#(problem for future Espi I guess)

[espithewarlock]

I just found your tumblr so I apologize if you've gotten this question before haha

What day are the Safety In Your Arms updates posted after race week?

Hello! 💚 Sorry it took me a hot minute to answer! Updates get posted at the start of the next race weekend, just to give me a little breathing room to edit and format and actually write the chapter.

So the Spain chapter will go up on Thursday, June 12th (ahead of the Canadian GP), the Canada chapter will go up Thursday, June 26th (ahead of Austria!), and so on.

The only exception to this is going to be summer break. Let's be honest, several weeks without racing (or updates) will kill all of us, so I'm planning to post the Hungary chapter in the middle of summer break and post a "Summer Break" chapter ahead of Zandvoort.

All of this depends, of course, on my ability to write the chapters in time to post them. Staying motivated is difficult and inspiration comes and goes.

In any case, I hope you're excited! I'm enjoying writing it alongside the season and I've been thoroughly surprised at how much of a following it has! 💚

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2008): Thunderpeak

You know what? I am canceling my Eternal Dud Vier review. I tried to give it a chance but after only one map full of fighting monsters in darkness, annoying tiny enemies, irritating new sound effects (including Super Slappy from Espi’s other WADs), and of course, weird, cryptic stuff (although not as much as the original ED) among other things, I’ve decided that I’m not going to force myself to play a sequel to something that I didn’t like. I want to have fun and experience unknown WADs, not torture myself.

sigh

Now with that out of the way...

G5: Thunderpeak

Main author(s): Björn Ostmann (Vader)

Release date: June 16th, 2008 (in ZPack)/ August 13th, 2008 (standalone release)

Version(s) played: ???

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 2 (originally E1M8 and E1M9)

Here is something interesting – a standalone version of two maps from the community project made by the winner of the Mapper of the Year award in the 2008 Cacowards.

But let’s take a step back for now... what am I talking about? Here is what happened...

On June 16th, 2008, a community project known as ZPack was released (a sort of Community Chest focusing on the ZDoom source port). One of its contributors was Björn Ostmann (one of the main team members behind KDiZD), who made four maps (plus one with Tormentor). Two of these maps (Thunderpeak Powerplant and Termination) ended up as a highlight of that project (at least that’s my guess), so Vader decided to release these maps (with slight tweaks) almost two months later as a singular WAD, simply titled Thunderpeak.

Now with that out of the way, let’s see what people like about these maps.

I like how this WAD looks. It somehow gives me the Simplicity vibes except, you know, not that simple. I really like the bridge in the second map that leads to the boss area (not to mention the buildup to the fight as well). But the first level tends to have some banger-looking locations as well.

I like the music too. The use of Grand Design from Hellcore is always considered a pro for me. This track is a blast. But the two other tracks from Termination (Caverns and Death Wind (which is a remix)) are rather okay.

I wouldn’t call this WAD complicated. There might be some annoying things like the piss-poor vent sections (secret ones or not) and some worthless ZDoom features (I still wonder why some of the sound effects related to these are unbalanced), but it wasn’t that hard to figure out what to do where. Powerplant focuses on restoring the power back in the second half of the titular building, and Termination is basically a boss map with his lackeys between you and him.

These two maps aren’t really hard. They tend to have bullshit moments here and there but overall, I didn’t have much trouble with enemies.

Since this is ZDoom made map, we will of course encounter new enemies. Aside from two Imp variants that I already met in the past (Catharsi and Howlers), there is Cybruiser, a Hell Noble that functions as a weaker Cyberdemon. Get used to him people; he will become a guest enemy in many WADs in the future. There is also a boss of the second map – Terminator; multiple attacks that hit like a truck, and he has a health of a truck; he might be the only enemy that is legitimately hard in this WAD.

I’ve seen only one bug at the end of the first map. I think it looks like some kind of ZDoom script that either wasn’t entirely removed from the ZPack version, or just didn’t work at all.

Despite its problems, Thunderpeak is a rather enjoyable WAD. I can see why many people saw these maps (along with the other two from Vader) as a highlight of ZPack. Worth checking out.

Next WAD on the list is...

-_- Oh great. Another Espi WAD...

Boy! I can’t wait to hear annoying, new sound effects for my weapons again...

...

Shit...

[ztafraternity]

Isn’t it funny how things work out?

By Ashley Amoss, former Leadership Consultant (@lsuzetataualpha)

If you would have told my 18-year-old self that I would join a sorority, serve on my chapter’s Executive Committee, and then choose to work for the national organization after graduation, I would have said you were crazy. I was an athlete. A musical theater nerd. “Sorority” wasn’t my thing.

Isn’t it funny how things work out?

Pictured: Ashley (middle) and her fellow Leadership Consultants always made time to laugh

I still remember the day I walked through the doors of the ZTA house at LSU with no clue how it would change my life forever. I think the thing we all underestimate when we join ZTA is that, at the end of the day, it’s about relationships. It is the relationships that push us to be the best versions of ourselves. The relationships change us for the better. The relationships make us stay when times get tough. It was those relationships that pushed me to apply for a job that I didn’t even know existed. A job that would alter the course of my life. The job of a Zeta Tau Alpha Leadership Consultant.

Pictured: Ashley (middle) poses on the front lawn of the LSU ZTA house with friends.

During my time as a Leadership Consultant, I visited more than 30 chapters in 29 states. I learned to work with people from all different backgrounds and how to think on my feet to solve a problem. I learned the importance of goal setting and communication. I helped recruit members, market and sell our brand, develop leaders and, most importantly, form relationships.

Those relationships with future and current doctors, lawyers, higher education professionals, broadcast personalities, and marketing and PR gurus helped me land my current job as a Digital Media Videographer and Photographer for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans.

Pictured: Ashley doing her thing at the NBA Draft

You might ask, “How do the two correlate?” Well, the skills I learned from being a consultant are not specific to any career. They are life skills that apply to every facet of life. Being a consultant prepared me for leading a task force to improve morale and retention in the workplace, presenting an idea to my company, and having the confidence to work with superstars like Anthony Davis, Demarcus Cousins and Drew Brees.

As a videographer for the Saints and Pelicans, I have been given the opportunity to do amazing things. I have visited the Great Wall in China, produced a full-length documentary, covered the NBA All-Star Game and the ESPYs, and traveled all over the country for games. My coworkers always joke with me when we visit different cities because I always know someone there. My job gives me the opportunity to visit with Zetas all over that I developed relationships with when I was a consultant.

Isn’t it funny how things work out?

Pictured: Ashley takes a break from working to pose at the Great Wall

I always think back to something my mentor Dianne Rube told me and my friends when I was in college. She said, “ZTA is a funny thing. The more you give it, the more it gives you. It’s so much more than four years. Your collegiate ZTA journey is just the beginning. Stay involved after you graduate. The relationships that you make will stay with you for the rest of your life.”

My first visit as a consultant was to The University of Alabama. As a proud @lsuzetataualpha graduate, I remember thinking, “This has to be a joke.” But you see, again I underestimated the power of relationships. Five years later, I happily serve as the Membership Advisor for @alabamazta.

Pictured: Ashley and the Nu Chapter delegates pose with their awards at Convention 2016

Here’s the thing: life is unpredictable. I have tried to plan it out multiple times and I always come up short. But I think that’s the point. I would have never guessed in a million years that being an LC would help land and prepare me for my dream job. I would have never predicted that after I left my collegiate chapter and best friends at LSU that I would go on to meet more amazing people and love other chapters just as much as my own. Joining ZTA might have changed my life, but being a consultant and forming relationships during that time shaped my life.

Are you skeptical of what this job will do for you or questioning if this is the right choice in your career path? Don’t. Take it from me. This experience is invaluable. It will give you a leg up on your competition in the workforce. It will make you a more attractive graduate, medical or law school student. It will give you friends and connections that will last a lifetime. It will be the most rewarding experience of your life.

Knowing where I am today and thinking back, I can’t help but smile and think, “Wow, isn’t it funny how things work out?”

LC applications are due Dec. 1, 2017. Learn more and apply by clicking here.

[jojutsucharlatan]

Meeting A Black Panther Party Legend: The Ericka Huggins Edition

Do you remember how old you were when you first became socially conscious; AKA woke? I had to have been somewhere between the ages of 10 & 12. This came about because at that time, social studies/history class was one of the most boring things to me in all creation. Not to mention that at this age, I very much had the Napoleon Bonaparte “History is a set of lies agreed upon” mentality. But once the curriculum got up to that Harlem Renaissance era and Black Power Movement, I was fully engaged. However, the problem here was that those old school textbooks only dedicated a few paragraphs to the subject. And of course for me that wasn’t enough.

So throughout my intermediate and high school years, I consumed all the content I could get my hands on about the Black Power Movement; starting with Malcolm X speech anthologies, autobiographies and memoirs written by leaders of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and even movies written, produced and directed by super pro Black creators like Melvin and Mario Van Peebles and Spike Lee. I then moved on to be a double major at Syracuse University in Psychology and (yep you guessed it) African American Studies. Little did I know that someday in the distant future, I would actually be in the presence of a Black Panther Party legend; one miss Ericka THE Huggins. Disclaimer: Let me just say this. Even though I do have said SU Bachelors Degree prominently displayed upon my living room wall above my student desk…that thing is almost a decade old. So I don’t profess to be an expert in anything at this point! But I still wanted to recount the details of this experience in the most thoughtful way I could.

So Boom…it was the 3rd of March 2016 and I had recently learned from a friend/former neighbor that the Schomburg Center in Harlem was having an event where Ericka Huggins was going to be one of the guest speakers. So we just sashayed our woke Black and Brown selves right on over there together. Shoutout to Jay Espy and the People Power Movement (PPM); Educate. Agitate. Organize (peoplepowermovement.tumblr.com) I sure have had some fun and interesting times with the youths of PPM over the last couple years. But back to the topic at hand.

The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has a monthly education series called Conversations in Black Freedom Studies which is a round table discussion panel of authors and experts in Black history. “This series introduces a new paradigm that challenges the older geography, leadership, ideology, culture and chronology of Civil Rights historiography.” (blackfreedomstudies.org)

Each month a different topic is addressed and the central theme of the one we attended was titled “What is the story of women in the Black Panther Party?” They also talked a lot about the Oakland Community School (OCS) which was a ground-breaking, community run child development center and elementary school founded by (yep you guessed it) the BPP. This panel featured distinguished Lehman College assistant professors Robyn Spencer, Mary Phillips and of course, renowned human rights activist, educator, writer, poet, former political prisoner and Black Panther Party leader Ericka Huggins. 


Afterwards was a book signing where I purchased “Want To Start A Revolution? Radical Black Women In The Black Freedom Struggle”; and spoke briefly with the three amazingly awesome sauce panelists. I can’t even fully articulate the level of excitement and awe spilling out from my soul as I stood there on that line waiting to meet and greet with the great Ericka Huggins. She has such a warm aura about her; and her cadence is so calm and tranquil. She definitely doesn’t look at all like what she’s been through. It was quite the epic night! How about that for a first time at The Schomburg?

XoXo

[2018weekinreview]

The 2018 Midterms

In the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein allegations and in the height of the MeToo frenzy, the Republican Party still decided to back accused sexual predator, Roy Moore, in an Alabama special election at the end of 2017. And with that I saw direct parallels between Moore’s candidacy and the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas controversy and the ‘Year of the Woman’ in 1992. I guess I had no idea what was to come. 

January 

The general consensus was that the Republicans were about to take a beating in the House. So a number of Republican House members were retiring, possibly to avoid humiliation. It was also the general consensus that Republican women in the suburbs were fleeing the party. 

March

Handsome, boring Democrat, Conor Lamb won a special election in a Pennsylvania district that Trump had won by 20 points. Trump himself had gone to campaign there for Rick Saccone. Well, technically, since he mostly talked about himself and bashed Oprah. But he was there and Lamb still won. The horrifying things for Republicans was that 114 House districts were thought to be more competitive than this Pennsylvania race, so Democrats were smelling blood in the water. Were people finally sick of all the chaos and scandals and tweets coming out of the White House? Or did Lamb run as a centrist and against Nancy Pelosi? We also learned that Republicans could not run on their tax cuts. The Republicans had no real legislative agenda before November, so the only thing coming out of Washington would be whatever bullshit was pumped out by the White House.

There was also the Parkland school shooting, which seemed to be mobilizing young people to vote on gun control.       

April 

Another Republican in the House seemed to see the writing on the wall. But this time it was Speaker Paul Ryan, who announced he would not be seeking reelection in November. There started to be rumblings that the Democrats might be able to take the Senate as well.  

May

The midterm primaries saw the rise of a few racist, Trumpian figures like Don Blankenship in West Virginia.        

August

The running joke became ‘How will the Democrats screw this up this time?’  

Nobody knew if the Republicans would run on the strong economy or if they’d stick with race baiting and bullshit.    

September

Trump’s approval rating came in at 36%. But he was out there claiming that there would be a red wave. Still, Ted Cruz was fighting for his life in Texas. Trump had to tweet that the DOJ should lay off Chris Collins and Duncan Hunter because it would hurt Republicans in the midterms. And people started getting really interested in the Florida governor’s race between Trump diehard, Ron DeSantis, and black progressive, Andrew Gillum. Basically because Florida was a swing state and a metaphor for the future of the country.     

Prelude:

It had the feel of a presidential election and was declared to be the first verdict on the Trump presidency. All the stars of both parties showed up on the campaign.      

The races people seemed to be paying the most attention to were Stacey Abrams vs. Brian Kemp in Georgia (where black voter suppression seems to be a huge issue), Scott Walker’s race in Wisconsin, Rick Scott’s race in Florida, as well as Andrew Gillum vs. Ron DeSantis (“Racists believe he’s a racist.”), Pennsylvania turning blue because they hate Trump, Claire McCaskill vs. Josh Hawley in Missouri, Martha McSally vs. Kirsten Sinema in Arizona. 

So Tuesday is going to be huge. The blue wave, the pink wave, the rainbow wave and all the other waves are going to be decided. There’s record early voting. Nobody trusts the exit polling. Nobody knows how all the violence will affect the turnout. And nobody seems to really know just what the fuck is going to happen. And then we’ll immediately pivot to 2020. Good luck everyone.        

The Midterms:

The Midterms were essentially a split decision. The Democrats took the House with 30+ seats, which is huge - their biggest pickup since Watergate. The Republicans kept the Senate. Red shit got redder. Blue shit got bluer. And it looks like there’s gonna be a recount in Florida, which gave everyone horrible memories of 2000.  

So what does it all mean? Well, we’re divided. Trump’s base showed up. And the Republicans seem to have solidified their hold on Ohio. And the rural areas. And the economy probably helped. However, the Republicans lost the suburbs. And independents. And white women. And a lot of that is because of Trump. They also have a longterm demographic problem and can’t win the popular vote. His bullshit can no longer win in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin or Michigan. So now it’s just an argument over whether the Democrats will run a moderate or a progressive against him in 2020. In the meantime, the Democrats (who are sending over 100 women to the House, including Muslims and Native Americans) still need to try to legislate. So that means infrastructure, gun control and the minimum wage. And it looks like Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker again.    

Trump lost because of his combative ways. But he changed nothing afterwards. He doubled down. Because he has no other playbook. He came out super combative, touting wins in the Senate, mocking Republicans who lost and didn’t embrace him (Mia Love) and saying he’ll blame Democrats in the House for any gridlock. He’s fucking rattled. Trump is also alleging voter fraud in Florida, without giving any evidence. Rick Scott and Bill Nelson are giving their talking points. Andrew Gillum took back his concession. And I’m surprised we didn’t hear anything about voter suppression in Georgia. Brian Kemp is fucking shady.

The Aftermath... 

People were commenting on how diverse the incoming class of Democrats were. Especially since the Republicans were just white males. Because they only appeal to them. Women in the suburbs don’t like him. The Democrats control the House now. There was a recount in Florida for the Senate and gubernatorial races. Now Andrew Gillum has conceded. Broward county was especially fucked up and 25,000 people were somehow too confused to vote for the Senate race. Florida is just garbage at elections. Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker. And she’ll control the oversight strategy. 

Mississippi had an election between Cindy Hyde-Smith and Mike Espy. He’s black. Hyde-Smith has said some dumb shit about hangings. She went to a segregated school and also sent her daughter to one. There’s also a photo of her in a Confederate hat. So she’s a racist Republican in Mississippi. Will it matter? Probably not there. She’ll still probably win because Republicans know their core appeal is white supremacy.

[newagesispage]

                                                                            AUGUST  2017

 *****Bill Murray and the rest of the Murray brothers are opening a Caddyshack themed restaurant in the Plaza hotel in Rosemont, Il. They opened a similar eatery in Florida in 2001.** Bill Murray also got the ESPY for Chicago cubs best moment. Michelle Obama honored Eunice Kennedy Shriver at the ESPY’s for the Special Olympics.

***** Tarantino is doing the next Manson movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*****Dec. 2017: Psych the movie. YES!

*****Some republicans are working on introducing a bill that would force future Presidents to release their tax returns.

*****Alice Cooper discovered he had a Warhol, “little electric chair”, 40 years after the fact. The find was rolled up in a tube in a storage locker.

*****It is so funny how Kelly Ripa looks so happy and bright when Anderson Cooper is on but not so much when that boar Seacrest is next to her.

*****Days alert: Sami will be back in the fall and look for her and Nicole to clash. We will see more of Xander but Dario is headed out of our lives. Chad and Gabby are over and look for Chad and Abigail to reunite if she survives. Is Ben Weston back in town or just in Abby’s mind? Did she see him the night of Deimos’ murder? Could she be the killer and could Chad be protecting her as she has been protecting him?

*****Another victim of John Wayne Gacy was recently identified as Jimmy Haakenson, a Minnesota runaway.

*****The Rockford Peaches are being celebrated .  July 27 brought hundreds of girls and women to Beyer stadium in Rockford to play. Some of the 40’s and 50’s peaches were in the movie “A League of Their own” ,that sparked a resurgence in interest. Also in the works just across the street is The International Women’s Baseball Center.

***** Did you ever notice how often Kroger products are used on television? I am forever seeing their store brand in scenes across many networks in many scenes. I think it is because they have a very generic look.

*****It sounds like the Richard Pryor story will come to the screen. It should be exciting with Tracy Morgan as Redd Foxx and Oprah as Pryor’s Grandmother.

*****CBS and the BBC are joining forces in the tradition of Edward R. Morrow who used to report from the BBC.

*****Two topless women jumped on stage in Germany to protest Woody Allen as he played clarinet. The women read a letter Dylan Farrow once wrote to her father that alleged sexual abuse. Security guards took them away amid boo’s from the audience. Allen called the incident “stupid.”

*****Steve Martin and the Steep canyon rangers have a new album, ‘The long awaited album.’

*****Bill Brady is the newest state senator in Illinois. Is there finally an end to the budget crisis in the state? Several states have these issues but Illinois has been at the bottom of the heap, rated junk. Now that a few republicans have crossed the line to come to an agreement, can they start to pay all the bills they owe?**Chris Christie has helped to lead New Jersey to the bottom as well.  They closed parks and beaches due to financial constraints. He used a beach that had been closed to the rest of the state for his 4th of July celebrating. He basically told the people that if they were Mayor, they could use the mayoral house to do it themselves but they aren’t.  The only good it seemed to do was the fallout helped him reach a decision about the budget so things could reopen.

*****Jawara Mcintosh, son of Peter Tosh, is in a coma after being beaten in a New Jersey jail.

*****OMG: Does everyone know that the NRA lobbied to be sure that there is no central electronic database for gun records? When police are requesting registration on a gun after an incident, the centers 50 employees must search thru microfilm or boxes of paperwork. How do they sneak this stuff in without alarms being raised? We must pay attention!! Let’s change this for the cats at the ATF tracing center.

*****Germany has legalized same sex marriage.

*****VP Pence tells us: “Under President Trump, American security will be as dominant in the heavens as we are here on earth.”

*****Hobby lobby owners are putting together a Bible museum. They were caught smuggling black market antiquities out of ISIS territory. They claim stupidity but were warned before they even started this venture. Luckily, the artifacts were intercepted by the government and returned.

*****Hooray for Ronan Farrow and others who are working hard on the voter ID mess. Conservative politicians need to quit targeting minorities and the poor and just let us all vote.  Let’s just keep things fair, is that too much to ask?

*****I am intrigued by the ads for the new show Guest Book on TBS.** People of Earth is back!!

*****The Government ethics director, Walter Shaub resigned. He claims there were many conflicts of interest and the White house fought him every step of the way. He has seen nothing like it in any republican or democrat administration.

*****HBO’s tour de Pharmacy was funny and had so many famous faces. The faux doc included references from Arby’s to a small misshapen penis and was narrated by Jon Hamm. The cast includes Mike Tyson, Will Forte, Orlando Bloom, Kevin Bacon, Maya Rudolph,  Jeff Goldblum, Danny Glover, Freddie Highmore and Julia Ormand. I was a bit uncomfortable at the Lance Armstrong stuff. He was worth a chuckle at first but it got old. I admit that he is not my favorite person. I guess you gotta take the $ where you can.

*****The History channel ran a doc about Amelia Earhart. The claim was that there was a pic that may be Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan after she disappeared.  This leads one to believe that they were taken prisoner by the Japanese. A history blogger disagrees , saying that the photo is from a book published 2 years before they were lost in 1937.

*****The impeachment marches seemed to get zero coverage. There were a few small mentions a couple of days later but for the most part they were ignored.  I am so glad I was there. The people are speaking. The media needs to stop bending over backwards not to poke the bear and let us speak! I am glad the media is making us aware of all the lies going on in the White house. It would be refreshing to get away from the talking heads once in a while and take it to the grass roots resistance growing. Hasn’t this been part of the problem all along? Isn’t this what everyone bitched about right after the election?

*****Volvo will go totally electric or hybrid starting 2019.

***** The Emmy noms have been announced with some surprises. The biggest travesty is no nod for Michael Mckean for Better Call Saul. Some nominations were well deserved  though. Lead actress drama should go to Keri Russell but Elisabeth Moss and Viola Davis are awesome as well. Some of my other faves were Bob Odenkirk and Matthew Rhys for actor in a drama. Big little lies brought 2 lead actress picks for Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon but Feud has to win for either Jessica Lange or Susan Sarandon or both. Feud is loaded with noms for costumes, director, music, hair, and supporting actor for Stanley Tucci, Alfred Molina, Judy Davis and Jackie Hoffman. Rupaul is the only thing going in the reality category. In comedy there is Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as well Julia Louis Dreyfuss and a lot more for Veep and Atlanta. Jeffrey Tambor, Zack Galifinakis and Donald Glover are my tops for comedy acting.  The best in drama are Better Call Saul, Stranger Things , The Americans and The Handmaids tale. Variety is a tough category with Full Frontal, Kimmel, the Late Show, the late late show, Last week tonight and Real Time. The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks and Dolly’s Christmas movie are both up for a vote. Voice animation has Kevin Kline, Kristen Schaal and Nancy Cartwright. Animated shows include Archer, Bob’s Burgers and the Simpson’s. Bill Nye saves the world, Drunk History , SNL and Portlandia are up for production design. American Horror Story: Roanoke only got a couple for hairstyling, sound editing and prostetic makeup. Supporting acting comedy is hard to pick with Louie Anderson, Tony Hale and Alec Baldwin for the men and Vanessa Bayer, Leslie Jones, Kate Mckinnon, Judith Light, Kathryn Hahn and Anna Chlumsky for the women. What? Another travesty, o love for Keenan Thompson?  Guest actor include Carrie Fisher, Melissa McCarthy, Wanda Sykes, Tom Hanks, Dave Chappelle and Matthew Rhys.I am all the way with Alison Wright for guest acting in drama. The host category has Snoop and Martha, Alec Baldwin , Rupaul and W. Kamau Bell. Variety specials and sketch shows are filled with genius like Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman, Colbert’s election night and Documentary now! In the documentary category there is The Beatles :8 days a week from Ron Howard. Informational specials Inside the actors studio, Leah Remini: scientology and star talk: Neil deGrasse Tyson are nominated. Good luck to all!

*****Ken Burns is bringing us The Vietnam war in September which took 10 years to make.

*****Kid Rock has announced a senate run.

*****Jimmy Carter is out of the hospital after he suffered from dehydration. He was working on a house in Canada for habitat for humanity.

*****Word is that the ratings for the new Kelly and Ryan show are not too good, the same with Megyn Kelly’s new NBC show.

*****Sturgis is back on August 4 in South Dakota.

*****HBO is bringing us a doc on Steven Spielberg that is narrated by the man himself. Susan Lacy is director and producer of the project.

*****If you haven’t seen the funny or die with Al Franken and David Letterman, you must check it out. Look up years of living dangerously: Boiling the frog.

*****Fox likes to pretend that scary clown is more of a leader than he really is. They kept running a scroll across the bottom as the G-20 was going on that ‘Trump presses Putin on meddling.’ Did he really? We will never really know and if he did, it was just for show because he is adamant that he just wants to move on.  Putin tells us that Trump accepted his version of events. This is really no surprise since scary clown attacked his own intelligence community on foreign soil and said that he was honored to meet Putin. The man is SO Putin’s bitch.**After Trump tweeted that he and the Russian President had talked of a joint impenetrable cyber security unit, he got much backlash. John McCain and Kyle Griffin both stated that Putin should be good at that since he is the one doing the hacking. The President talked a lot about faith in his speech in Poland. As he gets older does he think more about these things as age can make you do or does he shield himself with it? **Ivanka sat in for her Father at some of the summit.  It did not seem that the other leaders were too big on seeing him anyway. I don’t think Trump has the confidence to talk with the big timers anyway. He seems to be more of a one on one guy which was what he was doing.**Of course we then learn that there was a second private meeting and who knows what that was about.**On June 25th the House backed a new package of sanctions against Moscow, North Korea and Iran. The bill prohibits scary clown from waiving penalties.** Russia has already retaliated by seizing American diplomatic properties and ordering the U.S. embassy to reduce staff.

*****Don Jr. has now been caught in multiple lies about the Russian lawyer they met with on trying to find dirt on Hillary. How many times will this family and their team lie to us?? There were more people there than they originally told us including a lobbyist that was ex counter intelligence. They claim that candidate Trump had no idea of the situation. Do they think we will believe that? We are in fact now hearing that he orchestrated his son’s response. Is Trump that stupid or does he just play an idiot on tv? Will he sacrifice his own son? Why is it that Manafort and Kushner are never far away from the trouble?  The team tries to act like this Russian mess is something anyone would do. They are so far removed from honor and decency that they do not seem to know any better. They have no idea how real people operate.** We have soldiers on the Russian border that are protecting people from Russia and these yahoos think it is perfectly fine to work with them to fuck up our democracy.** BTW, The President can’t pardon someone on state or foreign charges but he can pardon on federal charges . Could all of the liars get away it? ** How long will the “we are stupid and know what we do” excuse work for these Trump voters? Who can still support a family that just keeps lining their own pockets with their clout? ** The Don Jr. legal fees are being paid in part by the 2020 Trump campaign funds. The President wants the RNC to pay the rest. ** Kushner has now been speaking casually with the feds. He came out to make a small speech after the first day that told us how innocent he was. Scary clown and his fam seem to love the country waiting for their every move.

*****Saw this on a site and wanted to share:

                               Parable of the talents by, Octavia E. Butler

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought

To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.

To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.

To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen.

To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.

To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.

*****Teen birth rates have declined 9%, the lowest ever.** About 3 ,000 women from other states come to Illinois each year for abortions.

*****Jodie Whittaker will be the first female Dr. Who as she becomes the 13th Doc.

*****I hear that the packet received when someone takes the oath to become an American citizen still has a letter from Obama.  I guess the new administration hasn’t had time to think about welcoming new Americans.

*****The hit show, Insecure is back for another season.

*****PBS has a new season of Finding your Roots. They have already revealed that Larry David finds out that Bernie Sanders is his distant cousin.

*****Employees in a Ford plant in Ohio found a mil in weed from cars that were assembled in Mexico.

*****A show on the History channel is trying to answer the questions that have come up in recent years about H.H. Holmes being Jack the Ripper. The grandson of America’s first serial killer is leading the charge and he seems a bit disappointed whenever they hit a wall. I guess if you already know that your Grandfather was a killer, what’s a few more? The program drags everything out as these History channel shows tend to do as they repeat themselves over and over. Sometimes when they get some info, I wonder why they only follow part of it. For instance, they tested the DNA which MIGHT have belonged to a victim. The DNA did not match the grandson but did they put their findings in a database to see if there is some familial match elsewhere? They could possibly find out this way if the scarf was indeed at the crime or if the DNA belonged to later handlers of the scarf.

*****Joel Clement, former director of the office of policy analysis and the U.S. interior has been moved to the advisory office of natural resources revenue.  He is one of fifty who this administration moved on June 15. He is a scientist who helps endangered Alaskan communities. Joel speaks out publically about climate change and believes this is an open and deliberate effort to silence scientists and eliminate employees that disagree with them. He is now officially a whistle blower.** It seems to me that having Trump as President is like having a really shitty Father.  The family just has to go out and find their own way and we must keep trying to get him out. Until then, the Governors, the Mayors and the rest of us have to figure out our own ways to save the planet and help others in spite of him. We must counteract all the damage he is causing. Think of the children that will be scarred with all this chaos by these ‘children’ that are trying to run the country.

*****So, again there have been alleged shady police doings. Every time a cop plants evidence or does not turn on a bodycam we lose faith. Law enforcement has such a hard job and we want to believe they will be there for us.  They are supposed to be taking care of us and I am sure most officers are people we can look up to but these bad seeds must be made to pay.

*****It is so strange that John McCain is fighting for his life as we are tackling this whole health care mess. He has great health care and we all wish him well. Do he and his Republican cohorts want us to have the same? Why don’t we all deserve the same chance? A perfect example is right in front of them and they should all pay attention. I think most of them believe in God. Could this have been sent as an example?  The ACA has worked wonders, let’s fix what isn’t working and quit obsessing over repeal and replace. Many Democratic senators are trying to get to infrastructure and other bills. It is unbelievable that we pay these people and give them awesome insurance while they have been obsessed with this health care subject and losers in it for all these years. Who keeps voting them in??** Before they all get their long August vacations , our lawmakers voted to begin debate for repeal and replace. In the end all their votes failed and McCain cast the decisive ‘no.!’ We must not forget to thank Collins and Murkowski who were in there all the way.  If it somehow hurts their manhood to call something that may be a good thing, ’Obamacare,’  then call it the ACA. History will give Obama credit even if they don’t want to and I don’t think he will care what it is called now as long as it helps people.** Word is coming out that Republicans used tax payer funds to denigrate Obama’s health care bill.

*****People of Earth is back from Conaco on TBS.

*****The podcast ‘You must remember this” is concentrating on Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda this season and their similar lives. It is a fascinating look at the beautiful and talented actresses.

*****Norm Macdonald’s podcast recently featured a great interview with Letterman.

*****The Borg/McEnroe movie starring Shia LaBeouf will open the Toronto film fest.

*****The new obsession for Trump is the incompetence of Jeff Sessions.

*****Do you ever think about the fate of the many extras/actors that we’ve seen a thousand times in the opening credits of famous shows?  How about the nurses running in M*A*S*H or the people on the streets of Chicago on The Bob Newhart show? We see them again and again from the singing and dancing on The Drew Carey show to the photos on Law and Order. We do not know these people but they are a part of our life? Hats off to them!

*****American Horror Story : CULT will premiere on Sept. 5. Season 7 will add Billy Eichner, Billie Lourd and Lena Dunham along with regulars Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson, Mare Winningham and Frances Conroy. Twisty the clown is back in a story inspired by the 2016 election.  The first teaser was fab and a bit Pink Floyd: the Wallish and is set in Michigan.

*****Kevin Spacey will play Gore Vidal.

*****People have been talking a lot about the recent viral videos of a woman killing her sister and the boys who let a man drown while making fun of him. These things have been around forever with “entertainment” like Faces of Death and snuff films. Things have become more main stream with social media but one can’t help but think of the final Seinfeld episode. The prosecution of the Seinfeld four when they laughed at the fat man getting robbed was like seeing the future.

*****A lot of military personnel are claiming there is a lot of extra training going on. Is something big being planned as we argue about the other stuff in front of us? ** Scary clown tweeted to us all about how transgender military personnel have no business being there. He talked with his Generals but he did not say they agreed with him. He complained of the “tremendous” medical costs but studies show that 5 times as much is spent on Viagra.

*****OJ Simpson was moved to a more secure part of the prison after he learned he would be set free later this year. Rumors are spreading that he will tour with his former victim that spoke at his hearing.

*****Sean Spicer resigned after Anthony Scaramucci (who some call a cartoon Guido) was named communications director. Ivanka and Trump met with ‘the Mucc’ for an hour and a half and then Trump called him many time before this all came down. Sara Huckabee Sanders is the new press secretary. A friend said that if Melissa McCarthy took on Spicer on SNL then it makes sense that a man should do Sara. BTW, what was with Scaramucci giving Sara hair and makeup advice? WTF? Word is that Preibus fought it all the way but he is kissing ass all over the place now. The whole affair got us our first on air briefing in 22 days. I can’t help but wonder how Spicer feels to be a lil’ blip of a joke in history. **Scaramucci deleted many old tweets he had praising Hillary and supporting stronger gun laws as well as putting down Trump and climate deniers. He is also kissing his new Messiahs bottom all over the place. The new guy acts just like his boss with an expletive filled interview that puts down everyone around him.  I don’t feel a bit sorry for Priebus or Sessions, they knew what they were in for. These tactics make the loyal evangelicals look like the mob. They will sell their soul and put up with this crap to get rid of the transgender soldiers and Planned Parenthood. Trump seems to like an opportunist and is probably happy to have a new hate buddy.** This month in the circular firing squad, part of Trump’s legal team , Mark Corallo was out then Sr. asst. press secretary Michael Short was out, then Reince Preibus was out . General john Kelly is the new White House chief of staff after Preibus served the shortest term I history. Kelly was first offered the position in May.** As I post this, we have learned that Scaramucci is out.

*****Some Scary clown supporters are crowing about low gas prices and low unemployment numbers but who do they think set all that in motion. Some would argue that Presidents don’t often have much to do with gas prices. But I wish they would say what we all know , that Obama was the one who sorted out the last Republican fallout. ** And right wing pundits.. Could I ask you to please stop calling the middle of the country ‘Trump country?’ We are smarter and more diverse than you think.** BTW, heard a great line this week which is essentially the meaning of the word bully. “Trump acts like a weak man thinks a strong man should act.” I thought that hit the nail on the head.

*****They say Trump is looking into the pardon process and exactly what his limits might be in other areas as President. The conclusions of Ken Starr’s office about Presidential prosecution say, “It is proper, constitutional and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting President for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to the President’s official duties. In this country no one is above the law.” Noting the constitution’s speech or debate clause: “If the framers of our constitution wanted to create a special immunity for the President they would have written the relevant clause.”

*****Dhani Harrison will release a solo album on Oct. 6.

*****Mick Jagger turned 74 with the release of 2 new songs, Gotta get a grip and England lost. He needed to get out his own anxieties about the new world we are all living in.** Publisher John Blake claims he has an 80’s memoir written by Mick but that he is not allowed to publish it.

*****Sarah Silverman is bringing ‘I love you America’ to Hulu on Oct. 12.

*****Scary Clown 45 promised to bomb the shit out of ISIS. He has been doing a lot of air attacks which are not much talked about. In these attacks almost as many civilian deaths have occurred as in all of Obama’s time in office.** We are only 5% of the world population, quit acting like we own the fuckin’ universe!

*****American white supremacists are funding Europe’s white nationalists to try to take over border control themselves. A ship was chartered called the C-star by a group calling themselves Generation Identity. The group claims they want to deliver Muslim immigrants from the Mediterranean back to the Middle East. Beginning in France, the group has spread to Italy, the Netherlands, Austria and Germany. They say they want to defend Europe and Davis Duke has tweeted out a link to their fund raising page. They are using maritime law as an excuse to come to the “aid” of the immigrant boats.

*****How creepy was this whole Boy Scout jamboree speech? It does not get more wrong than that.

*****NBC Sports has signed Dale Jr. as a commentator.

*****Paris Jackson and Macauley Culkin got matching tattoos the other day.

*****2018 will bring us new comics of Nightmare before Christmas.

*****R.I.P Loren James, John Blackwell Jr., Nelsan Ellis, Sheila Michaels, Theresa Poehlman, Fresh Kid Ice, Maryam Mirzak Hani, Neil Welch, George Romero, Martin Landau,  Chester Bennington,  Liu Xiaobo, Irina Ratushinskaya , Michael Johnson, Leonard Landy, June Foray, Barbara Sinatra, Stubbs the cat (Mayor of Talkeetna, Ala.), Jeanne Moreau, Sam Shepard and John Heard.

[jojutsucharlatan]

Meeting A Black Panther Party Legend: The Ericka Huggins Edition

Do you remember how old you were when you first became socially conscious; AKA woke? I had to have been somewhere between the ages of 10 & 12. This came about because at that time, social studies/history class was one of the most boring things to me in all creation. Not to mention that at this age, I very much had the Napoleon Bonaparte "History is a set of lies agreed upon" mentality. But once the curriculum got up to that Harlem Renaissance era and Black Power Movement, I was fully engaged. However, the problem here was that those old school textbooks only dedicated a few paragraphs to the subject. And of course for me that wasn't enough. So throughout my intermediate and high school years, I consumed all the content I could get my hands on about the Black Power Movement; starting with Malcolm X speech anthologies, autobiographies and memoirs written by leaders of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and even movies written, produced and directed by super pro Black creators like Melvin and Mario Van Peebles and Spike Lee. I then moved on to be a double major at Syracuse University in Psychology and (yep you guessed it) African American Studies. Little did I know that someday in the distant future, I would actually be in the presence of a Black Panther Party legend; one miss Ericka THE Huggins. Disclaimer: Let me just say this. Even though I do have said SU Bachelors Degree prominently displayed upon my living room wall above my student desk...that thing is almost a decade old. So I don't profess to be an expert in anything at this point!  But I still wanted to recount the details of this experience in the most thoughtful way I could. So Boom...it was the 3rd of March 2016 and I had recently learned from a friend/former neighbor that the Schomburg Center in Harlem was having an event where Ericka Huggins was going to be one of the guest speakers. So we just sashayed our woke Black and Brown selves right on over there together. Shoutout to Jay Espy and the People Power Movement (PPM); Educate. Agitate. Organize (peoplepowermovement.tumblr.com) I sure have had some fun and interesting times with the youths of PPM over the last couple years. But back to the topic at hand. The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture has a monthly education series called Conversations in Black Freedom Studies which is a round table discussion panel of authors and experts in Black history. "This series introduces a new paradigm that challenges the older geography, leadership, ideology, culture and chronology of Civil Rights historiography." (blackfreedomstudies.org) Each month a different topic is addressed and the central theme of the one we attended was titled "What is the story of women in the Black Panther Party?" They also talked a lot about the Oakland Community School (OCS) which was a ground-breaking, community run child development center and elementary school founded by (yep you guessed it) the BPP. This panel featured distinguished Lehman College assistant professors Robyn Spencer, Mary Phillips and of course, renowned human rights activist, educator, writer, poet, former political prisoner and Black Panther Party leader Ericka Huggins.

Afterwards was a book signing where I purchased "Want To Start A Revolution? Radical Black Women In The Black Freedom Struggle"; and spoke briefly with the three amazingly awesome sauce panelists. I can't even fully articulate the level of excitement and awe spilling out from my soul as I stood there on that line waiting to meet and greet with the great Ericka Huggins. She has such a warm aura about her; and her cadence is so calm and tranquil. She definitely doesn't look at all like what she's been through. It was quite the epic night! How about that for a first time at The Schomburg?

#StayWoke

XoXo