#Workers of hell unite all you have to lose is your chains!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sigridstumb · 2 years

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Solidarity forever.

Okay, okay, I can't stand it anymore. Rant incoming. Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your fucking chains.

I don't care what sort of job you have. You -- yes, you. Reading this. Us happy few, us band of brothers still trying to reach each other in this cursed and dying space. You, dear reader, you need a fucking union. Unless you are self-employed, find out if you have a union.

How do you know whether your job has a union? Well, there's a couple places to look. First, ask your H.R. department if your job has one. Second, ask a coworker. Third: dol.gov or: unionfacts.com/cuf/ Or, y'know, use a seach engine.

(Yes, this is U.S.-oriented, I don't know a damn thing about other countries and their labor stuff.) Why on earth do you need a union? BECAUSE COMPANIES ARE ENTITIES DESIGN TO EXTRACT LABOR FROM YOUR BODY AND GIVE THE PROCEEDS TO SHAREHOLDERS.

You, you wreck your body and your life and pour yourself into a job and distilled money is squeezed out the other end into the hungry maws of shareholders and owners.

Corporate profit is at a level well beyond what we have ever seen, and it's expected to keep growingmarketwatch.com

"The fact is that in the 1980s and beyond, public companies began embracing a very different idea as to the purpose of a firm: the idea that the sole purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder value."

How To Fix Stagnant Wages: Dump The World's Dumbest Ideaforbes.com

Workers are EXPENDABLE COMMODITIES to companies. This has accelerated over the course of my lifetime and it is still going, a graphed j-curve straight into hell.

You need a union because you can be replaced. All of us, we can all be replaced. If we die or are disabled or get burned out or suffer moral injury or just quit, if we just fucking quit, there are scads of others of us who are desperate for that job. Yes, even the shitty jobs.

It's only when all the nurses, all the pilots, all the teachers, all the cafeteria workers -- it's only when all of a given pool of people in a region qualified to do a particular task all quit working TOGETHER, AT THE SAME TIME, that we can get companies to listen to us.

How do we stop the slow removal of young people, queers, women, BIPOC, disabled folks from really good jobs? (Not that they are FIRED, no, but, you know, they are just not a good fit for the company, right, the company wishes they would stop being so needy all the time, right?)

We stop that trend (tech, gaming, comics, journalism, I am fucking looking at YOU) by UNIONIZING. We stop that by saying that we, the workers, will collectively protect EACH OTHER.

How do we stop the firings of service workers on pretexts because the workers wanted to unionize? BY FUCKING UNIONIZING. Unions bargin for rules that protect workers, and then when those rules are violated the UNION fights for you.

I can't I can't -- I just cannot EVEN with how important this is. Every shitty job you've had where your manager treated you unfairly? You needed a union rep to report that manager to.

Every time you were let go because you got sick or just were pregnant, just had a damn kid, well, a union makes rules that allow you to have sick days, that protect you from being fired when you develop a chronic illness. (Or just have a kid, for chrissake.)

I just, I just, I just want you to know that you don't have to be alone. You are NOT alone. Management wants us all to be alone, to fight with each other for literal scraps, to fight each other over small differences. And the divisions they sow have worked for generations.The Silent Generation was the last truly strong unionized generation. Boomers and GenX, well, we did not defend our unions. And, well, Reagan broke the unions in 1981. He fired all the striking air traffic controllers and hired in folks, largely from the military, to work.

And the lesson folks learned was to play nice with management or else they might fire everyone and ask the government might swoop in and replace the workers. The P.R. trick was almost worse, though. Strikes in the 70s and 80s were all reported on as "stubborn workers refuse reasonable requests at jobs, continue to make your life a hell." And that is ALREADY what is happening with the strikes and labor actions today.

If we are mad and scared because of the strike, if we are scared of what happens to us without food, without healthcare, without medications, if we get mad because we are scared, it's all to easy to get mad at the people we see in the news, the folks on the picket lines.

Don't fucking fall for it, I beg of you. Do Not Get Mad At Strikers. Get mad at the corporations. Get mad at the rail companies who won't give a SINGLE paid sick day. Get mad at health care corporations who refuse to staff hospitals safely. Get mad at universities that won't compensate their employees with a wage they can live on. Get mad at companies.

Unions, workers, they are not arguing for unreasonable perks. They are BEGGING to be treated as human beings, with human needs and limitations. The packages you order are delivered by human beings who piss in jars and die of heat stroke, because a corporation demands it.

When one party is asking for be allowed to recover from covid and the other party inists that you work until you literally die at your job, it's not a negotiation. It's extortion, it's brutality, it's hostage-taking.

So join your fucking union. If you don't have a union, form a fucking union.

nlrb.gov/about-nlrb/rig…

If another set of workers unionize, support them.

When unionized workers engage in workplace actions, get mad at the companies that refuse to terms of basic human decency. Do not cross picket lines, not even virtually, if you can possibly avoid it. (I know this gets complicated.)

All of which is to say:

"Is there aught we hold in common with the greedy parasite, Who would lash us into serfdom and would crush us with his might? Is there anything left to us but to organize and fight? For the union makes us strong."

#union #unionize #workers of the world unite #tweet

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biblicallyaccurateandrogynoussex · 1 year

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ALRIGHT. continuing.

Worf: (thats it. thats his name.) he comes from a race of honor-obsessed warriors called the klingons. theyre kinda fun they like drinking and fighting and keeping their family name honorable. but worf is kinda like. disgraced. hes also just Weird. he drinks prune juice canonically. hes hella intimidating tho his voice is really deep and he fights really well. he was ALSO on the next generation. i dont really have a lot of thoughts on him? hes just kinda there

Odo: HE IS SO FUN. he's a changeling, and the only good changeling because the rest are in charge of the federation but evil (its called the dominion. theyre gods apparently). every 16 hours he becomes goo and has to sit in a bucket but all the other hours hes a Slightly Off Looking Man! he can change into literally anything (including inanimate objects) and has a WEIRDLY passionate rivalry with the bar owner. he's head of security, and aslo not offically an officer, so he LOVES breaking rules so he can catch the bar owner commiting crimes. kinda gay to be always aware of what another man is doing

Quark: the bar owner! he's a ferengi, and their whole thing is capitalism. you have to pay to like. open doors on their planet. they have an entire rulebook called the Rules of Acquisition that they quote really often during the books. ferengi society is very misogynistic but one of the rules is always have sex with the boss so they are encouraging gay sex. anyways. quark is a bastard and a coward and a capitalist and i love him <3

Rom: quark's brother! he is quite the opposite of quark. he works for quark at the bar but he also helps obrien with repairs and is a loving father to his son nog. hes also a communist. there was an entire episode where he started a union and said "workers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains". he's a really good character even if he's not always in the episodes.

Garak: cardassian! disgraced! really gay with bashir! probably an ex spy, but he claims he's just a tailor. he shows up whenever they need to have a really queer plot with bashir or whenever starfleet needs him to do something that he's apparently good at. i could probably say more about him but tbh im blanking. other than the fact that cardassians canonically argue to flirt and half of his conversations with bashir are lighthearted bickering. i rest my case

other really minor charcters i like

Brunt: hes like. the ferengi fbi. he shows up to torment quark and he always announces himself by saying BRUNT. FCA.

Pel: also a ferengi and probably transmasc. she pretended to be a man so she could get a job and work :]

uhhhh ithink thts it wow. i am curuous based on this who your favs are

Oh hell yeah!!! I have to say I am immediately endeared to Odo (Changeling who's also goo??? Sign me tf up that's my favorite) and also Garak. Kinda gay to bicker my guy and also we love ex spies

#starry star trek series

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maastrash · 4 years

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Fighting Fire with Froyo

oh my goodness hello friends plz dont roast my title bc @verryberriess already has LOL it is ✨quirky✨ anyways the first fic back is always rough to write and i got tired of editing so without further ado ...

Nesta pried the uniform hat off her head and wiped the dripping sweat from her brow. By the cauldron, it was burning up today. It amazed her that the frozen yogurt wasn’t melting right out of the machines. That probably wasn’t even possible, but the heat was making her delirious. Of course on the hottest day of the year something was wrong with the AC. She added calling the maintenance guy to her 5-page long mental list of things to do after her shift today.

She truly did not have the time to be working on the service line today. The Archeron sister froyo shop had opened almost a year ago and already she was talking to people about expanding it to become a chain. That’s what she should be working on instead.

Nesta supposed she should be happy their little shop was so popular. The sisters had been so nervous when they were finally able to launch their yogurt shop after years of planning. It was a dream come true.

They named it Archeron Delights and it became one of the most popular dessert places in Velaris. Elain was the mastermind behind the frozen yogurt recipes. People came from all over the country to try their unique flavor combinations. Feyre was in charge of all the interior designing. She remodeled the entire space and made it look modern with colorful signs and trendy photo taking spots - a necessity for kids obsessed with instagram worthy pictures. Nesta was the official manager which meant she dealt with finances, hiring the team, making schedules, and other administrative duties.

To be honest, Nesta never really worked at the counter, but Morrigan their newest hire, and Feyre’s best friend was sick with the flu. Definitely not a good idea to put her near customers. To make matters worse, the shop had been extremely busy today so she didn’t have time to take any breaks. Unlike her sisters, Nesta was already not the cheeriest service worker. It’s why she worked in the back in her quiet, private office.

At least she could distract herself by filling out their monthly budget summary while waiting. However, her calculations were soon interrupted by the cheerful bell dinging, meaning the shop door was being opened. Damn another customer.

Nesta began quickly finishing up the section she was on, “Hi I’ll be with you in one -”

“You need to get out of here,” the customer interrupted.

Nesta’s smile dropped so fast. Who did this man think he was?

“No, you need to get out,” she snapped back without looking up from her papers. If he was gonna speak to her like that she was gonna take her sweet time.

“Excuse me I -”

This time Nesta interrupted. “This is my shop and I say you need to leave.”

“Ma’am if you would let me explain -”

“Stop calling me ma'am, you have no right -” This time it was Nesta who trailed off.

She finally looked up to see a man equipped fully in firefighter gear staring right at her. Shit. She just yelled at a fireman. To make matters worse he was handsome. Extremely handsome.

“There’s a small fire in another location 2 units from yours. We’re containing it, but you still need to evacuate,” the man explained.

Nesta was still gaping. It seemed she was unable to form words. How was this man so attractive? He was wearing full protective fire gear and wasn’t even breaking a sweat and here she was, literally dripping.

To be quite honest she couldn’t tell if she was sweating because of the heat or the fireman’s burning gaze.

“Ma’am can you hear me? Ma’am? Oh for goodness sake.”

Before Nesta knew it she was being lifted off her feet. Literally.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she exclaimed in surprise.

“Ah so you can still talk.”

“Put me down you oaf.”

“Oaf?” he raised a brow, “That’s a real nice way to thank the person saving your ass.”

“I’m serious,” she said crossing her arms angrily.

“Let’s get to safety first.”

Nesta gave the man a withering glare, but he continued to carry her bridal style to a tent where it seemed other shop owners were gathering.

“Oh my goodness Nesta are you hurt?” Aelin asked as they approached.

Aelin owned a dress boutique in the same plaza and they often grabbed lunch together. She was Nesta’s best friend.

“No I am being harassed,” she deadpanned.

“She means saved,” the firefighter corrected as he finally set her down.

“Woah he’s hot,” Aelin whispered in her ear.

“Shut up or I’m telling Rowan.”

“Just an observation” Aelin laughed.

The man gave them a polite smile before heading back towards the rest of the firemen.

Nesta stopped him before he got too far. “I want to talk to your boss,” she said sternly.

“You mean the captain?” he asked.

“Yes.” Obviously.

“Why do you need the captain ma'am?”

“Stop with the ma’am, I’m serious.”

“Ok fine. What’s your name?”

Nesta stayed silent.

“Ok then, sweetheart. Why do you need the captain?”

Nesta growled at his stupidity. “I am not your sweetheart and I am reporting you for inappropriate behavior.”

Something like amusement crossed his face, but it quickly vanished, “I see. I’ll be right back then.”

For someone about to lose his job he did not seem the least bit frightened.

***

It was only a few minutes before the man returned. He was still wearing his fire pants or whatever they were called, but the protective jacket was gone. Now he wore a tight shirt that read Velaris Fire Dept. It framed his muscles a little too perfectly for her taste. How was this man real?

“The captain is busy at the moment but I will take your complaint and hand it to him myself,” he said, pulling out a pen and paper.

“How do I know you’re not going to rip it up as soon as I leave?”

“You can watch me hand it to him once we have this mess sorted out,” he assured her.

“Fine.”

“First I will need your name.”

“Nesta Archeron” she grit out.

“Nesta. I like how that sounds.”

She rolled her eyes. This man was absolutely insufferable.

“Ok, now your phone number.”

“Why do you need my phone number?”

“So the captain can contact you about this issue, of course.”

She grabbed the paper from his massive hands and scribbled her number down quickly.

“Ok and what are you complaining about?” he asked, clearly amused.

She rolled her eyes, “You already know what I’m complaining about.”

“Well, I need to write it down word for word,” he said, laughing softly.

His laughter was the last straw. “You know what this is ridiculous I’m going to find the captain myself,” she said, stomping off.

“That’s gonna be hard to do sweetheart,” he called after her.

“Oh yea, why?” she yelled back over her shoulder.

“Because I am the captain.”

That stopped Nesta dead in her tracks. She turned slowly to see the big oaf smiling.

“Cassian Nazari, Captain of Station 17,” he said, extending his hand.

“Are you playing a game or something?” she scowled, slapping his hand away.

“No,” he chuckled softly, “Just doing my job.”

“By pretending to not be the captain and stealing my information?”

He smiled again and half of her wanted to slap him, but the other half was tempted to kiss him. What was wrong with her?

“I take complaints seriously. So seriously, that I would like to hear all about your complaint over dinner.”

“This is not funny,” she said crossing her arms over her chest.

“Don’t tell me you’re not interested. You took one look at me and were absolutely speechless. I literally had to carry you out before you burned to death.”

“The fire was contained, evacuating was a formality you brute.”

“If you say so,” he said sarcasm lacing every word. “I’ll pick you up from your shop at 6.”

Nesta’s jaw dropped, the audacity of this man was astounding. She paused before answering, debating her options. She figured she could either continue pretending to hate him or just give in. Gods above, was she actually considering this?

“Say yes you idiot” Aelin whispered.

Nesta flinched in surprise. Where the hell did she even come from?

“Are you kidding I’m not going anywhere in this.” Nesta argued, gesturing to her work apron and leggings.

“I think it looks great,” Cassian said with a wink.

“Me too,” Aelin added.

Nesta gave Aelin a deadly look before saying, “Let’s meet at the Sidra at 7. That way I have time to change.”

Cassian only looked surprised at her suggestion for a second before agreeing, “Ok, I’ll see you there.”

He waved before heading back to the rest of his crew and Nesta against her better judgement waved back.

“Nesta Archeron, are you smiling?” Aelin teased as soon as Cassian was out of ear shot.

“Shut up. I am absolutely not,” she said, quickly bringing her face back to neutral.

And then it hit her...

She was going to dinner with Cassian - a fire captain she just met. What the hell was she thinking?

tags! @illyriangarbage // @court-of-fuck-me-daddy // @girlnovels // @julesherondalex // @ifangirlninja // @dreamerforever-5 // @queen-of-wings-and-fire // @rhysanoodle // @jemma-nessian-and-elriel // @books-and-words-addict // @nightinshadow // @wolffrising // @the-regal-warrior // @dreamingofalba // @abillionlittlepieces // @alitzeldiaz // @kylizzles // @queenmaas // @illyrian-bookworm // @aspillofstars // @b00kworm // @tswaney17 // @girl-who-reads-the-books // @theshadowsinger-and-thefawn // // @perseusannabeth // @acourtofmarauders // @sweetlyvillainous // @awesomelena555 // @notyournymphetish // @ladywitchling // @aesthetics-11 // @sjmships // @iammissstark // @illyrianwitchling13 // @moondancer-204 // @sjm-things // @foolsinlovex // @sayosdreams // @welcometothespeaknowworldtour // @stardelia // @julemmaes // @thewayshedreamed // @texas-shaped-waffle-maker // @keshavomit // @superspiritfestival // @wannawriteyouabook // @verryberriess // @courtofjurdan // @bookstantrash // @sannelovesreading // @ahappyhistorianreader // @cass-nes // @my-fan-side // @junsuichow // @sleeping-and-books // @yumna402 // @lordof-bloodshed // @emcarstairs578 // @gisellefigue08 // @maybekindasortaace // @starborn-faerie-queen // @empire-of-wildfire // @loveofbooksandwine // @sanakapoor // @silentquartz // @a-omgnaomithings-love // @aimee1602 // @jlinez // @creamcheesechicken // @steamedlattes // @sahsahprova // @elriel4life // @ireallyshouldsleeprnrn // @rowaelinismyotp // @thegoddessofyou

#nessian #nesta x cassian #Car writes #nessian fic #nessian fanfiction

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nad-zeta · 4 years

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Match up 🌈

Hi Zeta! Could I get a matchup for Ikesen, please? :3c Basic info: Sagittarius sun (I relate mostly to the truth-seeking, philosophical side of Sag), Gemini moon (addicted to gathering information), Libra rising (just coming off as a nice person on first meeting). INFP, Hufflepuff.

I’m very concerned with ethics and can have a quick temper about perceived injustices; I often feel upset about human and animal suffering, and I’m willing to throw down over someone being hurtful to others. On the downside, I probably have too much pride about my intelligence and also get angry if I feel like someone is talking down to me or dismissing my concerns.

Self-evaluation and change are very important to me. I can never be perfect about how I respond to people, but with experience and loss comes wisdom, and I’ve worked to have more restraint in the way I talk to people even when I’m angry. Even if I’ll never be 100% fair and still make mistakes, I keep thinking about how to do better and trying.

I often spend time listening to people with no outward judgment, so friends, acquaintances, and co-workers are able to feel that I accept and respect them, and I can set people at ease. It’s important to me to be a good listener and to respond in a way that is helpful and supportive for a person’s specific struggles.

My career is in education, currently tutoring college writing & study skills and supervising a peer-turoring program. I love reading about how the brain works and will soon be applying to a graduate program for Learning Sciences. I’m also fascinated with the science of human behavior and relationships.

My undergraduate degree was in English with a focus in creative writing, though with my interest in education now, writing is more of a hobby (that I often avoid). I enjoy sketching as well.

Other than the temper, weak points are a lifelong struggle with depression/anxiety/self-esteem and a tendency to get paralyzed and demotivated by how much I’m already falling short of my standards. I procrastinate a lot and feel like I should be doing more to help people.

I love cats (especially my cat, of course) and pandas. Like a panda, I’m vegetarian and often feel like I have no energy fjsjdnfnwnncjf.

Although I don’t have any firm belief in a higher power or the supernatural, I’m not willing to rule out the idea that spiritual beings / phenomena exist. They haven’t been scientifically proven, but they haven’t been disproven, either!

And uh, I’m bi/pan (grew up identifying as bi so it’s hard to let go of the label even though pan probably fits better) and polyamorous, although outside of an established relationship, I have very little interest in sex. I am also biracial (white/Asian). With all of that, it can be hard to feel like I’m really “at home” anywhere. But I think it helps with having a flexible perspective about diversity.

Oof! That was a lot! Thank you for reading all of it and thank you for being so generous with your time in writing match-ups!

Hi dear! Thank you so much for the request and sorry for making ya wait sooooo long hehe🙈😅! Awww girl I love writing these matchups, so its no problem! I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have the best day! (⋈◍＞◡＜◍)。✧♡

So I match you with……Hideyoshi

So the first time the two of you really interacted all hell broke loose. You were brought back to the castle by Masamune and was presented before Nobunaga. He had declared that you were to be the new Oda princess. You honestly had a problem with that as you didn’t want to feel like you were a burden or well that you owed them anything, so you insisted Nobunaga give you a real job to earn your keep. The man found you most amusing, not only had you fearlessly saved his life, but here you were, now before him unpleased with being a princess, a title most people in the country would kill for. He gave you his classic smirk “Very well then lucky charm, I shall name you as our new castle chatelaine.” You nodded in satisfaction at that, and just before you could start to relax, you felt someone’s gaze burning a hole through you.

You turned over to see Nobu’s right-hand man glaring at you, if looks could kill you would be dead, and TBH you were starting to lose your temper with these men. It wasn’t until Hideyoshi said something that made you go off the handle “My lord, I don’t trust this woman, who is to say she won’t kill you in your sleep, or that she was the one responsible for the fire in the first place.” At that, you scoffed and rolled your eyes “Why would I set a building on fire just to save the dude I am supposedly trying to kill.” Before anyone knew it, you and Hideyoshi were at each other throats. Both of you were being pulled apart by the fellow warlords before things escalated too quickly. Finally, Nobunaga set Hideyoshi straight and dismissed you from the council room to acquaint yourself with the castle

You kept your head down and worked hard, and you were most definitely loved by all the castle staff. You seemed to look past their titles and statuses and got to know them as people, they loved that you never judged them and that you would always be there for them, a friendly ear to listen to their problems and concerns, while giving good constructive advice. This trait of you had also earned you a lot of respect among the warlords, and soon you became quite good friends with most of them. Mitsunari and Ramnaru in particular.

TBH you loved the little angel Mitsunari, as the two of you would often bond over your love for books, reading and knowledge. He loved studying the art of war while you loved learning about people, their brains, behaviours and their relationships. Everyone absolutely adored you, well, all but Hideyoshi.

But that all ended one day when Mitsunari asked if you would like to help him. Mitsunari needed someone who could assist him during the soldiers training drills, and you were all too happy to assist. You sat beside him and helped him with the paperwork. You had noticed that the chain of command would break and that certain people would be better suited for other units. During your lunch break, Hideyoshi walked up to you and Mitsunari, and you voiced your concerns. He looked at you dumbfounded, how did a woman know so much about human relationships and behaviour. Mitsunari chimed in and very excitedly stated that, he had seen you study the human brain and the science of their behaviours and relationships. Hideyoshi thought for a moment then nodded, “Okay then, show me in which unit you think these men would be best suited”. They continued their training drills, and by the end of it, Hideyoshi was Hella impressed with you!

He wanted to trust you, he really did, but he was caught between duty and his own emotions. That was until one day. On a whim, Nobunaga decided to bring his lucky charm with him to battle. You were hesitant at first but going to war with the Oda’s meant that you wouldn’t have time to procrastinate and that you would have a golden opportunity to help people. You had been studying medicine for a while now, as Ieyasu had joined your and Mitsunari’s book club.

The two of you work together patching up injured soldiers all afternoon and judging by the influx of wounded men things weren’t looking too good. That night you had helped Masamune with making supper for everyone. You had stood in front of the big pot, scooping the rice dish into everyone’s bowls when you noticed something peculiar. Hideyoshi was holding out his bowl with his left hand. This was strange as he was right-handed and would usually hold it out with his dominant hand. You made a mental note of his behaviours and watched him as everyone ate. That’s when you noticed that he wasn’t using his dominant arm at all.

Once everyone had retired for the night, you pulled the warlord aside and confronted him. He led you to his tent and unwrapped his arm showing you his wound. You were shook, it was a deep cut across the length of his arm. You lost your temper at the sight “How stupid could you be hiding a severe wound like that, what if I got infected, what if you bled out.” As you ranted about all the possible what-ifs of him not seeking medical treatment sooner, you had him sit down and started gently cleaning and bandaging the wound.

He had realized at that moment that you were a genuinely kind woman and that he most definitely could trust you. And at that moment you saw something that melted away all your anger, worry and frustration. Hideyoshi’s genuine smile. It was absolutely radiant. Like the sun coming up from the horizon in the morning.

Since that day Hideyoshi was a completely different person towards you. He would often invite you to his manor to help him clean and care for the deep gash on his arm. Once his arm was healed, he would invite you to ask your opinion about different soldiers behaviour and relationships, and where you thought them best suited. Honestly, any excuse just to see you and chat with you. Soon your tea date moved to the local tea houses, and you found yourself enjoying Hideyoshi’s company more and more. He loved the way your eyes would light up when you talk about your interests in science and the human brain. He loves how you cared so much for people and animals and couldn’t stand injustice

In fact, one day as the two of you were walking around the market together, you spotted a group of men bullying a poor defenceless cat. Your blood was boiling, and in an instant, you were there to rescue the cat from the men. Luckily for you, Hideyoshi was hot on your trail, as it had slipped your mind that people in this era carried around weapons. After Hideyoshi fought off the men, he looked over at you to see you cradling the cat in your arms. His heart melted, even more so when you gave him the puppy dog eyes asking if you could keep the poor little thing. Honestly, he could never say no to you. Both you and Hideyoshi had long ago fallen in love with each other, but both of you were just low key to shy to admit it

He decided one day that he just had to tell you how he felt, so he planned out a romantic dinner for the two of you. He made sure to prepare all your favourite vegetarian dishes. As the two of you ate, you could tell something had been bothering him. After dinner, the two of you went outside to sit and enjoy the warm summer breeze. This was the moment Hideyoshi decided to blurt out all his feeling for you. You simply smiled at the silly man and kissed him, returning the feelings.

The two of you made the cutest couple, like you, Hideyoshi love, love loved to help people. He is known as the doting mother hen after all. One of the qualities he loved most about you is your kind heart. Often he would go with you and assist you in teaching the street children how to read and write. He would often steal glances at you and smile at you. He loved how sweet, gentle and patient you were towards the children. You never lost your temper with them, and they loved you so much, they loved that they could come to you with their problems, you would always provide them with helpful and supportive advice which they really appropriated

You loved to spend time with Hideyoshi. Even if that meant being in the same room and doing your own thing. You would often sit in his room and sketch while he worked on admin. You loved the way his eyes lit up, and the bright smiles he would give you, whenever you showed him your finished work. He loved your sketches, and he would often low key steal them and hang them up in his room on full display for all to see your beautiful talent

Anxiety and depression is no problem for this doting mother. Whenever you are having an anxiety attack or going through s depression spell, he will be sure to be, right by your side to support you throughout it. He will pull you into his arms and just hold you, whispering reassuring words in your ears. He knows you have a tendency to be too harsh on yourself and hold yourself at a ridiculously high standards. He will spend hours just rubbing soothing circles on your back and whisper sweet nothings in your ears. This man will dote on you so hard that your anxiety and depression would be soothed as quick as they manifested.

Hideyoshi’s all-time favourite is just holding you in his arms for hours and hours as you read to him, the newest piece of your creative writing or tell him the newest fun fact you had learned from your studies. He loves nothing more than to spend a quiet evening with you cradled in his arms sharing sweet kisses as the two of you exchange stories of each others day

Other Potential matches……………. Ieyasu

I hope you enjoyed it, love! (◠‿◠✿)❤🌼

#matchups #ikesen matchup #match ups #toyotomi hideyoshi #hideyoshi toyotomi #ikemen sengoku hideyoshi #ikesen hideyoshi #hideyoshi matchup #submission

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jobsearchtips02 · 4 years

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Meet billionaire Expense Ackman, who made billions off coronavirus crash

REUTERS/Richard Brian.

Billionaire hedge-fund supervisor Bill Ackman made $2.6 billion off a questionable bet that the coronavirus would crash the stock market last month.

Ackman was accused of making inflammatory remarks throughout an appearance on CNBC with the intent of moving the markets to increase his earnings however denied it in a press release

Ackman, worth $ 1.6 billion, has a history of making controversial bets.

While most of the world saw their nest eggs decimated as the stock exchange entered into a free-fall over coronavirus worries last month, one hedge-fund supervisor was raking in billions.

Costs Ackman, the chief executive of Pershing Square Capital, made $2.6 billion off a $27 million bet that the pandemic would tank the marketplace. Ackman has a history of controversial bets that earned him a $ 1.6 billion fortune and an examination by the New York District Attorney’s Office.

A representative of Ackman at Pershing Square Capital did not right away respond to Service Expert’s request for comment on Ackman’s profession, net worth, residential or commercial property holdings, or domesticity.

Keep checking out to find out more about Costs Ackman.

William Ackman, 53, was born and raised in a wealthy suburban area outside of New york city City.

Bill Ackman.

Reuters/ Allen Fredrickson.

Ackman was raised in Chappaqua, the wealthy New york city suburb of north of New york city City, according to The Daily Mail Chappaqua is likewise home to Costs and Hillary Clinton, Ben Stiller, and Vanessa Williams, according to The Daily Mail

Ackman’s father, Lawrence Ackman, owned an industrial real-estate financing company, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune His mom, Ronnie Posner Ackman, serves on the board of New York’s Lincoln Center, according to The New York Times

Ackman made a bachelor’s degree and MBA from Harvard, according to Forbes Quickly after graduating in 1992, Ackman established an effective investment company with a former schoolmate called Gotham Partners at age 26, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The company achieved success however Ackman chose to wind it down in 2002, mentioning a series of lawsuits.

In 2003, Ackman was investigated by the New york city State Attorney General Of The United States over Gotham’s trading practices.

Costs Ackman.

No charges were ever submitted, Ackman said the extremely publicized investigation was difficult on his household.

” Individuals look at you amusing,” Ackman told The Minneapolis Star Tribune of the occurrence in2008

Ackman went on to found Pershing Square Capital Management with $54 million in 2004.

The cash was a mix of funds from his individual fortune and a loan from Leucadia National, according to The Minneapolis Star Tribune The firm was a near-instant success. In one of its finest years, 2014, Perishing Square posted 40%returns compared to the S&P 500’s 13%gain the exact same year, according to Investopedia

Pershing Square has large stakes in Chipotle Mexican Grill, Starbucks, and Hamburger King owner Restaurant Brands International Inc., Bloomberg reported. The value of its overall possessions tops $6.5 billion, according to Forbes

In a 2014 interview with Bloomberg, Ackman stated his guidelines for investing are to be bold, do the opposite of what everyone else is doing, and do lots of research study.

A Wendy’s junk food dining establishment is seen in Los Angeles, California U.S. November 7,2017

Ackman’s hedge fund made the majority of its money by purchasing stakes in big corporations, lobbying management to make changes to increase its stock rate, and after that quickly unloading their shares at an earnings, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported in2008 Pershing Square purchased a large stake in fast-food burger chain The Wendy’s Company in 2004, pushed it to offer off its effective Canadian subsidiary Tim Hortons, and went on to cash out its financial investment at a profit, according to Investopedia

” His video game is to increase the stock and go out– quick,” Howard Davidowitz, then-chairman of a New york city investment banking and consulting company, told The Minneapolis Star Tribune of Ackman in 2008.

However Ackman is extensively thought about to be an activist financier, according to Markets Insider.

” What we provide for a living, purchasing stakes in business and working to make them better, more effective, more efficient, I think it’s excellent for the shareholders, I believe it’s terrific for the workers,” Ackman told Bloomberg “I think I can do some great with that, and it’s likewise extremely rewarding. I like my day job.”

Pershing Square’s success made Ackman a billionaire. He first appeared on Forbes’ billionaire’s list in 2013.

Source: Markets Expert

Ackman’s strong bets have made Pershing Square a lot of cash– but they have likewise cost the hedge fund billions too.

Bill Ackman.

Ackman’s 2012 short versus multilevel marketing supplement maker Herbalife was one of the most prominent mistakes of his career, according to Investopedia Ackman wager $1 billion that the company would fail, while fellow billionaire investor Carl Icahn made a long-lasting financial investment in the business, Organisation Insider formerly reported. Ackman publicly implicated Herbalife of being a pyramid plan whose stock cost was bound to hit absolutely no, according to The Wall Street Journal

Icahn and Ackman entered into a public battle over the business’s prospects that was called “the hedge fund equivalent of Stalingrad” by The Journal, with Icahn eventually emerging victorious. Ackman lost hundreds of countless dollars on Herbalife, Business Insider reported.

Ackman likewise made a questionable investment in near-bankrupt drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals that led to a contentious Senate hearing over Valeant’s practice of purchasing existing drugs and offering them at inflated prices in 2016, Service Expert reported at the time. Valeant has since been renamed Bausch Health

Pershing Square also lost money on bets on now-defunct bookseller Border’s Group and big-box merchant Target Corporation, according to Investopedia The losses put the hedge fund into what Bloomberg called a “three-year losing streak” in 2019, prior to Ackman’s bet against the stock exchange.

Ackman’s hedge fund made billions of dollars when coronavirus fears sunk the stock exchange in March.

Costs Ackman (left).

Pershing Square invested $27 million in credit security on investment-grade and high-yield bond indexes earlier in 2020, when the market was widely perceived to be healthy, according to Markets Expert

Ackman has considering that used the revenues to strengthen Pershing Square’s financial investments in Berkshire Hathaway, Hilton, Lowe’s, Dining Establishment Brands International, Starbucks and Agilent, Markets Insider reported.

Ackman was implicated of actively sinking the marketplace to increase his profits.

Costs Ackman.

Ackman made an look on CNBC on March 18, declaring that “hell is coming” since of the outbreak, after tweeting comparable beliefs previously in the day. Ackman’s remarks sent the already unpredictable market down, triggering allegations from various news outlets and on social media that Ackman went on television with the intent of making his bet versus the marketplace more profitable, Forbes reported.

Markets plunged so dramatically that the market struck a so-called circuit breaker, stopping trading for 15 minutes, Markets Expert reported.

The billionaire defended himself in a declaration to Pershing Square financiers, writing that “By Wednesday, March 18 th at 12: 30 p.m., when I appeared on CNBC, we had actually currently sold a little over half of the notional amount of our CDS, realizing a gain of more than $1.3 billion, with the unrealized part of our hedge having a market value at that time of $1.3 billion for an overall of $2.6 billion,” Ackman wrote in a news release “Importantly, our hedge had currently settled prior to my going on CNBC.”

Ackman also ruffled plumes by safeguarding a fellow hedge-fund manager who has been connected to Bernie Madoff.

Ezra Merkin privately invested his customer’s cash with Bernie Madoff, losing billions after the Ponzi plan was exposed, according to Bloomberg Merkin was investigated by the New york city Attorney General Of The United States as a potential coconspirator of Madoff’s however settled his case in 2012.

” I’ve known him for 15 years,” Ackman stated. “I believe he’s a truthful individual, a smart person, an interesting individual, a smart financier. People don’t want to hear that since if you invested with Ascot you lost all your cash.”

Fellow hedge fund supervisor Michael Steinhardt of Steinhardt, Fine, Berkowitz & Co. likewise publicly defended Merkin, according to The Street

Ackman credited his new household for motivating his earnings.

Bill Ackman and Neri Oxman go to The New York Stem Cell Structure Gala And Science Fair at Jazz at Lincoln Center on October 7, 2019 in New York City City.

” Possibly it has something to do with being liked and getting married?” Ackman stated of his successes at an investor conference in April 2019, Bloomberg reported.

Ackman and his partner, retired Israeli Flying force lieutenant and MIT teacher Neri Oxman(who is best known for being a reported ex-girlfriend of Brad Pitt), invited a child in the spring of 2019, according to Bloomberg

The couple got together in 2017, after being introduced by both Ackman’s previous teacher and a college good friend following a contentious divorce from his very first spouse, landscape architect Karen Ann Herskovitz, according to Page 6

Ackman and Herskovitz have a “civil, however not warm, relationship,” an unnamed source informed Page 6 in2017 The former couple share three daughters, according to Page Six

Ackman promised to give a minimum of half of his fortune to charity.

Ackman has given more than $400 million in grants to organizations focusing on cancer research, education, economic advancement, and social justice, according to his structure’s site

Ackman and his wife also offered $26 million to Harvard in 2014, according to Philanthropy News Digest

He spent a big portion of the rest of his money on an extensive portfolio of luxury realty.

The Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Ackman bought a $225 million penthouse in the neighborhood, The Wall Street Journal reported in2018 Ackman also owns two other systems in another luxury pre-war building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that cost nearly $221 million combined, The Journal reported.

They also own a six-acre estate in the Hamptons.

An aerial view of beachfront mansions in Bridgehampton, New York. Ackman’s house not visualized.

Ackman bought the properties, which are located in the town of Bridgehampton, for $235 million in August 2015, according to The Real Deal

The combined value of Ackman’s real-estate portfolio is more than $165 million, according to The Daily Mail

In his spare time, Ackman is a passionate tennis player.

Ackman has actually been playing considering that youth, according to Forbes

Ackman also has an interest in politics.

Costs Ackman.

We now have a business owner as president,” Vanity Fair reported Ackman said.

Ackman hasn’t always been a fan of Trump. In 2016, Ackman penned an essay in The Financial Times asking Bloomberg LP CEO and former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg to run for president.

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mhornar · 6 years

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A Defense of the Tau Caste System, Part 3: Caste Mobility

So in part 1 I talked about the overview of the Castes and the biological nature of their separation. Part 2 focused on the history of the castes and how that influenced their modern social structures. We also looked at the internal structure of the castes, and discussed what limitations it provided to rising on one’s own merits within the caste. Now we’re concluding by looking at the other traditionally recognized flaw of a caste system, it’s mobility, or lack therof.

Caste Mobility: So here's where we drift solidly into fan theorizing. We've already discussed the wide population discrepancy between the Castes. Fire Caste members serve only in the ground forces of the Tau military. Air Caste members are so committed to orbital and space travel that they have developed physical variation from the basic Tau biology. Water Caste members serve as diplomats and free traders. The Ethereals are priest/bureaucrats. Every one of these professional focuses represent a very small percentage of the total Tau population. Everyone not in one of these Castes falls into the Earth caste. It's certainly probable that the other castes include civilian populations, but if so we're not told about them explicitly. The Water Caste would certainly stretch easily into a similar role at home. Social workers, marketers and shopkeeps would all benefit from the talents we are told are inherent to the Water caste. The Fire Caste depends on the Earth Caste to develop and produce their weapons, armor, and drones. However there are positions in that development chain that require consults with people from the field. We already discussed the “who pilots local transportation” when discussing possible Air Caste civilians. Even with those possible “civilian reserves” though, the professional Castes have one glaring weakness. Where do they get more personnel if needed? Going back to the biology discussion, we are told by the codexes that the Tau have a strict ban on cross-caste children. In looking at their histories we also discussed how that strict ban can't have been in place in the beginning as the caste stratification would have taken centuries or millennia to settle during the unification of the homeworld. In 1913, Germany had an estimated population of approximately 65 million people. During World War I they sustained approximately 2 million casualties. So in the process of fighting a single war they lost 3% of their population (primarily their young, male population at that). During the war their total births per year cut in half by 1917. By the 1930s though their population had returned to pre-war levels, and they had an entirely new population of soldiers. This time their next war killed a total of 6% of their total pre-war population, without even factoring in their genocide against their own citizens. In the Warhammer 40k setting, casualty rates like those that Germany sustained are a feature, not a bug. The Imperium regularly hurls crusades numbering in the tens of millions of soldiers at threats. Space Marines kill thousands of enemy soldiers without taking so much as a scratch themselves. For many of those factions “recovering from losses” is built in. Orks and Tyrannids simply make more of themselves, through spores and biomass. Chaos recruits from among those trillions of Imperium citizens. The Necron have huge galaxy spanning armies hidden away everywhere just waiting to be awakened. The Tau don't do that. They make more soldiers the old fashioned way, by raising children into young men and women and asking them to do the impossible. When they send their Fire Warriors against a major offensive, what happens if they lose? Hell what happens even if they win? Losing an entire generation of German soldiers crippled their nation for a time, but they recovered militarily because all they had to do was wait until the next generation grew up. They still had 65 million people who could produce possible soldiers. If instead only 10 percent of the population were genetically allowed to serve in the military and a third of that population died in a single war (or even a single battle for something like Stalingrad) then Germany might never have recovered (especially if their enemies planned to exterminate their entire population if they surrendered, thereby denying them time to recover the natural way). The Air Caste is even more specialized. What happens if a fleet of Hero class frigates and Colony class carriers is destroyed in battle. It's not like you can pull your remaining crews off the front lines and tell them “all right guys, for the future of the empire you have to spend the next decade having as many babies as you can.” I mean if you can get a cease fire...definitely do that. But you need those crews fighting. Of course there is a huge population they can pull from which solves all of these problems. The Earth caste is the vast majority of the population. It has to be because they're doing everything else. However we're explicitly told that it's the Fire Caste the provides the soldiers, and the Air Caste provides the spacecraft. The Earth Caste are just civilians. What if we inverted our understanding about Tau society a bit? I've noted before that within each Caste there seems to be little class stratification and it otherwise seems to work like a professional track. What if the Castes aren't instruments of genetic purity, and are instead primarily professional organizations? The Tau believe in serving the Greater Good at all cost. They gladly lay down their lives in order to ensure that everyone in their civilization will do better as a whole. While the communist analogy is overdone and inaccurate, the Tau do plan out their economy to a degree. Children born into specific Castes receive education and training in the professions of their Caste. We're told that Fire Caste soldiers are so good because they have been trained in the hunting strategies of the ancient nomads on their homeworld.

You know where hunting strategies derived from wide open plains might not be useful? On spacecraft boarding parties, where the field of battle is three dimensional, cramped and subject to a wide array of environmental dangers. The folks who probably would have a natural understanding of those environments? The Air Caste. Yet for some reason, it's Fire Warriors who do this job. Most navies, when faced with the challenge of boarding enemy ships, landing on beaches and otherwise fighting at sea developed some form of specialized marines. So why did the Tau, arguably the best space navy on a per capita basis (god I loved my Tau fleet in Gothic), decide they didn't need this? What makes more sense is that people born into the Air Caste population are chosen and trained as marines, given the Tau's standard battle gear, and inducted into the Fire warriors for service in space. Being asked to leave the traditions of your birth family to take up a new family for service to the Greater Good is precisely the kind of sacrifice the Tau have been trained to make. Over generations this would also breed new capacities and skills into the Fire Caste and make them more effective in their own assigned roles. A Fire caste child who shows no knack for combat, but who has the gift to create amazing music would be wasted as a common soldier. Why would the Ethereals simply throw away a gift that would stand out exceptionally amongst the Earth Caste, merely to fill a private's slot in a unit of Fire Warriors. How does that serve either the Greater Good, or the Ethereals' planning. Especially if that child would end up later having children who might also not fit the mold of the Fire Warrior, creating a cascading effect over time. If large numbers of casualties are sustained or expected to be sustained, why not draw replacements from those amongst the Earth Caste who show a potential for the Fire or Air fields. By the time you have finished training them, they will be Fire or Air Caste, not Earth. They might still have relatives in the old Caste, but their family will be in their new one. The response of course is that none of the Codexes or other material say that this happens. Now obviously that's why I said we'd be hitting fan theorizing here. My response though is to once again point out that the Codexes are largely written from an outside point of view (and are also almost entirely focused on the military forces). An outsider sees the Tau Castes and sees an inviolable wall, because to the Tau once you cross that wall you don't go back. Your service to the Greater Good means letting your old life go and becoming your new self. This theory is also interesting to me because it might in time allow the other species of the Empire to be drawn into the Castes. A Fire Warrior could, in the end, be a Kroot, Human, or Vespid just as easily as it could be a Tau. So in conclusion. The Tau Caste system would likely seem oppressive to those of us who grew up in upper or middle-class American or European society, with the privilege to believe that we could be anything we wanted when we grew up. To the Tau however it is a valuable part of their society, offers the freedom to climb as high as your abilities take you, and may even allow for Caste mobility in service to the State. Most importantly though, it is how they determine who among them will offer themselves in direct service to the Greater Good, and to the Tau that is the greatest honor they desire.

#warhammer 40k #tau #tau empire #caste system #fan theory

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jernal · 6 years

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A Day in Inpatient Eating Disorder Treatment

It’s Monday, weekday 1/5 (unless you’re still new or untrustworthy because then you’re here all weekend too; no leave), breakfast is at 08:00 but we have to be in the lounge at 07:00 for bloodwork. I set my alarm for 06:30. I need this. My alarm starts quiet and gets louder but my brain jolts awake at the first tone; I’m so worried my roommate Miranda is growing to resent me and my alarm. I shower at night so I can get up and out quietly. I’m always tip-toeing. I’m tired though so it takes me a minute to peel myself off of my starchy hospital sheets. I didn’t sleep well because overnight every 20 minutes a nurse walks into our room with her iPhone flashlight on, shining it in our faces and whispering “checks” as if I might not know why she’s here. Sometimes I hold my eyes wide-open, staring, just to unnerve the night nurses. There were two Code-Whites last night too. Alarms and screaming. In Ottawa, the Regional Centre for the Treatment of Eating Disorders (AKA: your only option) is made up of just six beds on the locked general psych ward. Fourth floor, north wing. Code White, Four North. Code Blanc, Quatre Nord. So I get up and tip toe out of my room and into the half-lit hallway. I no longer care about how socially unacceptable it is to walk around a place full of people in my sleep clothes and bare feet. I’m wearing a purple nightgown with thin straps and a low open back; it’s cute. I walk to the nurses station and stand by the reinforced glass window waiting to be noticed by the clerk. It’s Bruno. He never fails to have a positive attitude and light sense of humour - it must not be easy to do in a place like this. He knows that I’m here to ask for my curling iron or straightener. I switch it up every morning. He waves it in front of the glass like a treat in front of a dog. I am the dog. I have no power. He means it as a joke though and I do appreciate him. I have to say please and thank you to him - he doesn’t tolerate my teenager attitude; I’m 24, but living in an environment where I have no rights and am at the mercy of a wide variety of older-adults has made my sass-control regress a bit. While I wait for Bruno there’s a man with long dreadlocks wearing a hospital gown, spinning circles and popping wheelies in a wheelchair close by. I usually avoid interacting with general psych patients but he talks to me a bit. He tells me he killed someone and he’s here until he can be assessed, then he’s probably going back to jail. He seems more sane than the majority of gen psych patients and I’ve never see him before so I talk to him till I have my curling iron. I have to return it once it’s cooled, I’m not allowed to have cords.

I sneak into our bathroom and close the door before I turn on the light. I’m really concerned with people potentially hating me, letting a stream of blinding light escape from the bathroom would make me easily hate-able. I do my hair and then sit on my bed to do my makeup. Miranda is up by now and I can turn on a light. I take time to do my makeup and my hair, I pick out an outfit and I don’t outfit-repeat for as long as possible. This seems stupid but looking like myself is the one of the few things I have control over. I will not become a sweatpant-wearing, dirty hair, slipper-footed hospital patient. I’m here for a long time and I’m going to gain weight and struggle with that - I don’t need to struggle with feeling ugly and frumpy too. I apply my usual false lashes.

It’s 06:50 now. The six of us have an unspoken arrangement when it comes to bloodwork: first come, first serve, first leave. The two smokers, Nate and Amy are usually first. We meet in one of the two lounges. There are a couple psych patients in there too. One is an old man in his hospital gown going hard on the elliptical in the corner. There’s just the one exercise machine, it’s pretty random and for some of us it’s very hard to ignore; we could risk being discharged on the spot for getting on that thing. The room otherwise has a TV encased in plexiglass on the wall, a variety of leatherish couches, chairs, some tables, two vending machines and a small shelving unit with mushy ancient puzzles and boardgames. None of them have all their pieces, that’s a guarantee. The nurse is 15 minutes late, pushing her cart in casually like we haven’t been waiting anxiously to do bloodwork and get the fuck out. I don’t mind needles. I watch. Once I’m done I head to the set of double doors of 4 North. I have to have Bruno buzz the first set unlocked, walk into the vestibule, wait for it to close behind me and have him unlock the second set. I’m going to Critical Care; it’s a huge open space with the Tim Hortons (not the Second Cup that’s closer but yuckier) and giant windows and couches. I bring a book and sit with my coffee as long as possible. I won’t be alone again all day.

I come back up at 07:55 and wait in the hall outside our special EDP kitchen. The gen psych population eats in the lounge or in their rooms. Some of them are aware that we have our own special room but not aware enough to understand why. Sometimes they yell about it. Once, a non-verbal man came in and took the glass base out of our microwave and we had to pull an alarm because our nurse had left briefly. Our nurse this morning is a bitch. I can’t put it any nicer. Her name is Brenda and we got off on the most wrongest foot ever. There’s a general belief that people with eating disorders are sneaky, manipulative liars. I fancy myself a rational adult and choosing to recover in this way was hard enough; it makes no sense to me at all that I’d voluntarily leave my job and move onto this ward just to lie and sneak around and try to lose weight and be symptomatic. She didn’t talk to me or get to know who I am before deciding I was bad. Seeing her walk down the hall, realizing she was our nurse for the 7-3 shift, makes my stomach flip. It causes me more anxiety than the meal itself. I spoke with the ward manager a few weeks ago though, Brenda apologized to me. She was wrong and treating me unfairly, for no reason evident to me. She still makes me anxious though. She’s late but she doesn’t apologize. If we’re late we’re actually punished with having to eat more at snack time. Punishing an unrelated infraction with food - now that’s logical. During Breakfast, we turn a radio on so it’s not silent. Brenda talks though - she’s famous for it. She’ll keep talking even though no one responds. She’ll keep talking even after we’re finished and waiting for her to start check-out. Breakfast is one of the worst meals in the day. In the wise words of Nate, my best friend in this hell-hole, “this meal makes no sense”, and they’ll chastise us saying meals don’t have to ‘make sense’ but having toast, a muffin with cream cheese on it, an apple and a glass of milk is a lot. But wait, cause if you’ve ordered a bran muffin with cream cheese too often (‘too often’ is completely based on the opinion of the power-tripping dietician, Shelley) you might get a bran muffin and…. a piece of plastic-wrapped, room-temperature cheddar cheese. This meal makes NO sense. So you down each piece as quick as possible because, that’s totally normal and not disordered eating, right? Yuck. When we start passing our plates to the person closest to the dish cart Brenda wraps up her latest anecdote, sighs, then turns to her side and asks the nearest one of us how their breakfast was. We have to say something positive - how this helps our recovery, (lying when necessary to come up with an acceptable response) I’m not sure. I say “I liked the muffin.”. Nate raises his eyebrows a tiny bit, tilts his head sharply and says “my omelette was the same temperature as my milk” and I stifle a laugh. He is a barista in the real world and he has a chalkboard-painted travel mug. Every day he writes something on it, every day I look forward to it. Today he’s written “Day 42: one lump, or two? “‘six’” - Shelley”. Last Friday's mug said “Day 39: to have your pancake and eat it too”.

The day is spent in groups. There’s CBT group, led by a Nurse Practitioner, Simin, who is almost like a psychologist… except not at all. There’s family and relationships groups: open-circle groups led by Stephanie, an actual psychologist who can only speak in that whispery therapeutic tone shrinks develop. These groups drive me insane because it’s completely unstructured and we might spend the hour listening to some rambly, whiney story about someone’s mom. I’m a bitch though. It helps that person to talk, but hearing about five other people’s problems doesn’t benefit me at all. I have a therapist in the real world, I want to exempt myself from these groups. There’s body image, the ONLY group led by the psychiatrist who runs the inpatient program. There’s DBT where we just watch one patient draw a chain of events and we analyze the shit out of it for an hour. There’s ‘take charge’ group led by Jodie, a social worker, where we made resumes…. (most of us are adults with jobs), There’s medical education run by Simin again, the NP, possibly the only valid group although she chooses a topic at random and it’s very basic information, I truly appreciated the group where she explained that ‘gluten-free’ diets are a bullshit trend. There’s a group led by Shelley the dietician where we learn about the food pyramid and how milk is good for you.

Lunch is at noon. 2 starches, 2 protein, 1 vegetable, 1 fat, 1 fruit, 2 dairy. Afterwards we do menu marking. We sit together and circle the meals on wide menu sheets that we’ll have for the next five days. It’s so stressful I know ahead of time to ask for a PRN. I request clonazepam. In my pre-treatment life, I used this med as a sleep aid. Now it doesn’t affect my wakefulness in the slightest. I’m so anxious it barely does anything at all. I struggle immensely writing out my future five days. Trying to do it ‘right’. Trying to pick the ‘right’ things. Trying not to forget any portions. I hand over the sheets of marked menus to Brenda or Shelley and they skim it and accept it or point out flaws. I don’t trust the acceptance anyway, Shelley might make changes later without my consent. Why bother giving us this ‘responsibility’ and ‘control’ and ‘choice’ if you’re going to make changes later without warning and our food comes up with something senseless and surprising that we’re forced to consume anyway? Mixing food & eating with a sense of insecurity and distrust. Excellent. Oh, did I mention that if we’re late to group, chewing gum etc, we might also be punished by having one menu taken away, meaning one of our days meals will be totally redone by whoever is in charge at the time. It’s no wonder that this task and these people are actually giving me bigger trust issues and general anxiety than I probably came in here with.

We also meet with the psychiatrist, Dr. Proulx, on Mondays. This is the only time we see her besides Body Image group, DBT sometimes, and Feedback (which is Tuesdays, a long table with all staff and all 6 of us) and it is the only time we see anyone on EDP staff one-on-one… and even then, Simin The NP is usually present as well. Throughout my time in program I won’t ever understand the purpose of this ‘one-on-one’ meeting besides to discuss medication. When I was admitted Dr. Proulx questioned the medication I’m on and suggested going off of it and trying something more fitting. I’m on Limotrigine, an anti-convulsant used off-label as a mood stabilizer for bipolar and schizophrenia. She didn’t know me or my history, decided it was the wrong medication, but then didn’t do anything to change it.

At 3pm, the nurses switch shifts. It’s a gamble, there are a few nurses who are true gems and a few who are new and/or unfamiliar with the psych ward. None of the nurses are specialized in eating disorders, they’re just trained nurses who happened to end up on the psych ward and then happened to end up assigned to us. Despite the clear lack of formal training or understanding, some try to psychoanalyze or offer impromptu therapy sessions. On one of my first days, a filipino nurse with broken english came in to ask me how my first shower was. I wanted to tell her it was worse than the public pool showers I remember vaguely from my childhood swimming lessons but I figured she wouldn’t get my dark sense of humour and just nod along knowingly, supportively, ahh yes, I see. But does she see? My bathroom comes equipped with two milk crates stacked sideways forming a sort of shelving unit for us to store tiny hospital towels. I have my razor hidden between a few of them, I just can’t stand having to ask for it every second day and I am not a self-harm risk. None of us are; self-harm = automatic discharge. The bathroom has a stand up shower, no shower curtain, just an open doorway beside a metal shower head protruding from the wall. Our bathroom door has no locks and our room’s door has a towel wrapped around the handles, preventing it from closing fully. My roommate has a huge problem with the lack of security and lack of privacy. She sleeps in a sleeping bag on top of her bed. The filipino nurse asked me if I had any urges and on my first day I was naive enough to not know what the hell she meant, asking nervously knowing my roommate was on her bed behind our divider curtain, certainly hearing this exchange, and the nurse clarified by miming cutting her wrists. Yep, definitely not a mental health professional. At 3pm I’m overjoyed to see our nurse is Barb. Colleen is a close second best-case-scenario, a warm, smiley woman with a kind voice and a motherly demeanour. Barb is funny and also very kind. She holds one of us back at random after dinner to check-in and unlike every other nurses attempts at therapeutic conversations, I do enjoy chatting with Barb. She believes me when I tell her I didn’t mean to cut my meat up into ‘too-small’ pieces, she believes me when I tell her that’s not an ED behaviour I have. She believes me when I say I know what I’m doing here, what I mean to accomplish, what my goal is; I mean to spend my 8 weeks (that’s the max, I had decided right away) eating well-rounded meals and gaining some weight. I know I’m sick, I know I have an eating disorder and I know I’m doing serious damage to myself, she hears me when I say this. She believes me, and more importantly, she respects my decision, when I tell her I’m not looking to work on issues relating to past relationships, family, self. I’ve worked with half a dozen therapists by now, I know that 8 weeks in an artificial environment made up of 90% group therapy sessions is not the place for me to open up about any and all issues, I know it won’t help and could actually hurt. Barb hears me and believes me. I respect her for respecting me and treating me like a rational adult. Dr. Proulx tells me that anorexia is not rational, therefore I am not rational. It’s like she doesn’t think that eating disorders are mental illnesses, and I can be level-headed and rational about any other area of my life. I feel distrust and scrutiny from almost every direction. I’m a perfectionist and feeling like I am failing constantly is extremely distressing. Not feeling approval from those in charge of my care and recovery is really hard for me.

Dinner with Barb is nice though, and often times meals are ok. The food isn’t all terrible. I did make a dire mistake of selecting a ‘salisbury steak’ not actually knowing what it was but knowing what steak was and knowing I was in The Red Meat Club (low iron) so I didn’t have a lot of choice anyway. Salisbury steak, the hospital kind at least, is something I don’t ever wanna see or smell .. or taste.. again. Imagine how hard it was finding a positive to share with the group after that surprise. I also tried my very first Shawarma here in the EDP kitchen. It was pretty good. We’re a bit lucky because EDP gets extra menu options and they’re good ones like Stir Fry of the Day, different sometimes but good almost always. Barb is nice but she’s just as strict as the rest of the team, things can still go bad real quick - like someone throwing a pudding cup across the table, scattering silverware and cups everywhere. I leave the kitchen when Barb said “ok you all can go except….” and she chooses someone she’s been wanting to chat with, hasn’t seen around much, etc. It’s not me today.

What’s difficult about the routine after dinner is that unless it’s the one day a week where we have our glorified arts and crafts group (therapeutic creative expression?) we have 2+ hours to kill. We have visitors or we hang out or just hide behind our curtains watching Netflix on our laptops. If we have arts and crafts, whichever nurse happens to be on shift that night picks an activity at random, I think they must google it 20 minutes prior, and we’re expected to do the activity as if it’s crucial to our progress and recovery. The only example I can even think of is when Brenda told us to “draw what having a life looks like” and in her better-than-thee way, left it at that. So poetic and profound and intentional. I basically regressed back to my oppositional high school self, took her directions exactly literally and sketched a perfect anatomical fetus in utero. That’s what it looks like when someone “has a life” inside them. Everyone else did what I knew she wanted; smiley faces and playing outside and friends and family and food and stuff. No. I’m an artist. I won’t conform.

Since dinner is at 5pm, night snack feels miles away at 8pm and that’s great except then we’ve eaten (sometimes several things) so late before bed it makes relaxing enough to sleep really difficult. I have graduated to a meal plan where even at snacks I have to consume what feels (to my body) like a LOT of food. Because I’m still not gaining weight as fast as they think I should be, I’ve had an Ensure Plus Calories added to my meal plan. I have a Chocolate Ensure Plus Calories with a pack of 4 two-bite brownies. At 8:00pm, after a solid dinner and a solid day of solid meals. I regret immensely choosing this too-chocolatey snack combo. No point wishing it wasn’t so, I sit down with my things. We all scan across the table to see what everyone else has. No one is jealous of me. We came in on our own and are waiting for Barb but she’s actually taking her dinner so Nurse Will comes in. Nurse Will is a hottie, or at least.. the hottie. There aren’t a lot to choose from (although, pro-tip: set your Tinder location settings to as narrow as possible and you’ll pick up a lot of nurses and doctors in here). Nurse Will has helped out with EDP nurses on occasion but never on snack with us. He seems a little uncomfortable, not sure what routine we follow. I open my brownie packet and discover there are 5 and not 4. I panic. I look around wildly trying to catch someone’s attention. Amy sees me first, sigh of relief, Mom might help me. My voice cracks and I tell Will there’s an extra brownie it’s only supposed to be 4. I know this is not an anorexia thing, but I know normal people would be delighted by an extra brownie, but normal people don’t also have to down the 400 calories of chocolate ensure I do. I’m already challenging myself so much and oh jesus god if he makes me eat the 5th one that I was never supposed to have I’ll throw a proper fit. I’ll get myself discharged. But he makes one joke about how ‘oh I guess you have to eat it!” but my look of terror had him quiet down and say it’s all good if they say so? Confirmation from my team that it’s ok if I don’t eat the 5th brownie. We do that too, sometimes someone has an issue and the team weighs in and says well I had that food too so it’s ok for you to, or maybe hmmm that is a lot of rice if you’re not ‘challenging’ this meal. My life was in their hands but they unanimously agreed that 4 is the normal in those bags. Safe. Well, still very full of heavy, rich, chocolatey calories. Camille gives me a shy smile and thumbs up from across the table. I remember the first time she did this to me, my first day here and I was pushed into lunch with 5 people I didn’t know, a room I’d never been in, a sandwich I didn’t like. And I cried. And cried and cried. Quietly as possible, because surely the other 5 people were uncomfortable. But I looked up and Camille was waiting for me to look up, her hand clenched in a thumbs-up of encouragement. I wanted to cry and run away and I was so embarrassed and this stranger was being more kind than she needed to be.

After snack I jump in the shower. As quickly as human possible because as I’ve mentioned, our shower is drafty, the shower head is such a little nub on the wall that you have to press your back flush with the cringey tiles to be under the shower head’s spray zone. I don’t stop thinking about what I’d do if the bathroom door suddenly flew open. After, I dry off using 3 scratchy little hospital towels and walk down the hall to drop em in a laundry bin. I grab new ones cause I need to rebury my razor in them. My MacBook and it’s charger are under my mattress.

At night I usually hang out with Nate. We might go down so he can smoke and for my last dose of fresh air for the night. Back on the ward, we sit up on the counter outside my room and watch the nightly traffic go by. We read IKEA catalogues, make up backstories for patients. We watch this NBA sized guy pacing slowly, dragging his catatonic feet but managing to have feverish conversations with the people in his head. Otherwise, the hallway traffic tour slows and we have some quiet. We sit in the lounge watching the other nurses all doing checks together and chatting. Eventually Nurse Jillian will firmly encourage us to go to our rooms. It’s probably 1am but I’ll be up at 6:30am and tip toe out of bed to start this all over again.

Except tomorrow is Tuesday, We’ll have Feedback at a round table with the whole EDP staff, all 6 of us, and go round the table one-by-one one staff delivering the feedback of all to the one patient. Feedback is maybe more stressful than Menu Marking but not usually for me. I go into Feedback having faith that these professionals discussed and shared their thoughts, that I can’t get bad feedback because I’ve done nothing but try to do everything right. Feedback can change everything for some… not for me….. until the time that it does.

But that’s another Day in Inpatient Eating Disorders Treatment. A Tuesday

#words #edp #anorexia #eatingdisorder #inpatient #ed inpatient #ed treatment

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theyearofnoclothes · 4 years

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day three hundred and ninety - on supermarkets and superegos

The United States has a new president and also 25 million coronavirus cases. A pledge to turn the pandemic around but not in time for the 420,000 who have died. An administration intent on uniting and a populace hell bent on warring. All to say, just another day in America.

Today’s post is not about clothes, but about another sector of retail - grocery. This week I finished a book called “The Secret Life of Groceries: The Dark Miracle of The American Supermarket,” and even just a few chapters in I had recommended it to seemingly everyone I know. Yes, I was the target audience for the book - penchant for muckraking, already interested in grocery, annoyingly curious about commerce - but it wasn’t so much a supply chain exposé as a peer deep into the soul (or lack thereof) of capitalism.

I won’t give the book away because I really, truly want everyone to read it, but between charting the rise of Trader Joe’s, following a fledgling product to market, and getting a first hand account of the slavery that powered the Thai shrimp trade, the book goes far beyond the industrial mechanics and into the why of it all.

The supermarket is a uniquely American invention, taking the otherwise boring and precarious business of feeding oneself and turning it into an always-accessible avenue for surprise, delight, and self expression: Instead of getting sugar from the same barrel as the rest of your town, you now have dozens if not hundreds of options, with different brands, sizes, shapes, and substitutes to choose from. And if you’ve never thought of the sugar you buy as a form of self expression, you may also not have thought that food, beverage, and candy manufacturers spent $6.7 billion on advertising in the US in 2019 alone. Why did you buy Sugar In The Raw?

The book turned a nagging wisp of a thought I had into more a fully realized fear, which is that we truly use products as proxy for personality in this country - we are what we eat, right? From the grocery stores we shop at to the type of chips we throw in our carts to the restaurants we patronize when we don’t cook, every aspect of the experience of buying food has been groomed to say something about us.

A section of the book that really struck me was in regards to the completely flawed certification process for labels like “organic” and “free range” - per the author, those labels “allow us to purchase our ideals from others without ever having to enact them on our own.”

I did a disservice to that passage by only including that one line, but to me a big takeaway from the book is that we’re trying to buy our way to things - to a cleaner environment, to a more just global trade, to a hipper persona or higher caliber life. The rub is that we throw around phrases like “vote with your dollars” while burning gasoline and drinking out of green plastic straws and considering ourselves immune from advertising as we scroll through content from brands we followed freely. We oscillate between knowing nothing about where the things we buy came from and extolling the virtues of the hand-thrown ceramic we just got from a local small biz. We (me) pledge to stop buying things with palm oil ‘for the rainforest’ but blithely continue buying chocolate. I’m getting stuck on the clash between virtue signaling and vice-level ignorance, but what I really want to do is remove this significance from capitalism altogether!

It isn’t a revelation to say that grocery severed products from production, so much so that I didn’t even use the term “food.” When you go to a grocery store, you see bananas next to blueberries, milk labeled with smiling cows, and row upon row filled with shiny plastic packages hiding what lies within. Growing season? Not a concern in a global economy! Conditions at the dairy farm? Who’s to say! Wages of workers harvesting ingredients? You want low prices, don’t you??

I’m losing the thread a bit, but: we’re at a point in time where every purchase we make tacitly endorses that thing - how it was made and where and how it was sold. For most things in a grocery store, the supply chain runs so deep that it’s impossible to track every step, much less endorse them all, and that’s if you even cared to look. But this push to do research and become more aware of what you’re buying masks the bigger problem, which is that we limit our influence to our purchasing power.

Me vowing to only buy Tony’s Chocolate doesn’t really do anything to end trafficking in the chocolate industry. I have never written a letter to, say, Nestlé, asking them why they still use child labor. I have never volunteered with an NGO tackling the issue, or donated to a campaign for workers recently freed from their bondage. If my only action is to continue buying chocolate, just from this one specific manufacturer that has pledged to tackle the problem “from within,” well. Sounds like purchasing an ideal.

The last part of the book I want to reference is the intro to a chapter on “The Retail Experience,” which is a quote from sociologist Zygmunt Bauman the year before I was born: “What does it mean to have and display a consumer attitude? It means first perceiving life as a series of problems, which can be specified, more or less defined, singled out, dealt with... It means secondly believing that dealing with such problems, solving them, is one’s duty... It means, thirdly, that for every problem, already known, or as may still arise in the future, there is a solution - a special object or recipe, prepared by specialists, by people with superior know-how, and one’s task is to find it...”

May I humbly propose that the solution for the problems wrought by capitalism is not more, or even slightly different, capitalism.

#2020 resolutions #grocery #capitalism

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seekfirstme · 4 years

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Meditation: Who is Jesus for you - and what difference does he make in your life? Many in Israel recognized Jesus as a mighty man of God, even comparing him with the greatest of the prophets. Peter, always quick to respond whenever Jesus spoke, professed that Jesus was truly the "Christ of God" - "the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16). No mortal being could have revealed this to Peter, but only God. Through the "eyes of faith" Peter discovered who Jesus truly was. Peter recognized that Jesus was much more than a great teacher, prophet, and miracle worker. Peter was the first apostle to publicly declare that Jesus was the Anointed One, consecrated by the Father and sent into the world to redeem a fallen human race enslaved to sin and cut off from eternal life with God (Luke 9:20, Acts 2:14-36). The word for "Christ" in Greek is a translation of the Hebrew word for "Messiah" - both words literally mean the Anointed One.

Jesus begins to explain the mission he was sent to accomplish

Why did Jesus command his disciples to be silent about his identity as the anointed Son of God? They were, after all, appointed to proclaim the good news to everyone. Jesus knew that they did not yet fully understand his mission and how he would accomplish it. Cyril of Alexandria (376-444 AD), an early church father, explains the reason for this silence:

There were things yet unfulfilled which must also be included in their preaching about him. They must also proclaim the cross, the passion, and the death in the flesh. They must preach the resurrection of the dead, that great and truly glorious sign by which testimony is borne him that the Emmanuel is truly God and by nature the Son of God the Father. He utterly abolished death and wiped out destruction. He robbed hell, and overthrew the tyranny of the enemy. He took away the sin of the world, opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth, and united earth to heaven. These things proved him to be, as I said, in truth God. He commanded them, therefore, to guard the mystery by a seasonable silence until the whole plan of the dispensation should arrive at a suitable conclusion. (Commentary on Luke, Homily 49)

God's Anointed Son must suffer and die to atone for our sins

Jesus told his disciples that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and die in order that God's work of redemption might be accomplished. How startled the disciples were when they heard this word. How different are God's thoughts and ways from our thoughts and ways (Isaiah 55:8). It was through humiliation, suffering, and death on the cross that Jesus broke the powers of sin and death and won for us eternal life and freedom from the slavery of sin and from the oppression of our enemy, Satan, the father of lies and the deceiver of humankind.

We, too, have a share in the mission and victory of Jesus Christ

If we want to share in the victory of the Lord Jesus, then we must also take up our cross and follow where he leads us. What is the "cross" that you and I must take up each day? When my will crosses (does not align) with God's will, then his will must be done. To know Jesus Christ is to know the power of his victory on the cross where he defeated sin and conquered death through his resurrection. The Holy Spirit gives each of us the gifts and strength we need to live as sons and daughters of God. The Holy Spirit gives us faith to know the Lord Jesus personally as our Redeemer, and the power to live the Gospel faithfully, and the courage to witness to others the joy, truth, and freedom of the Gospel. Who do you say that Jesus is?

"Lord Jesus, I believe and I profess that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Take my life, my will, and all that I have, that I may be wholly yours now and forever."

THE DEATH OF TIME

“He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts.” —Ecclesiastes 3:11

The writer of Ecclesiastes continues his bleak description of life by saying: “There is an appointed time for everything” (Eccl 3:1). In his view, everything is ruled by fate. Our dedication, creativity, and hard work mean nothing. They are negated by the tyranny of time. Things will happen when they are fated to happen, and we can’t do a thing about it. So why try? Is there any hope?

Jesus is the Hope of the world. His Resurrection has freed us from the tyranny of time. Baptized into Jesus and living for Him, we, in our daily activity, are making a difference rather than being deceived. Therefore, the most important thing in the world is to know and love our risen Lord and then to decide to live totally for Him and no longer for ourselves (2 Cor 5:14-15). When we decide to give our lives totally to Jesus, we lose our self-deceptions and chains and receive eternal life in the risen Christ.

How merciful the Lord has been to us! How privileged we are to live for Him and to have the exalted mission of telling the world about Him, “the Resurrection and the Life”! (Jn 11:25) Jesus became a Man and entered time so that we can escape from time’s tyranny. Jesus will come a final time, on the last day, and that will be the end of time. Come, Lord Jesus! Maranatha! (Rv 22:20)

Prayer: Father, day by day may I enter more deeply into eternal life.

Promise: “ ‘But you — who do you say that I am?’ He asked them. Peter said in reply, ‘The Messiah of God.’ ” —Lk 9:20

Praise: A close call with possible death brought Tom back to an active prayer life.

Reference: (For a related teaching on Meeting the Risen Christ, order, listen to, or download our CD 4A-1 or DVD 4A on our website.)

Rescript: "In accord with the Code of Canon Law, I hereby grant the Nihil Obstat for One Bread, One Body covering the period from October 1, 2020 through November 30, 2020. Most Reverend Joseph R. Binzer, Auxiliary Bishop, Vicar General, Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio February 25, 2020"

The Nihil Obstat ("Permission to Publish") is a declaration that a book or pamphlet is considered to be free of doctrinal or moral error. It is not implied that those who have granted the Nihil Obstat agree with the contents, opinions, or statements

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kandadiff · 4 years

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I was in to much pain to really listen to whoever was talking in the car. The cuffs had come from J and since he knew what I was he had dipped them in holy water. I felt like they were burning through my skin and I could feel my back bleeding. Negan sat next to me and I saw his mouth moving like he was talking to me but I wasn’t paying attention to it. Not even when i should have been, i should have been paying attention to where his home base was but i couldn’t remember it. “If I take them off” his finger hooked on the chain between the two cuffs. “Then you can’t be doing any of the shit that got you here in the first place understand, baby? I will slap these shits back on you in a moment do you understand?” I didn’t respond to him, instead I just looked out of the window. He reached for my face and took ahold on my chin forcing me to look at him. “Baby girl don’t test me. You will speak when you are spoken too.”

“I understand, old man.” I sneered at him jolting myself out of his grasp and I heard shawn snicker in the front seat. Negan hit the back of his seat but smirked at me. He undid the cufs and rubbed carefully on the raw skin.

“Goddamn.” he eyed the handcuffs. “What the hell did that crazy mother fucker do to this?” He handed the cuffs to shawn.

“You think that's a good idea?” Shawn asked as I kept my hands in Negan’s. My skin was raw, red and sensitive to the touch. Shawn looked back and noticed the touch but kept his comment to himself. “J gave us that for a reason.”

“And they’ve served there fucking purpose.” He said just as the car stopped. Since it was night time not a lot of workers were out but the ones that were stopped whatever they were doing and bowed in submission. I had only seen that once- the demons in hell always bowed to Lucifer. I stared at Negan as he held his hand out for me to take. I just looked at him confused... was he a god? I would be able to tell if he was another demon but I couldn’t get a read on him. “If you want that fucking glass out of your back you’ll listen to me.” His voice was stern and deep as I eyed the cuffs in Shawn’s hand.

“I’ll take her to Carson” Simon said eyeing me and I just stared at him, now trying to focus at my surroundings. The holy water did much to dull my powers but I didn’t need powers to escape if I was free of those cuffs. I mean obviously this man had a soft spot for me, if he really wanted to hurt me he wouldn’t take me here. He’d take me straight to J which meant J wasn’t as mad at me as they got me to believe. I called his bluff and he was leaving these men to take car eof me? was it to test them or test me? If he really wanted he could have came after me himself. But he didn’t. I stepped out of the car not taking Negans hand and looking around.

“No I’ll take her, Shawn get your uncle on the phone and Simon set up a bed for her.”

“Where?” Simon asked.

“A bed?!” I didn’t get to voice my opinion for very long before I was half picked up / half dragged to a terrified and nervous man, DR Carson, who looked like he just woke up. Since I couldn’t be trusted I wasn’t left alone for more then a few seconds and that was just to take off my shirt and lay on my stomach before either Simon or Negan came back in the room to keep an eye on me. I was mostly silent save for the small groans or grunts that I gave off when Carson pulled the glass from my back. It took about an hour and a half for him to get all the glass out, wash and dress the wound.

“I’ve never worked with one of you before.” He whispered to me taking off his gloves and tossing them in the garbage. I cocked an eyebrow at him. “Black blood, you think you’d see everything working in this place.”

“You’ve worked here for a long time?” I asked putting on the lose shirt that was provided for me. I knew I didn’t have much time before one of the two men would burst through the doors again. He nodded as he washed his hands. “What are they?”

He stopped and looked at me “I - I really don’t know if I should be-” I stood up and walked closer to him.

“Please Carson” I touched his arm and he turned towards me “I need to know, what if they plan on hurting me?” I locked eyes with his. I felt my eyes heat up and I knew but the way his pupils were dilating he was falling into the darkness. A trick I picked up from Damien. Weak-minded humans were always the easiest to manipulate. “Please don’t let them hurt me.” I said and heard my voice in three different octaves echoing around the room. It was like a haunting melody and honestly it even freaked me out a bit. “Tell me what I want to know.” Just as carsons mouth opened I heard Simon shout ‘Hey!” and I was thrown out of the trance. Resulting in a pounding in my head and Carson looked as though he had seen a ghost. He fainted before Simon could reach him and both men looked at me.

“What?”

“What the hell was that?” Simon asked and Negan pulled me violently towards him.

“He’s not dead.” I said trying to shove him off of me. “I just wanted to find out more about you.”

“Shit,” Negan gave a small chuckle “All you had to do was ask, first lets get you the fuck out of here before you keep going damage.” I noticed the cuffs hanging on his pocket but said nothing as he led me outside into another more lavish building. I was brought to what I can only describe as a princess bedroom

“You like it?” Negan asked and I wandered around the room, eyeing the beautiful décor and then out the luxury reading nook that over looked his entire compound. That's when I knew we were in gotham anymore. No place in gotham had gardens like this. Gotham was a city we must've been in the nearby city.

“Its lovely but I hope you don’t think i’m staying here.”

“I changed the sheets.” He said as though that was the only problem with the situation and I shook my head laughing.

“No that's- what? No that's not what I meant. I’m not staying here. I have places to be, people are going to be wondering where I am.”

This time it was his time to laugh. He walked over to the chairs sitting in front of the fireplace. “Sit” he motioned next to him and I just looked at him. “You going to fight me on fucking everything?” I walked over to the chairs but instead of sitting next to him I sat across from him. “You may not have thing you messed up. And if it would have been any other day that would be a fun little prank that I would expect from the offspring of Harley Quinn. But today beautiful, you messed up big time.” I cocked an eyebrow not following him but he kept going “You cost us a lot and I don’t think you fucking understand the degree of how fucked you made yourself with that little job of voodoo you decided to do. Your clever little tantrum made it seemed like we were targeting the big boys of Gotham and I know you know how much of a big fucking deals mobs are in this city. And because of you, princess, the bosses of this city think the Saviors and The Playhouse tried to massacre them.”

“Then why don’t you kill me then? If you care that much you should pull the security footage and show the ‘big bosses’ of the Gotham you took care of the problem.”

He looked at me with an unreadable expression. “I think we both know that wouldn’t work. If it were as easy as that I wouldn’t need these” He tossed the cuffs on the table before us.

“So what do you want to do Negan?” I asked with a smirk “If you can’t kill me you cant prove yourself to the ‘big men’ out there.”

“I think you’ll find out i’m more of big man then any of those fucks out there.” He smirked and I couldn’t help but match his expression. Maybe it was the drink, the medication or the fact that despite the circumstances (I mean after we wanted - start the gangs against each other and no one can unite against us.) I was finding my return to gotham thrilling that I was walking over to him sitting on his lap. Plus this was a fun way to find out exacly who/what I was dealing with.

“Is that right?” I asked resting my head on his shoulder as I played with the zipper of his jacket. “Then what should we do?”

“Stay here” He said simply “Stay out of the spot light right now, It aint so bad here with me.” He said his hands on my bare thighs.

“But I like the spot light.” I pouted. “I thrive in it.”

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politicaltheatre · 4 years

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The Boy In The Bubble, pt.3

“Nobody would have ever thought a thing like this could have happened.” - President Donald Trump, March 26, 2020

If that quote sounds ickily familiar, it’s because those were the same words, more or less, repeated twelve years ago by men and women working in Washington D.C. and on Wall Street, all of them seeking to avoid accountability for their role in an economic meltdown that ruined the lives of tens of millions of Americans and that spread, not unlike a virus, overseas, crippling the entire, interconnected world economy for years.

In many ways, our world has yet to recover from the 2008 sub-prime mortgage crisis. Action taken was short sighted and narrowly focused, aimed more at rescuing those responsible for causing the crisis - investment banks, insurance companies, debt-laden corporate investors - than those caught in its ever expanding wake.

The notion that nobody knew or could have known wasn’t about looking the man on the street in the eye; if anything, it was a legal defense. They had just been bailed out by the federal government and didn’t want to let anything resembling accountability get in the way of capitalizing on it, least of all civil liability for their own, short sighted thinking.

It’s no coincidence, then, that Donald Trump has repeatedly used that same defense to excuse his own incompetent handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. This is, for him, not a matter of serving the public good but of winning and losing, of profit and loss, credit and blame. Mostly, avoiding blame.

Bully that he is, Trump believes the best defense is any offense. That means finding others to blame. Everyday no, he steps in front of a microphone to speak to the nation, and everyday he finds someone to blame for something. It’s very much a ritual, like repeating that old defense that ignorance is a defense.

His appearances feel somehow incomplete if he hasn’t found someone to blame for something. It might be a journalist, or a foreign leader, or a particular presidential predecessor, or a city or state that hasn’t shown him enough deference or appreciation. For a second there, it was old people.

Trump’s failed proposal of a 14 day quarantine for the entire New York metropolitan area was part of that blaming ritual. It would have had to include an undetermined portion of the city’s suburbs and rural areas in New York state, New Jersey, and Connecticut, and would have cost an amount of money no one wanted to calculate. Surely, the states would have paid for it.

Hours later, with Trump safely away from any microphones, the CDC instead issued a “travel advisory” for the area, which carries about the same weight as Congress passing a non-binding resolution. In other words, it was no change at all.

If the idea of blockading New York at this point seemed ridiculous, that’s because it was. For one thing, it was a lot like closing the barn door after the cows had all escaped; for another, the Florida beaches jam-packed with spring breakers probably did as much damage or worse in spreading the infection than New York, and nobody’s talking about walling off Florida from the rest of the country, are they? Are they? Well, not seriously.

Of course, no one took Trump seriously. Well, no one beyond his base. On top of being a maniacally stupid waste of resources, the source of the outbreak in the United States can’t even be traced to New York. The first cases that gained public awareness were on the west coast, and those were just the first ones reported. The odds are extraordinarily high that there were cases on both coasts and places in between for weeks before anyone was diagnosed.

Rationally, it will take years to discover, if ever, where the actual ground zero for this pandemic was in the United States, but when it comes to proposals from Donald Trump, rational thinking is never the point.

The point of making that quarantine proposal was the same as the point of proposing to reopen the country by Easter: for Trump to be seen to be doing something by his base.

That those proposals had as much weight as a non-bonding resolution doesn’t matter; his proposing them does. This, he believes, will restore confidence in him and his leadership.

In a sense, he may be right. His base will and surely does now feel more confident reading and hearing that action was proposed and by him. It reinforces the image of him they have clung to with all their might. His base is his base because they need that image, because they need to be reassured, because they need to see and hear his confidence in order to feel it in themselves.

This is why Trump’s daily press conferences feel like campaign rallies: they are. What the rational mind sees and hears and recognizes as incompetent and irresponsible, Trump’s supporters see and hear as a reflection of their own needs. Does a competent, responsible leader bring out the My Pillow guy to tell the world he’s doing a great job? Of course, not, but a man looking to be seen to be praised does.

Trump, for all his reckless stupidity, understands this all too well. He understands that his poll numbers will rise and fall not on his demonstration of ability and compassion but on how he looks and sounds in front of a microphone. The only performance he cares about or cares to hear about is the one that makes his numbers rise.

His focus is shallow and short term, seeking out the kind of pure speculation that sees stocks rise and fall for exceeding or failing to meet expectations. If all the news is good news, he and those surrounding him tell themselves, his stock will only ever rise.

Anyone who’s ever traded stocks knows better. You can bluff a stock higher in the short term. People do it all the time. That’s a kind of bubble. You draw attention, you draw speculation, and you draw suckers in to raise the price of your stock, and then you get the hell out before reality comes crashing in and the value of the stock you no longer own comes crashing through the floor.

Trump’s rise in politics has been a lot like this. He sold those who voted for him on a brand: the billionaire businessman who will bring that to government and fix it. He used confidence in that bubble to draw in speculators, members of Congress and executives on Wall Street. They pumped up his stock even more, hoping to use his rise to push their own agendas and thereby increase their own profits.

The results of Trump’s 2016 election were predictable. The federal tax cuts of 2017 funneled money away from the poorest Americans and towards the wealthiest. They also funneled money away from the government, making deregulation and de facto deregulation even easier.

Laws that forced businesses to be accountable to others were gutted by Republicans in Congress. Those left on the books either couldn’t be enforced because the agencies responsible couldn’t be properly funded or wouldn’t be enforced because the agencies were now headed by men and women with an interest in seeing those laws fail.

That, for anyone looking to get rich and have others pay for it, is a win-win. It came as no shock, then, that Paul Ryan, architect of that tax bill, and other congressional Republicans who benefitted both from it and newly lax regulations left Congress the very next year. Now was the time to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Now was the time to get out before the bubble burst and those who had bought in after them wanted answers.

Which bring us to now. In the last few weeks, at least 10 million Americans have lost their jobs, a number that could potentially triple in just the next month. With that loss, most of them now face hard questions about rent, health coverage, and simply feeding themselves. Oh, and the Dow Jones and other stock markets have dropped 29% from their February high.

Never fear, massive, debt-laden government spending is here to help. But to help whom? The Senate bill was delayed because a $500 billion slush fund needed regulations and oversight to prevent it from simply going to corporations that could just as easily secure a nearly interest free loan or, you know, Trump, his family, and anyone kissing his ass.

The perception that America needs to be protected from its president’s corruption isn’t something that’s going inspire confidence in stock trading. Sure, passage of the bill boosted stocks for a day - well, part of a day - but no sooner than they went up, they came straight back down.

That’s the problem with running a country (or business) on perception; it’s short term solution at best. It relies on how good you looked the last time people saw you. If people take you seriously, maybe you can parlay good news into that ongoing narrative, but, if you’re fighting bad news, bad news you can’t hope to control, well, good luck with that.

It hasn’t helped that the rich and powerful seem to have it a lot easier than the rank and file. Few things reveal the haves and have nots better than a crisis. If celebrities and professional athletes are getting tests when doctors, nurses, and other first responders can’t, that’s more than just a problem of perception. It’s a statement about the failure of the American healthcare system as it currently stands, one that makes an even stronger case for the failure of the American economic system on which that healthcare system is based.

Systemic failure. Not words you want to hear.

What we’ve seen, however, has not been the start of the long anticipated Next Great Depression (That may still come; more on that below). No, what we’re seeing now with the spastic volatility of stock markets, beleaguered supply chains, and GoFundMe pages for first responders and out of work restaurant workers sprouting up like spring daffodils, is just how unhealthy our current economy already was long before this pandemic took place.

When we talk about a “healthy” economy, we talk about moderation. Money is spread around. Power is spread around. When money and power become more concentrated, it throws the health of the economy out of whack.

Too much concentration in any one stratum, such as the wealthy, or any one sector, such as energy, and it ruins what we may think of as an immune response. It isn’t that if that stratum or sector goes down that we have no ability to respond, it’s that our response is likely to favor a strata or sector that doesn’t need help.

It’s important to state that this is not something the comes out of capitalism. Even a cursory look at nominally “communist” economies of the 20th century shows a concentration of money and power in the hands of a corrupt and often cruel elite, with destructive results for everyone else stuck living under those systems.

It is corruption, not capitalism or communism, that was and remains the problem. We can and should be enraged at recently appointed Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, who along with her New York Stock Exchange-managing husband appears to have profited 18 million dollars through insider trading while telling the American public that nothing was wrong.

The essential question we need to ask, though, is would Loeffler have done something like this in the Soviet Union? Would she have seen a crisis coming and lied about it in order to profit from it? Of course, she would have. Of course, she would.

The systemic corruption in present day Russia has a name: oligarchy. The oligarchs, however, started long before the fall of the Soviet Union. They did so with the patronage of men and women in the Soviet government. Their corruption hastened the collapse of that government, syphoning off funds, undermining the rule of law and with it government accountability and oversight, and setting the stage for calamities such as Chernobyl.

In this way, the kleptocracy made itself. It emerged from its Soviet cocoon fully formed, the government patrons selling off government-owned institutions to their friends, who then supported their hold on power. This is how the oligarchs became the oligarchs and how Vladimir Putin became Vladimir Putin.

We must remember, too, that corruption isn’t just a moral or ethical failing, like Loeffler’s, but a systemic one, too. In the case of the United States, too much money and power has become concentrated in an under-regulated, speculative, market economy. We have become wholly dependent on it. Coupled with the unfettered rise of online sports betting (and the corresponding rise in sports cheating), we have embraced gambling as a core element of our economic system, and are doing so mired in debt.

Short term debt is just fine. Use your credit card, pay it off at the end of the month. It’s a short term solution to short term problems. Long term debt, on the other hand, is bad, the longer the term, the worse. Just ask anyone with student loans, or any country owing the IMF, or anyone stuck still holding one of those toxic sub-prime mortgages after all this time. They’re in a never ending cycle of paying it off. They can’t move forward. They can’t build anything. They can’t live, not really.

Of course, we don’t have to ask. Not now. We all lived through that. The memory is still fresh. It’s burned into our memories. We couldn’t possibly be that stupid, stupid enough to do it all again. Right? Right?

And yet. And yet.

Even now, even in the midst of all this suffering, there are men and women continuing to make billions on nothing but debt, including government debt, leaving billions of suckers holding the bag when another catastrophe hits and the bubbles burst.

Just reading that, it sounds bad - it should, it really, really should - and yet we have convinced ourselves that because so many other people are doing it we must also do it or get left behind. That’s what systemic corruption does. That’s the feeling it embeds in each of us. And, because we tell ourselves that we’re gambling with other people’s money, we convince ourselves that it’s going to be somebody else’s problem.

Nope. That’s not how that works.

As mentioned above, the economic crisis we’re living through isn’t the collapse that was already coming. That one, which could actually be worse, could still come if safeguards aren’t put in place. It would more likely be triggered not by a natural disaster but by a change of parties in the White House and, more importantly, in the Senate.

Not what you wanted to read? Read on. Please.

That change, given the Republican advantage in the Electoral College and the strength of incumbency in Republican-held Senate seats, would likely have come just before the election of 2024, in anticipation of Republican losses, or sometime towards the end of the 2025 fiscal year, when Democratic rollbacks of Republican deregulation and tax policies took full effect.

At that time, those who have pushed deregulation and de facto deregulation would begin “profit taking”, which is to say, selling off as much as they can, first under the radar while telling suckers that all is well and then as fast as they could once word got out that the market was about to collapse. And then it would collapse, a race to the bottom leaving tens of millions out of work, facing homelessness and starvation, and nothing to fix it but massive, debt-laden government spending.

Sound familiar? Of course, it does.

This is what happens when the immune response within an economy breaks down. For decades, Republicans have vilified regulations as killing jobs and stifling freedoms. The Democratic leadership, to their shame, has never truly called them out for that lie. Bill Clinton never did. Barack Obama didn’t, either. Neither did Hillary Clinton or this round’s likely nominee, Joe Biden. And it is a lie, a big, fat one that actually threatens the very things it claims to want to protect.

What regulations actually do, and why they’re so easy to vilify, is require us to be accountable to others. Traffic lights and stop signs, those are regulations. They don’t belong at every intersection, but where there are accidents in which cars hit people or other cars we absolutely need them and we know it.

Yes, it is possible for regulations to be poorly thought out and poorly written. They are written, as all things are, by people. Whenever you hear a politician or cable news personality say we have to get rid of them, though, what they mean is people shouldn’t have to be accountable to other people.

That’s their pitch. Well, that’s every right wing’s pitch. People love to hear it, almost as much as people love to hear that people they don’t have to accountable to will still have to be accountable to them. Oh, how we all love to hear that. Let us be the ones, the only ones, who get to blow past the stop signs. Who wouldn’t love that?

We’ll never not run to the ballot box and elect the buffoon offering us that and an easy life with easy solutions to complicated problems. At least, we’ll never not until that moment the world around us forces us to learn why we were so very, very stupid to do so.

This, like all things, comes in cycles. We go through periods, like the one the one twelve years ago and the one we’re in right now, in which we are forced to realize that we need to be more accountable to each other. No running red lights, no taking the easy way out.

Action is taken. Regulations that could and should have protected us are restored. More regulations, ones we hadn’t thought to ask if we needed but now understand that we do, follow. Time passes, we haven’t faced a catastrophe like this in a while, we forget, we remove our protections, and the cycle starts again.

The cycle kicks off like fireworks. Everything is great. We are euphoric, we are in the moment, the bubble keeps growing and keeps rising, and we keep rising with it. Nothing can go wrong.

At some point, however, the laws of thermodynamics set in, especially the third one: entropy.

Nothing lasts forever, certainly not any economic system built on an imbalance of power. In order to protect the advantage they have, those benefitting from the status quo will spend available resources, first just a little and then more and more and exponentially more.

Why exponentially more? The more resources they spend, the more it destabilizes their position. That’s entropy. This is partly because the stability of their position depended on that reserve of resources and partly because in order to maintain an imbalance of power they must abuse not only those in protest but those potentially in protest, which only draws more protesters to the cause of removing them.

So, the more they spend, the more they keep having to spend, and that just to maintain what they thought they had. Eventually, the resources required to hold it all together are exhausted and the bubble collapses.

This doesn’t just apply to markets; it applies to every relationship based on an imbalance of power. It’s their life cycle.

It’s also a lesson we can’t seem to learn without failing. Failing is a big part of how we learn. It’s our species’ special talent. In a lot of ways, it mimics our immune system: we allow potential threats in so we can test changing environments and learn how to adapt to them. We’re seeking out failure, or at least he chance of it.

This is how we’ve learned for hundreds of thousands of years, perhaps even longer, and despite our countless mistakes and our countless failures, we only in the position we’re in as the planet’s most evolved species because of it. In that sense, it isn’t just mimicking our immune system, it’s a vital part of it.

This is what we need to remember: immune systems of any kind exist to help us to adapt to changing environments.

If we can adapt, we can survive. We can’t go all one way or all another. We must avoid extremes as much as we must avoid locking ourselves into the center.

Balance is not stasis. It requires movement, making adjustments large and small. It means having the ability to accept being wrong and to accept necessary change. Without that, we fail. Our systems fail. And we’ve failed enough to know better.

”Nobody could have predicted something like this”?

Anyone could have. Plenty did.

- Daniel Ward

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keywestlou · 5 years

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GAY SEX AND ADULTERY.....STONED TO DEATH

Some 15 years ago, I wrote my first column for KONK Life. Sharia Law.

Though centuries old, only then had Sharia begun to receive notice in the U.S. Most U.S. citizens were of no concern. It was the religion of the Muslims. Islamic law. Based on precepts of Islam found in the Quran and Hadith. Did not affect us.

I thought differently.

Sharia Law had come up a few times in State cases. In certain instances, the judges applied Sharia Law rather than the law of the U.S. or the State in which the case was being tried.

Sharia Law was tough. Totally inconsistent with our laws. There was another consideration. My belief at the time and even today, if you wanted to live in the U.S., you live by U.S. law. If not, go home from whence you came.

Many at the time thought I was unreasonable. They were blind to the future.

Today, many Muslims reside in the U.S. Most, good citizens. Some still live their lives under Sharia Law. In the dark, a Sharia Law system exists for those who prefer such to U.S. laws.

All this a prelude to what has been happening in Brunei. Brunei is a small Muslim nation in East Asia.

In 2014, the Sharia law was codified and introduced as law at the national level. Many provisions alarming. Scary. Like those who engaged in gay sex and/or adultery were to be stoned to death.

Wow!

They stoned for various reasons back in the days of Christ and before. Recall the story of Jesus who came upon a woman about to be stoned. Christ said, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”

A protest cry arose immediately in 2014 in Christian countries and the U.N. Total opposition. Not in this day and age was the cry.

Pressure has been building for 5 years. Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah recently announced that the law would not be enforced.

Better than nothing. Still leaves me uncomfortable. Throw it off the books so discretion cannot be claimed as a reason to use it some time in the future.

That is where the stoning punishment remains at the moment. In abeyance, in Purgatory. Not Hell.

To fully appreciate the harshness of Sharia Law, consider what happens to a thief. First offense, his right hand is amputated. Second offense, his left foot.

Brunei’s law applies to children and foreigners. Even if not Muslims.

My admonition: Don’t engage in illicit sex if visiting Brunei. The possible penalty for a few minutes pleasure not worth it.

Two other situations involving those of the Muslim faith in the news.

Today is the beginning of Ramadan. A holy Muslim time. One month long. All Muslims must abstain from food and drink from dawn to dusk. The purpose to bring worshipers closer to God.

There is another area of denial. Sex. No sex at all for one month.

Now to China.

Only 2 years ago was it discovered that China has internment camps for Muslims. Can be described as concentration camps.

It is estimated 1-2 million Muslims are so confined and subject to all kinds of abuses.

The world little complains. The media relatively silent. Sounds like what was happening in Germany in the late 1930’s and to the mid 1940’s.

The 3 Muslim stories provided for informational purposes. The world should know. More should be aware.

Yesterday began with Hot Dog Church around 5. Not many were in attendance. About 8 ladies. Included were Donna and Terri. Laurie bartending. Enjoyed a couple of drinks and then went to dinner with my lesbian wives at La Trattoria.

Tiffany bartending. Dink stopped by to say hello. A very nice guy!

Michael showed up. I have not seen him in years. He was already a Key West native when I started coming 30 years ago. I knew him from Atlantic Shores. Now gone. Today a part of the Southernmost Complex.

Atlantic Shores was a motel and beach bar. The deck holding the beach bar easily held 100 people. Most bare assed. Totally nude.

I am a voyeur by nature. Visited almost daily. However, kept my bathing suit or shorts on. A coward!

Michael was there daily in his sunday suit. Always a deep brown tan. Hair always long. An athlete’s body.

Donna knew him at Atlantic Shores back then. Though I did not know Donna at the time. She cavorted with nothing on.

When they speak of old Key West, Atlantic Shores was a part of the flavor.

While dinning at the bar, I saw what might be my future. The bar was full. An elderly couple came in around 7:30. Asked Tiffany how long for seats. She said at least an hour. There were already others waiting.

The man told Tiffany they couldn’t wait. They would take a table. “We have to be back to the nursing home by 9:30.”

Whether you like Karl Marx, agree or disagree with his political views, it cannot be denied he has been an influential figure in world history.

Marx was born May 5, 1818. He wrote the Communist Manifesto, the basis of Marxism. He was the first true Communist.

The last 2 sentences of the Communist Manifesto drove Communism for close to 2 centuries: “Workers of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains.”

Great Britain rejoices this morning! Most of the world also! Meghan Markle, an American married to Prince Harry, gave birth to a baby boy. He will be seventh in line to the throne.

Meghan delivered at home. By prearrangement. Her desire.

Tonight will find me at Dueling Bartenders. One of Key West’s best events.

Enjoy your day!

GAY SEX AND ADULTERY…..STONED TO DEATH was originally published on Key West Lou

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sheilacwall · 5 years

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Kanye West & Numerology as Jesus the King Hits #1

Has the album been well received? I’d say a resounding yes. Here are the numbers.

Jesus is King Record Sales

Jesus the King just debuted at #1 in the US, Canadian, Australian, NZ & Norwegian charts whilst entering at #2 in the UK & Irish charts.

Jesus Is King opened at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 264,000 album-equivalent units, of which 109,000 were pure album sales.

The chart-topping position stood as the sixth time that West did so with an album in the 2010s, tying him for second place with fellow rapper Future and Canadian singer Justin Bieber for most number one albums of the decade. The album simultaneously entered atop the US Top Christian Albums and Top Gospel Albums charts.

All 11 of Kanye West’s songs debuted on the latest Hot 100:

Rank, Title

No. 7, “Follow God” No. 17, “Closed on Sunday” No. 19, “Selah” No. 23, “On God” No. 33, “Everything We Need” feat. Ty Dolla $ign & Ant Clemons No. 36, “God Is” No. 37, “Use This Gospel” feat. Clipse & Kenny G No. 44, “Every Hour,” feat. Sunday Service Choir No. 50, “Water,” feat. Ant Clemons No. 59, “Hands On,” feat. Fred Hammond No. 62, “Jesus Is Lord”

West is among the most critically acclaimed musicians of the 21st century and one of the best-selling music artists of all time with over 140 million records sold worldwide.

He has won a total of 21 Grammy Awards, making him one of the most awarded artists of all time and the most Grammy-awarded artist of his generation.

Kanye’s Evolution

Kanye is a year older than me and like me, he had to move to another country as a child due to his parents’ job. For him it was China at age 10 years old as his mother found a teaching job abroad, for me it was the USA at age 9.

It seems like he had a similar problem I had at school with the same outcome.

“China was a time where me and my mom spent the most time together, we spent a year together, and she used to homeschool me. I was in school and I wasn’t doing so good, but it was actually because I was bored and after she homeschooled me I did so good on the tests they put me two grades above in a lot of different courses.”

I read that before Donda West passed away, his mother had recounted tales of a young Kanye break dancing on the streets for yangrouchuan (lamb skewers) for small change.

Mrs. West said that although she found the language difficult, her son found it amusing that the word ma meant both “mother” and “horse” depending on how it was pronounced. “He played that to the hilt,” she recalled in her book.

I remember using the word “rubber” in America, when I’d made a mistake writing something down and the kids laughing. Rubber means “condom” in America and the word you need is “eraser”. I think I played that to the hilt after that as well.

You probably know that Tupac’s parents were Black Panthers. You might be surprised to know that Ray West, Kanye’s dad, was also an ex-Black Panther and is now a Christian counsellor.

So, it is not that surprising that Kanye is following in his father’s footsteps away from his rebellious side to a more Christian role now that he is a father of four. In his interview with Zane Lowe, he says he’s drawing inspiration for a more secular role due to his daughter’s love of the Church.

The Number 27

Jesus is King clocks in at 27 min and 4 secs. Why?

What is the meaning behind number 27?

27 is an interesting number and it is the perfect cube of 3 x 3 x 3. Dark matter is assumed to make up 27% of the universe and also makes up 90% of the brain (grey matter).

27 just happens to be the number of books in the New Testament & there are also 27 Nakṣatra or lunar mansions in Hindu astrology.

Number 27 is the atomic number of cobalt & the atomic weight of the only stable isotope of aluminum. Both forms of these metals are used in dentistry. Kanye had his mouth wired shut after a car accident in 2003 after which he recorded, “Through the Wire”.

27 is also the number of bones in the hand – See “Hands On” below.

From Affinity Numerology:

The numerology number 27 is about philanthropy and compassion in a cooperative atmosphere.

The number 27 is a wonderful number. The energies it represents makes the number kind-hearted, tolerant, intelligent, a team worker, and so very much wanting to see humanity better off than it is.

27 endeavors to inspire others to support humanitarian groups and organizations, using its diplomatic skills and enticing them with a vision of an ideal. The groups and organizations are carefully chosen for their effectiveness.

A sense of fulfillment for 27 comes with others adopting its sense of idealism and actively helping to achieve that end.

The 27 essence contains:

the 9’s essence, such as being non-judgemental, humanitarian, and tolerant, plus a generous dose of the 2’s essence, such as cooperation, relationships, and diplomacy, and a dose of the 7’s essence, such as introspection, study, and spirituality.

The result is a unique essence.

https://affinitynumerology.com/number-meanings/number-27-meaning.php

According to the Secret of the Tarot…

Angel number 27 is a sign from your angels concerning your soul mission or calling in life. Our guardian angels are always there to provide us with the support and inspiration necessary to live up to our highest potential.

Angel number 27 is all about living a purpose-driven life. When you see this potent angel number appearing in your daily life, know that your angels and the Ascended Masters are telling you to have faith and trust that you are on the right path.

https://thesecretofthetarot.com/angel-number-27/

On Finding God

First scare: car crash

Kanye was taken to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, mentioned in the song, Through the Wire, as “the same hospital where Biggie Smalls died,” and had his jaw wired to his face in reconstructive surgery. Two weeks after being admitted to hospital, he recorded the song at the Record Plant Studios with his jaw still wired shut. Consequence recalls West started rapping the lyrics to the song three days after the accident.

The song’s title refers to the wires used to hold his broken jaw together. When asked about how the incident changed his music, West stated:

Well, the only thing this accident’s saying is, “I am about to hand you the world, just know at any given time I can take it away from you.” To nearly lose your life, to nearly lose your mouth, your voice, your whole face, as a rapper…and I had to be on TV! My face looks crazy to me now… But I have to just thank God for the situation that I am in… “Through The Wire” is the worst thing that could’ve possibly happen to me, and now it’s obviously the best thing. Look how it exploded!

Second scare: Trump Backlash

Backlashes over his erratic behaviour, the anniversary of his mum’s death, his wife getting robbed, his comments on slavery & his support of Trump all proved to be too much emotionally and put him in a hospital. No-one knows quite for sure what happened in the hospital, but he has emerged as a born-again Christian.

youtube

There are many, many problems with taking the bible literally and Kanye proves another one in the video above when he talks about taking his own eye out.

I googled it & it looks like this is from Matthew 5:29 and concerns “adultery”:

New International Version “If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

Selah

Selah is likely to mean “to praise” or “pause and reflect upon what has just been said.” Lauryn Hill used this name for her daughter.

“Selah” is the name of a city from the time of David and Solomon.

In Islam and in Arabic generally, Salah (also pronounced Ṣalāt) means prayer, and Selah means connection. Both words come from the same original root Sel which means connect.

‘Ye makes a number of references to the bible when talking about freedom from slavery in Selah.

“Closed on Sunday” makes a good point about Capitalism, but, why is he still brand name dropping a junk food store, Chic Fil-A, a fast food chicken chain?

Did he get paid to sneak this in or is he looking for sponsors?

It’s also a sneaky back reference to a line in “N***as in Paris” when he was in a different mindset. Maybe he is trying to tie a past hit record to this song. A powerful mind trick.

“She said ‘Ye can we get married at the mall? I said look you need to crawl ‘fore you ball Come and meet me in the bathroom stall And show me why you deserve to have it all (Ball so hard) that shit cray, (that shit cray) ain’t it Jay? (Ball so hard) what she order? (What she order?) Fish fillet”

“On God” is where he gets the realest, actually raps and he gives his reasons why he supports Trump… and it comes down to… taxes & prison reform (lines highlighted in bold below).

“”How you get so much favor on your side?” “Accept Him as your Lord and Saviour,” I replied Thou shalt love thy neighbor, not divide I’ma ride, that’s on God His light shine the brightest in the dark Single mothers know they got my heart And all my brothers locked up on the yard You can still be anything you wanna be Went from one in four to one in three Thirteenth amendment, gotta end it, that’s on me He the new commander and the chief That’s on Keef, that’s on God Before the ranch, I had horses in the garage When the Forbes cover was just a mirage They had me chasin’ statues, that’s on pride “Oh my God,” Bust said that’s on Tribe When I thought the Book of Job was a job The Devil had my soul, I can’t lie Life gon’ have some lows and some highs Before the Grammy’s ever gave a nod I wore my heart on my sleeve, I couldn’t hide In ’03, they told me not to drive I bleached my hair for every time I could’ve died But I survived, that’s on God I’ve been tellin’ y’all since ’05 The greatest artist restin’ or alive That’s on L.A. Reid, that’s on Clive That’s no Jive, that’s on God Off the 350s He supplied The IRS want they fifty plus our tithe Man, that’s over half of the pie I felt dry, that’s on God That’s why I charge the prices that I charge I can’t be out here dancin’ with the stars No, I cannot let my family starve I go hard, that’s on God”

“Hands On” is another interesting record.

This is what a police office often yells whilst pulling people over for DWB – “Hands on the hood”!

‘Ye points out the unfairness of black people being thrown into prison over misdemeanors and the three strike rule. Then he calls out the 13th amendment again.

“Got pulled over, see the brights What you doin’ on the street at night? Wonder if they’re gonna read your rights Thirteenth Amendment, three strikes Made a left when I should’ve made a right Told God last time on life Told the devil that I’m going on a strike Told the devil when I see him, on sight I’ve been working for you my whole life Told the devil that I’m going on a strike I’ve been working for you my whole life Nothing worse than a hypocrite Change, he ain’t really different He ain’t even try to get permission Ask for advice and they dissed him Said I’m finna do a gospel album What have you been hearin’ from the Christians? They’ll be the first one to judge me Make it feel like nobody love me They’ll be the first one to judge me Feelin’ like nobody love me Told people God was my mission What have you been hearin’ from the Christians? They’ll be the first one to judge me Make it feel like nobody love me Make you feel alone in the dark and you’ll never see the light Man, you’re never seein’ home and you never see the domes I can feel it when I write, point of livin’ in the right If they only see the wrongs, never listen to the songs Just to listen is a fight, but you booked me for the fight It’s so hard to get along if they only see the slight From the love of religion What have you been hearin’ from the Christians? They’ll be the first one to judge me Make it seem like nobody love me I’m not tryna lead you to Visas But if I try to lead you to Jesus We get called halfway believers Only halfway read Ephesians Only if they knew what I knew, uh I was never new ’til I knew of True and living God, Yeshua The true and living God (Somebody pray for me)”

The 13th Amendment

Passed by Congress on January 31, 1865, and ratified on December 6, 1865, the 13th amendment abolished slavery in the United States and provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

Some prisoners in eight states—Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas—are not paid at all for their labor in government-run facilities.

The national average for inmates receiving the least compensation for their maintenance work in these prisons is 14 cents per hour, according to the non-profit Prison Policy Initiative. The countrywide average for those receiving the most for the same type of labor is 63 cents per hour. Inmates in Minnesota and New Jersey can receive the highest hourly rate for prison maintenance jobs: $2 per hour.

Note: Kanye wants prison labourers to make his shoes. It will be interesting to see what he will pay them.

Anyway, back to the music. Kanye employs Jewish saxophonist Kenny G on “Use This Gospel”, but fortunately for Kenny, there is no mention of Jesus on the track. I wonder how much flack Kenny G will get from the Jewish fundamentalists for appearing on the track?

It’s seems to me like Kanye wants to sit back and be a director, producer and preacher now whilst letting someone else take over with the rapping and singing.

I think being a rapper was getting in the way of his “mission”. Creating a church will increase his power and wealth to get done what he wants to get done… whatever that is.

I can imagine youtube being flooded over the coming years with covers such as this. He wants his music received by a much larger audience and after watching the Dame Dash interview with Adam22, it looks like this might have all been orchestrated for a long time.

youtube

Let’s see if he continues down this path and where it leads or whether he’s still “on strike with the Devil” and will be back to his old self. It seems to me at the moment, his biggest hurdle will be getting his wife on board with this new lifestyle.

I can think of a few places Kanye will be welcome with open arms right now though, such as The Philippines.

I feel like this album is a stocking filler for later albums. He’s just testing the water to see which ones connect with the public. I’m not sure the songs on this album are strong enough to stand the test of time, but I think this is just a warm up, plus it will get major airplay in the “Bible Belt”, especially “Use This Gospel”.

The post Kanye West & Numerology as Jesus the King Hits #1 appeared first on Hip Hop World Music.

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