#Escape Room Schiff

[der-kreuzfahrttester]

🚢 Drei Schiffe, ein Ziel: MEHR URLAUB! 🌴💥 Ab 2026 wird's aufregend auf der Ovation, Harmony & Liberty of the Seas von Royal Caribbean! Mehr Action, mehr Entspannung, mehr Genuss. 😍 🌊 Neue Highlights an Bord: 🍹 Tiki-Bar & Casino 🍝 Neue Restaurants wie Giovanni’s & Izumi 💦 Frisch designte Pooldecks 🧩 Escape Room für clevere Köpfe 🛳️ Und Reisen nach Alaska, Europa & Karibik! #RoyalCaribbean #OvationOfTheSeas #HarmonyOfTheSeas #LibertyOfTheSeas #KreuzfahrtNews #Kreuzfahrt2026 #Kreuzfahrt

[anishamss]

Hello, my name is Anis. My wife is Baraa, and our children are Jojo age 6, twins Lily and Moe age 2, and our new month-old addition Liam. We live in Rafah, where now the 2/3 of the population resides, due to constant bombardment and it is the only designated safe area for refugees. As you know there is no longer any room to move here. We all are crowded into a small family home with most of our extended family that also moved in when they were forced to leave the North.

We are urgently seeking your support to help our young family escape the dire circumstances in Gaza. We are terrified for the safety of our loved ones, especially in the aftermath of the recent war that has left our home badly damaged.

The current situation in Gaza offers no safe future for our family, and we are determined to create a better life for our children. Leaving Gaza is our only option to provide a secure and stable environment for our family to grow and thrive.

However, the process of leaving is complicated, and Egyptians require a substantial amount of money – USD 5,000 for each family member – just to allow us to leave. This is in addition to the costs for flights and other essential expenses. With your generous contribution, we aim to raise the necessary funds to cover these costs and build a new life for our family.

The destruction caused by the war, coupled with the lack of infrastructure, has made it increasingly challenging to provide for our family, especially with the unreliable internet and telecommunications services.

Your support will not only help us overcome the financial barriers imposed by the exit process but also enable me to continue working and supporting our family with the job skills I possess. Despite my best efforts, the unsecured internet and irregular electricity in Gaza have always limited my ability to connect with clients and maintain a stable income.

We believe that with your help, we can give our four children the safe and secure home they deserve, providing them with a future full of opportunities. While we cherish our homeland, the best decision for our family's well-being is to move to a place where they can not only survive but truly live the life they deserve.

Please consider contributing to our GoFundMe campaign, as every donation brings us one step closer to creating a brighter and more secure future for our family. Your generosity will make a significant impact, and we are truly grateful for any support you can provide.

Thank you for helping us embark on this journey towards a better life.

Warm regards,

My friend Bobbi in the United States is helping me with this and will be transferring any funds you send directly to me. Please help with whatever amount you can. No amount is too small. With your help, my children will have the future and life that those all over the world enjoy.

[politicaltheatre]

Kill The Messengers, pt.3

This week played out like some kind of twisted symphony, the end of American representative democracy as we’ve known it in four movements.

You have the first movement, establishing the world about to be threatened, perhaps even destroyed.

You have the second, when all hope seems lost.

You have the third, chaotic, confirmation of all that has come before, of the doom and gloom we have bare escaped, and yet showing a glimmer of light, a chance at hope renewed.

The fourth movement continues from the third, an explosion of energy, of promise for a better future.

This was the week that was.

The first movement, clearly - or not considering how it played out - was the Iowa Caucus coupled with a motif of war between the Democrats and Republicans in Washington in the impeachment trial’s closing arguments. The expectations set by the caucus and the pantomime on the Senate floor seemed crystal clear at the time. And then arrogance overwhelmed everything.

The arguments weren’t much of anything, really. The House managers laid out a thorough, well reasoned, and, aside from Adam Schiff, incredibly dull closing. Yes, Trump is corrupt. Yes, Trump violated United States laws and the Constitution itself. Yes, acquittal would mean violating any standard of the rule of law and make corruption the new standard of the republic.

Trump’s lawyers turned abruptly from that to complete farce. Richard Nixon, in his shameful, post-pardon exile, infamously said, “when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal”. On Monday, Alan Dershowitz attempted to make the case that Nixon’s personal defense should be the law of the land. That’s how far we’ve come as a nation in forty years, how low our standards of behavior have been brought.

The Iowa Caucus has been around so long that its functioning has long been taken for granted. People go in a room, give their first choice, and then persuade, bully, and cajole their friends and neighbors to join them until some candidate comes out the winner. They do this all over the state in small groups and it takes time. Reporting it should take time.

And yet, in our impatient, smart phone driven new world, the idea that people should be allowed to take time with something is a thing of the past, like the rule of law. The corruption coursing through our culture at the moment has only exacerbated this, by making the chaos of reporting accurate information about a competition fodder for conspiracy theories and accusations of cheating. Everybody does it, right?

With a crisis like this comes an opportunity, and as in so many crises before that opportunity was seen as a money making one. Some geniuses who worked on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign offered to bring Iowa’s ancient caucus system into the 21st century, and the result, predictably, went sideways.

HBO famously allowed untold millions of Americans steal its HBO GO streaming service through the use of borrowed passwords and other, less scrupulous methods. They did this for a year or so, until they knew that their highly anticipated stand alone streaming service, one not requiring cable TV, could handle the bandwidth. It cost them more money than we will ever know, but once HBO NOW launched, it never went down due to lack of bandwidth.

No one at Iowa’s Democratic Party and the Clinton veterans’ company, Shadow, Inc., thought to test their caucus app, either for bandwidth requirements or for bugs in the code. Oops.

Fortunately for the Democrats, Iowa is no more representative of them as a national party than it is representative of the nation as a whole. This embarrassment will only really last as long as it takes to count the results of the primary in New Hampshire.

The second movement, filling those of us who can feel it with sorrow and shame, encompassed a State of the Union address that had almost nothing to do with the state of this actual union and the vote less than a day later to acquit Trump.

Our expectations of State of the Union addresses is justifiably low. Rarely has anything ever been said or done that was not wholly calculated and lacking in any sense of authenticity. By that standard, Trump didn’t disappoint.

That, of course, is the only standard by which he did not, unless you count yourself among his base. Even more than any president before him, Trump has used presidential addresses as campaign opportunities, and he did so here. The low point - again, unless you just love Trump - was the pantomime award of the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh, a man who has made a fortune cultivating hatred and pitting Americans against each other.

In a way, Limbaugh is the perfect recipient of an award from Trump. He is openly racist, has bullied women, foreigners, and those with disabilities, and has lied shamelessly, all in the service of enriching himself. He is Trump.

Nancy Pelosi’s own pantomime of tearing up Trump’s speech at the end was no less calculated. It may well backfire, offering up justification to Trump’s base for every lie he’s told about Democrats, but she had to have thought about what she could possibly do knowing what was coming the next day to show that the Democrats weren’t just going to sit there and take it. She has her own base to worry about, and that of the eventual Democratic nominee in November.

What came the next day was no more surprising than hearing that “the state of the union is strong”. The only surprise, if it was even surprising, was that Utah Republican Mitt Romney voted to convict on abuse of power. He didn’t have to worry about Trump actually being convicted, and he did have to worry about his own reelection, and yet showing the courage to vote “Yes” on that one charge has cleared the low bar for courage we now hold.

His fellow Republican senators spent the day taking several, heavily scripted lines to justify voting “No”. The most laughable, offered up by a few including Maine’s possibly outgoing senator, Susan Collins, was that Trump must have learned his lesson. The most insidious, offered Ohio’s Rob Portman in an op-ed, was that he voted “No” because the time has come for America to put partisanship behind it and come together.

That’s a bit like punching someone in the mouth and insisting that he learn to turn the other cheek. While you’re punching him again in that other cheek. And picking his pocket. And laughing at him.

When Republican senators trotted out words and phrases such as “coming together”, “bipartisanship”, and “unity”, it was all coded language. What they meant, and have meant in their long journey further and further into political corruption, is “stop resisting”, “just go along”, and “consent”. They don’t want us to stop fighting, they want us to stop fighting back.

Barack Obama repeatedly tried to meet them half way, only to see Mitch McConnell and his House colleagues repeatedly move what they called “half way” further and further to the political right. There is no negotiating your way out of that trap, and there will be no campaigning against it if you give it the weight all of those senators voting “No” have been trying to give it.

So, there we were, a country watching corruption win and boast of its victory over the rule of law. It was enough to make a decent human being think that maybe those Republicans in Washington were right, that there isn’t any point fighting back, that we should just give in and take it.

The third movement is all about that feeling.

The lawsuit against Trump for violating the emoluments clause in the Constitution was dismissed because the Democrats filing it did not hold a majority in the House when they filed it. The same day, it came out that Trump has been charging the Secret Service thousands of dollars each night its agents stay at one of his hotels, which they must do when they guard him.

Trump gave a speech at a national prayer breakfast that was filled with nothing but hate. Well, almost nothing; he does love how he stuck it to those Democrats.

And then Trump began his campaign of vengeance against those who testified against him, firing Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman, Vindman’s twin brother, and Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland. They violated the rule of omertà.

And yet, a glimmer of light breaks through.

The largest newspaper in Mitt Romney’s home state praised his courage. He may be as safe as a senator can be, a beloved Morman representing Utah, but he knew the point he was making to Republicans across the country and knew all too well how history would remember him.

There were also three Democratic senators in “red” states, Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, Arizona’s Kirsten Cinema, and Alabama’s Doug Jones, who all voted to convict. Doug Jones is running for reelection. He may have nothing to lose, running in a state expected to vote heavily for Trump, but he showed courage nonetheless. He’ll campaign on this, and Sinema will campaign for whomever the Democratic nominee for Senate will be in Arizona.

Baldwin may have made the toughest choice among them, knowing that she will have to run point for whomever the Democratic presidential nominee is in an attempt to swing her state back in November.

This is why this impeachment will not be so easily put behind us. It is not because Trump will be campaigning on his acquittal but because the Democrats want Americans looking at how the Republicans in Congress protected him.

Corey Gardener voted to acquit Trump and his chance at reelection in Colorado may now be lower than Doug Jones in Alabama. It was a vote for corruption. It was a vote for a double standard, a set of rules for the rich and another for everyone else. And it will be a yoke Democrats hang around his neck and those of every Republican running in the Senate and the House.

Will they succeed? Well, let’s talk about the fourth movement.

Tonight in New Hampshire, seven Democrats are answering questions on a stage and very likely offering actual answers about how they will be better than Trump. Again, that’s a mighty low bar.

What should make you feel good, unless you are a fan of Donald Trump, are those results from Iowa. Young voters, notorious generation after generation for being all talk, showed up in droves. If they show up next week in New Hampshire and keep showing up, they are likely to tip the scales in the so-called “battleground” states.

They stayed home in 2016. The Democratic presidential candidate, who for some reason keeps on trying to insert herself into every conversation and who never seems able to accept accountability for her own failures, made that campaign all about her and failed. Based on the current field of Democrats - even Bloomberg - that won’t be the case.

Turnout is everything in an election, and what the Democrats - not the DNC, but the ones campaigning to be president right now - seem to understand is that they can’t rely on converting many who voted for Trump. They need to bring out their own voters and they need to give Trump’s 2016 voters a reason to stay home.

Impeachment may not seem like a sexy campaign issue, certainly not when you failed to convict, but it doesn’t have to be the central issue in the election. It will be there, always present, always a reminder of corruption and, most importantly, those who stood to support it.

Trump is emboldened now, yes, and taking his revenge while taking a bigger piece of the pie all for himself, and that will weigh on him and on every Republican running for Congress, not just in 2020 but in 2022 and 2024. The advantage Democrats have now is one that they only just started to have in 2018, one that they could not have had in 2016.

They now have evidence, a track record of corruption and greed and racism and abuse of power that has been so pervasive and so present that ignoring it has become more and more difficult.

Memory is powerful. It’s like the body developing anti-bodies in reaction to an illness. We know now what we’re fighting. We can recognize it. We can focus our energies against it. With enough anti-bodies, we build a defense and we defeat what would destroy us.

The right wing has long spoken in these terms, of invasion, of infestation, of outsiders threatening who we are and those things we love. The threat they want us to see is the “other”, always the “other”.

What we must ask, and what Democrats at long last seem to be heard asking, is why. The right wing wants us looking away, wants us looking at others, because they don’t want us looking at ourselves.

The greatest threat we face is from ourselves. We have an economy that rewards selfishness above accountability because we allow it. We have rising temperatures and weather systems increasingly out of balance because we allow it.

We have corruption because we allow it. We have abuse because we allow it. Donald Trump has carte blanche to be corrupt and to abuse power because we, the American people, have allowed it.

And we have the power to end it, if we so choose.

You impeach a corrupt president because corruption destroys us like a cancer. You fight bullies because you are not afraid. You stand up for the least powerful among us because that is what makes us all stronger. You share what you have because someday those people might be in a position to share with you.

Isn’t that America? Isn’t that the version we tell ourselves we want to be?

That was the lesson for this week. That was the point of impeachment. That is the core issue not only of this upcoming election but of the next one and the one after that.

Big finish.

- Daniel Ward

[dragoni]

Confident Pelosi, Adam Schiff, Jerry Nadler and the FBI got this.

Patriots just have to deal with corrupt treasonous Republicans - especially #MoscowMitch and  #LeningradLindsey

The notorious lawyer, whom Trump has said he regarded as a second father, taught that when law enforcement and other government officials suggest anything is amiss, you turn the tables and attack their integrity and legitimacy.

What we could call “Roy Cohn’s Lying Without Consequences Playbook” includes: 

Throw up every obstacle you can use or fabricate. 

Toss legal brickbats with novel and bizarre legal claims. 

Be nasty. Be accusatory. 

Challenge the legitimacy of government. 

Attack the integrity of individual officials.  

Make claims of government action that bear no relationship to the actual issue. Insist that records are confidential.  

Claim records no longer exist because some random, low-level employee accidentally erased them or tossed them out. 

Claim that a broken water pipe flooded the accounting file room. 

Blame an act of God. 

And always delay, delay, delay in the hope that the salaried government officials will grow weary and move on to easier tasks.

Read about

Trump Helped Cocaine Trafficker

Kremlin Blackmail

cheating small business vendors and workers and then lying under oath to escape responsibility for his misdeeds.

[rentalgoose]

I can’t fit the whole name in 1 ask, so this is part 1. Adolph Blaine Charles David Earl Frederick Gerald Hubert Irvin John Kenneth Lloyd Martin Nero Oliver Paul Quincy Randolph Sherman Thomas Uncas Victor William Xerxes Yancy Zeus Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff­welche­vor­altern­waren­gewissen­haft­schafers­wessen­schafe­waren­wohl­gepflege­und­sorg­faltig­keit­be­schutzen­vor­an­greifen­durch­ihr­raub­gierig­feinde­welche­vor­altern­zwolf­hundert­tausend­jah­res­voran­die­er­scheinen

You left out a couple of letters (in all three asks)! It’s: Wolfe­schlegel­stein­hausen­berger­dorff­welche­vor­altern­waren­gewissen­haft­schafers­wessen­schafe­waren­wohl­gepflege­und­sorg­faltig­keit­be­schutzen­vor­an­greifen­durch­ihr­raub­gierig­feinde­welche­vor­altern­zwolf­hundert­tausend­jah­res­voran­die­er­scheinen­von­der­erste­erde­mensch­der­raum­schiff­genacht­mit­tung­stein­und­sieben­iridium­elek­trisch­motors­ge­brauch­licht­als­sein­ur­sprung­von­kraft­ge­start­sein­lange­fahrt­hin­zwischen­stern­artig­raum­auf­der­suchen­nach­bar­schaft­der­stern­welche­ge­habt­be­wohn­bar­planeten­kreise­drehen­sich­und­wo­hin­der­neue­rasse­von­ver­stand­ig­mensch­lich­keit­konnte­fort­pflanzen­und­sicher­freuen­an­lebens­lang­lich­freude­und­ru­he­mit­nicht­ein­furcht­vor­an­greifen­vor­anderer­intelligent­ge­schopfs­von­hin­zwischen­stern­art­ig­raum

A - “Arabella” by Arctic Monkeys

D - “Deceptacon” by Le Tigre

O - “Of Once And Future Kings” by Pavlov’s Dog

L - “Laugh Till I Cry” by The Front Bottoms

P - “Paracetamol” by Declan KcKenna

H - “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana

B - “Black Mambo” by Glass Animals

L - “Lucky Girl” by Fazerdaze

A - “Are You Satisfied?” by MARINA

I - “Inbetween Days” by The Cure

N - “Not Too Bad” from Fun Home

E - “Electric Love” by BØRNS

C - “Cinnamon” by Palehound

H - “How Soon Is Now?” by The Smiths

A - “And So It Goes” by Billy Joel

R - “Run Boy Run” by Woodkid

L - “LA Devotee” by Panic! At The Disco

E - “Edge of Seventeen” by Stevie Nicks

S - “Sex On Fire” by Kings of Leon

D - “Disorder” by Joy Division

A - “A Decade Under The Influence” by Taking Back sunday

V - “Vacation” by Florist

I - “In The Woods Somewhere” by Hozier

D - “Dust In The Wind” by Kansas

E - “Easy Target” by blink-182

A - “Allentown” by Billy Joel

R - “Rill Rill” by Sleigh Bells

L - “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division

F - “Fluorescent Adolescent” by Arctic Monkeys

R - “Run” by Hozier

E - “Empty” by Kevin Abstract

D - “Daddy Issues” by The Neighbourhood

E - “Everything’s A Ceiling” by Death Cab for Cutie

R - “Rhode Island” by The Front Bottoms

I - “I Bet On Losing Dogs” by Mitski

C - “Cool And Refreshing” by Florist

K - “Karma Police” by Radiohead

G - “Gooey” by Glass Animals

E - “Expo ‘86″ by Death Cab for Cutie

R - “Red Eye” by Vance Joy

A - “All For Leyna” by Billy Joel

L - “Let’s Kill Tonight” by Panic! At The Disco

D - “D’you Have A Car?” by SWMRS

H - “Howlin’ For You” by The Black Keys

U - “Uprising” by Muse

B - “Be Nice To Me” by The Front Bottoms

E - “El Dorado” by Death Cab for Cutie

R - “Rasputin” by Boney M.

T - “This Year” by The Mountain Goats

I - “It Will Come Back” by Hozier

R - “Rosanna” by Toto

V - “Video Games” by Lana del Rey

I - “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me” by Billy Joel

N - “Nina Cried Power” by Hozier

J - “Joanie” by The Front Bottoms

O - “Off To The Races” by Lana del Rey

H - “HELP” by The Front Bottoms

N - “New Slang” by The Shins

K - “Kin” by Kevin Abstract

E - “Eleanor Rigby” by The Beatles

N - “Nobody Knows You (When You’re Down And Out)” by Leslie Odom, Jr.

N - “No. 1 Party Anthem” by Arctic Monkeys

E - “Eddie” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

T - “The Bitch Of Living” from Spring Awakening

H - “Humongous” by Declan McKenna

L - “Love Me” by The 1975

L - “Let It Be Me” by Ray LaMontagne

O - “Oh No!” by MARINA

Y - “Your Best American Girl” by Mitski

D -  “Drunk Kid Catholic” by Bright Eyes

M - “my boy” by Billie Eilish

A - “All Is Full of Love” by Death Cab for Cutie

R - “Radio Ga Ga” by Queen

T - “The World According To Chris” from Carrie: The Musical

I - “I Melt With You” by Modern English

N - “Nova Baby” by The Black Keys

N - “Normal Song” by Perfume Genius

E - “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic” by The Police

R - “Right Hand Man” from Hamilton

O - “Ophelia” by The Lumineers

O - “Otherside” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

L - “Loveletting” by Sons of an Illustrious Father

I - “I Hope You’re Miserable” by Moose Blood

V - “Vampire Money” by My Chemical Romance

E - “Every Other Freckle” by alt-J

R - “Rose Tint My World” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

P - “Personal Jesus” by Depeche Mode

A - “Andy, You’re A Star” by The Killers

U - “Up On Melancholy Hill” by Gorillaz

L -  “Lipstick Covered Magnet” by The Front Bottoms

Q - “Queen” by Perfume Genius

U - “Uma Thurman” by Fall Out Boy

I - “I Got” by Young The Giant

N - “Non-Stop” from Hamilton

C - “Creep” by Radiohead

Y - “You’re My Home” by Billy Joel

R - “Rabbit Hole” by blink-182

A - “Anna Sun” by WAK THE MOON

N - “New York State Of Mind” by Billy Hoel

D - “Different Names For The Same Thing” by Death Cab for Cutie

O - “Our Love Is God” from Heathers

L - “last words” by isaac gracie

P - “Piano Man” by Billy Joel

H - “Harry Dean” by SWMRS

S - “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood

H - “Hot Knifer” by Peach Pit

E - “Everlong - Acoustic” by Goo Fighters

R - “Rox In The Box” by The Decemberists

M - “Make Me Your Queen” by Decaln McKenna

A - “Africa” by Toto

N -  “Name” by The Goo Goo Dolls

T - “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths

H - “Hero” by Family of the Year

O - “Online Songs” by blink-182

M - “Milk” by The 1975

A - “April, Come She Will” by Simon & Garfunkel

S -  “Shampain” by MARINA

U - “Under The Bridge” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

N - “Nervous” by Gavin James

C - “Cecily Smith” from Fly By Night

A - “After The Storm” by Mumford & Sons

S -  “Starring Role” by MARINA

V - “Valentine” by 5 Seconds of Summer

I - “Islands” by Young The Giant

C - “COPYCAT” by Billie Eilish

T - “Thank You For The Venom” by My Chemical Romance

O - “Old Friends” by Pinegrove

R - “Resonance” by Home

W - “Wolfman” by The Front Bottoms

I - “Iscariot” by WALK THE MOON

L - “Let The River Run” by Carly Simon

L - “Lose It” by SWMRS

I - “I Know A Place” by MUNA

A -  “Alexander Hamilton” from Hamilton

M - “Medicine” by Daughter

X - “XO” by Fall Out Boy

E - “Echo” by Kevin Abstract

R - “running on empty” by isaac gracie

X - “Xanadu” by Rush

E - “Emperor’s New Clothes” by Panic! At The Disco

S -  “Step Out” by José González

Y - “You’re So Vain” by Carly Simon

A - “Aaron Burr, Sir” from Hamilton

N - “Need” by Pinegrove

C - “Cemetery Drive” by My Chemical Romance

Y - “You May Be Right” by Billy Joel

Z - “Zombie” by The Cranberries

E - “Ease” by Troye Sivan

U - “Underdog” by Imagine Dragons

S -  “Sunspot” by Tula Vera

W - “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?” by Mitski

O - “Older Chests” by Damien Rice

L - “Laura Palmer” by Bastille

F - “Flashlight” by The Front Bottoms

E - “Every Night” by Imagine Dragons

S - “Sedona” by Houndmouth

C - “Cola” by Lana del Rey

H - “Hurricane Drunk” by Florence + The Machine

L - “Layla” by Eric Clapton

E - “Ease On Down the Road” from The Wiz

G - “Gold Dust Woman” by Fleetwood Mac

E - “East Coast Anthem” by Good Charlotte

L - “Lone Star” by The Front Bottoms

S - “South” by Hippo Campus

T - “Teen Idle” by MARINA

E - “Edelweiss” from The Sound Of Music

I - “I Will Survive” by Gloria Gaynor

N - “NFWMB” by Hozier

H - “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani

A - “American Pie” by Don McLean 

U - “Unobstructed Views” by Death Cab for Cutie

S - “Signs” by Tula Vera

E - “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)” by Simon & Garfunkel

N - “Northen Downpour” by Panic! At The Disco

B - “Brand New City” by Mitski

E - “Empire (Let Them Sing)” by Bring Me The Horizon

R - “Right Red Hand” by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds

G - “Gum” by Moose Blood

E - “Enjoy The Silence” by Depeche Mode

R - “Red Solo Cup” by Tody Keith

D - “Downeaster Alexa” by Billy Joel

O - “One More Name In Nighlife” by Dane Terry

R - “Rock Show” by blink-182

F - “Fat Lip” by Sum 41

F - “Fuckmylife666″ by Against Me!

W - “West Coast” by Lana del Rey

E - “Enter Sandman” by Metallica

L - “Leningrad” by Billy Joel

C - “Criminal” by Fiona Apple

H - “Helena” by My Chemical Romance

E - ­”Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes

V - “Volcano” by Damien Rice

O - “O Children” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

R - “Runner” by Kevin Abstract

A - “All The Small Things” by blink-12

L - “Like Real People Do” by Hozier

T - “Teenage Kicks” by The Undertones

E - “Even Flow” by Pearl Jam

R - “Romeo” by Chairlift

N - “Novocaine” by Fall Out Boy

W - “When Did Your Heart Go Missing?” by Rooney

A - “Adam’s Song” by blink-182

R - “Round And Round” by Imagine Dragons

E - “Everybody Hurts” by R.E.M.

N - “Nicotine” by Panic! At The Disco

G - “Goodnight Saigon” by Billy Joel

E - “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” by Wang Chung

W - “White Cedar” by The Mountain Goats

I - “Icarus” by Bastille

S - “Sara Smile” by Hall & Oates

S - “Seventeen” by Peach Pit

E - “Everybody Talks” by Neon Trees

N - “Nothing Left To Say / Rocks” by Imagine Dragons

H - “Holy Ghost” by BØRNS

A - “A Burning Hill” by Mitski

F - “Frozen Pines” by Lord Huron

T - “The Ghosts Of Beverly Drive” by Death Cab for Cutie

S - “Sun” by Sleeping At Last

C - “Cleopatra” by The Lumineers

H - “Heat Of The summer” by Young The Giant

A - “A Match Into Water” by Pierce The Veil

F - “Family Friend” by The Vaccines

E - “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” by Tears for Fears

R - “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons

S - “Somebody Else” by The 1975

W - “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd

E - “Everyday Is Like Sunday” by Morrissey

S - “silhouettes of you” by isaac gracie

S - “Stable Song” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - “Everything I Didn’t Say” by 5 Seconds of Summer

N - “No Room In Frame” by Death Cab for Cutie

S - “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant” by Billy Joel

C - “Comfortably Numb” by Pink Floyd

H - “Hallelujah” by Jeff Buckley

A - “American Boyfriend” by Kevin Abstract

F - “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz

E - “Everyone Is Gay” by Great Big World

W - “White Teeth Teens” by Lorde

A - “Arms Tonite” by Mother Mother

R - “Red Barchetta” by Rush

E - “Everything Now” by Arcade Fire

N - “No Sunlight” by Death Cab for Cutie

W - “we fell in love in october” by girl in red

O - “O Valencia!” by The Decemberists

H - “Hey Jude” by The Beatles

L - “Love On Top” by Beyonce

G - “Geyser” by Mitski

E - “Evil Woman” by Electric Light Orchestra

P - “Pressure” by Billy Joel

F - “Fixin’” by WALK THE MOON

L - “Locked Out” by Daddy Issues

E - “Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine)” by Death Cab for Cutie

G - “Ghost Of You” by 5 Seconds of Summer

E - “Echoes” by Pink Floyd

U - “Underneath The Sycamore” by Death Cab for Cutie

N - “Nine In The Afternoon” by Panic! At The Disco

D - “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine

S - “Streetlife Serenader” by Billy Joel

O - “O My Heart” by Mother Mother

R - “Radio” by Lana del Rey

G - “Georgia” by Vance Joy

F - “Fool” by BØRNS

A - “Alone Together” by Fall Out Boy

L - “Lookalike” by Conan Gray

T - “The Love Club” by Lorde

I - “In Cold Blood” by alt-J

G - “Ghosting” by Mother Mother

K - “Kissing in Cars” by Pierce The Veil

E - “Easy To Love” by Billie Holiday

I - “Idle Town” by Conan Gray

T - ­”The Night We Met” by Lord Huron

B - “Baby Came Home” by The Neighbourhood

E - “Edgar Allan Poe” by Lou Reed

S - “Santeria” by Sublime

C - “Changing My Major” from Fun Home

H - “Human” by The Killers

U - “Underwater Bride” by Passenger

T - “terrified” by isaac gracie

Z - “Zanzibar” by Billy Joel

E - “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant

N - “Nara” by alt- J

V - “Very Few Dancers” by Sons of an Illustrious

O - “One Hundred Sleepless Nights” by Pierc The Veil

R - “Ride” by Lana del Rey

A - “Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked” by Cage The Elephant

N - “North American Ride” by Mallory Merk

G “ Gods & Monsters” by Lana del Rey

R - “Ready To Go (Out Of My Mind)” by Panic! At The Disco

E - “Electric Blue” by Icehouse

I - “I Can’t  Believe You’re In Love With Me” by Billie Holiday

F - “Farmer Refuted” from Hamilton

E - “Eleven” by Taking Back Sunday

N - “Norgaard” by The Vaccines

D - “Dancing In The Moonlight” by King Harvest

U - “Unbelievers” by Vampire Weekend

R - “Run Joey Run” by David Geddes

C - “Cupid” by Ryan Beatty

H­ - “Helpless” from Hamilton

I - “In The Heights” from In The Heights

H - “Hood” by Perfume Genius

R - “Rare” by Waterparks

R - “Riptide” by Vance Joy

A - “America” by Imagine Dragons

U - “Underground” by Adam Lambert

B - “Babylon” by 5 Seconds of Summer

G - “God In Jeans” by Ryan Beatty

I - “Inútil” from In The Heights

E - “Embraceable You” by Billie Holiday

R - “Ride Like The Wind” by Christopher Cross

I - “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” by The Proclaimers

G - “Greek God” by Conan Gray

F - “Freeze Your Brain” from Heathers

E - “Enth E Nd” by Linkin Park

I - “Imagine” by John Lennon

N - “Narcolepsy” by Third Eye Blind

D - “December, 1963 (Oh What A Night!)” by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

E - “Eva’s Final Broadcast” from Evita

W - “Washing Machine Heart” by Mitski

E - “Everybody Finds Out” by Fleetwood Mac

L - “Linger” by The Cranberries

C - “Caifornia” by Rufus Wainwright

H - “hollow crown” by isaac gracie

E - “Everybody Happy” by Queen

V - “Vienna” by Billy Joel

O - “Our Lawyers Made Us Change The Name Of This Song So We Wouldn’t Get Sued” by Fall Out Boy

R - “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” by Steely Dan

A - “A Lack Of Color” by Death Cab for Cutie

L - “Lolita” by Lana del Rey

T - “Take Me To Church” by Hozier

E - “Everybody’s Girl” by Rick Springfield

R - “Rock’n Me” by Steve Miller Band

N - “Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met…)” by Panic! At The Disco

Z - “Everything Happens To Me” by Billie Holiday

W - “What The Water Gave Me” by Florence + The Machine

O - “Over At The Frankenstein Place” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

L - “Landfill” by Daughter

F - “First Date” by blink-182

H - “Hayloft” by Mother Mother

U - “Underneath” by Adam Lambert

N - “Nails For Breakfast, Tacks For Snacks” by Panic! At The Disco

D - “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen

E - “Ever Since New York” by Harry Styles

R - “Rich Girl” by Hall & Oates

T - “Tusk” by Fleetwood Mac

T - “Toothpaste Kisses” by The Maccabees

A - “A Movie Script Ending” by Death Cab for Cutie

U - “Until The Night Turns” by Lord Huron

S - “Smoke Two Joints” by Sublime

E - “Every Breath You Take” by The Police

N - “Number Of The Beast” by Iron Maiden

D - “Daniel In The Den” by Bastille

J - “Jolene” by Dolly Parton

A - “A Diamond And A Tether” by Death Cab for Cutie (LOOOOVE this song)

H - “Hazey” by Glass animals

R - “Remembering Sunday” by All Time Low

E - “Everytime I Close My Eyes” by The Backstreet Boys

S - “Swimming Pool” by The Front Bottoms

V - “Virgin Veins” by Coma Cinema

O - “One Of These Nights” by The Eagles

R - “Run To The Hills” by Iron Maiden

A - “Angela” by The Lumineers

N - “Not Today” by Twenty One Pilots

D - “Dear Theoosia” from Hamilton

I - “In Bloom” by Neck Deep

E - “Everytime I Look For You” by blink-182

E - “Evil” by Interpol

R - “Runnin’” by Adam Lambert

S - “Swear To God, The Devil Made Me Do It” by The Front Bottoms

C - “Coconut Skins” by Damien Rice

H - “Hiding With Boys” by Creeper

E - “Evil Eyes” by Styx

I - “Information Travels Faster” by Death Cab for Cutie

N - “Nirvana” by Adam Lambert

E - “Excuses” by Alanis Morissette

N - “Nice Guys Finish Last” by Green Day

V - “Visiting” by Pinegrove

O - “Old Scars/Future Hearts” by All Time Low

N - “Night People” by You Me At Six

D - “Dancing Queen” by ABBA

E - “Exit Music (For A Film)” by Radiohead

R - “Roll Away Your Stone” by Mumford & Sons

E - “Exquisite Dead Guy” by They Might Be Giants

R - “Redundant” by Green Day

S - “Silver Soul” by Beach House

T - “Tiny Vessels” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - “Extraordinary Girl” by Green Day

E - “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor

R - “Reject” by Green Day

D - “Dammit” by blink-182

E - “Earth” by Sleeping At Last

M  - “Make You Feel My Love” by Adele

E - “Elvira” by The Oak Ridge Boys

N - “Nettles” by Arctic Monkeys

S - “St. Walker” by Young The Giant

C - “Cruel World” by Lana del Rey

H - “Holding On To You” by Twenty One Pilots

D - “Delta Dawn” by Tanya Tucker

E - “Electric Chapel” by Lady Gaga

R - “Restless Heart Syndrome” by Green Day

R - “Reckless” by You Me At Six

A - “Anna Molly” by Incubus

U - “Uptight” by Green Day

M - “Miami 2017 (I’ve Seen The Light Go Out On Broadway” by Billy Joel

S - “Swimming Field” by Memory Tapes

C - “Cherry Wine” by Hozier

H - “Hell Above” by Pierce The Veil

I - “I Believe” from Book Of Mormon

F - “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man

F - “Flaws” by Bastille

G - “Gold” by Sir Sly

E - “Evil in the Night” by Adam Lambert

N - “No Buses” by Arctic Monkeys

A - “Ana Ng” by They Might Be Giants

C - “Can I Stay” by Ray LaMontagne

H - “How To Be A Heartbreaker” by MARINA

T - “Thank U” by Alanis Morissette

M - “My Body” by Young The Giant

I - “I Miss You” by blink-182

T - “Toxic” by Britney Spears

T - “Two Coffins” by Against Me!

U - “Unison” by Pinegrove

N - “No Shows” by Gerard Way

G­ - “Ghost” by Sir Sly

S - “Super Trouper” by ABBA

T - “Thinkin’ Bout You” by Frank Ocean

E - “Electricity” by Arctic Monkeys

I - “I Got You Babe” by Bahamas

N - ‘empty” by Ray LaMontagne“National Anthem” by Lana del Rey

U - “Up The Wolves” by The Mountain Goats

N - “Nothing To Lose” by Billy Talent

D­ - “Down By The Water” by The Decemberists

S - “still feel.” by half•alive

I - “I’m Low On Gas And You Need A Jacket by Pierce The Veil

E - “Evil Twin” by Arctic Monkeys

B - “Brazil” by Declan McKenna

E - “Ephemeral Artery” by Neon Indian

N­ - “No Plan” by Hozier

I - “Immortals” by Fall Out Boy

R - “Room To Breathe” by You Me At Six

I - “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons

D - “darkness of the day” by isaac gracie

I - “I Will Possess Your Heart” by Death Cab for Cutie

U - “Until I Am Whole” by The Mountain Goats

M - “Man” by BØRNS

E - “Empty” by Ray LaMontagne

L - “lovely (with Khalid)” by Billie Eilish

E - “Evergreen” by Cavetown

K - “Kelly Kapowski” by Moose Blood

T - “The Man” by The Killers

R - “Rock Is Dead” by Marilyn Manson

I - “I Do” by Kevin Abstract

S - “Songbird” by Fleetwood Mac

C - “Coney Island” by Death Cab for Cutie

H - “Heaven’s Gate” by Fall Oout Boy

M - “Mind Over Matter” by Young The Giant

O - “Over The Sun” by Tinpan Alley

T - “The Answer” by George Salazar

O - “Orange Crush” by R.E.M.

R - “R U Mine?” by Arctic Monkeys

S - “Seventeen Again” by Eurythmics

G - “Guns and Ships” from Hamilton

E - “Everything Is Temporary (Sticks And Stones)” by Cavetown

B - “Bethlehem” by Declan McKenna

R - “Red Right Hand” by Arctic Monkeys

A - “American” by Lana del Rey

U - “Untitled V.2″ by Cavetown

C - “Californication” by The Red Hot Chili Peppers

H - “Hang ‘Em High” by My Chemical Romance

L - “Lisa” by George Salazar

I - “Ingenue” by Death Cab for Cutie

C - “Clint Eastwood” by Gorillaz

H - “Homewrecker” by MARINA

T “that was then” by isaac gracie

A - “Always” by Panic! At The Disco

L - “Liability” by Lorde

S - “SLOW DANCING IN THE DARK” by Joji

S - “Satellite” by Guster

E - “Exhausted” by Chloe Moriondo

I - “Into The Cave We Wander” by Gerard Way

N - “Nobody” by Hozier

U - “UGH!” by The 1975

R­ - “Rust” by Clay Cages

S - “Smother” by Daughter

P - “Palisade” by Pinegrove

R - “Recycling” by Pinegrove

U - “Ultaviolence” by Lana del Rey

N - “No One’s Gonna Love You” by Band Of Horses

G - “Grace Kelly” by MIKA

V - “Ventura Highway” by America

O - “Out Of Control” by Hoobastank

N - “Not In That Way” by Sam Smith

K - “Kiss From A Rose” by Seal

R - “Rings” by Pinegrove

A - “American Idiot” by Green Day

F - “Funny You Should Ask” by The Front Bottoms

T - “This Is Why We Fight” by The Decemberists

G - “Geyser” by Mitski

E - 

S - “Snow (Hey Oh)” by Red Hot Chili Peppers

T - “the death of you & i” by isaac gracie

A - “Awkward Conversations” by The Front Bottoms

R - “Rut” by The Killers

T­ - “Tennessee” by P.S. Eliot

S - “Spaceman” by The Killers

E - 

I - “I Was A Kaleidoscope” by Death Cab for Cutie

N - “Narrow Your Eyes” by They Might Be Giants

L - “last words” by isaac gracie

A - “A Horse With No Name” by America

N - “New Friends” by Pinegrove

G - “Good Help (Is So Hard To Find)” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - 

F - “Flintridge” by Kevin Abstract

A - “Au Revoir (Adios)” by The Front Bottoms

H - “Heart To Hart” from 9 To 5

R - “Run And Tell That!” from Hairspray

T - “The Mighty Fall” by Fall Out Boy

H - “Hear Me” by Imagine Dragons

I - “I Was Once A Loyal Lover” by Death Cab for Cutie

N - “Nashville” by The Indigo Girls

Z - 

W - “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies

I - “Istanbul” by They Might Be Giants

S - “Satisfied” from Hamilton

C - “Cherry” by Moose Blood

H - “Hold On Till May” by Pierce The Veil

E - 

N - “Namesake” by Pinegrove

S - “Starry Starry Night” by Don McLean

T - “telescope” by isaac gracie

E - 

R - “Raining” by The Front Bottoms

N - “Nine To Five” from 9 to 5

A - “Aftershave Ocean” by The Vaccine

R - “Rhode Island” by Kevin Devine

T - “This Is What Makes Us Girls” by Lana del Rey

I - “I’m So Sorry” by Imagine Dragons

G­ - “Georgia” by Kevin Abstract

R - “Roses And Cigarettes” by Ray LaMontagne

A - “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull

U - “Under Presure” by Queen

M - “Modern Love” by David Bowie

A - “All Revved Up With Nowhere To Go” by Meat Loaf

U - “Undone - The Sweater Song” by Weezer

F - “Friendship” by Kevin Abstract

D - “Diet Mountain Dew” by Lana del Rey

E - 

R­ - “Road Trip” by Chloe Moriondo

S - “Sink My Ship” by Melacholily

U - “Unhappy Birthday” by The Smiths

C - “Cough Syrup” by Young The Giant

H - “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now” by The Smiths

E - 

N - “Night Light” by The Mountain Goats

N - (Nice Dream) by Radiohead

A - “Another Night On Mars” by The Maine

C - “Carried Away” by Passion Pit

H - “Home Is A Fine” by Death Cab for Cutie

B - “Bruise” by Ryan Beatty

A - “Asleep” by The Smiths

R - “Radio Free Europe” by R.E.M.

S - “Stay Young, Go Dancing” by Death Cab for Cutie

C - “Corduroy Dreams” by Rex Orange County

H - “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers

A - “Alive” by Pearl Jam

F - “Fourth Of July” by Fall Out Boy

T - “The Other Woman” by Lana del Rey

D - “Dead!” by My Chemical Romance

E - 

R - “Rain” by MIKA

S - “Stay Together For The Kids” by blink-182

T - “Tattoo” by Kevin Abstract

E - 

R - “Rainbow” by Kesha

N - “Naked Sunday” by Stone Temple Pilots

W - “Waking The Witch” by Kate Bush

E - 

L - “Lost In The Light” by Bahamas

C - “California Dreamin’” by The Mamas and the Papas

H - “Heartlines” by Florence + The Machine

E - 

G - “Gone” by Tula Vera

E - 

H - “Homemade Dynamite” by Lorde

A - “Addict With A Pen” by Twenty One Pilots

B - “Blackbird” by The Beatles

T­ - “Tom Sawyer” by Rush

B - “Brothers On A Hotel Bed” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - 

W - “Whole Lotta Love” by Hozier

O - “One Song Glory” from Rent

H - “Heavy In Your Arms” by Florence + The Machine

N - “Need 2″ by Pinegrove

B - “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by Simon & Garfunkel

A - “Air Catcher” by Twenty One Pilots

R - “Rat A Tat” by Fall Out Boy

P - “Poacher’s Pride” by Nicole Dollanganger

L - “Lovesong” by The Cure

A - “A Loaded Smile” by Adam Lambert

N - “Narrow Escape” by Ray LaMontagne

E - 

T - “Technicolor Girls” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - 

N - “Natives” by blink-182

K - “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club

R - “Re: Stacks” by Bon Iver

E - 

I - “Impossible Year” by Panic! At The Disco

S - “Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine

E - 

D - “Dirty Summer” by Mother Falcon

R - “Read My Mind” by The Killers

E - 

H - “House Of Wolves” by My Chemical Romance

E - 

N - “Night Knuckles” by Cavetown

S - “St. Peter’s Cathedral” by Death Cab for Cutie

I - “I’m Going Home” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

C - “Chiquitita” by ABBA

H - “Hardest Of Hearts” by Florence + The Machine

U - “Unknown Brothe” by The Black Keys

N - “Nostalgia In My BedRoom” by Cavetown

D - “Disasterology” by Pierce The Veil

W - “What Sarah Said” by Death Cab for Cutie

O - “Outlaws Of Love” by Adam Lambert

H - “Hey There Delilah” by The Plain White T’s

I - “I Can Make You A Man” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

N­ - “Noise In My Head” by Cavetown

D - “Death Valley” by Fall Out Boy

E - 

R - “Rebel Rebel” by David Bowie

N - “Nature Boy” by Nat King Cole

E - 

U - “Until The Night” by Billy Joel

E - 

R - “Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secure” by Arctic Monkeys

A - “A Car, A Torch, A Death” by Twenty One Pilots

S - “Sweet Caroline” by Neil Diamond

S - “Strawberry Blond” by Miski

E - 

V - “Vital Signs” by Rush

O - “Ode To Sleep” by Twenty One Pilots

N - “Naughty Girl” by Beyonce

V - “Victorious” by Panic! At The Disco

E - 

R - “Reckless Serenade” by Arctic Monkeys

S - “Summer Shandy” by The Front Bottoms

T - “The Drug In Me Is You” by Falling In Reverse

A - “Aftermath” by Adam Lambert

N - “Neal Cassady Drops Dead” by Morrissey

D - “Doors Unlocked And Open” by Death Cab for Cutie

I - “I Don’t Care” by Fall Out Boy

G - “Give ‘Em Hell, Kid” by My Chemical Romance

M - “Mr. Brightside” by The Killers

E - 

N - “Neon Gravestones” by Twenty One Pilots

S - “Smile Like You Mean It” by The Killers

C - “Come Together” by The Beatles

H - “Hold No Guns” by Death Cab for Cute

L - “Learning” by Perfume Genius

I - “I Don’t Love You” by My Chemical Romance

C - “Cloudbusting” by Kae Bush

H - “Hot Patootie - Bless My Soul” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

K - “Kids In America” by Kim Wilde

E - 

I - “If U Seek Amy” by Britney Spears

T - “Tangled In The Great Escape” by Pierce The Veil

K - “King And Lionheart” by Of Monsters And Men

O - “One For The Road” by Arctic Monkeys

N - “Never Enough” by The Cure

N - “Never Going Back Again” by Fleetwood Mac

T - “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance

E­ - 

F - “Folkin’ Around” by Panic! At The Disco

O - “One Point Perspective” by Arctic Monkeys

R - “Red Tide” by Rush

T - “The Chain” by Fleetwood Mac

P - “Poor Boxer Shorts” by Mom Jeans.

F - “Famous Last Words” by My Chemical Romance

L - “Lone Digger” by Caravan Palace

A - “Awake My Soul” by Mumford & Sons

N - “Never Let Me Go” by Florence + The Machine

Z - 

E - 

N - “Never Had No One Ever” by The Smiths

U - “Untouched” by The Veronicas

N - “Never Too Late” by three Days Grace

D - “Dance, Dance” by Fall Out Boy

S - “Seven Devils” by Florence + The Machine

I - “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Meat Load

C - “Crush Culture” by Conan Gray

H - “Hurricane” by Panic! At The Disco

E - 

R - “Red, Red Wine” by UB40

F - “Friction” by Imagine Dragons

R - “Red Sector A” by Rush

E - 

U - “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield

E - 

N - “Nobody” by Mitski

A - “All The Time” by Green Day

N - “Nobody Puts Baby In a Corner” by Fall Out Boy

L - "Loveryboy” by You Me At Six

E - 

B - “Burn” from Hamilton

E - 

N - “Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)” by My Chemical Romance

S - “Superposition” by Young The Giant

L - “Lies” by MARINA

A - “Are We The Waiting / St. Jimmy” by Green Day

N - “No One Does It Better” by You Me At Six

G - “Golden Days” by Panic! At The Disco

L - “Little Wanderer” by Death Cab for Cutie

I - “I Won’t Give Up” by Jason Mraz

C - “Candy Store” from Heathers

H - “Hum Hallelujah” by Fall Out Boy

F - “FROOT” by MARINA

R - “Reflektor” by Arcade Fire

E - 

U - “Up All Night” by blink-182

D - “Dammit Janet” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show

E - 

U - “Uptown Girl” by Billy Joel

N - “New American Classic” by Taking Back Sunday

D - “Death Of An Interior Decorator” by Death Cab for Cutie

R - Rehab” by Amy Winehouse

U - “Us And Them” by Pink Floyd

H - “Heaven Can Wait” by Meat Loaf

E - 

M - “Motorcycle” by The Front Bottoms

I - “I Have Friends In Holy Spaces” by Panic! At The Disco

T - “Twin Skeletons (Hotel In NYC)” by Fall Out Boy

N - “New York Mining Disaster 1941 (Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones)” by The Bee Gees

I - “I See Love” by Passenger

C - “Cough It Out” by The Front Bottoms

H - “House Of Memories” by Panic! At The Disco

T - “Talking Bird (Demo)” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - 

I - “Interlude” by Melancholily

N - “Nico And The Niners” by Twnety One Pilots

F - “Fade Away” by Susan Sundfør

U - “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon

R - “Religion” by Lana del Rey

C - “Cath…” by Death Cab for Cutie

H - “Hotel California” by The Eagles

T­ - “The Phoenix” by Fall Out Boy

V - “Vegas Lights” by Panic! At The Disco

O - “Only Ones Who Know” by Arctic Monkeys

R - “Rent” from Rent

A - “American Eulogy: Mass Hysteria / Modern World” by Green Day

N - “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra

G - “Ginger” by The Front Bottoms

R - “Reptilia” by The Strokes

E -  

I - “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! At The Disco

F - “Frankie Sinatra” by The Avalanches

E - 

N - “Night And Day” by Frank Sinatra

V - “Valentine’s Day” by Linkin Park

O - “Old Yellow Bricks” by Arctic Monkeys

R - “reverie” by isaac gracie

A - “American Sports” by Arctic Monkeys

N - “New Perspective” by Panic! At The Disco

D - “DESTROYA” by My Chemical Romance

E - 

R - “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

E - 

R - “Ribs” by Fleetwood Mac

I - “I Can’t Go For That (No Can Do)” by Hall & Oates

N - “Night at Lake Unknown” by Conor Oberst

T - “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An arms Race” by Fall Out Boy

E - 

L - “Long Division” by Death Cab for Cutie

L - “Little Bribes” by Death Cab for Cutie

I - “Islands In The Stream” by Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers

G - “Grapevine Fires” by Death Cab for Cutie

E - 

N - “Nirvana” by sam Smith

T - “The Sound Of Settling” by Death Cab for Cutie

G - “Golden” by Fall Out  Boy

E - 

S - “Someone To Watch Over Me” by Frank Sinatra

C - “Caraphernelia” by Pierce The Veil

H - “Heartache Tonight” by The Eagles

O - “Overtrown” by Pinegrove

P - “Plastic Flowers” by The Front Bottoms

F - “For Crying Out Loud” by Meat Loaf

S - “Sarah Smiles” by Panic! At The Discoo

V - “Venus” by Sleeping At Last

O - “Over My Head” by Fleetwood Mac

N - “No Cars Go” by Arcade Fire

H - “High Dive” by Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness

I - “I Wanna Get Better” by Bleachers

N - “No Peace”by by Sam Smith

Z -  “Zeroes” by David Bowie

W - “We Looked Like Giants” by Death Cab for Cutie

I - “Isle Of Flightless Birds” by Twenty One Pilots

S - “Spooky” by Classic IV

C - “Cemetery Drive” by My Chemical Romance

H - “Hey Julie” by Fountains Of Wayne

E - 

N - “No you Girls” by Franz Ferdinand

S - “Stop The World I Wanna Get Off With You” by Arctic Monkeys

T - “The Ghost Of You” by My Chemical Romance

E -

R - “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash

N - “Northern Lights” by Death Cab for Cutie

A - “Anyways” by Arctic Monkeys

R - “Riot” by Three Days Grace

T - “The Secret Society” by Creeper

 I - “Imitation Of Life” by R.E.M.

G - “Girls / Girls / Boys” by Panic! At The Disco

R - “Rise” by Skillet

A - “A Happy Tune” by Melancholily

U - “Using” by Sorority Noise

M - “Maps” by The Front Bottoms

There are literally not enough songs in the known universe that begin with  ‘E’ or ‘Z’ to complete the name. I hate this man and his ridiculously long name, I hate this ask game, I hate you I hate myself. This took my three fucking days, I hate it.

[almostfuriouspizza]

How to Escape Room: Es gibt 3 Ausgänge, findest du den richtigen ? Löse das Rätsel und du wirst entkommen...

Das Rätsel um die Augen

Die Stimmung in dem Team um die beiden Forscher Dr. Krypton und Dr. Argon war gespannt, ihr Raumschiff stand kurz vor der Landung auf dem Planeten Xena. Die Wissenschaftler wussten, dass sie eine schwierige Aufgabe erwartet. Während ihrer Reise durchs All hatten sie schon so manche merkwürdige und auch unheimliche Begegnung mit Außerirdischen heil überstanden, wobei sie bei jedem Treffen ein flaues Gefühl beschlich. Immer wieder fragte sich das Team, ob die Fremden ihnen wohlgesonnen seien und ob sie selbst in der Lage sind, die Sprache und die Gestik der Exterritorialen richtig zu interpretieren. Doch dieses Mal ging es nicht darum Kontakte zu knüpfen und wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zu sammeln, die Forschergruppe sollte sich als Friedenstifter betätigen.

Seit Jahren bekämpften sich die Wokys und Sentoks, die beiden mächtigsten Klans auf Xena. Der Grund des Streits lag schon Jahrhunderte zurück, für Xenaer eine relative kurze Zeitspanne. Der vorletzte Herrscher der Wokys, Ununhexium, vermachte nach seinem Tod seiner einzigen Tochter Livermorium die Felder mit dem lebenswichtigen Ununoctium. Livermorium ehelichte einen Worky und bekam mit ihm eine Tochter, Katalase, der sie wiederum die Ununoctiumfelder vererbte. Katalase heiratete Syenit, einen Sohn des Herrschaftshauses der Sentoks. Das Paar setzte jedoch keine Nachkommen in die Welt.

Aufgrund der Nachlassbestimmungen von Ununhexium fielen damit die Felder an die Kinder seiner Schwester Cytoplasma von den Workys sowie deren Nachwuchs. Die Sentoks widersprachen dieser für sie ungünstigen Regelung und nannten als Grund ihre Erbfolgenbestimmungen, um die für sie wichtige Einnahmequelle zu erhalten. Es entwickelte sich ein Krieg zwischen den Herrscherhäusern, der nicht nur den Lebensraum langsam zerstörte, sondern auch kurz davor stand, sowohl die Workys als auch die Sentoks vollständig zu vernichten.

Die Wissenschaftler und Künstler beider Stämme erkannten, dass sie nur gemeinsam den Wahnsinn der Herrschaftshäuser beenden können, jedoch auf jeden Fall fremde Hilfe zur Vermittlung dafür benötigen. Jede der Gruppen setze separat einen Notruf ins All ab, der das Schiff der Forscher erreichte. Diese erklärten sich bereit, mit den Klanoberhäuptern ein Gespräch zu führen und zu versuchen, den Frieden wieder herzustellen beziehungsweise eine für beide Klans akzeptabel Lösung zu finden. Das Team betonte zwar ausdrücklich seine Neutralität, konnte jedoch nicht sicher davon ausgehen, dass jede der beiden Seiten dies auch so sieht. Verträge mit der Erde über diplomatische Beziehungen und Immunität für Vermittler bestanden zu dieser Zeit noch nicht, sodass die Wissenschaftler sich weit ab von der Heimat durch einen für sie rechtlich luftleeren Raum bewegen mussten.

Eines der großen Probleme für Dr. Krypton und Dr. Argon stellte die Tatsache dar, dass sich weder Workys noch Sentoks durch das menschliche Auge erkennen lassen. Nur mit Hilfe eines ganz besonderen Lichts sind zumindest die Augen der Exterritorialen erfassbar. Dabei unterscheiden sich die beiden Volksstämme darin, dass Workys fünf Augen auf dem Körper besitzen, während bei den Sentoks sich sieben Augen verteilen.

Sowohl Workys als auch Sentoks hatten der Besatzung des Raumschiffs einen friedlichen Empfang zugesagt, allerdings ohne zu klären, welcher der beiden Stämme das Empfangskomitee bilden und die Forscher in ihre Aufgaben einführen würde.

Nach der Landung das Raumschiff auf Xena stiegen die Wissenschaftler etwas verunsichert aus und schalteten ihre Speziallampen an. Sie rechneten entweder mit zehn, fünfzehn oder zwanzig beziehungsweise vierzehn, einundzwanzig oder achtundzwanzig Augen, wurden jedoch zu ihrem Erstaunen von zweiundzwanzig Augen angestarrt. 

Logischerweise stellten sich die Forscher und ihr Team die Frage: Wie viele Sentoks und wie viele Workys stehen den jetzt für sie zum Empfang bereit?

_ _

Gehe durch den Richtigen Ausgang:

Ausgang links : 26

Ausgang unten : 18

Ausgang rechts: 22

_ _

_

Eine Rätselgeschichte aus dem kostenlosen Angebot von - www.Rätseldino.de_

[svetlanawagner-blog]

The Las Vegas desert brings in scorching hot summers, which is why we don’t like leaving the apartment until sundown. Even when going you’re out at night, it feels like there’s a hair dryer blowing hot air on you.

Now that we’re more experienced adventurers and we slow , we can be more strategic on where we explore. We reserve late to early for outdoor activities, and when the heat sets in, you’ll find us indoors. If you’re visiting in the summer or live here and can’t seem to escape like the other sunbirds, here’s a list of the best indoor activities in Las Vegas.

A big thank you to CORT for sponsoring this post. All opinions are always our own. This post may contain affiliate links, where we receive a small commission on sales of the products that are linked at no additional cost to you. Read our full disclosure for more info. Thank you for supporting the brands that make Local Adventurer possible.

Last Updated: July 1, 2019

Content Menu

25 Fun Indoor Activities in Las Vegas for Scorching Hot Summers and Rainy Days

It is our second year working with CORT, and it has been such an amazing experience being able to move from city to city without having to worry about our furniture.

For the first 4 years, we would either move our own furniture or deal with the stress of buying and selling every year. Once we discovered that we could rent furniture from CORT, it was a game changer.

We order the pieces that we want, they deliver it right to our apartment and help us get it set up. When we’re ready to move, they’ll come pick it up! Check out our home tour here.

Having a comfortable home was extremely important for us moving back to Vegas. Not only will we be spending a lot of time indoors during the summer, we’ve been hosting guests every other week. It’s been nice having a home furnished and decorated to help us relax and host. Read more on the CORT blog

1. The Wreck Room

4090 Schiff Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89103, map

Step into a room full of bottles, electronics, VHS tapes, and more armed with bats, bowling pins, and crowbars. Then go to town and DESTROY EVERYTHING. It’s so much fun whether you need to get your aggression out or just try something new.

PHOTO

photo: 

2. Las Vegas Escape Rooms

We did our first escape room in NYC when we lived there, and then proceeded to do 8 more that winter when it was miserable outside. Now it’s the summer heat we have to worry about.

We’re making our way through all the top rated Las Vegas escape rooms so we can report back on which are the best. So far our favorites are Lost Games Chapter 2 and the BASEMENT.

More: Your Guide to the Best NYC Escape Rooms

3. Dig This

800 W Roban Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89044, map

Dig This is a giant sandbox for grown-ups. You can get behind the wheel of bulldozers and excavators as the instructors show you how to use them and perform multiple tasks. The machines are air-conditioned so it’s a great way to stay cool in the heat.

4. Indoor Sports

If you love doing active things, there are plenty of indoor sporting options in Las Vegas.

Topgolf Las Vegas – although it’s technically outdoors, its temperature controlled and a lot of fun! Plus, there’s a pool you can hop in if you want to cool off even more.

Ice Skating Indoors – Las Vegas Ice Center, Sobe Ice Arena, or Roller Skating at Crystal Palace Skating Center

Indoor Rock Climbing – When it’s too hot to go to Red Rock, visit the indoor rock climbing gyms. There are a few around the city: Origin, Refuge, Nevada Climbing Center, Red Rock Climbing Center.

Bowling – Brooklyn Bowl, Gold Coast Bowling Center, Orleans Bowling Center, Red Rock Lanes Bowling Center, Sam’s Town Hotel Gambling Hall and Bowling Center, Santa Fe Bowling Center, South Point Bowling Center, Strike Zone at Sunset Station, Suncoast Bowling Center, Texas Station’s Texas Star Lanes

5. Watch a Show

We’ve seen a lot of shows in Vegas and still haven’t scratched the surface. Some of the most popular shows are: Blue Man Group, Cirque du Soleil (Ka, O, Criss Angel, Beatles, Mystere, ONE), Le Reve the Dream, Jabbawockeez, Terry Fator, Tournament of Kings at Excalibur, and Lake of Dreams.

You can also see comedy shows at Comedy Cellar, More Comedy Clubs and Shows, Mac King Comedy Magic Show,  and Popovich Comedy Pet Theater. Plus there are lots of big artists that take up residency in Vegas, including Gwen at Zappos Theater, Janet Jackson at Park Theater, Christina at Zappos Theater, Lady Gaga Park Theater, Celine Dion at the Colosseum, and more.

We’re working on a separate post just about the best shows in Vegas.

6. Fly a Jet with All in Aviation

1410 Jet Stream Dr Ste 150, Henderson, NV 89052, map

Have you ever wanted to fly a plane or get your pilot’s license? At All in Aviation, you can get behind the wheel of beautiful Cirrus jets and log your hours toward a pilot’s license. Jacob logged his first hour flying. Should he keep going?

7. Ride a Helicopter

Whether you want to see Grand Canyon or get a better vantage point of the strip, you can hop in a helicopter and enjoy the views.

More: Las Vegas to Grand Canyon Helicopter Tours

8. Learn a New Skill or Take Up a New Hobby

What better time to pick up a new skill or hobby? Especially one that keeps you in an air conditioned space. Here are some fun skills you can look into if you’re looking for a new hobby:

Cake Decorating

DIY Wood Sign Shop

Sewing Classes

Scrapbooking Class

More: 101 Hobbies to Start in 2019

9. Indoor activities for kids in las

This was hard to narrow down into a specific activity, but we found so many great family friendly activities.

Interactive Museums – Marvel Avengers STATION

Trampoline Parks – Sky Zone Sports Trampoline Park or Flip N Out Xtreme

Games – Pinball Hall of Fame, GameWorks, Dave & Busters

Rides – Adventuredome Theme Park, Big Apple Coaster and Arcade

Mini Golf – GlowZone, KISS by Monster Mini Golf, Twilight Zone Mini Golf and Arcade, Rex Center

Indoor Playgrounds – Adventure Indoor Playground, Kangamoo Indoor Playground, Jumper’s Jungle Family Fun Center

Zoos & Aquariums – Shark Reef Aquarium, Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat

More: Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay

10. Try a New Fitness Class

It may be too hot outside to get your blood pumping, but that doesn’t mean you can’t take advantage of some of the unique fitness classes offered in Las Vegas.

Aerial silks with Cirque performers

Pole Dancing at Pole Fitness Studio

Trampoline Studio at Eleve Training

More: Sampling Las Vegas Fitness with Class Pass

11. Afternoon tea

I love going to Afternoon Tea, especially with my girlfriends. I’ve only done one in Vegas but plan on checking out the others this year.

Afternoon Tea at the Tea Lounge Waldorf Astoria

Petrossian Bar at Bellagio

LaPostte

Cafe Lola in Summerlin

Lobby Bar at Aria, Ri Ra Irish Pub

Veranda Mandalay Bay

The Stove in Henderson

12. Have a Spa Day

Spoil yourself with and feel refreshed and relaxed after a day at the spa. Like everything in Vegas, they don’t hold back.  Here are some of the best spas in Las Vegas:

Wynn Las Vegas Spa

The Spa at the Waldorf Astoria

Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Palace

ESPA at Vdara

13. Hang Out at a Unique Bar

You can drink in a lot of places in Las Vegas, but why not go to a bar that really stands out? Here are some unique bars to check out:

Laundry Room (Speakeasy)

Hi Scores Bar-arcade

Golden Tiki

Millennium Fandom Bar

Senor Frogs: One Hour Open Bar

14. Tour the Coffee Shops

If you’re looking for a chill afternoon or just need a break from all the madness on the strip, head to one of the local coffee shops. Some of the most popular ones are PublicUs and Makers & Finders.

15. High Roller

3545 S Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89109, map

This isn’t your typical ferris wheel. It stands 550 feet tall with observation cabins that hold up to 40 people each. The entire ride takes roughly 30-40 minutes.

More: High Roller Las Vegas

16. Vegas Indoor Skydiving

200 Convention Center Dr., Las Vegas, Nevada 89109, map

We haven’t been skydiving yet, but we did get a taste of it at this indoor skydiving spot.

More: Las Vegas Indoor Skydiving

17. The Void VR

3377 S Las Vegas Blvd Las Vegas, NV 89109, map

Experience the next generation of VR where you not only get transported to another world on a screen, but you also interact with the environment around you. The VR headset is attached to a backpack which allows you to be mobile and follow along the story. We did the Star Wars one with a group of four and got the chance to fight off the Empire.

18. Throw an Axe

Release your inner woodsman at Axehole Vegas or Axe Monkeys, where you can learn to throw and axe and practice your aim.

19. Eat, then Eat Some More

Las Vegas has a great food scene on and off strip. Most people just think about buffets, but there are fine dining options, some of the best Hawaiian food we’ve had, and more. Click here to see our Vegas food bucket list.

Prix Fixe Meals – Joel Robuchon, é by Jose Andres, Yui Edomae Sushi

Buffets – Bacchanal, Wicked Spoon

Off Strip – Shang’s Artisan Noodles, Poke Express

More: 49 Best Places to Eat in Las Vegas

20. Gamble

This is kind of an obvious one, but gambling keeps you indoors. These are some of our favorite casinos: Palazzo, Wynn, Encore, Aria, Venetian, Cosmopolitan, Bellagio, Red Rock Casino.

21. Drive Experiences

If you’re hoping to show off your trip to Vegas, then you need a photo driving a fancy car too. There are a few driving experiences in Vegas like the Richard Petty Driving Experience and World Class Driving.

More: World Class Driving Las Vegas

22. Hop Around Art Galleries

Casinos put a lot of money into their seasonal displays, and some of them have world class art galleries as well.

Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art

The Gallery at Aria

Art of Richard MacDonald / Cirque Art

More: Christmas at Bellagio Botanical Gardens

23. Check Out the Museums

Las Vegas has a wide range of museums to check out. Here are a few you can check out:

Real Bodies at Bally’s

Mob Museum

Titanic the Artifact Exhibition

DISCOVERY Children’s Museum,

National Atomic Testing Museum

Zak Bagans’ The Haunted Museum

Burlesque Hall of Fame

Las Vegas Natural History Museum

Liberace Museum Collection Tour

Hollywood Cars Museum

The Auto Collections

Shelby American Inc,

Nostalgia Street Rods

Counts Kustoms

Springs Preserve – has indoor areas

24. Go on a Tour

There are multiple tour options in Las Vegas, whether you’re into mob history, chocolate, beer, or shoes. Here are the ones we went on that we recommend.

Hoover Dam Tour

Zappos Tour

Ethel M Factory Tour

More Tours to Check Out:

Sin City Club Crawl

Vegas Mob Tour

Pink Jeep Tours

Jubilee Backstage Tour

Frank Cullotta’s Casino Tour

Nosh Las Vegas

More: Zappos Tour Las Vegas

25. Check Out the Indoor Tourist Spots

Gold & Silver Pawn Shop

Coca Cola Store – tastes of the World

M&M’s World

Hershey’s Chocolate World

Map of Indoor Activities in Las

  More Indoor Activities Las Vegas

Shopping – Shops at Crystals, the Grand Canal Shoppes at the Venetian, Forum Shops at Caesars Palace, Fashion Show Mall, Shoppes at Palazzo, Miracle Mile Shops, Grand Bazaar Shops

Breweries – Ellis Island Casino & Brewery, Banger Brewing, Hop Nuts Brewing Tenaya Creek Brewery, Lovelady Brewing Company, CraftHaus Brewery

Watch Sports – T-Mobile Arena & City National Arena

Essential Tips

  Las Vegas Packing List for Summer

!function(d,s,id){var e, p = /^http:/.test(d.location) ? 'http' : 'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)) {e = d.createElement(s);e.id = id;e.src = p + '://' + 'widgets.rewardstyle.com' + '/js/shopthepost.js';d.body.appendChild(e);}if(typeof window.__stp === 'object') if(d.readyState === 'complete') {window.__stp.init();}}(document, 'script', 'shopthepost-script');

JavaScript is currently disabled in this browser. Reactivate it to view this content.

Where to Stay in Las Vegas

Mandalay Bay – perfect for summer with their 11 acre manmade beach

Cosmopolitan – They have the best view of the Strip.

The Venetian

Find the best prices and reviews here

More Las Vegas Guides and Resources

Las Vegas Pocket Guide

Fodor’s Las Vegas

Unofficial Guide to Las Vegas

What do you plan on doing to beat the heat this summer?

Did you enjoy this post? Pin it for later

SEE MORE THINGS TO DO IN LAS VEGAS

⟡⟡⟡⟡⟡

LAS VEGAS BUCKET LIST

49 BEST PLACES TO EAT IN LAS VEGAS

25 FREE THINGS TO DO IN LAS VEGAS

HOW TO SPEND CHRISTMAS IN VEGAS

UNIQUE DATE IDEAS IN LAS VEGAS

BEST DAY TRIPS FROM LAS VEGAS

WEEKEND TRIPS FROM VEGAS

BEST OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES IN VEGAS

“Discovery consists not of seeking new lands but in seeing with new eyes” – M. Proust

Esther + Jacob

Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 5 blogs in the US. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They explore a new city in depth every year and currently base themselves in Las Vegas.

PrevPreviousAll the Best Stops on the Ultimate West Texas Road Trip

You might also love

17 Road Trip Destinations for the Best Fall Foliage in the USA

Best Places to See Cherry Blossoms in NYC

25 Fun Things to Do Indoors in NYC for Rainy and Cold Days

All articles loaded

No more articles to load

The post 25 Fun Indoor Activities in Las Vegas for Scorching Hot Summers and Rainy Days appeared first on Local Adventurer » Travel Adventures in NYC + World Wide.

[biofunmy]

Suiting Up for the Impeachment Battle

The fourth presidential impeachment hearings in the history of the United States, whose public phase came to an end on Thursday afternoon in the columned environs of the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, may have hewed to decorum, but they were a battlefield nonetheless.

It was clear in the language, between those who used words like “bombshells” and “smoking guns” and “explosive” and those who used words like “boring” and “flop”; and clear in the spin, as Democrats and Republicans sparred over demands to keep the whistle-blower’s identity secret.

And it was clear in the optics of many of the witnesses, who dressed as if girding themselves for the thinly disguised war that their testimony would likely spur.

They may not have been wearing actual armor, but the references were impossible to miss.

Does it matter?

It has escaped no one that while the purpose of public hearings is transparency, the side effect is theater. (Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, did keep calling them “a show trial,” after all.) And the audience was not simply the reality-television star whose administration is in the dock, or the body politic of the moment, but the body politic of the future. The images, and the words they frame, will also become part of history.

The actors in this drama are playing their parts and costuming themselves not just for the social media age, but also for posterity. How we present when we say something — our decoration, our camouflage — helps shape the way it is received.

There is a reason that both the bow tie of George P. Kent, the State Department official and witness, and the jacket of Representative Jim Jordan, ended up with their own Twitter accounts. (The bow tie actually has two.)

There is a reason that everyone became fixated on the seeming twinkle in Ambassador Gordon D. Sondland’s eye, the smile that seemed to play around his lips. They undermined the card-carrying-member-of-the-establishment messaging of his dark suit and subtly patterned Republican red tie, just as his testimony undermined the no-quid-pro-quo White House story line.

And of all the images, after the hours of questions and answers, grandstanding, interpreting and debating, it is not the many dark suits with red or blue ties and the little Congressional lapel pins that are the de facto Hill uniform that remain seared into memory. (Though they were consistently, consciously, modeled by Adam Schiff, the Intelligence Committee chairman, and Mr. Nunes, as well as by David Holmes, the political counselor in the American embassy in Kyiv, and David Hale, the under secretary of state for political affairs.)

It was, rather, an actual uniform: one that was formal in its rigor, unmistakable in its messaging, and representative of a different kind of national institution.

In many ways, Lt. Col. Alexander S. Vindman’s decision to appear in his Army dress uniform, medals arrayed on his breast, buttons agleam, was simply the most obvious statement of an implicit position, one shared by most witnesses, albeit expressed in various individual ways.

It was one that stood aside from partisan politics, that prized country above self, that understood testifying as a duty — but also understood the rules of combat.

Colonel Vindman said as much to Representative Chris Stewart, Republican of Utah, who first put the uniform on the table as a topic of conversation (followed quickly by President Trump, who told reporters, “I understand now he wears his uniform when he goes in.”).

In response to a not-so-subtle attempt by Mr. Stewart to portray the choice as a ploy, Colonel Vindman said, “I’m in uniform wearing my military rank” because “the attacks that I’ve had in the press and Twitter have marginalized me as a military officer.”

It was a symbol, just as Mr. Jordan’s decision to shrug off his suit jacket was a symbol of his willingness to be the Republican Party’s attack dog.

After all, as he said in the “House Freedom Caucus” podcast in March, apropos of his tendency to tote his jacket over an arm instead of wearing it: “You get in these hearings, and if I think the witness isn’t being square with me and it’s going to get kind of heated, I mean maybe it’s just me, I just don’t feel right with the jacket on.”

The imagery taps into the cinematography of stripping down before you get in the ring; of every boxing or schoolyard tussle movie ever made. Even when he wasn’t ceded the floor, Mr. Jordan was telegraphing readiness to rumble.

Not that Colonel Vindman and Mr. Jordan were the only participants dressing for a fight. They were simply the most obvious.

While Mr. Kent’s bow tie got most of the viewing attention during his appearance, his three-piece suit was equally notable. All five buttons of the vest were tightly buttoned, even though men’s wear rules tend to dictate that the bottom button be left undone, as it is in a suit jacket.

The vest formed a kind of extra protective layer for the witness, just as the silk scarf guarding the neck of Marie L. Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to Ukraine, demanded a closer look. Reportedly a traditional design from Hermès known as the Grand Uniforme, created in 1955, it featured a pattern of gold helmets and what looked surprisingly like swords.

Elaborate, almost Napoleonic hilts, with tassels and ropes and other elements of martial pageantry. As if there were any doubt that a woman who started her testimony paying homage to her fellow diplomats in “hardship” positions, a woman of calm, carefully considered answers, did not anticipate what weapons may be deployed.

There was more: Jennifer Williams chose to appear in a hunter green coatdress with a black belt cinching the waist, almost military in line, and Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, wore a gold chain around her neck, with a matching gold chain around one wrist. It was visible as she raised her left hand to gesture while she crisply handled questions about who knew what in the chain of command.

Coincidence? It’s possible.

But given the attention paid to the moment, now and forevermore, given how much care and preparation each witness put into his or her testimony, given the way the whole case may turn on the telling detail, it seems unlikely these details, no matter how minor they seem, would be overlooked. They tell their own part of the story.

Sahred From Source link Fashion and Style

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2OCWsTw via IFTTT

[trunewsofficial]

Is the Head of ISIS Dead?

Sunday, morning after teasing “big news” the night before, President Donald Trump announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in Syria. The White House announcement states the U.S. had “brought the leader of ISIS to justice.” It further states Baghdadi and “the cowards around him” were responsible for “horrific and depraved violence.” This included the deaths of the following Americans: • James Foley, • Steven Sotloff, • Peter Kassig, and • Kayla Mueller. The operation was named in honor of Mueller and was conducted by a task force of 70 to 80 personnel from the Army’s 3rd Battalion 175th Ranger Regiment, Delta Force, and other U.S. Special Forces teams. They were flown into the site, located 70 miles outside U.S. controlled territory aboard 8 helicopters, including two heavily armed MH-60L Direct Air Penetrator helicopters from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment. Speaking from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, the president said: “Last night, the United States brought the world’s number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization anywhere in the world. “The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my administration. U.S. Special Operations Forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid in northwestern Syria and accomplished their mission in grand style. The U.S. personnel were incredible. I got to watch much of it. “No personnel were lost in the operation, while a large number of Baghdadi’s fighters and companions were killed with him. He died after running into a dead-end tunnel, whimpering and crying and screaming all the way. The compound had been cleared by this time, with people either surrendering or being shot and killed. Eleven young children were moved out of the house and are uninjured. The only ones remaining were Baghdadi in the tunnel, and he had dragged three of his young children with him. They were led to certain death. “He reached the end of the tunnel, as our dogs chased him down. He ignited his vest, killing himself and the three children. His body was mutilated by the blast. The tunnel had caved in on it, in addition. But test results gave certain immediate and totally positive identification. It was him. “The thug who tried so hard to intimidate others spent his last moments in utter fear, in total panic and dread, terrified of the American forces bearing down on him. “We were in the compound for approximately two hours, and after the mission was accomplished, we took highly sensitive material and information from the raid, much having to do with ISIS origins, future plans, things that we very much want. “Baghdadi’s demise demonstrates America’s relentless pursuit of terrorist leaders and our commitment to the enduring and total defeat of ISIS and other terrorist organizations. “Our reach is very long. As you know, last month, we announced that we recently killed Hamza bin Laden, the very violent son of Osama bin Laden, who was saying very bad things about people, about our country, about the world. He was the heir apparent to al Qaeda. “Terrorists who oppress and murder innocent people should never sleep soundly, knowing that we will completely destroy them. These savage monsters will not escape their fate, and they will not escape the final judgment of God. “Baghdadi has been on the run for many years, long before I took office. But at my direction, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States, we obliterated his caliphate, 100 percent, in March of this year. “Today’s events are another reminder that we will continue to pursue the remaining ISIS terrorists to their brutal end. That also goes for other terrorist organizations. They are, likewise, in our sights. “Baghdadi and the losers who worked for him — and losers they are — they had no idea what they were getting into. In some cases, they were very frightened puppies. In other cases, they were hardcore killers. But they killed many, many people. Their murder of innocent Americans — James Foley, Steven Sotloff, Peter Kassig, and Kayla Mueller — were especially heinous. “The shocking publicized murder of a Jordanian pilot, a wonderful young man — spoke to the King of Jordan; they all knew him, they all loved him — he was burned alive in a cage for all to see. And the execution of Christians in Libya and Egypt, as well as the genocidal mass murder of Yazidis, rank ISIS among the most depraved organizations in the history of our world. “The forced religious conversions, the orange suits prior to so many beheadings, all of which were openly displayed for the world to see, this was all that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — this is what he wanted. This is what he was proud of. He was a sick and depraved man, and now he’s gone. Baghdadi was vicious and violent, and he died in a vicious and violent way, as a coward, running and crying. “This raid was impeccable, and could only have taken place with the acknowledgement and help of certain other nations and people. “I want to thank the nations of Russia, Turkey, Syria, and Iraq. And I also want to thank the Syrian Kurds for certain support they were able to give us. This was a very, very dangerous mission. “Thank you, as well, to the great intelligence professionals who helped make this very successful journey possible. “I want to thank the soldiers, and sailors, airmen, and Marines involved in last tonight’s operation. You are the very best there is anywhere in the world. No matter where you go, there is nobody even close. “I want to thank General Mark Milley and our Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I also want to thank our professionals who work in other agencies of the United States government and were critical to the mission’s unbelievable success. “Last night was a great night for the United States and for the world. A brutal killer, one who has caused so much hardship and death, has violently been eliminated. He will never again harm another innocent man, woman, or child. He died like a dog. He died like a coward. The world is now a much safer place.” During a brief press conference that followed the initial statement, President Trump admitted he didn’t share his plans for the raid with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or with other members of Congress’ so-called “Gang of Eight”: “We’ve notified some. Others are being notified now, as I speak. We were going to notify them last night but we decided not to do that because Washington leaks like I’ve never seen before. There’s nothing — there’s no country in the world that leaks like we do. And Washington is a leaking machine. And I told my people we will not notify them until the — our great people are out. Not just in, but out. I don’t want to have them greeted with firepower like you wouldn’t believe.” The president was asked again about that statement today, during a press spray before he left for a speech in Chicago. He clarified that he doesn’t trust House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff: “Well, I guess the only thing is they were talking about why didn’t I give the information to Adam Schiff and his committee. And the answer is: Because I think Adam Schiff is the biggest leaker in Washington. You know that. I know that. We all know that. I’ve watched Adam Schiff leak. He’s a corrupt politician. He’s a leaker like nobody has ever seen before.” The identity of Baghdadi, who was allegedly “mutilated” in his suicide vest detonation, has been based on the DNA testing using a small reader TruNews has reported on previously. According to The Daily Beast: “In 2015, SOCOM officials revealed that commandos had begun using two new types of a small and portable DNA lab: the RapidHIT 200 from California-based IntegenX and the DNAscan from NetBIO in Massachusetts. “The two DNA-readers work like the bigger, traditional laboratory-based systems do, but with very small, precisely measured quantities of chemicals and a wireless connection to a DNA database. Both new readers weigh around 100 pounds and are the size of a copy machine, making them small enough to fit on a helicopter. “They both require just one, moderately trained operator. Use a cotton swab to soak up some spit or blood, slip the swab into a plastic sleeve, insert the sleeve into the machine and press a few buttons. Less than two hours later, the machine spits out a strip of paper listing any matches.” That same report claims the U.S. obtained Baghdadi’s DNA sample, provided voluntarily by one of his daughters. Russia has thrown a monkey wrench in the Trump administration’s party plans. Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov stated: “The Russian Defense Ministry has no reliable information about US servicemen conduction an operation to 'yet another' elimination of the former Daesh leader Abu Bark al-Baghdadi in the Turkish-controlled part of the Idlib de-escalation zone. “No airstrikes performed by U.S. aircraft or aircraft belonging to the so-called ‘international coalition’ were detected on Saturday or during the following days. Since the moment of the final ISIS defeat at the hands of the Syrian government army supported by Russian Aerospace Forces in early 2018, yet another ‘death’ of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi does not have any strategic importance regarding the situation in Syria or the actions of the remaining terrorists in Idlib.” Baghdadi has been rumored to have died numerous times in the past, only to re-emerge a short time later. That’s one reason why Russia has expressed a healthy dose of skepticism at the latest report. But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did tell reporters today: “If this information about al-Baghdadi’s death is indeed confirmed, in general we could speak about the U.S. president’s serious contribution to the fight against international terrorism.” Peskov corrected the Defense Ministry’s earlier statement, confirming that U.S. aircraft and drones were seen in the area where the operation was alleged to have taken place. The United Nations also said it could not verify reports of Baghdadi’s death. A spokesman said that while the world body trusts the reliability of “various sources of information that are speaking up,” it is waiting for confirmation from sources on the ground. Just hours after Baghdadi was killed, ISIS announced its new leader. Abdullah Qardash, a former officer in Saddam Hussein’s military, has been described as “cruel but popular.” He was jailed by American soldiers in 2003 alongside his former boss. During the ISIS caliphate, he was known as “The Professor” and was seen by many as an astute lawmaker and policymaker. Sunday, another U.S.-led assault resulted in the death of ISIS spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir in northern Syria. Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces took part in the raid. (Photo Credit: ISIS) source https://trunews.com/stream/is-the-head-of-isis-dead

[opedguy]

Where’s the Whistleblower?

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Oct. 24, 2019.--Taking depositions behind closed doors, 59-year-old House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schif (D-Calif.) refuses to divulge the name of the so-called “whistleblower.” One month ago Sept. 24, Schiff announced the presence of an intel official who came forward to blow the whistle on 73-year-old President Donald Trump for trying to extort 40-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his 50-year-old son, Hunter.  Schiff claims that the whistleblower corroborates other testimony that Trump withheld military aid until Zelensky delivered dirt on the Bidens. Trump released a transcript of the July 25 phone call showing that he did, indeed, ask the Ukrainian president for information on the Bidens but more specifically on Hunter.  Trump was trying to find out how Hunter landed a lucrative job on Burisma Holding’s board.

            Democrats have interviewed numerous cooperating witnesses claiming Trump withheld millions in military aid in exchange for information on Hunter.  Trump wanted to know how Hunter made over $100,000 a month on Burima’s board while his father Joe, was former President Barack Obama’s Vice President. Democrats insist that Trump tried to sabotage Joe’s campaign for president, violating federal election laws, committing an impeachable offense.  But as Democrats have conceded, Trump was more interested in Hunter Biden, than Joe.  Hunter admitted Oct. 15 on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that it was probably not the best decision to work for Burisma’s board, even though it was “perfectly legal.”  Joe was commissioned by Obama in 2014 to investigate Ukrainian corruption when he landed Hunter the lucrative job.  Schiff claims the “whistleblower’s” identity must remain confidential

                  Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, including, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tx.), stormed the deposition room to make a point about the backroom deal.  All wanted to know the identity of the “anonymous intelligence community employee whose complaint initiated the so-called impeachment inquiry,” said the three GOP Congressmen, concerned that the whistleblower held a undeniable anti-Trump bias.  GOP members of the House intelligence, Oversight and Judiciary Committees want to cross-examine the whistleblower, something that hasn’t happened yet. Schiff’s running the intel committee like a grand jury, collecting testimony and depositions to back up his impeachment claim.  Schiff hasn’t revealed the whistleblower’s name, claiming he’s protecting his-or-her’s identity, something questioned by GOP lawmakers.

            GOP lawmakers believe Schiff was involved in drafting the whistleblower complaint, may have even written it himself.  While the GOP has no proof, what they do know is that Schiff lied about having no contact with the whistleblower back in July, claiming he only read the complain Sept. 25.  Schiff admitted he had contact with the whistleblower back in July. “As the so-called impeachment inquiry gathers information that contradicts the employee’s allegations, we ask that you arrange for the Committees to receive public testimony from the employee and all individuals he or she relied upon in formulating the complaint,” asked McCaul.  When Schiff changed his tune admitting he mistakenly said he had no contact with the whistleblower in July, he raised unavoidable doubts about the allegations. Some GOP members think Schiff helped concoct the whistleblower complaint.

            Speaking for the Senate Intelligence Committee, 63-year-old Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) wants the whistleblower to testify before his committee. Attempts to contact the whistleblower or his attorney Mark Zaid have failed according to Burr.  Burr wants to submit the whistleblowr and key witnesses to cross-examination, asking questions so far not answered.  “They [the House Intelligence Committee] haven’t been specific as to their reason,” Zaid said. Burr wants to show “how to put into context the whisleblower’s claim.” Burr wants to know how much help the whistleblower got from Schiff writing the complaint.  Democrats seem content to build their impeachment case cherry picking witnesses for testimony, without allowing Republicans to cross-examine them.  As most legal experts know, even the best witnesses fall apart on cross-examination, something integral to criminal trials.

            House Democrats can’t have it both ways: Claim the closed-door hearing are comparable to a grand jury, while, at the same time, refusing to open up the doors for the public to see.  Burr said his committee is focused on defining what constitutes a whistleblower, given that any spy can hide behind the whistleblower statute.  Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden stole government-classified documents in 2013, fleeing to Hong Kong, then Moscow to escape Justice Department charges for violating the 1913 Espionage Act.  Burr wants to know the whether the whistleblower followed the rules, including the 14-day mandated process.  “We are talking to the individuals that are individuals involved in the process,” Burr said, including Intel Community Inspector General [IG] Michael Atkinson, who hinted the whistleblower could be partisan.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.  

[bountyofbeads]

SCENES FROM A MELTDOWN

Trump Is Going to Burn Down Everything and Everyone, and Republicans, That Means You

By Rick Wilson |Updated 10.03.19  5:30AM ET Published 10.02.19 8:50PM ET | Daily Beast | Posted October 3, 2019 9:20 PM ET |

Donald Trump’s Oval Office performance-art masterpiece Wednesday was one for the ages, a pity-party, stompy-foot screech session by President Snowflake von Pissypants, the most put-upon man ever to hold the highest office in the land. If you watched his nationally televised press conference, Trump’s shrill, eye-popping hissy fit scanned like the end of a long, coke-fueled bender where the itchy, frenzied paranoia is dry-humping the last ragged gasps of the earlier party-powder fun.

Between calling Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) a panoply of Trumpish insults (and for the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to be held for treason), engaging in his usual hatred of the press, talking about Mike Pompeo’s intimate undergarments, and quite obviously scaring the shit out of Finnish President Sauli Niinisto—who looked like he was the very unwilling star of an ISIS hostage video—Trump spent the day rapidly decompensating, and it was a hideous spectacle. All the Maximum Leader pronunciamentos won’t change the reality that Donald John Trump, 45th president of the United States, has lost his shit.

In private, Republicans are in the deepest despair of the Trump era. They’ve got that hang-dog, dick-in-the-dirt fatalism of men destined to die in a meaningless battle in a pointless war. They’ve abandoned all pretense of recapturing the House, their political fortunes in the states are crashing and burning, and the stock-market bubble they kept up as a shield against the downsides of Trump—“but muh 401(k)!”—is popping.

You want to know why so few Republicans have held town-hall meetings since early 2017? Because Trump is the cancer they deny is consuming them from the inside out. They see the political grave markers of 42 of their GOP House colleagues—and several hundred down-ballot Republicans—booted from office since 2017 and know that outside of the deepest red enclaves, they’re salesmen for a brand no one is buying.

I have some bad news, Republicans. It never gets better. There is no daylight at the end of this tunnel. Trump is a suicide bomber, and you’ve strapped yourselves to him so tightly that when he explodes, you’re going out to meet the 72 porn stars of the Trumpian afterlife with him. (Spoiler alert: They all look like Ivanka.)

Even now, as Trump roars and rants, they’re so genuinely terrified that he’ll unleash his mob on them—“Say hello to my leetle tweets!”—that they are hiding so deep in the tall grass, they’re indistinguishable from the landscape. Many are desperately looking for long CODEL trips to Bouvet Island or taking vows of social-media abstinence. 

To carry the coke-bender analogy one step further—yes, likely too far, but I’m on a roll—the people along for the ride with this president keep pretending they can stop any time, that they’re just recreational Trump users, and that it’s just harmless fun... at least in public.

 You would think some survival instinct would kick in, but no.

Trump is going to burn down everyone and everything, hoping that he can once again escape sanction and accountability, though both the number and severity of his blossoming array of problems don’t seem amenable to the usual hold-my-beer tweetstorms that have worked so well for him so many times.

The game is unraveling fast, and every day makes it harder for his Ukraine Clown Posse to escape from a finally energized Congress. Part of it, of course, is that the players in Trumpworld seem to keep committing crimes on the daily, which does, as they say in the legal world, complicate things.

Trump rubbed congressional noses in shit for three years, but the oversight committees are finally off the mat and fighting. Trump is neither able nor prepared to fight off opponents who respond to insults with subpoenas and to shit-talking with investigations. If you work in the administration, lawyer up, because the fun is over.

Sure, the Trumphadi stalwarts who have been trotting out to Fox since the Ukraine story broke continue to gamely spin lurid and improbable tales of made-up perfidy by Joe Biden, the Deep State, the Bavarian Illuminati, and whoever else pops up on the conspiracy radar that day. There’s trouble in Rupert’s Paradise, though, as a small but vocal number of Fox hosts are willing to call—to use an Officially Recognized Presidential Phrase—bullshit on Mad Don’s lunatic impeachment defense.

Trump’s manic performance Wednesday was distressing to watch, even for his supporters. Far from being the master of transgressive politics, his anger and frustration are evident and ugly. He’s lost control of the story and of himself. Trump can’t keep the process running on his terms and his timetable, and it’s driving him deeper into what I call the Eccentric Dictator Phase of his Presidency.

Few people on either side of the political divide understand that this is the new normal. We’re in for months of a slow-boil constitutional crisis as Team Trump mounts a game defense of an indefensible president and his indefensible acts by claiming unlimited executive powers and total immunity from the law and justice. We’re in for a reshaping of the political battlefield of 2020 from the top down.

It’s going to get very, very ugly... uglier than a spiked fence with a snake moat covered in Trump-brand logos.

This week, a live rat was spotted scurrying around the White House Press Room, and it reminded me of a quote from Winston Churchill, who once said, “Beware of driving men to desperation. Even a cornered rat is dangerous.” The Press Room rat briefly captured the media’s attention, but the pressure and focus on the bigger, more desperate, and more dangerous rat in the Oval Office is just beginning.

[lancecarr]

Cutting Music with John Wick 3 Editor ֠Evan Schiff

We recently had a chance to talk with talented editor Evan Schiff. His most recent editing credits include John Wick: Chapter 2 and John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum.

In this interview, he shares his thoughts, tips and workflows for editing the music for John Wick 3.

Below, you can see his full editing timelines for the film:

John Wick 3 Timeline – Full Assembly

John Wick 3 Timeline – Full Assembly (click for full-size)

John Wick 3 Timeline – Locked Edit

John Wick 3 Timeline – Locked Edit (click for full-size)

Ok, now that we’ve geeked out a bit at those insanely intricate (and nicely-organized) timelines, let’s see what Evan has to say about his music editing process!

When Should You Add Your Music?

FEP: At what stage of the cutting process do you like to add your music and why?

Evan Schiff: Unless it’s a montage where I want to actually assemble the first cut to music, I usually wait until I have the assembly done before working on temp score.

Part of this is creative, because I don’t always know how a scene will feel and what sort of music I’ll want there until I can watch a large chunk of what comes before it. Part of it is also just time management, because when I’m in the middle of shooting I’m just trying to stay caught up with camera, so even if there is time left in the day after cutting the previous day’s dailies together, I’m often pretty spent and would rather make sure I’m ready to tackle tomorrow’s dailies instead of diving into something like temp score.

Editor – Evan Schiff

Where Should You Put The Music?

FEP: A big question we hear from editors is “where does the music go?”. A simple question with a complex answer. What are some considerations you keep in mind for determining where to add music and where to keep things dry?

ES: This is another reason why it can be best to wait until you have the movie strung together before diving too much into score. Only when you can watch it in a run can you really determine what’s working and what isn’t, and what needs score vs. what might be best to play dry.

A scene that you thought would be really strong and not need music might end up being much weaker and be desperately in need of musical help, whereas another scene you were sure would be scored might play best dry.

You don’t really know until you see the whole cut and track how you’re feeling in any given scene. It’s really a case by case basis, and it can happen that you end up adding too much music to begin with and then need to pull back.

One thing I try to be conscious of is not letting the music lead the emotion or the action of a scene. I want what the music is telling me to be in sync with, or sometimes a little behind what’s happening on screen, so you don’t find yourself in a situation where the music is telling you something important has happened a second or two before it actually does.

Also, if you’re not sure if a scene needs music, you can always throw a cue or two in there to see if you think it helps, and then if it doesn’t it’s a simple keystroke to take it back out.

How Do You Bring The Music On?

FEP: On a more micro level, what are some tips for bringing your music on in a seamless way?

ES: Bringing music in is also a case-by-case thing. Sometimes you have that heroic line with the dolly zoom-in and it just makes sense to have your big opening chord slam on right afterwards, and other times you want the music to slide right in there without anyone really noticing.

We struggled a little on John Wick 3 with whether and how much music to have during the Morocco action scene where John, Sofia, and her two dogs are escaping from Berrada’s compound. It was dry for a long time, then we tried scoring it all the way through starting after Halle says, “He shot my dog” and Keanu replies, “I get it.”

That didn’t really work because the scene is so long that you become aware of how long the music has been playing and then it starts hurting you more than it helps.

We ended up with a more on-off approach, where we still have music that comes in after, “I get it,” but then it dies out at the end of the first action beat before sliding back in a minute or two later in time for Halle’s big 20 second shot of uncut action.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (2019)

How Do You Work With Stems?

FEP: You mentioned that you and your team worked with stems from the previous John Wick scores to temp-in music. Stems are great but they can get a bit unruly on the timeline. Any suggestions for other editors who might be intimidated by working with them?

ES: I had a music editor, Richard Henderson, who was working in ProTools with all of our stems, so I rarely worked with them directly.

On John Wick 2 I had stems for all the songs during Gianna’s entrance down the red carpet in Rome, and I did work with those a little bit before Richard was on-board to get the vocals coming in and out where I needed them to.

If I can get away with working with a small subset of stems, I’ll do that, such as having a track for vocals and a track for instrumentals, without having the individual instrumentals broken out. That will often satisfy my needs just to get a little bit of separation without needing to break it down to every individual stem.

I don’t really want a dozen music stems in my timeline, so if it gets to that point and I don’t have a music editor available to handle it, I’d cut the stems in a separate sequence and make myself a mixdown for my main reels.

Timeline Example – Music Editing with Stems

FEP: Do you have any tips for mixing your music with dialogue and SFX? Perhaps some general rules on your relative levels and maybe a favorite filter or effect to help with maintaining dialogue clarity?

ES: I have a chain of Avid Track Effects (formerly called RTAS) that I use on all my dialogue tracks for normalization and clarity. Sound mixer extraordinaire Will Files helped me set them up, and they are now available as an Avid bin download from my website. Those track effects are 3 separate effects that get chained together, although you can now do the same thing with one Channel Strip plugin if you want to copy the settings over.

In terms of mixing, it’s not often that I find myself working in a room that is well suited to mixing. I usually have to fix the speaker placement, and even then I’m often sitting closer than I should be just because of the shape of the room and how it has to be set up in order to also have acouch and TV for the director. So I insist on at least a 3.1 (L,C,R,Lfe) setup, I calibrate it to the best of my ability, and then rely on my meters a lot to bring the dialogue in line.

Once I have a dialogue baseline then I find it easier to mix SFX and music in to levels that sound appropriate and proportional. And I try not to have anything peak the meters, although I know a little peaking is actually ok. It’s not the most scientific system, I know, but it seems to work well enough that we don’t blow speakers out when we take our Avid mix to a real theater, and when we upload cuts to PIX we don’t generally get complaints about sound quality.

If we are taking our mix to a real theater and are forced to play back the Avid mix without having a professional mixer work on it first, then I’ll ask for either a couple of days in a small mix stage with an Avid so I can do a once-over and make sure all the dialogue is clear and nothing sounds out of whack, or at the very least I’ll want to go to the theater a week in advance with our current mix just to see how it sounds, and then I can make some global adjustments based off of what I hear before we have to play it for an audience.

Evan’s tips for quick and easy dialogue cleanup with RTAS (now called Avid Track Effects)

Bonus Question

FEP: What is something you’ve learned over the years that you wish you knew when you started editing?

ES: I guess I would say that over the years I have learned to be much more protective of my personal time and that of my team. Like many people in their 20’s just entering the industry, I was more than happy to sacrifice personal time for the job without ever questioning whether all that sacrifice was actually necessary. Every project comes with times when you stay late working through weekends and holidays to make a deadline, and we all know that and are prepared for it, but those times should be the exception and not the norm. These days I want to know with absolute certainty that the overtime is necessary before I do it or ask anyone else to, because often you find out that whatever it is can wait until Monday.

Wrap Up

We hope you enjoyed this interview with Evan!

Music is such an important ingredient in just about every edit and learning the techniques to use it masterfully is definitely time well-spent.

Have a great week, everyone!

  https://www.filmeditingpro.com/cutting-music-with-john-wick-3-editor-evan-schiff/

[tripstations]

Things to Do on Sylt, Germany

Sylt is a popular North Sea island for the rich and famous!

What is so special about it?

It starts with getting there. It’s called an island, though there is a connection with a dam to the mainland. This dam would be easily big enough to drive on it, but no, the only way to get to Sylt is via train! If you don’t want to miss your car, that’s no problem as you can just hop with your car onto the train, enjoy a 35 minute ride (around € 95 return), while you stay seated and there you are…

Westerland, Sylt

My recommendation, get somewhere else. Westerland is the biggest town on Sylt, but there are nicer ones with more atmosphere, like Kampen, Westerheide, Rantum or Hörnum. There you find the typical houses with thatched roofs.

We stayed in Hof Galerie Hotel in Morsum, which I can highly recommend. It’s a very cozy hotel with only 20 rooms, all decorated different, a yummy breakfast and that personal atmosphere I love so much. They also made it onto “Epic Accommodation List” of Booking.com.

  Things to do on Sylt:

Beach Walks:

– There are plenty of wonderful beaches and I recommend the one in Hörnum, which is perfect if you love loooong beach walks! Park and start your tour at the harbor in the centre. Take the beach right next to the harbor and walk South. You’ll pass the surfschool & restaurant Südkap. Have a drink or snack here, take some photos of the lighthouse next door, which you also can visit (more info beneath). Then head further along the beach until you get to the end. Now you are the most Southern point of Sylt! Turn right and keep walking along the beach until you pass the wave-breakers. There you will find the beach restaurant Kap Horn. Head there, have lunch or a drink. From there you can walk back into town, passing nice little houses lying in the dunes.

– The beach at Sansibar is also very beautiful. The Sansibar is VERY popular and pretty much everyone who visits Sylt, will head there at least once. I did as well and won’t head there again. They know how to market themselves very smartly, but if you  stay objective, it’s nothing special. It’s a nice overcrowded beach restaurant with a huge wine list. They are very kid friendly and have a nice playground as well. Next time I would visit the beach restaurant Seepferdchen, which is just a bit further North, but didn’t seemed overrun.

– Ellenbogen is a nature sanctuary, which you’ll find all the way to the North. You have to pay € 5 to enter it and it’s worth it. The landscape is a bit wild with dunes and grassing sheep in between.  Also here you’ll find a nice little lighthouse. You could park your car at Wassersport Sylt, a surfing school, and then walk along the beach until you reach the end, from where you can see Denmark! Then make a turn and walk the beach on the other side back again.

  Restaurants:

You’ll find excellent restaurants on Sylt. There are several high end restaurants. We visited Sylt in December and they were unfortunately closed and we were “only” able to eat at their “bistros”. Seriously, even those had some VERY good meals, which I can highly recommend:

– Restaurant Bodendorf’s in the Landhaus Stricker You’ll find Bodendorf a bit outside of Westerland in a residential area of Tinnum. So it might not be directly on your route, but it should be. The restaurant is very cozy, the staff friendly and the chef will make sure that you get a very delicious dish with fresh products. Next door is the luxurious hotel, worth checking out! https://ift.tt/2scSlRm

– Restaurant Strönholt in Hörnum You have a wonderful view over the harbor of Hörnum and can even see all the way to the island Föhr. The staff was very friendly, the restaurant was spaceous and cozy and the food was excellent. www.stroenholt.de

– Restaurant Alte Schule This is where you find a more basic, but very delicious meals. Also here the staff was very friendly and the old school provides a cozy atmosphere. Kids get some toys, so that waiting time is stress free. www.alteschule-sylt.de

– Alte Backstube The perfect place to have some coffee or hot chocolate and eat some waffles! Mobile phones are not allowed, which adds to the cozy atmosphere inside. Take a seat on a big couch and feel home. www.altebackstube.de

  Things to see:

– Naturgewalten Sylt Find out more about Sylt and how the island changed over the time. This experience center is for young and old and you should really plan to visit it. Click the button and see a demonstrations how waves are born and hit the beach, all in a huge water tank. You can decide yourself how much wind the waves affects. Or would you like to touch a tornado? Do it here! There is plenty to discover, so take one of the headphones and walk around. Find out in several languages about the flora and fauna on Sylt and how the island changed over the years. A must see when on Sylt! https://ift.tt/1qAVEi1

– Lighthouse in Hörnum The lighthouse is a popular landmark and often photographed. It’s situated next to the city on a little hill. Between 1914 and 1933 the lighthouse was as well a school. There was one single room for the pupils. I bet they enjoyed the view more than the lessons. You can join a tour and climb all the way up. The tours are Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9 am, 10 am, 11 am and 12 pm. But be quick, as only 10 people are allowed to join. You get a ticket for € 5 (kids € 2,50) at the Hörnum tourism office. A reservation can be made via email info@hoernum.de or phone (+49 (0)4651 96260).

– Watching seals and whales just walk along the beach and keep an eye on the water. We’ve seen a small family of porpoise whales at the beach of the restaurants Seepferdchen and Sansibar. The chances are higher to see gray seals and the common seals. There are several areas around the island where they like to be. There are also boat tours to sandbanks to watch seals. You’ll get those tours in the harbor of Hörnum or List with the company Adler Schiffe.

– Sylt Aquarium This could be worth a visit if you should have rainy weather. I was lucky and had no rain in December, so I enjoyed my time mainly outside. I can’t recommend it directly, as I haven’t seen it. If you have been there, please leave a comment and let me know how it was. www.syltaquarium.de

  I’m not sure if I would head to Sylt in the main season. I guess it will be overrun with people. Something I don’t like when being on an island where you don’t have many possibilities to escape. But outside of the main season, Sylt is worth a trip! It’s a beautiful island with a good mix of wild landscape, awesome food and many things to do.

There are plenty of hotels, apartments, villas and even three youth hostels on the island. Even if it’s known as a posh island, there is something for every budget. If you don’t want to drive there and hop over by train, Sylt also got an airport (GWT).

Have a great time and enjoy Island Life!

  Note: this post is part of the #BookingEpic campaign, a collaboration between iambassador and Booking.com to initiate discussions on and highlight exceptional accommodations. The views expressed above, including the chosen hotel, are mine and mine only.

The post Things to Do on Sylt, Germany appeared first on Tripstations.

from Tripstations https://ift.tt/30Gh7KY via IFTTT

[thewebofslime]

ARCHIVE ED MORRISSEY SHOW NEWSLETTERS × About that Podesta ‘underage sex-slaves’ Tweet from Andrew BreitbartSHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE ON TWITTER About That Podesta ‘Underage Sex-Slaves’ Tweet From Andrew Breitbart LARRY O'CONNORPosted at 10:01 am on December 5, 2016 SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER 0 Nefarious operators on the Internet (as well as some innocent, misinformed individuals) have been freaking out over a Tweet from the late Andrew Breitbart connecting John Podesta to a “underage sex slave” operation. SEE ALSO: Captain Marvel isn’t awful but it’s not top-tier Marvel either (some spoilers) TRENDING: Justice Alito shatters glass before Congressional testimony The reason this Tweet is suddenly getting responded to and re-tweeted thousands of times is because a recent conspiracy theory making the rounds about Podesta and the Clintons accuses the Democrat power-players of running an underage sex operation out of a pizza joint in DC. It’s the kind of story you’d find on the cover of Weekly World News (think “Bat Boy” and “Aliens visit Ross Perot before election” kind of stories) and other supermarket tabloids before the advent of the Internet. There are tons of websites who make a lot of money doing pretty odious things. One of those odious things is to purposely pass along fake stories to suck people in and make them think that even though a story seems completely unbelievable on its face, it’s true because it appears to have a legitimate news organization behind it. I know because once I was faked out for about 45 minutes by a story that I discovered on the Boston Globe’s website. (It had apparently originated on a satirical site) Another odious thing many websites do is to make money speculating about Andrew Breitbart. Some of them pass false conspiracy theories about Andrew being murdered by government operatives. Others spend thousands and thousands of words speculating about what Andrew would have thought, said or done about something happening in the current news cycle. The last thing I want to do is be that guy who tells you what Andrew thought or meant back when he was alive because everyone who interacted with him at the time has their own personal experience and not one of them is the whole truth. However, because of the confusion over this Tweet, I think some context and an explanation is called for. And, for some reason, Breitbart News has not stepped up and delivered it themselves. (I searched, if they have, I will update this column post haste.) Here is the text of Andrew’s Tweet, again: How prog-guru John Podesta isn’t household name as world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs escapes me. It’s a classic Andrew Tweet. His abbreviations, his invention of words (“cover-upperer”) tells me that this was probably Andrew’s work. I never really knew him to allow anyone to Tweet on his behalf but I suppose it’s possible at some point he did so without my knowledge. So, for our discussion let’s stipulate that it was Andrew who sent this out. What is he talking about? Anyone who knew Andrew well and worked closely in his sphere and knew what he would talk and Tweet about with regard to “underage sex slave(s)” and John Podesta, knows exactly what he is referring to: ACORN If you don’t remember James O’Keefe, Hanna Giles and the ACORN story that broke on Andrew’s Big Government website in 2009, here’s a quick description via Wikipedia,which has a lot of bogus takes on the story, but this brief description is correct: In July and August 2009, Giles and O’Keefe visited ACORN offices in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Brooklyn, San Bernardino, San Diego, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Miami. Giles dressed as a prostitute, while O’Keefe wore white khakis with a blue dress shirt and/or tie and claimed to be her boyfriend. Giles and O’Keefe recorded the encounters using hidden cameras and pretended to be seeking advice on how to run an illegal business that included the use of underage girls in the sex trade. So the ACORN story that Andrew was intimately involved with, helped define his brand, and catapulted him into the media spotlight was a story about an underage sex slave operation. OK? So how does Podesta factor in as a “cover-upperer” of the ACORN sex slave story? Here’s the explanation from liberal Think Progress in 2009, a site overseen by John Podesta at that time as he was the head of Center for American Progress (CAP): In response to recently released videos of ACORN staff engaging in inappropriate and potentially unlawful activity, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that “the conduct you see on those tapes is completely unacceptable.” ACORN President Bertha Lewis released a statement explaining that the advocacy group for low- and moderate-income Americans will now conduct a “thorough review” of the organizations’ operation. CAP President John Podesta, who also sits on ACORN’s Advisory Council, said, “Accountability starts with knowing all the facts. ACORN, which is doing important work in advocating for lower-income Americans all across this country, is taking an important step today by acknowledging its need for reform and demonstrating its desire to take corrective action.” Yeah, talk about the fox watching the hen house. To prove ACORN did nothing wrong in the O’Keefe/Giles videos presented on Andrew’s website they asked Podesta, a partisan hack who sat on their own Advisory Council to investigate them. Here was Andrew’s take at the time in his Washington Times column: The next day, Clinton Chief of Staff John Podesta, the Democratic Party’s top fix-it guy with control over much of the left’s well-funded vast attack machinery (think George Soros, the Tides Foundation, et al.), was among a small advisory group placed in charge of investigating the matter. With the mainstream media continuing to ignore the evidence on the tapes, Mr. Podesta is now clearly in charge of feeding them information about his well-structured investigation into the investigators. The ACORN internal probe is a “war room” aimed at destroying the messengers and is not meant to clean up major corruption. Since Mr. Podesta was appointed to investigate ACORN, the only thing investigated has been the investigators, Mr. O’Keefe, Ms. Giles and the publisher of the journalism behind it, yours truly. Of course, his conclusions were that ACORN did nothing wrong and all the fault in the story lay at the feet of Breitbart. A conclusion picked up by Media Matters for America, a left-wing activist site that made it their goal in life to destroy Andrew Breitbart. MMfA turned the ACORN story into a cudgel with which to beat Andrew over the head, and did so hundreds of times, in an attempt to discredit anything he did. When the Anthony Weiner story first broke it was MMfA who pointed to ACORN as a reason why he should not be trusted and they pointed to the Podesta report as “evidence” for that theory. MMfA, not coincidentally, began their operations in office space borrowed from… wait for it…. John Podesta. So, who is John Podesta? He runs the Center for American Progress think tank, which in 2004 helped launch Media Matters for America, the well-funded watchdog outfit run by ex-conservative journalist David Brock, which feeds the media reams of anti-conservative documents that attempt to diminish the credibility of alternative media outlets. Here are Andrew’s words, again, from 2009: Both the CAP and Media Matters sites are focusing their attention on Ms. Giles, Mr. O’Keefe and me. Does anyone really think Mr. Podesta is investigating ACORN, when his well-greased external machinery is so blatantly investigating us? So get into Andrew’s head for a moment circa Feb, 2011. His entire sphere of reference at that time with regard to Podesta was in the context of his role creating left wing activist groups like CAP, ACORN and MMfA. Podesta had just joined the Obama Administration. Andrew was tweaking the media for giving Podesta a pass and celebrating the man who Andrew saw as his bete noir. And one of the most outrageous things Podesta did to Andrew, that the media never scrutinized, was his white-washing of the ACORN scandal. In other words, from Andrew’s perspective, Podesta was a “world class underage sex slave op cover-upperer defending unspeakable dregs .” That’s what the Tweet means, and anyone who tells you otherwise is up to something. TAGS:ACORNANDREW BREITBARTJOHN PODESTASEX SLAVETWEETTWITTERUNDERAGE SEX SHARE ON FACEBOOK SHARE ON TWITTER RELATED STORIES Eric Holder: Maybe we should pack the Supreme Court with two new Democratic justices in 2021 ALLAHPUNDIT Mar 09, 2019 2:31 PM Here we go. Chicago prosecutors are overplaying their hand on Jussie Smollett JAZZ SHAW Mar 09, 2019 1:01 PM It’s a made for TV movie being shot before our eyes TRENDING ON TOWNHALL MEDIA Washington Attorney General Issues Warning To Gun Stores Bearingarms Holy Moly: Trump Triggered The MSM (Again). This Time It Involves Bibles. Townhall Bulwark editor conserves conservatism further by posting selfie of Dan Bongino and … Cindy Yang Twitchy Adam Schiff Proven a Liar As the Bruce Ohr Transcript Is Released Redstate RECENT STORIES Harris: The economy is ‘great’? What about all those working multiple jobs to keep up? ED MORRISSEY Mar 09, 2019 11:31 AM “How are you measuring that?” By, er, measuring that. H.R.1 passes in the House, “For The People Act” DOA in the Senate KAREN TOWNSEND Mar 09, 2019 10:01 AM Long game All but 6 Democrats oppose resolution against illegal aliens voting JAZZ SHAW Mar 09, 2019 8:31 AM Yes. By all means, run on that in 2020 Zachary Greenberg has a history of university jobs and trouble with roommates JOHN SEXTON Mar 08, 2019 8:45 PM “…the subject of a restraining order in 2017 that was requested by one of his roommates” Question for Dem 2020 candidate John Hickenlooper: Are you now, or have you ever been, a capitalist? ALLAHPUNDIT Mar 08, 2019 8:01 PM “I don’t look at myself with a label.” Rotten Tomatoes purged 50,000 negative Captain Marvel ‘reviews’ JOHN SEXTON Mar 08, 2019 7:21 PM “As of 8 a.m., the film had a 33 percent audience score from more than 58,000 reviews.” Ilhan Omar’s newest target: Barack Obama? ALLAHPUNDIT Mar 08, 2019 6:41 PM “We want to recognize the actual policies that are behind the pretty face and the smile.” Wow: Chicago grand jury indicts Jussie Smollett on 16 felony counts of disorderly conduct ALLAHPUNDIT Mar 08, 2019 6:01 PM Bye. TRENDING Justice Alito shatters glass before Congressional testimony Captain Marvel isn't awful but it's not top-tier Marvel either (some spoilers) Maryland Democratic leader calls for doxxing of gun rights activist "terrorists" Zeldin to Dems: Do you really want to know why I'm voting against your "spineless and disgusting" resolution? Eric Holder: Maybe we should pack the Supreme Court with two new Democratic justices in 2021 Chelsea Manning jailed for "not believing in the Grand Jury system" Where have all the men without college degrees gone? More than half of Californians say they plan to leave as state leads U.S. in outmigration Harris: The economy is 'great'? What about all those working multiple jobs to keep up? The people who eat the same meal every day Maryland Democratic leader calls for doxxing of gun rights activist “terrorists” JAZZ SHAW Mar 09, 2019 7:01 PM “Time to dox some homegrown terrorists.” Chelsea Manning jailed for “not believing in the Grand Jury system” JAZZ SHAW Mar 09, 2019 5:31 PM And it’s on with the show, folks Justice Alito shatters glass before Congressional testimony KAREN TOWNSEND Mar 09, 2019 4:01 PM Ice-breaker Home Archive Ed Morrissey Show Newsletters About Advertise Privacy Policy Terms of Use Copyright HotAir.com/Salem Media. All Rights Reserved.

[reginaperes157]

Schiff 1212 Thumbnail Gov-auctions.org - #1 Government & Seized Auto Auctions. Cars 95% Off! On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” incoming House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA) called for the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) to reevaluate its opinion that a sitting president can’t be indicted “under circumstances in which the failure to do so may mean that person escapes justice.” Schiff said, “I think the Justice Department needs to reexamine that OLC opinion…that you cannot indict a sitting president under circumstances in which the failure to do so may mean that person escapes justice.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Why do they flee? The current mass exodus of people from Central America to the United States, with the daily headline-grabbing stories of numerous children involuntarily separated from their parents, means it’s time to remind my readers once again of one of the primary causes of these periodic mass migrations. Those in the US generally opposed to immigration make it a point to declare or imply that the United States does not have any legal or moral obligation to take in these Latinos. This is not true. The United States does indeed have the obligation because many of the immigrants, in addition to fleeing from drug violence, are escaping an economic situation in their homeland directly made hopeless by American interventionist policy. It’s not that these people prefer to live in the United States. They’d much rather remain with their families and friends, be able to speak their native language at all times, and avoid the hardships imposed upon them by American police and other right-wingers. But whenever a progressive government comes to power in Latin America or threatens to do so, a government sincerely committed to fighting poverty, the United States helps to suppresses the movement and/or supports the country’s right-wing and military in staging a coup. This has been the case in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Honduras. The latest example is the June 2009 coup (championed by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) ousting the moderately progressive Manuel Zelaya of Honduras. The particularly severe increase in recent years in Honduran migration to the US is a direct result of the overthrow of Zelaya, whose crime was things like raising the minimum wage, giving subsidies to small farmers, and instituting free education. It is a tale told many times in Latin America: The downtrodden masses finally put into power a leader committed to reversing the status quo, determined to try to put an end to two centuries of oppression … and before long the military overthrows the democratically-elected government, while the United States – if not the mastermind behind the coup – does nothing to prevent it or to punish the coup regime, as only the United States can punish; meanwhile Washington officials pretend to be very upset over this “affront to democracy” while giving major support to the coup regime.1 The resulting return to poverty is accompanied by government and right-wing violence against those who question the new status quo, giving further incentive to escape the country. Talk delivered by William Blum at the Left Forum in New York, June 2, 2018 We can all agree I think that US foreign policy must be changed and that to achieve that the mind – not to mention the heart and soul – of the American public must be changed. But what do you think is the main barrier to achieving such a change in the American mind? Each of you I’m sure has met many people who support American foreign policy, with whom you’ve argued and argued. You point out one horror after another, from Vietnam to Iraq to Libya; from bombings and invasions to torture. And nothing helps. Nothing moves these people. Now why is that? Do these people have no social conscience? Are they just stupid? I think a better answer is that they have certain preconceptions. Consciously or unconsciously, they have certain basic beliefs about the United States and its foreign policy, and if you don’t deal with these basic beliefs you may as well be talking to a stone wall. The most basic of these basic beliefs, I think, is a deeply-held conviction that no matter what the US does abroad, no matter how bad it may look, no matter what horror may result, the government of the United States means well. American leaders may make mistakes, they may blunder, they may lie, they may even on many occasions cause more harm than good, but they do mean well. Their intentions are always honorable, even noble. Of that the great majority of Americans are certain. Frances Fitzgerald, in her famous study of American school textbooks, summarized the message of these books: The United States has been a kind of Salvation Army to the rest of the world: throughout history it had done little but dispense benefits to poor, ignorant, and diseased countries. The U.S. always acted in a disinterested fashion, always from the highest of motives; it gave, never took. And Americans genuinely wonder why the rest of the world can’t see how benevolent and self-sacrificing America has been. Even many people who take part in the anti-war movement have a hard time shaking off some of this mindset; they march to spur America – the America they love and worship and trust – they march to spur this noble America back onto its path of goodness. Many of the citizens fall for US government propaganda justifying its military actions as often and as naively as Charlie Brown falling for Lucy’s football. The American people are very much like the children of a Mafia boss who do not know what their father does for a living, and don’t want to know, but then they wonder why someone just threw a firebomb through the living room window. This basic belief in America’s good intentions is often linked to “American exceptionalism”. Let’s look at just how exceptional America has been. Since the end of World War 2, the United States has: * Attempted to overthrow more than 50 foreign governments, most of which were democratically-elected. * Dropped bombs on the people of more than 30 countries. * Attempted to assassinate more than 50 foreign leaders. * Attempted to suppress a populist or nationalist movement in 20 countries. * Grossly interfered in democratic elections in at least 30 countries. * Led the world in torture; not only the torture performed directly by Americans upon foreigners, but providing torture equipment, torture manuals, lists of people to be tortured, and in-person guidance by American teachers, especially in Latin America. This is indeed exceptional. No other country in all of history comes anywhere close to such a record. But it certainly makes it very difficult to believe that America means well. So the next time you’re up against a stone wall … ask the person what the United States would have to do in its foreign policy to lose his or her support. What for this person would finally be TOO MUCH. Chances are the US has already done it. Keep in mind that our precious homeland, above all, seeks to dominate the world. For economic reasons, nationalistic reasons, ideological, Christian, and for other reasons, world hegemony has long been America’s bottom line. And let’s not forget the powerful Executive Branch officials whose salaries, promotions, agency budgets and future well-paying private sector jobs depend upon perpetual war. These leaders are not especially concerned about the consequences for the world of their wars. They’re not necessarily bad people; but they’re amoral, like a sociopath is. Take the Middle East and South Asia. The people in those areas have suffered horribly because of Islamic fundamentalism. What they desperately need are secular governments, which have respect for different religions. And such governments were actually instituted in the recent past. But what has been the fate of those governments? Well, in the late 1970s through much of the 1980s, Afghanistan had a secular government that was relatively progressive, with full rights for women, which is hard to believe, isn’t it? But even a Pentagon report of the time testified to the actuality of women’s rights in Afghanistan. And what happened to that government? The United States overthrew it, allowing the Taliban to come to power. So keep that in mind the next time you hear an American official say that we have to remain in Afghanistan for the sake of the women. After Afghanistan came Iraq, another secular society, under Saddam Hussein. And the United States overthrew that government as well, and now the country has its share of crazed and bloody jihadists and fundamentalists; and women who are not covered up properly are sometimes running a serious risk. Next came Libya; again, a secular country, under Muammar Gaddafi, who, like Saddam Hussein, had a tyrant side to him but could in important ways be benevolent and do some marvelous things. Gaddafi, for example, founded the African Union and gave the Libyan people the highest standard of living in Africa. So, of course, the United States overthrew that government as well. In 2011, with the help of NATO, we bombed the people of Libya almost every day for more than six months. Can anyone say that in all these interventions, or in any of them, the United States of America meant well? When we attack Iran, will we mean well? Will we have the welfare of the Iranian people at heart? I suggest you keep such thoughts in mind the next time you’re having a discussion or argument with a flag-waving American. In case you haven’t noticed No evidence of “Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election” has yet been presented. And we still await even a believable explanation of how the supposedly advanced American nation of 138 million voters could be so crucially influenced by a bunch of simplistic, often-crude, postings on Facebook and elsewhere on the Internet. In May, the House Intelligence Committee began releasing the text of numerous of these postings as evidence of Russian interference. The postings dealt with both sides of many issues, including football players who knelt during the national anthem to bring attention to issues of racism, and pro- and anti-Trump and Clinton messages. Most did not even mention Trump or Clinton; and many were sent out before Trump was even a candidate. So what did any of this have to do with swaying the result of the election? The committee did not say. However, Cong. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the committee, stated: “They sought to harness Americans’ very real frustrations and anger over sensitive political matters in order to influence American thinking, voting and behavior. The only way we can begin to inoculate ourselves against a future attack is to see first-hand the types of messages, themes and imagery the Russians used to divide us.” Aha! So that’s it, dividing us! Imagine that – the American people, whom we all know are living in blissful harmony and fraternity without any noticeable anger or hatred toward each other, would become divided! Damn those Russkis! Many of the Facebook postings were done well after the presidential election. That alone should have made the congressmen think that perhaps the ads had nothing to do with the US election, but that is not what they wanted to think. This all lends credence to the suggestion that what actually lay behind the events was a so-called “click-bait” scheme wherein certain individuals earned money based on the number of times a particular website is accessed. The mastermind behind this scheme is reported to be a Russian named Yevgeny Prigozhin of the Internet Research Agency of St. Petersburg, which is referred to by the House committee as “Kremlin-sponsored”, without explanation.2 The organization has been named in an indictment issued by special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigating committee, but as the Washington Post reported: “The indictment does not accuse the Russian government of any involvement in the scheme, nor does it claim that it succeeded in swaying any votes.”3 In the new Cold War, as in the old one, the powers-that-be in America seldom miss an opportunity to make Russia look bad, even to the point of farce. Evidence is no longer required. Accusation is sufficient. Another charming example of American exceptionalism The Washington Post coverage of the football World Cup in Russia couldn’t allow all the joy and good vibes to go unchallenged, of course. So they found “a pipe worker named Alexander” who had a joke to tell: “An adviser comes to Putin and says, ‘I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you were elected president. The bad news is that no one voted for you.’” Now let’s imagine an American adviser coming to President Trump and saying: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is that you were elected president. The bad news is that you didn’t get the most votes.” This has now happened five times in the United States, five times that the “winner” received fewer popular votes than any of his opponents; this insult to democracy and common sense has now happened twice within the most recent five presidential elections. And I find the worst news is that a year and a half after Trump’s election I haven’t heard or read a word of anyone in the US Congress or a state legislature who has taken the first step in the process of modifying the US Constitution to finally do away with the stupid, completely outmoded Electoral College system. If it’s such a good system, why doesn’t the United States use it for local and state elections? Why doesn’t it exist anywhere else in the world? Is it to be regarded as part of our beloved “American exceptionalism”? The other “n” word is even more prohibited The city of Seattle on June 12 voted to repeal a tax hike on large employers that it had instituted only weeks before. The new tax would have raised $48 million annually to combat Seattle’s homelessness and affordable-housing crisis. The Seattle area has the third-largest homeless population in the country. The plan had passed the City Council unanimously but was fiercely opposed by Amazon.com and much of the city’s business community. Many American cities are sincerely struggling to deal with this problem but are faced with similar insurmountable barriers. The leading causes of homelessness in the US are high rents and low salaries. A report released June 13 by the National Low Income Housing Coalition stated that there is nowhere in the country where someone working a full-time minimum-wage job could afford to rent a modest two-bedroom apartment. Not even in Arkansas, the state with the cheapest housing. More than 11.2 million families wind up spending more than half their paychecks on housing.4 How did America, “the glorious land of opportunity” wind up like this? The cost of rent increases inexorably, year after year, regardless of tenants’ income. Any improvement in the system has to begin with a strong commitment to radically restraining, if not completely eliminating, the landlords’ profit motive. Otherwise nothing of any significance will change in society, and the capitalists who own the society – and their liberal apologists – can mouth one progressive-sounding platitude after another as their chauffeur drives them to the bank. But to what extent can landlords be forced to accept significantly less in rents? Very little can be done. It’s the nature of the beast. Rent control in some American cities has slowed down the steady increases, but still leaving millions in constant danger of eviction or crippling deprivation. The only remaining solution is to “nationalize” real estate. Eliminating the profit motive in various sectors, or all sectors, in American society would run into a lot less opposition than one might expect. Consciously or unconsciously it’s already looked down upon to a great extent by numerous individuals and institutions of influence. For example, judges frequently impose lighter sentences upon lawbreakers if they haven’t actually profited monetarily from their acts. And they forbid others from making a profit from their crimes by selling book or film rights, or interviews. It must further be kept in mind that the great majority of Americans, like people everywhere, do not labor for profit, but for a salary. The citizenry may have drifted even further away from the system than all this indicates, for American society seems to have more trust and respect for “non-profit” organizations than for the profit-seeking kind. Would the public be so generous with disaster relief if the Red Cross were a regular profit-making business? Would the Internal Revenue Service allow it to be tax-exempt? Why does the Post Office give cheaper rates to non-profits and lower rates for books and magazines which don’t contain advertising? For an AIDS test, do people feel more confident going to the Public Health Service or to a commercial laboratory? Why does “educational” or “public” television not have regular commercials? What would Americans think of peace-corps volunteers, elementary and high-school teachers, clergy, nurses, and social workers who demanded well in excess of $100 thousand per year? Would the public like to see churches competing with each other, complete with ad campaigns selling a New and Improved God? Why has American Airlines just declared “We have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it.” * See Mark Weisbrot, “Top Ten Ways You Can Tell Which Side The United States Government is On With Regard to the Military Coup in Honduras.” Also see William Blum, Killing Hope, chapters on Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador. * Moon of Alabama, “Mueller Indictment – The ‘Russian Influence’ Is A Commercial Marketing Scheme”, February 17, 2018. * Washington Post, June 23, 2018. * Washington Post, June 9 and 16, 2018. http://clubof.info/