#Trump is stupid nero

[chameleon-on-lsd]

Tatort Luzern (Der Elefant im Raum) liveblogging

why am I watching this? So I don't just keep re-watching Polizeiruf immediately xD lmao how to open on Luzern? L A K E how else (I have no idea about this btw xD not even who Kommisar is) aldskkdasldköa lmao the background 'heb d schnurre' same nice bow tie hello hot ship's cook lmao is the grumpy guy the komissar? (ah yes, Reto Flückiger apparently, and his gf) 'mer mached da de service, mer sind nöd security' you would look even better in a security uniform *-* the aufständig guy is gonna die xD damn reto, get fucking whacked didn't even eat his quail egg (at least it looked uneaten and I wasn't fully paying attention I do like the title card :D god, that would be so fucking creepy. on a boat. in full darkness ....... oh damn selbst ist der mann. breaking out of a room aren't there windows? thank you, to the guy breaking it I do wonder what a flare smells like. fireworks? oooh that's the komisssarin right? girlie, you should not be working xD :O the captain fully died ? damn saldkasödk Liz, you sound terrible who the fuck is that reporter xDD get that girl a ricola xDD dundunduuunn and a hot biker? asdöaldköaldköal 'bruched sie nöd en durchsuechigsbefehl?' 'sie lueged z vill krimis' well what's the fucking truth then xD dkadlkjalksd a 'fake news' stamp XDD oh boy trump and putin paper figures xD and why does he pull off the pants for trump XDD lmao biker yeah okay, luzern is pretty but it's so weird to see that view of it. like i'm so used to seeing the zurich lake from any angle but that was a strange angle to see for Luzern liz had a girlfriend? bless hot server will get more screentime? hell yeah (I hope it's him xD) 'ja, mami' xD 'bring mer bitte orangesaft. 100 liter sötted lange' xD sakdlöksdaö nope, fuck that barking dog absoultely nopeing outta there helloo :D 'findet sie na en guete, oder?' xD aw schwarze doggo heisst nero xD original af aww liz crying over movies xD aldalkds reto you fucking troll xD (buys her oranges and a juicer) hey at least he fucking juices it for her!! bless 'die gumsle vode luzerner ziitig' XDD 1A swiss german word neverMIND he just cut 3 of them and juiced one half xDD 'er isch abem schiff gheit' 'oder gheit worde' xD welp^^ 'das isch öffentliche bode' 'nei, im moment nöd' xD xDD of course he comes with polizeigwalt the accent of the old guy goes hard (löt ihr mir die ih rueh' xD) that is a fancy fucking building (that I do not recognize) damn the reporter's place is cool xD kaslkdaklsdjl xDDD god the people all suck. amazing at least liz's scarf is cool. the colours are personally not my favorite but it looks very cozy lmao is this why luzern ended? komissar got too famous on a alternative news site xDD lmao 'verdammtii arschlöcher' 'sit ihr eigentli vu allne guete geister verlah?!' xD lksajldaskdjas god I hate it XDD 'solche videofilmli' xD lmao reto, teamleitig am brenne xD doesn't know where the fuck liz is 'mer schlafed ab und zue mitenand. hend sie vilicht au scho mal' the fucking looks from reto and liz XDD I was gonna say: how has no one accused hörk of fucking. but.. people just constantly assume they're in a codependent relationship instead xD what exactly is the job of the blonde woman at the police? 'de fisch stinkt immer vom chopf' w a s? uuuuuh foggy lucerne shot was very nice ah old guy is kripo chef. also Mattmann sounds so stupid in swiss german love how NO ON had their phone on silent xDD god the fucking piggy mask xD (also watching on mute now bc it's too cringe) aw they finally have frederic in interrogation and he's sucking on his necklace. love it XDDDDDDD got slapped by reto daMN bitch xD guys. have some hate sex over it

[skullsmithy]

I have been profoundly uninspired the last few months, but with everything turning so hard, an idea in my head wouldn’t leave me alone. Not a fan of the current administration.

[devilish-miasma]

Hello! It's me again! I have this idea for a request how about this Dante and Vergil (romantic) and Nero (platonic sibling) with Darling who is a stand user and have Star Platinium (jojo bizarre adventure) It could be possible? Thanks!

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

I have no idea what any of that is but I conducted as much research as possible, so I sincerely apologize for any inaccuracies I’ve potentially portrayed here. I hope this is adequate.

Toxic

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Dante

You met Dante sometime after the events of the first game. You brought him comfort, joy, and you were there for him after believing he killed his brother.

Dante didn’t know about your ability until later in the relationship. The situation grew dire, you were both backed into a corner, and you knew what you needed to do. So you summon your Stand and let it tear the demons apart.

Dante sits there bewildered, watching with wide eyes. He thought you were just a normal human, but it appears he was wrong. Dante himself isn’t ordinary, so he can see your Stand.

He has a ton of questions afterward. What was that? How did you do that? Are there others like you?

You answer all of his questions, watching a spark ignite in his eyes. You inform him you’ve met others like you, and you attempt to educate him on all the classifications for Stands. It confuses him, so you have to explain it for almost two hours before it finally clicks. It's understandable why: he’s never heard of them before.

Dante mimics that stupid noise your Stand makes when fighting demons. One time he did it toward Vergil when they were fighting, only for Vergil to become confused. Dante does it so many times and it drives his brother to the breaking point, “WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT NOISE MEAN DANTE??” You cry with laughter.

Nero has left the building.

“I sleep with a gun.”

“Weak. I sleep with a sword.”

“You’re both pathetic.”

“Oh yeah? What do you sleep with, Dante?”

“(Name) and their Stand.”

Vergil

Seeing Vergil’s doppelganger inspired you to use your Stand. When you summon it, Vergil freezes, totally unaware of this power of yours. You could only stand back and watch as those demons turn into mince meat. Overkill at its finest.

“What form of power is this?”

You just giggle.

He has questions, but not as many as Dante. Questions like, “How long have you had this power?” Vergil listens the entire time without interruption. You don’t need to explain over and over for Vergil, he’s smart enough to understand.

When you finish explaining, he just pauses. It's probably a lot to take in. When your human lover, who you assumed to be totally normal, suddenly has such an incredibly powerful ability, it would take some time to digest. You had a trump card up your sleeve the entire time and he hadn’t the slightest idea.

Vergil is a little relieved that he doesn’t have to protect you as often, knowing you have such a violent and powerful ability. The noise it makes is somewhat annoying, but that is quickly overlocked due to how efficient the entity is.

One day, you purpose a challenge. Who could win: his doppelganger, or your Stand? When your Stand emerges victorious, he’s incredibly impressed.

Vergil stands there, unsure of what to say, and you raise a curious eyebrow. You can see him working out what to say; his eyes give away many untold stories.

“You’re incredible.” He eventually murmurs.

You just laugh and kiss his face.

Nero (platonic)

You were a Holy Knight with Nero long ago. You kept your ability hidden, fearing the Order of the Sword would attempt to use you as a weapon somehow. Once you defected with Nero from them, you felt comfortable using your Stand again. You two were out on a mission, you just wanted the mission to be over so you summoned your Stand to kick ass.

Afterward, Nero whirled around with big eyes and a huge grin. “That was fucking awesome! How’d you do that?”

You make sure to answer all of your friend’s questions, enjoying how excited he looked. It was the most expression you saw him have ever since losing Credo and betraying the Order. It was… nice.

“Why does it make that sound?”

“I have no idea, buddy.”

Badass duo. You feel safe with each other.

How he introduces you now: “This is (Name). They’re incredibly badass, so I would advise messing with them. You’ll get your face smashed in.”

When Nero gets his Devil Trigger, he challenges you and your Stand. Worst mistake of his life.

“You coulda warned me how powerful it actually was.” He grumbles as you wipe blood from his face.

“Sorry.”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

Read it on AO3 | Rules | Buy this devil a coffee

[nicklloydnow]

“Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, hedge-fund billionaire Glenn Dubin, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former Secretary of the Treasury and former president of Harvard Larry Summers, Stephen Pinker, Prince Andrew, Alan Dershowitz, billionaire Victoria’s Secret CEO Les Wexner, the J.P Morgan banker Jes Staley, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barack, real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, former Maine senator George Mitchell, Harvey Weinstein and many others who were at least present and most likely participated in Epstein’s perpetual Bacchanalia, are not in court. The law firms and high-priced attorneys, federal and state prosecutors, private investigators, personal assistants, publicists, servants, drivers and numerous other procurers, sometimes women, who made Epstein’s crimes possible are not being investigated. Those in the media, the political arena and the entertainment industry who aggressively and often viciously shut down and discredited the few voices, including those of a handful of intrepid reporters, who sought to shine a light on the crimes committed by Epstein and his circle of accomplices are not on trial. The videos that Epstein apparently collected of his guests engaged in their sexual escapades with teenage and underage girls from the cameras he had installed in his opulent residences and on his private island have mysteriously disappeared, most probably into the black hole of the FBI, along with other crucial evidence. Epstein’s death in a New York jail cell, while officially ruled a suicide, is in the eyes of many credible investigators a murder. With Epstein dead, and Maxwell sacrificed, the ruling oligarchs will once again escape justice.

(…)

A licentious, money-drenched, morally bankrupt and intellectually vacuous ruling class, accountable to no one and free to plunder and prey on the weak like human vultures, rise to power in societies in terminal decline. This class of parasites was savagely parodied in the first-century satirical novel “Satyricon” by Gaius Petronius, written during the reign of Nero. Epstein and his cohorts for years engaged in sexual perversions of Petronian proportions, as Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie Brown, whose dogged reporting was largely responsible for reopening the federal investigation in Epstein and Maxwell, documents in her book “Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story.”

(…)

These mediocrities, drunk with their own self-importance, equate celebrity, power and wealth with wisdom. Petronius’ Trimalchio, the archetypal self-made millionaire whose vulgarity and stupidity make him one of great comic buffoons of literature, was more than matched by Epstein who organized pretentious dinners for those in his secret billionaires club, which included Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Salar Kamangar and Jeff Bezos. Epstein and his guests, as in Petronius’s chapter “Dinner with Trimalchio,” dreamed up bizarre schemes of social engineering, including Epstein’s plan to seed the human species with his own DNA by creating a baby compound at his sprawling estate in New Mexico. “Epstein was also obsessed with cryonics, the transhumanist philosophy whose followers believe that people can be replicated or brought back to life after they are frozen,” Brown writes. “Epstein apparently told some of the members of his scientific circle that he wanted to inseminate women with his sperm for them to give birth to his babies, and that he wanted his head and his penis frozen.”

Epstein, who regularly entertained and funded the work of Harvard faculty, was made a visiting fellow in Harvard’s Department of Psychology, although he had no academic qualifications that made him eligible for the position. He was given a key card and pass code, as well as an office, in the building that housed Harvard’s Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. He referred to himself in his press releases as “Science Philanthropist Jeffrey Epstein,” “Education activist Jeffrey Epstein,” “Evolutionary Jeffrey Epstein,” “Science patron Jeffrey Epstein” and “Maverick hedge funder Jeffrey Epstein.”

The judicial system, for years, worked to protect Epstein. The legal anomalies, including the disappearance of massive amounts of evidence incriminating Epstein, saw Epstein avoid federal sex-trafficking charges in 2007 when his attorneys negotiated a secret deal with Alex Acosta in the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami to plead guilty to lesser state charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution.

(…)

The list of suspected abusers around Epstein was not segregated by the left or the right. It included Republicans, like Trump, and Democrats such as Clinton. It included philanthropists such as Gates, the former prime minister of Israel, and Harvard academics. It included celebrities, such as David Copperfield, and the titans of finance and business. The common denominator was not politics or ideology, but that they were powerful and wealthy men.

(…)

The Earth, and all forms of life on this planet, must be revered, and protected if we are to endure as a species. This means inculcating a different vision of human society. It means building a world where domination and ceaseless exploitation, in all its forms, are condemned, where empathy, especially for the weak and for the vulnerable is held up as the highest virtue. It means recovering the capacity for awe and reverence for the sacred sources that sustain life. It means that girls and women must be empowered to control their own fates. Once we stand up for this ethic of life, once we include all people, including girls and women, as an integral part of this ethic, we can build a successful resistance movement that can challenge the radical evil before us. But we can’t do it unless half of the human population, girls and women, are at our side. Their fight is our fight. Their justice is our justice. Once they are free, we can all be free.”

[longwindedbore]

Time to acknowledge Trump’s and the Teapublicans’ supporters aren’t stupid or ignorant or tricked or brainwashed.

They are traditionally vile.

They ‘count their blessings’ by comparing themselves to others.

If the others, particularly those of any other ethnic or social behavior group, are worse off...then the traditionally vile praise and thank whatever secular or divine Authoritarianism they worship.

They are practicing ‘graditude’. Daily.

However, of the others, particularly those of any other group, are better off...then the traditionally vile come to one conclusion:

They, the traditionally vile, are being punished.

Punished justly because they, the traditionally vile, have failed their secular or divine duty to Authoritarianism.

Failed in allowing the existence or flourishing of the liberal or egalitarian or whatever behavior of the non-worshippers, non-praisers, non-traditional non-vile.

There is no “better” that can ever ever ever ever ever come from any actions or behavior of the non-traditional non-vile.

Hence, anything from Obama must be torn down. Obama - the Ultimate Other. The Ultimate Insult to the Ethnic Authoritarianism worshipped by the traditionally vile.

Praise! Praise that they now have the embodiment of Ethnic & Caste Authoritanism on earth!

The sacrifice of their own families or even themselves to the pandemic, or Iran’s nuclear resurgence, can be accepted as part of their penance for allowing an Obama Presidency.

Worship of Authoritarianism is revealed by the compulsion of the traditionally vile to force we Others to agree with them. It’s not enough for them if we remain silent.

We have to join them in prayer for Trump otherwise they are offended. And we are “nasty”. We have to at least “agree to disagree” so the vile can claim victory.

==A Message about Change from the Past==

During WW1 the traditionally vile in European countries countered the growing anger and political unrest over the stupidity, greed, incompetence of their leadership. Outrage at Divinely Imposed Autocratic Authoritarianism for continuing a Stalemate for four years for...autocratic pride and national grandiosity.

The Traditionally vile would demanded the outraged publically join in prayers for their nation’s Authoritarians: the Czar, the Sultan, the Kaiser, the Emperor, the King, the Nobles, the Rich. The Authoritarians who created and maintained the War but didn’t not themselves die in it.

Dramatic change comes when things get bad enough. When the prayers of hundreds of millions go unanswered year after year. When War and Pestilance, Hunger and Economic collapse endure. When millions die but the Rich and Powerful endure.

Change made more violent by the delaying tactics of the Traditionally Vile.

When it’s unavoidable to deny that prayer doesn’t work and the Leaders are idiots - then the Population lights a bonfire and disposes of the detritus of Authoritarianism.

As they did 1917-1918 to end the idiotic stalemate with internal revolutions toppling the Czar, the Sultan, the Kaiser, the Emperor, the Nobles. In one case also the Rich, the Powerful, as well as many religious authoritarian not-rich not-powerful who had demanded prayers for the Authoritarians.

In 1925 a General Strike in England came close to repeating 1640-1660 by overthrowing the King and the Nobles.

November 2020 is coming. As the death toll skyrockets, an angry general strike may come sooner.

[osservatoriosubliminale]

Una tipica giornata lavorativa

Ore 7 del mattino, il sole non è ancora abbastanza alto in cielo ma grazie al tecnico che ho chiamato l’altro giorno posso regolarne l’altezza e la temperatura in 2 secondi: per provare l’altro giorno ho selezionato la modalità più potente e ho fatto secco 3 vecchietti alle 7 di mattina; non volevo, giuro.

Sbadiglio, mi alzo e come prima cosa sento mio figlio nell’altra stanza che si lamenta del fatto che a scuola è il più sfigato della classe, sfortunatamente è a casa con me 7/8 mesi l’anno e in questo periodo qua, anche se anagraficamente ha sempre 33 anni tutto il tempo, è in piena fase pre-adolescenziale, ma tempo 1 mese e andrà a meretrici, come tutti i buoni 30enni.

Mi alzo e il mio schiavo coff coff cameriere Gabriele mi fa trovare tutto già pronto: fette biscottate, marmellata, un paté di quelli costosi e un pezzo di burro, tutto pronto per essere assemblato e mangiato; di solito bevo anche due bicchieri d’acqua, anche se non ne ho esattamente bisogno.

Dopo aver fatto tutto prendo le chiavi e mi alzo, per dirigermi nel mio ufficio: la fregatura di essere allo stesso tempo dipendente e capi di sé stessi è il non avere orari, lavorare quando e come mi va e permettendomi il lusso di concedermi qualche distrazione ogni tanto.

Mi siedo e, con uno schiocco di dita, accendo i miei numerosi monitor: prima che ci fosse la sovrappopolazione mondiale avevo un monitor per ogni persona, invece adesso ne ho pochi e su ogni monitor faccio scorrere la vita di 100 milioni di persone, così almeno risparmio sui monitor e sui combustibili fossili, per quanto possa in realtà generarli in un batter d’occhio.

70 monitor sono tanti e 100 milioni di persone su ognuno di esso sono altrettanto tanti, così ho deciso di ottimizzare il tutto in questo modo: ogni giorno mi concentro su un solo monitor e, dato che il mio orario d’ufficio è di sole 7 ore al giorno, vedo la vita di ognuna di quelle persone in pochissimi istanti, lo so che è poco, ed infatti poi cambio canale e vedo la mia telenovela preferita.

71 monitor, e non è finita qua.

Il 72° e il 73° li utilizzo in maniera intelligente: il primo si accende quando qualcuno associa le parole “padre nostro” con “terrorismo”, “droga”, “abusi” e cose così, l’NSA mi paga profumatamente e mi cede la possibilità di decidere le sorti di ogni 5° presidente degli USA; non ho ancora deciso per Trump, Gesù col suo masturbarsi mi distrae ogni volta.

Il 73° lo uso in maniera alterna: un po’ quando mio figlio è sotto i 3 anni e un po’ quando ho donne in casa che si vogliono fottere l’aureola, sono dovuto andare al banco dei pegni 3 volte per recuperarla e mi sarei anche un po’ rotto il cazzo.

Tempo 2 giorni e mio figlio mi fa: “Papà papà, mi servirebbe qualche monitor, devo giocare a Fortnite” e mi sono dovuto pure inventare una soluzione per farlo stare zitto; ho chiesto un attimo a Allah il registro dei credenti e ho fatto fuori 3.5 miliardi di persone dai miei monitor, tutti quelli che non credono in me ovviamente, e ho ceduto 3 monitor 21:9 a quel disgraziato di mio figlio.

Per il resto mi sono fatto una postazione per giocare ai retrogame, un monitor per la cucina che l’altro si è rotto l’altro giorno e il resto lo cederò a Buddha, che ne ha uno solo e poverino, un po’ mi dispiace.

Lo sforzo più grande che faccio, durante il giorno, è decidere chi accontentare: ci sono quelli che pregano per la pace nel mondo e quelli li ho rediretti nel monitor 54, ho notato che stranamente non scopano mai questi qui, chissà per quale motivo; sul monitor 22, 23 e 24 ho quelli che pregano per far stare bene i propri familiari amici ecc. ecc., li ho messi lì perché quei monitor sono difettosi e, dato che si vede in bianco e nero, non vedo mai il sangue o tutto quello schifo che producono coi loro corpi difettosi: ho deciso di non aiutarli, nel caso ci pensano i medici e mi ringraziano comunque.

Monitor 9, 10 e 11 i poveracci che chiedono soldi, fortuna e cose varie: mio figlio ogni anno mi chiede i soldi per il nuovo Fifa e non li ho, mi metto ad aiutare voi?

Di solito mi concentro sugli ultimi monitor, che ho soprannominato “varie ed eventuali”: varie ed eventuali perché le richieste sono stupide, becere ma quando le esaudisco mi diverto sempre un casino; l’altro giorno uno mi chiede “ué capo, cerco lavoro, mi aiuti?” e lo mando a lavorare come sguattero dove le lottatrici fanno la lotta nel fango.

Ho riso parecchio quella sera.

A volte, per fregare il sistema, mi prego da solo.

Mi prego e desidero che sia Dicembre, così mio figlio non è a casa a rompere il cazzo, prego che Allah o Buddha acquisiscano seguaci, così posso cedere i miei monitor al banco dei pegni, prego che non ci sia nessuno che dica terrorismo o droga mentre mi preghi, è una rottura di cazzo ogni volta informare l’NSA e prego, sempre, che un giorno tutto questo finisca.

Perché mi sono dovuto mettere anche gli occhiali e con gli occhiali sto effettivamente una merda.

E tutto questo lo faccio prima di andare a dormire, così, ogni giorno che accendo quei stramaledetti monitor mi ricordo che se questa vita, la mia vita, è una merda è solo ed esclusivamente colpa mia.

[ramrodd]

If the "insurrection" at the Capitol was intended to overthrow the government, what is the evidence that the crowd was armed?

This question is an example of the QAnon disinformation being broadcast to support Moscow Mitch's strategy for stealing the midterm vote and re-electing Trump in 2024. Connect the dots between this and Tukkker Carlson on FOX News.

COMMENTARY:

Here is one of the problems you run into when trying to respond to the NRA version of the 2nd Amendment: given the live coverage of the January 6 lynch mob that descended on the US Capitol after a “let’s go lynch Mike Pence” pep rally like they used to do in Dixie for the entertainment portion of a Baptist Sunday School PIcknic: hang a black family like Nero lighting his garden parties with Christians with just the flag staffs as potential javelins, like this bozo:

and can ask a question like this in a forum like this and expect to be taken serious has either never been in the military or they have been in the military and they are trying to sell the idea that this was just a some good old boys who came to the Capitol to see what they are getting for their taxes.

The mob that captured the Bastille had nothing more than the tools around them, like the hammers and sickles and staves of ordinary life, against guards with muskets. In warfare, Mass has a quality all its own. January 6 was a demonstration of that principle of warfare, the tools of the profession of arms.

This is a disinformation question designed to astroturf Trump’s poltiical future. Intelletually, these people are like the Chinese Water Torture, the constand drip, drip, drip of discouragement as a force multiplier in an insurgency committed to violent revolution. The difference between the Batille and the 1917 Winter Square revolution in Russia was the UCMJ side of the fight had machine guns and bolt action rifles which subdured the Zulus at Roarke’s Drift.

What do you mean by “weapon”. What do you mean by “armed”? What did the Framers mean by “bear arms”? What did the Framers mean by “well regulated”?

I can tell you what George Washington meant: a “well regulated…militia” would be subject to the UCMG. The Capitol Police are subject to the Bill of Rights, but not the UCMJ, the law of warfare. Lt. William Calley was court martialed according to the USMJ. George Washington and Robert E. Lee would have approved.

The lynch mob at the US Capitol on January 6 was PROTECTED by the Bill of Rights and, if they were Socratic, they would have recognized that it was the DUTY of the Capitol Police to control the primeter of the Capitol short of lethal means and it was the CIVIC DUTY of the MAGA nation to act with the same decorum as the March on Washington in 1963.

This question is part of the disinformation campaign trying to astroturf the mid-terms to steal the vote for the January 6 Capitol Insurgency as defined by the Republicans who refused to acknowledge The Big Lie from Big Brother President “Donny the Duckass” Trump that the election was bogus.

In 2011, when Moscow Mitch became Majority Leader, the only agenda on the docket was to sabotage, stall and dismantle the Bush-Obama economic recovery program which he, Moscow Mitch, wasn’t really able to throttle until after the 2012 Obama re-election while creating the conditions for AOC to show up in 2019 loaded for bear. But it was an important factor in keeping any Repubican candidate close enough to Clinton to take advantage of any momentary waver in her support.

And, of course, Comey gave Trump that waver in her support. Comey didn’t have a choice and the Mueller Report is just part of the explanation for why he didn’t have a choice, because it turns out Trump’s winning edge was the analytics his Russian partners in the 2013 Miss Universe Pageant stole from the Clinton campaign to game the Electoral College. I mean, it was a game of inches and Trump committed treason to win by a nose at the wire.

The stupidity of Moscow Mitch is demonstrated by the fact that he didn’t turn around and do absolutely everything Obama had proposed but couldn’t get unto the floor and tied it in with Trump’s Tax Reform Bill, Trump would be President riding the wave of the Green New Deal along the 100 year trajectory of the global synergies wave lingering from Apollo 11. Silicon Valley is a product of the global synergies wave from Apollo 11. The only thing standing between the whole world riding the global synergies wave from Apollo 11 has been Reaganomics and the obstructionism and bad faith of Fascist flunkies like Moscow Mitch.

And this question is part of that equation.

[newstfionline]

The Day of Shame

By Uri Avnery, CounterPunch, May 21, 2018

On Bloody Monday, when the number of Palestinian killed and wounded was rising by the hour, I asked myself: what would I have done if I had been a youngster of 15 in the Gaza Strip?

My answer was, without hesitation: I would have stood near the border fence and demonstrated, risking my life and limbs every minute.

How am I so sure?

Simple: I did the same when I was 15.

I was a member of the National Military Organization (the “Irgun”), an armed underground group labeled “terrorist”.

Palestine was at the time under British occupation (called “mandate”). In May 1939, the British enacted a law limiting the right of Jews to acquire land. I received an order to be at a certain time at a certain spot near the sea shore of Tel Aviv in order to take part in a demonstration. I was to wait for a trumpet signal.

The trumpet sounded and we started the march down Allenby Road, then the city’s main street. Near the main synagogue, somebody climbed the stairs and delivered an inflammatory speech. Then we marched on, to the end of the street, where the offices of the British administration were located. There we sang the national anthem, “Hatikvah”, while some adult members set fire to the offices.

Suddenly several lorries carrying British soldiers screeched to a halt, and a salvo of shots rang out. The British fired over our heads, and we ran away.

Remembering this event 79 years later, it crossed my mind that the boys of Gaza are greater heroes then we were then. They did not run away. They stood their ground for hours, while the death toll rose to 61 and the number of those wounded by live ammunition to some 1500, in addition to 1000 affected by gas.

On that day, most TV stations in Israel and abroad split their screen. On the right, the events in Gaza. On the left, the inauguration of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

In the 136th year of the Zionist-Palestinian war, that split screen is the picture of reality: the celebration in Jerusalem and the bloodbath in Gaza. Not on two different planets, not in two different continents, but hardly an hour’s drive apart.

The celebration in Jerusalem started as a silly event. A bunch of suited males, inflated with self-importance, celebrating--what, exactly? The symbolic movement of an office from one town to another.

Jerusalem is a major bone of contention. Everybody knows that there will be no peace, not now, not ever, without a compromise there. For every Palestinian, every Arab, every Muslim throughout the world, it is unthinkable to give up Jerusalem. It is from there, according to Muslim tradition, that the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven, after tying his horse to the rock that is now the center of the holy places. After Mecca and Medina, Jerusalem is the third holiest place of Islam.

For the Jews, of course, Jerusalem means the place where, some 2000 years ago, there stood the temple built by King Herod, a cruel half-Jew. A remnant of an outer wall still stands there and is revered as the “Western Wall”. It used to be called the “Wailing Wall”, and is the holiest place of the Jews.

Statesmen have tried to square the circle and find a solution. The 1947 United Nations committee that decreed the partition of Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state--a solution enthusiastically endorsed by the Jewish leadership--suggested separating Jerusalem from both states and constituting it as a separate unit within what was supposed to be in fact a kind of confederation.

The war of 1948 resulted in a divided city, the Eastern part was occupied by the Arab side (the Kingdom of Jordan) and the Western part became the capital of Israel. (My modest part was to fight in the battle for the road.)

No one liked the division of the city. So my friends and I devised a third solution, which by now has become a world consensus: keep the city united on the municipal level and divide it politically: the West as capital of the State of Israel, the East as capital of the State of Palestine. The leader of the local Palestinians, Faisal al-Husseini, the scion of a most distinguished local Palestinian family and the son of a national hero who was killed not far from my position in the same battle, endorsed this formula publicly. Yasser Arafat gave me his tacit consent.

If President Donald Trump had declared West Jerusalem the capital of Israel and moved his embassy there, almost nobody would have got excited. By omitting the word “West”, Trump ignited a fire. Perhaps without realizing what he was doing, and probably not giving a damn.

For me, the moving of the US embassy means nothing. It is a symbolic act that does not change reality. If and when peace does come, no one will care about some stupid act of a half-forgotten US president. Inshallah.

So there they were, this bunch of self-important nobodies, Israelis, Americans and those in-between, having their little festival, while rivers of blood were flowing in Gaza. Human beings were killed by the dozen and wounded by the thousand.

The ceremony started as a cynical meeting, which quickly became grotesque, and ended in being sinister. Nero fiddling while Rome was burning.

When the last hug was exchanged and the last compliment paid, Gaza remained what it was--a huge concentration camp with severely overcrowded hospitals, lacking medicines and food, drinkable water and electricity.

A ridiculous world-wide propaganda campaign was let loose to counter the world-wide condemnation. For example: the story that the terrorist Hamas had compelled the Gazans to go and demonstrate--as if anyone could be compelled to risk their life in a demonstration.

Or: the story that Hamas paid every demonstrator 50 dollars. Would you risk your life for 50 dollars? Would anybody?

Or: The soldiers had no choice but to kill them, because they were storming the border fence. Actually, no one did so--the huge concentration of Israeli army brigades would have easily prevented it without shooting.

Almost forgotten was a small news item from the days before: Hamas had discreetly offered a Hudna for ten years. A Hudna is a sacred armistice, never to be broken. The Crusaders, our remote predecessors, had many Hudnas with their Arab enemies during their 200-year stay here.

Israeli leaders immediately rejected the offer.

So why were the soldiers ordered to kill? It is the same logic that has animated countless occupation regimes throughout history: make the “natives” so afraid that they will give up. Alas, the results have almost always been the very opposite: the oppressed have become more hardened, more resolute. This is happening now.

Bloody Monday may well be seen in future as the day when the Palestinians regained their national pride, their will to stand up and fight for their independence.

Strangely, the next day--the main day of the planned protest, Naqba Day--only two demonstrators were killed. Israeli diplomats abroad, facing world-wide indignation, had probably sent home SOS messages. Clearly the Israeli army had changed its orders. Non-lethal means were used and sufficed.

My conscience does not allow me to conclude this without some self-criticism.

I would have expected that all of Israel’s renowned writers would publish a thundering joint condemnation while the shooting was still going on. It did not happen.

I would have expected that the dozens of our brave peace organizations would unite in a dramatic act of condemnation, an act that would arouse the world. It did not happen. Perhaps they were in a state of shock.

The next day, the excellent boys and girls of the peace groups demonstrated opposite the Likud office in Tel Aviv. Some 500 took part. Far, far from the hundreds of thousands who demonstrated some years ago against the price of cottage cheese.

In short: we did not do our duty. I accuse myself as much as I accuse everybody else.

But what topped everything was the huge machine of brain-washing that was set in motion. For many years I have not experienced anything like it.

Almost all the so-called “military correspondents” acted like army propaganda agents. Day by day they helped the army to spread lies and falsifications. The public had no alternative but to believe every word. Nobody told them otherwise.

The same is true for almost all other means of communication, program presenters, announcers and correspondents. They willingly became government liars. Probably many of them were ordered to do so by their bosses. Not a glorious chapter.

After the day of blood, when the army was faced with world condemnation and had to stop shooting (“only” killing two unarmed demonstrators) all Israeli media were united in declaring this a great Israeli victory.

Israel had to open the crossings and send food and medicines to Gaza. Egypt had to open its Gaza crossing and accept many hundreds of wounded for operations and other treatment.

The Day of Shame has passed. Until the next time.

[dwestfieldblog]

REVELATION: 2021

...’Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth...see, the home of God is among the mortals.’ Hope you are staying sane. Meanwhile, from my war room (arf) inside a deep (astral) state within a non binary body...hallucinating realities...

Imagine, if you will, millions in a democratic country, who gladly make (and addictively want to) their private thoughts known via social media and are quite happy to tell random pollsters on the street their feelings on any subject of which they are asked. And plenty on which they are not. So pleased to be asked their righteous opinion, so ego led deluded that anybody might ‘like’ their words that they will spout the hatred their hearts feel on issues of the day and in their lives without a care where such information goes. They want to be heard and so, they are. Now imagine a computer driven listening and watching station with instructions from media masters, political leaders, and advertising companies paying close attention to the data gathered. Not actual facts as such but almost all emotion led opinions, collated to show the group mindset of a subsection of a country.

An algorithm can be created for what products would most likely appeal to that mass. Guns, (for random example), waterproof bibles, clothing for survivalists. You have direct knowledge of this already when You tube, your email, Alexa etc ‘suggest’ something you might/should like, based on what you have ordered, written, or spoken online. This year I have been getting dozens of spam emails for bad eyesight, Viagra type stuff and hair loss. HA. My age must be written somewhere. Not much stress on imagination to see how simple it is for organisations like the ex Cambridge Anal lytica etc to capture and utilise such info via Facebook. Or how enemies of a country could understand in no short order what makes a country really tick below the surface and how to manipulate those emotionally crippled, poorly educated AND those who seek power over others. Psychographic profiling...stop giggling at the back there...

Cui bono (who benefits) from seeding disorder? Follow the money, ‘it’s only business’. An algorithm which reveals just what people believe and who can then be exploited en masse as useful idiots to disrupt the usual inbred spastic normality of daily life in a human country. And it is dirt cheap because people WANT to reveal themselves and a rival country need only a minimum outlay of actual infiltrating agent provocateurs (many of whom will be actual natives.) A set up involving ‘sock puppets’ which serves the same purpose as APs...the legendary bots and fake identities rattling off tweets and false flag Facebook pages, rallying the disaffected faithful. ‘More evidence that the targeting works and predicts our behaviour’.

Now, once the group targets have been identified, seek out those among them who long for their moment of fame, their years of special importance and time of power. They will have already made clear their characters in online posts. Weakling Alpha types cowering their insecurities behind a loud voice. They hunger for followers, to be ‘liked’, (a basic larval human need for most) and admired for their rightness. Show them support, aid their voices to spread, mysterious donors for the message; Anybody not similar to you MUST be the opposite...and therefore, the enemy. Step by step, the daily hormone rush reprogrammes and the opinions become a self fulfilling prophecy, imprinting over all sense of reason. So now you have your moronic masses (and those dumb enough to want to lead them) most of whom are too stupid (or busy surviving) to realise they are being manipulated from afar by those who understand what is within and do not have their countries’ interests at heart. Bombarded with attack ads and propaganda... ‘Until they saw the world the way we want them to’...

Some of the leaders, big or small, will actually know they are puppets but will think it acceptable as long as they are given a little pat on the head via position and power. And a lot of money. Most, (whether mass or leader of such infiltrated countries) will be certain they are doing what they do in the name of Freedom and Democracy, while all the time, being used to further limit the same. Hilariously, bleakly, deathly ironic. From hubris to nemesis.

Yes, I am writing about Brexit and Trumpists and Q Onan. Et al, etc. Ad infinitum. Almost. Those in democratic countries who are ceaselessly working unbeknown to themselves against most of what they demand the most. ‘To take back control’. No children, you are creating a system where you will have less and less of this. ‘Follow the white rabbit’? No, you are following an algorithm in highly predictive patterns to those who own it and by extension, you.

‘I love my country!’ Do you? Why are you working free of charge for another who only wants to see your Union and partnerships broken? You vote for ridiculous men like Trump and Farrage because they are not the government and think you are rebel anarchists who will herald a new dawn of purifying flame...by substituting yet more slime who care only for their own power.

Someone points the finger, uses a trigger word and you do the Pavlov dog. Someone claps their hands and you pay unquestioning attention to their misinformation. Look over there, the world is being run by Satanic, child abusing faggot socialist liberals and foreign scum. Arf. So why are you obeying one of the above mentioned groups in the name of taking back control of your freedom? Because they already know how you will react. Because you created the infamous All Seeing eye yourselves by feeding information into the data base. Because you are so easy to trick into believing you are thinking for yourselves. ‘They’ don’t need to insert chips or vaccines with nano bots, they can just implant you with audio visual media and Nuremberg style rallies.

Take two blonde, fat stupid white men. Liars to the highest degree. One an entitled megalomaniac spoiled child and the other with half the megalomania. A glance at their track record and into their eyes should have told you all. Seems it didn’t. It took over four years and up to the week Trump left, for the rats to finally start jumping ship and for the band of the Titanic to start changing their tune. Twitter took four years to decide to cut off his fix. Nero played golf while America burned with Covid. 414,000 dead. Incitement to riot? Incitement to riot.  Investigate his wannabe aristocratic family and do not allow his children anywhere near politics. Or Smug petulant Kusher anywhere near business.

Over 74 million still think Trump is a go to guy rather than a take a running jump at kicking him up his arse. He pardoned various criminals, including Bannon, (lest the fascist scuzzball fink on him)...and no pardon for Maxwell... who still could, unless she also should manage to ‘kill herself’ by accident fnord in prison. Seems likely Donald could run for office again, form his own party....What? Pence announced ‘Space Force’ personnel will be called Guardians; yes really...this year will see their first battle against the children of Thanos. Thanos, thy name is Trump. But lacking the compassion or humour.

Good morning to billionaire Mr Robert Mercer...a ‘Christian’ Conservative, gun lover, climate change denier, donor of over 100 million dollars to right wing candidates, 15 million of which went into Cambridge Analytica/Brexit and more to Breitbart and Trumps 2016 campaign. On the face of it, both he and his second daughter Rebekah would seem to have their fingers hard on many triggers of chaos, all of which serve only the rich and Russia. Breaking up partnerships, friendships, splitting unions and sowing discord. Check. Encouraging  the working  and middle class to merely shift their belief across to another band of disreputable rich guys by telling them how corrupt the other rich guys are. Look out! They might be Socialists! A lot of them are Europeans! They eat children and want immigrants to swarm over your town! Works like a charm. It would be so nice if billionaires would actually behave in a decent moral way (yes, sarcasm) and actually help out more, regardless of whether there is a return on their ‘charity’, instead of being the James Bond villain scum they act like.

And speaking of Q...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Arf. That narcissist prick in horns Jacob Chansley of Arizona...Shaman? Shame man. Bullhorn? Bullsh...t. No hanging lawmakers for you boy. He only eats organic food? So what? A lover of nature? Which is why he wears fur and horns and wishes death upon fellow Americans who are ‘traitors’. The Kremlin and Mercer have done a job as sweet as they did with Brexit divisions. Just let the rabid cretins do all their work for them splitting unions. Well, it’s what the CIA did so well against communism. Now it is our turn. Watching yanks and brits demand more control of their democracy while pulling it apart. Hilarious. Q Onan wanked their conspiracy to death and are now confused the Golden One has not led them to the revolution...not exactly levitating the Pentagon are you?

They believed the world is run by a paedo satan worshipping elite who plot against Trump and operate a global child sex trafficking ring. Yes really. So you can see how they appeal to the deranged righteous Christian gun toting hordes and internet savvy youth against the Deep State. Arf arf arf. The Kemlin will have studied key points as to what gets the average American and British goat and exploited it. People are so keen to share their beliefs, ideas and fears on social media that it is simple to collect and combine such info...(as happened with Cambridge Analytica) and use it for manipulating gain. Putin/Mercer probably told Trump the nature of the beast. ’If you want followers, do this...’Follow the algorithm. Dying covid patients continue to deny they even have it in South Dakota etc...that is how well the misinformation works.

Boris. A pathetic deal with Europe after an endless mantric blather of an ‘oven ready Brexit’. The chumocracy in full force as Ayanda Capital receive a 150 million pound PPE contract and provide no masks at all. And tax exile Tory donor (Lord) Ashcroft’s firm lands a 350 million pound vaccine contract (without a tendering process). Well, rather help a pal than put money into the National Health Service eh Boris? In 2019, the music industry brought in around 5.8 BILLION pounds, whereas the fishing industry netted (arf) 446 million. Sunak and Johnson have not seen fit to grant work permits for musicians to play in Europe and bands from outside will find it harder to get visas to tour in Plagueland. ‘Health’ secretary Matt Hancock said it was ‘Peculiarly unusual’ why British people went to work when they were ill. ‘Why in Britain do we think it’s acceptable to soldier on and go into work if you have flu symptoms...’Hmm. Germany pays 100 percent of sick pay. Czech Republic pays approx 60. The UK? 26. Good enough answer you prick? This guy also voted against food parcels for children, and then reversed only after an outcry.

The ever lovely Good Catholic William Rees Mogg called UNICEF’s feeding of poor English children during a pandemic at Christmas a ‘publicity stunt’. Hmm...well in 2019 the charity received 6.4 billion in contributions of which the Tory government of the UK donated 494 million. Perhaps UNICEF wanted to make a point that the UK has the largest number of food banks in the democratic world (over 2000, Germany has 900) and that it was a little beyond shameful that this was necessary. Still making money from selling birth control/termination pills in Indonesia after having said all contraception even in cases of rape was wrong Billy? The English gentleman also said he found the rise in food bank usage as being ‘rather uplifting’. Verrry Christian man. And that rotting British fish are ‘happier’ now out of Europe. A joke? The 2019 EU clampdown on tax avoidance will be avoided by him thanks to Brexit. Heavenly off shore interests, Glory! ‘How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God’. It easier for a camel to piss through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god. Mark 10 21:25. Good luck Billy.

Met a Christian guy again who tried to tell me a parable of sorts. A little bird was flying and suddenly fell into a field dead, a cow walked over and took a dump on the little bird and the heat of the manure brought the bird back to life. Overjoyed he started to sing and was heard by a cat that killed it. The moral being, don’t interfere with God’s plan. I wondered if that had been where Christ went wrong...perhaps he should have left lepers to die...but obviously no...he was a special case. Aha, so nobody should try and help anybody ever if they have a problem or are suffering. No one should help their own children, no doctors or surgeons...but priests are allowed because the intermediaries through whom the pious live vicariously are essential workers. Great parable. If you believe in God, don’t help anyone else. That’s the story of Christ eh?

The man who told me the story also said Donald was a great guy...I need to remind him Trump has broken every single one of the Ten Commandments (apart from direct murder) The burning cross is a T for Trump... ‘The function of law and theology are the same: to keep the poor from taking back by violence what the rich have stolen by cunning’. ‘The function of theology? The recitation of the incomprehensible by the unspeakable to pick the pockets of the unthinking’. RAW. Natures God. Hilaritas Press.

The most wisdom from China since Confucius was tweeted several weeks ago to the smug frog like Nigel Farage who had written ‘Christmas cancelled. Thank you China.’ Upon which, the Middle Kingdom between Heaven and Earth replied ‘Wear a mask and stop talking s..t’. Wonderful...shame the state media Global Times then spoiled it by writing a pot/kettle article which suggested that such politicians...’care only about their political ambitions and see ordinary people as roadside grass.’ From a regime which mowed its own teenage children down in tank fire, ran over their bodies and sent the price of the bullets used in the execution of young rebels to their parents.

Meanwhile, back in the temple of ketamine far away from all that nonsense... Universe will respond non locally to my thought...All pure chance as exists cross divided in all encircling mode, arf...non-local effects...’the ‘maybe’ in between ‘yes’ and ‘no’ in Quantum Logic, of ‘solid’ ‘objects’ that are superimpositions of waves, according to one quantum model, and of ‘minds’ that are superimpositions of waves if the ‘minds’ are transactions involving brains and the brains are made of cells which are made of atoms which are made of electrons which are superimpositions of waves’. RAW THE NEW INQUISITION. Yes. And...

The hidden variable theory of consciousness asserts (1) there is a subquantal level beneath the observational/theoretical structure of ordinary quantum mechanics; (2) events occurring on this subquantal level are the elements of sentient being. Drs Walker and Herbert.

‘Consciousnesses in this model is not ‘in’ our heads. Our brains are merely local receivers ‘consciousnesses ‘is’ ‘an aspect of the non-local field’ The ‘ego’ then is the locally tuned in aspect of this usually not-tuned-in non local field.

‘...we find that our consciousness controls physical events though the laws of quantum mechanics.’ Magick. Rise in Love, ‘arouse the coiled splendour within you’ :-)

[brainstatic]

I genuinely believe that Trump will rank among the likes of Nero, Caligula, King John, Tsar Nicholas II and the other great disgraces of history. He won't be among the evil, like Hitler or Pol Pot, he’ll be in the pantheon of the weak and stupid and corrupt.

[swan2swan]

Press Briefing time!

Wonder if Sarah’s gonna bail again, or if she’s actually going to stand and answer questions (poorly), which will probably include, for stupid reasons:

“Does President Trump still think murdering gay people is a joke, or was that just Candidate Trump?”

“Does President Trump know what the word ‘subpoena’ means?”

“Does President Trump know that cutting subsidies is only going to mean that poor people are charged a lot more for their health insurance, and that his executive order is going to make it harder for people with preexisting conditions to get health insurance?”

“The whole world says that Iran has been complying with the nuclear deal--why does President Trump think he’s smarter than them?”

“Is it time to talk about gun control yet?”

“The death toll in Puerto Rico is now officially up to 48, is it a ‘real catastrophe’ yet?”

“How was his golf game on Saturday? Is he going to fill a trophy with water and use it to help put out the fires in California?”

“Does President Trump know what the phrase ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned’ means?”

Some of these may just be wishful thinking, but...

[aboutbigbooks]

Recent Releases Part 2: Points of View

Once again, I have a bunch of advance reader’s copies thanks to NetGalley and Goodreads (in return for honest reviews). And once again, the bunch contains a variety of fiction and yields a range of recommendations. If you’re looking for a big book, there are a couple that come close (> 400 pp.) that I can heartily recommend. A theme that inadvertently runs through this crop is multiple narrators, a technique that most of these books use to good effect.

In chronological order, here are some new novels (and a couple of paperback releases) from the second half of 2017. Hint: my highest recommendations go to the more recent releases.

Siracusa (Delia Ephron, 304 pp., paperback release June 6). Two couples to go Italy together: Taylor and Finn (who bring their daughter, Snow) and Lizzie and Michael. Told from their four perspectives, relationship chaos ensues – a situation that you can foresee from the start. I won’t say more about the events to avoid spoilers, but think entropy. Around the same time I read Siracusa, I also read Jane Smiley’s Commonwealth, which made me think about writing a blog post about wife-swapping novels. The difference between the two books? Ephron’s characters are anxious, dramatic, or both; Smiley’s are (as always) serene and observant. Read them both for an interesting contrast.

Read if: You like your drama high.

Emma in the Night (Wendy Walker, 320 pp., August 8).  Two sisters disappear, and only one, Cassandra, shows up on her mother’s doorstep three years later. Her mother and father are still divorced and remarried, and her mother is as crazy as ever. In mythology, Cassandra was the prophetess whose true prophecies were not believed. This Cassandra is an unreliable narrator, not because she is drunk or damaged, but because she has a secret agenda of her own that she doesn’t tell anyone (including the reader). The other narrator is Abby Winter, an FBI forensic psychologist who worked the original disappearance. Of the two, Cassie is the more interesting. Some good twists.

Read if: You like dysfunctional family dramas and unreliable narrators.

Unraveling Oliver (Liz Nugent, 272 pp., August 22). I started to hear some buzz about this book around the beginning of September, but I was disappointed.  The story is told in flashbacks by Oliver and those he has had contact with over his life. That was not the disappointing part – the structure worked super well. The characters themselves, however, were archetypes with little depth or complexity. Oliver has some kind of personality pathology, probably narcissism with a dash of antisocial thrown in, and that’s about all you need to know about him. His wife is the bad stereotype of a librarian (she’s actually an artist, but not that kind of artist – you know, the vegetarian kind with dyed hair. The dowdy kind who wears cardigans and is a poor driver.) The older French woman? A winemaker, wise in the ways of food and sex. An aunt is a spinster sister, unattractive and not good with children. And so on.

Read if: Construction satisfies you more than character.

The Golden House (Salman Rushdie, 380 pp., September 5). Did not finish. This sounded like a winner: from Salman Rushdie, winner of the Booker of Bookers for Midnight’s Children and set in New York with a loose allegory on Trump. I got about two-thirds of the way through it, and finding that I was not getting the momentum that some readers reported halfway through, I moved on to better things. The story is told from the perspective of a twenty-something American man who becomes intrigued (to say the least) with a family from an initially unnamed country that moves into his affluent neighborhood. The widowed patriarch is Nero Golden and his three sons are Petronius, Lucius Apuleius, and Dionysus. Nero is meant to be the Trump allegory, which you can tell because sometimes he says things like, “On the upper floors I can get a terrific deal . . . So, a great deal. The best deal in town.” My main problem with this novel was voice. I got bogged down in a conversation between the narrator and Nero about guns that didn’t indicate the speakers, and I couldn’t tell from their voice who was who. Both of them sounded like the elderly foreigner. I quit not long after that.

There were beautiful nuggets, to wit:

Life and death are both meaningless. They happen or don’t happen for reasons that have not weight, from which you learn nothing. There is no wisdom in the world. We are all fortune’s fools. Here is the earth and it is so beautiful and we are so lucky to be here with one another and we are so stupid and what happens to us is so stupid and we don’t deserve our stupid luck.

If you read it: Let me know how it turns out.

Sing, Unburied, Sing (Jesmyn Ward, 285 pp., September 5). I honestly don’t know how many stars to give this book. Like others in this crop, it was told from the viewpoint of several characters. The center of the book is Jojo, a Black teenager living in abject poverty in the rural South. Unlike Unravelling Oliver, this book has rich, emotional characters. The language is swoon-worthy. So why not an immediate 5 stars? THE GRIM, PEOPLE. SO MUCH GRIM. Beautiful grim, but still.  There was also an element of the supernatural that did not work 100% for me. Ward just won a MacArthur Genius Grant, and I’m betting this will be on a lot of literary award short lists.

Read if: You love beautiful language and can handle grimness.

The Dark Lake (Sarah Bailey, 400 pp., October 3). I am always skeptical about books that promise that they will satisfy fans of Tana French (the Dublin Murder Squad series), but this one fits the bill. Set in a small town in Australia, this debut effort is told from the (sole) perspective of detective Gemma Woodstock. A teacher from Gemma’s alma mater, her former classmate, has been found dead. It falls to Gemma and her partner to expose the victim’s life while protecting their own secrets and negotiating their own complications. Like the Dublin detectives, these cops are real people with real flaws that sometimes get in the way of their jobs. A great page-turner and nearly big book. I’m looking forward to more from Sarah Bailey.

Read if: You can’t wait for the next Dublin Murder Squad. No, seriously.

All the Ugly and Wonderful Things (Bryn Greenwood, 406 pp., paperback release October 3). Another nearly big book that I loved. The novel tells the coming-of-age of Wavonna from her perspective and those of her relatives, teachers, and the biker mechanic who is ultimately her savior. Wavy’s parents cook and take methamphetamine, and she is often left to her own devices. Wavy is damaged – she can only eat alone, preferably out of the garbage; she doesn’t talk much; and don’t try to touch her. When Kullen finds her trying to maintain the household and care for her mother and little brother, he has to do something. Can an adult biker mechanic and a young girl – and later, a young woman – be soulmates? Bryn Greenwood will make you believe they can.

Read if: You like your grim counterbalanced with unlikely but sustaining love.

The Immortalists (Chloe Benjamin, 352 pp., January 9, 2018). Last but absolutely not least, this novel asks, what if you knew the date of your death? Four bored young siblings decide to visit a medium who can (and does) tell them the exact dates of their death. The youngest, Simon, has the earliest date:

It’s the prophecy, too, something he would very much like to forget but has instead dragged behind him all these years. He hates the woman for giving it to him, and he hates himself for believing her. If the prophecy is a ball, his belief is its chain; it is the voice in his head that says Hurry, says Faster, says Run.

All of the siblings are affected by the prophecy and what it says to them. They take risks or avoid them to the point of paralysis; they make plans or discard them; they look to the future or the past. Varya, the eldest: “it was evident in Simon’s spirits, in Daniel’s tendency toward anger, in the way Klara unlatched and drifted away from them.”

Read if: You think you would like a mash-up of San Francisco in the 70s (think Tales of the City), magic shows, a meditation on duty to others, and another meditation on connection, all in a family saga.

[fieldmedics]

Things that Donald Trump does or has done that...

 1.      Trump loves his commentary tirades on Twitter attacking both the DNC and the GOP. A good President looks to work across party lines in the hopes of getting unilateral support and backing on issues of the country. This is not how this man operates, he is like a 10 year old play ground bully picking on poor defenseless kindergartners.

 2.      Trump thinks himself as being this planets number one genius and know it all. He has been seen on television in his narcissistic rants on how “I know this better than anyone on the planet”.  Click the link to see just a few of his “I’m Better than anyone on the planet” collage statements on television.

https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/donald-trump-is-apparently-the-expert-on-everything-according-to-him?jwsource=cl

 3.      As much as he spats at the Democrats, he spent the better half of his first year in office attacking his own damn party line. Who in the hell does that?

 4.      He has shown to the world that he has absolutely no respect for our allies on this planet. He seems to think that because he is the President of the United States, that places him on the top-spot of the world and they should all bow down before him. This kind of ignorance is tantamount to an epic version of Rome’s Nero. Below is a YouTube link that shows a small example of his total disregard for decorum and respect at a NATO summit not long ago. 

https://youtu.be/RoHL5wy0RQo 5.      He is empowering al-Qaeda in Syria. By forging a de facto alliance with Russia and Iran to defeat the Islamic State, Trump is driving Sunni Arabs into the waiting arms of al-Qaeda — which is preparing to replace the Islamic State and is much more dangerous. And in the latest news he is stating a military pull-out of the region that is still wrought with and ISIS presence, and is placing strain on a strategic alliance with Turkey by putting a caveat that they are to not attack Kurdish forces, even though the Turkish government, along with our own see them as a known terrorist organization. What people need to know is that the Kurds are no different than the Mujahideen, aka “The Taliban” in Afghanistan. 

6.      I am placing this one here because it shows just how low-brow, stupid, and childish he is.  99.1% of his tweets that he throws out to the world is complete rubbish. He tweets like a spoiled toddler who has not gotten their way and is laying on the floor screaming. Please see the link below for a visual comparison…

https://youtu.be/YersIyzsOpc 7.      He has attacked the FBI and the intelligence community. Trump is right to be angry about leaks of private conversations with foreign leaders and the political bias of some individuals involved in the Russia probe. But the vast majority of those in the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA are good, decent and honorable patriots who deserve the president's respect. Trump should not undermine our institutions because of the corrupt or illegal actions of some individuals.

8.      He has dismissed Russian interference in the 2016 election. During his trip to Asia, Trump said he really believes that when Vladimir Putin tells him Russia did not interfere in the 2016 election, Putin believes it. This is patently absurd. Putin directed Russia's meddling. It is possible to accept that Russia sought to influence our election without accepting that there was any collusion. The fact that a foreign government tried to undermine our democracy should outrage all Americans, regardless of party — including the president.

9.      He stood by Roy Moore. His endorsement of an alleged sex predator was morally indefensible and sent a message to women everywhere that Republicans do not believe that credible allegations of a grown man molesting teenage girls are disqualifying. And that message has been received. Polls show a significant increase in the percentage of women who favor Democrats over Republicans in 2018. 10.  He has failed to condemn the alt-right. His "many sides" response to Charlottesville was shameful. There a lot of things about the presidency that are hard, but condemning neo-Nazis isn't one of them. While Trump eventually did so, as white nationalist Richard Spencer pointed out, "Trump has never denounced the Alt-Right. Nor will he." Sadly, Spencer is right. Trump's failure to condemn the right's fever swamps hurts his presidency and the conservative movement. (and only proves to me and a lot of other people that he is a racist Cheeto.

 11.  Trump should be celebrating a year of achievement, but instead his administration is hemorrhaging public support. When Trump took office, he had 45 percent approval. Yet today — despite policy successes at home and abroad, economic growth exceeding 3 percent and unemployment at a 17-year low — his approval has dropped 10 points to 35 percent, the lowest of any modern president at this time in his administration. If Trump wants to understand why, he can start with this list.

 President Trump needs to stop taking credit for things that he has no hand in doing, nor claiming that it was because of him.  That is nothing more than a narcissistic, egotistical reach around for someone who wants to be important, and does not care for the mass majority of people that he has sworn to serve.

 Lastly is this;

He stated on public television to Mr. Schumer that he would shut down the government, and that he would not blame the Democrats, that he would take the mantle for that. All for getting a stupid wall. Well, he has shut down the government, like a spoiled child throwing tantrum, and he forgot that he said to the nation that he would not blame the Dem’s for it. As we have seen, he has done nothing but blame the democrats for the shut down. He can’t even own up to his own BS, and still thinks his poo doesn’t stink and that he will go down in the annuals as being the BEST PRESIDENT IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

That level of arrogance knows no bounds. What has this Nation become? Have we lost our sensibilities and common sense and dignity? And where does it end?

 Soap box rant. 

[auraea]

17 22 23 29 31 58

17. opinion on insecurities.

Well we all have some and it’s normal but I wish we could love ourselves more

22. description of crush.

I don’t really have real crushes anymore so yeah no comments

23. fear(s)

war, flying, losing important people, trump, failure

29. favorite film(s)

The Wind Rises, Blue is the warmest color, Spirited away and many more

31. 3 random facts

I love love letters

When I was little my brother and I named our dog Jalo Veli Riesu Leevi Peto Kuola Nero Pissis

I save all gifts, cards and other little things people give me

58. Description of my best friend

I’ll name a few ‘cause they all mean the world to me

@kremeleus is loving and kind, best memes, loves cats, pretty as hell, always smells nice, wears only black, too busy!!, baths and champagne, looks angry when not alert

@emmamarja is stupid as hell but all the best stories have her in them, sleeps too much, lovely freckles, supports my bad decisions, great taste in music, cool kiddo, gt, the funny one

Iiris is so empathetic, warm and always makes others smile, pretty eyes, will always listen and easy to talk to, the social one, great singer, love her!!

Pinja is the one I have known since the first year of high school, best drunk stories, funny, nice style in clothes, the smiths, won’t judge you, random dancing anywhere we go

@sormustenherrasta oh boy, the history of japan quotes, great booty great heart, cute and girly but will fight u, “se on vaan lämpöö”, understands me, the sporty one, best convos that leave u feeling safe and calm, skater boi, flannel shirts

Thanks!

[thefederalistfreestyle]

[. . .] While Trump’s all-out war on the media may be unique, his complaints are not.  The tension between a free press and the government is intentional – part of the essential check and balances of a free society the founding fathers envisioned. After all, the constitution doesn’t mention political parties, but it does mention journalists. Even the founding fathers had a complicated relationship with the early reporters George Washington called “infamous scribblers.” While James Madison believed that “to the press alone, checkered as it is with abuses, the world is indebted for all the triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression,” the primary author of the Constitution spoke from personal knowledge on both sides of the equation.  He and Thomas Jefferson surreptitiously started one of the first partisan newspapers, the National Gazette, to attack their rival Alexander Hamilton and the policies of the Washington administration.  Jefferson exhorted Madison to attack Hamilton under an assumed-name in the paper, saying, “For god’s sake, my dear sir, take up your pen, select the most striking heresies, and cut him to pieces in the face of the public.” Before the presidency, Washington declared, “If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter,” but the constant anti-administration attacks of the National Gazette drove him to distraction. When Secretary of War Henry Knox brought a copy of the paper into a cabinet meeting containing a broadside called “The Funeral of George Washington” which described a tyrannical executive on a guillotine, the president exploded in one of his rare but memorable rages. “The President was much inflamed,” recounted Jefferson with a degree of detached amusement, “[and he] got into one of those passions when he cannot command himself; ran on much on the personal abuse which had been bestowed on him; defied any man on earth to produce one single act of his since he had been in the government which was not done on the purest motives . . . that by God he had rather be in his grave than in the present situation; that he would rather be on his farm than to be made Emperor of the world.” However infuriated Washington was, the notoriously self-monitoring first president took care not to display his anger in public. The first president understood the power of precedent and was determined to maintain the dignity of the office.  It’s an example that most of his successors have tried to follow. Washington’s critics were not isolated to one paper. The Aurora, published by Benjamin Franklin’s grandson, Benjamin Franklin Bache, delighted in personal attacks against the president, with Bache declaring it his mission to “destroy undue impressions in favor of Mr. Washington.” Among the president’s alleged sins were arrogance, stupidity, and a love of monarchy. He was called a lousy general, a lukewarm patriot, and an incompetent executive, intentionally undermining the U.S. Constitution. As one of their correspondents wrote: “If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by WASHINGTON! . . . Let the history of the federal government instruct mankind that the mask of patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest designs against the liberties of a people.” Though Washington steeled himself for the attacks, they took a toll. “He is also extremely affected by the attacks made and kept up on him in the public papers. I think he feels those things more than any person I ever yet met with,” Jefferson wrote Madison. By the end of his second term, Washington routinely railed against his partisan newspaper persecutors, bitterly complaining in a final letter to Jefferson that he was “accused of being the enemy of one Nation, and subject to the influence of another” with every administration action twisted by “the grossest, most insidious mis-representations” “in such exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied to a Nero; a notorious defaulter; or even to a common pickpocket.” But Washington always struggled to keep a sense of perspective, writing his friend Gouverneur Morris to express concern that “[f]rom the complexion of some of our News-papers Foreigners would be led to believe that inveterate political dissentions existed among us, and that we are on the very verge of disunion; but the fact is otherwise . . . but this kind of representations is an evil which must be placed in opposition to the infinite benefits resulting from a free Press.” While George Washington was often wounded by the press, he did not think he could or should declare war on it.  He understood that dissent was essential to democracy and a free press was the best guarantee of our hard won liberty. When Washington chose to write his Farewell Address to his “friends and fellow citizens,” he delivered the news in a newspaper.  Crucially, he did not give the scoop to a long-standing partisan ally like John Fenno of the dependably Federalist Gazette of the United States. Instead he chose the independent-minded American Daily Advertiser later characterized as “never flaunting in the gaudy glare of party allurements; never stained with the ribaldry and virulence of party recrimination.” Its editorial view was independent and reflected the virtues of national unity that Washington wanted to embody and champion. [. . .]

Fake News and the Founding Fathers (The Daily Beast)

[gutter-town]

Geared Evolution

What is the greatest problem facing humanity today? I am more than interested in improving the lives of the lower classes but what is at the core of every problem facing humanity? We don't understand ourselves. Our personal and interpersonal lives are a mess. I believe this is because we haven't changed in thousands of years. Despite all our technological progress, we still repeat history and humanity as a whole has not learned from its mistakes. 

For example: Trump is not new. He's new for our generation but not for history. He is Julius Caesar and every other horrible emperor (Nero, Caligula) all rolled into one. Even killing Trump would not cure us of his stupidity. Brutus and Cassius believed they would free the republic by executing their friend when all they did was make him a martyr and created a power vacuum for Caesar's throne. There are inherent flaws in humanity that we must overcome and it is becoming more apparent everyday. 

Have you noticed an increase in global self awareness recently? The world is finally starting to ask itself collective questions of morality and purpose. Its why there has been a growing divide amongst the population. Those who are noticing that the world is changing and those who are afraid. Eventually the entire planet is going to come to grips with itself and ask the question: What now? That's where we come in. 

Human beings have evolved mentally further than any other creature we have come across. Its why we run the planet. We exist within our Frontal Lobes (the newest evolutionarily developed part of the brain that holds our consciousness). The more intelligent the creature, the larger and more uncommitted are the areas of the frontal cortex. The Limbic system and the further back, older parts of our brains (that hold memories, deal with emotions and motor controls) send impulses up to our frontal lobes informing us about how we feel and how we should act.  

Lets say you and I are having a fight and you call me a bad name. My amygdala is going to fire neurons that inform my frontal lobe to be offended and pissed off based on memories and experiences and primal emotions. My frontal lobe, with its vast uncommitted space is going to interpret these impulses and roll with them, even though I might know better and despite the fact that it will further dampen our relationship. I will be unaware of how my brain has acted for me and will simply act against my best interest.

Now, what if we could commit those areas of the frontal lobe to interpret the signals from the rest of the brain for us. Give ourselves a little self awareness that will secure people with their own minds? I believe that education from a young age about our brains, the way they work and how they will develop would begin a process of geared evolution slowly. Children need to know that their egos are going to give them strength and also hinder them throughout life. They need to be aware that it is not useless to develop their inner self. 

Today's society puts so much emphasis on personal ego (as it is generally what the rest of the world sees when they look at you. Think of ego like armour, it protects you but it also fights and keeps people out) that it unintentionally condemns the self (and in doing so, personal identity. The ability to define yourself.) If we can teach these things at young age then perhaps our brains will evolve on their own. I mean that's what evolution does right? We adapt to survive. Well I think this is one adaptation that the world is going to need extremely soon.