#My understanding is that on the east coast of north America many of the problems stem from loss of native beachgrass and plant communities

[screambirdscreaming]

Beach sand dynamics are stupidly complicated. In some places, yes, native vegetation holds the sand together and stabilizes the dunes. In other places, invasive vegetation introduced to stabilize the dunes fucks up the cycles of where sand is eroded from and deposited, leading to dunes forming in places people don't want them even as beaches erode nearby. (Also, massive changes to the structure of coastal wetlands.)

Whether waves deposit sand on a beach, or erode it away, has to do with the beach slope, the sand particle size, the angle at which waves approach, the wavelength and amplitude of the waves..... A guest lecturer for my coastal engineering class told us that, when running computer models of erosion and deposition responses to proposed beach projects like this, you're lucky if you end up in the right order of magnitude.

Beaches are very dynamic. It's not uncommon for hundreds of tons of sand to shift on and off a beach over the course of a year, usually scoured off by winter storms and deposited back over the summer. Anything that tries to modify that process - such as to prevent the sand from scouring away past a certain point - runs the risk of massively changing the dynamics in unpredictable ways.

And then, with "beach nourishment" projects like this, there's the question of where the sand comes from - where it was mined, and what the environmental impacts of sand mining there are - as well as the question of where the sand ends up if it all erodes away like this. (Did you know there's a sand mafia? That's more to do with the mining of sand for concrete, though.)

Anyway the bottom line is: don't put your fucking house there.

You think you're "next to" the beach, but you're very much *on* the beach as far as the scope of its natural processes go. And either you're fucking those dynamics up, or they're going to fuck you up. Or both!

absolutely losing my mind that a bunch of nimby assholes spent $500k to build a sandcastle that was promptly wiped away

[parcequecestnotreprojeeeet]

Hi, it’s me Fanfic Anon #2. Yes, Anon, I’m presently living on the east coast of North America (although I’m not originally from here …) I’m not Jill either, but you did give me this idea, so I hope you enjoy. Here’s another one set during the State Visit. This piece is inspired both by his most recent quote in the Paris Match article and also the fact that Brigitte always seems so nervous at these big ceremonial events and things, because as she’s said previously, everything is so carefully choreographed and she worries about being a liability for him. Hope everyone enjoys this one.

He kept looking over at her across from him at the table, kept checking in on how she was doing. He knew she was nervous about this dinner, worried about a lot of things, most of them related to the fact that they would be spending the evening speaking in English and the fact she was so concerned about embarrassing him.

He didn’t understand why she was so worried about her English. He knew that while sometimes she would have to search to find the word she was looking for, what he would always tell her was proof of her extensive vocabulary in her native language, she had far more than a passing grasp of the language.

But the thing that bothered him the most was how nervous she constantly was in these kinds of moments big and small about embarrassing him - as if she could ever be an embarrassment.

They had talked about it a few times, and he knew where it came from. She loved him so much the last thing she ever wanted was to become his problem. So she oh so carefully paid attention to where and how she stood; what she wore; what she said, when, and to whom; sometimes even her gestures down to the fiddling with her rings. She paid attention too to how close she got to him, when she would reach for his hand or arm, making sure it was okay, was appropriate, never giving the press any reason to attack her (not like it stopped them from going after her anyways for the transgressions they had written in their own heads, like her age, his age, her hair, her shoe size, who loans her clothing, which charities she supports).

He hated to see her like that, so unlike herself. She was witty, charming, charismatic - the life of the party, the light of his life - she wasn’t the woman who would bow out quickly when he drags her onto the stage with him to force her into the spotlight too (for there is no him without her).

“I’m sorry about tonight,” he apologized when they were in the car on the way back to Blair House.

“What? Why?”

“Because I could see how nervous you were all night. I know things like that make you uncomfortable. And I am sorry you have to put up with them for me.”

“Mon cœur, I don’t ‘put up’ with anything for you. I love you, and you need me, so there I am.”

“Still. I know how you feel about all of this. And while I still don’t understand it, I don’t blame you.”

“I just don’t want to embarrass you,” she sighed, telling him for the umpteenth time.

“How many different times, how many different ways do I need to tell you, Brigitte? You could never embarrass me. No, no. Look at me,” he commanded softly, forcing her to meet his eyes. “You are the single greatest thing that has ever happened to me. It is the honor of my lifetime to be by your side, on your arm. The title I’m proudest of, to borrow our host’s introduction of himself last year, is ‘Brigitte’s husband-‘“

“It was nice that my first interaction with this president wasn’t him commenting on my physical appearance,” she joked, trying to diffuse the moment a little, moved, but a little uncomfortable under his gaze.

Not letting her succeed in that, he picked up where he was when she interrupted him, “you literally could never embarrass me. If anything, I’m afraid I would embarrass you. I can’t dance and I’m known to put my foot in my mouth every now and again.”

“I just don’t want to become a liability.”

“Listen to me. You are my non-negotiable. I said it at the Economy Ministry, I said it to my staff during the campaign, and I’ve said it countless times in office: I cannot work if I am not happy, and I am not happy without you.

“So. Putting aside the fact you have a favorability rating that is literally double mine at the moment, you are never going to be a liability because you are my biggest asset.”

She nodded, slowly, when he finished, signaling to him she was trying to take it all in. “I love you,” she told him with a small smile.

“I love you more,” he replied.

“Not possible,” she winked, her smile growing wider.

(PS - it is reported that when POTUS introduced himself to Brigitte for the first time he introduced himself as “Jill’s husband” which I think we can all agree is a lot better than the comment the last POTUS made about her appearance the first time they met…)

Helloooo fanfic Anon #2! ❤️

Oh my heart! You kill me with the sweetness 🥰 Emmanuel being all worried with Brigitte, Brigitte just not wanting to mess up and embarrass him. I just can’t with these two 🤧 But the most beautiful part was the way Emmanuel reassured Brigitte 🥺😍

“I can’t dance and I’m known to put my foot in my mouth every now and again.” - most true quote in a fanfic ever 😂😂

Thank you so much, fanfic Anon #2! ❤️❤️❤️

[sosation]

On the Passing of Michael Brooks

I only relatively recently became aware of Michael, less than a year ago. In that time he has impacted my life more than any other media personality, more than anyone I’ve never met.

Even though the first time I voted was for Obama in 2008, my political consciousness really began during my 2nd stint of college at UTA circa 2014/15. My history undergrad was waking me up to the power dynamics and hegemonic systems that exist in our society. I was beginning to understand geopolitics under the tutelage of Dr. Joyce Goldberg and getting really wrapped up in 20th century diplomacy. The Snowden leaks had happened and the Michael Brown demonstrations in Ferguson were drawing attention to the militarization of our police forces and their tactics on US citizens. I began to see capitalism as consisting of, and causing and contributing too, countless problems. Then, the 2016 election cycle stoked my already burning interests.

During this time, there was little “left-tube” to be found. Since 2012, streaming on our X Box has been my wife and I’s primary means of entertainment. Slowly more and more of our time was being spent on YouTube. The Young Turks was really the only progressive voice on Youtube, to my knowledge, at that time. (I wasn’t yet aware of Pakman, Kulinski, Seder and Brooks.) And even though they were my primary source of news, I wasn’t crazy about the hyperbolic presentation, Cenk’s ego, or some of the attitudes expressed by various hosts at various times. That being said, I learned a lot. I was exposed to many many great journalists and they certainly helped me solidify and articulate many of the arguments I had been thinking and feeling during this time. I even became a Texas Wolf-Pac Volunteer right after Trump’s election. 

I ended my bachelor’s and master’s programs under the Trump presidency. (May ‘17, Dec ‘18 respectively.) During this time I read and wrote more than I ever have in my life. Under Dr. Christopher Morris, Dr. Patryk Babiracki, and Dr. Pawel Goral, I read Marxist historical theory and studied the history of the Cold War  from the perspectives of the US, USSR and Europe. I also began watching less and less TYT and more Secular Talk, David Pakman, and David Doel. While these shows are great, there was little to no international perspectives or geopolitical discussions happening. (Doel being Canadian accounts for something but, IMO, anyone who lives in the 5 Eyes is hardly a non-western perspective and therefore significantly less valuable in regards to gaining the insight of the peripheries of the globe. As the hegemonic “leader” of the world, Canadians, New Zealanders, Aussies and Brits, can point and laugh at the US all they want but they are taking our lead-systematically and economically.That’s not to say that their perspective is unimportant, just not the same as those outside the western sphere) Furthermore, there is still even less of a historical perspective being represented in regards to current events anywhere on YouTube. No one seems to have a long dureé, an understanding of how history plays out- again and again, and how capitalism is responsible for much of our recent history. Marx did. Michael did. 

I began my teaching career in earnest last summer, 2019, as a Geography teacher. First time I’ve ever had a salary and the first time that I didn’t have to wear a hat (or hairnet) to work. My lunch was 2nd lunch, 12:35-1:15. Here in Texas, The Majority Report was live and it began showing up consistently on my youtube feed so I began watching them while I ate my sandwich and apple, before students from guitar club would show up for a quick lesson before 6th period. I had watched TMR before, particularly live streams on twitch during the first few primary debates this cycle. They reminded me a little too much of an east coast morning talk show for me to take them too seriously at first but I eventually began to see that while Sam is--well-- Sam, the others on the show had quite a lot to say and clear, logical and articulate reasons for their positions...especially this guy Michael. Once I heard that he had his own show it quickly became the most listened to podcast in my feed. (This in itself is no small feet. I’ve been listening to podcasts for hours a day (sometimes 8) since 2012. It, too, no doubt contributed to my education and understanding of our world during this same time period but that is another blog all itself.)

Michael was everything that I was looking for. He was unabashedly a Marxist. He was intelligent and enjoyed rigorous thinking and leftist theory. He was hilarious and did fantastic impressions. He also was compassionate, kind and empathetic. He was a humanist, in the truest sense of the word and he understood, and articulated to me, that Socialism is a humanist movement. After I became a patron, I once asked him on Discord what his credentials were and he said that his Bachelor’s was in International Relations, which explained so much. Again, he was the only media personality that I was aware of that was knowledgeable and curious about the same things I was. He understood history. He valued history and its importance, so much so that he dedicated a separate Sunday show just to “Illicit Histories” where he would invite Historians from all over the world to discuss leftist movements in their own countries and how we could apply those lessons here and vice versa. This was it. This is what was missing from our national discourse--an international perspective and voice, and a historical perspective and voice. Michael was both and he was damn good at it. 

The Michael Brooks Show was an inspiration. Michael, Matt Lech and David Griscom were smart, eloquent, young men who articulated the systemic failures of our time, who critically discussed and analyzed our current political discourse and who pondered possible solutions based in history. The guests of TMBS, the network Michael created, really were the shining feature. Ben Burgis, Artesia Balthrop, Molly Webster, Glenn Greenwald, Adolf Reed, President Lula De Silva, Slavoj Žižek , Noam Chomsky, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Wolff...the list goes on and on and on. These people brought so much insight to the state of our world. Professors, Journalists, people who have spent their lives working on the cause, a cause for a better future, one based in humanity and empathy. Michael was able to bring his own empathy for humanity into his interviews, asking thoughtful direct questions that got to the heart of the issue-- while simultaneously bringing levity to a serious topic by making jokes in the voice of Gandhi, Mandela, Obama, or Bernie, to name a few. He, fucking, got it man. He understood how the world was connected. He understood that we are ALL humans, and that we all deserve to be treated with dignity, and he understood that Marx was right about a ton of shit and he wasn’t scared to remind you of that. 

Michael, for me, was an exemplar. He was a role model. I looked up to him. I had no idea he was only 13 months older than me, I thought he was probably in his early 40’s just based on the amount of shit that he knew. My personal 10 year goal was to be on his show. I wanted to either become a writer or go back into academia. I even wrote into a show a couple of months back and asked him which was a better choice. He was honored to be asked such a heavy question but didn’t feel comfortable giving that kind of life advice and I don’t blame him. He recommended that I continue teaching high school if that’s what I enjoy doing, and I do, and I likely will. He has shown me how to speak up for ideals that are right, regardless of what people think. Like, I understood that in the abstract, but watching someone do it multiple times a week really put it in my head that I need to advocate for my position publicly. I tell people that I’m a marxist- which in Texas is unheard of, even among leftists. Mostly due to people not understanding labels and what that even means. So I tell them. Thanks to David’s weekly recommended readings I haven’t stopped reading leftist theory even though I finished grad school over a year and a half ago. If TMBS never existed I never would have had the opportunity to read any of that. 

My heart bleeds for Matt and David. I can’t imagine what they’re going though. I want them to continue, to keep the community alive in his name. But I completely understand if that is just too painful. 

I was thinking earlier, trying to find an appropriate historical comparison to his passing. There are many but as a North Texan, the one that I ended up landing on was the passing of Dimebag Darrell Abbot. He did a lot. He accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He inspired many to do things like him. It was entirely unexpected and not one person, not one, has a bad thing to say about the guy. Dimebag was adored. He listened to people, strangers, fans. He was kind and open-hearted and treated everyone with respect. Which made it extra hard when he passed. The same can be said for Michael. For Michael, since Socialism is more than just music, he inspired us to educate ourselves, to ask questions, to remember the periphery-Latin America, Africa, and Asia,-- to remember history and value it, to be compassionate, to educate others and to be active in our own communities. 

He will be sorely missed. The one thing I keep telling myself is that his death has the potential to bring even more attention to his message-- to help further catapult this movement into something undeniable. To bring more awareness to how power works and to finally activate us to become, as Michael said at Harvard on Feb 1, 2020: machiavellian.

 “...we still have to put work into reminding everybody that (Dr. MLK Jr.) was on the left. He wasn’t a guy who came out once a year and said ‘everybody should treat each other nicely. ...The other thing I loved about this speech was he talked about the fallacy- that certain Christians misunderstand love as a seeding of power. And then Nietzsche came along and rejected christian morality because he thought it was denying someone’s vitality- the will to power in a healthy sense, and he said ‘Love without power is sentimental and anemic. And power without love is abusive and corrosive’ I’m paraphrasing. And that was when I saw, I thought, ‘well here, ok, we know the left-wing Dr. King. Well here is the machiavellian Dr King, and I love it.’ I want the left to have Machiavelli, so we can have the strategy, the ruthlessness, the clarity, to actually win these battles. And be ruthless with institutions. And then I want us to learn how to be really kind to each other, welcoming of a broad set, and actually have a movement that has the capacity to do that.”

Let’s do the best we can to make that happen. Educate yourself about power. Educate yourself about ideologies. Read Marx and Engels. Read Slavoj Žižek and Adolf Reed. Read Michaels book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right. Don’t get caught up in identity politics. Never lose sight of class dynamics. Use this knowledge to educate others and make informed decisions. Register to vote. Run for office. Effectuate real change. Do the intellectual rigor that was happening on TMBS every week, multiple times a week. Thank you for all that you brought to us Michael, you will be sorely missed and I hope to see you at the clearing at the end of the path. 

Anthony Sosa

7-21-20

[xfulldreamerx]

About SKAM PERÚ: Peruvian people’s Geographical views

The National Republic of Peru. La República Nacional del Perú. Informally, we the citizens, like the rest of the world, know it, simply, as Peru. This sovereign country is located in the continent of South America, to the West, with the Pacific Ocean at its coast. Peru is one of the few megadiverse countries in the whole world. Peru’s three official languages are Spanish (Español), Quechua and Aymara. In Peru’s territory is located La Cordillera de Los Andes (The Andes Mountains), though not completely. In this post, I will explain how we Peruvians see and understand our country geographically.

We measure in meters, so in square kilometers, the extension of Peru is: 

1.285 million km²

In miles, that is: 798461.982 mi²

Peru’s population is: 

32.17 million

In a continental level

Here is a map of South America, with Peru in ORANGE:

To the north, we border with Ecuador and Colombia. To the east, we border with Brazil. To the southeast, we border with Bolivia. To the south, we border with Chile.

Here is a map of South America, with Peru highlighted:

I’ve always thought that Peru has a particular shape, and it kinda does. That’s due to all the territory we lost back in the day when we were at war with Chile (the Pacific War) and the with Ecuador, but that’s history for, maybe, another post.

In a national level

Now, this is the first way children learn to see Peru as a country: the three geographical regions.

From left to right:

In yellow, we have LA COSTA. The Coast/Desert Coast. 

In brown, we LA SIERRA. The Highlands. Here, we encounter The Andes Mountains.

In green, we have LA SELVA. The Jungle/Rainforest. Here, we encounter the Amazonas rainforest.

Oh and some people consider that The Peruvian Sea, EL MAR PERUANO, is the fourth region. This is not universal, though. 

I will talk about how stereotypes of people from these regions are in another post.

After that, in Primary School, they teach us a new way to see our country: LOS DEPARTAMENTOS, or, literally, departments. The formal term in English is, I think, the states. In the UK, that would be like the counties.

Peru has 24 departments. Here is a list of the departments with their capitals (Department - Capital City):

Amazonas - Chachapoyas

Áncash - Huaraz

Apurímac - Abancay

Arequipa - Ciudad de Arequipa

Ayacucho - Ciudad de Ayacucho

Cajamarca - Ciudad de Cajamarca

Cusco - Ciudad del Cuzco

Huancavelica - Ciudad de Huancavelica

Huánuco - Ciudad de Huánuco

Ica - Ciudad de Ica

Junín - Huancayo

La Libertad - Trujillo

Lambayeque - Chiclayo

Lima - Ciudad de Lima

Loreto - Iquitos

Madre de Dios - Puerto Maldonado

Moquegua - Ciudad de Moquegua

Pasco - Cerro de Pasco

Piura - Ciudad de Piura

Puno - Ciudad de Puno

San Martín - Moyobamba

Tacna - Ciudad de Tacna

Tumbes - Ciudad de Tumbes

Ucayali - Pucallpa

When you combine the three geographical regions with the departments, you obtain this:

IMPORTANT: Even though Áncash and Arequipa have a coast and, thus, should be included in the Coast region, they are not considered in it. Yes, in the map of the three regions the Coast has no interruptions, but that’s a generalization schools make for little children. A lot of people still view it that way, though, so sometimes that’s a problem. Still, Áncash and Arequipa are considered to be part of the Highlands. 

In a department/province level

Departments are divided into provinces. Look at a map of Lima as a department:

Lima, as a department, has 10 provinces. I, for example, live in the province of Huaura. Let’s take my province as an example of this: provinces are divided into districts. The province of Huaura is divided into 12 districts. I was born in the district of Huacho, three hours from Lima, the capital city of Peru. Almost every district has a city with its same name - for example, my district has a city also called Huacho, which is, actually, where I’m from and currently live in.

In a province/city level

Below the province of Huaura, you have the province of Huaral. Below the province of Huaral, you have the province of Lima. La provincia de Lima. It is essential here to understand that la provincia de Lima is always taken as a whole, and even though it’s a province, all Peruvians refer to it as the capital city, la capital. Why? Historical reasons, I guess. Look at its map: 

I know, I know, too many districts. That’s the province of Lima, which is so important that has special treatment. People from all over the country refer to it as just Lima, la capital. It is a province, but we all talk about it as a big, big city. I will be referring to it as such (“the city”). Formally, it is divided into 43 districts - one of them is, actually, called Lima as well, and it is located at the center of the province. Then, of course, we have the Constitutional Province of Callao, La Provincia Constitucional del Callao, or just El Callao. This one is special: it has its own government, but it’s still inside Peru and goes by all its laws and Constitution, of course - you can see it up there in the map, in pink, where it is also divided into districts despite being a part of Lima. El Callao is also a port, which has made the province known for fishing - they are big about that. Complicated? For us, not at all. 

You can see that, apart from El Callao, Lima is divided into four other sectors. These are not formal - they’re just a way of distinguishing four zones of the city: 

Lima Norte, North Lima (in green): Upper part of the city, borders with the province of Huaral and the province of Canta.

Lima Centro, Lima Center (in light blue): Middle part of the city, borders with all the other parts. 

Lima Este, East Lima (in deep orange): Side part of the city, the only one with no sea whatsoever. It borders with the province of Huarochirí.

Lima Sur, South Lima (in light orange): Lower part of the city, borders with the province of Huarochirí and the province of Cañete. 

Just to count, we have:

Lima, the department, divided into provinces

Lima, the province (also known as “the city”), divided into districts

Lima, the district, also known as Lima Metropolitana nowadays or Cercado de Lima, where the name comes from

Understood? Cool! Let’s have a closer look:

In this new map, you can’t see all the districts, but you’re able to focus on “the main ones.” See, as a lot of cities in the world, Lima is divided by socioeconomic class. It is true that all districts have their share of the middle class and even rich people, but generalization persists. There isn’t a map where you can see this type of division, so I’m going to write it down for you:

The north side (Ventanilla, Puente Piedra, Comas, Los Olivos, San Martín, Independencia, San Martín de Porres, San Juan de Lurigancho, Lurigancho, and even El Callao) is considered as the poor part of Lima.

The center (Lima, Breña, San Miguel, Pueblo Libre, Jesús María, Lince, La Victoria, and even Magdalena del Mar) is considered the middle-class part of Lima, with some traces of the upper-class and, sometimes, the lower-class.

The south side (San Isidro, Miraflores, Barranco and part of Surco) are considered the upper-class part, where all the rich people live. 

Part of the east side (Surco, San Borja, La Molina) is also considered for the rich, though, as they border with Santa Anita, Ate Vitarte, San Luis and El Agustino, lower-class districts, can have “poor parts” or a middle-class section. 

All the other districts are just a mixture of socioeconomic classes and are also considered for vacation.

When you come from a place outside of Lima, you are considered to come “from a province”, which means “de provincia”, in Spanish - that is, that you can be from the Highlands or the Jungle, or another place in the Coast that isn’t Lima itself (even me, who is from Lima the department, is considered “de provincia”, just because I wasn’t born in Lima the city). That is an informal term that is very commonly used amongst Peruvians. Peru suffers from centralization - Lima is the city that is “centralized.” All the good schools and colleges, hospitals and clinics, theaters and museums, are here. You wanna be someone? Come to Lima. I study in Lima. This centralization makes Lima the “place to be”. A lot of people from all over the country come here in search of opportunities and a brighter future, a better legacy for their families. Like, you have no idea. Lima is so full of people we are in a mild crisis, seriously. Lima is like the American Dream to all the people who were born outside the city. It’s a big statement that, I believe, just a Latin American would understand, because a lot of Latin American countries are centralized. 

Two curiosities of Lima as a capital: 

- It’s the only capital city in South America that has an exit to the sea.

- It’s the most populated city in Peru, with more than 10 million people, which is almost 10% of the entire population. This also makes Lima one of the most populated cities in Latin America, and places it on the Top 30 of most populated cities in the world.

That’s all, I think. If you have any doubt whatsoever, don’t hesitate to leave it in my ask box - I will be glad to solve it. Please, tell me what you think, and what you would like for me to cover next!

[tredawakandan]

A theory/wonder I've been having for some years now. Really remembered this thought after I learned about the Red Wolf earlier this year. Basically for those that don't know , the Red Wolf was the Eastern/South Eastern Wolf of North America. As well as the only wolf natural to North America. Sadly it was driven to near extinction (hopefully it makes a come back) . Saying that to say research into that species made me dive further down some rabbit holes. Now if you're new here understand i dive into alternative history/hidden history concepts. Often called conspiracy theories by mainstream lie media if it helps you understand what kind of info I get into 😅.

Under my Tartary/tartaria tag (which u can click) I give my various thoughts on the aspects of the theory concerning it and other theories like the mudflood, or any ancient high civilization in the recent past. Saying that to say I noticed something strange . This being why weren't Grizzly bears and Gray Wolves found in the eastern/South Eastern regions. Now if you know how the mainstream media lies then you know they give BS reasons for anything(. Regarding this situation the answer I gotten the most was that it was because of the post ice age or something of that nature 😅). Back on Topic, it was also interesting how the red wolf was only found in the southeast/eastern United States with the black bear also being a fellow predator found there (although this bear was more populated around the whole US). Some tried to say that there wasn't any valuable prey for them but that's a total lie. Bison, Deer were very plentiful and unlike today the Bison use to reach to the south east/east coast.. So it really made no sense as to why those two famous predators didn't come to this side. Animals are very curious beings and their is no logical reason as to why those two animals wouldn't move over here. Especially with the mainstream narrative that animals crossed land bridges in the past. So you mean to tell me they can cross continents but not States😭. Yea doesn't make much sense.. So after thinking i noticed something particularly odd. That both the Black Bear & Red Wolf were smaller then the respective Grizzly & Gray Wolf. The red wolf also is believed to have smaller packs as well .Once again If you are aware of what I post then you know I believe people had highly advanced civilizations in the past amongst other things. I believe in a case like this Gray Wolves and Grizzlies were purposely driven out/exterminated in the southeast/much of the eastern United States by the ancient ancestors.

I say so because after studying both species of black bears & Red wolves this year,i learned that more than likely they would pose less problems than the bigger two . At the same time with the Red Wolf being a keystone species (the black bear more then likely is too) it would also guarantee a self managed ecosystem. Now you may say but then why were grizzlies & gray wolves found in other populated areas of the US. That would bring me to the various maps I have touched on before. Those being the possible connections and layouts of Caves, Railroads, Mounds and Underground railroad routes. The railroad system as speculated by many were possibly already here and just rediscovered sevretly..I've mentioned before there is a deep hidden history they don't want you knowing about our ancestors and the South Eastern United States. Now while I don't know even 1/10 of what was lost I can say they are no doubt covering up history as many should know. My theory in a manner of speaking is this:

The South East/Eastern United States was a Mecca/Highly populated advanced area that contained our ancestors from a previous more advanced civilization. I'm postulating that they engineered the black bear /red wolf to be the dominant predators since many humans were found in those areas. Some freak event happened (like many theorize) like a mudflood or something and then you have new groups moving in and old groups moving out due to the cataclysm. One thing I recently learned was that Yuchi Indians have a clear oral history of coming from across the sea.. Not to mention they also share similarities with European cultures via art . Some other Georgia tribes too share this. (Be sure to check out Atlantis or Lemuria tag on my page to help you better understand that ancient tribes been making contact with eachother and possibly came from the same ancient ancestors on older continents) Also gotta add that many tribes speak of coming out of caves or having to migrate from Various Mayan~Middle/South American tribes to North America. Basically a repopulating measure took place. This also would connect with why many mounds were buried and many more still are🧐.

Will definitely update this in the future once I think on it some more 💯

All are repost except the first two..Aint no way foreigners came & built up these buildings & civilization when we were already here & doing it already ..The vid coming from muurs_in_america on IG

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Roguish Women Part 2

Summary: Kate Rosseau is an American who fled to Paris to escape her past life. Now she's dancing and playing the part of a courtesan at the Moulin Rouge. There she meets Tommy Shelby who thinks she can be useful in expanding his empire. But has he been blinded?

Part 2: Tommy and Kate debate and reach an agreement. 

Tommy helped Kate out of her fur coat upon entering the hotel suite. The luxury of the ornate room wasn’t new to her. She had spent plenty of time in lavish rooms being spoiled by expensive food, fine wines, and Egyptian cotton. The black, white, and gold embellishments of the Art Deco style was familiar to her. She was used to the light of glittering chandeliers and passing by her reflection in the many mirrored surfaces.

Although the expensive decor wasn’t any comfort to Kate. Not when she had to fake affection and love. In fact, the atmosphere of hotels had begun to make her nauseous. She knew what was awaiting her.

But it still wasn’t exactly clear if those were Tommy’s same intentions. He had expressed interest in what she knew but not her services. Still, he was a man. A man who had become accustomed to the finer things in life and that no doubt included expensive courtesans.

Kate had changed out of her stage costume before departing with Tommy. She left under the guise that he was an expensive client who wanted to take her somewhere a little more intimate. To complete the appearance, she left in a seductive jade colored dress. The one made of silk that left little to the imagination and had a scandalous open back.

Tommy noticed this very quickly as she walked over to the sofa. The silk shifted with every movement, clinging to her body and revealing the curve of her hips. He cleared his throat and hung her coat up on the rack by the door. He was careful to maintain his appearance of business by leaving everything on but his coat. This wasn’t a situation to be comfortable with. He still knew very little about this woman.

“Drink?” Tommy asked while moving to the liquor cart by the large windows. He looked down on the lights of Paris still sparkling in the night.

“Do you have wine?” Kate settled on the plush sofa, grateful to be off of her sore ankle. She reached down to take off her heels and inspect the area. Luckily there didn’t appear to be much swelling.

“Merlot.” He answered after inspecting the lone wine bottle among the liquor.

She made a face. “I prefer Chardonnay. Don’t particularly like red. I’ll just have gin.”

Tommy poured her a glass of gin and whiskey for himself. He walked over with the glasses and set them down on the table by the sofa. He took a seat across from her so they could talk.

“Do you have someone back in England, Mr. Shelby?” Kate wondered. It seemed unfathomable that a handsome and wealthy man like himself wasn’t married. But perhaps he’d simply taken off his wedding band while he was in the Moulin Rouge. Some men did that, some didn’t seem to care and left them on. Kate wasn’t sure which was a worse sin.

Tommy’s mind went to the blonde barmaid he left behind in Birmingham. Grace had captured his attention but it had been a long while since he’d allowed himself to succumb to love. He hadn’t opened his heart up since he lost Greta. But he was getting dangerously close to that territory with Grace. “I’m not married.”

“Hm.” Kate didn’t remark on his answer. But it led her to believe there was someone. It was anyone’s guess why he was keeping it a secret.

“Tell me what you know about the Americans.” Tommy redirected the conversation.

She took a drink of the gin and grimaced at the taste. “I don’t understand why Europeans like their gin so bitter.”

He crossed his arms over her chest and stared at her. For a moment, he doubted his decision to bring her back to the hotel. She could’ve been reading his reactions and telling him what he wanted to know. Could this all be a ruse to get something out of him? Blackmail? Maybe she wanted a free ride to England or even back to America. What if she didn’t know anything?

Kate raised an eyebrow at his expression of displeasure. “Are you always so serious, Mr. Shelby?” She asked.

“I asked you a question.”

“And I asked you a different one.”

Tommy’s jaw tightened. “I’m not here to play games. Either you know something or you’re wasting my time.”

Kate looked slightly amused despite his intense tone. “I grew up in South Boston. They call us Southies. There’s a group there that runs all of the bootlegging operations.”

“The Gustin Gang.” Tommy nodded as this wasn’t news to him. “I’m aware. I’ve done my share of research.” It was necessary to do such investigations if he was really going to expand overseas.

“Then you’ll know that they’re weak. Easy to take over if you’re strong enough.” Kate leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. “But if you’re so smart, Mr. Shelby, then you won’t need my assistance.”

He balked a little. Yes, he knew about most of the active gangs that controlled the smuggling operations on the east coast as well as Chicago and Detroit. But he didn’t have enough intel to know how they operated or what their weaknesses and strengths were. “I brought you here to give me information.” He replied without explicitly saying that he needed her help. Admitting that would only give her power.

“There are Italians in the North End, lots of them. It doesn’t matter what city you’re in, Boston, New York, Chicago, the Irish hate the Italians and vice versa. Neither of them like to share control. They’re looking for allies, strong allies.”

Tommy considered what she was saying. It was much like London, various gangs all pushing and shoving each other for a larger piece of the pie. Would the Americans find a relationship mutually beneficial? Could he even trust them? Could he trust that Kate wasn’t looking out for her own interests?

“That’s very vague.” He responded.

Her confident demeanor wavered a little. “Well, more in-depth information could get me in trouble. I don’t want to risk that for a man I don’t know very well.”

So they were at a stalemate. Both of them standing with their backs against the wall so neither of them could stab the other when they weren’t paying attention.

“You were in the war,” Kate concluded.

He eyed her for a moment before nodded. “Yes.”

“Where?”

“Here. Northern France.” The break in the conversation gave Tommy a chance to find his cigarettes and light one.

Kate watched him. Each movement deliberate and firm. He was a man who hid his weaknesses well. But that didn’t mean he didn’t have any. All men had a weakness. So did women. “You must hate America for coming so late.”

His blue eyes didn’t meet hers as he lit the cigarette. “There were many people to blame. I’ve got more important things to deal with now.”

Little did he know, the woman in front of him had been through trauma. No, she hadn’t been in an active battlefield but she’d fought her own personal wars. Came across enemies who were ruthless. Suffered enough to warrant building up her defenses.

Tommy decided to throw her an incentive. He wasn’t there to talk about the war. “You want to get out of here. If you can’t go back to America would you want to come to England.”

Although she perked up, Kate was suspicious about his intentions. She hadn’t given him enough information to warrant a reward. He’d been vague about his relationship status. Maybe he wanted to bring her along as some sort of toy. “I don’t want to be a whore.” She replied. “Not here, not in America, and not in England.

“What else are you good at?” Tommy replied callously even though he didn’t intend to come off so harsh.

She scoffed, her eyes widening in disbelief. “You mean what am I good at beside fucking men?” Her voice was incredulous.

“I didn’t-”

“I’m not an object, Mr. Shelby, I have plenty of redeeming qualities. Or do you have your head so far up your own ass that you can’t see that?” She demanded.

He subtly rolled his eyes. The woman was testing his patience. “Are you using me?”

“Are you using me? ” She retorted.

Another stalemate. Neither of them looked away or softened their glare. It was as if the world had never seen such a dramatic clash of personalities. A mysterious woman who held valuable information, although it was questionable how she acquired it. And a man who wanted nothing more than to rule an empire but had severely lost his trust for others.

Kate decided to break the tense silence. “Mr. Shelby, you must understand that I fled America for a reason. I’m not looking to stir up the pot again and have them out for blood. They have no issue sending men to come and find me. If I give you information that can be traced back to me, then I have a problem.”

Tommy prided himself on being a good judge of character. He rarely trusted anyone that was outside of his immediate family. It was easy for him to pick up on tells that someone was lying. And he saw the hint of fear hidden behind Kate’s slate-colored eyes. He cleared his throat and stood up to pour himself another whiskey. “Say I were to trust you. You gave me the information I want and in exchange, you come to Birmingham with me. I can give you work at my company. Legitimate work.” He clarified before she argued with him again. “If your information checks out and is valuable, you’ll be compensated. And if there’s a threat on your life, you’ll be under the Peaky Blinders’ protection.”

Kate fidgeted and was a little uneasy with the proposition. But it was the only lifeline she had to get out of Paris. She had men promising her large sums of money before. Enough cash to leave the Moulin Rouge and find a life of her own. But they were hollow promises that were never kept. They promised to bring her home and provide her with everything. But what was expected from her in return made her sick.

Tommy could be holding out. Maybe he would break his promise once he got what he wanted. Maybe he would bring her to Birmingham and still treat her like a whore. Still, the walls were closing in on Kate. She didn’t have another option. It was a calculated risk, but it was a risk for Tommy as well. Maybe that was why she stood up and reached out to shake his hand. Sealing the deal.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Tommy was quite the picture sitting outside of a cafe. Sat at the small table, he was enjoying the Parisian sunlight while nursing an espresso and smoking.  He stretched out his legs a bit to keep comfortable. Activity bustled around him, men in fine suits, women dressed in the highest fashion, and mothers lugging along crying children. The romantic allure of the French language enveloped him and strangely eased his tension.

           Tommy assumed that coming to France would only trigger negative memories from the War. The rapid-fire foreign tongue that mixed with English in the trenches. The scent of their cigars. But the city was different enough to make him forget. Well, at least push the thought aside for a moment. He could never forget.

           A bright lilac covered cloche hat caught his attention. Tommy didn’t know whether the peacock feather stuck in the hat’s band was real or not but it certainly looked the part. Tightly wound blonde curls peeked out from underneath the short brim of the hat.

           Her blue eyes found his before he saw her hat. Kate walked towards him, maneuvering through the passing crowd. “Mr. Shelby,” She greeted and plopped herself down at the cafe table across from him.

           “You can call me Tommy.” He replied.

           I pegged you for more of a formal man.” Kate dug into her black purse for her compact mirror and lipstick.”

           Tommy watched her pull out the mirror, a small disk embellished with emerald stones. Most likely they were fake, and some were missing from the circular pattern. Her lipstick was a dark red. She flipped open the compact mirror and began to apply it. He saw her eyes poking up above the edge of the silver-plated mirror. That’s when he noticed the shadow under her right eye and the knot on her forehead. Injuries that certainly hadn’t been there when they’d spoken the night before.

           That morning, they had met in the lobby of the hotel the Peaky Blinders were staying in. Kate informed Tommy that she would be going to the Moulin Rouge to speak with her employer. He offered to go along with her but was turned down. Kate didn’t trust the British man yet. There was no need for him to be involved with her resignation. Mostly because she knew it would be ugly. Her boss, not the owner of the club but the manager, had a strong temper and often lashed out at the women. Especially women who were trying to escape their lives of night entertainers.

           “Who did that to you?” Tommy kept his tone even. He didn’t want to make it a spectacle of pointing out her injuries, lest she clammed up and denied anything happened.

           Her eyes flicked over the rim of the mirror to look at him. “Do you care?” The hand applying her lipstick paused, her lips parted slightly.

           “Yes.”

           Kate sighed and finished touching up her makeup. With a snap, she closed the mirror and shoved it back into her purse along with the tube of lipstick. “Some people don’t like to take no for an answer.”

           The cryptic answer didn’t satisfy Tommy. “Who did it?” He repeated firmly.

           A bitter smile crossed her face. “What? Are you going to act the knight in shining armor for me?” She accused. “Rest assured, Mr.-Tommy, I’ve met my fair share of men who had no issue roughing up a woman. They call it equality.”

           Tommy frowned. “That’s not how I operate.”

           The dark conversation about abusers appeared to amuse Kate in a twisted way. Perhaps she had become so accustomed to the brutal nature of some that she expected it. It simply became a way of life. Either she fought back, which was appropriate in some cases, or she expertly covered up the marks with powder the next morning. She didn’t fight everyone who aggressed against her. She chose her battles wisely.

           “How do you Brummies operate then?” She inquired.

           “If someone lays a hand on you then they lose their hand,” Tommy replied bluntly. “That’s what being under the protection of the Peaky Blinders entails.”

           “Why’d you call yourselves that?” She dismissed his explanation of his policy regarding abusers.

           He raised an eyebrow but reached up to slip off his flat cap, passing it over to Kate. “Razor blades sewn into the brim.”

           Kate examined the gray cap and gently pushed back the seam to see the blades hidden. She lightly pressed her thumb against the sharp edge, making an indent across her fingerprint. “Huh, so you blind people.”

           “When it’s necessary.” Tommy took the cap back from her and placed it back on his head.

           “So, what work do you have for me?” She folded her hands on the table, leaning slightly forward to address him.

           “It’ll all be explained once we get to Birmingham.” He answered and reached into his pocket to pull out a few coins for the coffee. “Until then, you should start compiling all the information you’re going to give me. I’d rather not leave a paper trail but if you must write things down to remember, then you may.”

           “How gracious of you.”

           He continued talking, skipping over her snarky remark. “Until then, I’ll have you meet me brothers and a few of my men who are here. For now, you’re simply my new hire. They won’t need to know you’re an informant.”

           “You keep secrets from your family often, Tommy?” Kate tilted her head to the side with a simpering glance. “That doesn’t make for good business.”

           Again, Tommy chose to disregard what she said. “I’ve already bought you a ticket for the ship. We’re leaving tomorrow morning at eight.”

           Kate waved over the waiter and ordered a coffee in French. She crossed her legs and picked up Tommy’s silver tin of cigarettes without asking. He didn’t stop her, instead just pulling out his lighter and offering it to her. After a few drags, she smiled coyly. “You must be excited to return to your sweetheart back home.”

           Tommy knew that he’d left his relationship status vague. He’d done so intentionally. “I don’t have anyone back home.”

           “I think you do.”

           “Is that so?”

           Her smile grew a little as he teased her. It was as if he wanted her to show off her intelligence, to prove herself. “You have a past; anyone can see that in your eyes. I also know you’ve had your fair share of whores. So, when you’re alone in a hotel suite with one of Paris’s finest and you don’t try anything, it usually means you’re holding out for someone. It’s honorable.” She shrugged. “Not many men have your...restraint.”

           He frowned. This wasn’t the conversation he was looking to have. But he figured it wouldn’t bode well if he arrived from Paris with a woman in tow. Grace would surely have a few questions. “You’ll meet her once you’re in Birmingham. She works at the bar I own.”

           “What’s her name?”

           “Did your boss do that to you because you said you were going to leave?”

           Kate smiled. It was fairly entertaining to her, the mental games that Tommy seemed to play in conversations. The man clearly liked control even when simply talking to another person. “So, what if he did?”

           Tommy pondered the idea. Would he be willing to risk getting revenge for a woman he hardly knew? Would he let a man who worked with vulnerable women get away with hurting them? It seemed like a good job for Isaiah and Finn. Get their feet wet a little bit. “Then he’s a bad man.”

           “Were you like this before the war?”

           “Like what?”

           His composure fascinated Kate. At the Moulin Rouge, men didn’t like when the women asked questions. There were several reasons. He was a high profile man who was risking a lot to have a little fun at the club. He felt talking interrupted the show. Or he simply didn’t see women as humans. Sometimes it was all of the above. But Tommy didn’t seem to mind the questions, even if he never answered them.

           “Like you want to make sure every bad man pays for his sins.”

           He exhaled a stiff snort of laughter and let his eyes wander out to the street. “I think I know how you came by all this information you claim to have.”

           Her lips quirked up into a smile. “Oh?”

           “You don’t drop an issue.”

           Kate grinned. She thanked the waiter who came over with her order. “Merci, I am on his tab, and make sure he leaves you a generous tip.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

           “Tom, of all the bad fucking ideas-”

           Tommy waved a hand at the liquor cart. “Take what you’d like and sit down, brother.”

           Arthur grimaced but did pour himself a drink before going to sit where Kate had been the night before. After a hearty swig, he held his hands up as if waiting for Tommy to hand over the explanation. The explanation of why suddenly a French whore was joining them on their return journey to Birmingham.

           “She’s got information about the Americans. Things we can use against them once we expand overseas.”

           “Expand overseas...hang on when did we discuss this?” The eldest Shelby demanded.

           “I’ve been playing with the idea. We’ve got the ability and we shouldn’t limit ourselves to Birmingham or London. Shouldn’t fucking limit ourselves to the continent.”

           Arthur frowned and finished his drink. “Think you’re biting off more than you can chew, mate. We’ve just done a deal here, why can’t we fucking focus on what we’ve got in Birmingham for the time being?”

           “You can focus on Birmingham, but she’s going to give us good information. I’m not saying we’re going to make a move on America tomorrow. It’ll take time.”

           There was obviously no point in trying to talk Tommy out of his decision. “Right, so what is she gonna do? Just sit ‘round your office talking? How’d you know we can trust her?”

           “We can’t.” Tommy admitted coolly. “But I’ve offered her a job in the company. One that’ll test her loyalty.”

           “So you’re risking our family and company because she might have some information on people we ain’t even fucking fighting with yet?” Arthur was appalled at the idea.

           Tommy leaned over the back of a chair with a glint in his eyes. “Yet. Arthur, yet.” He smiled slightly. “But when we do start fighting, we’ll be ten steps ahead of them. They won’t know what fucking hit them.”

           The desire for power in his brother’s eyes wasn’t unfamiliar, at least not in recent months. It seemed more than ever Tommy was itching for any opportunity to grasp more power. And it was far too late to try and cool him down. “You’re a fucking madman, Tom.”

           “And yet you keep following me into battle.”

Permanent Tag: @sansajonsastark​ @giftofdreams​

Masterlist 

[newstfionline]

Friday, October 9, 2020

Alarmed by Scope of Wildfires, Officials Turn to Native Americans for Help (NYT) When Belinda Brown was a child, she would rise early in the morning every spring and fall to help her father and grandfather light the fields of the XL Ranch Indian reservation outside of Alturas, Calif. She would take a metal rake to the grasses and watch as flames spread. “Fire was absolutely a part of what we did all the time,” she said. “It wasn’t a fearful thing.” Long before California was California, Native Americans used fire to keep the lands where they lived healthy. That meant intentionally burning excess vegetation at regular intervals, during times of the year when the weather would keep blazes smaller and cooler than the destructive wildfires burning today. The work requires a deep understanding of how winds would spread flames down a particular hillside or when lighting a fire in a forest would foster the growth of certain plants, and that knowledge has been passed down through ceremony and practice. But until recently, it has been mostly dismissed as unscientific. Now, as more Americans are being forced to confront the realities of climate change, firefighting experts and policymakers are increasingly turning to fundamental ecological principles that have long guided Indigenous communities. “I keep saying we’re getting that ‘I told you so’ award,” Ms. Brown, a member of the Kosealekte Band of the Ajumawi-Atsuge Nation in Northern California, said with a weary smile. “My prayer is that ignorance won’t stop us again.”

North Dakota and the pandemic (NYT/Politico) The coronavirus has exploded in North Dakota. In the past week, North Dakota reported more new cases per capita than any other state. Hospitalizations for the virus have risen abruptly, forcing health care officials in some towns to send people to faraway hospitals, even across state lines to Montana and South Dakota. Officials have huddled with hospital leaders in recent days to contemplate ways to free up more hospital beds even as they contend with broader turmoil over virus policy in a state that has seen resignations of three state health officers since the pandemic’s start. The rise in cases and deaths—September was by far the deadliest month for North Dakota since the start of the pandemic—reflects a new phase of the virus in the United States. From Wisconsin to Montana, states in the Midwest and Great Plains, many of which had avoided large outbreaks in earlier months when coastal cities were hard hit, are seeing the brunt. And in rural portions of the states now reeling, medical resources are quickly stretched thin for residents who can live hours from large hospitals.

Louisiana braces for strike from Hurricane Delta on Friday (Washington Post) Hurricane Delta, which blasted Cancun and Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula early Wednesday, is poised to slam storm-weary Louisiana on Friday. Although the storm lost considerable strength as it approached and crossed the Yucatán, dropping from a Category 4 to Category 1, it is predicted to regain strength over the balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico through Thursday. Landfall is forecast on Friday afternoon or evening along Louisiana’s central or western coast, parts of which are still recovering from a devastating strike from Category 4 Hurricane Laura in late August. The Hurricane Center has issued a hurricane warning from the Texas-Louisiana border to Morgan City, La. which includes the zone where Laura made landfall. New Orleans may escape with only low-end tropical-storm-force winds, but any shift in the track eastward could increase storm effects there.

Navigating by mango trees, pink houses in rural Puerto Rico (AP) CAGUAS, Puerto Rico—Firefighters in this city near Puerto Rico’s capital cheered when they recently got updated maps that include rural neighborhoods, confessing they sometimes had to rely on taxi drivers for directions during emergencies. That’s because more than 300,000 homes on the island have no formal address. The absence of street names and numbers across the island has long been a problem for the U.S. territory, where internet map services sometimes fail. Directions can involve a mango tree, or a bakery or a house of a certain color. It’s even a problem in urban areas, like one district of the capital, San Juan, where some people rely on a life-size Bigfoot doll on a balcony as a reference point for directions to a hospital. It’s not unusual to hear something like: “Turn right at kilometer 58 and make a left after a large hole. If you go past the big breadfruit tree, you’ve gone too far.” So getting lost has long been an acceptable and occasional fun part of island life for some, but the coronavirus pandemic, a recent series of earthquakes and increasingly active hurricane seasons are prodding authorities to resolve the problem. Without an address, emergency responders cannot find people quickly or deliver basic supplies or medical care when up to 60% of homes in some municipalities lack one.

Bolivia declares natural disaster due to wildfires (Reuters) Bolivia declared a state of disaster due to wildfires ravaging forested and agricultural areas in the eastern part of the country, President Jeanine Anez said on Thursday. In 2019, wildfires destroyed more than 6 million hectares in the Bolivian Amazon. So far this year 1.1 million hectares [4,240 square miles] have burned, according to the government, while the non-government organization Friends of Nature Foundation (FAN) said the area wrecked was twice as large.

Greek Neofascist Party’s Demise (Foreign Policy) The leaders of Greece’s Golden Dawn political party were found guilty on Wednesday of a range of criminal activity, including using the party as cover to run a criminal organization. A court in Athens ruled that acts of violence committed by members of Golden Dawn against migrants and left-wing activists were consciously planned and executed by the party leadership as a way of eliminating perceived threats. The ruling followed a trial that lasted five-and-a-half years. Several dozen party members and associates, including 18 former lawmakers and party leader Nikos Michaloliakos, were found guilty on a variety of charges, including murder, attempted murder, assault, and possession of weapons. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the courthouse to await the verdict. When the news came, the crowds erupted in applause and cheers.

Virus wallops Ukraine (AP) Coronavirus infections in Ukraine began surging in late summer, and the ripples are now hitting towns like Stebnyk in the western part of the country, where Dr. Natalia Stetsik is watching the rising number of patients with alarm and anguish. “It’s incredibly difficult. We are catastrophically short of doctors,” says Stetsik, the chief doctor at the only hospital in the town of 20,000 people. “It’s very hard for a doctor to even see all the patients.” The hospital is supposed to accommodate 100 patients, but it’s already stretched to the limit, treating 106 patients with COVID-19.

Azeris and ethnic Armenians fight as Russia, U.S. and France seek ceasefire (Reuters) Azerbaijan and ethnic Armenians fought with artillery and heavy guns on Thursday as the United States, France and Russia stepped up efforts to secure a ceasefire and avert a wider war in the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan said the city of Ganja had come under fire, deep inside its territory. Ethnic Armenians who control the mountain enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh inside Azerbaijan said Stepanakert, its main city, had been shelled by Azeri forces. The continued fighting and rising tension underlined the difficulties facing U.S., Russian and French officials meeting in Geneva to try to halt fighting in which at least 400 people have been killed since it broke out on Sept. 27.

Russia surrounded by instability (NYT) In Russia’s self-proclaimed sphere of influence, Russia is losing its influence. Concurrent crises in Belarus, Central Asia and the Caucasus region have blindsided the Kremlin, leaving it scrambling to shore up Russian interests in former Soviet republics and undermining President Vladimir V. Putin’s image as a master tactician on the world stage. Mr. Putin has spent years building up Russia as a global power, with a hand in hot spots from Latin America to the Middle East. But after working for years to destabilize the West, he suddenly finds himself surrounded by instability. The spate of new challenges to Russian influence strikes at the heart of Mr. Putin’s yearslong effort to cast himself as the leader who restored the great-power status that the nation lost with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The confluence of crises in Russia’s own neighborhood is such that some pro-Kremlin commentators are already accusing the West of an organized campaign to sow discord in the post-Soviet regions. More balanced analysts, however, have singled out one constant factor in the growing unrest. Both Russia and its neighbors, they say, have been destabilized by the coronavirus pandemic, which has exposed distrust in institutions and in out-of-touch leaders across the region.

Trump administration to impose crushing sanctions on Iran in defiance of European humanitarian concerns (Washington Post) The Trump administration has decided to impose new sanctions on Iran’s financial sector in defiance of European allies who warned that the move could have devastating humanitarian consequences on a country reeling from the novel coronavirus and an ongoing currency crisis, three officials familiar with the decision said Wednesday. The measures will target the few remaining banks not currently subject to secondary sanctions in a move European governments say is likely to diminish channels Iran uses to import humanitarian goods, such as food and medicine, officials said. The move represents a major pre-election push on a signature Trump administration policy that has succeeded in devastating the Iranian economy, while failing to moderate Tehran’s behavior or limit its nuclear program. The proposal to blacklist the entire Iranian financial industry has been pushed by Israeli officials and the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish U.S. nonprofit organization that has advocated for regime change in Iran.

[holytheoristtastemaker]

Outreaching is still the first way some businesses approach customer acquisition. SEO, social media marketing, paid advertising, etc. could all do wonders but you have a huge budget and a dedicated team to see results from them. 

Cold emailing, SMS marketing, messenger marketing, etc. or any other form of outreaching, on the other hand, are still low-hanging fruit. The tools you need to implement them are cheap compared to SEO tools, you won’t need to wait for months or years to see serious results, and obviously they’re a great way to form a good relationship. 

Contrary to what most people think, cold emailing is not a numbers game. The 2% response rate from cold emailing is typically the result of sending recklessly composed emails to random people. If you want your cold emailing to stats to hit the roof, you really need to have a strategy in place and consider cola emailing as a marketing channel that needs dedicated time and effort. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the 4 main strategies you need to have in your cold emailing campaigns to boost your response rates and land prospects. 

1. Figuring who you should reach out to

Targeting the right person and email address is the key step in a successful cold email. Missing out one or two of the other steps in your cold emailing might not have a lethal effect. You might still get a response from people. But missing out the right person and email address right off the bat simply ruins the whole process. 

In some cases, an email through a contact form might do the trick for you, but in most cases, you really need to find the right decision-maker to send an email to. Obviously the right decision-maker is the one you’re trying to help with your cold email. If you’re offering a product that could help a company with their link building, you need to reach out to the SEO manager or content manager of that company. Depending on the size of the company, you could reach out to these roles:

0-10 employees: The decision-maker is usually the CEO, unless the company has co-founders in the vertical you’re selling into (e.g., CTO for Product, CMO for Marketing) or has experienced VPs.

10-50 employees: VPs generally have buying power here.

50-500 employees: At this size, look for specialized roles, such as Sales Manager, Business Development Manager, etc..

500+ employees: Find regional, specialized roles, such as East Coast Rep, North America Rep, New York City Rep, etc.

To find out these people and their email addresses, the first thing you should do is check out their “about us” or “our team” page. You might find the right person and their email address there. If this didn’t work out, you could check out the company’s LinkedIn page. Then search for specific roles in that company. You could then use a tool such as Hunter or ZeroBounce’s free email verifier to find out the email address of that person. 

2. Truthful communication

This one goes a long way. The whole idea of sending cold emails to people is proposing help with their specific problems. And of course, everybody knows the help won’t be free so there you go — you sell. 

For this, you need to have a good understanding of their problems and their needs and you need to state it as clearly as possible. So the whole email would be about them not you. 

Being truthful in cold emailing is the only way you can make sure people trust you in the long run. 

Avoid tricking people into opening your emails or clicking on your links. The negative effect of your clickbait subject lines will be effected when people find it out. Here are some examples of clickbait subject lines I’ve found in my own inbox: 

Want my website?” (offering an affiliate link to sell me his website theme)

“I told you not to do this” (I had no previous communication with them)

“Your subscription is expiring” (What subscription?)

“Re: your invite” (using “Re” to make me think I had communicated with them)

“[last chance] Re: your offer”

“Re: Join . . . in London on October 19th – save your spot now!”

3. Offering a single and concise benefit

Singularity and conciseness of your offer is the key in cold emailing. People typically avoid spending time on reading rambling emails from total strangers. To capture their attention, you need to make sure you know exactly what it is you’re offering and offer it in a way that’s easy to understand and actionable. 

To do this you need to start from the subject line all the way through the closing line: 

Write an interesting and concise subject line. Curiosity-invoking elements such as questions, facts, and numbers could be useful. Sales

Do your homework and get to know your recipient. Are they complaining about anything on social media or their blog? Are they interested in anything specifically? Or do they despise anything? Have they recently published a blog post? Gather as much information as you can to use in your subject line and your email’s body. 

Visit their personal website, sign up for their newsletter (and tell them about it in your email), read their content, see if they were mentioned in the news, research their position and tenure at the company, and find out who they’ve worked with and the challenges they face.

See if the company has had a recent achievement, reputable client, an article featured in a major publication, or a new feature released. Make sure none of the challenges or wins they experience goes unnoticed.

Close your email by asking for a simple low-barrier response that would elicit a simple action. Avoid asking too many questions.. Questions such as “Would this be a problem for you?”, “Interested in a free demo of how our platform can [cite the benefit]?” or, “I think the best way to discuss what we can do for you is over the phone. Would you be interested in that?” would be great. 

Check out a couple of cold emailing samples from SalesHandy:

Finally

Cold emailing is still the cheapest and most profitable customer acquisition channel for most businesses. The tools it needs are cheap and easy to use. It has the potential to have quite high open/response rates if done right. And it builds a person-to-person relationship with your customers.

[theantisocialcritic]

An Introduction to Orson Welles - The (Belated) 2018 Director’s Marathon

Authors Note: The following novella-length essay on the history of Orson Welles was written to be the December 2018 Directors Marathon as is a tradition for this blog. It was submitted to Geeks Under Grace wherein it was rejected for its excessive length. After several months of consideration as to how to rework the piece into something publishable within the website’s requirements, it is being published now as was initially intended at the AntiSocialCritic Blog. 

"I started at the top and I've been working my way down ever since."

- Orson Welles F for Fake

In the early morning of October 10, 1985, Orson Welles suffered a heart attack and died at his desk. He departed the world he had left such a massive impact upon as quietly and mundanely as a great man could. Just hours before the once superstar artist made his final public appearance on The Merv Griffon Show where he talked about his life. Prior to that in the weeks before he had starred in his final cinematic role while providing the voice of Unicron for Transformers: The Movie. His funeral was a quiet affair at a local hotel, surrounded by his surviving close friends and estranged family members from multiple marriages. You might view this humble affair and fail to understand that the man being eulogized was, in fact, one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. Across his massive career, Orson Welles became a pioneer of theater, radio, and film that pushed forward and challenged those art forms radically. He was intelligent, charismatic, well-read and alluring with an ability to command an audience through his words and presence. He was a showman, an actor as well as a magician but also a creative mind with a unique understanding and love for art.

Yet for all of his creativity across a half-century of output he's almost entirely remembered solely for two major events early in his career. In 1938, he performed a radio rendition of H.G. Welles' War of the Worlds that supposedly ginned up a massive panic on the East Coast of the United States. Then in 1941, he directed Citizen Kane for RKO Radio Productions which would eventually go on to become the most acclaimed film in the history of cinema. As a result, his public image rapidly declined. He became recognized as a washed up, unreliable filmmaker with obesity problems and a bombastic personality. This version of Welles would become the stereotype so brutally mocked by comedians on television shows like The Simpsons, The Critic and Pinky and the Brain. Despite being pigeon-holed and written off within a decade of the peak of his career he continued to work as a filmmaker and an actor across North America and Europe for decades until his death. As excellent as his inaugural effort was his career has dozens of excellent films and performances that are well worth revisiting. Thankfully there has never been a better time to go back and review the works of Orson Welles than right now.

On November 2nd, 2018, Netflix published what will likely be the last of his posthumous works with The Other Side of the Wind. I reviewed the film for Geeks Under Grace at the time it released and have spent the last month reflecting on the experience of seeing such a culturally significant film. It's not every day that a lost piece of art is drudged up and rebuilt from the ground up. Beyond that, the film carries with it so many beautiful reflections, moments of brilliant and visual poetry. Knowing that it's the inheritor of such a vital legacy adds a great deal of weight to the film.

When I started writing publicly one of the first major article series I worked on was a project I called the Director Marathons. From 2014-2017 I did a yearly dive every December into the full filmography of a famous acclaimed director. Over the first four marathons, I dug through the collective works of Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo Del Toro, and The Coen Brothers. I also did an additional six-month breakdown on the entire filmography of Steven Spielberg. Now that Geeks Under Grace is my home for writing I want to continue that tradition here. I considered several major filmmakers including Sam Raimi, John Carpenter, George Romero, and Martin Scorsese but with the release of The Other Side of the Wind, it became clear to me that no director more deserve the attention afforded by a total viewing of their body of work than Orson Welles.

What follows are a series of brief historical retrospectives and film analysis's meant to offer a brief look into the seventy-year life of the man of the hour. For every analysis I offer there is a greater and deeper discussion that every subject of his life I bring up can be made. In the name of brevity, I want this series to be largely introductory (12.5 thousand words of introduction...). The secret of great art is that there are always depths to be plumed within it, nuances to observe and details to be discussed. With Welles part of the appeal beyond his incredible eye for detail is his desire to push the boundaries of the art forms he tackled. Every project and chapter of his life could fill a thick book with all the details that go into them. Film improved as an art form because of his embrace of expressionism and innovative use of technology. Filmmakers as vital as Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese regularly host his works among the most influential and beloved of the movies that inspired theirs. There is so much immense history and artistry that can be delved into across the full career of Orson Welles.

That being said, as we learn in his inaugural film Citizen Kane, this can be something of a fruitless endeavor. You can never fully know the full life of a man based on what he leaves behind. Much like Charles Foster Kane's home Xanadu, his works stand as an eternal memorial to Welles' incredible creativity. Lost in the ruins of his career is the man that can only be remembered. These works aren't him. They're all we have left of him. There will never be a Rosebud moment where we understand the inner life of Orson Welles. Even so, the life of Welles is a grand one of ups and downs. In spite of the challenges, we shall do our best to look through the art to see the man.

1. The Young Orson Welles

Orson Welles's early life was faced with much splendor and difficulty. Born to Richard and Beatrice Welles in Kenosha, Wisconsin on May 6, 1915, his family was at one point very affluent and wealthy as his father invented a bicycle lamp that allowed the family to move to Chicago. He eventually stopped working and subsumed to alcoholism. Richard and Beatrice would separate in 1919. Orson's mother found work at the Art Institute of Chicago as a pianist performing for lectures. On May 10, 1924, Beatrice would die of Hepatitis, leaving the nine-year-old Welles without a proper family.

Welles lived with his alcoholic father for three years, traveling the world and attending multiple schools. He would eventually settle himself at the Todd Seminary School for Boys in Woodstock, IL where he would set his roots. Later in this life, Welles revealed that Woodstock was the closest thing he had to a home. "Where is home?" Welles replied, "I suppose it's Woodstock, Illinois if it's anywhere. I went to school there for four years. If I try to think of a home, it's that."

The Todd School for Boys ended up being the catalyst for much of Welles intellectual development. His teachers fostered his fascination with acting and the arts and gave the incredibly intelligent young man free rein to expand himself. At age 15, Orson's father passed away from heart and kidney failure. Following High School, the young man found himself awash with opportunities including a scholarship to Harvard University which he declined. After a brief multi-week flirtation with the Art Institute of Chicago, the adventurous young Welles sought a life of travel.

2. Man of the Stage

Welles gallivanted across Europe using the remains of his inheritance. During a stay in Dublin, Ireland the young man approached the manager of the Gate Theater claiming he was a famous Broadway actor that ought to have a position on the stage. The manager didn't believe him yet gave him the job anyway based on his charisma and bravery. His stage debut was on October 13, 1931, in the role of Duke Karl Alexander of Wurttemberg in the play Jew Suss. He would act in several more Dublin productions including an adaptation of W. Somerset Maugham's The Circle at the Abbey Theater. He would try and seek further work in London but failed to acquire a work permit and thus returned to the United States.

Upon his return, Welles made his American debut as a man of the stage at the Woodstock Operahouse in Woodstock, IL. Welles immediately sought out his Irish compatriots from the Gate Theater to stage a drama festival in Woodstock consisting of Trilby, Hamlet, The Drunkard, and Tsar Paul. During this time he also got his first radio gig working on The American School of the Air and shot his first short film.

After marrying Chicago socialite Virginia Nicholas in 1934, Welles moved to New York City where he performed the role of Tybalt in an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. On March 22, 1935, Orson made his radio premiere on the CBS Radio series The March of Time doing a scene from the 1935 Archibald MacLeish play Panic. Radio would become his primary income as the money he immediately started making with CBS was significant. Welles had moved to New York at the height of the Great Depression and ended up being in exactly the right place to benefit. The Federal Theater Project had been crafted by the Works Progress Administration as a method of helping to bring economic relief to struggling artists. Welles jumped on the opportunity and began funneling money from his incredibly lucrative $1,500/week Radio work into the theater project. President Roosevelt would quip that Orson Welles was the only person in history to illegally siphon money into a government project. The arrangement suited most everyone however and was looked the other way on. Famously Welles became so busy during this time in his life that he hired an ambulance to transport him back and forth across New York City at full speed between his radio performances and his theater directing jobs.

His first work became the incredibly famous and then wildly transgressive production of Voodoo Macbeth. The all-black production recast the traditionally Scottish play and set in against the backdrop of Haiti's court of King Henri Christophe. The production became a nationally recognized and hailed play that toured the country and skyrocketed Welles' name into the spotlight at the ripe age of twenty. The next several years of Welles life became dedicated to this grind of different theatrical productions and radio gigs, culminating his 1937 departure from the Federal Theater Project to create his own theatrical troupe. What would become known as the Mercury Theater opened on November 11, 1937, with an acclaimed restaging of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar set against the background of fascist Europe with himself in the role of Brutus. Here Welles would create many of the lasting relationships and raise multiple actors would follow him through his journey in Hollywood including Joseph Cotton, Everett Sloane and Vincent Price.

3. Voice on the Radio

Though famously a devotee of the Baird, Welles' recognition was earned by his incredible command of the airwaves. Welles' famous baritone voice became a regular mainstay across America as he became the regular voice for many of the country's most popular radio dramas of the time.

At the age of 21, Welles produced an acclaimed and often criticized version of Hamlet he did for the Colombia Workshop that shaved the four-hour play into a two-part 59-minute audio drama that cut the story of the Shakespearean tragedy to the bone. His presentation was noticeably more emotive than most presentations of Shakespeare at the time which set him apart. The bread and butter of his work throughout the 1930s was his work on pulps and radio dramas. Throughout 1937 over the course of a year, Welles provided the voice for the pulp icon The Shadow. At that point, the vigilante pulp hero in question was one of the largest entertainment properties of the time with novellas and regular radio dramas dedicated to him every week. Having Welles take up the mantle for a time put the fledgling star in the seat of a pop icon.

The moment that shot Welles into the spotlight came on October 30th, 1938 when Orson performed what would become the greatest media scandal of his career with the infamous War of the Worlds broadcast. The adaptation he conceived was fascinating. He took the broad events of H.G. Welles famous science fiction novel and interpreted them in the form of a series News broadcasts as though the events of the book were happening in rural New Jersey and New York City. The following events aren't clear. Welles himself inflated the reaction to the broadcast as though hundreds of screaming civilians scurried across New York City and attempted to flee head first into the Hudson River. More than likely the reaction caused nothing more than a minor stir compared to the massive nationwide reaction that the broadcast was implied to have caused. The broadcast itself did advertise itself on the pretense that it was a radio drama so any disturbed civilians would've tuned in later into the broadcast without the knowledge that it was a radio play. The incident was taken seriously by the United States government and Welles was forced to own up to the brief chaos. Next to his first film, this incident would become the most widely remembered moment of his career and one he took a perverse pride in. Beyond the angry government officials, it caught many an important eye of the day. Among the people who took interest in Welles were the producers at RKO Radio Productions in Hollywood.

4. Sought by Hollywood

Welles initially had no interest in film or Hollywood. Hollywood wanted Welles because he was an exploding star with exactly the sort of talents and celebrity that could transition into a film career. RKO Radio Pictures approached him with enormous monetary offers but the disinterested Welles was already wealthy. Money was no object to him. If he was going to be dragged into the film industry he was going to do it on his own terms. Thus he sent RKO an over the top ridiculous offer demanding full creative control over whatever he produced with them. To his surprise and the surprise of the enter Hollywood establishment, RKO accepted. He was offered a multi-picture deal with full creative control, upto and including hundreds of thousands of dollars to spend on each film and the right to reserve showing the picture to the studio executives until it was completed.

This has to understood in context. The late 1930s was the height of the studio system in Hollywood. Filmmakers worked at the behest of cutthroat corporate masters who had the right and gumption to control every facet of a film. They frequently re-shot segments from acclaimed films before they're released on a whim based on what they thought worked/didn't work/was marketable by their standards. Even industry greats like John Ford and Frank Capra didn't get to control this much of their films. Given that creatives had so many restrictions the results were stunning. This was the moment in cinematic history when films like Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and Gone With the Wind were emerging and defining the Golden Age of Hollywood as a time when storytelling and craft were at their creative peaks. For Welles to gallivant into Hollywood and take over the town single-handedly was unheard of. To paraphrase Welles, he had been given the greatest train set a kid ever received and he was looking to use it.

Without knowledge of what he was even doing Welles immediately turned to the greats of the industry of the time to start building his team. His two most important collaborators would be screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz and cinematography Gregg Toland. Mankiewicz was a veteran screenwriter who had had his hand in writing and producing dozens of films since 1926. Toland was fresh off of working on multiple critically acclaimed films like The Long Voyage Home and The Grapes of Wrath, both of which he shot with John Ford.

Welles had the best talent Hollywood had to offer at his fingertips and near infinite power to do as he pleased and began working on different pitches for ideas for his first film. The first idea he conceived was ultimately too ambitious to achieve. He considered shooting an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness done in the first person perspective. The project ultimately fell apart as Welles eventually couldn't make his vision work on RKO's budget. Decades later there was a proper if highly altered adaptation of the book with Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now.

Heart of Darkness would be the first of three pitches Welles initially made to RKO to fill his two film contract. His second idea was a political thriller/comedy called The Smiler With a Knife based on a novel by Cecil Day-Lewis. This project stalled by December of 1939. Welles was uncertain of a plan and didn't want to drag starting production on something indefinitely. He was already behind schedule. Welles and Mankiewicz began brainstorming and eventually, the two started on an idea for a film titled American. Welles approached Mankiewicz during the writing to find that the script he'd written out was hundreds of pages of messy but serviceable ideas. Taking his excellent ability to cut down stories to the bone that he had used on Hamlet, Orson crafted what would come to be known as his first masterpiece Citizen Kane.

5. Citizen Kane (1941)

I recently did a full-length breakdown of Citizen Kane for Geeks Under Grace and don't wish to relitigate much of what I produced for that article here. What I do think is necessary is understanding how the world reacted to and would ultimately go onto understand the film.

The reaction to the film was both immediate and faltering. The film was met initially by mixed reviews that sited the film's awkward structure as a fault. It wouldn't be years before the film would be released after it's initial run that the film would be subsequently analyzed and relitigated as one of the greatest films of all time.

Well before it's release, the film's satirical target William Randolph Hearst heard the wind that the film was a rather overt critique of his person and attempted to buy the film outright from RKO Radio Pictures to prevent it from seeing the light of day. When that didn't work, he turned to his newspaper network which proceeded to lambast the film in the public eye. The film's release was delayed and by the time it released to the public the reaction was nothing more than a whimper. Citizen Kane bombed in the box office.

The half-century of after it's release brought much rabid discussion and reevaluation of the film into mainstream discussion. In a famed piece of now hotly disregarded film criticism, New Yorker Film Critic Paeline Kael wrote Raising Kane. The essay lambasted Orson Welles, the film in question and called into question the very authorship of the film, claiming that screenwriter Herman Manchowitz deserved more credit for his role in writing the film.

Mind you Pauline Kael's criticism wasn't totally irrational. Kael is one of the most influential critics in history and tends only to be remembered nowadays by her gaffs like her public disdain for Clint Eastwood films like Dirty Harry. Her coming out against Orson Welles is remembered as an enormous artistic mistake on her part but people take the book-length essay she wrote very seriously. As a point, it's worth noting that Welles fundamentally agreed with her on many points. He felt that the director was an overrated position in filmmaking and that film was a collaborative process between the writers, actors and crew that the direct guided and oversaw. Even so, it's not surprising one of the antagonist characters in The Other Side of the Wind was a female film critic.

The most cynical read on Citizen Kane is that it's the film that introduced the concept of ceilings to the cinema. Prior to Citizen Kane, most film productions didn’t film ceilings because they needed open air sets to fit audio equipment. Many proclaimed fans of the film tend to adore it's superficiality more than it's actual storytelling chops as a film. As it stands the most remembered aspect of the film is the Rosebud twist at the end that Welles himself considered as gimmicky. Welles himself had a very conflicted relationship with the film. Welles disliked some of the films minor mistakes and ultimately came to consider the film a curse on his career that he could never live up to. How can anyone build a career off of an instant masterpiece? Even the man who made Citizen Kane couldn't manage to answer that question.

Yet in 1982, Steven Spielberg paid $55,000 for one of the surviving Sled props. Every filmmaker from Martin Scorsese, to Richard Linklater, to Tim Burton, to George Lucas and the aforementioned Steven Spielberg has sited Citizen Kane not only as one of their favorite films but as their inspiration for much of their work. In addition to most every respected film critic from Roger Ebert to Jonathon Rosenbaum has offered their endorsement of the film's strengths. Its legacy is undeniable. Is it overrated? Perhaps. While it's placement in the canon of Orson Welles is certainly hotly debated, there is no denying that Welles began his filmmaking career with a masterpiece for the history books.

6. The Magnificent Ambersons (1942)

There is a scene in Richard Linklater's Me and Orson Welles where the titular character and his apprenticing young actor Zac Effron that the Welles family was once close to Booth Tarkington. Though not widely remembered today, Tarkington would've been a huge deal to people at the time much how writers like Cormac McCarthy and David Foster Wallace are lionized today. His masterpiece The Magnificent Ambersons would go on to be the subject of Welles’ second major film for RKO. 

As Welles continued his work after the debacle of Citizen Kane's release he quickly moved on to fulfill the second film in his RKO contract. His team continued to dig through numerous options and ideas. The most notable idea he didn't end up going with was a pitch for an adaptation of the Bible called The Life of Christ which would've been a strictly adhered adaptation that ultimately fell through twice. Instead, Welles turned to the contemporary masterpiece that was close to his heart. Welles' initial cut of The Magnificent Ambersons is said to have been a masterpiece that rivaled Citizen Kane in quality. He translated the sad story of an old American family's decline into poverty and irrelevance to the cinema and delivered the second masterpiece RKO paid him to. Unfortunately for Welles, it wasn't the masterpiece RKO wanted. The studio shuttered at the bleak film Welles had produced and quickly began underhanded plans to change the film.

Welles was shipped off to Brazil as part of a US Government deal with their government. He was to shoot his third feature for RKO called It's All True which would've involved documentary footage from various festivals and events. While he was out of the country, RKO pulled all of the actors and crew back to the studio lot, cut out the third act of the film and reshot it with a happy ending that completely changed the story of The Magnificent Ambersons. Several cast and crew attempted to warn Welles but he didn't find out until it was too late. By the time he was back in Hollywood, he would lose his rights to change the film. Late in his life, Welles would find himself watching the theatrical cut of The Magnificent Ambersons late one night on television. His then mistress Oja Kodar recalled the experience of nearly walking into the room and catching a reflection of the late 60s Welles sobbing as the movie that clearly meant the most to him was presented on late night television. While the cut we have today is largely excellent, it's far from the vision that Welles had intended for it.

7. Fired from RKO

Welles had already been fired from RKO Radio Productions by the time he returned from Brazil. The studio that had once promised him free reign to produce masterpieces for them didn't like the controversy associated with his films and couldn't figure out how to market what he did film. For them, it was smarter to go into damage control mode and boot out the wunderkind to the streets. The cut of Magnificent Ambersons with the happy ending they did produce didn't do well in theaters and the preferred cut of the film was eventually destroyed. Thus began the air of bad luck that would surround Orson Welles' prolific career. Despite churning out two masterpieces, Hollywood now hated him. As time would go on he would become more and more of a pariah in filmmaking circles.

His last film for RKO which he was producing and directed several scenes for Journey into Fear ultimately saw him being stricken from the credits. His co-director Norman Foster would receive directing credit but later Welles scholars have often retroactively credited Welles as a director too. Welles immediately began damage control for his reputation by prostrating himself over the next several film projects he produced. He started taking acting jobs for films starting with an adaptation of Jane Eyre to try and repair his public image. Interestingly enough the latter film would end up being one of his only romantic performances as that film had been produced to capitalize off of the recent success of historical romances like Gone With The Wind.

8. The Stranger (1946)

Welles needed to jump back into Hollywood and prove that he was capable of producing something normal that he could sell. With that in mind, he conceived of The Stranger. The film would go on to be his least artistic and therefore most financially successful film. It had been four years since he'd been in the directing chair and he was desperate. He was approached by producer Sam Spiegel after director John Huston couldn't take the job. The result is easily the most Hollywoodish film of his filmography and the one that really represents the director at his most obedient. Despite the darker story, that being about a Nazi holocaust perpetuated being hunted by an investigator portrayed by Edward G. Robinson, the movie was a great deal less artistic and revolutionary by the standards of the time. It was merely a conventional noir thriller. To paraphrase Welles, he did the film with much stricter regulations as a means of proving to Hollywood that he wasn't a toxic director and that he could make money. While the film wouldn't succeed in fixing his reputation it at least made him slightly less toxic. Unfortunately, the film wouldn't lead to any additional career help for Orson. He originally signed with International Pictures to do a four-picture deal after the film as complete. The company backed out of the deal the just weeks after the premiere when it looked initially like the film wouldn't make it's money back.

9. The Lady from Shanghai (1947)

The life of Orson Welles has often been described as an illusion, an incestuous juggle between fact and fiction that the ever impressive Welles maintained as a kind false mysticism to increase his legend. While it did give his persona a larger than life appearance it's made tracking the history of Welles into a nightmare. This can be clearly seen in the case of Welles' third masterpiece The Lady from Shanghai. He's told the story of how he pitched the film to Hollywood producer Harry Cohn of Colombia Pictures. After his recent failures Welles turned back to his previous loves of radio and theater and began producing new shows and dramas. His biggest stage production at that point was a play version of Around the World in 80 Days which closed almost immediately within weeks after opening.

Supposedly, as the production was preparing for it's Boston premiere, Welles found himself strapped for cash and in desperate need for $50,000 to move the costumes from the train station to the theater. Desperately he pitched a fake book to the president of Colombia Pictures using the name of a paperback book a young woman was reading next to him, got the money, performed the show and then went back to Hollywood to write and direct the film. It's a great story but it likely isn't true. Whatever truth is in it is questionable as he's told different versions of the same story to different interviewers, each with a different amount of money and circumstance. It's likely that Welles just got called out of the blue by Harry Cohn to direct a thriller and he took the gig. Naturally of course half of the appeal of Orson Welles is the blur of fiction and reality the surrounds the myth of his life. It's fun to speculate but having a historically accurate read of Welles' history is a frustrating knot to untie for scholars.

That film he produced The Lady From Shanghai would become one of his most respected films and widely regarded as one of the weirdest movies. That's not hyperbole either as David Kehr of the Chicago Reader was quoted as saying it was one of the "weirdest great movies ever made". While more conventional by the standards of his previous two masterpieces, The Lady from Shanghai is far from your run of the mill Noir thriller. Welles had initially shot the film in the style of a documentary. That's a strange choice but it grounds the otherwise outlandish story of a sailor being asked to help fake the death of a wealthy man in a kind of distant visual style. Harry Cohn hated the result. Like his previous two films, large segments of the film were reshot to add traditional close-ups and conventional shooting. These shots clashed with the film's already strange visual style and made the film more surrealistic than it already was. The film's most notable contribution to cinema, of course, was the finale in the mirror maze. Without spoiling the story context, the final shootout is mesmerizing and visually bizarre and left an imprint on generations of filmmakers. The trope has returned in numerous forms from action films like Enter the Dragon and John Wick 2 to comics like The Dark Knight Returns. Yet again though, the film flopped in the box office.

As a quick aside, the film also stars his then second wife Rita Haworth with whom he divorced shortly after the film completed production.

10. Macbeth (1948)

It's strange that Welles' first attempt at a Shakespearian film would come about in such a modest fashion yet his selection wasn't surprising. Being that Voodoo Macbeth was the stage play that put his name on the map, a traditional Scottish production on film made sense to be his Shakespeare film.

Republic Pictures at the time was a subpar studio by the standards of the Big Three. It mostly produced B-Pictures and serials. For Herbert Yates, as the president of the studio, Welles' pitch for a Shakespeare adaption gave him high hopes that he might be able to make his fledgling Hollywood operation into a prestige studio with the right success and went all in on the idea. Welles produced the film on cheap sets and finished the film in just 19 days of production with two additional days of pick up shots. Yet despite being rushed and inexpensive, the film managed to produce something qualifying as a definitive vision of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. That speaks highly of the production given that the play has been adapted dozens of times in cinematic history including versions by Roman Polanski, Akira Kurosawa and most recently Justin Kurzel. Yet Welles' film was benefitted by Welles' unique expressionist take on filmmaking. The cheap stagey sets were masked in beautiful black and white film stock, lit with precision to highlight it's character's emotional state and performed to perfection with Welles in the central role.

Welles had bet that the film would go a long way to repairing his reputation and unfortunately this wouldn't help it. The film was savaged by American critics who despised the over-the-top Scottish accents in the initial release. Welles rerecorded the dialog with American accents for a 1950 rerelease but that version didn't do well either. Both versions were flops and outside of Europe where the critics appreciated it more, there wasn't much support for it. It didn't help that the film was released in close proximity to Laurence Olivier's acclaimed Hamlet which became one of the most celebrated Shakespeare adaptations of all time. It would take years for critics to start appreciating its strengths.

11. The Third Man (1949)

Of all of the films in the Welles filmography, maybe none is more vital to understanding the Celebrity of Orson Welles than The Third Man. Like Jane Eyre, this wasn't a film that he produced or directed in so much as he is remembered for his excellent performance. At that, he's barely in the film at all. The leading man is his frequent collaborator Joseph Cotton. The film was directed by legendary director Carol Reed, famous for films like Odd Man Out, Night Train to Munich, The Fallen Idol, and Oliver! While somewhat obscure now, the director became famous for being one of the most skilled directors in British history. In addition, the film was produced by legendary golden age producer David O'Selznick (Gone With the Wind, King Kong). Welles was asked to play the role of Harry Lime in the film and was offered one of two options for payment for a small role. He had the option of reviewing a portion of the film's profits down the line or a lump sum of money immediately. In a moment of deprivation, he jumped on the money immediately in a financial decision he would come to regret. The Third Man would go on to become the most financially successful film he was ever associated with. Had he chosen profit sharing he would've become immensely wealthy as the film in question has remained one of the most popular noir thrillers of all time.

Welles would later go on to express his opinion that his performance was the greatest "Star" role an actor could've ever asked for. Harry Lime is mentioned dozens of times in the film prior to his first appearance so when Orson Welles finally makes his surprise splash of an appearance the film there is a great deal of weight to his screen presence. His few scenes in the film and his improvised line are usually sighted as the high points of an otherwise widely regarded film. In some ways, this is sadly prophetic of much of the way culture remembers Orson Welles. People think of him as a flash in the pan and we see this in the way culture idealizes individual moments from his films as opposed to his films overall. Most people don't remember the side characters in Citizen Kane but they remember Rosebud. The same is true of The Third Man. People remember Welles' few scenes but they frequently forget Joseph Cotton and Carol Reed's accomplishments with the film outside of Welles. The mere size of his personality creates expectations. First-time viewers familiar with Welles might be surprised to notice he doesn't appear until well after the first hour of the film. Welles is just one turning gear in a much larger story about post-war corruption and profiteering set against the hurt and ruin of Vienna, Austria. His chemistry with Joseph Cotton adds an air of history two the two characters whose lives were once tied together being torn apart by circumstance. His deep baritone voice exudes an air of malevolence as he stares contemptuously on the small people below him. It's a small but vital performance built up to by one of the greatest thriller stories of all time.

12. Othello (1951)

No film would come to break Orson Welles' reputation more than Othello. Despite earning the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film at the 1952 Cannes Film Festival, Othello would become a curse on his reputation that he would never overcome. Welles had conceived of doing an adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello prior to Macbeth but ultimately chose to go with that play when the concept seemed unfeasible. Welles was approached by an Italian film production company to star and direct a film version of the famed play based on his recent theatrical work which the production company thought would translate over well into the stage play. Welles quickly got to work assembling a team of European filmmakers and actors that he took to Italy. The production was immediately stymied by the surprise Bankruptcy of the production company meaning that the subsequent three years of production necessary to get the film finished had to be self-financed. Though not Orson's fault as the factors were out of his control, this would prove to be the final nail in the coffin of his public reputation. The fact that the film took three years to finish and went over budget put a stigma on his name that he never escaped.

The result was a convoluted production shot across multiple countries including Spain, Italy, Morocco and Turkey that created a mismatched pan-Mediterranean look to the film. The final cut was an atmospheric masterpiece. Welles scholar Jonathon Rosenbaum described the tone as almost that of a horror film more than anything else. There's is an immense dread hanging over the film as we see the unfolding story of interracial love and racial bigotry play out against the backdrop of war and political strife. While a clean cut is available today thanks to the Criterion Collection, early distribution of the film didn't go well. The film received several cuts in different countries and many of the versions distributed had massive audio problems including audio drops and syncing issues. The film was also distributed with multiple soundtracks. Once again the hard work that went into an Orson Welles film was lost to circumstance and failed to materialize until much later.

13. King Lear (1953)

In the second of Welles' exoduses to Europe, the director fled the United States for England following the McCarthy hearings and as a result put him on bad terms with the IRS. Orson Welles wasn't a communist but he was a Roosevelt Progressive democrat and disliked the air of paranoia in the United States during the Cold War. Welles was asked to perform the titular role in a CBS Omnibus production of King Lear for television in 1953 which he accepted the role of. The television film was a severely truncated 73-minute version of the play with most of the subplots and extraneous stories outside of the main plot cut out to focus on the main character's descent into madness. Though cheaply produced for television, his performance as Lear is the standout of the film. While he was in the United States to film the production, he was escorted every by the IRS who confiscated his earnings from the production to pay off outstanding taxes being sent back to England.

14. Mr. Arkadin (1955)

After the immense success of The Third Man, the movie that had taken Hollywood by storm became a hot ticket item and it's producers wanted to franchise it. Thus in 1951 was born The Lives of Harry Lime. The radio drama starred Welles in his most popular and deplorable character over the course of 52 episodes that represented a prequel to the film. Welles himself was involved in the process of developing the series given that the character was so directly tied to him. This included an episode called The Man of Mystery. This episode would go on to become the primary influence of Welles' newest thriller.

Though lower in budget, Mr. Arkadin was ambitious in its scope. The thriller sought to be a massive thriller set across multiple countries where the stakes of the questions it raised could change the fate of nations. In terms of story, this thriller was one of his most grand and globe-trotting adventures. Mr. Arkadin is a veritable tour de force of settings and European cultures.

Whereas Othello was shot over multiple countries meant to portray the same place, Mr. Arkadin was set across multiple countries in Europe and portrayed the variant beauty of many of it's finest interior sets. Cramped as much of the film looks from a visual standpoint the film did tour Europe across the scope of its production from London, Munich, to multiple places in France and to Switzerland. The story's central mystery involving the investigation of a man with no memory of his past can be difficult to follow but builts to an excellent final race wherein the lead character and the titular Mr. Arkadin must race to Spain to find the same person before the other.

Once again he lost control over the final cut. The postproduction became a trainwreck worthy of Orson Welles' reputation. As scholar Jonathon Rosenbaum discussed in his famous 1991 essay Seven Arkadins, there are no less than seven public cuts of Mr. Arkadin. Welles lost control of the editing process and rights to the film when he missed his deadline and as a result, the producer recut the film multiple times, novelized it, and gave it several releases across Europe in multiple languages. Welles had been reshaping the story and structure during the editing process to improve it and without his guiding hand, the final edits that made theaters were fare from his wishes. Welles would go on to consider the film the greatest disaster of his career. He was a man who suffered many indignities but the utter loss of Mr. Arkadin to multiple cuts was one of his most brutal defeats.

15. Touch of Evil (1958)

Welles had just finished acting in a thriller for Universal Pictures when he was asked by the producers to perform in another film for them as "the heavy" in a crime thriller. Universal was already far underway in developing the story concepts and casting but hadn't settled on a director or a script as of yet. Charlton Heston was already picked to play the lead role in the film. During a cross-country phone call, the film's producers mentioned the casting offer for Orson Welles when Heston made the offhand comment that Welles ought to be the one they sought out to direct the film based on the quality of his previous films. The line went dead for several seconds.

Welles was just getting back to Hollywood after a decade away in Europe. While he hadn't gotten over the pain of his bad breakup with RKO and his previous failures he was eager to direct a Hollywood picture again. Welles signed up to Touch of Evil at Heston's behest on the stipulation that he would get to rewrite the script. Over the course of several weeks of late nights, Welles and his secretary chugged out a new script based on the book Badge of Honor that Universal approved and set to work on.

As with many Welles films, Touch of Evil is rather depressingly remembered primarily for its opening shot. The several minutes long tracking shots at the beginning of the film is legitimately excellent in its pace and scope as we see several minutes of a car with a ticking time bomb in the back seat slowly drive across the US-Mexico border through crowded streets knowing the car could explode at any moment. Naturally of course when I was shown the film in Film School this is where the film was stopped. Many filmmakers worship the tracking shot and then forget to watch the remaining film. What they miss out on is a dark tragedy of corruption and falls from grace. The murder we see play out in real time at the beginning of the film is merely the beginning of a much larger conspiracy as the bombing rouses the attention of a Mexican police officer in the area at the time on his honeymoon and the local police legend Hank Quinlan. The film is one of the starkest examples of contemporary film noir, making the most out of Welles' expressionist love of shadow and darkness. While the opening shot is excellent it's not even the only tracking shot in the film. There are several long tracking shots, several of which we see during the investigation scenes that are just as technically impressive considering how deeply we follow the camera and swing in, out and around the conversations at play.

Universal had loved much of the footage that Welles was sending them at the end of every shooting day. Right up until they saw the rough cut of the film it seemed as though the two parties were on the same page. Alas, Universal Studios did what Hollywood always did to Orson Welles films. The final cut scared Universal with how dark it was. They cut out half an hour of footage and reshot segments of the plot to make it more palatable. By studio contracts, they had to present Welles with a cut of the film before the film went to print and shipped off to theaters. After seeing the new theatrical cut, Welles was distraught. The perturbed Welles skipped out on his daughter's wedding to write a 58-page memo to Universal Studios begging them to make needed changes to the film.

The film was released as the second billing of a double feature and subsequently bombed. In Europe, the film received a surprising level of acclaim, support from major film critics and won two awards at the 1958 Brussels World Film Festival but without American success the film as considered dead on arrival. This was the last straw for Orson Welles. Hollywood had betrayed him for the last time. With this last indignity dealt to his creative vision, Welles packed up and moved back to Europe again.

There would thankfully be something of a re-edit of the film. In 1998, acclaimed film editor and sound designer Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now, The Godfather Trilogy, American Graffiti, The Conversation, The English Patient, Jarhead) recreated a special cut of the film based on the Welles memo that represents the closest version of the film to Welles' vision that remains the definitive way to watch the movie today.

16. Exile to Europe

Immediately after the debacle of Touch of Evil, Welles began to work independently on one of his most ambitious and personal projects to date. Don Quixote would go on to become one of the great obsessions and failures of his life, never seeing a proper cut released. He started accruing footage immediately after finishing his work with Universal by doing some shooting in Mexico. He would continue this process over the course of the next two decades, doing what meager shooting he could across multiple countries in Europe. Unfortunately, time dragged on and the loss of actors to death dragged the film's post-production well into the 1980s without having completed principal photography.

As Don Quixote continued to meld and atrophy, Welles began the next stage of his life by beginning something of a new chapter in the history of cinema. Without the backing of Hollywood money or big investors behind him, Welles began a personal journey as what we would be known as the first truly independent filmmaker. His subsequent series of European films, though cheaper looking and rough around the edges, represented some of the only items of his career that he felt truly proud of in their totality. They were totally his films, unedited by intrusive producers seeking a buck and all celebrated across the European arthouse film scene. Of these, in his later years, he was the proudest of.

17. The Trial (1962)

Literature was, of course, the love of Welles' intellectual life. He was well read by anybody's standards by the time he reached New York City in his twenties and started adapting Shakespeare better than Broadway was at the time. He understood these great works of literature greater than almost anyone else that had the bravery to take a straight edge to them and crave new versions of them for viewing audiences. Often that meant that his versions diverged from the ideas inherent in the text while still staying true to the spirit of the literature. In the case of Franz Kafka's book The Trial, the story of an innocent man trapped in a bureaucratic cycle of hellish corruption and repetition becomes a different kind of nightmare. To borrow Welles' quote, "He's guilty as h***!"

Welles' monologue at the beginning of the film refers to the story as having the logic of a dream. Seeing the film one can recognize that immediately. The setting, production design and moment to moment logic of the story shifts with surreal precision from moment to moment as the lead character Joseph K. is dragged through a strange inquisition, blamed for a crime that is never explained to him bursting with fear and guilt the whole way through. The film looks and acts like a nightmare, as the scene to scene flow arbitrarily jumps from scenes of stark visuals, tense chases, and heavy shadows. Never before or after has Welles' overt love of expressionism been put to such beautiful use. Then again it's hard to tell where the movie begins and the budget ends. Much of the film is shot against industrial blight as we see buildings lined with electrical wires and technology. It's a strange look that contrasts with the sleek, fast-paced cinematography at times. It's never clear that Welles isn't just shooting this at the first industrial park he could find that was available or if these flourishes of ugly utilitarian electronics are part of the point. Maybe they're expressions of the bureaucratic machine that is chewing K alive.

Of all his successes, The Trial is the one that Welles has gone on record as saying was the greatest thing he ever created. Beyond the constraints of a low budget, everything we see on screen is Welles' vision. Given the years of hardships that incurred his previous productions, it's not surprising he'd hold a film that represented his own vision in such high esteem. That said, The Trial wasn't the film that he considered his favorite.

18. Chimes at Midnight (1965)

Welles once said in an interview that if he ever had to argue his way into heaven based on his work, he would try to do so with Chimes at Midnight. Originally titled Falstaff in some regions after the central character, Chimes at Midnight represented the most loyally produced and loving adaptation of Welles' own career. It was based primarily on William Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 with elements of Henry V added. For Welles, the book's central character of Falstaff, the jolly, rotund and disgraced nobleman was one of Shakespeare's greatest creations. Naturally, Welles saw a great deal of himself in Falstaff. The character was by his nature a good man, albeit a lusty, cowardly slob and a liar with a heart of gold. He was innocent and naive in the manner of a child. To Welles, he was the representation of Merry Old England and the fictionalized nostalgia for the past that imbibed so much of English literature from Shakespeare to Chaucer. He was an implicit rejection of the notion of modernity. Welles had tried before to stage a version of what would become Chimes at Midnight earlier in his life called Five Kings that ultimately proved too technically complicated and slow-paced to work properly. With Chimes at Midnight, Welles finally achieved a lifelong dream in portraying his favorite Shakespeare character in all of his exhaustive glory.

Much like The Trial, there is much to be desired about Welles' vision for medieval England. The claustrophobia and tension of his previous film gave way to vast open spaces, joyous celebrations in wide open inns and regal grandeur of the Royalty. Henry IVth is the story of the aged father passing down his title to his namesake son and forcing him to grapple with leadership and responsibility. For the young Prince of Wales, King Henry and Falstaff are the literal representatives of his duality between responsibility and youth. It's a kind of tragedy of maturity wherein Henry must put aside Falstaff and grapple with the brutal realities of the real world. Naturally, Welles goes on in on that brutality. Chimes at Midnight comes with one of the most brutal and influential battle scenes in cinematic history. The carefully shot battle scene incorporated dozens of extras, horses, and grime to produce one of the least romantic depictions of battle yet put to film. Welles said the battle scene was meant to be intentionally brutal to emphasize the idea of the death of chivalry in battle. We see that clearly as swords clash and bodies pile up. Visually speaking it's hard to deny that the battle wasn't hugely influential on generations of filmmakers, being referenced in everything from Kenneth Branaugh's adaptation of Henry V to Mel Gibson's Braveheart and even in the Battle of the Bastards in Game of Thrones.

Naturally, a shoot of this size and scope proved to be greatly difficult on Welles' budget. Europe is naturally awash with castles so locations proved to be available for the film's striking scenes set against the Royalty. Most of the shooting in the Inn was done on a sound stage that Welles had built specifically for the production. Unfortunately, the film lacked proper audio recording technology requiring nearly all of the audio to be rerecorded in post-production. Despite the limitations, the final product is staggering to behold. It's a loud, boisterous and joyful tragedy right up until the bitter emotional end. Many critics consider Chimes at Midnight to be Welles' greatest achievement above and beyond Citizen Kane. Welles would be inclined to agree.

19. The Immortal Story (1968)

Of all the films in Welles' filmography, none represents quite as massive of a digression as The Immortal Story. Immediately the viewer notices that the film is his first film up until this point that was shot in color. As Welles discussed with his protege and biographer Peter Bogdonvich, he always preferred to shoot his films in black and white as he felt that the format did more to help present performances better than color did. With The Immortal Story, he seems to have broken his rule for reasons that aren't quite clear. The results offer some hints as to what was going through Welles' decision-making process. The film is bizarrely alluring to look at. Considering his visual style was more receptive to surrealism and stark visual symbolism, a cursory review shows the film to be one of the most luscious and beautifully shot films in his filmography.

With an understanding of the story, the logic of this seems to come into focus. The story follows the life of an ancient European nobleman who in his older years has sought to make a story that he once heard come true. In the story, an old man pays a sailor five guineas to have an affair with his life before sending him off to sea. Fulfilling the story and making it a true story becomes the old man's obsession. Paying an older fellow Noblewoman and a young sailor he meets on the street, the man observes from a distance as the scenario he contrived into reality forms as the Noblewoman and the sailor bond and intimately perform their task before they're forced to part ways.

While sexuality does technically exist in several of Welles' films like Citizen Kane and The Trial as plot points, The Immortal Story holds the bizarre position of being one of the only Welles projects wherein sexuality is a major theme of the story and one rooted in its story's ideas and anxieties. One can almost look through the allure of its technicolor dreamscape and intimacy to see a depiction of Welles' vision for what the very nature of storytelling is. Through the shrouds of more traditional filmmaking, Welles seems to be using this story as a kind of metaphor for the drive and anxiety that forms storytelling itself. At its core, Welles seems to suggest that the core of art is a perverse need to reproduce and express one's innermost anxieties on display. Though unconventional and likely overly sexualized for some viewers, The Immortal Story presents us with a disturbingly honest sort of autobiography of the artist's soul.

20. F for Fake (1974)

Orson Welles' final completed film represents one of the most avente-garde and experimental pieces of filmmaking in his filmography. F for Fake is technically a documentary but it's a very fast paced, tangential and esoteric piece of filmmaking that jumps across multiple boundaries and stories to explore multiple facets of a central theme. That theme is the idea of "fakeness". The central story follows a pair of famous frauds. The first is Elmyr de Hory, a Hungarian painter that made his living as an art forger recreating hundreds of the most popular pieces of contemporary artists including Pablo Picasso. The second is Clifford Irving, Elmyr's biographer who was caught forging an interview with the mysterious media mogul and recluse Howard Hughes.

While the story focuses primarily on their accomplishments and controversies the entirety of the piece is extremely tangential and jumps across the lives of dozens of people including Orson Welles himself. Welles takes time in the piece to discuss his history with lies, the War of the Worlds broadcast that he played up the legend of, how he got his first acting job by lying, and what the actual effect of lying means to the art world. Welles muses on the consequences of every one of the personalities he profiles and comes to many fascinating insights about the nature of their dishonesties. While he makes no bones about the fact that they were frauds, plagiarists and charlatans he also finds a great deal of sympathy to be found amongst the tragedies of their lives.

Then at the moment of most brutal honesty, he pulls back and asks what it all means in the scheme of things. Merely by observing a beautiful European church lined with hundreds of year old statues and garments of stone. He calls it a monument to human dignity and to God's grace and power. Yet this monument has no author or name to it. It merely stands the test of time as an expression of humanity's greatest desires and hopes. As essayist Kyle Kalgren noted in his excellent analysis of the film, Welles seems to come to the opposite conclusion of his seminal film Citizen Kane. "We'll always have Xanadu, so who cares about Rosebud?" Maybe the film's final conclusion is that art is greater than the individuals or money involved and that fake art is still art. Maybe a fake painting that matches the quality of the real thing is as valuable as the real thing. Then again maybe it doesn't. Welles ends the film with a beautiful story told by his then-mistress Oja Kodar detailing her family's lineage and the untold history of a great unknown art forger that represents one of the most exciting and beautiful moments of the film before Welles pulls the rug out on the audience with the film's final moments.

21. The Final Years and Unfinished Projects

The final years of Orson Welles' life can reasonably be described as a sad march into oblivion. Welles returned to the United States in 1970 hoping to find a home among the greats of New Hollywood and quickly set about trying to produce new films. What followed was fifteen years of financial breakdowns, gradual periods of acting in films for money and then turning around and investing it in his film productions. After 1978, Welles never completed a project for the final seven years of his life. Yet he still continued to work, taking acting and commercial jobs and desperately attempting to finishing his outstanding projects. His final completed projected was Filming Othello. The film is nothing more than a conversation of Orson Welles discussing the production history of his film Othello that he produced for German television. The film was included with the 2017 Criterion release of Othello and is well worth observation for fans of Orson Welles. If it impresses anything upon its viewer it would be Welles' strange sense of late-period melancholy and modesty. He states early in the film that nothing he's produced is worthy of the art that he's attempting to adapt and that he was merely a filmmaker. He would try to produce a second documentary called Filming The Trial but didn't complete it before his death.

He shot footage for multiple films in this time including an adaptation of The Merchant of Venice, a thriller called The Deep, segments of Don Quixote and finally his recently completed film The Other Side of the Wind. The latter of these he started on as early as 1970 and proceeded to shoot and editing throughout the remainder of his life. The film would go on to become the greatest legend of his filmmaking career. Despite six years of on and off production, nearly a decade of legal red tape following the Iranian Revolution (the film's financier was the brother in law of the Shaw of Iran) and years of faltering post-production, the film was never completed in Welles' lifetime. Prior to his death he discussed taking on directing several additional films including The Cradle Will rock, Ada or Ador: A Family Chronicle, Saint Jack (which his protégé Peter Bogdanovich would direct) and a full adaptation of King Lear.

There is a great deal of speculation about why many of these films never got done in the final seven years of Welles' life. Some consider Welles' final years to be too self-destructive and purposely unproductive but by all indications, Orson spent these years grappling with crippling financial troubles and red tape between his sparse moments of being able to film.

In a desperate move to try and garner sympathy and attention, Welles used an appearance during the AFI festival meant to offer the aged Welles with a lifetime achievement award for his work as a chance to promote his newest film. During the acceptance speech, he proceeded to show off footage from The Other Side of the Wind which was suffering from a lack of funding and wouldn't be finished and blatantly hinted that the film was short on funding. The incident was interpreted plainly as a moment of panhandling and desperation.

Welles wasn't a religious man and told two conflicting thoughts on his beliefs late in his life. On one occasion he stated that he was an atheist when asked to perform a prayer. On another occasion when asked he said that he believed in God but didn't think God would be interested in his prayers. In any case, Welles was apathetic to faith. His sole drive seemed to be his desire to create and act out the stories that inspired him and no one at this time wanted to respect or enable his talents. Unable to accomplish that which drove his life, his final years were spent in relative despair.

22. Transformers: The Movie (1986)

Orson Welles' final cinematic role was portraying Unicron in Transformers: The Movie. If there were any more of a modest place for the one time giant to descend, I cannot think of one. Granted this probably didn't represent his most serious compromise. During the production of The Other Side of the Wind, he spent several evenings with his cinematography editing softcore adult films so that the two of them could get back to work and keep him financially solvent. He recorded his audio for the film just five days before his death. Regardless of his opinion on working on the animated film, these final years of Orson Welles' life represent him at his lowest point. He was forced to take any gig he could book himself for. Famously he took an enormous amount of commercial work, which included an infamous Champaign commercial in which an inebriated Welles attempted to give an elegant speech about the mystique of Paul Masson wine only to slur his sentences to a depressingly hilarious degree. In his late period speeches, you really sense the desperation and melancholy of his station in life. As Welles performed his final voiceover on Transformers, his aged and decrepit voice proved too rough even to fill the role. The audio designers were forced to augment the voice-over performance to improve it.

Welles perished less than a week after performing his lines for the film from a heart attack at the age of seventy. He died at this desk while typing up stage directions for a project that he and his cinematographer Gary Graver were going to shoot the following day at UCLA. In a sense, he died doing what he loved. His body was cremated and a small funeral was held for him where in his closest friend and three daughters attended. This was the first instance that the three children of different marriages ever met. Two years after his death in 1987, his wishes were respected and his ashes were buried in Spain at the home of a friend and bullfighter Antonio Ordonez.

23. Don Quixote De Orson Welles (1992)

The years after Welles' death brought a great deal of pain and hardship for the people whose lives he most affected. It also brought a great deal of division and indecision. Depending on who you ask the following two decades after his death brought an enormous amount of hostility and contention between the inheritors of the Welles legacy. Multiple people sought claim to Welles' history and tried to make his works available. Since multiple studios owned the rights to his various films, rereleases of his movies became contentious. Universal was sued by Beatrice Welles when it attempted to reconstruct Touch of Evil only for his to settle out of court with the studio. She later claimed her suit was caused by a lack of communication that wouldn't have happened had she understood their plan to follow Welles' famous memo. Beatrice additionally caused a great deal of controversy in 1992 when she attempted to fiancé a restoration of Othello that many Welles scholars have come to scoff at for it's incompetent and sloppy restoration.

Cinematographer Gary Graver spent much of his life following Welles' death mourning the loss of his creative partner. Welles was his primary source of income and one of his closest work associates and friends for fifteen years. Graver would spend many of the final years of his life attempting to build a cut of The Other Side of the Wind that ultimately never came to fruition before his death in 2006.

Orson's mistress and creative partner Oja Kodar inherited the Welles estate and attempted to do everything in her power to preserve the memory and works of her lover. In 1995, she co-wrote/co-directed a documentary called Orson Welles: The One-Man Band. While she has settled into a comfortable life in Croatia working as an artist and an innkeeper, she's stayed notable through her association with her late lover. Depending on who you ask, she's responsible for some of the legal troubles that kept The Other Side of the Wind out of the spotlight, however, her role in preserving the later works of Welles is contentious. By any regards, Oja is a worthy inheritor of the estate and did everything she could to bring his films to the public light.

In 1990, she sold the rights to some of Welles' remaining footage from Don Quixote to Spanish producer Patxi Irigoyen, desiring to see some sort of version of the film come to fruition. Working with director Jesús Franco, the filmmakers stitched the decomposed footage shot across multiple formats into a semi-coherent two-hour film that they showed at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival under the title Don Quixote De Orson Welles. Without proper audio, the crew rerecorded dialog from new actors. The result is a rough looking, rough sounding and merely academic exercise that barely registers as a completed film. There was a rough cut that Orson Welles himself had finished that film critics Juan Cobos and Jonathon Rosenbaum have seen that according to them looks nothing like the hodgepodge of a film that Irigoyen and Franco assembled.

 24. The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Like with Citizen Kane, I don't wish to relitigate the entire history of The Other Side of the Wind. Having already reviewed the film and shot a series of interviews with Welles scholars Josh Karp and Jonathon Rosenbaum, I've thoroughly discussed the history of Welles' so-called "final film". What I would like to emphasize is just how the film finally came to fruition after nearly fifty years of litigation, red tape, and creative challenges.

After Welles' death, the footage from his shooting was locked in a French vault awaiting decision making and legal red tape. Under French law, Welles still technically had the rights to the film but the Iranian government had a claim on it as financers. In addition, there was a great deal of contention as to how to move forward. The surviving legacy holders of Welles' work Oja Kodar, Beatrice Welles and Peter Bogdanovich all had differing desires that needed to be respected. In order to get finished the film would need an enormous amount of diplomacy and money.

Following several faltering offers to finance the film, polish filmmaker Filip Jan Rymsza stepped in with a bid to take over the film's post-production. Teaming with producers Jen Koethner Kaul and Frank Marshall, the team began to work on acquiring the film and by fall of 2014, the prep work had begun. By early 2015 the group had gained access to the workprint of the film and had gotten Peter Bogdanovich on board the project. They garnered enough money to get access to the film's workprint by selling distribution rights to the film. Filip began the careful dance of reaching an agreement between Beatrice and Oja and by spring of 2015, the gears were turning with the hope of turning the film around in time for Orson Welles' 100th birthday that year. On May 7th, the team began a forty-day Indiegogo campaign to attempt to raise the necessary funds to finish the film's postproduction. Despite extending the campaign an additional month and lowering the funding goals, the $406 thousand that was accumulated while inspiring wasn't enough to complete the film. Towards the end of 2015, it began clear the film was going to require additional help from a new distributor.

The campaign stayed quiet for nearly two years as behind the scenes discussions went underway until March 2017 when they finally announced that Netflix had purchased the distribution rights. Within weeks, the footage was moved from Paris to Los Angeles and the nearly year-long production process was underway. An enormous amount of work was needed to processing the hundreds of hours of footage into a manageable process. Editor Bob Murawski (The Hurt Locker) worked with a team to transfer the footage shot over multiple formats into digital, painstakingly matched the hours of audio to the footage and started slowly editing the film using Welles' mismatched notes and script. Welles problematically evolved his vision for the final film throughout the process of shooting the film. The result of this was that editing the film became a difficult process of making executive decisions as to what to keep and what to send to the cutting room floor.

By January 2018, a rough cut of the film had been finished. At this point, the producers held the first screening for the film to a group of Hollywood insiders including Paul Thomas Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, and Rian Johnson. The screening also included John Huston's son Danny Huston, Crispin Glover, Peter Bogdanovich and the surviving crew of the film. The next several months brought about the final aspects of post-production which included composing the film's original soundtrack. French composer and musician Michel Legrand, who had previously composed the soundtrack for F for Fake, was brought in and started recording the soundtrack in March 2018.

The film's initial premiere had been planned for the Cannes Film Festival however that festival changed the rules arbitrarily in regards to its willingness to premiere digital films from online distributors like Netflix. Subsequently, the premiere was pushed until August 31st at the 75th Venice International Film Festival. Naturally, the premiere that was most important was it's vaunted premiere on Netflix which was eventually announced for release on Friday, November 2nd, 2018. Generations of Welles supporters and fans finally were afforded the opportunity to view Welles' final theatrical premiere that day. Additionally, several movie theaters across the United States premiered the film the same weekend including the Music Box Theater in Chicago where I personally attended the Saturday morning premiere.

25. Conclusion: The Legacy of Orson Welles

We are now living in the greatest time to be an Orson Welles fan. The old truism is that artists are never appreciated until after they die but now in 2018 the full lot of his estranged filmography is finally starting to make its way into the public eye. Welles is beloved as one of the filmmakers in history and his work is regularly mentioned in the same breath as the masters like John Ford, Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Jean Luc-Godard. 

Every year the studios that own the rights to Welles' films go out of their way to restore and re-release more of his films. Just in the past few years The Criterion Collection has gone back and released Chimes at Midnight, The Immortal Story, Othello, Filming Othello and The Magnificent Ambersons on Blu-ray. Chimes at Midnight's release on home video coincided with its first public touring in the United States in decades as the film's restoration was displayed on dozens of movie theaters across the country in 2016. Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Touch of Evil and Macbeth all have excellent Blu-ray transfers. His lesser known and regarded films like The Stranger and The Trial are in the public domain and are available for free online.

It's a shame that the late director's work has for long been relegated to the dustbins of history. Many of his best pieces of film were left to rot for decades in vaults with no public viewing or demand. Now almost all of his work is available to buy on the most up to date home viewing format. Fans of cinema ought to seek these films out. Though obscure and often rough around the edges, Orson Welles produced one of the finest outputs of work in the history of cinema. He persisted against a lifetime of odds and gave the world everything he had in him until there was nothing left to give. In the end, he was a more modest, fragile and melancholy soul than the bombast, ego and strength of his personality let on.

As Jonathon Rosenbaum discussed in during our FVTV interview this November, once he'd met Welles in person he no longer fanaticized the idea of wanting to be him. Even so, Welles was everything he was sold to be. He was kind, intelligent if a bit rude but he was always himself.

Resources/Sources:

Previous GUG Reviews: Citizen Kane, The Other Side of the Wind Documentaries: Magician: The Astonishing Life and Work of Orson Welles, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, Filming Othello Books: Citizen Kane: A Filmmaker's Journey by Harlan Lebo, Orson Welles' Last Film by Josh Karp, The Encyclopedia of Orson Welles by Chuck Berg and Tom Erskine Video Essays: MovieBob: Citizen Unicron, Kyle Kalgreen: F for Fake, Kyle Kalgreen: Chimes at Midnight, Razorfist: The Third Man, Cinemologists: Mr. Arkadin Online Researches: Wikipedia, When Radio Was

[itsyokythings-blog]

My Five Acres. Travel. Adventure. Yoga. My Five Acres. Travel. Adventure. Yoga. - Travel. Adventure. Yoga.

Do you need for Vietnam ? Yes, there are a few you should definitely have and few more to consider to avoid unexpected health calamities. This simple guide wil help you understand exactly which you need for Vietnam.

What’s in our guide to Vaccines for Vietnam?

1. 3. 5. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, cycled across northern mountain ranges, sailed Ha Long Bay, motorbiked the coast, lazed away days on beautiful beaches, volunteered in rural villages, and so much more.

Vietnam is an incredible country which offers visitors a diverse set of experiences.

Vietnam is a diverse country with a huge range of experiences.

Of course, it also offers a diverse set of health risks. Getting your injections for Vietnam before you leave home is the first step to a healthy trip.

As always, when seeking health advice online, it is best to double-check with your doctor or expert before you make any final decisions.

With that said, read on to learn all about…

Also don’t miss these posts:

Solo in Vietnam → Vietnam advice → The best Vietnam itinerary →

Vaccines you should definitely have for Vietnam

Make sure you are up to date on your routine jabs including:

MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella)

Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis

Chickenpox (Varicella)

Polio

Annual flu shot

You will also need to add at least these two :

Hepatitis A

Typhoid

Both of these diseases can be contracted through contaminated food or water in Vietnam.

All lers should be vaccinated for Hepatitis A before going to Vietnam.

Travellers who plan on staying in home stays or with friends, visiting smaller cities or rural areas, or eating street food or in small restaurants (so almost everyone), should also get the Typhoid vaccine.

Vaccines you might need for Vietnam

We can give you general advice about these but if you are unsure about what you need, please make an appointment with a vaccine specialist at least 2 months before your trip.

Japanese encephalitis

The Japanese encephalitis vaccine is very expensive but is generally recommended if you plan to stay in Vietnam for more than a month, or plan to spend a lot of time in rural areas or outside.

Full disclosure: We have never gotten the vaccine for Japanese encephalitis, even though all of those conditions apply to us. But just because we took the risk doesn’t mean you should — speak to your local vaccine specialist who will help you decide.

Hepatitis B

You’ll need this if you plan on have sex with strangers in Vietnam, or you’re going to get a tattoo, a piercing, use IV drugs, or have any medical procedures. Obviously, we recommend that you don’t engage in any of these activities on your Vietnam trip!

Malaria

It is rare for lers to get malaria in Vietnam. You might consider taking anti-malarials if you’re going to be camping, or are planning to spend a lot of time in the outdoors in the central and southern areas bordering with Cambodia. For most lers, liberal use of a deet-based mosquito repellent is sufficient for Vietnam.

If you’re going to wild regions of Cambodia and Laos as well, you should consider taking anti-malarials for that part of your trip. I got malaria in northern Cambodia / southern Laos last year and it was the most awful experience of my entire career!

Stray dogs, bats, and rats in Vietnam can all carry rabies. Probably not this cutie though.

Rabies

You can get rabies from dogs, rats, bats, and other animals in Vietnam. Not fun! If you’re going to be outside a lot, have a penchant for caving or playing with street dogs, or are ling with children, you might want to consider a rabies vaccine.

Yellow Fever

There is no yellow fever in Vietnam and you only need proof of the vaccine if you’re ling there from other countries with yellow fever. This applies to many African and South American countries.

Zika

There is no vaccine for zika and it is present in Vietnam. Your best protection against zika is to avoid mosquito bites! Be diligent about wearing mosquito repellent and opt for long sleeves and long trousers. If you are pregnant or considering getting pregnant, to countries where zika is present is not advised.

The cost of vary widely, depending on where you are getting the and what type you need. This is a rough estimate of the expenses you’ll face for your Vietnam shots:

$100 consultation fee with vaccine expert

$50–100 for each vaccine you need

$1–5 per day for anti-malarial pills

Budget $300–600 for and consultations for your trip. If you’re on a tight budget, don’t be tempted to skip your injections. If you get sick, not only will your trip be ruined, but you’ll have the additional medical fees to worry about.

This little guy can cause you lots of problems, so beware.

The best way to avoid these diseases is to avoid getting mosquito bites.

Which Kind of Mosquito Repellent Should you Use?

In the west, you might rely on “natural” repellants to keep you from getting bitten. In areas where mosquitos carry disease, this is not good enough. These repellents, though they smell nicer and are less full of disgusting chemicals, tend to be less effective against mosquitos — and their effectiveness varies depending on the breed of mosquito.

If you must use a natural repellent, those containing Lemon Eucalyptus Oil have been shown to be the most effective “natural” repellent. Be aware that you need to apply it more and more frequently than you would with DEET.

There are other options, such as insect repellent clothing, which might be useful if you’re going to spend a lot of time in rural areas.

Are Mosquitos the Same Everywhere You Go?

In Asia, mosquitos can be quite different than the ones you’re used to:

Some are so tiny you might not even notice them flying around or biting you

They are quieter, too, so you might not hear them buzzing

Some barely leave a bite mark and the itching can go away in a matter of hours, while others leave huge misshapen welts that itch like crazy

Certain breeds are active during the day, while others are more active in the morning and evening

Because of this, it’s important to wear repellent even when you don’t notice any mosquitos or notice them biting you. Don’t be fooled into thinking you don’t need mosquito repellent!

Is It OK to Avoid Repellent if Mosquitos Don’t “Like” You?

One last caution. Mosquitos in the east can have different taste buds from mosquitos in the west.

In North America and Europe, Stephen is a mosquito magnet. He can’t go anywhere without getting a bite. I am the opposite; mosquitos barely notice me at home. In Asia, it’s the other way around. I get bites left and right, while Stephen gets by relatively unscathed.

Why is this important? Because Western lers often tell me “Oh, mosquitos don’t like me so I don’t have to wear repellent”. Don’t assume that your experience with mosquitos in the west will be the same as with mosquitos in Asia.

Vietnam is very safe but accidents can happen anywhere.

World Nomads insurance.

It is convenient, affordable, trustworthy, and easy to apply for.

Find out more about World Nomads →

The Best Tools & Companies for Your Trip

These are our favourite tools and companies for planning and booking your s in Asia. We have used all of them and recommend them for their dedication to providing you great experiences.

Best gear: Minimalist Packing Guide →

Cheap flights: Kiwi.com →

Hotel savings: Booking.com →

Small group adventures: Intrepid Travel →

Incredible bike tours: Grasshopper Adventures →

Best cooking classes: Cookly →

Bus & train: 12go.asia →

Tours, tickets & transfers: Get Your Guide →

Mindful journeys: BookYogaRetreats & BookMeditationRetreats →

Convenient insurance: World Nomads →

We hope this round-up of vaccinations for Vietnam helps you plan your trip. As always, we only provide health information as a starting point for your planning. Please consult your doctor or a medical expert before making any final decisions.

♥  Happy mindful adventures, Jane & Stephen

We’re not going to lie, it takes a LOT of work to create guides like this. But it’s easy to help us out! If you book or buy something using one of our personal links in this post, we’ll earn a small fee at no extra cost to you. Of course, we would never recommend anything we didn’t 100% believe in! Huge thanks in advance! –S&J

Pin this for your Vietnam trip.

The post Vaccines for Vietnam – Which Ones Do You Need for Safe Travel? appeared first on My Five Acres. Travel. Adventure. Yoga..

[writerspink]

K-12 Words

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6.2

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8.1

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8.2

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9.2

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10.1

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10.2

warrant circumscribed somewhat explosive optimistic mandate previously detract opinion intuitive feasible intimate persistent humble simplicity tempt deliberate painful unethical fundamentals discrepancy remorse pessimistic possibility conclusion acknowledge impregnate soberly creation paralyze suitability oblige tranquil medal arbitrate pacify illusory susceptible vibrate vengeance infection democratic stressful grave speculative sample identification stifle obligation revenge organization namely mediocre practical scream weaken consensus affectionate deficient treacherous console isolation ingenious memory melodrama despair awestruck composition regret recommendation celebrity decision devoid opaque ornamentation longevity participate dread restore interrogate aid accordingly mislead embarrassment optimism domestic apt funds virtue geography fundamentally thoroughly press despite horrible chilling rental esteemed disappointment innovative contemplation assign popularize haunt deafen serene percent estrangement suffer extravagant throng estimate comment priesthood mass dreadfully promote periphery animated saying relate clarity triple derivative succeed distortion register suicide improvement discreet inquisition probable curative incident praise convenience baffle covet dreadful genuinely weary undisturbed disgruntled humility renown nonchalant monopoly comedy vague decisive inconsequential announcement fabricated nevertheless vigilant scarce neglectful hushed attainment tedious explode snatch pslm agency sentimental tension adhere meanwhile sacred avert conformity likewise challenger accessible responsibility peril contact event roast fallible catastrophic competitor violate resolute deceive exaggeration discredit intolerable approve paste dimly novelist demeanor norm politician satisfaction obvious vehicle reservation defer involve restoration crush audible assistant backpack attain inanimate commemorate confrontation emigration parasite disperse quantitative laughter policy vulgar occasionally repay effective eulogy starvation empty therapeutic overall immortal encompass inappropriate opportune engagement illustrate turmoil observatory classification expression reminiscence comedian invention depress remedy protagonist gesture texture diplomatic election prolong conducive emotional invigorate curiosity expressive %

K-12 Words was originally published on PinkWrite

[redvalravn]

Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War - Chapter Four: It’s just not our country anymore

Hello there, children! Today we’re going to talk about the federal government.

You see, the federal government is coming to steal your money, property, and it wants to be able to tell you what to do, and that’s a bad, bad thing. It also wants to make sure that those who look different from you can also get jobs, and money, and property, so it can take it away from them!

Now remember kids, if anybody says they’re from the so-called Environmental Protection Agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or that they support something called the North American Free Trade Agreement, you run away as fast as you can, before they take your jobs!

A chapter summary: Affirmative action and federal regulations and institutions are evil. The end.

A chapter summary: Mary Sue attempts to get a job and everyone else tells him why the government won’t let him have one. The end.

A chapter summary: Mary Sue: You mean I can’t just start a business without a business plan or background check or go to my buddies and have them hand me a job on a silver platter? What the hell?! I thought this was America!

I’m going to be up front here. I’m not sure I can fully refute some of the claims in this chapter with a simple google search. I’m not an economist, or a lawyer, and I’m sure I don’t fully understand the intricacies of what goes into making the regulations put forth by the EPA, the EEOC, or NAFTA, or why they may not be the best ideas. But then, I’m sure that William Lind doesn’t fully understand, either.

First, Mary Sue attempts to try farming.

“What you gonna faam?” John asked, the flat, nasal “a” instead of “r” suggesting he hadn’t been outside Maine much.

“Waal,” I said, talking Down East myself, “I thought I might try soybeans.”

“Don’t see them much up heah.”

“Didn’t see wine up heah either ‘til Wyly put in his vineyard. I gather his wine is selling pretty well now,” I said.

“I’ll tell you why you don’t see soybeans up here or on many other family farms,” said Uncle Fred. “It’s oil from soybeans that makes money, and the federal government makes it just about impossible to transport soybean oil or any other vegetable oil unless you’re a big corporation. Under federal regulations, vegetable oil is treated the same as oil from petroleum when it comes to shipment. You’ve got to get a hugely expensive Certificate of Financial Responsibility to cover any possible oil spill. You’ll never get the capital to get started.”

I believe this is referencing the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which was written in response to the frequency of oil spills from barges and vessels, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill that happened in 1989. It basically says that the company which owns the vessel that spilled the oil is liable for its cleanup, because the government had a limited amount of money to deal with oil spills. Therefore, before a company can ship oil, it must provide proof that it can pay for a potential spill, which sounds reasonable. Though I do see why it would stop small farmers from starting a brand new soybean farm.  

“But vegetable oil and petroleum are completely different. That doesn’t make any sense,” I replied.

“I didn’t say it made sense, I just said that’s what Washington demands. It makes no sense at all. Spilled vegetable oil is no big problem. It’s biodegradable. But the federal government mandates a spill be cleaned up the same way for both, even though that’s unnecessary. You need to scoop up any petroleum product if it spills, especially into water. But if you just let vegetable oil disperse, bacteria will eat it up. Anyway, the government doesn’t care that we lose hundreds of millions of dollars each year in vegetable oil that isn’t produced or exported. The bottom line is, as a small farmer, you can’t do it.”

Vegetable oil is biodegradable, and spilling a little on the ground or water isn’t going to do anything. If you spill a shipping container of the stuff though, it will impact the environment. Aquatic birds and animals get oiled, oxygen supply in the water becomes depleted, and gummy coatings exist for years. That would affect not only the wildlife, but any other industry that involves the ocean. Also, say it spills somewhere near the coast, that could come in contact with a human population. Some people are allergic to soybeans. Or, what if it spills in a busy port? Would this guy leave it to be cleaned up, disrupting the schedules of other shipping vessels, until a more financially capable entity takes care of it?

“Okay, I’ll grow potatoes. We certainly grow enough of those here in Maine,” I said.

“Only land up at the Old Place that’ll grow potatoes is the bottom land. Government won’t let you do that neither,” said cousin John.

This was starting to get old. “What do you mean the government won’t let me grow down there? That’s the best land on the place. The rest is just rock,” I replied.

“It’s the EPA, the so-called ‘Environmental Protection Agency,” answered Uncle Fred. “They declared all that ground a ‘protected wetland‘ a couple years ago. It’s yours, or ours, but it might as well be on the moon for all the good it does us. We can’t touch it.”

Protected wetland? Hell, I didn’t plan to grow potatoes in the ponds. “That’s our property. We’ve owned it since Andrew Jackson was President. And most of it’s dry. How can they tell us we can’t farm it?”

The definition of wetland is “areas where water covers the soil all or part of the time.”

From a quick look at the EPA’s website, it seems that just because an area is designated as a wetland, you’re not automatically banned from altering it.

My best guess for Mary Sue’s problem = the environmental impact of farming is so large it trumps ownership of the property. Perhaps probably absolutely there are details of property law and environmental law that I’m unaware of, and maybe that would make the EPA telling Mary Sue he can’t farm the wetlands unjustified.

That got the whole table smiling the thin smile that passes for a good laugh among New Englanders. “Property rights don’t mean squat any more,” said Uncle Earl, who was the town lawyer. “The government just tells you what to do or what not to do and dares you to fight them. They have thousands of lawyers, all paid by your tax money, and they can tie you up in court for years. You got a few hundred thousand extra dollars you’d like to spend on legal fees?”

However, the author doesn’t present any laws or environmental impact studies as evidence. He only insists that the government would fight it, smear, and bankrupt anyone who complains.

That sends the message of: “I want to be able to farm wherever I want, it’s my property, consequences be damned.”

An important thing to remember when considering environmental impact is that messing with natural habitats and wildlife is messing with natural cycles that have potentially global ramifications. Mary Sue is probably thinking “It’s just a wetland.” So do all the other farmers that the EPA blocks from farming. Everyone was allowed to farm and create factories that belch smoke and dump trash and toxic waste wherever they wanted before the creation of the EPA in 1970. This is a photo of the George Washington Bridge in 1973:

Los Angeles in 1973:

The Potomac River in Washington D.C. was filled with raw sewage.

Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught fire from pollutants in the water 14 times before the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972. 

Waste from coal plants would seep into soil and pollute wells.

Between 1947 and 1952, the Hooker Electrochemical Company used the land known as the “Love Canal” to dump 22,000 tons of toxic waste. In 1953, it was sold to a school board for $1. By the ‘70s, people began to realize something was really wrong with the land. Barrels full of toxic waste began to surface, children and animals were getting burned and there was a significant increase in birth defects. The EPA then had to evacuate and relocate 950 families. Between 1983 and 2004, the EPA spent $400 million cleaning up the site.

Since the “Love Canal,” the EPA has cleaned up over 450 sites.

The EPA also deals with disaster clean ups like Hurricane Katrina and Sandy.

Just google “The environment before the EPA” and you’ll find thousands of examples of why it’s necessary.

“What it comes down to is that we’re not a free country any more.”

“What King George III was doing to us in 1776 wasn’t a hill of beans compared to this,” I said. “We didn’t take it then. Why are we taking it now?”

At that point, the women turned the conversation to how Ma’s stuffing was the best they’d ever had. It always was.

#feminism

Anyway, since the ebil EPA won’t let Mary Sue start a farm, he later goes to his contacts and asks for jobs. He has other options.

Jim was glad to see me, but he couldn’t give me any good news. “Sorry,” he said, “but like every American company, we’re having to cut jobs, not add ʻem. The problem is this “free trade” business. What it means is that American workers are up against those in places like Mexico, Haiti, and now all of central and south America, since they expanded NAFTA into AFTA and took in the whole hemisphere. Labor costs now get averaged across national boundaries; it pulls their wages up and pushes wages here down. Of course, we don’t actually cut wages, but with inflation rising, we don’t need to. We just keep wages steady and cut the number of jobs. Maybe that will keep this plant in business. Then again, maybe it won’t. In any event, it means if I had a job to offer you, and I don’t, you’d quickly find yourself getting poorer, not richer, if you took it.”

It’s always funny to see elementary grammatical errors in a published novel.

I think the author made an intentional “five minutes into the future” exaggeration. In 2017 (when this scene takes place), he predicts that the North American Free Trade Agreement will be expanded into Ccentral and Ssouth America, forming the American Free Trade Agreement.

Again, I’m not an economist, but this is what the internet tells me:

-It unifies the North American market by eliminating taxes or other barriers on trading goods between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It basically makes it easier for goods to get across borders by treating products from a country that’s part of the agreement more favorably than products from any other countries.

-Most economic analyses agree that it has a net benefit to the three countries involved.

- There are some unfortunate impacts that include making it easier for companies to export jobs (mostly manufacturing) to Mexico.  This amounts to about 800,000 jobs between 1997 and 2013.

-Because goods are cheaper to produce in Mexico, that means lower prices for U.S. consumers.

-Mexican workers are often mistreated in maquiladoras that produce cheap goods.

-NAFTA may drive illegal immigration, due to the disappearance of well-paying jobs and lower wages in Mexico.

-There are also about 6 million of U.S.-based jobs that depend on NAFTA.

-There are analyses that the U.S. has lost more jobs to automation than to Mexico.

-It’s unlikely that tearing up NAFTA would bring back jobs. Companies would move production to the next cheapest country.

-Any assessment on the impact of NAFTA is difficult because of the multilayered supply networks established and many variables such as inflation.

Here’s a recent analysis from the Congressional Research Service that I’m too lazy to read in full and too uneducated in economics to understand, but it’s more research than the author did.

In short, it’s a complicated, multi-faceted issue, and that’s all I’ll say about it. 

“But you just put a lot of money into this plant,” I replied. “Hell, it used to stink up the whole town. Now you can’t smell it. Maybe that EPA does some good after all.”

Oh hey, it’s almost like the EPA has a purpose!

“You think so?” asked Jim. “You’re right that we had to clean up our processes here, and we did put some money into the place. But the main thing we did was move most of the work on the fresh hides to Mexico. That cut 23 jobs here, jobs now held by Mexicans. I guess you can’t make Mexico stink any worse than it already does.”

#racism

“And the EPA still isn’t done with us,” he added. “They’ve got another investigation going now, which will cost us tens of thousands in legal fees even if that’s all it does. Seems they think we’re still doing something to the river.”

“River looks clean to me,” I replied.

All poisons and toxic wastes and all amounts of poisons and toxic wastes are clearly visible. If the water looks clean, then it is!

“It is clean. It’s cleaner than it’s ever been, at least since industry, and jobs, first came to this valley. But that doesn’t count to bureaucrats in Washington. They’ve told us we might have to build a full water treatment plant, which would cost us millions. If they rule that way, it’ll be the end of the company here. It would take us 50 years to pay off that debt. There’s not that much money in leather any more, not up against the foreign competition.”

I’ll refer to my previous statements on why the EPA is necessary.

Mary Sue has one last ace up his sleeve, his cousin, who works at a car restoration facility.

“Sure,” Ed said, when I stopped in on him, “business is good and I need a couple folk. I know you’d do good work. But I can’t offer you or anyone else around here a job. EEOC won’t let me.”

“EEOC?” I’d heard the initials, but didn’t know much more about it.

“The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. They come around and tell you how many blacks, Hispanics, women, whatever you have to hire. Of course, all my employees are white, because everybody up here is white. I guess Maine winters are kinda hard on black folk and those from south of the border. Anyway, that doesn’t count with them. They’ve issued an order that the next six people I hire must be blacks. The effect, of course, is that I can’t hire anyone, not even you.”

Maine’s population as of 2010 was 95.2% Caucasian, 1.2% African-American, 1.0% Asian, 0.6% Native American, 0.3% other, 1.6% two or more races.

Affirmative Action is something else outside of my area of expertise. I’m going to make a guess here, though, that the EEOC wouldn’t make such an unreasonable demand that a facility drastically over-represent the amount of black people on its payroll compared to the amount that exist in the area.

Although, now that I’ve searched the internet and become an instant expert, this claim that the EEOC can demand companies meet a quota of minority employees seems misleading.

In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that public universities and government institutions could not set quotas based on race for admissions or employment, but they could have "goals" to be reached within a certain time. In 1979, it ruled that private employers could set quotas, if they chose to do so. If an employer finds out that diversity among their employees is low, they can create an affirmative action plan, which details guidelines for how an organization will recruit minorities. Almost every employer is required to be an equal opportunity employer, which means that they can’t be allowed to discriminate in their hiring practices, firing practices, or policies. Federal contractors have a 10% quota, but private employers are merely advised to follow this as a guideline. Even if a company fails to diversify their workforce, they won’t be penalized if they provide proof that they made a good faith effort to do so.    

In addition, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits race discrimination against all persons, including Caucasians.

From the EEOC archives:

Quota: Fixed hiring and promotion rates based on race, sex, or other protected class standards which must be met at all costs. In extreme cases, the courts have assigned quotas to some employers who have continued to practice illegal discrimination. The agency or any other employer cannot use quotas to meet their affirmative action goals unless a court orders it. Quotas are considered discriminatory against males and other non-minority people.

Unless Cousin Ed restores cars for the federal government or has been ordered by a court to hire black people (which means that there's proof of discriminatory hiring practices), the EEOC can't force him to hire anyone he doesn't want to hire. Holy crap. It’s almost like…the book lied to me…

This was the nuttiest thing I’d heard yet. “You must be kidding,” I replied. “How can they make you hire blacks where there aren’t any?”

“I don’t know,” Ed said. “But I can’t fight the EEOC in court. I’m a small business and can’t afford it. I just can’t expand, is what it comes down to. And you know how badly we need jobs up here.”

I did, from growing personal experience. “But someone must care that this is completely absurd,” I said. “There has got to be a limit somewhere to what Washington can do to us.”

“If there is, I don’t know where,” Ed replied, obviously a beaten man.

“You and I, and most folk up here, are members of the middle class. That means the government doesn’t do anything for us, it only does things to us. If you know a way to change that, I’d like to hear it. But these days, unless you’re some kind of “minority,” you don’t have any rights.” 

Public libraries, public schools, fire departments, unemployment assistance, food stamps, welfare, public broadcasting, medicaid, and social security don’t count, I guess. 

Ed has a funny idea of what “rights” are. That makes sense if it’s implied that he’s been sued for racial discrimination previously. It seems that the book is trying to say that Mary Sue and Ed are more oppressed than minorities, because they’re white males being forced by the government to get over their own prejudices. Poor Ed will have to hire a representative quota of black people. If his company is large enough that 6 people is equivalent to 1.2% or less, that would make the size of the company 500 people or greater. “Small business”, indeed.  

...and poor Mary Sue will have to find work anywhere else. 

“Frankly, it’s just not our country any more.”

That summed it up pretty well. Somewhere along the line, in the last 30 years or so, somebody had taken our country away from us. We remembered what our country was like. It was a safe, decent, prosperous place where normal, middle class people could live good lives.

And it was gone.

It was a safe, decent, prosperous place where normal, middle class white people could live good privileged lives. 

I was beginning to think that what I wanted to do was help take our country back. How I could do that, and how I could earn a living, were both puzzles. But where there’s a will, God often opens a way.

Next chapter: Mary Sue goes on monster.com or signs up for Universal Technical Institute, if using the internet isn’t too “new” for him.

Not being able to find a job is frustrating and demotivating. I know, I’ve been there. Mary Sue only considers two options before he gives up: starting a farm on his own or asking people he knows. Not saying that these aren’t good strategies, but it’s not unusual to take a few months to find employment. Mary Sue is a young man, having just graduated from college with no experience. Of course he’s going to have trouble finding a job immediately. Millennials know this. For someone of William Lind’s age (69), it’s not normal. It was easier to get a job in his time. His worldview is dependent on men being able to take care of themselves and being the breadwinners for their families. Not being able to find work is more than demotivating. It’s humiliating. He’s angry that this situation is allowed to happen. Instead of blaming the recession, the “previous experience” requirement, and his seeming unwillingness to use the internet or write a resume, he blames environmental regulations, globalization, and minorities getting in his way. 

Finding a job in rural areas can be difficult. I believe this, but I think he’s incorrectly assigning blame. Increased protection of natural resources, international cooperation, and leveling the playing field for women and minorities should all be seen as good things that help society more than hurt it. People like William Lind hijack a real concern -- lack of jobs -- to further their own ideology. He doesn’t like it that minorities don’t know their place. He wants to be able to mass produce without environmental concern, and give jobs to good American workers and proudly shut the door on any foreign trade, because this is America, and we take care of ourselves. Real, manly Americans decimate the environment and conquer, because they can. If we don’t stop time, the government will stop you from being real manly Americans, and you may be ruled over by Mexicans, women, and hippies.  

The horror.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   

I once read that not having privilege was riding a bike on a busy road. The road was meant to be used by cars. For a long time, there were only cars on the road, and they could go as fast as the speed limit allowed. Until one day, someone decided that bikes ought to be allowed on the road, because people who can’t afford cars still ought to be able to get to where they’re going. Now, instead of being able to speed down the road, drivers had to make way for bikes. Not all the drivers were happy. Now they had to slow down and drive around all the bikers they were, regardless, passing in their fast cars. So they complained that the bikes were making the roads dangerous. The bikes argued that they had no other way to use the road, even though it was more dangerous to ride a bike on a road built for cars. To compromise, bike lanes were built, so the bikes had their space. Bikers still had to deal with drivers that weren’t paying attention when the bikes had to leave the bike lane to turn, the possibility of being doored when a parked car opened their door without checking for a passing bike, or vehicles that used the bike lane as a free parking space and blocked it. When there were accidents there were way more fatalities for bikers than drivers, due to the fact that bikers were unprotected while drivers had 2-ton death machines that protected them. Still some drivers weren’t happy about having to make room for bikes on the road, at best, wondering why they didn’t just get a car and make it easier for everyone, and at worst, tried to change the rules to once more get them off the road.  

That’s what this book is. It’s a driver whining that they used to be able to speed and now there are too many bikes on the road.  

@moodybidoof @videoninja42

[kristablogs]

Expert-approved ways to feed all your favorite birds

A ruby-throated hummingbird dips into a nectar feeder. An East Coast favorite, the species can be harmed by yard predators like praying mantises and bacteria in unclean equipment. (Jeremy Lwanga/Unsplash/)

Julian Avery is an assistant research professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Pennsylvania State University. This story originally featured on The Conversation.

Millions of Americans enjoy feeding and watching backyard birds. Many people make a point of putting food out in winter, when birds needs extra energy, and spring, when many species build nests and raise young.

As a wildlife ecologist and a birder, I know it’s important to understand how humans influence bird populations, whether feeding poses risks to wild birds, and how to engage with birds in sustainable ways.

There’s still much to learn about the risks and benefits of feeding birds, particularly through large integrated national citizen science networks like Project FeederWatch. But we now have enough information to promote healthy interactions that can inspire future generations to care about conservation.

View this post on Instagram

Look at this #beauty .... I spent some time watching #birds while out in the field yesterday and it dawned on me how cool #whitebreastednuthatch feet are! Their monstrous #toes allow them to orient in any direction they want to when clinging to a tree. Their bill is an impressive #tool too, they hammer open seeds and will even widen nest cavities with it! 💪🏼#beastmode • • • • #getoutside #exploreeverything #biodiversity #boss #beast #birdfeeder #birdwatching #birdphotography #kings_birds #nuts_about_birds #audubon @canonusa #teamcanon #birding #sunflower #musclemilk #muscle #nature_sultans #wildlife #feederwatch @shaverscreek @agsciences #birdseed @audubonsociety

A post shared by Julian Avery (@evolutionavery) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:18pm PST

A long-term relationship

Birds have been taking advantage of human civilization for thousands of years, congregating where grains and waste are abundant. This means that people have been influencing the abundance and distribution of species for a very long time.

Studies show that providing food has myriad effects on birds’ decisions, behaviors, and reproduction. One significant finding is that winter bird feeding increases individual survival rates, can encourage birds to lay eggs earlier in the year, and can also improve nestling survival.

All of these factors alter species’ future reproductive performance and can increase total bird abundance in later years. It’s not always clear how increased abundance of feeder birds impacts other species through competition, but rarer and smaller species can be excluded.

This interactive diagram, based on community science data, shows how North America’s top 13 feeder species fare when they compete at feeders. Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Supplemental food has also led to reduced reproductive success in a few species. This may happen because it improves survival odds for less healthy birds that otherwise would be unlikely to survive and reproduce, or because it leads birds to eat fewer types of natural foods, making their diets less nourishing.

Changing bird behavior

Research also shows that birds are extremely promiscuous. One review examined 342 species and found that in approximately 75 percent, birds had one or more side partners in addition to their nest mate.

It’s not always clear why birds cheat, but several studies have found that supplemental feeding can reduce the amount of infidelity in certain species, including house sparrows. This hints that feeding birds might alter their behavior and have an effect on genetic variation in urban populations.

For birds that provide pollinating services, like hummingbirds and lorikeets, there is some evidence that providing them with sugar water—which mimics the nectar they collect from plants—can reduce their visits to native plants. This means they will transfer less pollen. Since much bird feeding happens in densely populated urban areas, it’s unclear how much impact this might have.

Some bird populations depend completely on feeding and would collapse over the winter without it. For example, Anna’s hummingbirds in British Columbia rely on heated feeders. Other species, such as hummingbirds in the southwest US, have become more locally abundant. Northern cardinals and American goldfinches have shifted and expanded their ranges northward with the availability of food.

In one incredible instance, garden feeders seem to have played a role in establishing a new wintering population of migratory blackcaps in the UK. This group is now genetically distinct from the rest of the population, which migrates further south to Mediterranean wintering grounds.

Don’t feed the predators

Scientists still know little about how bird feeding affects transmission of pathogens and parasites among birds. It is not uncommon for birds at feeders to carry more pathogens than populations away from feeders. Some well-documented outbreaks in the US and UK have shown that feeding birds can increase problems associated with disease—evidence that was collected through feeder-watch citizen science projects.

Because we still have a poor understanding of pathogen transmission and prevalence in urban areas, it’s extremely important to follow hygiene guidelines for feeding and be alert for new recommendations.

Feeding can also attract predators. Domestic cats kill an estimated 1.3 to 4 billion birds in the US every year. Feeders should not be placed in settings where cats are present, and pet cats should be kept indoors.

Feeders can also support both native and introduced birds that outcompete local species. One study found that feeders attracted high numbers of crows, which prey on other birds’ chicks, with the result that less than 1 percent of nearby American robin nests fledged young. In New Zealand, bird feeding largely benefits seed-eating introduced species at the expense of native birds.

Clean feeders and diverse diets

The good news is that studies don’t show birds becoming dependent on supplemental food. Once started, though, it is important to maintain a steady food supply during harsh weather.

Birds also need access to native plants, which provide them with habitat, food, and insect prey that can both supplement diets and support species that don’t eat seeds at feeders. Diverse food resources can counteract some of the negative findings I’ve mentioned related to competition between species and impacts on bird diets.

Good maintenance, placement and cleaning can help minimize the likelihood of promoting pathogens at feeders. Initiatives like Project FeederWatch have recommendations about feeder design and practices to avoid. For example, platform feeders, where birds wade through the food, are associated with higher mortality, possibly through mixing of waste and food.

It’s also important to manage the area around feeders. Be sure to place feeders in ways that minimize the likelihood that birds will fly into windows. For instance, avoid providing a sight line through a house, which birds may perceive as a corridor, and break up window reflections with decals.

There are lots of great reasons to bring birds into your life. Evidence is growing that interacting with nature is good for our mental health and builds public support for conserving plants and wildlife. In my view, these benefits outweigh many of the potential negatives of bird feeding. And if you get involved in a citizen science project, you can help scientists track the health and behavior of your wild guests.

[scootoaster]

Expert-approved ways to feed all your favorite birds

A ruby-throated hummingbird dips into a nectar feeder. An East Coast favorite, the species can be harmed by yard predators like praying mantises and bacteria in unclean equipment. (Jeremy Lwanga/Unsplash/)

Julian Avery is an assistant research professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at Pennsylvania State University. This story originally featured on The Conversation.

Millions of Americans enjoy feeding and watching backyard birds. Many people make a point of putting food out in winter, when birds needs extra energy, and spring, when many species build nests and raise young.

As a wildlife ecologist and a birder, I know it’s important to understand how humans influence bird populations, whether feeding poses risks to wild birds, and how to engage with birds in sustainable ways.

There’s still much to learn about the risks and benefits of feeding birds, particularly through large integrated national citizen science networks like Project FeederWatch. But we now have enough information to promote healthy interactions that can inspire future generations to care about conservation.

View this post on Instagram

Look at this #beauty .... I spent some time watching #birds while out in the field yesterday and it dawned on me how cool #whitebreastednuthatch feet are! Their monstrous #toes allow them to orient in any direction they want to when clinging to a tree. Their bill is an impressive #tool too, they hammer open seeds and will even widen nest cavities with it! 💪🏼#beastmode • • • • #getoutside #exploreeverything #biodiversity #boss #beast #birdfeeder #birdwatching #birdphotography #kings_birds #nuts_about_birds #audubon @canonusa #teamcanon #birding #sunflower #musclemilk #muscle #nature_sultans #wildlife #feederwatch @shaverscreek @agsciences #birdseed @audubonsociety

A post shared by Julian Avery (@evolutionavery) on Feb 19, 2020 at 12:18pm PST

A long-term relationship

Birds have been taking advantage of human civilization for thousands of years, congregating where grains and waste are abundant. This means that people have been influencing the abundance and distribution of species for a very long time.

Studies show that providing food has myriad effects on birds’ decisions, behaviors, and reproduction. One significant finding is that winter bird feeding increases individual survival rates, can encourage birds to lay eggs earlier in the year, and can also improve nestling survival.

All of these factors alter species’ future reproductive performance and can increase total bird abundance in later years. It’s not always clear how increased abundance of feeder birds impacts other species through competition, but rarer and smaller species can be excluded.

This interactive diagram, based on community science data, shows how North America’s top 13 feeder species fare when they compete at feeders. Credit: Cornell Lab of Ornithology

Supplemental food has also led to reduced reproductive success in a few species. This may happen because it improves survival odds for less healthy birds that otherwise would be unlikely to survive and reproduce, or because it leads birds to eat fewer types of natural foods, making their diets less nourishing.

Changing bird behavior

Research also shows that birds are extremely promiscuous. One review examined 342 species and found that in approximately 75 percent, birds had one or more side partners in addition to their nest mate.

It’s not always clear why birds cheat, but several studies have found that supplemental feeding can reduce the amount of infidelity in certain species, including house sparrows. This hints that feeding birds might alter their behavior and have an effect on genetic variation in urban populations.

For birds that provide pollinating services, like hummingbirds and lorikeets, there is some evidence that providing them with sugar water—which mimics the nectar they collect from plants—can reduce their visits to native plants. This means they will transfer less pollen. Since much bird feeding happens in densely populated urban areas, it’s unclear how much impact this might have.

Some bird populations depend completely on feeding and would collapse over the winter without it. For example, Anna’s hummingbirds in British Columbia rely on heated feeders. Other species, such as hummingbirds in the southwest US, have become more locally abundant. Northern cardinals and American goldfinches have shifted and expanded their ranges northward with the availability of food.

In one incredible instance, garden feeders seem to have played a role in establishing a new wintering population of migratory blackcaps in the UK. This group is now genetically distinct from the rest of the population, which migrates further south to Mediterranean wintering grounds.

Don’t feed the predators

Scientists still know little about how bird feeding affects transmission of pathogens and parasites among birds. It is not uncommon for birds at feeders to carry more pathogens than populations away from feeders. Some well-documented outbreaks in the US and UK have shown that feeding birds can increase problems associated with disease—evidence that was collected through feeder-watch citizen science projects.

Because we still have a poor understanding of pathogen transmission and prevalence in urban areas, it’s extremely important to follow hygiene guidelines for feeding and be alert for new recommendations.

Feeding can also attract predators. Domestic cats kill an estimated 1.3 to 4 billion birds in the US every year. Feeders should not be placed in settings where cats are present, and pet cats should be kept indoors.

Feeders can also support both native and introduced birds that outcompete local species. One study found that feeders attracted high numbers of crows, which prey on other birds’ chicks, with the result that less than 1 percent of nearby American robin nests fledged young. In New Zealand, bird feeding largely benefits seed-eating introduced species at the expense of native birds.

Clean feeders and diverse diets

The good news is that studies don’t show birds becoming dependent on supplemental food. Once started, though, it is important to maintain a steady food supply during harsh weather.

Birds also need access to native plants, which provide them with habitat, food, and insect prey that can both supplement diets and support species that don’t eat seeds at feeders. Diverse food resources can counteract some of the negative findings I’ve mentioned related to competition between species and impacts on bird diets.

Good maintenance, placement and cleaning can help minimize the likelihood of promoting pathogens at feeders. Initiatives like Project FeederWatch have recommendations about feeder design and practices to avoid. For example, platform feeders, where birds wade through the food, are associated with higher mortality, possibly through mixing of waste and food.

It’s also important to manage the area around feeders. Be sure to place feeders in ways that minimize the likelihood that birds will fly into windows. For instance, avoid providing a sight line through a house, which birds may perceive as a corridor, and break up window reflections with decals.

There are lots of great reasons to bring birds into your life. Evidence is growing that interacting with nature is good for our mental health and builds public support for conserving plants and wildlife. In my view, these benefits outweigh many of the potential negatives of bird feeding. And if you get involved in a citizen science project, you can help scientists track the health and behavior of your wild guests.

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Memorial Day memory: Vietnam the war that has most affected my life

Vietnam was one of those deadly, bloody wars. A war that change the lives of many a young american sent off to fight on a foreign soil. The reason, well it was not clear.

Joh 15:13 (13) Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

The political avenue theorists all spoke of the entire world, starting at Vietnam; where the Red communists would take over. Well, we fought em; pulled out, and they won! Yet they did not take over the whole world. No, now we are best friends.

Read this related article: ‘Nam’ behind us, Pres. Obama lifts Arms embargo.

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The fact is that during this war, many a young man sought shelter in Canada so they would not go to war. Draft dodgers, those who simply would not fight, and others protested the war in different ways.

Continue in post for more, including a short video on Vietnam by the History channel.

For me, I was in the Navy aboard a destroyed based at Newport, R.I.  It was inconceivable that we would fight such a war with only part of our military. While Johnson blew the literal hell out of the jungles of Vietnam, then later we saw the US use Agent Orange. None of this helped. Nor did the massive street demonstrations against the war. Vietnam era military at the time were looked down upon and blamed for the war. There has never been such a generation that fought a major war that so many Americans literally hated them for it. The average age of those fighting in Nam was 21, see the short video below for more info!

The demonstrations against the war, the fact that Jane Fonda ‘Hanoi Jane’, and many a American young man and woman stood against this war; made it even more volatile. Years later a repentant Jane Fonda said this and to her I say ‘we have all made mistakes’!

Whenever possible I try to sit down with vets and talk with them, because I understand and it makes me sad. It hurts me and it will to my grave that I made a huge, huge mistake that made a lot of people think I was against the soldiers.

The war in Vietnam made a clear point that America does not always win its wars. That in fact, the blood of men and women spilled in such wars make a case as to the ‘why’ did we get involved.  It was a political war, a war that political DC hacks led and also supported Johnson in his bombing runs in Nam. But the problem and history of Vietnam go way back to the French when they were there. Whether you fought in Vietnam or not, this war affected you. Whether you demonstrated against the war in Asia or not, this war in Vietnam moved the very fabric of American society. The year I got married Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in Nam. This led to the eventual takeover by the communist forces there. See below  pertinent facts of the Vietnam War.

By 1969, at the peak of U.S. involvement in the war, more than 500,000 U.S. military personnel were involved in the Vietnam conflict. Growing opposition to the war in the United States led to bitter divisions among Americans, both before and after President Richard Nixon ordered the withdrawal of U.S. forces in 1973. In 1975, communist forces seized control of Saigon, ending the Vietnam War, and the country was unified as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam the following year.

Eventually I got out of the Navy and went to college. I had college buddies who had fought in Vietnam. Everything was back to normal, or as good as it could be. These were times of post war nam. Partying, having fun, and talking about life. Not many spoke in depth about Vietnam. Nor did we discuss how the public treated Vietnam vets. I would have never treated a Vet of any kind the way the Vietnam vets were treated. The hostile nature, the depth of the anger and hate was there; seething. Today, most of this has passed. But the deep riding fear of another Vietnam is rising to the top again. That fear of many is what we see happening in the middle east. The whole concept of Pres. Obama’s war there and the fact that America, Russia, Iran, and the coalition have not completely wiped out ISIS is a reminder again that ‘we do not always win our wars’!

Both the war, the Congress, and the Presidency left a bad political and social taste in the mouths of many during the time of ‘nam’.  Even today, Vietnam has a stigma but the wars America gets into leaves another one. Even today, our country is bogged down in more war. As with all wars, many a mom and dad lost their son or daughter to a war fought so far away and for what reason?

The war began in 1954 (though conflict in the region stretched back to the mid-1940s), after the rise to power of Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War between two global superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. Source

Now Pres. Obama moves into a new chapter and arms the country. Well let us hope we never have to fight them again, for they beat America with small arms and holes in the earth, and big hearts. What will they do with better weapons and the same attitude?  Let us not find out.

Alot of good men and women died in that war, let us not forget them or any of our service men or women on this Memorial day. On this memorial day I also remember my Grandfather who ran the coast of America in his boat, working for the government. From Catalina past Los Angeles north. He did this during World war 2 as well.  My dad was a navy medic in the South Pacific during that war with the Japanese. My dad passed on some time ago. There was no funeral, no way to say thanks or goodbye due to family who did not let me know he was so bad.  To him and to Grandpa I say thanks with tears. I miss you both! It seems I never spent enough time with either of you. Time is so short. Memories so long, and the heart so vulnerable.

But Vietnam is a different place today than it was. Has America changed or has Vietnam? Yet, as America and Vietnam get along, we can only think, why it could not of happened before so many died on both sides? Why do men kill? Why do they not stop? The answer in my world is one word; “SIN”!

Ecclesiastes sums it all up and was a top song years ago, remember it?

Ecc 3:1-8 (1) To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: (2) A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; (3) A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; (4) A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (5) A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; (6) A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; (7) A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; (8) A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

Memorial Day memory: Vietnam the war that has most affected my life

A Commentary in the Writers Pulse by Dana Glenn Smith “Life Expression in it’s simplest form is simply life in words”

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Memorial Day memory: Vietnam the war that has most affected my life Memorial Day memory: Vietnam the war that has most affected my life Vietnam was one of those deadly, bloody wars.

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HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush, a patrician New Englander whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died. He was 94.

The World War II hero, who also presided during the collapse of the Soviet Union and the final months of the Cold War, died late Friday night, said family spokesman Jim McGrath. His wife of more than 70 years, Barbara Bush, died in April 2018.

The son of a senator and father of a president, Bush was the man with the golden resume who rose through the political ranks: from congressman to U.N. ambassador, Republican Party chairman to envoy to China, CIA director to two-term vice president under the hugely popular Ronald Reagan. The 1991 Gulf War stoked his popularity. But Bush would acknowledge that he had trouble articulating “the vision thing,” and he was haunted by his decision to break a stern, solemn vow he made to voters: “Read my lips. No new taxes.”

He lost his bid for re-election to Bill Clinton in a campaign in which businessman H. Ross Perot took almost 19 percent of the vote as an independent candidate. Still, he lived to see his son, George W., twice elected to the presidency — only the second father-and-son chief executives, following John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

The 43rd president issued a statement Friday following his father’s death, saying the elder Bush “was a man of the highest character.”

“The entire Bush family is deeply grateful for 41′s life and love, for the compassion of those who have cared and prayed for Dad,” the statement read.

After his 1992 defeat, George H.W. Bush complained that media-created “myths” gave voters a mistaken impression that he did not identify with the lives of ordinary Americans. He decided he lost because he “just wasn’t a good enough communicator.”

Once out of office, Bush was content to remain on the sidelines, except for an occasional speech or paid appearance and visits abroad. He backed Clinton on the North American Free Trade Agreement, which had its genesis during his own presidency. He visited the Middle East, where he was revered for his defense of Kuwait. And he returned to China, where he was welcomed as “an old friend” from his days as the U.S. ambassador there.

He later teamed with Clinton to raise tens of millions of dollars for victims of a 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean and Hurricane Katrina, which swamped New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. During their wide-ranging travels, the political odd couple grew close.

“Who would have thought that I would be working with Bill Clinton, of all people?” Bush quipped in October 2005.

In his post-presidency, Bush’s popularity rebounded with the growth of his reputation as a fundamentally decent and well-meaning leader who, although he was not a stirring orator or a dreamy visionary, was a steadfast humanitarian. Elected officials and celebrities of both parties publicly expressed their fondness.

After Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, Bush quickly began building an international military coalition that included other Arab states. After liberating Kuwait, he rejected suggestions that the U.S. carry the offensive to Baghdad, choosing to end the hostilities a mere 100 hours after the start of the ground war.

“That wasn’t our objective,” he told The Associated Press in 2011 from his office just a few blocks from his Houston home. “The good thing about it is there was so much less loss of human life than had been predicted and indeed than we might have feared.”

But the decisive military defeat did not lead to the regime’s downfall, as many in the administration had hoped.

“I miscalculated,” acknowledged Bush. His legacy was dogged for years by doubts about the decision not to remove Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi leader was eventually ousted in 2003, in the war led by Bush’s son that was followed by a long, bloody insurgency.

George H.W. Bush entered the White House in 1989 with a reputation as a man of indecision and indeterminate views. One newsmagazine suggested he was a “wimp.”

But his work-hard, play-hard approach to the presidency won broad public approval. He held more news conferences in most months than Reagan did in most years.

The Iraq crisis of 1990-91 brought out all the skills Bush had honed in a quarter-century of politics and public service.

After winning United Nations support and a green light from a reluctant Congress, Bush unleashed a punishing air war against Iraq and a five-day ground juggernaut that sent Iraqi forces reeling in disarray back to Baghdad. He basked in the biggest outpouring of patriotism and pride in America’s military since World War II, and his approval ratings soared to nearly 90 percent.

The other battles he fought as president, including a war on drugs and a crusade to make American children the best educated in the world, were not so decisively won.

He rode into office pledging to make the United States a “kinder, gentler” nation and calling on Americans to volunteer their time for good causes — an effort he said would create “a thousand points of light.”

It was Bush’s violation of a different pledge, the no-new-taxes promise, that helped sink his bid for a second term. He abandoned the idea in his second year, cutting a deficit-reduction deal that angered many congressional Republicans and contributed to GOP losses in the 1990 midterm elections.

An avid outdoorsman who took Theodore Roosevelt as a model, Bush sought to safeguard the environment and signed the first improvements to the Clean Air Act in more than a decade. It was activism with a Republican cast, allowing polluters to buy others’ clean-air credits and giving industry flexibility on how to meet tougher goals on smog.

He also signed the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act to ban workplace discrimination against people with disabilities and require improved access to public places and transportation.

Bush failed to rein in the deficit, which had tripled to $3 trillion under Reagan and galloped ahead by as much as $300 billion a year under Bush, who put his finger on it in his inauguration speech: “We have more will than wallet.”

Seven years of economic growth ended in mid-1990, just as the Gulf crisis began to unfold. Bush insisted the recession would be “short and shallow,” and lawmakers did not even try to pass a jobs bill or other relief measures.

Bush’s true interests lay elsewhere, outside the realm of nettlesome domestic politics. “I love coping with the problems in foreign affairs,” he told a child who asked what he liked best about being president.

He operated at times like a one-man State Department, on the phone at dawn with his peers — Mikhail Gorbachev of the Soviet Union, Francois Mitterrand of France, Germany’s Helmut Kohl.

Communism began to crumble on his watch, with the Berlin Wall coming down, the Warsaw Pact disintegrating and the Soviet satellites falling out of orbit.

He seized leadership of the NATO alliance with a bold and ultimately successful proposal for deep troop and tank cuts in Europe. Huge crowds cheered him on a triumphal tour through Poland and Hungary.

Bush’s invasion of Panama in December 1989 was a military precursor of the Gulf War: a quick operation with a resoundingly superior American force. But in Panama, the troops seized dictator Manuel Noriega and brought him back to the United States in chains to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges.

Months after the Gulf War, Washington became engrossed in a different sort of confrontation over one of Bush’s nominees to the Supreme Court. Clarence Thomas, a little-known federal appeals court judge, was accused of sexual harassment by a former colleague named Anita Hill. His confirmation hearings exploded into a national spectacle, sparking an intense debate over race, gender and the modern workplace. Thomas was eventually confirmed.

In the closing days of the 1992 campaign, Bush fought the impression that he was distant and disconnected, and he seemed to struggle against the younger, more empathetic Clinton.

During a campaign visit to a grocers’ convention, Bush reportedly expressed amazement when shown an electronic checkout scanner. Critics seized on the moment, saying it indicated that the president had become disconnected from voters.

Later at a town-hall style debate, he paused to look at his wristwatch — a seemingly innocent glance that became freighted with deeper meaning because it seemed to reinforce the idea of a bored, impatient incumbent.

In the same debate, Bush became confused by a woman’s question about whether the deficit had affected him personally. Clinton, with apparent ease, left his seat, walked to the edge of the stage to address the woman and offered a sympathetic answer.

Bush said the pain of losing in 1992 was eased by the warm reception he received after leaving office.

“I lost in ’92 because people still thought the economy was in the tank, that I was out of touch and I didn’t understand that,” he said in an AP interview shortly before the dedication of his presidential library in 1997. “The economy wasn’t in the tank, and I wasn’t out of touch, but I lost. I couldn’t get through this hue and cry for ‘change, change, change’ and ‘The economy is horrible, still in recession.’

George Herbert Walker Bush was born June 12, 1924, in Milton, Massachusetts, into the New England elite, a world of prep schools, mansions and servants seemingly untouched by the Great Depression.

His father, Prescott Bush, the son of an Ohio steel magnate, made his fortune as an investment banker and later served 10 years as a senator from Connecticut.

George H.W. Bush enlisted in the Navy on his 18th birthday in 1942, right out of prep school. He returned home to marry his 19-year-old sweetheart, Barbara Pierce, daughter of the publisher of McCall’s magazine, in January 1945. They were the longest-married presidential couple in U.S. history. She died on April 17, 2018.

Lean and athletic at 6-foot-2, Bush became a war hero while still a teenager. One of the youngest pilots in the Navy, he flew 58 missions off the carrier USS San Jacinto.

He had to ditch one plane in the Pacific and was shot down on Sept. 2, 1944, while completing a bombing run against a Japanese radio tower. An American submarine rescued Bush. His two crewmates perished. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery.

After the war, Bush took just 2½ years to graduate from Yale, then headed west in 1948 to the oil fields of West Texas. Bush and partners helped found Zapata Petroleum Corp. in 1953. Six years later, he moved to Houston and became active in the Republican Party.

In politics, he showed the same commitment he displayed in business, advancing his career through loyalty and subservience.

He was first elected to Congress in 1966 and served two terms. President Richard Nixon appointed him ambassador to the United Nations, and after the 1972 election, named him chairman of the Republican National Committee. Bush struggled to hold the party together as Watergate destroyed the Nixon presidency, then became ambassador to China and CIA chief in the Ford administration.

Bush made his first bid for president in 1980 and won the Iowa caucuses, but Reagan went on to win the nomination.

In the 1988 presidential race, Bush trailed the Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, by as many as 17 points that summer. He did little to help himself by picking Dan Quayle, a lightly regarded junior senator from Indiana, as a running mate.

But Bush soon became an aggressor, stressing patriotic themes and flailing Dukakis as an out-of-touch liberal. He carried 40 states, becoming the first sitting vice president to be elected president since Martin Van Buren in 1836.

He took office with the humility that was his hallmark.

“Some see leadership as high drama, and the sound of trumpets calling, and sometimes it is that,” he said at his inauguration. “But I see history as a book with many pages, and each day we fill a page with acts of hopefulness and meaning. The new breeze blows, a page turns, the story unfolds.”

Bush approached old age with gusto, celebrating his 75th and 80th birthdays by skydiving over College Station, Texas, the home of his presidential library. He did it again on his 85th birthday in 2009, parachuting near his oceanfront home in Kennebunkport, Maine. He used his presidential library at Texas A&M University as a base for keeping active in civic life.

He became the patriarch of one of the nation’s most prominent political families. In addition to George W. becoming president, another son, Jeb, was elected Florida governor in 1998 and made an unsuccessful run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016.

The other Bush children are sons Neil and Marvin and daughter Dorothy Bush LeBlond. Another daughter, Robin, died of leukemia in 1953, a few weeks before her fourth birthday.

By MICHAEL GRACZYK – Nov 30. 2018 – 9:22 PM PST ___

See AP’s complete coverage of George H.W. Bush here: https://www.apnews.com/tag/GeorgeHWBush

___

Graczyk retired from the AP in July 2018, after a 45-year career with the news service.

Former President George H.W. Bush Dies At Age 94 HOUSTON — George H.W. Bush, a patrician New Englander whose presidency soared with the coalition victory over Iraq in Kuwait, but then plummeted in the throes of a weak economy that led voters to turn him out of office after a single term, has died.