showed an enclave in his own state. When another follower offered a suggestion, Vetromile signed off: “Eh worth a look. Thanks.” The exchange ended without a word from the Canadian account, whose tweet started it.

A few months after he turned 17 — and more than two years before he was arrested — Vincent Vetromile recast himself as an online revolutionary. —— Three months before the December exchange on Twitter, the four suspects started using a Discord channel dubbed “#leaders-only” to discuss weapons and how they would use them in an attack, prosecutors allege. Vetromile set up the channel, one of the defence attorneys contends, but prosecutors say they don’t consider any one of the four a leader. In November, the conversation expanded to a second channel: “#militia-soldiers-wanted.” At some point last fall the 16-year-old made a grenade — “on a whim to satisfy his own curiosity,” his lawyer said in a court filing that claims the teen never told the other suspects. That filing also contends the boy told Vetromile that forming a militia was “stupid.” But other court records contradict those assertions. Another teen, who is not among the accused, told prosecutors that the 16-year-old showed him what looked like a pipe bomb last fall and then said that Vetromile had asked for prototypes. “Let me show you what Vinnie gave me,” the young suspect allegedly said during another conversation, before leaving the room and returning with black explosive powder. In January, the 16-year-old was in the school cafeteria when he showed a photo to a classmate of one of his fellow suspects, wearing some kind of tactical vest. He made a comment like, “He looks like the next school shooter, doesn’t he?” according to Greece Police Chief Patrick Phelan. The other student reported the incident, and questioning by police led to the arrests and charges of conspiracy to commit terrorism. The allegations have jarred a region where political differences are the norm. Rochester, roughly half white and half black and other minorities, votes heavily Democratic. Neighboring Greece, which is 87 per cent white, leans conservative. Town officials went to the Supreme Court to win a 2014 ruling allowing them to start public meetings with a chaplain’s prayer. The arrests dismayed Bob Lonsberry, a conservative talk radio host in Rochester, who said he checked Twitter to confirm Vetromile didn’t follow his feed. But looking at the accounts Vetromile did follow convinced him that politics on social media had crossed a dangerous line. “The people up here, even the hillbillies like me, we would go down with our guns and stand outside the front gate of Islamberg to protect them,” Lonsberry said. “It’s an aberration. But … aberrations, like a cancer, pop up for a reason.” —— Online, it can be hard to know what is true and who is real. Mike Allen, though, is no bot. “He seems addicted to getting followers,” said Allen’s adult son, Chris, when told about the arrest of one of the thousands attuned to his father’s Twitter feed. Allen himself called back a few days later, leaving a brief message with no return number. But a few weeks ago, Allen welcomed in a reporter who knocked on the door of his home, located less than an hour from the Peace Bridge linking upstate New York to Ontario, Canada. “I really don’t believe in regulation of the free marketplace of ideas,” said Allen, a retired real estate executive, explaining his approach to social media. “If somebody wants to put bulls— on Facebook or Twitter, it’s no worse than me selling a bad hamburger, you know what I mean? Buyer beware.” Sinking back in a white leather armchair, Allen, 69, talked about his longtime passion for politics. After a liver transplant stole much of his stamina a few years ago, he filled downtime by tweeting about subjects like interest rates. When Trump announced his candidacy for president in 2015, in a speech memorable for labeling many Mexican immigrants as criminals, Allen said he was determined to help get the billionaire elected. He began posting voraciously, usually finding material on conservative blogs and Facebook feeds and crafting posts to stir reaction. Soon his account was gaining up to 4,000 followers a week. Allen said he had hoped to monetize his feed somehow. But suspicions that Twitter “shadow-banning” was capping gains in followers made him consider closing the account. That was before he was shown some of his tweets and the replies they drew from Vetromile — and told the 19-year-old was among the suspects charged with plotting to attack Islamberg. “And they got caught? Good,” Allen said. “We’re not supposed to go around shooting people we don’t like. That’s why we have video games.” Allen’s own likes and dislikes are complicated. He said he strongly opposes taking in refugees for humanitarian reasons, arguing only immigrants with needed skills be admitted. He also recounted befriending a Muslim engineer in Pakistan through a physics blog and urging him to move to Canada. Shown one of his tweets from last year — claiming Czech officials had urged people to shoot Muslims — Allen shook his head. “That’s not a good tweet,” he said quietly. “It’s inciting.” Allen said he rarely read replies to his posts — and never noticed Vetromile’s. “If I’d have seen anybody talking violence, I would have banned them,” he said. He turned to his wife, Kim, preparing dinner across the kitchen counter. Maybe he should stop tweeting, he told her. But couldn’t he continue until Trump was reelected? “We have a saying, ‘Oh, it must be true, I read it on the internet,”‘ Allen said, before showing his visitor out. “The internet is phoney. It’s not there. Only kids live in it and old guys, you know what I mean? People with time on their hands.” The next day, Allen shut down his account, and the long narrative he spun all but vanished. —— Read more about the four charged in the New York plot here . AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this story. Geller can be reached at ageller//twitter.com/AdGeller Published at Sun, 28 Apr 2019 14:30:01 +0000 Read the full article

[96thdayofrage]

Fake news? Here’s some real news: Cities around the country are breaking corporate chains

A decade ago, some barons of the media establishment designated themselves America’s official arbiters of political truth (or “truthiness,” as satirist Stephen Colbert might call it). One of their tools is PolitiFact, a project of the Tampa Bay Times and several other major newspapers, which issues an award for the year’s most outrageous falsehood foisted on the public. Last year’s election was infested with so much disinformation and dishonesty, however, that PolitiFact’s 2016 Lie of the Year was not a single prevarication, but that cluster bomb of whoppers collectively branded “Fake News.”

Of course, even that label is misleading, since these items are not news at all. They’re political rubbish, completely bogus pieces of character and policy assassination concocted by campaign hucksters and click-bait purveyors and disguised as breaking news to dupe the gullible. (One infamous example: the “Pizzagate” story that popped days before the election, alleging a child sex ring associated with Hillary Clinton, and run out of a pizza shop in Washington.) While partisan hacks have spread this sort of cock-and-bull political venom at least since the 1796 Thomas Jefferson v. John Adams race, the noxious “news” items in last year’s election-turned-freak show were internet-propelled, reaching millions of voters quicker than you can shout “Horsehockey!” A flood of lies coursed through Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites, turning some into open sewers of slander and trumped-up hoaxes that connected with enough angry and spongy minds to be a factor in the presidential outcome.

The chief beneficiary, of course, was The Donald, who also had been an unflagging dispenser of fictitious crap throughout the 2016 race. He became our first Tweeter-in-Chief, largely by convincing a decisive segment of the electorate that the profusion of faux facts that spilled out of his mouth was true: Mexican immigrants “are criminals, drug dealers, rapists, etc.” Obama was “perhaps born in Kenya. Very simple, OK?” During the 9/11 crash bombing of the World Trade Center, “There were people over in New Jersey that were watching it, a heavy Arab population, that were cheering as the buildings came down.” Told that Jersey police investigated and found that no such celebration took place, Trump capped his lie with another–“It was on television. I saw it.” Infuriated by the fact that 3 million more Americans voted for Hillary than for him, he simply tweeted an “alternative fact”: “I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.”

Mainstream fakery

PolitiFact nailed the surge in fake news, but–hello–what about the state of establishment news? Like crabgrass, fake news has been able to spread with surprising speed because so much of the healthy turf of legitimate journalism has been allowed to deteriorate, poisoned by the establishment’s appetite for sensationalism, nonsense, bias toward corporate interests, elitism, and a general lack of coverage of issues important to America’s workaday people.

The dominant mass media outlets, particularly TV, have been corporatized, not only in their business structure, but also in their news perspective and operating culture. Today’s broadcast hierarchies are directed by highly paid executives who view the great unwashed from distant high-rise headquarters, and are concerned less about their duty to democracy than their fealty to the bottom line. No longer “of the people” or even among them, these decisionmakers don’t know the people. Thus, they were clueless about last year’s political uprising, literally laughing at both Trump and Bernie Sanders’ convention-shattering insurgencies.

Real News

Just as troubling as fake news is the media’s systematic omission of grassroots news that people could really use. I’m not talking about “happy news” snippets that local outlets like to pop into their coverage as cheap substitutes for actually reporting what’s going on in our towns and neighborhoods. What’s missing is real news of the ordinary Americans in practically every zip code who are teaming up, taking charge, and finding innovative solutions to big problems that the elites do nothing about. Uplifting local actions are blooming throughout our land, yet most people are unaware of them or the results: that people and communities everywhere are breaking the corporate chains that shackle them. 

Here are a few examples:

INEQUALITY. In 2014, American CEOs earned 350 times the average worker, creating the world’s greatest income gap–more than double that in Switzerland and Germany, and more than four times the norm in the UK and Japan. Washington’s response to the grotesque inequity that’s rending our nation has been to blow political hot air at it and hope it drifts away. It hasn’t. So, in December, the mayor and city council of Portland, Oregon, decided to stop talking about the ever-widening gap and actually try to shrink it. They added a surcharge to the local tax bill of any corporation that gives its top exec more than 100 times the median pay of its rankand-file employees, providing a financial incentive for corporate boards to seek some balance and at least to consider pay fairness. The main sponsor of the provision called it “The closest thing I’d seen to a tax on inequality itself.” The mayor called Portlanders problem solvers willing to tackle big issues and test new ideas that can be adapted and refined by others: “Local action replicated around the country can start to make a difference.”

"Two wrongs don't make a right, but three left turns do." --Jim Hightower

PUBLIC EDUCATION. With Betsy DeVos, the right-wing ideologue and billionaire Amway heiress, now about to lead an all-out Trumpster charge to destroy America’s public schools and privatize educational opportunity, what chance is there for school kids from low- and middle-income families? Don’t despair, for there is hope in local people’s common sense commitment to the common good, as presently being demonstrated in San Antonio, Texas. A few years ago, Mayor Julian Castro launched a democratic process for ordinary citizens to decide the best way for the city to invest in its future. After weeks of city-wide conversations about dozens of potential projects, San Antonians chose a single priority: Invest in our children’s future by providing quality, full-day, pre-kindergarten education for all four year olds. This was no small task, for the government of this extremely rich state is run by boneheaded tea-party Republicans who constantly shortchange our public school system and refuse to fund more than half-day pre-K programs. So where to get the money? The people did what the anti-public-school halfwits said would never happen–they taxed themselves, voting for a 1/8th of a cent sales tax hike that put $31 million a year into the successful experiment called Pre-K 4 SA. San Antonians recognize the wisdom of the old bumper sticker: “If you think educations is expensive, try ignorance.”

CORPORATE POWER. Trump and his likeminded Congress critters are gearing up to unleash corporate profiteers from practically all restraints that protect us ordinary people, our natural resources, and even our core values from their greed. But they might want to ponder how North Dakota voters reacted to a similar power play last year. At issue was a monumental 1932 state law that bans nonfamily corporate farm ownership, reflecting the people’s desire to maintain family farms, healthy rural communities, and sustainable agriculture practices. Nostalgic hogwash, growled Big Ag lobbyists, who got obsequious legislators and the corporate-funded governor to overturn the eight-decade-old ban on industrial ag. In turn, progressive forces, led by the North Dakota Farmers Union, plowed the grassroots, recruiting volunteers to put on last June’s ballot a referendum giving common voters the final say. And speak they did, loud and clear: 76 percent of North Dakotans rejected the corporate powers and the politicos who served them, restoring the outright ban on corporate-controlled farming.

HOMELESSNESS. This problem, we’re told by pious politicos, is impossible to cure, and so more and more cities are resorting to criminalizing people struggling to live on the streets. But wait, say proponents of a new way of thinking: Yes, some street people are addicts or mentally ill, but the vast majority are out there because they lost jobs, got hit with major medical bills, suffered family violence, or had other personal crises. And, get this, they’re homeless because they don’t have a place to live! Until the 1980s, when Ronald Reagan reduced tax incentives for developers to create low-income homes, America didn’t have mass homelessness. But now we’re millions of units short of housing that hard-hit people and families can afford. So why not address the cause?

Follow me from downtown Austin, Texas, to the eastern edge of Travis County, turn onto Hog Eye Road and go a short distance where you’ll come on a giant sign saying “WELCOME.” It fronts an astounding success named Community First! Village–a 27-acre, master-planned community (as opposed to temporary shelters) for 250 chronically homeless people–about a fourth of Austin’s street dwellers. It’s the creation of a small non-profit group, Mobile Loaves and Fishes, that’s richly rooted in the religious mission espoused in Jesus’s “Sermon on the Mount,” admonishing the faithful to serve the needy. Indeed, the village doesn’t proselytize, it serves– by providing a welcoming community of, by, and for the very people who have previously been publicly disparaged, shoved out of sight, and denied even minimal human dignity. Here, “home” is an eclectic collection of 140 micro-houses, each with a front porch to encourage engagement and communication with others. Rents are affordable, and all residents put their unique skills and talents to work–in the woodworking shop, gardens, chicken coops, medical facilities, an art trailer, communal kitchens, laundry, bee hive and aquaponics operations, an outdoor movie theater and 500-seat amphitheater for music and plays, or on the elected community council. By treating the people as valued assets rather than problems–then providing a secure and supportive community–the homeless can become their own solution. Imagine that!

Or imagine this: Instead of constantly conniving to stop poor people, minorities, students, et al. from voting, Oregon officials choosing to make democratic participation easy with automatic voter registration and mail-in ballots. Or a rich, white suburb and a neighboring urban community of mostly poor families (Morris Township, NJ) merging their school districts in a deliberate attempt to establish some racial and economic balance and striving to be “a model of diversity and togetherness.” Or cities around the country rejecting the tar sands and fracking wells of Big Oil’s climate-changing fossil fuels and following the energy/environmental sanity lead of Park City and Salt Lake City, Utah, by committing to move steadily away from fossil fuels and produce 100 percent of their electricity from renewable sources within the next 15 years (a goal already achieved in 2015 by Burlington, Vermont).

The list of progressive innovations at the grassroots level goes on and on, dealing with one big, complex issue after another that small-minded, corporatist ideologues refuse to tackle (often under the “principle” that government–i.e., the public, i.e., you and me –shouldn’t be involved). Not only should we, but we must, for our activism is the only hope of restoring America’s democratic principles and uniting ethic of the common good.

The place to focus our intense activism is where the action is already happening–right in the communities and states where we live. Yes, Trump, Inc. is out to turn Washington into a plutocratic Heart of Darkness and, yes, we must rally together to resist the horrors it promises. But our greatest strength is not in Washington rallies and protests–it’s in our ability to organize and mobilize masses of local people around issues of populist justice and progressive solutions, mounting campaigns all around the country to elect candidates, pass initiatives, and enact reforms in city halls, school boards, legislatures, and regulatory boards.

If we commit to steadily amassing a people’s movement–bigger and bolder than what the corporations and media deem possible or desirable–that movement can become the government.

[circumswoop]

Football Night in America 2: Always Concealing a Secret Doubt

Football Night in America

Jamie Lauren Keiles tweeted “as writers, as we look for opportunities to act, what we can do in the meantime is keep clear personal records of what reality is like now”. I’ve had multiple discussions with friends about the disability of push notifications during the neverending news drip, how it makes us crave distance and how that alone, itself, is alienating, that distance cld ever be a destination. Like flying just for the miles. What we cannot afford to be, as writers or as friends, is distal, even when the body is in decay. Decay doesn’t always hurt, as any dentist looks forward to telling you. Is it hard to stay together? Is staying together a viable form of organization? I texted Ben, how will our data plans ever survive any of this. He texted back, I’m afraid if I unplug from the tl I’ll wake up like Neo naked in a tub of fluid. This was right after I discovered the Russians are flexing on Ukraine again. Delimitation is more than a meme, or maybe not.

What is reality like now. It was Super Bowl weekend in America. The movie star quarterback of the Vegas favorites, praised as a superager and hated for his great qualities, was said to “choke up” when a little kid asked him who his hero is. The vegas favorites were the Patriots, whose name is fake, as proven by the WE ARE ALL PATRIOTS tagline on their merch. The debate over what constitutes fake news, to the extent such a debate is even being had in a society that is essentially debateless, keeps glossing over the cusps of it: that fake news has the same exquisite definition as mansplaining. Mansplaining is not telling a woman something she may not already know, it’s telling her something she already, for sure, knows. Fake news is not news you may not believe or may disagree with, it’s news you generate with the intent to mislead. Both mansplaining and fake news have the same rottenness at core: not just raw self-interest, but the overcompensation of people who believe themselves to be ahead when they are utterly behind. Why do you need to harangue a woman into submission? Because if you don’t, who else will. Like, that’s what the supremacist Right, and the misogynists who operate it, have always cudgeled as truth: that whites, and men especially, are permanently Ahead and enforcement is solely up to You. You are ahead, and you must stay that way. Always look over your shoulder, bc someone is definitely gaining on you.

Trump’s identification with the Patriots is irritating, if only bc Brady and Belichick are the great erotic male literary collaboration of our time.They proved this in the Super Bowl by first not playing to their audience (falling embarrassingly behind) and then playing overtly to their haters (by exerting an ethic that never confuses extraordinary force with medium-term precision). Twitter instantly fell apart with exasperated threads comparing the alleged trauma of this Super Bowl outcome with that of the Election, which is the Super Bowl for fat people.

Carly was the only other one for the Patriots in my closed circle. We agreed Tom Brady is handsome in the Adonisian sense, and not in the red-skinned bro-with-squinty-eyes sense like most jocks. He cld model! she gushed. Wokeness will only get you so far when it comes to American sports, and you can’t just show up for the day and rep the minority city. Atlanta is a new American beauty capital but if its athletes are demonstrably less terrible than Boston’s or anywhere else’s, I’d need to have a look at those findings.

As an extremely shallow person, one of the things that bothers me most about the new regime is how wholly, defiantly unhealthy everyone in it is. From the purple of Sean Spicer’s undereyes to the puce of his pursed lips, from Steve Bannon’s terminal unshavenness to the wattle every last one of them has, Rex W. Tillerson (W. for Wattle) as particular offender, cld their bathrooms all have lighting this bad? Do they not have access to leafy vegetables? Or purified drinking water? Yes, in America commenting on someone’s overt lack of health is definitely shallow, just as the right to look and be unhealthy is a certified letter of aggression. These people will play politics with their own bodies, and repulse us by any means necessary. While there may be something nice about current highly-paid NFL players having fat guts, there is also no word to describe how spectacularly out-of-shape former athletes get. And there should be.

What else was going on? Conrad and Angelo and I went to DJ Spinn’s birthday party at Tokyo Beat and watched the footwork dancers corkscrew themselves into bright bonfires of joy. Watching street dancers is strangely purifying, like thrown birdseed on your day. The bone-breakers on the Red Line haven’t been as active lately, and I wonder why. Maybe they formed a union and are now protected from their dazzling impromptu hat-in-hand protests, their sudden cleansing of the filthiness of the trains. The union will ensure that the bone-breakers and all the other street dancers are guaranteed compensation and health insurance for scapulas they might tear too far. Meanwhile, footwork dancing looks like a first-rate Chris Brown dream, can you tell I have zero clue how to technically break down forms of dance? I put them on an Instagram story but didn’t want the flash to distract so you couldn’t really see much. Conrad ordered a drink. Angelo disappeared into the crowd. I kept watching, mesmerized from the waist down.

Ben and I and two girls from Orange County I met in the Lyft Line went to see some guy play funk and disco records in a warehouse at 4 am. Going out when you’re this wobbly and constantly waiting for some kind of drop feels like when the Wi-fi goes out, like how can we occupy ourselves rn?? A sort-of drawn curtains mentality takes over, and you hope nobody sees you having even the most circumstantial kind of fun, but it’s necessary? Drugs and alcohol suck but at least they don’t lie abt it. Then I got home, or at this point the timeline collapses, but I got home and my Wi-fi really had gone out. It was just me and the Criterion Collection, like Lena Dunham in bed sick with mono in some kind of Google witch hunt.

Ignorant is the Western way of life. Richard Burton says that in The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, from the outré black and white universe of 1965. Burton acts from a denomination of power that’s no good anymore, but his restless methodism always finds the enemy like some kind of software. Geopolitics and instincts actually going together is one of the great reliefs of the period spy movie, and now they couldn’t be farther apart. Money has always been the only thing anyone cared abt, and yet the only thing anyone cares abt anymore being money still feels like a plot twist.

In one of those talks with friends, where we practically examine each other’s nail beds for signs of Nazi flesh, she named kleptocracy, autocracy, and fascism and told me no ontological database would support all three being true at once. I said Trump, simply as electoral phenomenon, produced the first two as fluid states, knowing the third would take care of itself. Some people just want to rise so high they don’t have to hate anymore—they can get people to do it for them. Ignorance has never been so much the Western way of life as with these old white people who elevate the unread brief to a form of pulp art, who are nevertheless hilariously, decrepitly, skull-clutchingly in charge of reality again—reality as unclear personal record. Trump, unlike Tom Brady, only thinks he’s a superager. Only white supremacy cld ever explain it, and only a parody of rectitude could ever intervene, interfere, and interlope as much as he and his nightmare of whiteness are.

Remember when the Feed was just libs talking abt television? Yeah, I almost miss it. Most of the television I have watched in 2017 is Hannibal, that hot flash of homoerotic giallo that somehow lasted three seasons on an American network. In the same manner of the Trumps looking rich only to the most depraved poor people, the character of Hannibal Lecter, with his spread collars and foodism, looks tasteful only to the most depraved rich people.

At one point on it, Hannibal tells Will that fanatics are always concealing a secret doubt, which I found amusingly “topical” but not enough to actually tweet it. Skip the blind, or bland, poetics of replacing “fanatics” with “all people” and a very clever recipe for coping emerges: whatever the fanatic says, know that in his heart he is always calling it wrong. That’s living under autocracy.

[piratefalls]

posting because my friend @ampersandy doesn’t have facebook anymore.

this is what i took from my experience at my local women’s march.

--

When I debated going back to college – a luxury I am lucky to have, especially with the knowledge that I will not be accruing new debt – I struggled with where I wanted my education to go. I had no idea what area of study I wanted to fall in, having too many interests that rarely intersect to decide on just one department. I applied anyway, knowing that at least being accepted gave me more options than I had as someone on the outside looking in. Most of the classes I was interested in were full by the time I was allowed to register, and one of the only classes left that I had any interest in was a Gender and Women’s Studies course titled: “Queer Lives, Queer Politics.”

After yesterday, I don’t believe that this was in any way a coincidence.

All semester long I learned about power structures, both social and legislative, that put certain groups of people at a disadvantage the further they are from that power source. That power source, generally speaking, is a white, able-bodied, straight, cisgender male. Are you a person of color? Take a step back. Are you employed? If you are, stay put. If not, take a step back. Are you poor? Take another step back. Are you disabled? How’s your access to healthcare? Higher education? Take a step back for every one of these things you do not have at your fingertips. That is your relationship to power and the people who have the most influence. I want to make this post, and my experience at yesterday’s Women’s March on Champaign-Urbana, about those power structures.

Yesterday, I stood in a muddy park on an unseasonably warm, beautiful January afternoon, surrounded by women of color, of different ability, of different socioeconomic status, of varying levels of education, women who are transgender, and I listened. I was given a reminder that I desperately needed.

This is about more than just fair wages, but I want to break something down here really quick. I know everyone gets tired of hearing the phrase: “for every dollar that a man makes, a woman makes $0.79.” This is both true and misleading. For every dollar that a man makes, a woman does make less. The year after President Obama signed the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act (2010), the statistics broke down as follows:

White men: 100 Black men: 74.5 Hispanic men: 65.9 White women: 80.5 Black women: 69.6 Hispanic women: 59.8

Wage discretion is real, but it is more real for people of color than it is for me.

This is about more than just sexual assault and rape. Now, if you know me at all, you know that violence against women is an issue I hold close to my heart, for reasons that don’t need to be rehashed here. But when we think about sexual assault and rape, what is the kind of person who comes to mind when you think of a victim? If you pay attention to the media at all, you probably imagine a white woman in her 20s. What they don’t tell you is that while 80% of all victims are white, minorities are somewhat more likely to be attacked. This breaks down as follows:

All: 17.6% (approx. 1 in 5) White: 17.7% Black: 18.8% Asian/Pacific Islander: 6.8% American Indian/Alaskan: 34.1% Mixed Race: 24.4%

And that doesn’t even include rape and sexual assault committed against men. Yes, women can be rapists too. According to a 2002 NCVS report, one in every eight rape victims were male. When we have a conversation about sexual assault and what needs to be done to end rape culture, we must include ALL victims, not just women. This also does not include rape and sexual assault committed against members of the trans community, which most studies reveal a whopping 50% will experience sexual violence at some point in their lifetime.

This is about more than reproductive rights. This is about access to life-saving healthcare. Viagra and vasectomies are covered by insurance plans, and no one bats an eye. When women want access to birth control, suddenly everyone is in a tizzy. You see what I’m getting at here? Dudes want to prevent pregnancy and that’s fine, but when we want to take control of our ability to get pregnant, suddenly we’re making irrational choices and need the government to intervene. Never mind the fact that the pill is not prescribed SOLELY to prevent pregnancy, but is also used in treatments for endometriosis, PCOS, and adult acne.

Also, please do actual research on Planned Parenthood, because they really are an incredible organization that provides sex education, whose goal is to reduce teen pregnancy through education, and provide women – a good portion of whom are low income and cannot afford hospital visits – with quality preventative healthcare like pap smears, mammograms, cancer screenings, and STD testing. If you can’t do it right now, that’s fine. In the meantime, let me give you a short primer: taxpayer money does not pay for abortions because Title X exists, abortions are 3% of their total services, and someone getting an abortion is none of your damn business anyway.

This is about more than just an Electoral College-elected leader we feel does not represent us. Or, at least, represents some of us. “How did this happen?” we kept asking ourselves on November 9. “Aren’t we better than this?” I thought we were, too. But, again, that’s my privilege speaking.

However – and this is something I find incredibly interesting – the exit polls of this most recent election tell a very interesting story. Most of the people I saw on Facebook after the election who were angry, or saddened, or just lamenting the fact that we’d elected probably the least qualified individual in recent history to our highest government position, were predominantly white. You want to know who put him in office? Predominantly white people. Exit polls in CNN show that 62% of white men and 52% of white women voted for Trump, with only 7% and 5% voting for neither candidate or not voting at all, respectively. Everyone else – black men and women, Latino men and Latina women, and other minority groups – overwhelmingly voted Clinton or didn’t vote for either/vote at all. I’m still trying to parse how I feel about this one, honestly, but I’m sure I’ll let you guys know when I figure it out.

I wanted to believe that we were better than a person who sought to divide us under the guise of making this country great again. America is, and can be, great, despite the fact that its history has not always been great. I know, I know, “We weren’t part of slavery, so why do I still have to defend myself against it? I didn’t kill all those Native Americans when Columbus sailed the ocean blue!”

First of all, DUH. You were born in 1993. This is hardly something I can put solely on your shoulders. BUT - and this is the part we struggle with - these terrible things ARE part of this country’s history, and we DO have to own that. Do we have to be proud of it? No. In fact, I’d encourage you to not be proud of it. However, as a historical moment, are we not supposed to learn from it? Are we not meant to arm ourselves with information so that we do not repeat what’s been done? That is why these conversations still take place: because we keep forgetting.

What this is about is togetherness. This is about recognizing where your place is in this world and using it in whatever way you can to lift up those who are not as fortunate as you. This is about the importance of mobilization. It is about feminism that is not limited to just white women, but is inclusive of all people regardless of gender expression, sexual orientation, race, creed, socioeconomic status, and physical ability. This is about the importance of knowing when to speak and when to sit down and listen; the importance of me, as a white woman, knowing my place at a table that is not designed to make me feel comfortable, or congratulate me for finally catching up with everyone else, but rather teach me how I can be better even if it involves hearing hard truths. My job, as a white woman, is to listen, to get educated, and to amplify the voices of women and men throughout history that our textbooks have silenced for far too long.

This is about learning the meaning of true ally-ship, that not all things are about you, but are about others and how you can do something that benefits them. Being an ally is hard work, and it’s supposed to be. We must not let our sisters be swept aside because of their skin, or their queerness, or their religion or ability or the life she chooses to lead. We must embrace them, encourage them, raise their voices when they are not being heard. True equality cannot be achieved until we are ALL equal players on the same field, in all facets of life, status, and government. We do not yet have these things.

Being brave is not about convenience. Being brave means stepping up to the plate even when it’s hard, when there’s nothing in it for you, when it scares you. Being brave is a lot of things, but it has never been, nor will it ever be, easy. I will be the first to admit that I have not always been brave. But I am going to try. I’m going to get more involved. I’m going to be a voice, a mouthpiece for other women who need to be heard much more than I do.

Whether you believe it or not, as a white individual, you ARE privileged. Having the luxury of not noticing that privilege is something women of color, trans women, poor women, and disabled women do not have.

At the end of all of this, all I’m asking is that you think about where you stand in this world, and the power you hold simply by existing. Have you ever gone to sleep wondering where your next meal will come from? Have you ever gone to sleep cold because you couldn’t pay your bills? Have you ever missed out on important moments in your kid’s lives because you had to work to make sure they were fed? Have you ever been followed around in a shopping mall because someone decided that YOU were the sketchy person they needed to police that day? If you haven’t experienced these things, you might be privileged.

The question is: what will you do with it?

[compare-wp10]

Censorship Has Mutated During Coronavirus Pandemic

See on Scoop.it - COMPARE RISK COMMUNICATION

Censorship, Pandemic Style Censorship is unfortunately alive and well during this pandemic madness, taking on a variety of mutated forms as it participates in the various rights-trampling parades going on in America. We have seen the petty tyrant governors and mayors use this time to overreach and cavalierly brush aside constitutional rights in the name of safety. The First Amendment has been particularly roughed up, with the free exercise of religion, free speech, and the right to peaceably assemble all taking major hits. Matt Taibbi — not exactly a rightwing stalwart — warned last month of what he called the “Inevitable Coronavirus Censorship Crisis.” He was responding to a rather insane and disturbing article in The Atlantic that was basically making the case for adopting a more ChiCom approach to dealing with internet speech. That’s right, a venerable American publication was advocating for more censorship. The ChiComs themselves aren’t letting the crisis go to waste. Pro-commie establishment members of Hong Kong’s parliament are pushing legislation to censor and punish any language mocking the mainland’s national anthem. As I wrote last weekend, social media platforms are using the pandemic as an excuse to censor any voices that run counter to the preferred narrative. There is to be no real free speech or debate about how we should proceed through each new phase of dealing with the pandemic. Each of the major platforms has opted to be tools of the various states and prop up whichever arbitrary shutdown rules are in place. The media bias we’ve seen during all of this is a perverse sort of self-censorship that the MSM hacks are doing to themselves. They’ve been running with whatever the official word from China is, and surely they know that the censoring is kind of baked into the cake with that deal. It’s always amazing to see American “journalists” be drawn to the types of ideologues who would be the first to shut them down. This may not be directly related to the coronapocalypse, but it happened on Monday. The United Nations took some time to offer the great unwashed a list of words that we should no longer say. I’m not really sure which part of the UN’s charter lays out why it should be in the censor game, but then I still haven’t figured out what in the hell they have to do with climate change. The shutting down of church services is a form of censorship as well, and I can’t help but believe that the Democratic governors have enjoyed keeping the church folk away from worship just a little too much. Thankfully, saner legal heads seem to be prevailing on that front in the last couple of weeks. The policing of speech had become worrisome long before this pandemic hit us. The danger now is obviously having some of these more tyrannical types make some new permanent censorship rules. Speech that’s censored today may very well remain censored when we emerge from this rough patch. I’ve been fighting censorship since I first started doing stand-up and it’s a battle I’m willing to wage until they find a way to shut me up. PC Police Step Up Efforts to Completely Ruin Stand-Up Comedy This Ought to Work Out Well Many low-wage workers earn more on unemployment than in their former jobs https://t.co/jMwBs9efgG pic.twitter.com/7iKO5Hq9KX — CBS News (@CBSNews) May 19, 2020 PJM Linktank My Tuesday column: My Last ‘Obama Is the Worst’ Column This Month (I Think) HILARIOUS: Trump Campaign Mocks Biden. Journalists Don’t Get the Joke Texas Reopens. What’s Really Happening With Its COVID-19 Numbers? Sheriff Revolts Against Lockdown: ‘We Are Not Stormtroopers. We Are Peacekeepers’ And not just for fun. Wow! Guess Who’s Taking Hydroxychloroquine? Donald Trump! God wins. Again. Hallelujah! Church Lawsuit Forces Oregon Governor to Re-Open EVERYTHING Ben Sasse Picks the Correct Fight With His Democrat Challenger Shock! Pensacola Shooter Turns Out to Be Al-Qaeda Operative Who Plotted His Attack for Years SANITY: New Jersey Gym Owner Defies Lockdown Order and Cops Refuse to Stop Him The Real Coronavirus Timeline Liberals Don’t Want You To See China Threatened Dan Crenshaw. Now He’s Demanding Sanctions. Attorney General Barr Just Made Major News on ‘Obamagate.’ You’ll Want to Sit Down for This Trump Didn’t Botch the Coronavirus Response, Andrew Cuomo Did VodkaPundit: China Orders New Wuhan Virus Lockdown Because They Beat COVID-19, Honest Quarantine them in a jail. Why Did New York Infect America With Coronavirus? New Report Blames Cuomo, de Blasio FBI ‘Mistakenly’ Reveals Identity of Saudi Diplomat Suspected of Aiding 9/11 Jihadis Anti-Lockdown Champion Elon Musk Just Picked a Side and It’s Glorious Obama Fired an Inspector General to Cover Up a Sex Scandal and No One Said Boo About It Liberals’ Direct Cash Payments Promise to Do to Main Street What They’ve Done to the Black Community: Crush It ‘Joe Has Absolutely No Idea What’s Happening’ It Is Very Strange That General Flynn Was Unmasked Almost 50 Times VIP VodkaPundit, Part Deux: Giving Government the Finger: Americans Ending the Shutdown on Our Own Terms VIP Gold The Tragic End to Deshone Kizer’s NFL Career…And It Began Where QBs Usually Go to Die The Emotional Toll Social Distancing Has Taken on People Should Not Be Underestimated From the Mothership and Beyond I like this story. The internal watchdogs Trump has fired or replaced Excellent. Oklahoma Governor Signs Bill Banning Red Flag Laws School District’s Fight For Armed Teachers Heads To OH Supreme Court NZ Gun Crime Rates Soar Following Gun Bans GOP Governors Rip McConnell Challenger for Partisan Attack Ad I’ll binge-watch this. Graham Moves to Subpoena Brennan, Clapper and Other Major ‘Obamagate’ Players Pelosi’s Strange Reason for Not Wanting Trump to Take Hydroxychloroquine Katie Hill Threw a Tantrum Because Republican Mike Garcia Won Her Vacant Seat Rep. Jim Banks: ‘Shameful’ Dems Are Focused on Going After Trump Instead of Holding China Accountable Leader McConnell Taps Rubio to Lead Senate Intelligence Committee Amid Burr Investigation The Misleading Attack From CNN’s ‘Reliable Sources’ on Fox News’ Coverage on Flynn and COVID-19 Petty Tyrant Update. Ohio Governor Reveals How State Will Respond to Businesses Not Complying with Restrictions WATCH: Crowd Cheers New Jersey Police After They Refuse to Cite Violators of Lockdown Order Trump to the WHO: I’ll Permanently Pull U.S. Funds From the Organization Unless… James Woods: Trump ‘Loves America More Than Any President in My Lifetime,’ Obama Admin Was ‘Scum and Villainy’  Twitch Thots are Horrible but They’re a Symptom, Not a Disease When Even CNN Gets There’s a Problem in the Flynn Case, But the Judge Doesn’t, You Know It’s a Problem LA County Public Health Director Isn’t an M.D.; Why Do These Official Websites Say She Is? Petty Tyrant Update II. Bill de Blasio Threatens Fences Around NYC Beaches and Warns Swimmers They’ll be ‘Taken Right Out of the Water’ Kira Davis: I Don’t Want To See One More Damn Coronavirus Commercial #MouthBarf: Who’s Ready For Michelle Obama’s “Prom-Athon” With MTV? Um…Feminist Susan Faludi: “Believe All Women” Is A Right-Wing Straw Man That Liberals Don’t Actually Embrace Navarro: Let’s Face It, The CDC “Really Let The Country Down” In The COVID-19 Crisis Eric Trump: Dems Have A Very Deliberate Strategy To Use Social Distancing Rules To Prevent Trump From Holding Rallies Gov. Gavin Newsom, ready to lay off first responders, kicks off coronavirus assistance for illegal aliens He’s not owned! He’s not owned! Ezra Klein corncobs himself trying to pretend he didn’t get trolled by Trump campaign’s ‘Truth Over Facts’ site Losing. Their. MINDS! Chris Cillizza calls Trump ‘an unlikable jerk that gets stuff done’ and the Left breaks out pitchforks and torches Oh. 2 professors warn using wedding pictures as Zoom background is a “microaggression” Poland marks centenary of St. John Paul’s birth Bee Me Back To Normal: Conservatives Go To Work While Liberals Stay Home https://t.co/GKabQNFVrM — The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) May 18, 2020 The Kruiser Kabana pic.twitter.com/cq0yyGR9yy — Archillect (@archillect) May 19, 2020 Let’s treat Taco Tuesday with the reverence it deserves, people. ___ Kruiser Twitter Kruiser Facebook PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear every Tuesday and Friday.

[weewu]

Co-founder of HugProperty Shares About The Pattern of Dodgy Property Agents

Article Contributed by PropertyHug

Co-authored by Mr. Ku Swee Yong, Co-founder of HugProperty with Janice Chin Li Ping, undergraduate from the Department of Real Estate, National University of Singapore. 

In today’s competitive services market, real estate agents are not only caught in the strife of industry competition, they also have to grapple with being made redundant by technology. To say that there are many real estate agents in Singapore is an understatement — there are more than 28,000 licensed agents or about 1 agent serving every 140 residents; and this is probably the principal cause of the stiff competition in the industry. The competition is exacerbated by the growing number of buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants who opt for self-service through web applications. We are concerned that some agents have compromised their integrity and their “duty of care” for their clients in order to trump the competition.

Infographic 1: Summary of the key points in the article . Image: HugProperty

So, buyers, sellers, landlords and tenants: beware! We want to highlight to you that many of the listings on property portals and websites are not real. Those seemingly attractive and enticing deals may just be potholes for you to step into. We have encountered several of these unfortunate events ourselves, and in this article, we highlight some red flags that you should keep a lookout for. It is vital that you take precaution to ensure that you do not fall into the traps created by a few crafty agents.

Scenario A — Fake news and listings are increasingly common: The agent you call does not have an actual listing of the property you saw online.

  A property listing is an advertisement of a property that is put up for sale or for lease. Listings may appear on property portals or in traditional print media, such as the classified ads in the newspapers. Sellers and landlords may appoint one or more licensed real estate agents to list the properties to attract buyers and tenants. Conversely, buyers and tenants may also engage real estate agents to source for suitable properties that meet their budgets and needs.

  To think that all listings of properties are genuine and available at any point in time is to picture a world of sunshine and rainbows. The sad truth is: there are many cases of fake listings put up to bait direct buyers and tenants.

  We term these fake listings “imitations”. Why so? They look almost identical to other real listings, but upon careful inspection, something may be amiss. These imitations sometimes use photos or descriptive information copied from listed properties posted by other property agents. Sometimes, even after a property has been sold, unscrupulous agents might copy the property’s photos for use in their fake listings. We have experienced several of such cases and we have highlighted these imitations to the owners of the apartments. These agents would quickly remove the imitations after the owners have called to inquire if the agents were given the permission to represent them for sale or for rent.

Usually, imitations use very attractively low prices to entice buyers and tenants because they look like “good deals that should not be missed”. Then when direct clients call these agents to enquire, the usual responses are that the property is “sold” or “taken” or “no longer available”, and the agents will immediately ask, “May I show you another apartment in the same block?” If the agent received calls from other property agents who are representing buyers, they either do not pick up the calls or they do not return calls. This is commonly seen in districts 9, 10 and 11 where transaction values are higher and the probability of attracting unsuspecting foreign buyers and tenants is likewise higher. Higher value properties also translate to a higher quantum of the 1% agent fees, which is sufficiently rewarding for the agents to put in efforts to pull such tricks.

  We estimate that up to 20% of the listings posted online are not genuine. The percentage could be higher for luxury developments. Buyers who receive such replies from agents should immediately congratulate the agent that the property is already sold or leased out, and then hang up the phone. To avoid being further prospected by that agent, buyers would do well to appoint a trustworthy agent to do their home search. Let your agent represent you and let him sieve out and deal with the numerous imitations in the property portals.

  Scenario B — The agent has actual properties to list, but the information is misleading

  Fake-lister agents deliberately post listings of properties with incredibly low prices to attract direct buyers and tenants. Unsuspecting buyers and tenants will then ring the agents up because they may reflect the lowest dollar per square foot price ($psf) or rental for that condominium unit. The $psf may give a different impression in different contexts. For example, if a buyer wishes to compare prices in the same district or perhaps properties with similar attributes but in different condominium blocks, $psf will be a key metric in measuring the relative value of the properties. Merely showing the buyers how cheap a property is based on $psf comparisons without describing much about the size and layout of the property does not reveal much about whether the property is really well-priced.

  The buyer may see an advertisement for a 750 sqft apartment for sale at $980psf (i.e. $735,000) in a condominium where the average transacted prices in the last year were around $1,200 psf. It gives the impression of a $220 psf discount from the recent transacted average. However, only when the buyer views the apartment will he realise that the very “cheap” 750 sqft apartment is a shoebox unit with 450 sqft of built-in area, a 260 sqft patio and another 40 sqft air-conditioner ledge. Or it could be a “penthouse” unit with 400 sqft of built-in area, a 300 sqft roof terrace and a 50 sqft stairwell. The low $psf price is deliberately highlighted to create the impression that the property is a great buy. Buyers and tenants, do take note! Many other variations of the same pattern exist. Most times, information that is not revealed is more important than information that is highlighted.

  While some agents withhold information, other agents offer a lot of information about the properties to show how knowledgeable they are about a particular condominium or district. They would purposely post many listings in a particular district they claim to be active in, to impress upon prospective buyers and tenants that they “specialise” in that neighbourhood. Unsuspecting clients may be dazzled by these agents, but tell-tale signs could be seen from their overenthusiasm. For example, in a listing for a condominium in Sentosa Cove, the agent included a description “near HarbourFront MRT Station”. An agent who understands the needs of the residents in Sentosa Cove will not highlight the MRT station, and will certainly not say that HarbourFront Station is near.

  While we would love to believe that some agents are really familiar with certain districts or market segments, we need to be mindful that many of them just want to create that impression so that they have a higher chance of being contacted by prospective clients.

  We have merely touched on a handful of examples of the many patterns we have encountered. To discuss all the cases we regularly see will require too many pages. The ultimate aim of these agents is simple: to cut out other agents in order to get direct clients to call them, to swing these clients to their own actual listings or to get the clients to appoint them as a buyer’s representative.

Unfortunately, in trying to outwit the competition, they create misinformation in the market.

  In the speech on Budget 2017, the Minister of State for National Development Dr Koh Poh Koon spoke about how “it may be more important for property agents now to hone their skills in servicing clients and building up their credentials rather than just competing on marketing and closing transactions.” We wish that more agents will adopt this attitude and compete on service, rather than conjuring smoke and mirrors.

      We at HugProperty are deeply concerned about the clients’ interest and we wrote this piece to raise awareness about the patterns displayed by dodgy agents to fend off competition. We recommend clients to carefully select an agent that they feel comfortable with and to appoint the agent exclusively to represent them, whether it is for a property search (for purchase or rent), or to list a property (for sale or let). The appointed agent will be fully motivated to represent the clients’ best interests and diligently assist clients in marketing or searching for properties.

  More importantly, your exclusive agent will be able to ward off the dodgy agents with colourful patterns.

  P.S: While we were researching and preparing this article, the Council for Estate Agencies published a disciplinary case in their 02/2017 newsletter titled “Cost of misleading and false ads – $17,500”. The CEA highlighted several cautionary points arising from the errant property agent’s actions: placing fake or dummy advertisements, placing advertisements without property owners’ consent and omitting mandatory details in advertisements. Readers who are keen to know more about the case may refer to the online newsletter here: https://www.cea.gov.sg/docs/default-source/module/newsletter/2-2017/website/cost-ofmisleading-and-false-ads.html

  Co-founder of HugProperty Shares About The Pattern of Dodgy Property Agents was originally published on The Neo Dimension

[irsmedic]

Alright, I have to make a confession: there's no such thing as a perfect tax firm. Are some inherently better than others? You better believe it. But there's not going to be a firm that fits every person in every situation. Instead, certain firms match well with certain people at certain walks in life dealing with certain tax problems. I only use so many "certains" because the details of your situation are so important in finding the firm that can best represent your interests. So, seeing as you're reading this article, I'm going to imagine that you have decided that you need to hire a tax attorney to represent you in your battle against the IRS. Maybe you have been trying to fight the IRS yourself or maybe you've hired representation that is clearly over-matched. Regardless of your situation, let me just start off by saying that we may not be the tax attorneys you are looking for! What we do at Parent & Parent LLP, the IRSMedic, is fix big IRS offshore and domestic tax problems. Over the years we've gotten thousands of emails and phone calls from people for which we simply weren't the right firm. So, for those of you trying to figure out what exactly you should be looking for in your hired representation, this article is for you!

Tax law is not universal

There are many colors in the tax-attorney rainbow. My firm specializes in resolving offshore tax problems, high-income audits, payroll taxes, unfiled taxes, and criminal case support. However, we are NOT the firm for property tax disputes or 1031-exchanges. It's imperative that the firm you decide to hire is a dynamo in their respective specializations. Have they done a particular type of case (namely yours) before? Have they done it more than once? Ten times? Five hundred times? Clearly finding someone who could work through your case in their sleep is what you're after. Someone who knows the ins and outs of a specific sector of tax law is going to make your rough road as smooth as possible.

The worst thing you can do is hire an attorney who has absolutely no idea how to treat your case. Not only will they likely tick off the workers at the IRS, but they might miss important deadlines, fail to fill out necessary forms, and skip over the nuances that can help you save a significant amount of money. At IRSMedic, we regularly have people call in and ask us to take on a case in an area of tax law that we don't handle. The last thing we want to do is pretend to be something we're not, so we're happy to help point them in the right direction for finding an attorney that suits their situation.

Why should you pay when mistakes aren't your fault?

We have taken countless cases where a taxpayer tried to get legal help and was let down. It's a sad routine, but we regularly see mistakes made by legal representation that make up a significant part of their clients' bills. And then, when the mistake is brought to light, we've seen firms bill their clients to correct those errors. There's a major problem there. You're trying to avoid financial ruin, the hired firm is failing to do their job properly, and then they have the gall to charge you for fixing it. Something about that automatically discredits a firm in my eyes. And by "something," I mean the entire thing. That's simply not how you treat people.

We've seen too many horror cases involving rapidly ballooning legal fees as dishonest tax attorneys heavily pad their bills. For us, since we focus on being Effective, it is easy for us to warranty our work. Even when the IRS processes something incorrectly (which happens all the time), you are not charged for it. When searching for representation, a warranty is always a good sign. Someone who has the confidence to guarantee their work is the same kind of person who is going to get it right the first time.

Maybe I'm a little biased, but my opinion has always been that the best tax attorneys are usually winners of notable awards.

When hiring representation, keep Rocky in mind

A good firm will fight for you. There's a correct way to battle the IRS, and it doesn't involve bullying, yelling, or underhanded tactics. What it does require is an attorney to actually stand up and confidently articulate the precise reasons why, with abundant supporting documentations and a strong knowledge of the law behind them, the proposed solution is the best possible outcome. You're looking for that one-two punch of confidence and expertise.

From my experience, there are too many tax professionals afraid of hurting the IRS's feelings. In certain types of tax law, like tax planning or research, this doesn't usually have any outright consequences. Yet, with IRS tax problems, you may very well need to fight the IRS on an issue that can have huge consequences if you don't stand up for yourself.

Right now -- despite the recent host of IRS scandals concerning the illegal targeting of political opponents -- many, many tax professionals are still defending the IRS. It seems to me that the people defending the IRS aren't the type of people you want actively making a push for your future.

Specialization leads to elite talent

A big law firm may be your best option if they already handle some of your affairs, you feel that they treat you fairly, and you have an established relationship with them. However, there is a rather steep learning curve to tax resolution, so hopefully they will be honest with you about their level of expertise and won't bill you for their time to get up-to-speed. You want to pay someone to fix your problem, not learn how to fix it.

Finding a firm that specializes in the same factors as those of your case is the best place to start. Specializing in a certain sector of law gives you constant experience in that area. Practice makes perfect, so the more cases that have been handled, the more expertise is available to quickly resolve surprises as they pop up. Experience isn't always a perfect indicator, as will be discussed below, but it definitely shows a trend in the right direction.

In-house trumps outsourced

From my experience, CPAs are fine, but they are no substitute for legal advice or advocacy. On the other hand, many law firms cannot prepare tax returns or develop case support. That leads them to rely on each other. While you may trust the law firm you just hired, if they aren't able to prepare the returns themselves, then you're forced to trust that their CPA is a) skilled and b) competent. Even if you have the best attorney in the world, a mediocre CPA can negatively swing the resolution.

In the constant pursuit of being the perfect firm (even when there is no perfect firm, why not strive to be the best?), we've established a dominant accounting team at IRSMedic. Having our accountants as part of our highly vetted team means that they are constantly available to work in conjunction with us. Not only that, but being able to walk down the hall and speak with someone in person is a lot more efficient and effective than a long chain of emails. If we aren't the right firm for you, then I would still advise you to try and find a firm that takes care of the entire case, from start to finish, with an in-house staff.

Fees aren't always as they seem

Well, by now you've probably noticed that I talk a lot about fees. This focus begs us to ask one simple question, "Why?" Honestly, it's simple. One of the main concerns I hear from friends, family, and clients is that attorney fees are so high. Instead of dancing around the topic and keeping it taboo, I think it's important to discuss. When dealing with the IRS, the stakes are high. Therefore, any information that can be of use should be readily available; this includes how much it costs to hire proper representation.

First, know that experience by itself is no measure of competency. We all know this, don't we? There are experienced hacks in this world, right? There are burned-out souls with tons of experience who just want the day to be over. Do you want someone like this on your side? In order to have competency as well, there has to be interest and passion to add to that experience. You want your attorney to jump out of bed, day after day, and do a quick bout of shadow boxing in preparation of a day of throwing down with the IRS. So yes, while it's definitely possible for someone with less experience to handle a case, that doesn't mean it's the best option. If they have passion, but no experience to help them aim their focus, then they're likely to make some missteps along the way. It's important that an attorney has a combination of the two in order to give you the best chance at a positive resolution.

One final warning: If you are seeking a low-cost tax attorney, be sure they are actually a legal attorney. Many firms pose as tax attorneys even though they don't know the first thing about tax law. And some tax resolution firms are devious and will say something misleading like, "We have attorneys who work for us," as a clever way of saying, "No." Stay on your toes.

It's up to you to decide

Our mission is to help as many people as possible. The IRS is out-of-control, and your life can seem that way too when you can't seem to put a tax problem to rest.

We give away as much information as we can and want to help as many people as want to be helped. Please take advantage of that information and use it to find the best representation for your case. And, if you ever feel overwhelmed and want to see if our firm might be a good fit for you, don't hesitate to reach out. We're always happy to see if we'll be a good fit.