#when i did it in 2020 the three words i got were humanity socialism justice in 2022 i got equality justice humanity i havent really changed

[maddy-ferguson]

my politiscales😭 98% internationalism 0% nationalism idgaf about borders and nation states i'm a true citizen of the world

[onisiondrama]

(Note: I’m not repeating stories he’s told before and just putting them in parenthesis. I have a lot more videos to go until I’m caught up so that would save me a lot of time. If he gives details I never heard from him before, I will type those.)

“Should I Get A Divorce?” Speaks,  Oct 6, 2020

- This video is weird. He’s trying to make himself seem smart and insightful about marriage because his marriage is “successful”, while most people complain about their marriage. - There’s one part where he says people don’t understand you don’t have to be lied to or cheated on in a relationship. Which is pretty ironic coming from him. He shows a clip of an upset wife asking her husband what he’s doing with a woman in a bedroom. The husband and the woman are getting dressed. The husband keeps asking “Who?” “What?”, pretending the woman isn’t there. Later he shows more of the clip where the wife is still questing him. He keeps pretending he doesn’t know what she’s talking about. She looks in the bedroom again and the woman is gone. The wife looks confused. Love that gaslighting. Just like when Jamsey boi cheats. “I didn’t cheat. It was the other person who cheated on you, my spouse” “You said I can’t have oral or vaginal sex with your friend. You didn’t say anything about anal.” - In another part he says there are people who constantly complain about their s/o and they hide away in a man cave.. he says this while in his garage man cave. 😑 Which we know he spends most of his time in. Like, way longer than normal working hours.  - He says he used to look angry in his old Speaks videos because of his marriage at the time. That’s total crap. He only shows clips from videos where he used his old militant persona for videos like his anti-meat videos. He made plenty of mushy Speaks videos talking about how happy he was with Skye back then too. 🙄 - I think he made this video during his short guru / advise phase.

“gotta say goodbye for a little bit” Speaks, October 8, 2020

- Tells his viewers they can listen to this video without watching it if they like to listen to people talk, like Kai used to do. [This is definitely meant to be another guru / advise type video. I can tell by his tone.] - Says he’s married to Kai for almost 8 years. (How Kai found James story) Says he married a fan and had children with them. He says they now have an awesome dynamic, but he knocks on wood because people who are together 18 years still get divorces. Says you never know, things can suddenly fall apart. - Says it’s cool because at the time he didn’t listen to social standards. Kai was 17 at the time, but lied about his age. Most people would have said don’t go for the relationship because Kai lied and the age gap, even though it was legal. He listened to the law and his heart and now he’s in the happiest marriage of his life. - “F society.” If he listened to society, he wouldn’t know where he’d be or what relationship he’d be in. Says you have to follow the legal system or your life is ruined. - Says he was an air force cop at one point because he believed in justice. He doesn’t think he wanted to shoot people, but he excelled in the cop program. He says he met Magic Johnson in the cafeteria at Lackland Air Force Base. He barely knew who Magic Johnson was, but he thought it was cool a famous basketball player was there. James asked him if he could take a picture and he said yes. He says he took a picture of him like a reporter and not a selfie. He still regrets that. - Says he wants to talk about the future of this channel. Some people appreciate he’s been uploading every day, but he wants to focus on sites that aren’t shadow banning people or algorithmically demoting people. He feels like Youtube is king in letting negative opinions prevail, even if it’s invalid. If the engagement shows people are mad at you, Youtube used to go the harsh truth route. He says that was nice. He says he once made a fake meltdown video in response to a video Leafy made about him. He says it’s fun for him to make fake meltdowns. - He says he and Kai took a quiz today and found out Kai’s IQ is 136 and his is 129, so Kai is smarter than him. - After the meltdown videos, Youtube algorithm didn’t favor him as much. He says maybe it was because he said they were fake. - He says he has been thinking about websites and how they treat users. Says Twitter is one the best because they don’t care about what your opinion is. They just care about their rules. Says if people don’t like you on other sites, they will shadow-ban you and you’re done for. He says his reaction video to Leafy’s video got 1/6th the views Leafy did, so there was a bleed over of traffic. Now when someone says something negative about you, YouTube will only promote videos that agree with that narrative. Says if you only want to hear negative stuff about Joe Biden, you’ll only see negative stuff. He says it’s financially productive, but it’s not ethically productive.

[I just want to pause here and vent a second. Yes, James fell out of the YouTube algorithm, but he’s had plenty of chances to sweep back into it. Like when he was getting tons of views on those fake meltdown videos in January. The reason those viewers didn’t stay is because there is nothing good for them to watch. His Speaks videos are boring, long, rambling messes. He repeats himself, contradicts himself, talks about the same topics over and over. These videos are mind-numbingly boring. His comedy videos are extremely outdated. The characters, topics, and humor he uses are not going to get him anywhere anymore. Like is the Death Note fandom really that strong in 2020? That anime came out 14 years ago for Christ sake. His music is not particularly good or interesting. On top of all this, his reputation is complete garbage.

People just don’t want to watch Onision. If the algorithm tried promoting his Speaks videos, I guarantee most people are actively choosing not to click on his videos. The non-subscribers that do click probably regret it. He’s made ZERO effort into making interesting or engaging content. He’s ONLY been making Speaks content that either fuels his ego or defends himself using the same old arguments he’s used 100+ times before. He’s got to be in some kind of deep denial if he thinks his Youtube views are down because of the algorithm. 

There used to be a saying that whenever Onision’s fans grow out of him, there will always be a crop of young teens that start watching him. That’s not happening anymore. It’s not cool for the alt / loner kids to watch edgy Youtube videos anymore.]

- Says people only want to hear things they agree with, people want to take what he says out of context, blah, blah. I’m only 1/4th of the way through this damn video. - He asks why he’s busting his butt when there’s no chance for him to prevail on Youtube or anywhere. He says he’s on TikTok, OnlyFans, Twitch. [This video was from before his partnership was taken away on Twitch.] He says those are slightly less problematic because they are driven by human beings and not drama. - He says when you see him posting less to Youtube in the future, you’ll understand why. He says he wants to wait you guys out, 2 years, 20 years. (He tried to call out Shane story.) He says he had to wait a year or two until people admitted he was right about Shane. He says he has conflicting feeling about Shane because they had a personal friendship. Says Shane told him they were friends. - He says you guys seem to drive your narrative and agendas by emotion rather than science and facts. He can’t reason with them unless he picked a greater evil and wages war on that. You would have to join forces with him because the enemy of my enemy is my friend. He says he wouldn’t do that because he’s not interested in being a professional wrestler and making fake drama. - In time you will feel passionately about other things. You don’t actually care about anyone involved because none of you are consuming yourself with anything that is not pop culture. You’re only interested in things other people are pretending to care about. None of you would care if someone found three bodies in a basement. If they were not celebrities you wouldn’t care. You only want justice for things that will get you attention. - If someone builds their whole platform about anti-person they might get bored and become anti-you. That’s why you don’t want to be friends with dramatic people. - He says he was dramatic about things, but that’s because he did care about those things. He wasn’t talking about 3 bodies in the basement either. - Says a long time ago when a celebrity died, he pointed out 30 people were murdered and washed ashore in another country. No one was talking about it because they probably didn’t hear about it. Nobody actually cares about human lives. If you did, every second that a human dies you’d be tweeting about it. - (Sarah blackmail story.) He says in a number of words Sarah said she wouldn’t ruin his life if she slept with him, then went back on it. [Wow. He really morphed his original story. It used to be: One time she jokingly said she could ruin our lives. Later we wanted her to sign an NDA and she said only if she gets something out of it, meaning sex. James said it was “good vibes” that day and he perceived that as her being kinky. She also said it was just a joke in the “proof” clip he always uses. They signed the NDA, then James pressured / tricked Kai into having sex with himself and Sarah. Then Sarah later came back and he decided they should have anal while Kai was out of town because Kai didn’t say no genital to butt. He only said no genital to genital and no genital to mouth before he left.] He says he decided to no longer sleep with Sarah because it was toxic and he decided he would rather be ruined than be with Sarah. [I have a theory he stopped sleeping with Sarah because he was afraid of Kai finding out. If he was truly afraid of Sarah ruining his life, why did he make those videos about weed smokers and BPD that would piss her off? She didn’t speak about their relationship publicly until he started bashing her through those videos.] Says Sarah went ahead and ruined his life and you fell for it. - He keeps mentioning Joe Rogan. - He says others have said he built an empire, uploaded thousands of videos. He gave so much of his life entertaining people and making them laugh. It was so important to him. He changed a lot of lives for the better. Says if you look on Twitter before the drama, you’ll see a lot of people thanking him. Says he was a positive influence to millions of people. That’s a fact. It all came crumbling down because people lied. They’re all criminals he kicked out of his life. He tries to play hero and he was only right with Kai. Kai wasn’t playing victim, he was on his way to college to be a surgeon. Once he was in the process of having kids, he lost the taste to be in a surgery room. Instead he got a bachelor’s in psychology. Kai’s diagnosis of James is aspects of narcissism, but says he doesn’t meet the qualifications to be a full blown narcissist. - He is investing a lot of time in people who don’t listen and don’t appreciate his content. Social media is a drug that tries to take up as much of your time as possible to make advertisers money. He doesn't create content that lies to you or brainwashing you into thinking your opinion is valid. He doesn’t pander to you to make money. Says when he says he’s one of the most honest people on Youtube, the bar is low. OnisionSpeaks is snake poison because snakes don’t survive on this channel. They aren’t going to have a voice that isn’t questioned. Most snakes on Youtube don’t even know how to activate charities on their channels. - Says he had a conversation with Kai about someone who said they vote for the economy over people. Humans are divided between helping their neighbor and helping themselves. - Says he was never taken to court because he never did anything. He’s still posting to places that he thinks is beneficial to himself and his family. Why would he stop because people have a bad idea of him? You shouldn’t alter your life just because people have an opinion of you. If you quit it makes you look guilty. If you quit you’re either guilty or incapable of dealing with it. He says he’s used to dealing with abuse since he began social media. - He wants to create content and help people and make them laugh. He wants to be socially capable and experienced. His ambitions are aligned with what he’s doing. - He says he can’t forgive his father if what people say about him is true. Everyone else he can forgive. If you are at odds with him, he doesn’t have any hate for you. He understands people can hear the wrong narrative and make mistakes. Says we are both imperfect people and have gone through different things. Says if we went through the same experiences, we’d think the same. Says we aren’t so different.  - Says he’s going away and he hopes you watch all his videos so you’ll know a little bit about who he is instead of listening to what Youtube manipulates you into watching. Says his advise is to quit social media. He wouldn’t quit because he’s passionate about it.

[ahistoricalramblings]

Understanding Transitional Justice

                                                                                              October 13, 2020 

Last week Tim brought up my podcasting post at the beginning of class. He actually wanted to talk about transitional justice more than he wanted to talk about podcasting, something I was definitely okay with. Since then, I cannot stop thinking about it. A fair warning: this is absurdly long, like way too long, but I’m obsessed with these questions and have been struggling to cut myself off. In all honesty I wanted this to be about 1000 words longer. Transitional justice is one of those topics that has so many unanswerable questions that you fall down a rabbit hole all the time. 

For those reading who aren’t in the class, Tim had asked my opinion on the comments of a French public historian at a conference in 2017 in Bogotá, Columbia. This man had said that following WWII France chose to consign the actions of the Germans and the collaborators to oblivion. They chose to let these issues rest for a couple decades and pick them back up when the wounds had scabbed over. I should be clear, the Frenchman is not the only person to hold this belief, not by a long shot. Individuals, often individuals in power, in every country facing questions of transitional justice have advocated for some form of forgetting. 

This view of transitional justice is outdated and it ignores so much of what transitional justice is. 

Transitional justice is not about criminal justice. Or at least, not entirely. It can certainly be about holding perpetrators accountable for crimes through the legal system; but often that is largely impossible. Here are some examples: in Chile, the former dictator was still head of the military and had threatened attack if anyone was tried; in Rwanda, the number of perpetrators was so large that it overwhelmed the prison system; in South Africa, there was a controversial Amnesty for Truth law that gave perpetrators amnesty if they testified in court. In cases like Argentina, Germany, and Peru successful trials have brought down the very heads of the institutions that committed the crimes but have largely left low-ranking individuals alone. Legal justice is only a small portion of the larger discussion on transitional justice. 

So, what else is there? Well first I’m going to plug my podcast because who would I be if I didn’t? Listen here to hear me talk about an amazing memorial in Paine, Chile. 

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs), the creation of memorials and museums, and reparations are three of the biggest forms of non-legal transitional justice. TRCs are government funded commissions that use oral history and traditional research methods to uncover what happened. They create the state narrative and become the beacon for government work. 

Memorials and museums can be both private and public and can serve the state or serve the people. If you’re interested in this (which I imagine some of you might be) I have a good deal of knowledge on this part of transitional justice particularly in (can you guess?) Chile and also the former USSR, Germany, and Argentina. 

Finally, we have reparations. We might imagine reparations to be cheques handed out once or monthly or yearly to victims or victims’ families. And reparations can be cheques given to individuals, but they can also be sustained investment into infrastructure. This is particularly important when talking about traditionally underserved communities – for example the Mapuche in Chile or, oh would you look at that, Indigenous communities in Canada. This can be controversial because it brings up questions of who you consult about infrastructure changes, how you prioritize issues, and how you split funding (didn’t I tell you, there are tons of unanswerable questions in this field). 

Each of these three methods do not involve the legal system. Instead, they work to rebuild the social fabric of a country in the wake of devastation. They provide truth, memory, and restoration and they provide justice. We just need to reframe what justice means. 

When we think of transitional justice as criminal justice, we imagine the black and white world of a judicial verdict. We imagine that transitional justice will solve everything and make the world whole again. It won’t. It can’t. It never will. Massive human rights violations are irreversible, they tear through lives and communities, social structures and societal ideals. Instead, transitional justice is about holding systems accountable and reforming them; it’s not about the individual who committed the crime, but rather about the system that allowed, accepted, or authorized the crime. 

I really got lost on a tangent there but now you know a little more about what transitional justice looks like on the ground. 

Back to the Frenchman. His argument centres on the idea that talking about recent crimes only serves to re-traumatize victims. He’s not wrong in this idea but his solution is too encompassing. Instead of silence as a national policy, transitional justice allows for silence as a personal choice. All TRCs and trials are self-selected meaning the victim choses to tell their story. This isn’t a perfect solution, but it allows the victim the dignity of choice and the ability to put their own needs first. 

France is a unique case. They could say, “well it’s time to forget what the Germans did to us” (this ignores the roles of collaborators, but it still works). France as a country could project all of the crime onto an ‘other’, who were truly an other because they left. Again, we’re ignoring collaborators. Almost no other country has this option. In Rwanda, when the civil war and genocide subsided, no one left. The same can be said for South Africa, Argentina, Chile, Guatemala, Peru, Canada and the list could go on forever. So, we need transitional justice to mediate the relationship between the victims and perpetrators as they co-exist in a single society. 

The 1990 National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report in Chile explains the need for transitional justice quite well. In the introduction, they wrote “although the truth cannot really in itself dispense justice, it does put an end to many a continued injustice – it does not bring the dead back to life, but it brings them out from silence: for the families of the ‘disappeared,’ the truth about their fate would mean, at last, the end to an anguishing, endless search.” (The National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation Report, “Introduction,” 14.) 

I hope my ramblings on transitional justice have been informative. It’s not perfect, it’s not black and white, but it’s necessary. There is no healing in silence for society, that is an individual choice. Society is not allowed that privilege as the systems that allowed the violence must be held accountable for that violence.

Next week is undecided. Let me know if you have any suggestions for what I write about. 

Until then, stay savvy. 

[toadpaws]

a break down of the post made by @staff for pride month:

 “Today marks the first day of Pride 2020.... This week has served as a stark reminder that those who have power in this country wield it recklessly and violently against Black people, non-Black POC, and trans people.”

failure to use the terms women or female at all, despite naming Breonna Taylor, Atatiana Jefferson, and trans-identified Tony McDade as victims of police brutality.

“For some, the power is found in their badge. In others, it’s their skin tone, their socio-economic status, their cisgender privileges, or any other number of privileges one can have.”

Inappropriate, unecessary, and misogynistic use of the phrase “cisgender privileges”, in a post discussing, among others, female victims of police brutality. 

“In 2018, with at least 26 trans people who were murdered, all but one were trans women, and all but one were people of color. According to data collected by Human Rights Campaign, this pattern is all too common.”

in this article, CBS reports “The number of women who were victims of homicide in the United States grew by [21%] in 2016... rising to the highest recorded level since 2007″. the article further states that “More than half of the women who were murdered in 2017 worldwide were slain by an intimate partner or family member... Of the 19,362 homicides that the CDC reported in 2016, 3,895 of the victims were women, according to Security.org's report.”

Violence Policy Center states “More than 1,800 women were murdered by men in 2016″.

BBC states “An average of 137 women across the world are killed by a partner or family member every day, according to new data released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)... More than half of the 87,000 women killed in 2017 were reported as dying at the hands of those closest to them.” This article was written in November, 2018.

25 trans-identified males. 87,000 women.

“It should also be noted that the number of trans people who are murdered is grossly underreported, with many families and newspapers often misgendering those who can no longer speak up for themselves.”

there is no source provided to support this claim.

“On June 28, 1969, the Stonewall riots began as a response to the constant police raids of nightlife establishments frequented by the LGBTQIA+ community”

according to this article by the University of Illinois in Springfield, “LGBTQIA” stands for “LGBTQIA+ – A common abbreviation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Genderqueer, Queer, Intersexed, Agender,  Asexual, and Ally community.”

thus the acronym LGBTQIA+ community includes three terms for same-sex attracted persons, one term for “A person who is sexually attracted to all or many gender expressions”, one term for “gender variant person[s]”, one term for “gender variant person[s] whose gender identity is neither male nor female”, one term described as “ A reclaimed word that was formerly used solely as a slur but that has been semantically overturned by members of the maligned group”, one term for “Someone whose sex a doctor has a difficult time categorizing as either male or female”, one term for “A person is internally ungendered”, one term for “ Person who... does not have a sexual orientation”, and one term for “Someone who confronts heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia, transphobia, heterosexual and genderstraight privilege in themselves and others; a concern for the well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, and intersex people; and a belief that heterosexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are social justice issues.” again, the referenced article can be viewed here, and a pdf of all terms here. 

in a post intended to address Pride month, tumblr staff chose to honor same-sex attracted people(homosexuals) alongside eight other subgroups, all of which have the ability to contain opposite-sex attracted people(heterosexuals).

“That night sparked a revolution, with many eye-witnesses crediting Black and Latinx trans women for being brave enough to ignite what would become one of the most pivotal nights in LGBTQIA+ history.”

the source cited by tumblr staff is this article. 

in the transcript of this podcast, Johnson describes his role in the protests as, “The way I winded up being at Stonewall that night, I was having a party uptown. And we were all out there and Miss Sylvia Rivera and them were over in the park having a cocktail. I was uptown and I didn’t get downtown until about two o’clock, because when I got downtown the place was already on fire.  And it was a raid already. The riots had already started.”, and from this article, “Johnson said she didn’t arrive at the bar until rioting was underway.”

this article states, “And in 2001, Rivera said she was at the Stonewall Inn with a boyfriend when it was raided but that she wasn’t the first to resist.”

this afterellen article on Stormé DeLarverie states, “The conversation turned to the night in June of 1969 at the Stonewall Inn where [DeLarverie] made history. Quite a few friends, writers and historians over the years have identified her as the tough cross-dressing butch lesbian who was clubbed by the NYPD, which evoked enough indignation and anger to spur the crowd to action.”

as for the term "Latinx”, this article states, “only 2 percent of America’s Latinos said they preferred the term”, saying “Latinx may feel like an imposition by activists”. the numbers in this article are supported by a sources from reason.com and medium.com. 

“Without Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, there would have been no uprising. Without them, there would be no Pride.”

As mentioned above, Johnson and Rivera did not start the uprising. the post by tumblr staff makes no mention of the actions of butch lesbian Stormé DeLarverie. 

“At this moment, it would be tone-deaf and insensitive to commemorate Pride in the same celebratory fashion we usually do.”

the staff who wrote this post have already chosen to be quite insensitive and tone deaf in regard to violence against women, same-sex attracted people, and lesbians.

“Spread the word that trans people deserve to feel safe wherever they go.”

yet again, there is no mention of the violence women experience every day around the world. remember the numbers. 25 trans-identified males. 87,000 women.

“The first Pride was a riot. We stand with you.”

from the Library of Congress, “The first Pride march in New York City was held on June 28, 1970 on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising” and from this pdf, “The Christopher Street Liberation Day March was the first gay pride event. It was created to celebrate the Stonewall Inn Riot that occurred exactly one year before (Desta, 2014).”

“We stand with you”- bullshit. you absolutely do not.

[lettersfromthepandemic]

Letter One - Of Pandemic Times; May 25th 2020

Dear Future Generations,

Chances are you are searching through our Digital archive to learn about the Pandemic of 2020 for a history report. I’ll bet your text books paint a perfectly hind-sighted picture of what truly happened on earth when Covid 19 swept across it. 

From where I sit now, things are not so clear. It’s been two months since we’ve entered lockdown and the best we know is that a vaccine will bring this to and end. Realistically, it will be years before the world is safe to visit human beings again and the reality is that for many of us, it will never be the same.

My first letter is a long one. I thought of this while I was dancing in the rain after a thunderstorm. You see, no one walks outside when it rains. I found my freedom in the dripping of water from the clouds. My neighbors think I am nuts. But I laugh it off. The warm summer rain forces everyone inside and I can walk the streets in peace, barefoot and wet without coming across a soul.

I live in America, in a large city. This pandemic has been terrifying. For all the reasons I loved living here before this started; they are now the reasons it is scary. I’ve lost everything I love about being here. I’ve never questioned my choices of city living. Without all the culture, education and entertainment options open. With my industry completely shut down and without work - there is no reason for me to be here. Take that all away and Covid times have got me thinking of buying a house in a small town in the middle of nowhere and starting over.

There is no escape from people. We are packed in too tightly. The sidewalks are too small for walks without bumping into someone. There is no way to control your neighbor and everyone deals with the fear and preparations of keeping safe differently. There is no space to breathe without someone walking through it. A large part of the population won’t wear masks.

You’ll learn as you read different perspectives, how different the experience is for each person living through this time in history.

That’s exactly why I am writing to you today. I want you to know what the journalists, governments and history books won’t tell you. What the social media feeds will fail to demonstrate. I want you to know how it feels to be here. Now, in this time. In hopes that this message in a bottle finds you in a better world.

In America, it’s a politically divisive time. While it’s worth mentioning that I am a feminist that believes in social justice and equality. I can tell you that the fall out from our politics has divided us sharply. The last big fight for equal rights is happening as we evolve and the disenfranchised voice is becoming louder. Still, it is not fast enough. In my lifetime I went from reading and watching mostly cis, white, heterosexual male stories to seeing America begin to more fully represent its peoples. There are more women in Congress now than there ever was. We have a shot at seeing a female president in my life time.

This is no where near the representation we’d like to see, but it's a start. This movement has unearthed the underbelly of racist, sexist, privileged people who are rising up in opposition. They require sharp education, myself included, at reconciling and acknowledging privilege to undo the hurt of our beginnings. These peoples think they are starting to be “oppressed,’ as they become the minority. But they use that word and don’t understand what it means. It’s a time of reckoning for our countries beginnings. Progress has been too slow for the mistakes we made directly keeping down slaves, indigenous peoples and immigrants that didn’t come from a white European country. Colonization and the effects thereof are everlasting. Even hundreds of years later.

That tension feeds our media. They, the media, stoke the fires into great sweeping rage and dissension for the price of advertising dollars. Social media has allowed one to curate information that suits a point of view. There is no longer debate. Academics are pitted against “common sense.” Pick a side and draw a line in the sand. Choose your battle ground.

This backdrop, is the stage to which this pandemic is played out in America. The division is not helpful when in crisis we need unity. Our Covid numbers continue to rise sharply. American capitalism fails when the lower class can’t or won’t work. So they are putting us back to work, knowing that we will be sacrificing lives.

This truth is sharply debated by many but I believe history will show it to be true. We know this virus will spread easily until we have a vaccine and yet we are sending people back to work with bandaids on gaping wounds. We are scared. We are fighting over why a person should wear a mask. We are uncertain of our futures and we are watching our structures crumble underneath us.

That said, it’s been a hundred years since the last pandemic swept the earth. Our advances have allowed us to work from home and digitally connect. Technology, I have no doubt saves many lives.

I wonder what will save your life in the next hundred years. Studying history, it seems we have a new virus or plague that rotates through the populations within that time. You’d think we would have been better prepared. It will come to light that our government knew this risk was imminent. Perhaps you are writing your report on that very thing. We knew. We did nothing. I wish I could report to you that we prepared all we could but it is not the truth. We chose to ignore that risk and carry on. Our experts have been warning us for years. I live in a time where we question our experts and don’t believe them. All that enlightenment and learning and still, our people fight science.  

Granted, planning for every scenario of apocalyptic doom would be impossible. But I believe us to be smart intelligent creatures capable of evolving ourselves and therefore think the greater of us. Most of us were busy building our lives distracted. We elected leaders to prepare and protect society. They did not. While blame is not useful to move forward. I hope that from where you sit, society feels more responsibility for each other. At this time in humanity, our populations are booming. Our “media,” only reports the bad stuff but the truth is we were, up until this point, living in the most peaceful time in human history. You wouldn’t know it by reading one of our newspapers. We haven’t evolved past our fascination with the darker parts of life on this rock. Blood, discord, disaster and fear sell advertising and products.

Even for all our faults, we are making progress as a species. Its a lovely optimism to adopt. But alas, I am also a realist. Our dark sides are ever present at work too.

The pandemic of 2020 has heightened our inequalities. They existed before this, but today they are even more present. In America, we are calling our essential workers “heroes.” In reality, they are only called that because we are sacrificing them to the virus for the “good of society.” Our food producers, housing and healthcare professions are under a great deal of strain.

Our meat production plants are currently struggling to operate as many factories and plants that have been in operation since this began are now having large parts of the population become sick. In America, our poverty stricken populations are often the ones on the front lines serving others and at the highest risk.

I can tell you that I feel powerless to stop this machine but I want to. I’d like to find ways to fight this injustice and demand better for our people. Before all this, I was lobbying for universal healthcare in our country and free college education for everyone. This pandemic has only confirmed the need to work together and provide for one another. Though we fight over what that looks like. I know in our hearts, we want to do better.

I’ve only spoken to three humans in person from a distance, once in 78 days. Everything else is digital. Currently, I have enough budget to have all my essentials delivered. That privilege affords me other luxuries too. I can control who I see and who I don’t. This control is something that I do not take for granted. Though quarantine is hard, I’m not forced to interact with others at the moment. I’ve adapted my work to this new reality and am working at every angle to keep dollars coming in the door.

Even so. Emotionally, we are a mess. It’s a wild ride of feelings from one moment to the next. The quiet safety of our homes lulls us into a dull reality. We limit our news. We limit reading about the virus. It has forced us to live more in the moment and focus on the tasks in front of us rather than too far ahead. With so much uncertainty, that has helped with the stress.

I recite these things to myself to soothe my weary soul: We are smart. We are capable. We have survived this before. We can solve our own issues. We can do better. We will do better. I am smart. I am capable. I have survived hard times. I can solve my own issues. I can do better. I will do better. It is my daily prayer. It doesn’t always help.

I wonder what life is like for others as I stare out my window every day. I miss the outside and bird watch more than I ever have. Digital life is helpful for survival but often feels empty. As excited as I get for interaction, I often close the laptop after a meeting and feel sad. This reality has me questioning everything.

I hope from your position in the future, we figured this out. That my faith is humans has merit. For now, it all feels so uncertain. The numbers are still climbing. While we have people recovering there are many that are suffering terribly.

I don’t understand why our country isn’t in mourning. Perhaps the numbers are too big to fathom. I cry almost every day reading the death tolls. The news hurts. I mourn each addition without knowing them but only for the few seconds I can allow before dusting myself off and getting back to my own work. I worry about the stacking of issues we’ve ignored as climate change heats us up. In a pandemic the natural disasters make life even harder and we are seeing that play out already. Floods, tornados, fires, storms and drought all adding up to challenge our lives. We too chose to ignore them.

I vote for reform on climate change at every chance I get. I’d like you to know that many of us are trying. We also know it’s a problem and that if we don’t invest in the future of our planet, that it will become your problem too. This issue hasn’t hit its match point. Too many people are still worried about day to day living. That keeps us from being able to plan ahead. A theme of our demise. 

It’s the privileged who have the time and resources to work on prevention. These are the hearts and minds we need to work on changing. They are the hardest to change. Once a person has more than they need, I think the fear of loosing it forces them to ignore others. At least, that is how I summarize the issue.

Myself, I came from humble roots and spent many of my formative years in poverty. I understand what it means to have nothing. I also have the peace of knowing that even in my poverty, I had happiness. Perhaps this has kept me sane during the pandemic. Knowing I can survive.

As the summer heats us up in America, I worry what lies ahead. We are itching for a release and I fear Covid will spread faster come fall. I write to you in hope. That you are reading this from a place that is safe. Where we survived and we did it with less loss than the previous pandemic.

What follows will be a collection of letters. Stories. Tales from the times. It is all the more important to make sure that the voice of our past is human. In my time, the text books didn’t teach that. We send you this time capsule. Please learn what we didn’t. I trust you will.

[heterowomanist]

Survivor’s Guilt: A Preacher’s Confession in the Midst of Covid-19

By Rev. Stephanie A. Duzant, MSW

April 26, 2020

 The Gospel of Mary 2-5 (ANNT Translation)[i]

“Will matter then be destroyed or not?”[ii]

The Savior said, “All natures, all forms, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots. For the nature of matter is released into the roots of its nature.  Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!”

Peter said to him, “Since you have explained everything to us, tell us one other thing.  What is the sin of the world?”

Then the Savior said, “There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin.  That is why the Good came into your midst, coming to the good which belongs to every nature, in order to restore it to its root.”

Then he continued.  He said, “This is why you have become sick and die for you love what deceives you.  One who understands, let him understand! Matter gives birth to a passion that has no likeness because it proceeds from what is contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in the whole body.  Because of this I said to you, ‘You shall become satisfied and not be persuaded. You shall be joined in the presence of the likeness of nature.’ Those who have ears to hear, let them hear!”

 When the Blessed One had said these things, he greeted them all, saying, “Peace be with you!  Bear my peace within yourselves! Beware that no one lead you astray saying, ‘Look over here!’ Or Look over there! For the Child of Humanity is within you! Follow it! Those who seek it will find it.  Go then and proclaim the good news of the realm.  Do not lay down any rules beyond what I determined for you, nor give a law like the lawgiver lest you be confined by it.”  When he had said this, he departed.”

“But they were pained. They wept greatly, saying, “How shall we go to the nations and proclaim the good news of the Child of Humanity? If they did not spare him, how will they spare us?”  Then Mary stood up.  She greeted them all, and said to her brothers, “Do not weep and be pained, nor doubt, for all his grace will be with you and shelter you.  But rather let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us Humans.”  When Mary said this, she turned their heart to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.”

I have been reading this portion of the Gospel of Mary for the past three weeks. I had plans to write a reflection for Holy Monday, but I just couldn’t get my words together.  Then I was going to write a midweek reflection, but I just couldn’t get my thoughts to align with what my spirit felt needed to be said. I picked it up and put it down.  I wrote some words in one direction, and then I wrote some more words in another.  My soul was frustrated and my creativity felt constipated.  I just could not get it together…until tonight.

I’m thankful for friends who listen and love on me, when I am not feeling my best. Encouraging words, reminding me of who I am as not only their friend, but as someone who has ministered to them, as well as many others.  They also gently reminded me of the things I am dealing with in the midst of Covid-19…Survivor’s Guilt.  And then it became clear why this scripture was something that my spirit would not let go of.

In 2018, God told me it was time to be with my immediate family in Las Vegas.  God made it very plain. Sell your house in NY, and buy a house that would accommodate everyone.  I mean the plan was so clear.  God had laid it all out for me.  Once I had said yes to the plan, things started to fall into place.  When my brother and I put the house on the market in the Spring of 2019, we had a buyer in a week and we got above and beyond what we asked after a bidding war.  God was just showing out.  By late September I was on a plane headed to Nevada.  

At first it took me a minute to get in the groove of living here.  I was homesick for NY within a week.  And the heaviness of that homesickness lasted for a minute. I prayed my way through it and saw daybreak with the entrance of the new decade. I began fellowshipping with the local A.M.E. Church in my town, and was developing new friendships with people here in the Vegas Valley.  Then Covid-19 hit the U.S., and NYC especially hard.  Then people I loved became sick. And some even died.  And it hit me like a ton of bricks.  If I was still in NY I would have more than likely contracted Covid-19.

My BFF had it, and struggled to recover. Friends and colleagues were on quarantine, or in the hospital fighting this invisible monster.  My Sister-Girlfriend died from it.  Relatives who I was celebrating the marriage of their niece/my cousin with in June were now residents of heaven.  A pastor, who once sat in a ministerial class I taught, was now an ancestor. And someone who I considered an honorary grandparent had succumbed to it after 90 plus years of living.  And here I was alive and well on the other side of the country, feeling guilty that I wasn’t there to help in some way.  

Like Peter with Jesus, I had so many questions for God. And God does not fail to answer if we listen.  God would open my eyes to the healing the earth was doing.  God would open my eyes to the irony of how to protect one’s self from the virus, as well as how one fights it…Clean Body, Clean Environment, Clean Eating. And the last eye opener made me feel sad within my understanding. Social Distancing meant that Humanity had to separate not just so the earth could rejuvenate itself, but so that we as species within the earth could stay alive.  

Like in the text, we were being forced to return to our roots.  People were being mindful of not just the company one was now keeping, but also being forced to keep company with our family and friends.  We were now going back to the roots of cooking our food, and servicing ourselves beauty wise.  We were now going back to the root of knowing our neighbors, and the art of giving and receiving help. And we would become a world that would mourn the loss of loved ones, collectively. We were forced to really acknowledge our humanity.  

And just as the disciples who were now left behind, I too was worried.  Worried that as a person with underlying conditions, what would be my fate if I were to contract it?  Would I be denied a test if I showed symptoms, like so many others in the state?  Would I have to be quarantined in the hospital, alone?  What if my brother, niece, sister-in-law got it?  In what way would/could I be helpful?  My style of advocacy would have to change since I would not be able to be with them in the hospital?  And what do I do with all this anxiety that seems to consume me, causing me to keep soap, sanitizers and disinfectant wipes near at all times?  How do I continue to be the social justice preacher that you have called me to be in the midst of all of this????!!!!

The words of Mary, whom the Gospel is named for, is a comforting reminder…“Do not weep and be pained, nor doubt, for all his grace will be with you and shelter you.  But rather let us praise his greatness, for he has prepared us and made us Humans.” When Mary said this, she turned their heart to the Good, and they began to discuss the words of the Savior.”

God’s timing would have me here in Nevada with my family for a time such as this. God’s grace that kept me for 51 years living in NYC through rough times, now wants me in Nevada, for a rough time such as this.  I will cling to the blessed assurance that God’s grace is ever present, and will continue to shelter me through this, just as it has sheltered me through the loss of parents, sickness in my body, loss of relationships I thought I could not live without, loneliness from heartbreak, racism, sexism, and political injustices. All while answering the call to minister the Good News…just like the disciples. Talking with my friends today about the Savior and his love for us, helped me turn my heart to the remembrance of the Good...just like the disciples.  

There is life in the midst of Covid-19.  There is life…in the midst of Covid-19 and I will learn to hold onto the Good that has come back to restore US…humanity and The Earth to the roots that make us whole and well.  I will hold onto the Good that leads us to embrace new ways of living and loving in the midst of Covid-19.  And I will apply my faith practices in new ways that honor what God has shown me.  My faith will lead me and I will not burden myself with trying to hold onto beliefs, traditions and rituals that no longer serve me as a human living in such a time as this.  The “Child of Humanity” is within me and gives me the wisdom to not only share the good news but manifest it day to day.  Clean Body, Clean Environment, Clean Eating…Clean Living. Thanks be to God. Let those who have ears hear!    

[i] A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century

Copyright (c) Stephanie A. Duzant. 2020

[gospelmusic]

Catholic Daily Reading + Reflection, 5 October 2020 - Who Is My Neighbour

Monday 5, October 2020

Weekday (27) Vestment: Green Today’s Rosary: The Joyful Mystery St. Faustina Kowalska (Opt. Mem)

FIRST READING

I did not receive the Gospel from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Christ. A reading from the Letter of Saint Paul to the Galatians (Galatian1:6-12) Brethren: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel — not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed. Am I now seeking the favour of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man’s gospel. For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. The word of the Lord.

RESPONSORIAL PSALM Psalm 111:1b-2.7-8.9 and 10c (R. 5b)

R/. The Lord keeps his covenant ever in mind. Or: Alleluia. I will praise the Lord with all my heart, in the meeting of the just and the assembly. Great are the works of the Lord, to be pondered by all who delight in them. R. His handiwork is justice and truth; his precepts are all of them sure, standing firm forever and ever, wrought in uprightness and truth. R. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); He has sent redemption to his people, and established his covenant forever. Holy his name, to be feared. His praise endures forever! R.

ALLELUIA John 13:34

Alleluia. A new commandment I give to you, says the Lord, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. Alleluia.

GOSPEL

“Who is my neighbour? ” A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke (Luke 10:25-37) At that time: Behold, a lawyer stood up to put Jesus to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the law? What do you read there?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered right; do this, and you will live.” But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was; and when he saw him, he had compassion, and went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; then he set him on his own beast and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. ’ Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed mercy on him.” And Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.” The Gospel of the Lord.

Today’s Reflection

The message of truth is one message that must be re-echoed and sustained. However, we must note that many people long to hear what is pleasing to them, just as many preachers also long to tell people what they desire to hear. This attitude destroys true faith and it is not good. Sincerity to the gospel must be upheld by teachers of the gospel just as followers of Christ must seek the truth and nothing else. Just as Paul draws our attention to the table of truth, Jesus’ teaching on true love for neighbour cannot be undermined. The question who is my neighbour asked by the lawyer in the gospel of today is also being asked by all of us Christians. The simple answer given by Jesus is that our neighbour is every human being created in the image and likeness of God. Consequently, our love must know no bounds whether tribal, religious or cultural. This is the truth we must uphold.

Today’s Saint and Quote: St. Faustina Kowalska – October 5th

O my Lord, Inflame my heart with love for you, that my spirit may not grow weary amidst the storms, the sufferings and the trials. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Blessing for the New Week

Thank you Lord for this new day and this new week. Thank you for the gift of life. Thank you for your mercy and love. Accompany us in all that we shall do and may your grace help us to do the right thing at all times so that we will please you and be blessed by you. May your truth be on our lips always and may we be willing and ready to accept the truth so that we will be healed. I pray that God will shower his blessings upon you in a special way so that this new week shall bring joy, progress, increase in faith and prosperity to you and upon your household. May Jesus the giver of every good gift lead you to your blessings. Amen. Be truthful in your dealings and you will be blessed

Meditation: 

Luke 4:16-30

Please help spread the gospel. Share our posts on social media using the share buttons. He who wins a soul is wise. God bless you abundantly! (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Follow us on social media: Facebook: @hottestnaijadotcom Twitter: @wherehot Instagram: @hottest9jablog (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Click here to take a look at our posts on gospel music download

or click this link to see all posts that include gospel music lyrics

You may also like our gospel worship songs page which contains, the best, coolest and hottest Nigerian Gospel Songs, and Foreign Gospel Songs. Whatsoever is the mood, we've got you covered. Do you feel like dancing, rejoicing, shouting, screaming, or you're filled with jubilation because of the Mighty things the Lord has done? Then look no further, cos our gospel praise songs page, containing the hottest Nigerian and foreign praise songs collection, was prepared specifically for you. Peradventure you need the lyrics of the songs you are downloading now, just downloaded, or have downloaded before, our lyrics page is the best place to look. What more could be more helpful and entertaining than seeing the lyrics of your most favourite  song before you, as the music unfolds unto the climax. Hey we've been there before, and still encounter it from time to time when the vocals get lost in the cloud of heavy orchestration.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

Are You a Classical Music lover, our classical music page, contains the best of classical songs, composed and written by composers like G. F Handel, Bach, Joseph Haydn, etc. As you listen to your best gospel song, you may also want to get some more insight and knowledge about the word of God, from eBooks written by God's servants, or you may want to learn something new or build yourself up in some way. Then our eBook Page is the right place to look. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); You may be in need of entertainment, and probably want to watch a video too. We understand that as well. You can get entertaining video downloads from our video downloads page.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

[sinrau]

See that pic above? Americans woke up to soldiers and fencing surrounding the White House.

An op-ed in the New York Times calling for the use of domestic military force, aka, soldiers shooting people in the streets. Major cities under curfew. A phalanx of mysterious men in body armour carrying machine guns, only without badges, who wouldn’t respond to questions — like Trump’s new personal secret police. Or maybe SS.

Finally — finally — the general understanding seemed to dawn that this was fascism. Pundits and intellectuals used the word “fascism” for the first time. They were horrified and shocked. The idea seems to be, right about now, that America’s in danger of having a fascist collapse.

Wrong.

What the hell do you think the last four years have been?

There’s not some kind of vague remote danger, or imminent threat, of fascism breaking out in America. What planet have you been living on? The last four years have been America’s collapse into fascism.

The American pundit and intellectual and even well-meaning white liberal are suddenly using the word “fascism,” now, in shock and horror. Now that troops are on white streets. Wait, you mean it wasn’t fascism when brown kids were put…in cages…in camps? What the?

Well-meaning white America is saying suddenly now that soldiers are on its streets, “But Oh My God! This is fascism!” It doesn’t see the shattering hypocrisy, the devastating irony, therein. Do you mean that all of the following weren’t really fascism to you: Camps, cages, bans, raids, purges, violence, hate at minorities emanating from the head of state, institutional dehumanization? What the? Are you serious? It’s the kind of thing that makes literally everyone else in the world at this point gnash their teeth at the American Idiot, and not know whether to laugh or cry maniacally.

America’s had a fascist meltdown. Over the last four years. The next six months are merely the end stages. In which we find out if America goes full-on fascist the whole way, irrevocably, or not. Can that be staved off?

If you really want to know, then is nothing more crucial right about now than not erasing the last four years of history, but really understanding them. How, precisely, they have been grade-school textbook fascism. The real thing. Not a drill. Bona fide, actual fascism. That everyone should have recognized, and most of the world did. Only America didn’t get this point, it seems.

It was always fascism. From day one of the Trump administration. That was the explicit goal and objective. From day one.

Remember how his advisors advanced the ideas of ethnic cleansing and purification? How he began his campaign by calling immigrants and refugees “vermin” and “animals”? Blaming them for the economic woes of the average American, who suddenly found themselves downwardly mobile, poor, and desperate? Trump blamed a certain hated minority — Latinos, mostly, but also blacks and Muslims and Jews — a demagogue scapegoating them for all a nation’s problems, from poverty to social disintegration to hopelessness to a lack of good jobs to crime. Just like Hitler had in the 1930s to Jews, too. Yes, really. Ask your Jewish friends. 99.9% of them will agree.

That was fascism.

Remember when Trump got elected? His first major priority wasn’t to give Americans the healthcare they lacked. The retirement they needed. The raises they hadn’t had in generations. It wasn’t to improve their lives in any way at all, with a better social contract. What was it? To build a wall. And then it was to build a network of concentration camps. Concentration camps.

That was fascism.

Then his advisors had the idea to put kids in cages in those camps, and “separate them” from their families — translation: rip them from their mothers’ arms. In those camps, in those cages, those kids weren’t even allowed to hug each other. They didn’t have adequate food, water, or medicine. International observers classed this as torture, because that is exactly what it was, properly speaking.

That was fascism.

What was the next major priority of the Trump administration? Now that it had its camps, and its first hated minority in them — when would they come for us, the Muslims and Jews and blacks wondered — would Trump finally do something for the “real” American, his base of fanatical whites? Nope. Still, he didn’t give them healthcare, retirement, jobs, education.

What did he do instead? He began to “raid” towns. Have papers checked on public transport. Immigrants and refugees were hunted like desperate things — the “vermin” he and his base thought they were. Some cities proudly called themselves “sanctuaries.” But you don’t need sanctuaries if there aren’t fascists hunting the hated.

That was fascism.

The raids soon enough became just another feature of daily American life. And as they intensified, mass deportations became another priority. Guess what the “forcible removal” of populations is called? Genocide. That came after the first genocide, which was child separation, because taking the kids of one kind of people is a form of genocide, too.

Don’t take my word for it. The last living Nuremberg Prosecutor warned around this time that the Trump Administration was now committing crimes against humanity. Think about that. The man who put…the Nazis…away…warning America was now doing the same category of things they did. He would know. He helped invent the idea, Ben Ferencz, that brave and noble soul.

Do you know who listened to him? Nobody.

To this day, nobody in America’s major media has interviewed…the last living Nuremberg Prosecutor…saying crimes against humanity were happening all over again, this time in America. I think I’m one of a handful of people who wrote about this point at all. What the?

That part was fascism, too. How so?

Well, because it meant that Americans didn’t get what all this really was — who was teaching them any of this? America’s major media, at this point, wasn’t warning that all this was a serious and real fascist collapse. They were warning against saying just that. And then, they were interviewing…neo-Nazis…doing fawning profiles of them. Instead of Ben Ferencz.

What the?

It’s no wonder that the average American was bewildered. This might have felt like fascism. But surely it wasn’t. Nobody said you could call it that! Chris Hayes, Robert Reich, and so on, even the nation’s self-described liberal pundits, didn’t say it. Neither did the political opposition.

There was a word for all this. Denial. America was now a society in denial as deep as an ocean. The Trump administration’s priorities had all been the stuff of textbook fascism: one, demonization, two, camps and raids, three, ethnic cleansing. In magazines and newspapers around the world, questions began to be asked. German ones explicitly began referring to Trump as an aspiring fascist. One put Trump doing a Nazi salute on its cover. Only in America was there any question: no, this couldn’t be fascism, could it?

When the Germans are telling you he’s a fascist, he’s a fascist.

In the 1930s, too, denial had been key to the rise of the Nazis. The good German wouldn’t have believed it if you told him the Nazis were about to murder 6 million Jews. They were doing great things for the Germans! Some Americans will object to that parallel. Nonetheless, denial played a key role in the rise of American fascism, too.

No major institution in America admitted it was now having a fascist collapse: media, intellectuals, opposition, or the people themselves. Those who thought it couldn’t say it, and those who hadn’t been educated to think it, who’d been cautioned away from it, by the failure of America’s intellectuals and media, genuinely appeared to have no clue.

That was fascism, too. The atmosphere of denial as deep as an ocean, that America was now drowning in. Life went on as usual.

Why do we warn of fascism? Remember that old quote? “First they came for this hated minority, then they came for that hated minority, and finally they came for me?” We warn of fascism to prevent it’s slippery slope, it’s ruinous decline, it’s shattering spiral of self-destruction.

White Americans didn’t get it. Fascism was coming for them, too. But as hard as anyone tried to teach them that — they seemed incapable of listening. Sure, maybe you did. But there was no widespread understanding in America whatsoever that it was having a fascist collapse.

So America took an even more dangerous step.

Trump was impeached. For what? For camps? Purges? Raids? Bans? Hate? Genocide? Nope. For offering…a bribe. So the man who the last living Nuremberg Prosecutor said was committing crimes against humanity was impeached for…a bribe…not for crimes against humanity. What the?

The Democrats impeached Trump. For the wrong thing, not the right thing. They gave all that fascism a free pass, legitimized it by turning a blind eye, showed that no justice could be had for it. That is why impeachment had no effect on Trump’s fortunes. It didn’t matter because, well, it didn’t matter. And they did that calculatedly. “We can’t impeach him for that, because, well, there’s no fascism here! There can’t be!”

That’s called appeasement. And it’s another key step in any fascist collapse. Because a demagogue is a bully, and when he knows he can get away with abusing a whole society, that is exactly what he’ll go on doing.

At this point, any decent observer of fascism could have predicted: now it’s going to be white America’s turn.

Today, it is.

Soldiers surround the White House. The President calls for Americans to be shot on the streets. His party supports him. That phalanx of secret police guards the demagogue, accountable to no one but him.

Suddenly, white America’s crying — now that it’s on their doorstep — “but this is fascism!”

Hello. It was always fascism. From the day of the camps, raids, bans, purges, cages. From the denial, through the appeasement, to the complicity.

Remember the old quote? In America, it goes like this. “First, they came for the Mexicans, and I did nothing. Then, they came for the Latinos, and I did nothing. Then they came for the Muslims, and I did nothing. Then they came for me.”

White America’s figured out that it’s fascism…too late. Far too late.

How does a nation grow this ignorant? Didn’t they teach white Americans in grade school — like they taught the rest of us — that camps, bans, raids, purges, hate, are what fascism is?

That when a head of state says that hated minorities are “animals” and “vermin”…and acts upon it…that’s fascism?

How can white America be this selfish? This blind?

I have never — ever — seen another country like it. Never. And neither has the world.

The American Idiot has become a figure of global renown precisely because the world is shocked and horrified that Americans didn’t know fascism when it was literally putting kids in cages before their very eyes. What the? No wonder everyone I meet that’s not American laughs at Americans for being hopelessly foolish now.

That is hopelessly foolish. It’s blindingly idiotic. They teach us what fascism is in grade school — all of us, everywhere around the globe — for a reason.

So we can see it coming, before it’s too late.

America didn’t.

America’s not on the brink of a fascist collapse. It’s not in danger of having one. The last four years have been one. During those four years, a demagogue and his army of American Idiots built all the nascent institutions of a fascist society — camps, bans, raids, purges, and so forth. All that is now just everyday American life. And everyday American life now feels so scary, horrifying, brutal, violent, and dystopian precisely because Americans are living in a fascist society.

Only the final steps of fascist collapse are now left to take. A demagogue seizing power for life, declaring martial law, calling a state of emergency, postponing elections, cancelling them. Who’s going to stop him? Why do you think that phalanx of men in body armor who nobody can recognize or account for is there?

Only the final steps now remain. The final seizure of power.

Then the transformation of a society is complete. What do you think will happen if Trump isn’t removed from power by November? Do you think another four years will end in anything but even more tragedy? Do you think that there would be another election after that? Do you think America as we know it would survive?

Don’t kid yourself. Wake up. Wise up. Open your goddamned eyes.

The last four years were America’s fascist collapse. This is just what finishes the job.

Americans, like so many before them, didn’t get it, until it was too late, even while the alarms were blaring in their very eyes, their house was burning down, and the smoke was in their nostrils. Nope, no fascism here! Those kids in cages? Those towns being raided? That President scapegoating whole minorities and banning them? That’s not fascism? No wonder they came for you in the end, too, finally, occupying your streets. Who was left, after the Latino, Mexican, Muslim, black, Jew, but the well-meaning, oblivious white American? The last one still in denial?

It was always fascism.

That, my friends, is why, and how, history repeats itself. Through cowardice, through folly, through ignorance, but most of all, through blindness, deafness, and silence.

Umair June 2020

[wsmith215]

NFL players spoke, and Roger Goodell responded. Now what? Here’s what we know

An unprecedented week in the NFL culminated in a landscape-shifting 24 hours that appear to have dramatically changed the league’s stance on player protests. Things are happening quickly, and you surely have questions. Is kneeling during the national anthem OK now? Does Colin Kaepernick have a chance to return to the NFL? What role does politics play in all of this? Let’s try to bring it all together.

In a video message released Friday night, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell responded to a video released Thursday night by a collection of NFL stars, including Michael Thomas, Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson. Goodell’s video included three specific statements the players in Thursday’s video asked the NFL to make about racism, social injustice and peaceful protests.

“We, the National Football League, condemn racism and the systematic oppression of black people,” Goodell said. “We, the National Football League, admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all players to speak out and peacefully protest. We, the National Football League, believe that black lives matter.”

2 Related

The first and third statements matched, word for word, the first and third statements the players asked the league to make the night before. The middle one didn’t quite match its counterpart. (The players asked for “We, the National Football League, admit wrong in silencing our players from peacefully protesting.”) But from a forward-looking perspective, it did the job. Even if the NFL isn’t ready to admit to “silencing” the Kaepernick-led peaceful protests of 2016 and 2017, Goodell’s statement indicates that the league plans to handle future protests differently than how it handled what happened three and four years ago.

Why does this matter? Because the streets of American cities have, for the past 11 nights, been lined with protesters speaking out in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. Because the past week in the NFL has seen virtual team meetings ignore football and focus on considerably broader world issues. Because the faces and voices speaking out about the issues that were at the center of Kaepernick’s protests look and sound different than the ones who backed him at the time.

“This is not a black problem,” Colts GM Chris Ballard said this week. “This is a white problem. This is an issue that we have to talk about, and we can’t surgarcoat it. We can’t go back into our bubble.”

“What Colin was protesting was something that should be respected by all humans,” 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan said Friday. “That did take a lot of courage. That is something that is 1,000% wrong and what he was trying to fix and bring light to. And gosh, it was hard to bring light to the whole country because people didn’t want to totally hear it, and it got diluted with so much different stuff.”

The conversation around these issues seems different than it did in 2016 and 2017. Washington running back Adrian Peterson, asked Friday if he planned to kneel during the national anthem in 2020, said “Without a doubt. We’re all getting ready to take a knee together.” It didn’t cause a ripple.

Two days earlier, Saints quarterback Drew Brees was asked about the potential for player protests in 2020 and said, “I will never agree with anybody disrespecting the flag of the United States of America or our country.” He was criticized by teammates and opponents alike for his insensitivity about the reasons for the protests and issued two apologies Thursday.

“We are listening. I am listening. And I will be reaching out to players who have raised their voices and others on how we can improve and go forward for a better and more united NFL family,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said in a video on Friday. Photo by Kirby Lee/USA TODAY Sports

Imagine you were an NFL fan who stopped paying attention in May 2018, right after NFL owners passed a rule that said players must either stand for the anthem or stay in the locker room until it’s over, and you checked back in this week to see all of this. You would think that you had entered another dimension.

Given everything that went down between the time Kaepernick began protesting in 2016 and the day in May 2018 when NFL team owners tried to implement a restrictive policy on player protests, the league surely has more work to do to convince its players and the public that it has come around on this issue. But Goodell’s statement Friday said that the league would “encourage all players to speak out and peacefully protest.” This allows us to look ahead to an NFL season in which players might be more emboldened than ever to speak out and stand up for what they believe, and owners might be more reluctant to tamp down protests than to allow them.

Some questions that still linger for the next five months (and beyond):

The status of the rule requiring players to stand for the anthem or stay in the locker room until it was over is the same as it was when the 2018 season began. The rule is effectively in limbo, as the passage of it by owners led into summerlong discussions with the NFLPA.

The result of those discussions was an agreement that the rule would not be implemented, and it has not been enforced the past two seasons. No player has been fined for protesting during the anthem. Sources on Friday said the status of that rule remains unchanged as of now.

play

1:41

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss NFL players’ calling for change from the league, with Kornheiser saying he thinks Roger Goodell is thinking about kneeling in solidarity.

Could these developments lead to the return of Kaepernick?

It’s entirely possible that the circumstances that have brought about this week’s events — more players, coaches and general managers than ever speaking out, the commissioner issuing a statement in direct response to a request from his players, protests breaking out across the nation — could make an NFL team more likely to sign Kaepernick than it might have been before.

There’s little doubt at this point that a huge part of the reason no team has signed the quarterback since 2016 is the stance he took that year and concern about how people might’ve reacted to such a signing. But if the league office is now openly condoning the kinds of protests Kaepernick initiated, and if franchise leaders are directly addressing the issues of police brutality and institutional racism that Kaepernick wanted to bring to light, it’s fair to think that those concerns might have abated.

That said, I wouldn’t expect a repeat anytime soon of this past November, when the league attempted to organize a workout for Kaepernick in front of teams in Atlanta, but it ended up being relocated and significantly scaled down because of disputes over how it was being administered and the injury waiver the league asked Kaepernick to sign. There was a significant amount of anger on both sides about the way that situation unfolded, and it probably would require a significant reconciliation for the league office to issue that kind of olive branch again. It’s probably up to an individual team to give Kaepernick another chance.

Does the NFL expect this to get political?

It already has. President Donald Trump, who is up for reelection on the Tuesday of Week 9 of the NFL schedule, tweeted Friday that Brees shouldn’t have apologized for his Wednesday statement and used the words “NO KNEELING” in capital letters.

Brees replied to Trump in an Instagram post Friday night, saying, “We can no longer use the flag to turn people away or distract them from the real issues that face our black communities. We did this back in 2017, and regretfully I brought it back with my comments this week. We must stop talking about the flag and shift our attention to the real issues of systemic racial injustice, economic oppression, police brutality, and judicial & prison reform.”

Regardless of whether Brees agrees with him, it’s fair to expect Trump to raise this issue again if players are kneeling during the anthem as the election gets closer.

play

2:17

Stephen A. Smith suggests that diversity should be prioritized in the NFL amid discussions of racial justice.

What effect will the coronavirus pandemic have on all of this?

It’s an interesting wrinkle, for sure. At this point, five months out, there’s a chance that NFL games (assuming they are played at all) have to be played in empty stadiums or partially filled stadiums because of ongoing COVID-19 concerns.

Not to minimize the significance of the issues at the root of that, but empty stadiums obviously would make it more difficult to compare the fan reaction to protests in 2020 to the reaction the protests got in 2016 and 2017.

What will we hear from NFL team owners on this?

This might be the most important question remaining. Several team owners, most prominently the Cowboys’ Jerry Jones, have in the past taken strong stances against player protests during the anthem. Sources say there was no formal discussion between Goodell and any team owners about Friday night’s video before the league released it (though Goodell has conversations with owners on a daily basis, and it’s likely the matter came up in some of those).

If there continue to be owners who are dug in on this issue — as there were in 2018 — there’s a chance that things could get touchy in some places between now and September. But if this week has taught us anything, it’s that NFL players believe themselves to be in a position of unprecedented strength. If a team owner is going to speak out against protests, it’s a safe bet that players on his team (and others) will speak out against him in return.

Source link

The post NFL players spoke, and Roger Goodell responded. Now what? Here’s what we know appeared first on The Bleak Report.

from WordPress https://bleakreport.com/nfl-players-spoke-and-roger-goodell-responded-now-what-heres-what-we-know/

[enewsz]

“I can’t breathe”: George Floyd, a black man before getting killed by white police in Minnesota

2 June 2020: A black man, named George Floyd was killed by an act of strangulation by Derek Chauvin, a white police officer along in Minnesota as he was accused by the police to be drunk and counterfeiting $20 on May 25. A bystander posted a video of this cruel act of racism while three other police were present on the spot. Before being non-responsive Geoge Floyd(46) screamed, “I can’t breathe”, pleading to the police officers not to kill him. As per the reports, the aforementioned officer kept the full weight of his knee on the neck of George while slaughtering. He was declared dead after an hour in Hennepin Country Hospital.

“We are in the process of continuing to review the evidence,” said Mike Freeman, the Country Attorney of Hennepin. However, these two knew each other for more than seventeen years as both of them worked as bouncers at a local club, El Nuevo Rodeo, as Andrea Jenkins, the Vice-President of Minneapolis City Council mentioned them as “co-workers for a long time” and assured to determine whether any federal civil rights were violated.

The protest against the murder of George Floyd

 After the murder of George, the whole nation is in terror. A nationwide protest to save the black people is ongoing. On Thursday, a police car in Atlanta was set on fire by the protesters. Several buildings in Atlanta were plundered, wrecked, and smoldered by the protesters while 7 people were shot by the police in the protests in Kentucky, Louisville, and around 40 people were arrested in New York.  However, Jacob Frey, the Mayor of Minneapolis city said to the protesters, "no honor in burning down your city" as the smokejumpers are still trying to handle the situation to burning several buildings on Saturday morning. As the protest gets wider, 30 places were set on fire. Those places included a Wells Fargo bank, a Japanese restaurant and an office Depot. Yesterday, the cops and the National Guard attack the protesters in Minneapolis while the cops ordered the crowd to “get inside your house.” About 55 people were arrested in Minneapolis and St. Paul on May 30.  340 and 400 people were arrested in New York City and Los Angeles, respectively for protesting against the murder of George Floyd by the white police, Mr. Chauvin.  Shannyn Sharyse Nara was shot in the head by the police while she was protesting against Floyd’s death in Dallas, Texas. Hollywood celebrities like Rihana, Beyonce, Kim Kardashian West, Oprah, and Bella Hadid tweeted for getting the quice justice of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-year-old father. If intentional MURDER is the fit consequence for “drugs” or “resisting arrest”....then what’s the fit consequence for MURDER???! #GeorgeFloyd #AhmaudArbery #BreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/iK9SYkaAGb— Rihanna (@rihanna) May 30, 2020 Resources, ways to donate: How you can take action from home after the death of George Floyd https://t.co/LbVqF3jzMQ— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 30, 2020 "I am deeply saddened, truly pained, and plain angry. I see and feel everyone's pain, outrage, and frustration. I stand with those who are calling out the ingrained racism and violence toward people of color in our country. We had had enough," tweeted Micheal Jordan after George Floyd’s death. Statement from Michael Jordan: pic.twitter.com/lWkZOf1Tmr— Jordan (@Jumpman23) May 31, 2020 Meanwhile, the protest and its clash with the cops were the reason as 47 vehicles were wrecked and 33 officers were injured in the New York Police Department.

Brian Kemp of Georgia declared a state of emergency for Fulton. However, a curfew of 4 P.M was declared in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles on Sunday. Wherever, people kneeling through the roads while holding their fists in the air silently were caught protesting in there, earlier.

The curfew started at 8 P.M in Philadelphia on Sunday and over 200 people were arrested there on Saturday. Those who vandalized the city “did a great disservice,” said Mayor Jim Kenny.

Meanwhile, people in London gathered in Trafalgar Square with the slogans on placards, saying,k” I Can’t Breathe” and “Black Lives Matter” after the death of Mr. Floyd and 11 people were arrested in there for not breaching the rules of COVID-19 and assaulting police as per to local media reporting.

Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG Tear gas was spread among the protesters in Neb., Omaha, Ohio, and Columbus by the police. The protest also took place on Friday night outside the white house as well, demanding justice, chanting “I  can’t breathe”, the last words of George Floyd and Eric Garner, who died in New York in 2014 as police choked the black man’s neck.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Turner, the Mayor of Houston pleaded to the protesters to protest peacefully as Keisha Lance Bottoms said, "What I see happening is not Atlanta. This is not a protest ... this is chaos," while the police in Atlanta throws tear gas to restrain the protest after the protesters set a police vehicle on fire. Though the black people are afraid of their security, the police force of US did not take cautions against the riots while taking a fair look on the safety of people as Kaitlin Rust, a WAVE-TV reporter was shot while the camera was aiming at the police officer who was aiming the “pepper bullets” directly at the camera crew of WAVE-TV, though, Jessie Halladay, Louiseville police spokeswoman said, “It’s not something that should have occurred if she was singled out as a reporter.” A boy, aged 19 years was also shot in Detroit, Michigan while protesting with the rest of the crowd, against the death of Floyd. However an announcement of curfew in Minnesota and Saint Paul from 8 P.M in the night to 6 A.M on both nights of Friday and Saturday. But still, people of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Louiseville, Houston, Columbus, Memphis, and phoenix are protesting against the worldwide racism after the death of Floyd just after six years of death in Ferguson, and two other black Americans, Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor. Steps against the Derek Chauvin along with other three police officers Mike Freeman, the Prosecutor of Hennepin Country remarked that Derek Chauvin, who kneeled on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. "This is by far the fastest that we've ever charged a police officer," he also mentioned as Mr. Chauvin appeared to be as a person with a degraded mindset and without any concern for human life. Though the post mortem report declared that Floyd's death did not occur because of distressing stupefaction but it was the result of "potential intoxicants in his system". Meanwhile, Minnesota police handbook clarified that Derek Chauvin, the main culprit against the death of Mr. Floyd had thew full training of pressurizing someone’s neck even with his knee without blocking the airway or occurring any respiratory organ damage. Mr. Chauvin said that he “anticipates charges” for his co-workers but he has no more details to offer to the investigation team.

The reaction of the President

The President of the US, Donald Trump has marked the death of George Floyd as “a terrible, terrible thing” after the constant hatred and murder has occurred in the past as well. Although, he remarked the protesters as “thugs”, latterly, he said, "looters should not be allowed to drown out the voices of so many peaceful protesters". "Just a horrible thing to witness and to watch. It certainly looked like there was no excuse for it,” Mr. Trump also mentioned about the cruelty and inhumanity of the murder of Mr. Floyd. Meanwhile, the social media network of Tweeter got against Donald Trump as he said, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts." He also justified his statement as he clarified that no violence by the p[rotesters as well would  be accepted if it disgraced the memory of George Floyd as he said, "It was spoken as a fact, not as a statement.”

Mr. Trump declared to give justice to the death of Floyd as the justice department of the US has already taken charge of this case. “We support the right of peaceful protestors, and we hear their pleas. But what we are now seeing on the streets of our cities has nothing to do with justice or peace.” pic.twitter.com/ckZ28xXSkA— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 30, 2020 “Have the same pain that I feel,” said the brother of George Floyd about the protesters Philonise Floyd, the brother of George Floyd Expressed his agony while mentioning that he wants the nationwide protest and violence after the death of George too. But he also mentioned that he understood why the protesters are behaving in this manner as the people have seen the slaughtering and killing of black people without any cause and now they are devastated.  “I want everything to be peaceful, but I can't make everybody be peaceful. I can't. It's hard,” said Philonise Floyd as he said  to CNN that the protesters "have the same pain that I feel.” Benjamin Crump, the lawyer of Mr. Floyd’s family has mentioned that the Floyd family wanted the first-degree murder charge against Derek Chauvin, the main accused ex-police officer and the arrest of other officers who present on the spot as even after they did not find any pulse in Mr. Floyd’s wrist, they let Mr. Chauvin to keep the weight of his knee on the non-receptive body of Floyd for 2 minutes. "It is unfathomable and upsetting to witness this structural racism in real time. We are closely monitoring this situation," said Dorothy Tucker, president of the National Association of Black Journalists(NABJ) after CNN journalist, Omar Jimenez, a black person was arrested. The National Guard has reached Minnesota to control the situation. The Military officers of the US will also be there if needed as the Government has declared. "This shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America,” said the former President of the US, Barrack Obama has said, "This shouldn't be 'normal' in 2020 America,” after knowing about another cruel death of a black man in America. He also encouraged the people and the Department of Justice of  the US, “ to work together to create a ‘new normal’ in which the legacy of bigotry and unequal treatment no longer infects our institutions or our heart My statement on the death of George Floyd: pic.twitter.com/Hg1k9JHT6R— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 29, 2020 Humankind remembers the death sentence of 14 years old George Stinney Jr. in the United States on June 16, 1944. He was accused of murdering two teenage white girls and he was electrocuted with 5380 volts in his head. After 70 years after his death, he was proven innocent by a judge of South Carolina.

As racism against black people in the US was always the reason for cruel homicide, people are still suffering by death threat in there even in the twenty-first century as well. There is literally “No Peace, No Justice” in the United States, right now. Read the full article

[earthconstructs]

Blog

I started a blog in July 2017, paid for a domain, did it up using Squarespace, made it super pretty. In 2017 I started focusing on improving my writing, and in my goal for 2018 was to become a better writer. 

In November 2018, I finished working at the Water Corporation after I had documented the “Kep Project”. My manager was acting in another manager’s role, and so an acting manager ended up signing off on my final report. I put a lot of effort into that report, I spent many evenings alone in the office trying to figure out if it was laid out well, clear to people who may be coming across the topic for the first time. I wonder if anyone will actually read it, or has, in the last two years.

The acting manager who was reviewing my report was known to be a stickler for detail, call out bad quality work, and be quite picky. She read my report, signed it off, and gave me feedback that it was written really well. And that was it for me - I had achieved my goal of being a being a better writer / writing better reports.

It’s funny how I needed the paid domain and blog back when I was working full time, and had a lot going on in my life, to motivate me to write. if I didn’t, then it would be like I was wasting the money I’d spent on it. 

But now it’s a huge expense. So I’m closing the blog, and keeping this free brain dump version of a blog. Where I just brain dump, without being strict on myself, and reading every post over and over and over again for fear of being judged by my friends - the only people who read it anyway. 

Finishing here with a copy-paste-dump of the 4 blog posts I wrote from July 2017 to April 2018. 

30 July 2017 - I am an engineer

I am an engineer trying to figure out my place in helping to make the world a better place for everyone to live in. I became a mechanical engineer because I liked understanding how stuff works. But recently, I've realised that a big part of the stuff I am interested in is how people and the world work to create this life that I am living. I am always learning, so this blog is my attempt to capture some of it, so that I can refer back to it later, and to hopefully share something new with you as well.

 30 July 2017 - My first visit to Kalgoorlie as a guest speaker

WASM Wall by Jason Dimer

OK, I’ll admit it, when I saw a request come through EWB* channels for a female engineer to present at the GEMIA* Girls and Guys Exploring Mining Forum, in Kalgoorlie, I jumped at the opportunity!

There were a couple of reasons why:

As a female engineer and EWB volunteer, I am passionate about inspiring students, especially female students, to pursue careers in STEM* fields as I believe these fields nurture the critical thinking so needed in our current world, and that increasing the number of females with careers STEM fields is one of our quickest paths towards gender equality

I had heard a lot about Kalgoorlie, but had never been there myself. I believe that the best way to learn about a place is by visiting, experiencing, immersing and talking to the locals (spoiler alert, I spent a lot of time doing this in my one and a half days there)

Everything we do at Engineers Without Borders links to one of the Aims from our 2020 Strategy. Speaking at events such as this Mining Forum for Year 9-11 high school students in Kalgoorlie fits into our aim to redefine engineering, specifically: “We will redefine engineering as a community centred profession that provides leadership in the creation of a more sustainable and inclusive world”.

And that is what I had at the front of my mind as I was putting together a presentation covering my career in engineering to date, my work as an Engineers Without Borders volunteer, and the concept of humanitarian engineering - with the aim to engage and inspire teenagers!

I wanted to share some examples of humanitarian engineering with the students, and luckily Sheena Ong, our ex EWB WA President and creator of the documentary “The Humanitarian Engineer", allowed me to include video clips of snippets from the documentary. I chose three examples that I thought conveyed the message of humanitarian engineering and appropriate technology concisely:

Rob Hughes, EWB field engineer, on developing biodigesters in Tonle Sap, Cambodia

The installation of Playpumps in Africa

Darren Lomman, Dreamfit founder discussing examples of equipment design or modification to make them accessible for people with disabilities

For each of the above examples that I showed the school group, I asked them three questions:

Did it address disadvantage?

Did it use science or technology?

Did it consider the community or persons’s needs in the design process?

After running through the second definition of humanitarian engineering covered in the documentary - humanitarian engineering is engineering that puts human well-being at the centre - I asked the students if I was a humanitarian engineer.

The questions I asked were answered by the students with a combination of murmurs of yes, and cocked heads. When I queried the teachers about this later, they said it was because this was not a topic that they had heard of before. I hope that I helped them to think about what engineering is, and that it can be related to more than the gold mining happening just up the road from Kalgoorlie town centre.

I like to think that I succeeded; later in the day one of the students asked me:

If I could be any kind of engineer, what would it be?

EWB = Engineers Without Borders GEMIA = Goldfield Education Mining Industry Alliance TEM = Science, technology, engineering and maths

Lemon Scented Gum at the Mt Charlotte walk trail and waterwise garden

Mulla mulla overlooking the superpit

Amok Island - 58 Egan St Kalgoorlie

21 August 2017 - Diversity and Inclusion

I had a really good weekend. I had back to back appointments and catch ups from Friday to Sunday night, and like the good extrovert that I am, it left it me feeling happy, stimulated and productive.

Which brings me to Monday night. I’m writing this during my first free moment, after my first day back at work since getting home from two weeks leave (while half watching the latest episode of Rick and Morty with my domestic partner). Anyway, I'm here to write about the Engineers Without Borders Humanitarian Day Gala, which I attended last Friday night.

On this night we heard from three speakers - Pete Baynard-Smith (Engineers Without Borders CEO), Suzanne Brown (Water Corporation Drainage and Liveable Communities Manager), and Fadzi Whande, social justice advocate and inclusion and diversity adviser.

And while I loved hearing about Pete and Suzanne's experience and work, I'll admit that I learnt the most from Fadzi, from a diversity perspective. I do not know many (any?) women from Africa, or much about diversity and inclusion in the workplace, other than it is important.

There are two points that Fadzi shared which have stuck with me. The first is the analogy she used about diversity and inclusion:

Diversity is being invited to a party, inclusion is being invited to dance.

The second is - The are six steps towards diversity and inclusion in our life and in the workplace are:

1.      You

2.     You

3.     You

4.     You

5.     You

6.     You

What a great way to emphasise that, as with pretty much everything in life, the most important thing I can do is to focus on myself, and what I myself can do or change.

By saying this, I understand that Fadzi means that to work towards diversity and inclusion, we need to start by changing our own circle, recognise that we are mainly surrounded by people that we are used to, and that a way to change this is by changing our own circle, and getting out of our comfort zone.

Hearing this motivates me, as I partly feel that I am on track because I already do this - by going to events I haven't been to before, where there is an opportunity to learn something new or that are attended by people outside my usual circle.

However, I appreciate my circle a lot. I am so lucky to be surrounded by so many smart and admirable friends.

People who:

value logic and data*

are open minded

who have  taught and helped  me see so much of what I understand today

who recognise that we can't assume that we know someone's whole story

(and people who can explain to me what unconscious bias is because they are studying a Masters of Psychology - hopefully you'll get a guest post from that friend soon!)

Thank you Fadzi, Pete and Suzanne for sharing your words and experiences at EWB WA’s Humanitarian Day Gala, and to the special, like-minded people who I got to spend time with on Friday night. You all keep me inspired.

*On Data - I need to figure out my thoughts around data, perception, and community development. On one hand I believe, as Fadzi said on the night - data doesn't lie - and on the other hand, I believe in human centred design - that a community knows what they need, and what the statistics show may not always be what the community needs. I want to figure out which thought applies in what contexts If you have any ideas or information about this, please let me know!!!

9 September 2017 - Chasing Coral

Well, you know they've done a good job with a film when they can make you cry about coral.

CORAL BLEACHING FEBRUARY 2016 AT HERON ISLAND, PHOTO COURTESY THE OCEAN AGENCY / XL CATLIN SEAVIEW SURVEY

But films like this leave me feeling like I'm not doing enough about the ocean's temperature rise. That being vegan isn't enough; I'm still driving an internal combustion car, I don't have solar panels, I'm not putting enough pressure on our Australian government, and not having enough conversations about this with my peers.

I haven't been keeping up with the news much since I got back from a 2 week holiday to WA's North West. Today on triple j's 3pm news, I heard that the Nationals are having a federal conference where NSW and Queensland will present motions to phase out renewable energy subsidies and support the development of the coal industry.

They will also move to resist the determination of environmental groups "to disrupt and impede the progress of this important industry".

I'm just in disbelief. How can they not understand that this is going backwards? How can they not care about the damage that has already been done?

Maybe I need to find myself an opinion piece written by a member of The National party, so that I can try to understand where they are coming from.

Coal is the most polluting way to produce electricity. There are other options. We need to implement them. It seems so simple, what am I missing?

I'm going to The Great Barrier Reef in November. I hope that I won't be too saddened by what I see, and that I get to have some conversations with locals. As I've mentioned in a previous post - learning by immersion.

I'll end this depressing post with an infographic made by the Chasing Coral team, and the fact that I need to stock up a reef-friendly, oxybenzone-free sunscreen, now that summer is one season closer!

2 October 2017 - Experts (I am not one)

I’m writing this as I am watching the sun go over a hill in the distance at Roelands Village, just outside of Bunbury. The hill is known to Les, the director of Woolkabunning Kiakaand his ex-Roelands mission peers as “Bunbury Hill”. It might also be the hill where he pointed out their traditional-spear-watchmen-shaped tree out to us earlier today. Anyway, it’s f*cking blissful as you can see in the photo below, which does it no justice.

I’m here at the ex-Roelands mission for the annual Engineers Without Borders strategy retreat. This year I agreed/volunteered to feed all 20 attendees over the two day weekend. I wasn’t really looking forward to it – but saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself! As well as cooking in the kitchen, I got to take part in the sessions put on by the president, vice president and some other long time volunteers. In one of the sessions, we defined inspiration, which is actually really hard to do!

I was talking to a good friend of mine in the car as we were driving down. I think it was actually the same trip 3 years ago where we first began our deeper conversations about feminism, people, psychology and ethics. This year marks our 10 years of friendship, which for some reason I find a pretty crazy fact (the 10 years part, not the friendship itself). One of the many topics we covered in the two hour drive was - blogging about topics which we are not an expert in. I concluded that for me, this blog is my way of collating and sharing topics and solutions that I come across and am learning about, but is not me speaking as an expert. I hope that by my sharing information and resources, I am supporting the good work that is being carried out by others. There is so much happening around the world; something in place to address nearly every single issue that exists. I just want to keep track of, and share them all! I also hope that this becomes a way for me to hear about interesting work that I might not already know about.

So, you know how I mentioned that I wanted to find a marine friendly sunscreen, after watching Chasing Coral and realising that corals are actually very delicate creatures, and that chemicals in sunscreen are harming them? Well, I did a bit of research and found a couple of brands. One of them is Stream2sea, but as they are an American company, I was on the hunt for something a bit more local. It wasn’t too hard to find – Surf Lifesaving Australia sell a sunscreen where proceeds from sales supports surf lifesaving training and development programs around Australia. They even listed that this sunscreen was in a recyclable aluminium can instead of plastic and I thought, “Even better, it's plastic free - at least when aluminium gets recycled it doesn’t become a lower grade product like in the case of plastic.”

But then when it arrived, in a standard post plastic bag, it was further packaged like this.

How ironic, an item marketed as being marine friendly, wrapped in an item that is widely known as causing enormous damage to the environment, especially marine environments.

When I complained about this in the Zero Waste + Plastic Free Living Perth, WA group on Facebook, Darren Lomman told me that almost all items in the health and beauty aisle in supermarkets comes transported like this. Why? I don’t know enough about wholesaling and packaging to be able to answer that. But it just looks like such as juxtaposition to me:

Marine friendly                                                                                  

                                                                                                                            Plastic

So now that I am done complaining, I need to write a letter Surf Livesaving Sunscreen, to ask them about the irony of this situation. I’m unsure if this will change anything, but at least I will have tried. I suppose the other approach is to accept that it needs to be packed like that for a reason (which I hope I find out when they reply), or do something about the packaging that has already been used and is here to stay in our environment now.

Enter Greenbatch. (Remember how I spoke about interesting projects above?)

Greenbatch is Western Australia’s first PET plastic reprocessing facility. It is founded by a guy called Darren Lomman, who studied Mechanical Engineering at the University of Western Australia (like me!). Darren recently handed over the reigns of Dreamfit, an organisation he founded that designs equipment for people with disabilities). He is now using his engineering and entrepreneurial background to establish a plastic processing facility, with the aim of reprocessing 100 million bottles by 2025, preventing them going into landfills, oceans and waste incinerators. Plastic processed through Greenbatch will be turned into 3D printing filament for schools to build and create with.

You can support this amazing social enterprise by:

-          Telling your friends about Greenbatch

-          Giving them a donation

-          Getting your local school involved

They are also holding a free community event at Perth City Farm on Wednesday 18 October. This event will give us the opportunity to learn from experts in the fields of sustainability, education, marine conservation and plastics recycling.

The experts will share what WA is doing about waste and recycling and ways that it can be improved, and talk about initiatives currently underway solving waste problems and how you can get on board and be a part of this sustainable change.

For more info, or to register your spot at this event click here.

I hope to see you there, and if you can’t make it, stay tuned for a summary of the event here on my blog :)

13 April 2019 - Work, Life and Balance

Well, it's been 6 months since my last post. I can remember the last 6 months so clearly, though it feels like they passed in a blur. I have felt so much anticipation in the lead up to big events that I had been excited about for months or years; 18 months of anticipation before getting married, 7 months of awaiting Kep's arrival in Perth, and two and a half years of looking forward to moving to Europe.

Kep's arrival... I'll give some background before I continue.

Kep is Water Corporation's leak detection dog. She's the world's first dog to be trained solely to detect underground water leaks, using only the scent of treated water alone, as a cost effective way of leak detection in areas where it is difficult and costly to perform leak detection via the usual methods.

In August last year, after I lead a successful trial with two experienced detection dogs, I learnt that I would be the project manager of a project to acquire Water Corporation's first leak detection dog. I worked together with the dog trainer, Steve Austin, to select a working English Springer Spaniel puppy, who we named Kep*. She began training with Steve in Sydney, and her delivery date to Western Australia depended on her physical and mental maturity. On her arrival in Perth, I would also complete training to become her primary handler.

From August to November, as well as working on water source planning projects as part of my substantive role, I spent a lot of time detailing options for the implementation of a detection dog into Water Corporation's business, including all required logistics  for the transport and care of the working dog.

After getting married in Perth and honeymooning to the Great Barrier Reef at the end of November, December passed in the usual holiday-period way - fast. In January, I spent every spare moment during the weekends doing the things I love - camping, hiking, scuba diving, going to the beach, seeing friends, teaching piano and learning new things (surfing!!!). February was spent preparing for Kep's arrival, and I also fit in a trip to Melbourne where I presented at the Australian Water Association Young Professionals conference, and caught up with dear friends (some human, some furry).

And then, it was the end of February and the end of summer! I spent 3 weeks being a new dog mum and handler, before I handed Kep over to her other handler so that I could fly off for a 4 week trip to Europe,, where I have been since the end of March.

I had never been so excited for a holiday before; usually I would feel excited about going to explore new places and eating new food. This time, I just needed a break badly.

For the first time in my working life, I had felt...stressed.

In the lead up to, and in the 3 weeks after Kep's arrival, I had been featured in workplace internal communications, been on TV multiple times, and presented at an Engineers Australia Young Innovative engineers presentation.

I felt like everyone within Water Corporation, and a lot of members of the public, knew about my project, and I was very aware of the two most common attitudes of people when they heard about my project:

- You have the best job ever, how did you get it?!

- Will it really work, is it really that effective?

Both attitudes make me feel slightly guilty about how much I love my job at the moment, and how good I have it, in different ways.

It wasn't until both the dog trainer's program manager and my CEO's personal assistant had asked me - "How are you going with all the pressure?" - that I realised that it was normal to be feeling how I was. Once they asked, it made sense - I was experiencing what I was because my project was in the public eye.

Through my experiences in the last few months, I've learnt a lot more about myself and become better at dealing with pressure. By this I mean I am better at controlling how I feel internally, as apparently it doesn't show on the outside. What I also now know, is how it feels to be excited and invested in my work every day. The last 6 months have made me realise how much I enjoy working on new, exciting, and never-been-done-before projects.

The answer I gave to a student's question in Kalgoorlie has also stuck with me. I still think about working on plastic reprocessing, and ocean clean ups. And my next career goal is to have a bigger impact on issues that I care about. As my time away from Australia is wrapping up, for now, I'm starting to think about how I want to spend my time when I am back in Perth. As well as the busy project schedule awaiting me for the implementation of Water Corporation's leak detection dog into the business, there are still many issues that I want to delve into and learn about in more detail. And I'd like to get better at balancing work, exercise, diet and reading/learning.

For me, this post reflects on and captures a certain point in my life - the feeling of wired-excitedness for what will come next in my life and career.

*Kep

Kep was named after the Noongar word for water, which was selected in consultation with Noongar elders and the Water Corporation's Aboriginal Affairs team, and was the winning name in a Facebook poll with the Western Australian community where 7 000 people voted.

You can view more about Kep here:

Kep's Water Corporation page

Kep on Channel 9 News

Kep on GWN News

[sigma7]

Life under President Sigma Seven

I found this old text file on a hard drive from 2013 (it’s hauntingly prescient in a few places).  It’s my narrative version of a game of Democracy 3 (2?) I was playing with some marginal success, finally.  Sadly, it just cuts off in 2020.  I either got bored or started losing badly, can’t remember which....

(I tweaked a Chargers-miss-the-playoffs reference to refer to their move to LA.  I still don’t want to talk about it.)

Anyhow, enjoy the fact that I forgot the inauguration would be in 2017, not 2016 (I may have been tired/medicated while composing this little missive):

Wednesday, January 20, 2016 After running on a platform based largely on contempt for the American voter and promising to bring back Firefly, Ironic Anarchist Party candidate Sigma Seven was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States and the first to have successfully completed the entire Mass Effect trilogy.

Seven's inauguration address reiterated his campaign's primary goals: eliminating crime, erasing the deficit, making inroads on the national debt, increasing Americans' health, and ending poverty.  The particulars of this initiative were still somewhat vague, though he used the word "magnets" 76 times during his speech.

Monday, February 15, 2016 The first major act of the Seven administration came with the signing of the Moar Police OMG Bill, which increases spending on national and local police and investigative staff from $31 billion to $51.65 billion.  Despite an $8.63 billion deficit and a $3.1 trillion dollar debt, the bill gained widespread support from grassroots initiatives, especially among conservatives.

A highly-placed source inside the White House indicates funding for various national intelligence services has also increased, but that could not be confirmed.

Friday, March 18, 2016 President Seven signed into law the All Your Jailz Are Belong To Us Bill, which allowed the operation of privately-owned and -managed prisons.  Consolidation of the prison system, Seven said, would bring consistency to the incarceration of American prisoners.  This move has been largely applauded by liberal and civil rights groups.

Monday, March 28, 2016 President Seven's approval rating has taken a minor two-percentage-point drop, giving him 23.6% approval nationwide.  The president insists much of the dissent can be blamed on Joss Whedon's unwillingness to return his phone calls.

Friday, April 1, 2016 President Seven signed legislation curtailing the activity of debt collection agencies, restricting use of unsolicited phone calls and capping interest rates for short-term loans.  Multiple occurrences of the word "dirtbags" in the law were scratched out in the bill's final draft by a sheepish-looking vice president.

Monday, April 11, 2016 President Seven signed the Electric Punchbug Initiative today, increasing federal subsidies for hybrid vehicles from $1 billion to $3.7 billion.  An unnoticed clause in the 3,590-page document, requiring all such vehicles to be bug-shaped and/or bug-painted, went completely unnoticed by legislators of both parties until a gloating president pointed it out, snickering, during his morning press conference.  President Seven has promised any future expansion of federal health care laws will cover punchbug-related injuries.

Friday, April 15, 2016 President Seven waited until late Friday afternoon to sign the Sip It And Grip It Bill, which institutes a nationwide 75% tax on all alcohol sold for human consumption.  Notes left on a Post-It on the White House front door indicate that this measure is more of a deterrent than an attempt at leveraging an income source, and also, "sorry lol."

Thursday, May 5, 2016 President Seven signed the Phoenix Wright Law today, increasing federal legal aid from $4.77 billion to $9.31 billion, effective August 1.  While the move was applauded by liberal and social justice groups, President Seven did not hold a press conference, only issuing a statement acknowledging that "y'all prolly still pissed off about the booze thing."

Monday, March 23, 2016 President Seven signed the Personal Information Collection Allowed to Be Unveiled Act, extending and expanding the Freedom of Information Act to databases of personal data held by medical, insurance, and debt-collection entities.  The PICABU Act would not extend to personal web browser or search history, the president insisted to a press corps which had collectively stopped breathing.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016 Amid reports of a gradual downturn of the national crime rate, President Seven is enjoying a personal-best 48% approval rating, with retired, conservative, and state-employee focus groups giving the highest marks.

Monday, June 13, 2016 The president's two-week vacation kicked off today with news that he had quietly signed the Yeah I Did That Thing Again Act, which increases national taxation of tobacco products from 11% to 75%.  The move will bring in an additional estimated $90 billion per quarter, but polls indicate that literally 0% of Americans approve of increasing tobacco laws.  The president was, unsurprisingly, unavailable for comment, and the vice president is currently hiding behind large pieces of furniture.

Friday, August 12, 2016 In a prime-time televised statement, the president announced that a top-secret military raid by a classified unit in a classified location had captured the mastermind of a terrorist network, the identity of both being...classified.  High-resolution pool photographs of the president indicated the phrase "I ain't telling you shit" crossed out on his printed speech notes.

Monday, August 22, 2016 The Bureau of Justice Statistics announced this morning that the wave of antisocial conduct which had plagued the country for a year was officially broken, and that national crime rates have dropped 26.7% since January.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016 Amid bipartisan support, the president signed the Race Discrimination Act into law today, a move lauded not only by minority and liberal groups, but 70% of the entire American populace, as well.

Monday, October 3, 2016 President Seven signed his nationwide recycling imitative today, providing $9.33 billion in government funds for universal doorside collection of most recyclable household products.

Friday, October 28, 2016 The Federal Reserve announced today that an uptick in the gross domestic product helped eliminate the budget deficit, and a $168.36 billion budget surplus has lowered the national debt to under $3 trillion.  President Seven issued a statement consisting entirely of a yelled "I done tol' you!" with an emphatic right-hand two-finger gesture, after which he strutted back to the Oval Office.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 The National Center on Family Homelessness reported today that despite drops in crime and unemployment, the number of Americans living in poverty has increased 28% since January.  President Seven unveiled an anti-poverty task force in a Rose Garden ceremony today, off-handedly mentioning "I was getting around to this, sorry."

Monday, November 28, 2016 A new bill pushed through conference committee at presidential behest would expand the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, popularly known as food stamps, by $4 billion to $23.47 billion by January.  The president announced that this was just the first step in what would be a series of measures to combat American poverty and homelessness, both of which have increased under his administration.

Sunday, December 4, 2016 Following the San Diego Chargers' announced move to Los Angeles, the president interrupted prime-time programming for a special announcement that, after analysis, turned out to be nothing but an uninterrupted string of profanity, sometimes in different languages or reversed or ROT13'd.  An executive order signed an hour earlier gave the president the capacity to "say whatever the [heck] I want on TV."

Tuesday, December 13, 2016 Spurred by poor earnings and increasing poverty levels, several prominent trade unions have called for a general strike to begin at midnight.  The strike's purpose, say labor leaders, is to advocate for a living wage and better health coverage for current workers as well as unemployment assistance.

Friday, December 23, 2016 When Congress reconvenes after the holiday break, they will begin debate on the most ambitious of President Seven's proposals: the Back to School Act, which would burn off almost the entire federal budget surplus on public education, increasing funding from $94.27 billion to a proposed $228 billion in three years.  President Seven says the measure is a necessary step to fight poverty and unemployment in the long term.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017 The Centers for Disease Control announced that alcohol consumption in the United States has decreased by 48% in the last year.

Monday, January 9, 2017 As expected, the United States' credit rating has been downgraded to CCC amid economic uncertainty and labor strife.

Tuesday, February 28, 2017 With approval ratings at a personal-best 58%, President Seven is nevertheless, by his own admission, "hiding out" at Camp David amid reports of a budget deficit over $300 billion.

Monday, April 3, 2017 Despite a recent sweatshop scandal, congressional and labor leaders announced the Peoria Accord, ending the general strike that had stifled the American economy for four months.

Tuesday, June 6, 2017 Despite the president not making a public appearance in three months, the Community Policing Initiative of 2017, which was left on his desk in the Oval Office, was found, signed, by White House clerks early this morning.  The bill will provide $14.51 billion in funding for community watch groups to act in cooperation with local law enforcement.  The president is rumored to have gained access to the White House by being disguised as a Coke machine.

Monday, July 3, 2017 On the eve of the nation's birthday, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that pollution levels in the United States were at their lowest in 40 years.

Monday, July 11, 2017 A dramatic rebound of the nation's gross domestic product has turned a $300 billion deficit into a $194.48 billion surplus, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Monday, July 24, 2017 From an undisclosed location, President Seven announced via Skype his approval of the Pell Grant expansion sent to his desk last week.  The bill, which the president has indicated he would sign, will raise the amount of government grants for university education from $107 billion a year to over $240 billion year by January of next year.

Wednesday, August 9, 2017 After confessing to binge-watching From the Earth to the Moon on NetFlix, President Seven signed a bill increasing NASA funding by 20%, with the agency's new goal the establishment of a permanent space station.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017 The Beltway rumor mill is working overtime after reporters discovered White House Press Secretary Heather Campbell's updated resume on LinkedIn.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017 President Seven returned to Washington for the first time in several months amid reports of a new general strike, rising pollution levels, and a swoon in the gross domestic product.  He was unhappy to return, he expressed in terms not fit for public consumption.

Monday, November 6, 2017 To bipartisan acclaim and in light of a renewed budget surplus, President Seven repealed the nationwide car tax today.  The only major lobbying group to oppose the repeal was the Survivors of Punchbug Trauma, whose membership has swelled in the last several months.

Tuesday, November 28, 2017 Even amid the general strike, labor groups are applauding the Seven administration's offer of extended coffee breaks for all American workers.  However, a late-minute lobby by the American Heart Association has curtailed the president's mandatory coffee break plans, at least for the time being.

Tuesday, December 5, 2017 In what insiders are calling a "watershed moment" in the American penal system, President Seven is proposing a complete overhaul of the nation's prisons, championing what he says would refocus the mission of the facilities from containment to re-education and rehabilitation with the ultimate goal of producing citizens ready to be reintegrated to society.  Prominent members of both parties have replied anonymously with "Yeah, right" at least a dozen times. The cost of prison upgrades and maintenance would roughly double over the next year to $64 billion a year.

Wednesday, December 20, 2017 A foreign website has posted what it says are early drafts for an upcoming retooling of the American healthcare system under the name "SevenCare."  The veracity of the posting is undermined by a paragraph that would give the president the powers and privileges of a doctor of any discipline and require that he no longer be addressed as "Mister President" but "Doctor President."

Tuesday, December 26, 2017 An anonymous source in the Seven cabinet has confirmed the accuracy of the SevenCare leak, adding, "You don't want to push the doctor thing, believe me."

Saturday, December 30, 2017 President Seven signed the Mary Kate and Ashley Act into law, making it illegal to employ any American under the age of 16 for more than five hours a week. The Senate invoked cloture after an embarrassing hour of confusing the law with the Miley Cyrus Act, which regulates the acceptable behavior of an extended tongue in a public setting.

Tuesday, January 9, 2018 With President Seven's term nearing the half-way point, his 73% approval rating has been tempered by the downgrade of America's credit rating to a new-low CC.  The president's news conference on the downgrade was marred by the president's inability to say "CC" without immediately following it with "Sabathia." All major international credit agencies issued statements reiterating that there is no such rating as CC Sabathia.

Monday, January 22, 2018 President Seven's State of the Union address made oblique mentions to possible health care reform initiatives, while predicting swift resolution to renewed labor strife and pollution issues while including the fewest number of profanities of any of his previous addresses, coming in at just 40.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018 By executive order, use of the font Comic Sans is now a felony.

Tuesday, February 6, 2018 Congressional Budget Office estimates indicate that the quarterly budget deficit will top $500 billion.

Monday, February 26, 2018 President Seven vetos legislation that would create a nationwide DNA database for tracking suspects, noting that nowhere in the legislation is the word "suspect" defined.

Friday, March 2, 2018 After nine cups of coffee, a confident President Seven announces "I can do anything today" at approximately 8:12 am.  By 4:20 pm, the nationwide general strike is over, studies are released that indicate pollution and alcohol abuse are at new national lows, and the Department of Education says Americans are more prepared and trained for entering the workforce than ever before.  

Monday, March 5, 2018 President Seven has been asleep for three days.  According to the Constitution, if he does not awaken tomorrow, he must be jostled in a rousing fashion by the President pro tempore of the Senate.

Tueday, March 6, 2018 The president is awake, but photography has been forbidden under penalty of exsanguination.

Monday, March 19, 2018 After a new poll shows President Seven with an unprecedented 81.9% approval rating, opposition party members have unified their message, emphasizing the nation's most outstanding political issues -- an asthma epidemic, drug abuse, and Internet crime.  The presidential response amounts to three words on official letterhead: "Ain't no thang."  The president also Instagrams himself doing duckface before embarrassingly deleting it.

Friday, April 6, 2018 Press Secretary Heather Campbell has resigned via a Twitter post.  In a sign that the parting is amicable, the president retweeted the resignation tweet without a single Internet acronym or emoticon.  Kathryn Sanchez, a former representative from Arizona whose popularity with trade unions made her a powerful force in the House, is the favorite to replace Campbell, who is said to be working on a book of her experiences in the White House.

Monday, April 23, 2018 During the morning press conference, the Associated Press pool reporter asked the president "Have you seen the new numbers on the national debt?"  The president replied that he had not, and when he heard the figure, as is his wont, responded in many words that cannot be repeated or describe acts of blasphemy or physical improbability.

Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Spurred by last quarter's deficit, the national debt, after fluctuating for the last two years, now stands at $4.3 trillion.  The budget for this quarter, however, is being buoyed by a strong worldwide GDP and is operating under a projected $291 billion surplus.

Wednesday, May 16, 2018 New polls from Gallup indicate presidential approval has dropped over 40 points since March, giving the president a 38% approval rating.  According to the new numbers, the president is barely more popular than stepping on a Lego, botulism, and not being able to find a parking spot downtown.  However, the latest Zogby poll shows the president has a 203% approval rating, numbers even the White House are finding somewhat suspicious.

Friday, June 1, 2018 The president posted an enigmatic Tweet this morning, saying only "see u suckrz in august roflmao," and changing his Twitter location to the simple phrase "nunya."  The president's daily Instagram of his cooling Caribou Coffee clearly shows the outline of a window on Air Force One.

Monday, June 4, 2018 Internet icon Grumpy Cat was welcomed to ring the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange this morning, but it will remain forever unknown if her presence contributed to the 600-point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and subsequent crash felt across international markets.

Monday, June 11, 2018 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman said today that the nation was in a state of "profound recession," including references to growing pollution concerns and escalating gridlock through major American urban centers.

Wednesday, June 13, 2018 In a 5-4 decision along political lines, the Supreme Court ruled today that laws requiring the president's signature could not be signed via Twitter.  The president later posted a bit.ly link that Rickrolled the entire court.  The court declined to review the legal standing of an Instagrammed signed coffee citing, for some reason, the War Powers Act.

Tuesday, June 26, 2018 The Centers for Disease Control noted today that drug abuse had reached a 60-year low, while the Department of Justice announced that Internet crime was also at a 60-year low...somehow.  The president posted a YouTube link to Geto Boys' "Damn It Feels Good to be a Gangsta," which was promptly taken down for copyright infringement.  

Monday, July 2, 2018 Paul Krugman boldly announced that the "American debt crisis is over," noting the country's $92 billion dollar surplus.  Markets replied with indifference and a general malaise.

Wednesday, July 18, 2018 Reports are circulating around the Beltway that a SevenCare proposal is still being revised, though its cost would be in the range of $600 billion a year.  The Doctor President clause has been confirmed to exist by a highly-placed source in the administration.

Wednesday, August 1, 2018 President Seven's bold, confident arrival into Andrews Air Force Base was marred when a reporter asked about the president's plans to run again.  The president closed his eyes tightly and said many words that only adults can use.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018 The Automobile Association of America announced that urban gridlock issues had come to an end, largely due to the injury and treatment of multiple punchbugging.  A law criminalizing the punchbug died in committee last week.

Monday, September 17, 2018 Department of Justice Director Christopher Rodriguez gave his morning press conference in a chicken suit, replying to every question with a series of clucking sounds.  An administration official indicated that Rodriguez may have made a substantial wager on the outcome of yesterday's Kansas City Royals/Washington Nationals game, which the Royals won in extra innings. This account is possibly supported by the president Tweeting the word "chikin" repeatedly for almost two hours.  Privately, Rodriguez is said to be seriously displeased.

Friday, September 21, 2018 A YouTube video posted by a group calling itself the Revolutionary Army made a series of demands and threats against the Seven administration today.  After some research, the Department of Justice found that the Revolutionary Army had threatened terrorist acts against various members of the government for several years, but had done so on Google Plus, so nobody noticed.

Thursday, October 18, 2018 New Gallup polls show the president's approval rating at 78%.  The president seemed moderately stunned during his morning press conference before nodding and saying "Yeah, that's right."

Monday, November 19, 2018 Global economic strain pushed the national budget into a $110 billion deficit and the national debt back to $4.2 trillion.  Amid calls to balance the budget, the president has refused to either increase taxes or cut spending, particularly defense spending, a popular target for deficit hawks.  The president's sole justification for keeping defense spending at its exorbitant rate has been "Don't wanna."

Monday, January 21, 2019 At his State of the Union address, President Seven literally dared the populace to vote for the opposition candidate in the next election.  His ominous statement of "I know where you live" became a mantra, repeated 13 times during his speech.  

Wednesday, February 6, 2019 The Southern Poverty Law Center announced today that racial tension in the United States has fallen by a third and crime has been more than halved, indicating a probable endorsement of President Seven in the November election.

Friday, March 18, 2020 President Seven refuses to campaign for reelection and has taken to what his staffers privately call "pouting" in the Oval Office.  Administration officials and party representatives are especially hesitant to prod the president on the issue, as those who do so have had the White House Wi-Fi password changed on them without notice.  

April 12, 2020 While opposition party primaries are winding down, the president's reelection campaign has started without him, taking quotes out of context to use as motivational material during rallies and the eventual convention.  At the moment, the campaign's slogan is "Seven '16, I Don't Even Care."

May 4, 2020 An American has become the first person to win the Nobel Prize for Literature with an Internet meme.  The winner, known popularly as LeGaLiZe_420, has credited Adobe Photoshop and the font Impact for his recognition.

June 12, 2020 Worldwide economic forecasts remain dire, even as the United States' credit rating is bumped back up to 'B.'

[umusicians]

UM Interview: Mike Ruby

Canadian pop artist Mike Ruby is just getting started. The toronto native moved to New York to attend school and study music, where he began  playing sax with Brooklyn based synth-pop band St. Lucia. This experience led Mike to pursue music as a solo artist, resulting in the release of his debut single “Close” last year which as over 1 million streams on streaming platforms and broke top 40 radio in Canada and on the Billboard Charts. On June 26th, 2020, Mike will be releasing his debut EP ‘You Wrote These Songs’.

Amandah Opoku sat down with Mike to discuss his debut EP ‘You Wrote These Songs’. Check out the interview below!

Amandah Opoku: Mike, thank you for doing this interview today! Before we kick off please tell our readers about yourself and one new artist you've discovered in the last month. Mike Ruby: Thanks for having me. My name is actually Mike Ruby, I was born in Toronto and started my music career as a jazz saxophonist living in NY. I made a U-turn into the singer songwriter lane after playing with some pop bands in New York, spent some time in LA and Nashville writing songs, and am now releasing my first album/EP on June 26th as a pop artist. That’s me in a nutshell. Hmm new artist – she’s really not too new but she is new to me. Fletcher. Her new song “Bitter” is so well written, I heard it for the first time and was a fan. 

AO: What inspired you to pursue a career as an artist? And what drew you to create Pop music? MR: I was always a musician, but I wasn’t moving people with my own words, and I guess I just needed that fulfillment in my life, so picked up a guitar and started writing songs. Being a sideman and a front man are two totally different experiences and connecting with my fans now means everything to me. As a sideman, I played and opened for some pretty big pop acts and fell in love with that type of music and culture.  

AO: In college you played saxophone with synth-band St. Lucia, what did you learn from your experience with your band? Do you think your time playing with the band has directly influenced the music you create? MR: I learned a ton from the front man of that band, Jean. His energy on stage is unparalleled, and every song is so tightly rehearsed, so on stage the band can take it to the next level and interact with the crowd. It has 100% indirectly influenced my music. Jean and I write very differently, and of course come from very different places, but I think he’s one of the most brilliant writers I’ve come across and am honored to have been a part of his project. 

AO: Would you say there are any artists or songwriters that have inspired the music you create and the way you write? MR: I wish I could say one artist, but I really can’t. It’s been a mix of my favorite artists that have their own strengths that find their way into my music subconsciously. For example, I love the way Lauv writes melodies. I love the inflections Julia Michaels and Jessie Reyez put into their songs. The lyrical depth of early John Mayer records and the subtle messages Frank Ocean has in his songs, and not so subtle pockets that Jon Bellion has in his music. Even dating back to the jazz musicians I used to listen to like John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Joshua Redman and Brad Mehldau. They all play a role. 

AO: You'll be releasing your debut EP, You Wrote These Songs on June 26th. What was the writing and recording process like for the record? MR: These were all songs I couldn’t give away as a writer – I had to sing them for myself, so they hold a lot of meaning to me. I got to work with some incredible producers on this record in Toronto, Vancouver and Los Angeles including Ryan Stewart (Carly Rae Jepson) Jamey Heath (Andy Grammer) Joel Stouffer and Ben Nudds. They’re great guys and incredibly talented musical minds, so they made the recording process easy. We had a great time making these songs and hope you have some fun listening to them.

AO: When you began working on You Wrote These Songs, did you have any idea/plan of what type of record you wanted to make? MR: Not. At. All.  I wasn’t even writing for a record, EP or anything to be honest. I was writing songs for other artists, one offs here and there, and before I knew it had written almost a thousand songs in three years between writing songs daily myself and doing lots of cowrites. At a certain point, I had a handful of songs that were written about very important people in my life that I couldn’t let go of, and that’s when the EP/record idea hit me. I needed to say these things out loud, so naturally the title You Wrote These Songs made a lot of sense. 

AO: Thinking about the songs on your EP from a lyrical standpoint, what is your favorite lyric you wrote and why? MR: That’s a tough one to answer. Just took a moment to myself to think about it and there are actually three that come to mind, all with extremely different meanings. One, the heaviest, is from a song I wrote about my dad who passed away when I was in high school. The lyric is “And I get pissed cuz I’ll have kids one day and I know you’ll miss it all. Can I be angry even though it’s not your fault.” It’s blunt and to the point, and the truth in it speaks volumes. Another is in the last song on the record called “The Story Never Ends” and that lyric is “I don’t know when you became my friend, when pencil changed to pen, when every cut began to sting” talking about being in a relationship with someone and then all of a sudden feeling their pain like it’s your own. The last I’d say is from the feature track “Don’t Want You Back (wtf).”  It’s the lyric I love singing the most from the whole record. The song sounds super sweet and melodic, and at first the lyrics are too, but by the end of the first chorus you know what’s up. “What the f%^# is that, I don’t want you back” is the line. It’s about an ex that didn’t deserve you, and we’ve all been there.

AO: “Close” was your debut single which will be included on your upcoming EP. Did the success of the song inform your sound and what you've created on the EP? MR: All the songs were written a year ago, so the sound had already been formed. I’m definitely happy “Close” was the first single though – once you hear that one, you get a good sense for how the record will sound. 

AO: On the EP, what song do you think truly captures the essence, theme and/or message that you want people to take away from the record? MR: I’d have to say the feature track to the record, “Don’t Want You Back (wtf)” because it’s about realizing your self-worth and moving on. The whole EP is a journey about moving forward.

AO: I recently had a chance to listen to the record and “Not Your Fault” is one of my favorites. It's very personal and deep. Can you take me through what the writing and recording process was like for the track? MR: Thank you so much. It’s definitely the most personal on the EP. I co-wrote it with Jamey Heath at his studio in LA. To be honest, a few days before I was in his studio co-writing a pop song for another artist’s project as a writer. It was a great song but nothing too deep. When I went into the studio to work on my own record with Jamey, he said “let’s write something deep today. What’s your muse?” I mentioned a few things like some ex relationships, moving city to city, etc. and he said “OK” with a high pitched voice like yeah we could go there but what else you got? Haha. I told him about my dad, and he said “Yep, we’re writing that.” He started playing voicings on the piano and after we got the chord progression, I started pouring out the words and to be honest trying to hold in the tears. It was a very traumatic experience for me in high school with a lot of unresolved emotions that I’ve since dealt with, so writing about it was difficult and rewarding at the same time. I spent a lot of time refining the lyrics after the session to the point where I finally felt everything was said in the way I wanted, then I went back in for a couple more sessions to record the vocals. “Not Your Fault” is the song on the back of the record that means the most to me, and I think I’m most proud of this one for its vulnerability. 

AO: Going into the release of your debut EP, You Wrote These Songs, what do you want people to take away from the record? MR: I want each of these songs to be about someone in your life. The “You” in the EP title can be about anyone – whoever comes to mind when you listen to each song is meant to be about that person. 

AO: I know we're sitting in an interesting time, given what is going on in the world right now. Were you hesitant to release the EP now? Or even contemplate pushing the release date back? MR: I wasn’t due to Covid-19. It’s such a terrible unfortunate tragedy and pandemic, and no I can’t tour, but I think people are still listening to music online and checking out music videos, so I’ve always been of the mindset to keep pushing forwards. After the video of George Floyd came out though, that’s a whole other story. I was outraged and so hurt. I stopped posting about my project and started posting about equality, human rights, and racism. Today marks 10 days since I saw it, and I have not posted about my own project since, and although I will start to as the EP is coming out soon, I will continue to donate, inform myself and others, and be a part of this movement. We are in the middle of making history for the better right now, and we’re starting to take baby steps in the right direction. We need to continue pushing forwards to see equality and justice and I don’t intend to stop until we do. 

AO: Mike, thank you for sitting down with me! Before we close this interview, is there anything you want to say to your fans and our readers? MR: Thank you for reading! I feel truly blessed to have the best fans out there, and I’m always open to talking to all of you guys about anything. You can find me on all socials @mikerubymusic. I have lots of new music videos and news coming your way, so make sure to follow me on Spotify or your social media of choice. Hope to see you soon at a show after Covid-19 settles down!

Connect with Mike on the following websites: www.mikeruby.com www.twitter.com/mikerubymusic www.facebook.com/mikerubymusic www.instagram.com/mikerubymusic https://www.youtube.com/user/mikerubymusic

[womenofcolor15]

Another Perspective On BLACK LIVES MATTER: Robert De Niro, Tika Sumpter On Raising Biracial Children + Tia Mowry Reflects On Her Black Mother Being Treated Differently

Biracial celebs and celebs with biracial children are speaking out with a unique perspective on the Black Lives Matter movement following the killing of George Floyd. More inside…

If you didn’t know, Robert De Niro is a father to six biracial children. And he recently got real about raising them in America and the impact it has had on him as white father.

All of the 76-year-old actor’s kids are grown except one – who all from three previous relationships. He shares daughter Drena, 48, and son Raphael, 44, with his ex-wife, Diahnne Abbott. He also has sons Julian, 24, and Aaron, 24, with his ex, Toukie Smith, and son Elliot, 22, and daughter Helen, 8, with his ex-wife, Grace Hightower.

As the nation reacts to the killing of George Floyd, hard – but necessary - conversations are being brought up about race and white supremacy.

The Irishman star recently appeared on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” where he talked about what it’s like raising biracial children as a white father.

“My children are all half black and I don’t have … even me, I take certain things for granted,” he said. “When people say that they tell their kids, ‘Keep your hands [up] when you’re stopped by any cops, keep your hands on the steering wheel, don’t make a sudden move, don’t put your hands below, don’t do this,’ you understand that. That’s scary. That has to change.”

De Niro pointed out that all cops aren’t bad, but if someone is hurting another human being “for no reason other than self defense or the defense of other people around shouldn't be doing that job."

The award winning actor touched on how people were willing to protest amid the Coronavirus pandemic.

"We had all the protests and everything going on, rightfully so, people are so angry that they did not care. They said, 'I'm going out anyway,'" he said. "I think a lot of people did wear masks, it seems that way. But that's how angry everybody was."

Peep his appearance below:

De Niro made these comments has protests have swept the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd. People are hitting the streets to demand justice for people who were made victim of police brutality and racial injustice.

As for relationships...

"Mixed-ish" star Tika Sumpter has a message for people in interracial relationships, like herself, amid these trying times. She's engaged to white actor Nicholas James after they met on the set of Tyler Perry's "The Have & The Have Nots" in 2016. They are parents to their almost 4-year-old daughter, Ella.

          View this post on Instagram

                  My lover, my best friend. You make me a better human. Love you to life. #happyvalentinesday @nickjames138

A post shared by Tika Sumpter (@tikasumpter) on Feb 14, 2020 at 7:39pm PST

  "Dear Black interracial couples with a significant other who is white (raises hand), we DO NOT need to protect them," Tika tweeted. "I promise, they will be A. OK. They need to continue to fight for us. If they get offended when you talk about racists. You have a bigger problem on your hands."

Dear Black interracial couples with a significant other who is white (raises hand), we DO NOT need to protect them. I promise, they will be A. OK. They need to continue to fight for us. If they get offended when you talk about racists. You have a bigger problem on your hands.

— Tika Sumpter (@iamtikasumpter) June 5, 2020

That's a word.

Tika has been vocal about being a black woman in an interracial relationship. Most recently, she launched a new project to spark candid conversations about race. She co-founded a motherhood platform called Sugaberry with her friend Thai Randolph, who is a media executive.

Tika shared a conversation she had with her 4-year-old daughter about the killing of George Floyd. It went like this:

My talk w/ my 3.5 year old about equality was hopeful. We’re going to a children’s protest. Me: George said “I can’t breath”. Ella: I said that! I went to the hospital. Why didn’t anyone help him? Me:That’s why we’re marching. What do you want your sign to say? Ella: I love you.

— Tika Sumpter (@iamtikasumpter) June 11, 2020

  Also...

        View this post on Instagram

                  #tbt This is a photo of my beautiful mother. Growing up #biracial, mom is black and dad is white, it was very clear to me seeing the #privilege that my dad had as opposed to my #mother. Some examples, during our #sistersister days when traveling for work we would often fly first class. There were several times my mother was asked if she was in the right seat. Another incident that stood out for me was when we were buying our first home as a family. My mother walked in the house model with us asking for a brochure. A person had said the houses were sold out. My dad walked in and it was a different story. My #goal is to see #change. This year has been a tough year. Several tears have been shed. However, a friend told me these tears will not be wasted. The #love and #support around the world has kept me going. A #change is gonna come.

A post shared by TiaMowry (@tiamowry) on Jun 4, 2020 at 6:24am PDT

  Actress Tia Mowry-Hardrict took to Instagram recently to share what life was like growing up with a black mother and a white father. She said she learned early on about the privilege her father possessed that her mother didn't. Read her moving message above.

  For some good news...

  I am launching this to give funds, resources, and a platform to black creators. Looking for black creators who want to enrich the world with their work. #BLACKCREATORSFUND pic.twitter.com/Yph9cHhIVm

— h (@halsey) June 11, 2020

  Singer-songwriter Halsey is launching a Black Creators Funding Initiative in support of Black artists, Black photographers, Black makeup artists, Black writers, Black poets, and more.  This comes after she revealed she now acknowledges her privilege of being a "white passing" biracial woman who is not susceptible to race-based mistreatment from society or police.

im white passing. it’s not my place to say “we”. it’s my place to help. i am in pain for my family, but nobody is gonna kill me based on my skin color. I’ve always been proud of who I am but it’d be an absolute disservice to say “we” when I’m not susceptible to the same violence. https://t.co/2p6RVJixwl

— h (@halsey) June 3, 2020

    The 25-year-old "You Should Be Sad" singer announced the initiative on social media, encouraging fans to tag their favorite Black creators on Instagram and Twitter with #BLACKCREATORSFUN. "I am launching this to give funds, resources, and a platform to Black creators," she tweeted. "Looking for Black creators who want to enrich the world with their work."

  hello! Please don’t forget I’ll be lurking #BLACKCREATORSFUND all week https://t.co/j7pocdIe7q

— h (@halsey) June 12, 2020

          View this post on Instagram

                  I am launching this to give funds, resources, and a platform to black creators. Looking for black creators who want to enrich the world with their work. Use #BLACKCREATORSFUND & tag your favorite black creators in the comments

A post shared by halsey (@iamhalsey) on Jun 11, 2020 at 3:15pm PDT

          View this post on Instagram

                  It’s become very clear to me that some of you need to see what I’ve seen. Please swipe through this. These pictures and videos don’t even scratch the surface. It’s easy from the comfort of your home to watch looting and rioting on television and condone the violent measures being taken by forces. But what you don’t see is innocent peaceful protestors being shot at and tear gassed and physically assaulted relentlessly. You think it’s not happening, it’s only the “thugs” and the “riots”, right? The police are keeping you safe right? You’re wrong. This is happening everywhere. And innocent people exercising their rights to speech and assembly are facing violence and abuse of power. With all of our medical professionals being CONSUMED and EXHAUSTED with Covid, there is little to no medical attention available. I have first hand treated men women and children who have been shot in the chest, the face, the back. Some will lose vision some have lost fingers. I have been covered in innocent blood. My father is a black man. My mother is an EMT. This week I had to put those two associations together in ways that have horrified me. This is NOT a virtue signaling post. But I HAVE to show you what I am witnessing with my own eyes. With Trump’s decision today to enforce the mobilization of armed forces on our own citizens, this has escalated beyond your privilege and comfort to not care. Please care. We are begging you to care. This is war on Americans. This is everyone’s problem. Everyone’s. #BLACKLIVESMATTER

A post shared by halsey (@iamhalsey) on Jun 1, 2020 at 4:47pm PDT

  Nice move in a very trying situation.

        View this post on Instagram

                  just want to take a minute to say how proud I am of my little brother @sevianfrangipane for finding his voice and being out protesting every single day. keep your family close right now if you’re lucky enough to have them to rely on. if you are NON-BLACK and: married to a black person, the parent of a black child, or the child of a black parent, or any other interfamilial relationship with a black person, then this is a time to let them talk when they feel like talking. listen and listen with love. Don’t assume they aren’t upset because they haven’t expressed issues or traumas in the past. A lot of repressed feelings and memories may be uncovered right now. Receive it with grace empathy and promise to learn or change where need be. With Love. @paytonselzer

A post shared by halsey (@iamhalsey) on Jun 8, 2020 at 9:45pm PDT

  Photos: Tinseltown/Ga Gullner/Shutterstock.com

  [Read More ...] source http://theybf.com/2020/06/12/biracials-black-lives-matter-robert-de-niro-tika-sumpter-speak-out-about-raising-biracial

[itsfinancethings]

With voting underway for the Democratic nomination, seven of the party’s presidential candidates met for a debate—and the collective anxiety was palpable.

There’s no frontrunner, the president has just been acquitted for impeachment and voters still don’t know who won the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. With rank-and-file Democrats desperate for a solid standard-bearer, the candidates rushed to argue they were the best bet to beat President Donald Trump, setting off a surreal meta-debate about that most ineffable of political qualities, “electability.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, coming off a dismal fourth-place Iowa showing, practically conceded New Hampshire right off the bat, arguing that the first four nominating contests should be regarded as a group. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appears to have won the most Iowa raw votes, argued that his movement could realign American politics by increasing voter turnout. And Pete Buttigieg, who’s receiving a surge of new attention since his unexpectedly strong Iowa result, positioned himself as a Washington outsider.

But it was billionaire businessman Tom Steyer who perhaps best channeled the party’s sense of angst when he proclaimed: “I don’t think there’s any question, George, that after this week, there’s a real threat that Donald Trump can get re-elected.” It’s that lurking fear more than anything that is driving the race for the nomination at this uncertain stage of the race.

Here are the key takeaways from the debate:

No more Mr. Nice Joe

There are limits to what Iowans will tolerate from candidates who get even a little bit critical. Iowa is now very much in the rear-view mirror, as evidenced by Joe Biden’s toughest barbs yet in the campaign. He challenged Sanders on the cost and practicality of his Medicare for All proposal. “Bernie’s plan costs double — double — what the taxpayers are paying for every single program we spend on in the United States of America,” Biden said, standing directly to Sanders’ right. Biden took aim at Buttigieg’s decision, as Iowa neared, to challenge the record of the Obama-Biden Administration. “The politics of the past, I think, were not all that bad,” Biden said, noting his role in administering an economic recovery package that shipped millions so South Bend., Ind., and Biden’s backing of same-sex marriage before Obama.

Biden has always had it in him. In 2012, he reset the trajectory of a sinking Obama re-election bid with an aggressive if occasionally smug performance in his vice presidential debate against the GOP pick of Paul Ryan. The Obama team had prepared exhaustive research into every piece of legislation Ryan — the Republican Party’s self-anointed ideas guy — touched. Biden delivered a much-needed reboot for the team in Chicago, which was in the dumps after Obama himself botched his first debate against the Republicans’ nominee that year, Mitt Romney. Biden, too, had decent showings during his bid for the 2008 nomination, including a devastating take-down of Rudy Giuliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else!”

It’s that sharp tongue that Biden advisers have started to rev up now that the campaign is out of Iowa, in New Hampshire and sprinting toward famously fierce South Carolina.

Despite the otherwise testy tone, one moment of comity rose through. Asked if Democrats should nominate Biden, given the ongoing Republican interest in his son’s business dealings, Buttigieg did not take the bait. “We are not going to let them change the subject. This is not about Hunter Biden or Vice President Biden or any Biden. This is about an abuse of power by the President,” he said to applause. “Look, the Vice President and I — and all of us — are competing, but we’ve got to draw a line here. To be the kind of President, to be the kind of human being, who would seek to turn someone against his own son, who would seek to weaponize a son against his own father, is an unbelievably dishonorable thing.” — Phlip Elliott

The question Mayor Pete can’t answer

At first, everything was going great for Buttigieg. Fresh off a strong showing in the muddled Iowa Caucuses and surging in the polls in New Hampshire, Buttigieg started the debate in a virtuous cycle: he is a favorite punching bag of his rivals, but nearly every time his opponents attacked him, he was able to parry the response into another opportunity to push his message of unity, belonging and futurism. He talked about a “style of politics” and the need to “turn the page” from “the politics of the past.”

“The politics of the past, I think, were not all that bad,” Biden responded. “Those achievements were phenomenally important, because they met the moment,” Buttigieg responded. “But now we have to meet this moment, and this moment is different,” he said, before mentioning 21st century challenges like global health security, cybersecurity, and election security. And in the portion of the debate devoted to foreign policy and national security, Buttigieg was able to shine as the only veteran on the stage. “The vice president made the wrong decision when it came to such an important moment in our foreign policy,” he said, criticizing Biden’s vote for the Iraq war.

Buttigieg’s aptitude for talking his way out of tough spots has taken him from being a no-name mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to a top-tier presidential contender. But when confronted with the racial disparity in marijuana arrests in South Bend, Buttigieg’s eloquence hit its limit. “There is no question that systemic racism has penetrated every level of our system, and my city was not immune,” he said, before trying to change the subject to his plan to legalize marijuana nationwide. But the questioner persisted: Why did marijuana arrests increase under his watch? Buttigieg answered that his administration adopted a strategy to “target cases where there was gun violence or gang violence which was slaughtering so many in our community” and added that “these things are all connected, and that’s the point. So are all the things that need to change in order for us to prevent violence and remove the effects of systemic racism.” The answer fell flat, especially since Buttigieg has such dismal support from black voters, especially in South Carolina.

When the questioner asked Buttigieg’s opponents whether they thought his answer was satisfactory, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a one word answer: “No.” After starting strong and dominating the debate in the first half, the silver-tongued South Bend Mayor went mostly silent. —Charlotte Alter

Elizabeth Warren’s disappearing act

Warren finished third in Iowa, caught in the no-man’s land between Sanders’ liberal warriors and Buttigieg’s appeal to moderates and suburbanites. Her fate in the debate was similar: Always articulate, always prepared, she still seemed not to have a way to distinguish herself from the rest of the field. For much of the first hour, she hardly seemed present at all. Early on, Warren had an easy opportunity to differentiate herself from Sanders, something she’s been mostly loath to do in the campaign. But rather than explain the difference between her vision of capitalism and Sanders’ socialism, she batted it away—”Oh, Bernie and I have been friends for a long time”—and launched into a version of her stump speech about money being the root of all political evil.

It was a similar story when it came to health care, foreign policy, gun control and abortion: Warren gave sharp and persuasive articulations of her positions, but didn’t necessarily make the case that voters should prefer her over the other candidates. She did stand out on the question of race: asked if Buttigieg’s answer was “substantial,” she replied, flatly, “No,” and went on to make a passionate argument that racial justice must go beyond the criminal-justice system. But here again, despite having dissed Buttigieg, she didn’t directly go after his or any other candidate’s record. (Contrast that with Amy Klobuchar, who has found herself similarly overshadowed in her ideological “lane”; she stood out in the debate by scoring a number of direct hits, perhaps most notably this attack on Buttigieg: “We have a newcomer in the White House, and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing.”)

Warren’s positive, substantive message is a big part of her appeal to voters, and her skill as a debater has been apparent throughout the race. But if she doesn’t find a way to distinguish herself from the field, she could find herself squeezed out. —Molly Ball

[newstechreviews]

With voting underway for the Democratic nomination, seven of the party’s presidential candidates met for a debate—and the collective anxiety was palpable.

There’s no frontrunner, the president has just been acquitted for impeachment and voters still don’t know who won the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. With rank-and-file Democrats desperate for a solid standard-bearer, the candidates rushed to argue they were the best bet to beat President Donald Trump, setting off a surreal meta-debate about that most ineffable of political qualities, “electability.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden, coming off a dismal fourth-place Iowa showing, practically conceded New Hampshire right off the bat, arguing that the first four nominating contests should be regarded as a group. Sen. Bernie Sanders, who appears to have won the most Iowa raw votes, argued that his movement could realign American politics by increasing voter turnout. And Pete Buttigieg, who’s receiving a surge of new attention since his unexpectedly strong Iowa result, positioned himself as a Washington outsider.

But it was billionaire businessman Tom Steyer who perhaps best channeled the party’s sense of angst when he proclaimed: “I don’t think there’s any question, George, that after this week, there’s a real threat that Donald Trump can get re-elected.” It’s that lurking fear more than anything that is driving the race for the nomination at this uncertain stage of the race.

Here are the key takeaways from the debate:

No more Mr. Nice Joe

There are limits to what Iowans will tolerate from candidates who get even a little bit critical. Iowa is now very much in the rear-view mirror, as evidenced by Joe Biden’s toughest barbs yet in the campaign. He challenged Sanders on the cost and practicality of his Medicare for All proposal. “Bernie’s plan costs double — double — what the taxpayers are paying for every single program we spend on in the United States of America,” Biden said, standing directly to Sanders’ right. Biden took aim at Buttigieg’s decision, as Iowa neared, to challenge the record of the Obama-Biden Administration. “The politics of the past, I think, were not all that bad,” Biden said, noting his role in administering an economic recovery package that shipped millions so South Bend., Ind., and Biden’s backing of same-sex marriage before Obama.

Biden has always had it in him. In 2012, he reset the trajectory of a sinking Obama re-election bid with an aggressive if occasionally smug performance in his vice presidential debate against the GOP pick of Paul Ryan. The Obama team had prepared exhaustive research into every piece of legislation Ryan — the Republican Party’s self-anointed ideas guy — touched. Biden delivered a much-needed reboot for the team in Chicago, which was in the dumps after Obama himself botched his first debate against the Republicans’ nominee that year, Mitt Romney. Biden, too, had decent showings during his bid for the 2008 nomination, including a devastating take-down of Rudy Giuliani: “There’s only three things he mentions in a sentence — a noun, a verb, and 9/11. There’s nothing else!”

It’s that sharp tongue that Biden advisers have started to rev up now that the campaign is out of Iowa, in New Hampshire and sprinting toward famously fierce South Carolina.

Despite the otherwise testy tone, one moment of comity rose through. Asked if Democrats should nominate Biden, given the ongoing Republican interest in his son’s business dealings, Buttigieg did not take the bait. “We are not going to let them change the subject. This is not about Hunter Biden or Vice President Biden or any Biden. This is about an abuse of power by the President,” he said to applause. “Look, the Vice President and I — and all of us — are competing, but we’ve got to draw a line here. To be the kind of President, to be the kind of human being, who would seek to turn someone against his own son, who would seek to weaponize a son against his own father, is an unbelievably dishonorable thing.” — Phlip Elliott

The question Mayor Pete can’t answer

At first, everything was going great for Buttigieg. Fresh off a strong showing in the muddled Iowa Caucuses and surging in the polls in New Hampshire, Buttigieg started the debate in a virtuous cycle: he is a favorite punching bag of his rivals, but nearly every time his opponents attacked him, he was able to parry the response into another opportunity to push his message of unity, belonging and futurism. He talked about a “style of politics” and the need to “turn the page” from “the politics of the past.”

“The politics of the past, I think, were not all that bad,” Biden responded. “Those achievements were phenomenally important, because they met the moment,” Buttigieg responded. “But now we have to meet this moment, and this moment is different,” he said, before mentioning 21st century challenges like global health security, cybersecurity, and election security. And in the portion of the debate devoted to foreign policy and national security, Buttigieg was able to shine as the only veteran on the stage. “The vice president made the wrong decision when it came to such an important moment in our foreign policy,” he said, criticizing Biden’s vote for the Iraq war.

Buttigieg’s aptitude for talking his way out of tough spots has taken him from being a no-name mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to a top-tier presidential contender. But when confronted with the racial disparity in marijuana arrests in South Bend, Buttigieg’s eloquence hit its limit. “There is no question that systemic racism has penetrated every level of our system, and my city was not immune,” he said, before trying to change the subject to his plan to legalize marijuana nationwide. But the questioner persisted: Why did marijuana arrests increase under his watch? Buttigieg answered that his administration adopted a strategy to “target cases where there was gun violence or gang violence which was slaughtering so many in our community” and added that “these things are all connected, and that’s the point. So are all the things that need to change in order for us to prevent violence and remove the effects of systemic racism.” The answer fell flat, especially since Buttigieg has such dismal support from black voters, especially in South Carolina.

When the questioner asked Buttigieg’s opponents whether they thought his answer was satisfactory, Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a one word answer: “No.” After starting strong and dominating the debate in the first half, the silver-tongued South Bend Mayor went mostly silent. —Charlotte Alter

Elizabeth Warren’s disappearing act

Warren finished third in Iowa, caught in the no-man’s land between Sanders’ liberal warriors and Buttigieg’s appeal to moderates and suburbanites. Her fate in the debate was similar: Always articulate, always prepared, she still seemed not to have a way to distinguish herself from the rest of the field. For much of the first hour, she hardly seemed present at all. Early on, Warren had an easy opportunity to differentiate herself from Sanders, something she’s been mostly loath to do in the campaign. But rather than explain the difference between her vision of capitalism and Sanders’ socialism, she batted it away—”Oh, Bernie and I have been friends for a long time”—and launched into a version of her stump speech about money being the root of all political evil.

It was a similar story when it came to health care, foreign policy, gun control and abortion: Warren gave sharp and persuasive articulations of her positions, but didn’t necessarily make the case that voters should prefer her over the other candidates. She did stand out on the question of race: asked if Buttigieg’s answer was “substantial,” she replied, flatly, “No,” and went on to make a passionate argument that racial justice must go beyond the criminal-justice system. But here again, despite having dissed Buttigieg, she didn’t directly go after his or any other candidate’s record. (Contrast that with Amy Klobuchar, who has found herself similarly overshadowed in her ideological “lane”; she stood out in the debate by scoring a number of direct hits, perhaps most notably this attack on Buttigieg: “We have a newcomer in the White House, and look where it got us. I think having some experience is a good thing.”)

Warren’s positive, substantive message is a big part of her appeal to voters, and her skill as a debater has been apparent throughout the race. But if she doesn’t find a way to distinguish herself from the field, she could find herself squeezed out. —Molly Ball