#also i made this poll for a week. ill probably stop it after two days or so.

[justkeepwalkingnothinghere]

(I recently reblogged my most recent poll and dropped a bunch of Castor lore in said reblog. Decided to make it it’s own post instead of being buried under a bunch of other stuff. The poll in question was asking when Castor should confess his crush to Raeda, either at Hexside when they were kids or after Eda’s Requiem roughly 30 years later)

Figured I should do a little bit of lore dumping for this instead of leaving you all in the dark. This isn’t to manipulate the votes in any way and is merely to give you all some insight on where the story will go depending on the results. Also my brain was nagging me to tell you some parts of the story, so. A few details may be subject to change.

WARNING: VERY LONG!! IT IS VERY DETAILED!! (I meant to summarize it but I ended up dumping almost the entire plot. This has been in my drafts for the last 72+ hours. Here you go!)

At Hexside: This route is fairly simple and self explanatory. After Castor’s crush on them is pointed out to him by Darius (who doesn’t want a repeat of all the pining he had to endure with Raeda), he spends some time coming to terms with it, worried that his feelings will disrupt the close best friend circle that had formed between him, Raine, and the Clawthornes. During this time, he and Lilith snuck away to Eda’s hideout in the detention room a few times as his feelings developed. Unfortunately, one day during lunch Castor forgot about a prank he was doing with Eda and Raine during that time and they overheard his and Lily’s conversation, making for a very awkward and ill-timed confession that he wasn’t quite ready for.

After a couple weeks of the three silently evaluating how they all felt about each other, they slowly starting dating. And a month and a half in, it was safe to say the trio were head over heels for each other. But things changed a lot once Eda’s curse came into the picture. Castor, Raine, Lilith, even Darius, were all there for her through the first couple of months before she eventually dropped out. Things at Hexside weren’t the same afterward. Well, at least until Eda started sneaking in and spending most of her time in her hideout. Raine, Castor, or both would bring her lunch everyday she was there and sometimes stay for a bit to hang out and talk. But Eda hiding out stopped after a while. Faust had no idea, but even decades later, it’s still up for debate whether or not Bump knew about it. He probably did. (I’m not gonna mention Lilith much after this point since I’m not entirely sure what happens after coven tryouts)

Everyone spent four more years at Hexside before graduating, in which they tried to stay in contact. Castraeda (official ship name) stayed together for years, with Raine teaching Castor the mandolin and Eda teaching him how to play Raine’s Rhapsody. Unfortunately, the curse got worse during this time and Eda quickly began to push the two away. The Raeda breakup occurred while Castor was away, with him soon hearing about it from Lilith. It was a shock to him, but he too was starting to take notice of Eda’s recent behavior. Castor and Raine tried to make it work (with Raine quickly regretting their breakup with Eda) but, as much as it hurt them, ultimately decided to break it off as well and wish each other luck in their endeavors as Raine joined the Bard Coven.

Castor went to comfort Eda soon after, not intending to separate. He stayed at the Clawthorne house with her and Gwen for a few days (Gwen adores him) before they reached a mental understanding that it was time for them to split as well, both unsure about their futures. They made sure to stay friends no matter what happened, but despite everyone’s best efforts to do so, all three of them went their separate ways and mostly went silent for the time being. Raine spent years rising through the ranks of the Bard Coven, Eda went on to become the Owl Lady, and Castor spent a few years undercover as a scout at the EC to gather as much info on Belos as he could as he started to get suspicious of the emperor’s practices. He later switched to a quiet life as a merchant at the market, always taking note of Eda’s many wanted posters, and occasionally talking to Lily when she had the chance.

Later on, a few years after Eda found King, Castor unofficially moved into the Owl House when his home was attacked by Emperor’s Coven scouts who found out he was a wild witch. He figured who else to go to than the most famous wild witch in the isles? King was a bit weird around him and the new change, but warmed up to him as time went on. They never really talked about getting back together, thinking it too soon after reuniting to do so and neither of them brought it up. They were going to stay strictly friends until they felt the time was right, which was never. Surprisingly, this never got difficult when Luz decided to stick around, but as soon as Raine was announced as the new head Bard, Castor knew things were about to get awkward.

And he was sort of right. Later that same day, he and Eda joined the BATs and began helping the group free wild witches. That day, he had never been more relieved to see Raine and Eda together. His feelings for both of them returned with full force and he started pining for those wonderful days again, where it was just the three of them. Not to mention he kicked himself for days for not getting back together with Eda sooner, having already thought about it ever since her near petrification gave him a wake up call. Raine’s presence was all it took for the trio to fall back into a familiar rhythm of sorts. A couple hours into the night, one teary eyed confession from Castor and one wonderful embrace later, they were the happiest they’d been in a long while.

But it would all have to be put on hold, as Eda and Castor’s hearts were shattered when Raine got captured. They were both distraught and had a little bit of trouble sleeping that night, despite the immense joy about King becoming a Clawthorne. And the Coven Day Parade didn’t help things. Castor was ecstatic when Eda managed to find them, only to be met with a version of Raine completely unrecognizable to him, one clearly being controlled by Terra Snapdragon. He watched and heard Eda and Raine’s fight from the nearby rooftops, his heart breaking more with every word out of Raine’s mouth. He and Eda couldn’t believe what had happened for a while after.

Now, due to Castor’s spur of the moment confession of still having feelings for them both, Eda and Castor slowly started to get a bit more affectionate. They were slowly but surely falling back into old ways. This lasted for weeks and became stronger in the days leading up to the DOU, when they needed comfort most. They were both more than a little pissed with Raine when they found out about the pretend brainwashing shortly after being rescued. But they were relived Raine was okay more than anything. Eventually, all was forgiven, especially after Raine met Luz for the first time. Which Castor thought was adorable.

It was that night when everyone else was asleep at the CATTs base that they were able to talk about their feelings a lot more than they were able to in Eda’s Requiem. Deep down, they all wanted to give things another go once all the chaos was over. And that was exactly what they were gonna do, never having stopped loving each other, which was obvious to everyone but them. Admittedly, Castor couldn’t hold in much of his enthusiasm and excitement over the next 24 hours. But as you could guess, things did not go well, starting with Castor being asked to accompany the Hexsquad in rescuing Amity, with him being the only adult in the group not directly involved with stopping the Draining Spell. Not a problem at first, but a heartbreaking fact later on.

From rescuing Luz, to feeling broken seeing the plan fail with Eda and Raine caught right in the middle, to fighting off Belos and ending up in the Human Realm, everything was a blur until he was truly able to process it all and catch his bearings that same night. He and Camila stayed up late, Castor sharing stories with her over coffee and ensuring her that he’d be there for any difficulties that they’d run into in the time everyone would be there. They formed a close friendship in the months staying with her, never moving past that point but putting quite a bit of trust in each other. It felt nice having someone to lean on when the anxiety of the situation became too much.

Castor kept thinking about the BI. Especially Raeda, fearing that the were gone without ever being able to say a proper goodbye or spend their last minutes with them. But he kept his hopes up that he’d see them again. He never let up in attempting to get the portal working. Despite the little bit of trauma from seeing Hunter get possessed, Castor helped Camila get an understanding of her surroundings, regaling her with even more tales of the wonder that was the Demon Realm. (Everything after this point is pure speculation since they haven’t reunited with Eda and King yet)

Words could not describe how happy he was to see Eda, safe and sound. He couldn’t help but cry as they embraced, having missed her and Raine beyond belief. They even shared a quick dance, completely caught in the moment. Just Eda and her sweet Spellcastor. Let’s let them have this moment for a bit longer. Because Titan knows how it’s gonna be once they find out their precious Rainestorm/Songbird is possessed by Belos.

(I did not mean to go this deep into detail, but my brain would not stop. Oh well)

After Eda’s Requiem: Almost everything above, except Castor held onto his feelings for roughly 30 or so years before finally letting it out before the DOU because he figured if things go south, he’d much rather go out knowing that Eda and Raine knew about it after all this time. He still hears about the Raeda breakup through a crow call from Lilith and ends up in the Human Realm with the kids, the reunion with Eda being a bit awkward, with neither knowing how to go about their feelings during the end of the world. He’s still going to be upset at finding out about Belos/Puppet!Raine.

Like I said, details are subject to change. Enjoy the lore everyone! Hexside TL;DR below.

Hexside TL;DR: The three get together at Hexside, break up years later in young adulthood, spend 15-20 years going about their lives, Castor moves in with Eda a few years after King comes into her life, the three reunite in Eda’s Requiem with Castor admitting he still has feelings, E and C’s hearts break with Raine being “brainwashed”, all three really discuss their feelings 24 hours before the DOU, Castor ends up in the HR with the kids, cries when he reunites with Eda months later (At this point they still don’t know about Belos!Raine).

Now let’s see how everything plays out.

Original poll.

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2019 Long Shows

Dear Lord. This is where all the good shows went.

2019 was absolutely awful on a season-by-season basis (except for Summer, anyway), but that’s mostly because most of the best shows ran longer than what has become the industry norm of a single season. And indeed, heading into the new decade, we seem to be seeing a major renaissance for two- or split-cour shows, given the massive success seen by shows like My Hero Academia, Food Wars, and Haikyuu!!..particularly in comparison to the new perpetual-runners Black Clover (which, despite running for over two straight years now, is still not the most popular show of Fall 2017 by viewer count on MAL, and sits at a ‘meh’ 7.2), and even worse, Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, which is faring even worse on both counts even though it premiered two whole seasons earlier and the fact that it is the sequel to Naruto.

As a reminder of my rules, the shows on this list may or may not have premiered in 2019, but they finished airing this year. The split-cour rule (stating that I judge any show that “finishes” and then premieres a “new season” within six months) didn’t come into play for any 2018 shows, but it will for Ascendance of a Bookworm and Food Wars this year, at the very least.

With that being said! 25 shows running longer than thirteen episodes finished airing this year after being simulcast, and of those…

I skipped 6:

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part V: Golden Wind, Fairy Tail Final Series, A Certain Magical Index III, Ace Attorney Season 2 and Cardfight Vanguard (2018) because I either dropped or have not finished their previous (also long-running) seasons.

Yu-Gi-Oh VRAINS because the simulcast started late and also it was bad.

I Dropped 8:

Worst Long Show of 2019: The Rising of the Shield Hero

It’s always fun to see that a show you hated from its first episode only gets more and more distasteful afterwards, but it’s less fun when a service you have to promote because they’re the legal option is forced to shove it down your throat because they had a hand in making it and it became a massive hit that your friends don’t see any issue with because the author wrote a story that justifies its hero’s patronage of the slave industry. This is my punishment for watching the whole first season of The Asterisk War before I knew better.

YU-NO: A girl who chants love at the bound of this world

A confusing mess from the word go, this ill-fated adaptation of a visual novel from the nineties seems like it was mostly made to cash in on the popularity of the Science Adventure series, but failed to present itself in a way that made an ounce of sense or looked remotely interesting.

Fairy Gone

Am I really the only one that saw potential here? I mean yes, it ended up a boring slog that didn’t care to move its plot in a meaningful direction, but the first episode was at least cool. I guess Izetta: The Last Witch should have taught me better.

We Never Learn

I know that I’m in the minority in terms of the male demographic for shows like this, but honestly, how are bland harem shows still this easy to market? A copy-pasted protagonist with copy-pasted waifus drag down what could be an interesting setup for a story. 

Karakuri Circus

The first episode of this one had me excited, the second and third left me bored to tears and wondering if it would continue to look uglier by the minute. I haven’t seen a three-cour show look this janky since Knight in the Area.

Radiant

Having heard good things about this show from my cohorts, I do feel bad for saying I’ll probably never return to Radiant, but when you have a show that’s notably written by a European author...and it turns out to be a frustratingly standard shounen affair with middling production values, well, you can see my earlier annoyance with Cannon Busters.

Ensemble Stars

This one still gets to me. It almost looked like a male-idol show I would finally be able to get behind, what with its rebellious attitude and oddball setting...that is, until the setting got to be too unbelievable and the show began drowning its audience in side-characters because they had to squeeze every husbando from the mobile game into the story, and it all began to resemble UtaPri a little too much...but without the production value.

Boogiepop and Others

This was a hard drop, honestly. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how I felt four episodes in, before concluding that I was bored and not particularly invested, two things that should never describe the experience of watching a Madhouse show. The fact that this was the project responsible for ruining One Punch Man only made it worse. There’s a slow burn, and then there’s walking away without turning the stove on.

And I Finished 11 (holy crap that’s like three hundred episodes just on their own).

That Time I Was Reincarnated as a Slime (5/10 & 1/10)

I’ll be honest, I had forgotten just how livid I was with the ending (and especially the sad excuse of a recap episode) of Slimesekai, and reading back through my write-up of it, it’s certainly coming back to me. While this year had bigger demons to fight (Shield Hero), the bad taste that Slime left me with hasn’t really faded, and the wasted premise bugs me to this day.

Hinomaru Sumo (7/10)

What Hinomaru lacked in production value, it happily made up for in good execution and earnest heart. I can’t believe this came from the same studio as Conception, Try Knights and 7Seeds, but if they can only get out one good show a year, I’m glad that we got one bringing attention to a sport that many will joke about but few understand, respect and appreciate.

Kono Oto Tomare (7/10)

Speaking of giving love to traditional Japanese culture, here’s a decent-if-unoriginal show about a local high school koto club down on their luck, and the troubled teens coming together under a scrappy protagonist to bring it back to life. Kono Oto Tomare doesn’t have much that you haven’t seen before, but a decently-executed club drama with Your Lie In April-inspired musical performances is more than enough to keep me interested, and since Forest of Piano kinda crashed and burned under the weight of its own self-importance this year, it was nice to have an alternative.

MIX: Meisei Story (8/10)

It’s hard to judge MIX next to the other shows on this list because it’s almost too old-school for its own good, revelling in an eighties storytelling style that didn’t end up jiving with a wide audience this year. But at the same time, its fun character dynamics (and a very good dub from Funimation, despite them saying they’d never touch sports anime again) were very entertaining to watch, even if it didn’t focus as much on the sport it was supposedly about as much as I’d have liked.

Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba (8/10)

I fully admit that I’m very salty about the fact that this won Show of the Decade in Funimation’s poll while it was still on and I thought there were hundreds of more deserving shows, but I can’t deny that Demon Slayer was a very enjoyable experience, albeit one that I had notable problems with. That’s not gonna stop me from getting mad when it sweeps the Anime Awards in a few weeks, though.

Fire Force (8/10)

I was very afraid that David Productions wouldn’t be able to match the energy of Studio Bones’ adaptation of Ohkubo’s previous work, Soul Eater, but I was happy to be proven wrong. Even if the last few episodes contained a bit too much infodumping, it was all sandwiched between jaw-dropping fight scenes that proved that the people who make Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure can still handle the reins of a more traditional action show.

Fruits Basket 1st Season (8/10)

I know that my score for this one is a bit lower than others, but I think that Fruits Basket did pretty well in its first season, considering that it was largely spent setting up future storylines and adapting the part of the manga we’d all seen before, but with much higher production value. I’ve been familiar with this part of the story for over a decade, and the scene with Tohru and Kyo (you know the one) still made me cry. Now, we get the real plot going.

Dr Stone (9/10)

A great start to a totally new spin on shounen, Dr Stone gives me hope for survival in the post-Shokugeki world in which we’ll soon live, as a show that wears its research on its sleeve. A complex plot weaving interesting characters in and out of a narrative surrounding a philosophical battle where both sides actually do have fair points (even if one of them is going about it in a pretty cruel manner). More please.

Vinland Saga (9/10)

Once again, a great start to what will hopefully be years of quality storytelling, Vinland Saga made it seem like it was dragging in the middle only to reveal just what its slow burn had been leading up to, with twist-heavy storytelling and a fantastic cast to match the high visual quality of its brutal battles.

Run With the Wind (9/10)

It’s not often that Production I.G. gets to make a complete, fully-realized show anymore, and this one was a glorious reminder of the potential of the studio in the TV space, and a great rebound for the director of Joker Game. It’s gorgeous to look at, the cast is wonderful, and the story is both realistic and idealistic in a satisfying balance. It’s a miserable process to get to the finish line in real life, but sitting back and watching this was nothing but a treat. At least, until a minor fumble at the end.

Best Long Show of 2019: Dororo (9/10)

Speaking of complete stories, Tezuka Productions and MAPPA teamed up for a breathtaking adaptation of an underappreciated Tezuka classic that expands upon the story in exactly the right way to create a thrilling, savage, beautiful masterpiece that focuses a laser-sharp eye into the relationship between two characters in their journey to, literally and figuratively, become complete people. Also, that opening was killer.

And that’s it! That’s the fun list. Next comes the painful one. Stay tuned for the trash heap.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Delta Variant Surges in Colorado as the Bands Play On

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — Dr. Rachel LaCount grasped a metal hoop at a playground and spun in circles with her 7-year-old son, turning the distant mesas of the Colorado National Monument into a red-tinged blur.

LaCount has lived in this western Colorado city of 64,000 nearly her whole life. As a hospital pathologist, she knows better than most that her hometown has become one of the nation’s top breeding grounds for the delta variant of covid-19.

“The delta variant’s super scary,” LaCount said.

That highly transmissible variant, first detected in India, is now the dominant covid strain in the United States. Colorado is among the states with the highest proportion of the delta variant, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mesa County has the most delta variant cases of any county in Colorado, state health officials report, making the area a hot spot within a hot spot. A CDC team and the state’s epidemiologist traveled to Grand Junction to investigate how and why cases of the variant were moving so quickly in Mesa County.

At her hospital, LaCount has put in orders for more rapid covid tests as the caseload has grown. She’s seen the intensive care unit start filling up with covid patients, so that hospital officials are placing two in a room against normal practices.

Despite these alarming signs, many in Mesa County have let down their guard. The rate of eligible residents fully vaccinated has stalled at about 42%. LaCount has noticed that few people wear masks anymore at the grocery store. Thousands of people recently flocked to Mack, 20 miles from Grand Junction, to attend the Country Jam music festival, which could accelerate the variant’s spread to the concertgoers’ hometowns.

“We’re making national news for our covid variant and the CDC is here investigating, but we have a huge festival where people aren’t masking,” said LaCount. “Are we going to get herd immunity over here just because everyone’s going to get it? I mean, that’s probably going to happen at some point, but at what cost?”

LaCount’s worries aren’t necessarily for herself or her spouse — they are both vaccinated — but for their son, who can’t be vaccinated because he is under 12. She is uneasy about sending him to school in the fall for fear of exposure to the variant. She is reluctant to take him to birthday parties this summer knowing there’s a good likelihood he’ll be teased for wearing a mask.

A few yards away from LaCount and her son on the playground, a man fished in a still pond with his 10-month-old daughter in a backpack. Garrett Whiting, who works in construction, said he believes covid is still being “blown out of proportion,” especially by the news media.

“They got everybody scared really, really fast,” said Whiting, slowly reeling in a sparkly blue lure from the water. “There’s no reason to stop living your life just because you’re scared of something.”

Whiting tested positive for covid about three months earlier. He said he doesn’t plan to get vaccinated, nor does his wife. As for the baby on his back, he said he’s not sure whether they’ll have her vaccinated when regulators approve the shot for young children.

The delta variant is one of six “variants of concern” circulating in the U.S., according to the CDC, because the delta strain spreads more easily, might be more resistant to treatment and might be better at infecting vaccinated people than other variants.

The delta variant has raised alarms around the world. Parts of Australia have locked down again after the variant leapfrogged its way from an American aircrew to a birthday party where it infected all unvaccinated guests, health officials said, and after it also jumped between shoppers in a “scarily fleeting” moment in which two people walked past each other in a mall. Israel reissued an indoor mask requirement after a spate of new cases linked to schoolchildren. A leading health official there said about a third of the 125 people who were infected were vaccinated, and most of the new infections were delta variant.

A rise in delta variant cases delayed the United Kingdom’s planned reopening in June. But public health officials have concluded after studying about 14,000 cases of the delta variant in that country that full vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective against hospitalization. Studies around the world have made similar findings. There is also evidence the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are effective against the variant.

Los Angeles County recently recommended that residents resume wearing masks indoors regardless of vaccination status, over concern about the delta variant. The World Health Organization is also urging vaccinated people to wear masks, though the CDC hasn’t changed its guidelines allowing vaccinated people to gather indoors without masks.

The variant arrived in Mesa County this spring, when it accounted for just 1% of all cases nationwide, said Jeff Kuhr, executive director of Mesa County Public Health.

“We were winding down just like everyone else. We were down to less than five cases a day. I think we had about two people hospitalized at one point,” Kuhr said. “We felt as if we were out of the woods.”

He even signed off on Country Jam, which bills itself as the state’s “biggest country music party.”

But in early May, the delta variant appeared in a burst, with five cases among adults working for the school district.

“It started to hit the children, those that were not of the age to be vaccinated,” Kuhr said. “That was telling me that, you know, wearing masks in school was not providing the protection with this new variant that it had previously.”

The county then started to see breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated elderly residents in long-term care facilities. The hospitals began to fill once more. Nine vaccinated people died, seven of them since the delta variant’s arrival, though it’s still unclear whether the variant is to blame. All were at least 75 years old, and seven lived in long-term care facilities. Now, Kuhr estimates, “above 90%” of cases in the county are delta variant.

The county is seeing the same trend as the state: The vast majority of people testing positive for covid, and people being hospitalized with it, are unvaccinated. “It’s a superspreader strain if there ever was one,” Eric Topol with the Scripps Research Institution told Scientific American. But he said people fully vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna shots “should not worry at all.” There is less information about the protection offered by Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

Mesa County health officials considered canceling the music festival, but “it was really too late,” Kuhr said. After the announcement that the festival was on, about 23,000 people bought tickets.

Officials weighed banning alcohol or trying to get attendees a Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine in the weeks leading up to the festival. In the end, they settled on messaging: signs warning people online and at the venue that the area was a covid hot spot.

According to CDC guidance, outdoor events were low risk. A sporting event at the end of May in Grand Junction that filled a baseball stadium had resulted in only one known case, which made Kuhr optimistic.

“We put messaging on Country Jam’s website, and then in their social media pages, saying, you know, ‘Mesa County’s a hot spot. Be prepared,’” Kuhr said.

A stormy Friday dampened concert attendance at Country Jam. But on the last day of the festival, the sun was out and throngs of cowboy boot-clad concertgoers stepped around prairie dog burrows and kicked up gray-yellow dust on the path to the venue entrance.

Many reveled in being able to attend a summertime event like an outdoor festival, taking it as another sign that the pandemic was waning.

“Covid is over in Colorado,” said Ryan Barkley, a college student from Durango who was playing beer pong in an inflatable pool at his campsite outside the gates.

That day, 39 people in the county were hospitalized with covid, and a CDC investigative team had arrived just four days earlier.

Inside the gates, an open field was filled with stages, concession stands, and vendors selling cowboy hats, coffee mugs and hunting clothes — and crowds of people. Chelsea Sondgeroth and her 5-year-old daughter took in the scene.

“It’s just nice to see people’s faces again,” said Sondgeroth, who lives in Grand Junction and previously had covid. She described it as one of the mildest illnesses she’s ever had, though her senses of taste and smell have not returned to normal. Watermelon tastes rotten to her, beer tasted like Windex for a while, and her daughter said Sondgeroth can’t smell certain flowers anymore.

Sondgeroth said she’s holding off on getting vaccinated until more research comes out.

Waiting in line at the daiquiri stand, Alicia Nix was one of the few people in sight wearing a mask. “I’ve gotten people that say, you know, ‘That stuff is over. Get over yourself and take that off,’” said Nix, who is vaccinated. “It isn’t over.”

Amid the music, beer and dancing, a bus turned into a mobile vaccine clinic was empty. A nurse on duty played Jenga with an Army National Guard soldier. Just six people of the thousands attending were vaccinated on the bus.

“You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink,” Nix said from behind her blue surgical mask.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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Delta Variant Surges in Colorado as the Bands Play On published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[megacircuit9universe]

Cage Match

FRI SEP 18 2020

I really did want to keep my posting to just once a week or less. Every time I do one, I risk oversleeping and being late for work the next day.

And today, when I woke up and checked my phone, to see that Trump had announced he was going ahead with the TikTok ban, ordering it to be out of the app stores by Sunday... I figured that could wait until next week to talk about.

Users who already have the app installed on their devices will still be able to use it, and a full crackdown (the execution of which is legally murky) isn’t slated to begin until mid November, after the election... and thus might not happen at all, or... might only be a few months long, should Biden win.

But then, just around sunset, I received a notification on my phone that Ruth Bader Ginsberg had died.

We all knew she was 87, and had been in and out of the hospital battling cancer over the past few years... so this shouldn’t have been too big a shock, but... we all prayed to Jesus, Mary, and God that she would make it to 2021 at least.

Trump has already gotten two conservative justices into the Supreme Court... the first thanks to McConnell refusing to hold any hearings for Obama’s last nominee, Garland, in March of 2016, because a general election was happening in just eight short months... and the second, after Justice Kennedy retired unexpectedly, under shady circumstances.*

Even if it’s not true that Kennedy was pressured to retire by Trump, who had dirt on his son... you cannot say that blocking Garland was fair, unless you agree that it’s also fair now, to hold off on any hearings to replace RBG until after the current general election, which is only six weeks away.

But that didn’t stop Mitch McConnell from coming out only ONE HOUR after the death of RBG today, and saying the Senate will definitely hold confirmation hearings for her replacement as soon as possible.

In the second hour after her death, her body still warm, not yet stiff, Republican trolls went out on Twitter and all other social media, like hounds, released to justify the immediate confirmaton of whoever Trump nominates to replace her, calling to bypass hearings altogether... because look what a circus the Democrats made of the Brett Kavanaugh hearings, right?

Democrats had to immediately strike back, rolling clip after clip of McConnell, and Graham, from 2016... still in their PRESENT TERMS expounding upon the public’s sacred right to have a say in any Supreme Court nomination, so close to a Presidential election.  My oh me... how could anybody disagree?

These are not clips of young Graham and young McConnell from 1996, arguing for impeachment... against their gray haired selves from 2019 saying impeachment is wrong... this was four years ago Graham and McConnell arguing against themselves from earlier in the self-same six-year term they were last elected to... for which both are up today, for reelection.

But the hypocrisy of the impeachment example only serves to magnify the hypocrisy of the moment for both of them. And in the present political climate... with Trump just having been exposed on Tape admitting to a caronavirus cover up, at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives... voters are keenly taking note.

Both of these guys, two of Trumps top sycophants in the Senate, have enjoyed decades of easy congressional races in safely red states against weak, token opponents who stood no chance of beating them.

But in 2020, that’s not been exactly the case. Both these assholes have had to spend some real money, and sweat a little, as, for the first time in their careers, polls have been showing their opponents within striking distance of unseating them.  And that was before today.

I hinted in the last entry that Trumps exposure by Woodward justified his impeachment.  Why?  He was impeached for holding back despirately needed weapons to an ally, unless he got some falsely manufactured dirt for his reelection in exchange, and he did not care how many Ukranian lives were lost as a result.

But, GOP senators failed to remove him and, when Caronavirus came along a few months later, Trump witheld PPE and ventilators from American governors, and left all American citizens hanging out to dry, even on the basic informational level about the threat... again, for the sake of reelection.

They should have removed him, but they couldn’t, because they’d already removed their testacles and handed them up to him in a slavish offering of cult loyalty... and now, here they are... trying to fuck us over again, in the eleveth hour, to replace a Supreme Court Justice who... even as I write... is days away from having a proper wake... much less a burial.

But this is not just because of slave-ball oaths to an authoritarian spank daddy... the GOP has been salivating about overturning Roe V Wade since long before Trump joined their ranks, and now... like Golem, from LOTR, hissing and salivating over the One Ring... they see it within their grasp!

PRECIOUS!!!

This is why, an hour after her eyes went cold, the 2020 election turned into a no-holds-barred political cage match to the death, tonight.

Dust clouds are billowing... people are breaking kitchen sinks over one anothers heads... spitting out teeth after getting punched... then jumping up to go at it some more.

The big questions here are:

1) What happens to the nation if they do replace Ginsberg immediately?

2) How will this affect the voter turnout on November 3rd?

3) How will the shift in the balance of the Supreme Court affect the outcome of the election, should Trump sue to challenge the results when he loses?

4) How are we all not going to die?

The big answer is... it all depends on how big a win Biden gets on election night.  If biden loses... or it’s too close to call... or  only wins by a slim margin in one state... or only wins by a slim margin in two states... we are all royally fucked up the ass.

If that’s the case, then, even if Ginsberg’s replacement wasn’t already rammed through, he will be, and then the election results will go straight to the new Supreme Court, who will rule in favor of Trump, and then he’ll effectively be King.

Because... with the Supreme Court behind him, and with his second term a go, he’ll invalidate the House and Senate election results in the months before the new House and Senate can come in... and once he’s stacked congress in his favor, he’ll be invincible.

On the other hand...

If Biden wins a decisive victory on November 3rd... over 270 in the Electoral College, with all the states that gave him those electoral votes, having done so by large margins that can’t rationally be contested...

Then even if Trump has replaced Ginsberg, the Supreme Court will refuse to hear any challenges to the election results, and the Military will recognize Biden as President Elect.  The House will continue to resist, having potentially grown stronger, and the lame duck Senate... possibly housing a lot of lame duck Republican Senators, will stand down... taking solace that they packed one extra conservative Justice into the court before their ride was over.

And then, when the new Congress comes in, with Democratic majorities in both houses (because this would be the case if enough Democratic voters turned out to give Biden a decisive victory on election night) they’d expand the number of Supreme Court Justices from 9 to 11... or 13... to mitigate the nighmare scenario where Roe V Wade gets overturned, etc.

So...

Which outcome is more likely?  A solid win for Biden on election night?  Or a contestable win / outright loss for Biden?

Presuming that voter suppression, and foreign tampering are turned up to 11, in favor of Trump... can Democrats so overwhelm the polls that Biden still gets that decisive victory?

Well... in some other year, probably not.

But in 2020, probably yes.

Why?

Well, for starters, all the anti-abortion voters already always vote in every election.  You can’t scare up any more of them to get to the polls, because they’re already, always at 100% attendance... primaries, generals, federal, state, gubenertorial, mayoral, dog-catchorial. 

So, the long awaited (from their perspective) death of evil RGB, will not change that base line.

On the other hand, the long dreaded death of RGB, will bring out legions more young women, between 18 and 35, who do not want Roe V Wade overturned.

The banning of TikTok... which Trump also committed to today... will bring out legions of voters, 18 to 35, who are feeling very keenly the threat to their free speech and expression that this move represents.

And this is on top of all the voters, young and old, who normally don’t vote, who were already champing at the bit to defeat Trump and his junta for a thousand other contemporary reasons, from Covid19, to protest crackdowns, to calling all fallen soldiers suckers and losers, and on.

Very few extra right wing votes will be cast on election night, in comparisson, by crackdown supporters, or people who want to see more denigration of war heros.

In short, the cage match atmosphere that the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg has now created for this election... Doesn’t do much to help an anti-abortion turnout that’s already maxed out.  But it does motivate pro-choice turnout like crazy, especially among young women who are facing a life of oppression if they don’t get out there.

And that same dynamic goes for all younger voters, and all armchair liberals of older generations... for related reasons.

And these people are overwhelmingly white, and middle to upper class... meaning that voter suppression techniques, and foreign tampering won’t affect them.  They are a sleeping army, immune to such tactics.

Voter suppression targets minority people of color and the poor.  Foreign social engineering techniques target the poorly educated, and mentally ill.

That worked in 2016, when the electorate was snoozing... didn’t want any part of the drama... when Millenials were apathetic, and Gen Z was too young. 

The world has changed in four years.  A lot!

So, it’s time for bed again, but I do see a clear pathway for dramatic change on November 3rd... and the TikTok ban, and the death of RBG only intensify the potential for a sound smack down of Trumpism, and hyper-conservatism.

*Justice Kennedy’s son Justin, who became the head of real estate capital markets at Deutsche Bank, worked closely with Trump in the years before his presidency, swinging him billion dollar loans at a time when no other bank would loan to Trump.  

Such dealings were almost certainly criminal to some degree, and so it is speculated that Justice Kennedy resigned to avoid a scandal.

Calls were made for the Judiciary Committee to investigate, before the Senate held any hearings to nominate Kavanaugh as his replacement, but they were steamrolled.

[woodland-knight]

Fic Previews

Last night I said something about having plans to make a post containing different Fic WIPs and letting you guys vote between them since I’m endlessly indecisive, and this is said post. Admittedly I had no idea what format I wanted to go with for previews, so I’m kind of just winging it. You’ll get a description, my plans, and a preview of each fic. A link to a poll will be placed at the end so I can better keep track of things!

...also as a heads up, all of these are Rindea related in some way and very much not edited. Also some of them are super old too so be prepared for things to NOT BE PRETTY.

Option #1: Grandpa Braev

Description: Pretty much Braev trying to bond with his grandchildren when their parents go on vacation. Mostly a focus on him trying to get the twins under control and for Zealan to like him. Valentine is already the perfect grandchild in his eyes.

Plans: Just straight up finish it. I started writing this a few months ago, and I determined to get to the end eventually.

Preview: Braev considered himself a decent father. He cared for his daughter and the boy he had taken in, made sure they received only the finest of training, and always had a home to return to. Granted, he hadn’t always been perfect, and there had been the time where his daughter had run away, but he felt he had made up for it in the years that followed. Fatherhood had been a bit of a struggle for him, but with the love and support of his wife he had managed to raise their daughter well. He could be proud of her and himself, even if his parenting had only been decent.

He wish he could say the same thing about being a grandparent.

The twins had been born first, and his first meeting with them hadn’t gone as well as he had hoped. They were only a week old at the time, but they had already developed a close bond with their parents. As soon as Braev tried to hold them, they began crying and wouldn’t stop until they were returned to Ringabel and Edea. The two had said the twins just needed to get used to being held by other people, but no amount of time with them would change their reaction to him. Even when he simply tried to play a childish game with them, they would cry until one of their parents came and calmed them down.

“Just give them a few months to grow and it’ll be fine, dear,” Mahzer tried to assure her husband. “Edea was the same way when she was born, and you can’t expect them to automatically like you.”

Braev had wanted to believe his wife, but the weeks turned into months, and the months into years, and soon it began to feel as if the twins would never like him. When Alternis grew his first few baby teeth, he tested them out by biting Braev’s arm when Braev picked him up, and as soon as Lyvia could walk she always seemed to try and trip her grandfather by walking into his path. By the time the twins were four-years-old, they had started treating Braev like another toy they could use as a punching bag. No matter how many times Ringabel and Edea disciplined them, they’d always go back to messing with “pappy” and cause trouble. It didn’t seem like Braev would ever catch a break.

This changed, however, when Valentine was born. The twins would be turning seven soon, and their baby sister was just over a month old. Braev and Mahzer hadn’t been able to visit yet due to Mahzer having been ill, but once she was cleared for travel the two planned to visit as soon as they could. The two of them arrived a few days before the twins’ birthday, and he was greeted by the twins clinging to his legs as he tried to approach his daughter and son-in-law. In his daughter’s arms there was an overdressed bundle, and as he grew closer the chubby face of his new granddaughter appeared.

“Would you like to hold her?” Edea asked as she motioned her father to take the baby. Hesitantly, Braev took the baby girl and held her in the same way he had held Edea all those years ago. Awaiting the sounds of crying, Braev held his breath and closed his eyes. No matter how long he waited, however, that sound never came.

Almost instantly, Valentine became attached to her grandfather. As a baby, she would laugh and smile whenever Braev held her, and when she began to walk and talk she’d want to follow and talk with him. Valentine loved her grandfather, and he adored her all the same. Compared to the twins, she was much easier to deal with, and as a result, she was a bit more spoiled than her siblings were. It was enough for the twins to notice, but never enough for them to complain.

For many years after Valentine’s birth it had only been the three of them. Over time, Braev learned how to appease all three of his grandchildren and mostly never had issues with them. Though the twins would cause a problem here and there, Valentine was never a struggle, and overall visits became easier. If he stayed close enough to Mahzer or their mother, the twins wouldn’t pull any tricks, and one stuffed toy per visit was enough to keep Valentine’s adoration of him. Everything had become easier for him, which should have been a sign things would become difficult again soon.

Zealan was the last grandchild Braev met, despite him also being the oldest, and was the hardest to interact with. Zealan had come from a world where Braev looked down upon and practically disowned him, so he had a difficult time speaking with Braev. When the two did managed to speak, Zealan would refer to him as “Sir Braev” instead of “Pappy” or “Grandpa” as the twins and Valentine called him. Braev was always careful when speaking with him, but he wish he could get the young man to open up more. Braev did not wish for Zealan to see him as the same cruel man that existed in the other world.

“Why don’t you tell me more about yourself?” Braev would always ask in hopes of bonding with his estranged grandson. The young man would barely speak a word to him, normally not knowing what to say. Braev could tell that Zealan was afraid of him, and the questioning didn’t seem to ease those worries. In the end, Zealan would always find shelter by standing with his youngest sister, who distracted Braev until Zealan could slip away. Braev was unsure if he’d ever be able to get his grandson to talk with him.

As a result of all of this, Braev was always unsure of how good of a grandfather he was. While Valentine loved him and showed it often, the twins saw him more as a punching bag, and Zealan was more afraid of him than anything. He had tried to treat him with the same love and respect he had given his own daughter and son-in-law (which in the long run, may have not been enough), but it didn’t seem to make a change in their behaviors. He refused to give up, however, and was determined to create better relationships with his grandchildren. He just needed the right time to do it.

--

Option #2: Painting

Description: Edea wants to spend more time with Ringabel, and since he’s been practically doing nothing but relearning how to paint, she makes him use her back as a canvas for a piece. Supposed to have lots of emotional bonding too.

Plans: This one is a bit older, so I’d probably rewrite a good chunk before finishing it. I started it last year, and I’ve made small improvements since then that I can apply here.

Preview: Edea glanced back at Ringabel once again. “Ringabel… Was that a poem?” she asked as Ringabel continued to paint. He kept his focus on his work, but nodded his head as he did so.

“You know me well enough by now to expect this, little peahen. I did write you monthly poems the entire time I was gone after all,” he reminded her. Edea hadn’t forgotten of course, she just had something else on her mind.

“Well… It was nice,” she told him. Her voice was a bit quiet, but she was still loud enough to hear. “All your poems are nice. You’re really good at writing them,” she continued to compliment. Ringabel, detecting a bit of distress, looked up at her.

“Is something the matter, Edea? You sound upset,” he pointed out to her. Realizing Ringabel was right, Edea turned her head away in shame.

“It’s nothing,” she said unconvincingly. “Just… Keep working, please. I want to see the finished product.”

Worried about Edea, Ringabel put his brush back down. “Edea, please don’t hide your feelings from me. I want to know when you’re hurting so I can help make it  better,” he told her as he placed his hand on her shoulder. It was covered with a bit of paint, so it was cold and slightly wet. Edea bit her lip.

“Don’t worry about it, okay?” she requested as she curled up a bit more. It was obvious she had grown tense again, so Ringabel put his other hand on her other shoulder and rubbed them to try and loosen her up.

“The more you tell me not to worry the more I’m going to anyway,” he told her in a bit of a sing-songish way. Edea wish he hadn’t though, especially since it wasn’t helping with how she felt right now.

“Seriously, it’s nothing, okay?” she insisted in the same unconvincing manner, though at this point she didn’t know if she was trying to convince Ringabel or herself that she was okay. Concerned, Ringabel leaned around her to get a good look at her face.

“Edea, please tell me what’s wrong… When we started dating we promised we wouldn’t keep our problems a secret from each other,” he reminded her as he squeezed her shoulders. “Communication is key to a happy relationship, isn’t it? So why can’t you tell me that’s wrong?”

Edea tried to mumble something, but all the came out was a sound similar to a tiny squeak. It wasn’t that she couldn’t tell him it was wrong, it was just that she was too afraid of how he would react. With Ringabel’s depression and her own insecurities, they had created a system of communication that allowed them to better support each other, but there were times where the other person was the source of the problem. Edea knew that even then, they should talk about it to work things out, but what she was feeling now… It was her own fault that she felt this way. Ringabel had absolutely no control over it.

Edea swallowed to try and get rid of a lump in her throat. “Can… You promise not to get upset if I tell you?” she asked, even if she really didn’t want to. Ringabel, a bit confused, tilted his head but nodded anyway.

“Of course, Edea. I think I’d be more upset if you didn’t say anything to me at all,” he told her. Edea could feel a tightness in her chest forming, and she took a deep breath before expressing how she felt.

--

Option #3: Ringabel’s Tattoos

Description: In an attempt to get Ringabel to let her heal the injuries he received in battle, Edea traps him in her room and forces him to take off his shirt. In this process she learns this boy is all inked up on his arms and back. Ringabel is very much embarrassed by this.

Plans: Okay as a warning, I started writing this two and a half years ago, so it would be written from the ground up with the same ideas in mind (and is probably poorly written in its current state). I have always wanted to finish this fic, but this is the first time somebody might be able to motivate me to actually do it.

Preview: "Where do you think you're going!?" she asked, raising her voice with each word. Ringabel flinched and stepped back a bit, knowing that Edea was most definitely frustrated with him.

"I'm just going to bridge, Edea. We've finished collecting supplies in Eisenberg and are to head to Eternia, you know," he told her while trying his best to move around her. Edea managed to grab his arm before he got too far though and pulled it down, making him stumble.

"Of course I know that!" she yelled while yanking his arm down more in order to bring him to her eye level. Ringabel had grown use to Edea's yelling by now, since she was normally the one to lecture him when he stayed out too late with the ladies, but it was still one of the few things about her that intimidated him. A bit panicked, Ringabel tried his best to get out of the mess he found himself caught in.

"Ah, yes. Of course you would! It is your home after all, so you should know everything about it," he teased before shutting himself up. Indeed Edea was from Eternia, but she quickly learned everyone she knew was not who she thought they were. They had fought many of her former countrymen by this point, and each time it grew harder and harder for her. It did not help that her father was among the next few people they would have to face, and he knew the thought of it filled Edea with dread. Ringabel quickly tried to apologize for his poor choice of words, but Edea stopped him before he could.

"They’re not what's important right now," she mumbled, a bit of sadness in her voice, before once again raising it. "What is important is the fact you're still injured and haven't been treated yet!"

Ah, so that's what this was about. When they had first attempted to get the Grandship into flight, they had to face Behemoth, a monster that was lurking in the core of the engine room. "Shocking it’s still alive! It’s so squishy and old I’m surprised it hasn’t fallen over!" Ringabel had stupidly commented during the fight. Seconds later, the monster charged straight at him, putting him in critical condition. Thankfully, he had set up a counter moments before and was able to land a finishing blow with it.

"Who's the squishy one now?" Edea mocked while Ringabel received basic healing from Agnès. Ringabel knew he should have probably received more, but he was so focused on finding out what the Orichalcum would do to the Grandship that he stopped Agnès as soon as he felt he could walk again. He later realized that this had been a mistake, as he was sore and bruised all over. He only made things worse thinking he could just sleep it off, but he quickly realized that it wasn't working and making him sorer. It didn't take the others that long to notice his constant discomfort and pain, and once they all knew he was still hurt they wouldn't leave him alone.

"Ringabel, are you listening to me?" he heard Edea snap at him. Still being held down at her level, he looked straight at her and could see the frustration in her eyes... And something that looked like sadness? Ringabel wasn't sure.

"Yes, of course, Edea! I know I haven't finished healing yet, but I promise you I will heal myself soon. It would be no good for any of us if I was unable to fight, and think of all the ladies who would-"

"Don't finish that thought, Ringabel," Edea interrupted. "If you're not going to do it yourself then I'm going to do it for you!" Edea stated as she grabbed both of Ringabel's arms and started to drag him towards his room. Ringabel tried his best to resist, but there was no way he could fight Edea's strength. Well, he could always try running, but he wasted most of his energy trying to get out of the inn before anybody could spot him, which obviously had failed.

“Now, Edea, there’s no need for you to do this!” Ringabel told her as she continued to drag him down the hall. He was still trying to resists, but Edea’s determination made dragging him as easy as dragging a blanket across the floor. At some point, the two of them passed by Tiz, who stared as Edea dragged Ringabel on.

“…am I missing something?” Tiz asked as he continued to stare. Ringabel gave Tiz a look that made Ringabel look like a scared sheep, but Tiz was unsure of how to respond.

“You’re not missing anything, Tiz!” Edea told him in response. “Just let Agnès and Airy know we might be leaving a bit late today! Ringabel and I have a bit of business to tend to in his room!”

“B-but it’s nothing more than a helpful gesture, Tiz!” Ringabel quickly chimed in, hoping the shepherd wouldn’t take Edea’s words the wrong way. Ringabel wasn’t sure if it worked though, as he saw his friend’s ears turn a bit pink before scurrying away.

“…we’ll explain later,” Edea said as she went back to dragging Ringabel to his room. She didn’t like the idea of Tiz thinking she and Ringabel were doing anything inappropriate, especially since she and he were nothing more than friends, but she had more important things to take care of at the moment.

--

Option #4: Bees?

Description: A fun little fic about Ringabel getting stung by a lot of bees and Edea having to deal with it.

Plans: I’m just putting this one here for the laughs. It wouldn’t be long and it would just be me being dumb.

Preview: “Ringabel! Ringabel, come on- Ringabel, hold still!”

Edea put her hand on Ringabel’s shoulder as she gripped a pair of tweezers. His back, neck, and arms were covered in bee stings, and parts were starting to swell. Edea had no idea how Ringabel had ended up in this situation, and he didn’t seem to want to explain himself. He just showed up at her door with a slightly burnt clothes and a few visible red spots on his face. When she asked what had happened, his only response was a request for her to help get the stingers out.

“I promise I’m trying, Edea! It’s just so uncomfortable!” Ringabel whined as he tried to stiffen up. Edea could tell he was in a lot of pain, but there wasn’t much she could do until he could hold completely still.

“The sooner you stop squirming, the sooner I can get these out,” she said as she attempted to pluck out the first stinger. Though she was successful at getting it out, she had managed to tug at a small bit of skin in the process. Ringabel made a small noise in discomfort.

“I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try and hurt me more during this process,” he complained as he went to rub the area Edea had pulled from. Edea rolled her eyes and went to pull another stinger that was nearby.

“Toughen up, it was just a pinch! It’s not going to kill you!” she said as she continued her work. “You’re lucky you didn’t turn out to actually be allergic to bees.”

Ringabel shrugged. “Bees? Obviously not. Pollen? Possibly. Anything else? I don’t remember, but I’m not dead yet,” he sarcastically joked as he slumped over. He was obviously irritated, but anybody who had just been stung by a dozen bees would be. Edea took out another three stingers and put the tweezers down.

“Don’t you think it would be easier if we took you to a white mage? Or we could at least ask Agnès for help,” Edea suggested. Ringabel didn’t seem like the idea though, as he quickly turned around and began to show his disapproval.

--

I don’t really have much to say now other than you can vote here.

[andrewromanoyahoo]

Arizona is asking: Where does Jeff Flake stand on healthcare?

Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake takes a question from the audience during a town hall in April in Mesa, Ariz. (Photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)

As the GOP continues to struggle to pass some sort of Obamacare repeal bill, there is no Republican senator in a tougher bind than Jeff Flake — and there has been no clearer illustration of how tough that bind has become than what’s been happening back in his home state of Arizona during Congress’s July 4th recess.

Ever since the House GOP unveiled its American Health Care Act earlier this year, Flake — one of only two swing-state Republican senators up for reelection in 2018 — has remained noncommittal, repeatedly declining to say whether he would vote for any of the various proposals on the table.

Now Arizonans on both sides of the aisle are demanding an answer.

On Wednesday, roughly 20 progressive activists, many with physical disabilities, flooded into Flake’s Phoenix office as part of a nationwide protest organized by the disability-rights group ADAPT. They installed a cardboard coffin in the lobby, with a headstone reading “Cuts to Medicaid = Death.” They waved signs that said “Don’t Kill 22 million + Americans.” They chanted about “free[ing] our people” and “find[ing] Jeff Flake.” They stayed for 14 straight hours. Five were cited by police for trespassing.

“I just want to know — a simple yes or no would suffice for me — his position,” said Demeris Herrera of Tucson.

Meanwhile, Flake’s far-right, pro-Donald-Trump GOP primary opponent, Kelli Ward, made the same point in an interview with Yahoo News, insisting that after “years of campaigning and raising money on fully repealing Obamacare,” Flake is instead “giving sanctuary to Obamacare because he is unwilling to speak up and take a stand.”

“He’s too weak to lead right now,” Ward charged.

As for Flake himself? According to his spokesman, the senator spent most of the week in Utah mourning his father, who died on June 26. Flake’s only response to the ongoing health care debate was a statement (released to both Yahoo News and the protestors in his office) that consisted mainly of recycled talking points.

Kelli Ward, a former Senator from Arizona, speaks during a campaign stop in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., on August 11, 2016. (Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

“While I have not yet seen a revised version of the bill I can say my decision will be based on how it balances two principles,” it said. (Flake declined to be interviewed for this story.) “The first is that the legislation needs to ensure that those who currently have coverage do not have the rug pulled out from under them. The second is that the Senate must agree on a solution that is fiscally sustainable.”

The fact that Flake is staying silent on the Senate repeal bill — and catching flak from both the left and the right as a result — neatly encapsulates the unique political challenge he’s facing in the run-up to the 2018 midterms.

At first, the GOP’s other vulnerable swing-state senator, Dean Heller of Nevada, tried to avoid the subject as well. But soon after Senate Republicans released their version of the House repeal bill late last month, Heller came out against it, announcing that he “cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance away from tens of millions of Americans.”

Heller’s break with GOP brass reflected basic electoral math: given recent trends in Nevada, the greatest threat to his reelection effort is more likely to come from a Democrat than a Republican. To wit: Nevada freshman Rep. Jacky Rosen announced Thursday that she would be running against Heller in 2018, and Rep. Dina Titus, a long-serving Democrat, has also signaled her interest in the race. So far, Heller has yet to draw a GOP primary opponent.

Flake, on the other hand, is being squeezed from both sides. Already Ward is attacking him from the right, while Deedra Abboud, a Phoenix attorney and community activist, is angling for the Democratic nod. They probably won’t have the field all to themselves. Arizona State Treasurer Jeff DeWit, a Republican who is close to President Trump, is said to be eying a bid, as are two top Democrats, Rep. Krysten Sinema and Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton.

Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton speaks during a press conference outside the Arizona Capitol on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in Phoenix. (Photo: Ryan VanVelzer/AP)

“I don’t predict the future,” Sinema told Yahoo News when asked whether she might challenge Flake. “I’m currently running for reelection [to the House]. That’s my current status.”

Hence Flake’s hemming and hawing: his strategists have likely concluded that there’s little benefit to weighing in on the Senate repeal bill — and angering one side or the other — until it actually comes up for a vote (which may never happen).

And that calculation has, in turn, raised an even bigger question about politics in the Age of Trump.

With the GOP in ideological disarray and polarization at an all-time high, can a conservative Republican who prides himself on his independence — from both the president and party orthodoxy — still cobble together a winning coalition in a swing state like Arizona? Or is he just going to make everybody angrier?

Two years ago, I spent a day with Flake in the back of an aide’s rented Ford Explorer, driving across Arizona from event to event. It seemed then, as it seems now, that Flake’s betwixt-and-betweenness — his reluctance to conform to political expectations — is just the way he is. As a young congressman, Flake tried to tame his own party’s extravagant Bush-era spending, regularly shaming earmark sponsors on the floor of the House. In 2013, now a senator, he joined the bipartisan Gang of Eight to craft a comprehensive immigration reform bill that included a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants. In 2015, he was the only Republican who accompanied then-Secretary of State John Kerry to Cuba to preside over the reopening of the U.S. embassy after a 54-year diplomatic freeze. He advised his fellow Republicans to back down on same-sex marriage, regardless of their personal views, and voted to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and to repeal “don’t ask, don’t tell.” During the 2016 campaign, he famously refused to endorse or vote for Trump, and he has continued to criticize the president for the last six months.

“Jeff is as straight a shooter as there exists in this place,” Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy once said of Flake. “I don’t know where Jeff will end up, but I know it will be because he’s made a decision on the merits, not the politics.”

Refusing to follow the partisan script has never made Flake especially popular at home. He barely edged out his Democratic Senate opponent Richard Carmona in 2012, and after revoking his support for a gun background-check bill the following year, Flake briefly held the lowest approval rating of any senator in the country. Even today, Flake ranks as one of America’s six or seven least popular senators (among their constituents).

From left, Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Minority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., conduct a news conference in the Capitol’s Senate studio on legislation that would end the U.S. travel ban on Cuba, January 29, 2015. (Photo: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)

Back in 2015, Flake insisted that his flagging poll numbers would not affect his politics. “That’s the beauty of being the Senate,” he joked in Tucson. “Six years between elections.”

But pretty soon, those six years will be up — and more than any other issue, health care may determine whether Flake gets to spend another six years in Washington.

The irony is that in Arizona, there isn’t as much partisan disagreement about Obamacare as there is nationally (or even in most other states). There are two reasons for this. The first is that last year most insurers fled Arizona’s Obamacare exchanges, leaving virtually all enrollees with only a single choice of carrier; at the same time, premiums for some plans increased by 116 percent, the highest rate hike in the country. As Tom Snook, a Phoenix-based actuary for consultants Milliman Inc., told the Wall Street Journal in October, “the Arizona market is the poster child for the problems the exchanges are experiencing nationally.”

The second reason is that Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion has helped more than 400,000 high-need Arizonans get health insurance — and it has been Republicans who have implemented and perpetuated that expansion. During the Great Recession, former Gov. Jan Brewer, a staunch conservative and early Trump supporter, cut the state’s Medicaid funding and froze enrollment; between 2011 and 2013, 150,000 adult Arizonans on Medicaid— nearly two-thirds of the childless adults in the program — lost their coverage.

But eventually Brewer had a change of heart, and she fought tooth-and-nail to push Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion through the legislature, telling her fellow Republicans, “You have to look at the reality. You have to do the math. [And] it’s not only a mathematical issue… it’s a moral issue.” Brewer’s Republican successor, Gov. Doug Ducey. has since come out against the Senate repeal bill in part because, by slashing federal funding for the Medicaid expansion, it will prevent Arizona from “pay[ing] for the real-world costs of providing care.”

As a result, Arizona politicians in less precarious positions than Flake actually sound somewhat alike when it comes to Obamacare — regardless of which party they belong to.

“It’s no secret that Arizonans have been frustrated with Obamacare over the last seven years, because the law has real problems,” Rep. Sinema, the Democratic congresswoman from Maricopa County, tells Yahoo News. “But parts of the law — like the Medicaid expansion — are still very, very popular. So the message I’m getting in Arizona is, ‘We didn’t love Obamacare, but the GOP plan is bad.’”

“A lot of us — both Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate — want to find a bipartisan solution,” Sinema adds. “The problem is that none of us are in the leadership.”

Audience members stand up to shout down Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake during a town hall Thursday, April 13, 2017, in Mesa, Ariz. (Photo: Ross D. Franklin/AP)

At a contentious two-and-a-half-hour Mesa town hall in April — his only such event of the year — Flake could have said something similar. Again and again, his constituents asked about Obamacare.

“Will you commit to vote against any plan that does not cover essential benefits, women’s health, preexisting conditions, hospitalization and medication?” asked a woman suffering from autoimmune kidney failure.

“How are we going to work together across the aisle to insure these children and adults have coverage?” asked the mother of a girl with autism. “We cannot afford to let Obamacare implode, because without Obamacare my daughter would not be able to speak.”

“I do not understand how you can allow 24 million Americans go through life without affordable health care,” said a military veteran.

But again and again, Flake dodged the question.

“Obamacare is not sustainable in its current form,” he said in several different ways. “It needs to be changed. It needs to reformed. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

Someday soon, Flake may have to get more specific. If and when that day comes, perhaps he can explain his long-held concerns about the growth of entitlement programs. Perhaps he can propose a fiscally conservative way to address those concerns without “pulling the rug out from under” the nearly two millions Arizonans who get their health-care coverage through Medicaid. Perhaps he can even push for the sort of bipartisan fixes he has championed on immigration.

Right now, however, the politics of the moment seem hostile to that kind of clarity. The question for Flake is whether he can survive the current storm with his reputation as a straight shooter intact — or whether, by waiting to weigh in, he’ll wind up looking like the very thing he has always insisted he isn’t: another typical politician.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:

Violent protests break out at G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany

Alaskans may hold key to health care bill, and they have … issues

GOP’s Cornyn defends Americans’ freedom to skip health insurance

Kentucky secretary of state emerges as most quotable opponent of Trump voter fraud panel

Photos: Trump visits Europe for G-20 summit on 2nd overseas trip

[michaelfallcon]

Voices Of The Global Coffee Supply Chain Respond To COVID-19

For the third and final of our latest series of reader polls on how COVID-19 is impacting the specialty coffee world—the first specifically for baristas and the second for the coffee consuming public—we ditched the more statistical approach in favor of in-depth individual answers. The results look a lot more like a survey than a poll—they are truly revealing, equal parts hopeful and gut-wrenching.

This survey was open to anyone whose employment pre-COVID fell within the coffee supply chain, anywhere in the world. To make sure the responses truly represented the global community, the survey was presented in a total of eight different languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The responses we received, nearly 170 in total, reflect both the transcontinental nature of coffee, the chain of hands that take a tiny ripe little cherry from oceans away and turn it into the beverage in your cup. Representing a total of 30 countries across six continents, we received thoughtful answers from producers, exporters, importers, green buyers, roasters, cafe owners, and baristas. Over the course of three rather open prompts, we wanted to find out, generally, how COVID-19 has changed life for those who make their lives in and around coffee.

We are reprinting a selection of those responses in full below. All answers were given anonymously. We have included each respondent’s country of residence and job title for context.

Some answers have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How has the pandemic impacted your workplace?

All of us are doing our best and working from home; only key production personnel are authorized to be at the roastery to prepare wholesale orders or quantities for our coffee shops’ consumption. — Commercial Manager at a cafe/roastery, Bahrain

We had to shut down our shop in high season two weeks ago. No seating, no terrace, and kitchen closed. We opened a kiosk the next day selling coffee beans and take-away coffee. We keep a high safety standard for customers and staff to create a secure environment. Fortunately one of our regulars runs a drug store and provides us with disinfectant and masks. Everything seems to be unreal in our good old shop but our customers really appreciate what we do. All catering and coffee courses are canceled until December. — Cafe/roastery owner, Germany

The impact is still unfolding. Uganda has introduced a number of lock-down measures that are already impacting the poorest of the poor, the people with whom we work. Movements have been stopped, public and private transport cancelled. The motorbike riders are out of work, people in the villages where we work can’t get to health centers for safe delivery of babies, treatment of other illnesses. Although exports of goods are still permitted (and we still have committed customers at the moment in the US/UK/Korea for which we are so thankful), processing factories—mills, warehouses, etc—are heavily restricted. This is already leading to delays to orders. We hope it doesn’t lead to cancellations.

As a project we’ve always committed to pay our farmers cash on delivery, so we’re grateful that all our payments on the mountain are cleared. Our farmers and workers have all been paid for the season. However, as a project we absolutely now rely on our buyers coming through so that we can receive payments for the coffee and clear our business loans… We’re really hoping that we can get our orders out, that we can agree terms with our buyers that help them out, which allow us to support our farmers at a time when they need us most. — Director of a Producer Organization, Uganda

In New Zealand, all cafes, restaurants, retail shops, etc. are completely closed. We are primarily a wholesale coffee supplier direct to cafes, we don’t supply mainstream supermarkets, only a few boutiques. We do have a web store for direct to consumer sales but the lockdown restrictions stopped us from offering coffee online too, as roasters were only able to continue supply to essential supermarkets, not to home drinkers. Thankfully the online sales restriction was lifted after 9 days of shutdown, so we at least have that now. But volume wise, we are doing 90-95% less than we usually do, as almost our entire customer base is closed down. The lockdown is scheduled for 4 weeks, depending on the situation it may get extended. Even when it is lifted we will likely have a period of non-essential closures, takeaway only etc. Our borders will probably remain closed or essentially closed for months to come meaning next to no tourism (a huge industry in our country) so less coffee drinkers around in general. And it is likely that a lot of our wholesale customers may not reopen after this.

For what it’s worth I am completely supportive of the shutdown and after 12 days it appears to be effective, the curve is flattening. But it undoubtedly has a heavy impact on hospitality that will be hard to recover from.

My workplace as a result of the pandemic has introduced distancing practices in and stepped up general hygiene. Anyone who can work at home, is. As a result of the low sales volumes and general slow down of work, a lot of my colleagues have been placed on discretionary leave, being paid the minimum government subsidy until nationally we return to “alert level 2” (there’s a 4 step alert system, we’re in level 4 now). Nobody has been laid off, yet. — Head Roaster, New Zealand

Minimally. Panama is in total lockdown, agriculture exempted. Most of our coffee is sold to Asia, who continues to buy. Main problem is shipping logistics, especially via air. — Producer/exporter, Panama

In Jakarta, our government has not required us to do a complete lockdown. We are still allowed to operate but we only have one location purely for takeaways. We used to have three stores. Sales have dropped around 80% and it’s tough. We have put some of our recent hires on unpaid leave… hoping this will end soon. — Cafe owner, Indonesia

How has the pandemic impacted your job?

I’ve personally accepted more responsibility, since we’re down to a skeleton crew and the acting manager isn’t setting foot in the cafe because he doesn’t have insurance and he’s scared. Most days are either really busy or dead in the water. The days that we’re busy I make astoundingly good tips. Every day I wonder if it will be the last before the government shuts all of the restaurants down. — Barista/manager, United States

As a founder you wear all the hats in the business anyway so day to day hasn’t changed too much except now absolutely everything is done from my laptop except for packing all the online orders. — Founder of a cold brew coffee company, United Kingdom

For many small exporters, to finance one container requires quite a bit of financial muscle, not to mention the hefty interest rates from banks and/or private lenders. Because of the world-wide stay-at-home effort, roasters aren’t stocking up on green because of the uncertainty and consumers aren’t going out to coffee shops and restaurants to drink their coffee, which is reducing consumption. Once the consumer stops spending, the roaster slows down production, the importer starts sitting on green, and well, the exporter has to scramble to find a quick solution to stay afloat and continue to carry the loans until payment can be made from the importer/roaster. By holding up cash-flow, exporters will not be able to purchase as much coffee as projected, affecting the farmer who will have to sell to the co-op and be subject to the market price. The reduction in demand that is expected for 2nd and 3rd quarters will also have an affect on the quantity of coffee being purchased at specialty prices.

There is also a worry of a shortage of pickers for this harvest season for two reasons; pickers don’t want to leave home and risk getting infected while away from home and two, local governments don’t want pickers from other regions coming in to their regions potentially carrying the virus. This has prompted some local governments to start campaigns to hire locals to pick coffee, offering guaranteed medical coverage against the virus and other subsidies. — Importer/exporter, Colombia

Our management made the right decision to close the coffee house completely, and not work “to-go”, because even the slightest risk is a risk for all of us. — Barista, Russia

Sales have dropped a lot. Also forecasting has stopped as no roaster wants to take a long term guess. This is impacting how we can forecast purchases at origin as well. — Green coffee buyer, Australia

It’s gone for now! I’ve worked in the coffee industry since I was 18, I’m 25 now. It’s been my career aspiration to work in a coffee roastery. Eight months into my dream job and it’s been snatched away from me. I was also training for the Brewers cup, hours of training put in with a coffee that won’t make it to the national stage. — Production assistant/account manager, Ireland

What’s your life like right now?

I’m enjoying myself at home, trying to work on creative projects, suddenly needing to buy way more whole bean than I normally would. I visited my store yesterday to say hello to everyone, and I’m glad I’m not working through this time. The job right now simply isn’t what I was hired for, or what I had hired staff for, and although I know regulars keep showing up and the working staff are nothing but positive, I know I couldn’t suspend my fear and completely alter our operations without having an eventual breakdown. Sometimes I worry that I made the wrong choice, that I turned my back on a great company and wonderful coworkers, but this is far bigger than me, than any of us individually, and I have to remind myself that despite the uncertainty, staying home is the likely the best thing I can do for everyone in my community. — Barista/manager, Canada

Working from home and waiting for funding from the government so that I won’t have to shut down altogether. — Cafe owner, Brazil

It is better but still we hope that we will overcome it soon because still we are making just 50% of our regular numbers. — Cafe owner, Czech Republic

My wife and I run our cafe, where we have around 11 employees. The future is just uncertain. We were one of the first coffee roasters in Kazakhstan, and we have been here for the past eight years watching the culture grow. And now I’m scared we will have to start all over. — Cafe/roastery owner, Kazakhstan

My life is very precarious. I have expenses without any return. I am limited in practicing my profession, if not for video lessons to keep in touch with the community. How it will return to normal is my doubt. Our profession is at risk. — Barista, Italy

Filled with anxiety of no income but relaxing spending time with loved ones at home. — Head of coffee, South Africa

My life is a series of zoom calls, FaceTime, daily anxiety, and planning my alternate idea of a career that doesn’t rely on the global economy. I’ve been knitting a lot and filming crafting videos. — Roasting operations manager, United Kingdom

Boring and stressful. — Cafe owner, Trinidad

I filed for unemployment but with little clarity as to what the stimulus package is actually sending, my partner (also a barista) and I are making about a third of our wages from unemployment leaving our livelihood up in the air with rent and other bills still coming. We are also losing our health insurance through our full-time jobs. — Barista, United States

Additional Reporting

Poll results: Baristas 

Poll results: Coffee consumption

Voices of baristas

Voices of cafe owners

Voices of importers 

All COVID-19 coverage on Sprudge. 

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

Voices Of The Global Coffee Supply Chain Respond To COVID-19 published first on https://medium.com/@LinLinCoffee

[shebreathesslowly]

Voices Of The Global Coffee Supply Chain Respond To COVID-19

For the third and final of our latest series of reader polls on how COVID-19 is impacting the specialty coffee world—the first specifically for baristas and the second for the coffee consuming public—we ditched the more statistical approach in favor of in-depth individual answers. The results look a lot more like a survey than a poll—they are truly revealing, equal parts hopeful and gut-wrenching.

This survey was open to anyone whose employment pre-COVID fell within the coffee supply chain, anywhere in the world. To make sure the responses truly represented the global community, the survey was presented in a total of eight different languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Italian, Korean, Portuguese, and Spanish.

The responses we received, nearly 170 in total, reflect both the transcontinental nature of coffee, the chain of hands that take a tiny ripe little cherry from oceans away and turn it into the beverage in your cup. Representing a total of 30 countries across six continents, we received thoughtful answers from producers, exporters, importers, green buyers, roasters, cafe owners, and baristas. Over the course of three rather open prompts, we wanted to find out, generally, how COVID-19 has changed life for those who make their lives in and around coffee.

We are reprinting a selection of those responses in full below. All answers were given anonymously. We have included each respondent’s country of residence and job title for context.

Some answers have been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.

How has the pandemic impacted your workplace?

All of us are doing our best and working from home; only key production personnel are authorized to be at the roastery to prepare wholesale orders or quantities for our coffee shops’ consumption. — Commercial Manager at a cafe/roastery, Bahrain

We had to shut down our shop in high season two weeks ago. No seating, no terrace, and kitchen closed. We opened a kiosk the next day selling coffee beans and take-away coffee. We keep a high safety standard for customers and staff to create a secure environment. Fortunately one of our regulars runs a drug store and provides us with disinfectant and masks. Everything seems to be unreal in our good old shop but our customers really appreciate what we do. All catering and coffee courses are canceled until December. — Cafe/roastery owner, Germany

The impact is still unfolding. Uganda has introduced a number of lock-down measures that are already impacting the poorest of the poor, the people with whom we work. Movements have been stopped, public and private transport cancelled. The motorbike riders are out of work, people in the villages where we work can’t get to health centers for safe delivery of babies, treatment of other illnesses. Although exports of goods are still permitted (and we still have committed customers at the moment in the US/UK/Korea for which we are so thankful), processing factories—mills, warehouses, etc—are heavily restricted. This is already leading to delays to orders. We hope it doesn’t lead to cancellations.

As a project we’ve always committed to pay our farmers cash on delivery, so we’re grateful that all our payments on the mountain are cleared. Our farmers and workers have all been paid for the season. However, as a project we absolutely now rely on our buyers coming through so that we can receive payments for the coffee and clear our business loans… We’re really hoping that we can get our orders out, that we can agree terms with our buyers that help them out, which allow us to support our farmers at a time when they need us most. — Director of a Producer Organization, Uganda

In New Zealand, all cafes, restaurants, retail shops, etc. are completely closed. We are primarily a wholesale coffee supplier direct to cafes, we don’t supply mainstream supermarkets, only a few boutiques. We do have a web store for direct to consumer sales but the lockdown restrictions stopped us from offering coffee online too, as roasters were only able to continue supply to essential supermarkets, not to home drinkers. Thankfully the online sales restriction was lifted after 9 days of shutdown, so we at least have that now. But volume wise, we are doing 90-95% less than we usually do, as almost our entire customer base is closed down. The lockdown is scheduled for 4 weeks, depending on the situation it may get extended. Even when it is lifted we will likely have a period of non-essential closures, takeaway only etc. Our borders will probably remain closed or essentially closed for months to come meaning next to no tourism (a huge industry in our country) so less coffee drinkers around in general. And it is likely that a lot of our wholesale customers may not reopen after this.

For what it’s worth I am completely supportive of the shutdown and after 12 days it appears to be effective, the curve is flattening. But it undoubtedly has a heavy impact on hospitality that will be hard to recover from.

My workplace as a result of the pandemic has introduced distancing practices in and stepped up general hygiene. Anyone who can work at home, is. As a result of the low sales volumes and general slow down of work, a lot of my colleagues have been placed on discretionary leave, being paid the minimum government subsidy until nationally we return to “alert level 2” (there’s a 4 step alert system, we’re in level 4 now). Nobody has been laid off, yet. — Head Roaster, New Zealand

Minimally. Panama is in total lockdown, agriculture exempted. Most of our coffee is sold to Asia, who continues to buy. Main problem is shipping logistics, especially via air. — Producer/exporter, Panama

In Jakarta, our government has not required us to do a complete lockdown. We are still allowed to operate but we only have one location purely for takeaways. We used to have three stores. Sales have dropped around 80% and it’s tough. We have put some of our recent hires on unpaid leave… hoping this will end soon. — Cafe owner, Indonesia

How has the pandemic impacted your job?

I’ve personally accepted more responsibility, since we’re down to a skeleton crew and the acting manager isn’t setting foot in the cafe because he doesn’t have insurance and he’s scared. Most days are either really busy or dead in the water. The days that we’re busy I make astoundingly good tips. Every day I wonder if it will be the last before the government shuts all of the restaurants down. — Barista/manager, United States

As a founder you wear all the hats in the business anyway so day to day hasn’t changed too much except now absolutely everything is done from my laptop except for packing all the online orders. — Founder of a cold brew coffee company, United Kingdom

For many small exporters, to finance one container requires quite a bit of financial muscle, not to mention the hefty interest rates from banks and/or private lenders. Because of the world-wide stay-at-home effort, roasters aren’t stocking up on green because of the uncertainty and consumers aren’t going out to coffee shops and restaurants to drink their coffee, which is reducing consumption. Once the consumer stops spending, the roaster slows down production, the importer starts sitting on green, and well, the exporter has to scramble to find a quick solution to stay afloat and continue to carry the loans until payment can be made from the importer/roaster. By holding up cash-flow, exporters will not be able to purchase as much coffee as projected, affecting the farmer who will have to sell to the co-op and be subject to the market price. The reduction in demand that is expected for 2nd and 3rd quarters will also have an affect on the quantity of coffee being purchased at specialty prices.

There is also a worry of a shortage of pickers for this harvest season for two reasons; pickers don’t want to leave home and risk getting infected while away from home and two, local governments don’t want pickers from other regions coming in to their regions potentially carrying the virus. This has prompted some local governments to start campaigns to hire locals to pick coffee, offering guaranteed medical coverage against the virus and other subsidies. — Importer/exporter, Colombia

Our management made the right decision to close the coffee house completely, and not work “to-go”, because even the slightest risk is a risk for all of us. — Barista, Russia

Sales have dropped a lot. Also forecasting has stopped as no roaster wants to take a long term guess. This is impacting how we can forecast purchases at origin as well. — Green coffee buyer, Australia

It’s gone for now! I’ve worked in the coffee industry since I was 18, I’m 25 now. It’s been my career aspiration to work in a coffee roastery. Eight months into my dream job and it’s been snatched away from me. I was also training for the Brewers cup, hours of training put in with a coffee that won’t make it to the national stage. — Production assistant/account manager, Ireland

What’s your life like right now?

I’m enjoying myself at home, trying to work on creative projects, suddenly needing to buy way more whole bean than I normally would. I visited my store yesterday to say hello to everyone, and I’m glad I’m not working through this time. The job right now simply isn’t what I was hired for, or what I had hired staff for, and although I know regulars keep showing up and the working staff are nothing but positive, I know I couldn’t suspend my fear and completely alter our operations without having an eventual breakdown. Sometimes I worry that I made the wrong choice, that I turned my back on a great company and wonderful coworkers, but this is far bigger than me, than any of us individually, and I have to remind myself that despite the uncertainty, staying home is the likely the best thing I can do for everyone in my community. — Barista/manager, Canada

Working from home and waiting for funding from the government so that I won’t have to shut down altogether. — Cafe owner, Brazil

It is better but still we hope that we will overcome it soon because still we are making just 50% of our regular numbers. — Cafe owner, Czech Republic

My wife and I run our cafe, where we have around 11 employees. The future is just uncertain. We were one of the first coffee roasters in Kazakhstan, and we have been here for the past eight years watching the culture grow. And now I’m scared we will have to start all over. — Cafe/roastery owner, Kazakhstan

My life is very precarious. I have expenses without any return. I am limited in practicing my profession, if not for video lessons to keep in touch with the community. How it will return to normal is my doubt. Our profession is at risk. — Barista, Italy

Filled with anxiety of no income but relaxing spending time with loved ones at home. — Head of coffee, South Africa

My life is a series of zoom calls, FaceTime, daily anxiety, and planning my alternate idea of a career that doesn’t rely on the global economy. I’ve been knitting a lot and filming crafting videos. — Roasting operations manager, United Kingdom

Boring and stressful. — Cafe owner, Trinidad

I filed for unemployment but with little clarity as to what the stimulus package is actually sending, my partner (also a barista) and I are making about a third of our wages from unemployment leaving our livelihood up in the air with rent and other bills still coming. We are also losing our health insurance through our full-time jobs. — Barista, United States

Additional Reporting

Poll results: Baristas 

Poll results: Coffee consumption

Voices of baristas

Voices of cafe owners

Voices of importers 

All COVID-19 coverage on Sprudge. 

Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

from Sprudge https://ift.tt/3adI0uh

[wetrumpfeed]

Afternoon MAGAthread: YOUR WEEKLY PRESIDENTIAL RECAP!

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!

This is your giiiirlllll u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things dank and spicy from the past week! If you happened to miss any past recaps you can catch those here!

Sunday, May 26th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Attends the Sumo Wrestling Cultural Program

President Trump Participates in a Couples Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Tonight in Tokyo, Japan at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan Stadium, it was my great honor to present the first-ever U.S. President’s Cup to Sumo Grand Champion Asanoyama. Congratulations! A great time had by all, thank you @AbeShinzo!!

Thank you @JPN_PMO @AbeShinzo! #POTUSinJapan🇺🇸🇯🇵

“Why doesn’t the press apologize to President Trump for the Russian Collusion Delusion?” @marklevinshow @JudgeJeanine How about the Dems also?

The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, & hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be, & where they should be. Have a wonderful time today. Thank you to our great men & women of the Pentagon for working it out!

Congratulations to the Great (and my friend) Roger Penske on winning his 18th (UNBELIEVABLE!) Indianapolis 500. I am in Japan, very early in the morning, but I got to watch Simon drive one of the greatest races in the history of the sport. I will see them both, & TEAM, at the WH!

Great evening last night, thank you!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Prime Minister Abe Shinzo just posted a selfie with GEOTUS on the golf course!

Japan PEDE Approved

🚨IMPORTANT🚨 CBS News Poll: 7 in 10 Americans say the economy is in good shape. It’s clear: Americans are feeling the positive effects of @realDonaldTrump’s economy!

Oscar winner Jon Voight calls Trump the greatest president since Lincoln

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

2020 election in a nutshell

A global mass awakening is happening

NEVER FORGET.

It's becoming hard to tell the real world and satire apart.

KEK

Monday, May 27th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan

President Trump Participates in a Joint Press Conference with the Prime Minister of Japan

President Trump Participates in a Meeting with Japanese Families of those Abducted by North Korea

President Trump and the First Lady Attend the State Banquet

Vice President Pence Participates in the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day Ceremony

President Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Memorial Day Address Aboard the USS WASP

President Trump and the First Lady Visit JS Kaga with the Prime Minister of Japan

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

(Retweeting The White House) President @realDonaldTrump and Prime Minister @AbeShinzo met for bilateral meetings and a working lunch at Akasaka Palace.

.@ianbremmer now admits that he MADE UP “a completely ludicrous quote,” attributing it to me. This is what’s going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it. Really, the libel laws should be changed to hold Fake News Media accountable!

Impeach for what, having created perhaps the greatest Economy in our Country’s history, rebuilding our Military, taking care of our Vets (Choice), Judges, Best Jobs Numbers Ever, and much more? Dems are Obstructionists!

The Dems are getting NOTHING done in Congress! They only want a Do-Over on Mueller!

Arlington National Cemetary

#MemorialDay🇺🇸

Liz Cheney: Statements by agents investigating Trump 'could well be treason'

Retweeting The White House Video

Hoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever. A lot more to do!

....Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing. That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!

Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you. I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, & helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!

I will be making two stops this morning in Japan to visit with our Great Military, then a quick stop in Alaska and back to D.C. Meetings with Prime Minister Abe went very well, and getting to spend time with the new Emperor and Empress of Japan was a great honor!

Can’t wait to see you all soon!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Time Reporter ADMITS He Faked Trump Quote!

HEAR! HEAR!

My dad left Iran during the Revolution. He painted this and now hangs it in his house for everyone to see. He’s a proud American, and I’m proud of him.

It's just a matter of time before every women's athletic record will be held by someone with a Y chromosome.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

WHO: "Gamers are mentally ill." Also WHO: "Thinking you're the wrong sex is not a mental illness." honk honk.

If you want to thank a soldier....

For those who made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you 🇺🇸

Things you never see anymore...

Tuesday, May 28th:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Spoke with @GovStitt of Oklahoma last night from Japan because of the devastating tornadoes. Told him that @FEMA and the federal government are fully behind him and the great people of Oklahoma.

Storms overnight across Ohio and many other States were very dangerous and damaging. My team continues to update me with reports from emergency managers in the States affected. Listen to your local officials and be resilient. We are with you!

.@GovMikeDeWine just updated me on the devastation from the many tornadoes that struck Ohio early this morning. My Administration fully supports the people of the great State of Ohio as they begin the cleanup and recovery.

Just spoke to Governor @AsaHutchinson of the Great State of Arkansas to inform him that FEMA and the Federal Government will do whatever is necessary to help out with what has turned out to be Record Flooding. Asa and local officials are doing a great job!

I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a “low IQ idiot,” and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer “low IQ individual.” Who could possibly be upset with that?

Back from Japan after a very successful trip. Big progress on MANY fronts. A great country with a wonderful leader in Prime Minister Abe!

THANK YOU JAPAN!🇺🇸🇯🇵

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Airmen onboard the USS WASP wearing patches on their jumpsuits that read “Make Aircrew Great Again.” The patches include an image in the center in the likeness of President Trump.

I'll take stories that got swept under the carpet for 200

Senate Republicans vow to quickly crush impeachment trial of Trump if House proceeds with impeachment

Massachusetts judge who hid illegal alien from ICE faces 20 years in prison

Mueller Team Denies Michael Wolff Claim of Trump Indictment

A left-wing content creator on youtube and twitch openly endorses political violence against conservatives.

After answering question, Creepy Joe tells 10-yo girl... "if you give me your address I'm going to write you a longer answer & tell you the exact things I would do, okay? okay? promise? I bet you're as bright as you are good looking." then gropes her shoulders and gets in a sniff

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Three years ago today. RIP Harambe.

LOCK THEM UP!!!

The left set themselves such extremely low standards then fail to live up to them

Great Britain just got Great Again.

Wednesday, May 29th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Individual to a Key Administration Post

President Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal Nominee

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Depart for Japan

President Trump Meets Members of the Military in Alaska

President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Visit Arlington Cemetery

President Trump Presents the Public Safety Medal of Valor

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two. I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t..... ... ...If Alabama does not elect a Republican to the Senate in 2020, many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost, including our Pro-Life victories. Roy Moore cannot win, and the consequences will be devastating....Judges and Supreme Court Justices!

Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you.

How do you impeach a Republican President for a crime that was committed by the Democrats? WITCH-HUNT!

Great show tonight @seanhannity, you really get it (9:00 P.M. @FoxNews), that’s why you’re Number One (by far)! Also, please tell Mark Levin congrats on having the Number One book!

I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Posted by antifa international, but is literally fascism

Trump Cracks Down On People That Help Immigrants Illegally Enter The US

The guy who ran the FBI for 12 years does not believe in the fundamental underpinning of American law. This should terrify everyone.

A week before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Britain’s top national security official sent a private communique, hand-delivered to incoming U.S. national security adviser Mike Flynn’s team, that the British government lacked confidence in the credibility of former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

LOCK THEM UP

r/The_Donald Right Now................

Presumption of innocence, how does it work?

Mueller leaves them blue balled and frustrated once again

Hello? Hello?

Thursday, May 30th:

TODAY'S ACTION:

First Lady Melania Trump and Mrs. Akie Abe Visit Digital Art Museum in Tokyo

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the 2019 United States Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!

Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,..... ... ....say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false accusation, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!

Congressman John Ratcliffe, “The Trump Campaign clearly did not conspire or collude.” @FoxNews

“Comey and Brennan are turning on each other.” @kilmeade

Robert Mueller came to the Oval Office (along with other potential candidates) seeking to be named the Director of the FBI. He had already been in that position for 12 years, I told him NO. The next day he was named Special Counsel - A total Conflict of Interest. NICE!

Very sad to hear the news on the passing of my friend, Senator Thad Cochran. He was a real Senator with incredible values - even flew back to Senate from Mississippi for important Healthcare Vote when he was desperately ill. Thad never let our Country (or me) down!

Presidential Meme

Just arrived in Colorado. Getting ready to deliver the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy graduation. Very exciting - probably will be broadcast live on TV. They want good ratings!

(Retweeting The White House) Thank you to all of the brave men and women graduating from the United States Air Force Academy today! “You could have chosen any school, any career you wanted, but you chose a harder path and a higher calling to protect and defend the United States of America.”

(Retweeting The White House) “You are ready to fly, fight, and win!” — President Donald J. Trump

Yesterday, Border Patrol agents apprehended the largest group of illegal aliens ever: 1,036 people who illegally crossed the border in El Paso around 4am. Democrats need to stand by our incredible Border Patrol and finally fix the loopholes at our Border!

The Navy put out a disclaimer on the McCain story. Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!

On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,.. ... ....at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.

I will be watching @AlanDersh on @IngrahamAngle at 10:00 P.M. He speaks the truth!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

GEOTUS JUST ANNOUNCED ALL GOODS FROM MEXICO WILL BE TARIFFED 5% UNTIL ILLEGALS STOP COMING!

Free hammers given out to the first 50 attendees!

Netflix Continues Production In Egypt, Where Abortion Is Illegal, While Considering Georgia Boycott Over ‘Heartbeat’ Bill

Chicago police release hundreds of pages of documents related to Jussie Smollett investigation straight from MAGA COUNTRY! #Transparency

William Barr interview: Attorney General says Mueller "could've reached a decision" on whether Trump obstructed justice — exclusive

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Hmmmm

MRW the White House imposes tariffs on Mexico over illegal immigration

Who's laughing now?

When Trump adds a 25% tariff...

Friday, May 31st:

TODAY'S ACTION:

Proclamation to Modify the List of Beneficiary Developing Countries Under the Trade Act of 1974

Proclamation on National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, 2019

Proclamation on Great Outdoors Month, 2019

Proclamation on National Homeownership Month, 2019

Proclamation on African American Music Appreciation Month, 2019

Proclamation on National Ocean Month, 2019

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Sean Davis, The Federalist: “Mueller proved his entire operation was a political hit job. Still ZERO evidence of Trump-Russia Collusion, and no new evidence from Mueller.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews

Congratulations to the @AF_Academy Class of 2019!

Hard to believe that with the Crisis on the Border, the Dems won’t do the quick and easy fix. Would solve the problem but they want Open Borders, which equals crime!

Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades. Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!

In order not to pay Tariffs, if they start rising, companies will leave Mexico, which has taken 30% of our Auto Industry, and come back home to the USA. Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!

90% of the Drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico & our Southern Border. 80,000 people died last year, 1,000,000 people ruined. This has gone on for many years & nothing has been done about it. We have a 100 Billion Dollar Trade Deficit with Mexico. It’s time!

Saddened to hear about the loss of John Pinto, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II, over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Code Talkers are true American HEROES and John never stopped serving his fellow citizens as a longtime New Mexico State Senator. John, Rest In Peace!

.@SeanHannity is having a DEEP STATE SHOW tonight on Fox News at 9:00 PM (E), exposing the tremendous abuse of power that has been uncovered. Tremendous guests, a must see – Enjoy!

As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals.... ... ....on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!

GREAT NEWS! #MAGA

I will be announcing my Second Term Presidential Run with First Lady Melania, Vice President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence on June 18th in Orlando, Florida, at the 20,000 seat Amway Center. Join us for this Historic Rally! Tickets:

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

Trump's approval rating hits highest point in two years

Justice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of Google

William Barr: Trump’s critics, not Trump, are 'shredding our norms and our institutions'

Flynn Filing Shows Mueller Twisted Everything Around And Prosecutors Refuse To Provide Proof Flynn Innocent

✅ Never Forget. Mueller Team Destroyed 19,000 Strzok/Page Texts Before Review

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

avocados are over rated anyway.

I like beer too🍻

Wow! Watch RINO justin amash get BTFO by this Trump supporter, for his stance on impeachment of POTUS. I'd like to buy this woman a beer. Thank you, patriot! 👏👏

I love this restaurant. I love it, love it, love it. But not as much as I love our POTUS.

Saturday, June 1st:

🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:

Spoke to Virginia Governor @RalphNortham last night, and the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Virginia Beach this morning, to offer condolences to that great community. The Federal Government is there, and will be, for whatever they may need. God bless the families and all!

SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:

🚨🚨 Supreme Court to decide what happens when a US border agent shoots & kills someone on the Mexican side of the wall.

LISTEN TO THIS INFILTRATING WITCH .. Linda Sarsour STATES Muslims should NEVER assimilate, should ONLY appease Allah, & JIHAD against Trump & his administration !! BELIEVE HER SHE MEANS EVERY WORD.

Eric Trump: The media is a total joke — They discuss “avocado’s” potentially increasing a few cents but fail to mention the $200 Billion illegal immigration costs American taxpayers EVERY YEAR. How about the cost of illegal drugs on our youth, the cost to eduction & healthcare? #Priorities

CBS only wants you to watch small pieces of this interview so they can give before/after commentary to paint their own narrative around it. Listen to the entire uncut audio instead of watching their bullshit clips.

FITTON:MONSTROUS Abuse of Power: Investigate Mueller political attack on President Trump; New Docs show FBI helped Hillary Clinton just before the election; AND Hillary Knew: Was Warned Twice About Blackberry and Email Use -- Massive Judicial Watch Mega Update:

🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:

Must have trained real hard.

My baby's smiling, probably because he knows he gets to live to be a badass. 🇺🇸 Here's hoping for a July 4th birthday.

Vegans For Biden. Drumpf doesn't stand a freakin' chance.

What a great idea. MAGA Parrots! 🦜

Training is one of the most important parts of winning. This is how AG Bill Barr begins each day.

WEEEW LAD! SOOOO MUCH FUCKING WINNING, STILL NOT TIRED OF IT!

Of course, no recap is complete without some tunes to get you jamming through all this winning:

Alright

Out Last Night

People Are Crazy

Why Don't We Just Dance

American Kids

MAGA ON PATRIOTS!

submitted by /u/Ivaginaryfriend [link] [comments]

[robgrayofficial]

HAPPY SATURDAY DEPLORABLES!This is your giiiirlllll u/Ivaginaryfriend here and I'm back with all things dank and spicy from the past week! If you happened to miss any past recaps you can catch those here!Sunday, May 26th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Attends the Sumo Wrestling Cultural ProgramPresident Trump Participates in a Couples Dinner with the Prime Minister of Japan🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Tonight in Tokyo, Japan at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan Stadium, it was my great honor to present the first-ever U.S. President’s Cup to Sumo Grand Champion Asanoyama. Congratulations! A great time had by all, thank you @AbeShinzo!!Thank you @JPN_PMO @AbeShinzo! #POTUSinJapan🇺🇸🇯🇵“Why doesn’t the press apologize to President Trump for the Russian Collusion Delusion?” @marklevinshow @JudgeJeanine How about the Dems also?The Great Patriots of Rolling Thunder WILL be coming back to Washington, D.C. next year, & hopefully for many years to come. It is where they want to be, & where they should be. Have a wonderful time today. Thank you to our great men & women of the Pentagon for working it out!Congratulations to the Great (and my friend) Roger Penske on winning his 18th (UNBELIEVABLE!) Indianapolis 500. I am in Japan, very early in the morning, but I got to watch Simon drive one of the greatest races in the history of the sport. I will see them both, & TEAM, at the WH!Great evening last night, thank you!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Prime Minister Abe Shinzo just posted a selfie with GEOTUS on the golf course!Japan PEDE Approved🚨IMPORTANT🚨 CBS News Poll: 7 in 10 Americans say the economy is in good shape. It’s clear: Americans are feeling the positive effects of @realDonaldTrump’s economy!Oscar winner Jon Voight calls Trump the greatest president since Lincoln🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:2020 election in a nutshellA global mass awakening is happeningNEVER FORGET.It's becoming hard to tell the real world and satire apart.KEKMonday, May 27th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Trump Participates in a Bilateral Meeting with the Prime Minister of JapanPresident Trump Participates in a Joint Press Conference with the Prime Minister of JapanPresident Trump Participates in a Meeting with Japanese Families of those Abducted by North KoreaPresident Trump and the First Lady Attend the State BanquetVice President Pence Participates in the Arlington National Cemetery Memorial Day CeremonyPresident Trump and the First Lady Participate in a Memorial Day Address Aboard the USS WASPPresident Trump and the First Lady Visit JS Kaga with the Prime Minister of Japan🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:(Retweeting The White House) President @realDonaldTrump and Prime Minister @AbeShinzo met for bilateral meetings and a working lunch at Akasaka Palace..@ianbremmer now admits that he MADE UP “a completely ludicrous quote,” attributing it to me. This is what’s going on in the age of Fake News. People think they can say anything and get away with it. Really, the libel laws should be changed to hold Fake News Media accountable!Impeach for what, having created perhaps the greatest Economy in our Country’s history, rebuilding our Military, taking care of our Vets (Choice), Judges, Best Jobs Numbers Ever, and much more? Dems are Obstructionists!The Dems are getting NOTHING done in Congress! They only want a Do-Over on Mueller!Arlington National Cemetary#MemorialDay🇺🇸Liz Cheney: Statements by agents investigating Trump 'could well be treason'Retweeting The White House VideoHoping things will work out with Israel's coalition formation and Bibi and I can continue to make the alliance between America and Israel stronger than ever. A lot more to do!....Super Predator was the term associated with the 1994 Crime Bill that Sleepy Joe Biden was so heavily involved in passing. That was a dark period in American History, but has Sleepy Joe apologized? No!Anyone associated with the 1994 Crime Bill will not have a chance of being elected. In particular, African Americans will not be able to vote for you. I, on the other hand, was responsible for Criminal Justice Reform, which had tremendous support, & helped fix the bad 1994 Bill!I will be making two stops this morning in Japan to visit with our Great Military, then a quick stop in Alaska and back to D.C. Meetings with Prime Minister Abe went very well, and getting to spend time with the new Emperor and Empress of Japan was a great honor!Can’t wait to see you all soon!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Time Reporter ADMITS He Faked Trump Quote!HEAR! HEAR!My dad left Iran during the Revolution. He painted this and now hangs it in his house for everyone to see. He’s a proud American, and I’m proud of him.It's just a matter of time before every women's athletic record will be held by someone with a Y chromosome.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:WHO: "Gamers are mentally ill." Also WHO: "Thinking you're the wrong sex is not a mental illness." honk honk.If you want to thank a soldier....For those who made the ultimate sacrifice, thank you 🇺🇸Things you never see anymore...Tuesday, May 28th:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Spoke with @GovStitt of Oklahoma last night from Japan because of the devastating tornadoes. Told him that @FEMA and the federal government are fully behind him and the great people of Oklahoma.Storms overnight across Ohio and many other States were very dangerous and damaging. My team continues to update me with reports from emergency managers in the States affected. Listen to your local officials and be resilient. We are with you!.@GovMikeDeWine just updated me on the devastation from the many tornadoes that struck Ohio early this morning. My Administration fully supports the people of the great State of Ohio as they begin the cleanup and recovery.Just spoke to Governor @AsaHutchinson of the Great State of Arkansas to inform him that FEMA and the Federal Government will do whatever is necessary to help out with what has turned out to be Record Flooding. Asa and local officials are doing a great job!I was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden while on foreign soil. Kim Jong Un called him a “low IQ idiot,” and many other things, whereas I related the quote of Chairman Kim as a much softer “low IQ individual.” Who could possibly be upset with that?Back from Japan after a very successful trip. Big progress on MANY fronts. A great country with a wonderful leader in Prime Minister Abe!THANK YOU JAPAN!🇺🇸🇯🇵SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Airmen onboard the USS WASP wearing patches on their jumpsuits that read “Make Aircrew Great Again.” The patches include an image in the center in the likeness of President Trump.I'll take stories that got swept under the carpet for 200Senate Republicans vow to quickly crush impeachment trial of Trump if House proceeds with impeachmentMassachusetts judge who hid illegal alien from ICE faces 20 years in prisonMueller Team Denies Michael Wolff Claim of Trump IndictmentA left-wing content creator on youtube and twitch openly endorses political violence against conservatives.After answering question, Creepy Joe tells 10-yo girl... "if you give me your address I'm going to write you a longer answer & tell you the exact things I would do, okay? okay? promise? I bet you're as bright as you are good looking." then gropes her shoulders and gets in a sniff🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Three years ago today. RIP Harambe.LOCK THEM UP!!!The left set themselves such extremely low standards then fail to live up to themGreat Britain just got Great Again.Wednesday, May 29th:TODAY'S ACTION:President Donald J. Trump Announces Intent to Appoint Individual to a Key Administration PostPresident Donald J. Trump Announces Judicial Nominees and United States Marshal NomineePresident Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Depart for JapanPresident Trump Meets Members of the Military in AlaskaPresident Trump and First Lady Melania Trump Visit Arlington CemeteryPresident Trump Presents the Public Safety Medal of Valor🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two. I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t..... ... ...If Alabama does not elect a Republican to the Senate in 2020, many of the incredible gains that we have made during my Presidency may be lost, including our Pro-Life victories. Roy Moore cannot win, and the consequences will be devastating....Judges and Supreme Court Justices!Nothing changes from the Mueller Report. There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our Country, a person is innocent. The case is closed! Thank you.How do you impeach a Republican President for a crime that was committed by the Democrats? WITCH-HUNT!Great show tonight @seanhannity, you really get it (9:00 P.M. @FoxNews), that’s why you’re Number One (by far)! Also, please tell Mark Levin congrats on having the Number One book!I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Posted by antifa international, but is literally fascismTrump Cracks Down On People That Help Immigrants Illegally Enter The USThe guy who ran the FBI for 12 years does not believe in the fundamental underpinning of American law. This should terrify everyone.A week before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, Britain’s top national security official sent a private communique, hand-delivered to incoming U.S. national security adviser Mike Flynn’s team, that the British government lacked confidence in the credibility of former MI6 spy Christopher Steele.🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:LOCK THEM UPr/The_Donald Right Now................Presumption of innocence, how does it work?Mueller leaves them blue balled and frustrated once againHello? Hello?Thursday, May 30th:TODAY'S ACTION:First Lady Melania Trump and Mrs. Akie Abe Visit Digital Art Museum in TokyoPresident Trump Delivers Remarks at the 2019 United States Air Force Academy Graduation CeremonyPresident Trump Delivers Remarks at the U.S. Air Force Academy Graduation Ceremony🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:The Greatest Presidential Harassment in history. After spending $40,000,000 over two dark years, with unlimited access, people, resources and cooperation, highly conflicted Robert Mueller would have brought charges, if he had ANYTHING, but there were no charges to bring!Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the beginning of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist. So now the Dems and their partner, the Fake News Media,..... ... ....say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false accusation, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!Congressman John Ratcliffe, “The Trump Campaign clearly did not conspire or collude.” @FoxNews“Comey and Brennan are turning on each other.” @kilmeadeRobert Mueller came to the Oval Office (along with other potential candidates) seeking to be named the Director of the FBI. He had already been in that position for 12 years, I told him NO. The next day he was named Special Counsel - A total Conflict of Interest. NICE!Very sad to hear the news on the passing of my friend, Senator Thad Cochran. He was a real Senator with incredible values - even flew back to Senate from Mississippi for important Healthcare Vote when he was desperately ill. Thad never let our Country (or me) down!Presidential MemeJust arrived in Colorado. Getting ready to deliver the commencement speech at the Air Force Academy graduation. Very exciting - probably will be broadcast live on TV. They want good ratings!(Retweeting The White House) Thank you to all of the brave men and women graduating from the United States Air Force Academy today! “You could have chosen any school, any career you wanted, but you chose a harder path and a higher calling to protect and defend the United States of America.”(Retweeting The White House) “You are ready to fly, fight, and win!” — President Donald J. TrumpYesterday, Border Patrol agents apprehended the largest group of illegal aliens ever: 1,036 people who illegally crossed the border in El Paso around 4am. Democrats need to stand by our incredible Border Patrol and finally fix the loopholes at our Border!The Navy put out a disclaimer on the McCain story. Looks like the story was an exaggeration, or even Fake News - but why not, everything else is!On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,.. ... ....at which time the Tariffs will be removed. Details from the White House to follow.I will be watching @AlanDersh on @IngrahamAngle at 10:00 P.M. He speaks the truth!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:GEOTUS JUST ANNOUNCED ALL GOODS FROM MEXICO WILL BE TARIFFED 5% UNTIL ILLEGALS STOP COMING!Free hammers given out to the first 50 attendees!Netflix Continues Production In Egypt, Where Abortion Is Illegal, While Considering Georgia Boycott Over ‘Heartbeat’ BillChicago police release hundreds of pages of documents related to Jussie Smollett investigation straight from MAGA COUNTRY! #TransparencyWilliam Barr interview: Attorney General says Mueller "could've reached a decision" on whether Trump obstructed justice — exclusive🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:HmmmmMRW the White House imposes tariffs on Mexico over illegal immigrationWho's laughing now?When Trump adds a 25% tariff...Friday, May 31st:TODAY'S ACTION:Proclamation to Modify the List of Beneficiary Developing Countries Under the Trade Act of 1974Proclamation on National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, 2019Proclamation on Great Outdoors Month, 2019Proclamation on National Homeownership Month, 2019Proclamation on African American Music Appreciation Month, 2019Proclamation on National Ocean Month, 2019🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Sean Davis, The Federalist: “Mueller proved his entire operation was a political hit job. Still ZERO evidence of Trump-Russia Collusion, and no new evidence from Mueller.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNewsCongratulations to the @AF_Academy Class of 2019!Hard to believe that with the Crisis on the Border, the Dems won’t do the quick and easy fix. Would solve the problem but they want Open Borders, which equals crime!Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades. Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!In order not to pay Tariffs, if they start rising, companies will leave Mexico, which has taken 30% of our Auto Industry, and come back home to the USA. Mexico must take back their country from the drug lords and cartels. The Tariff is about stopping drugs as well as illegals!90% of the Drugs coming into the United States come through Mexico & our Southern Border. 80,000 people died last year, 1,000,000 people ruined. This has gone on for many years & nothing has been done about it. We have a 100 Billion Dollar Trade Deficit with Mexico. It’s time!Saddened to hear about the loss of John Pinto, a Navajo Code Talker in World War II, over the Memorial Day Weekend. The Code Talkers are true American HEROES and John never stopped serving his fellow citizens as a longtime New Mexico State Senator. John, Rest In Peace!.@SeanHannity is having a DEEP STATE SHOW tonight on Fox News at 9:00 PM (E), exposing the tremendous abuse of power that has been uncovered. Tremendous guests, a must see – Enjoy!As we celebrate LGBT Pride Month and recognize the outstanding contributions LGBT people have made to our great Nation, let us also stand in solidarity with the many LGBT people who live in dozens of countries worldwide that punish, imprison, or even execute individuals.... ... ....on the basis of their sexual orientation. My Administration has launched a global campaign to decriminalize homosexuality and invite all nations to join us in this effort!GREAT NEWS! #MAGAI will be announcing my Second Term Presidential Run with First Lady Melania, Vice President Mike Pence, and Second Lady Karen Pence on June 18th in Orlando, Florida, at the 20,000 seat Amway Center. Join us for this Historic Rally! Tickets:SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:Trump's approval rating hits highest point in two yearsJustice Department Is Preparing Antitrust Investigation of GoogleWilliam Barr: Trump’s critics, not Trump, are 'shredding our norms and our institutions'Flynn Filing Shows Mueller Twisted Everything Around And Prosecutors Refuse To Provide Proof Flynn Innocent✅ Never Forget. Mueller Team Destroyed 19,000 Strzok/Page Texts Before Review🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:avocados are over rated anyway.I like beer too🍻Wow! Watch RINO justin amash get BTFO by this Trump supporter, for his stance on impeachment of POTUS. I'd like to buy this woman a beer. Thank you, patriot! 👏👏I love this restaurant. I love it, love it, love it. But not as much as I love our POTUS.Saturday, June 1st:🔥🔥TRUMP TWEETS🔥🔥:Spoke to Virginia Governor @RalphNortham last night, and the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Virginia Beach this morning, to offer condolences to that great community. The Federal Government is there, and will be, for whatever they may need. God bless the families and all!SIGNIFICANT TWEETS AND NEWS:🚨🚨 Supreme Court to decide what happens when a US border agent shoots & kills someone on the Mexican side of the wall.LISTEN TO THIS INFILTRATING WITCH .. Linda Sarsour STATES Muslims should NEVER assimilate, should ONLY appease Allah, & JIHAD against Trump & his administration !! BELIEVE HER SHE MEANS EVERY WORD.Eric Trump: The media is a total joke — They discuss “avocado’s” potentially increasing a few cents but fail to mention the $200 Billion illegal immigration costs American taxpayers EVERY YEAR. How about the cost of illegal drugs on our youth, the cost to eduction & healthcare? #PrioritiesCBS only wants you to watch small pieces of this interview so they can give before/after commentary to paint their own narrative around it. Listen to the entire uncut audio instead of watching their bullshit clips.FITTON:MONSTROUS Abuse of Power: Investigate Mueller political attack on President Trump; New Docs show FBI helped Hillary Clinton just before the election; AND Hillary Knew: Was Warned Twice About Blackberry and Email Use -- Massive Judicial Watch Mega Update:🐸 TOP SPICE OF THE DAY 🐸:Must have trained real hard.My baby's smiling, probably because he knows he gets to live to be a badass. 🇺🇸 Here's hoping for a July 4th birthday.Vegans For Biden. Drumpf doesn't stand a freakin' chance.What a great idea. MAGA Parrots! 🦜Training is one of the most important parts of winning. This is how AG Bill Barr begins each day.WEEEW LAD! SOOOO MUCH FUCKING WINNING, STILL NOT TIRED OF IT!Of course, no recap is complete without some tunes to get you jamming through all this winning:AlrightOut Last NightPeople Are CrazyWhy Don't We Just DanceAmerican KidsMAGA ON PATRIOTS! #robgray

[biofunmy]

Fighting Ebola When Mourners Fight the Responders

BENI, Democratic Republic of Congo — When Ebola came to this city in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Janvier Muhindo Mandefu quit farming and got work burying the highly contagious bodies of Ebola victims.

But Mr. Muhindo is less afraid of Ebola than of the mourners he encounters at funerals. He and his burial team have been attacked by relatives of the dead, one swinging a hoe. Mourners have shouted at team members, accusing them of stealing the organs of corpses, and have threatened to throw them into the open graves. Last month a mourner brandished a hand grenade, he said, sending everyone scattering and leaving a 3-year-old Ebola victim unburied.

“Someone like me can be buried alive,” Mr. Muhindo said as his colleagues hosed down their trucks at the Red Cross compound after another day of burials.

This Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the second-largest ever recorded, is now spiraling out of control. Despite some early success — helped by a new and effective vaccine — the disease has come roaring back in the past two months.

Efforts to combat the epidemic have been hobbled by attacks on treatment centers and health workers; deep suspicion of the national government, which is managing the eradication efforts; and growing mistrust of the international medical experts who have struggled to steer patients into the treatment centers, according to interviews with dozens of family members, politicians, doctors and health workers in recent weeks.

When a doctor was killed, and treatment centers attacked by gunmen or set on fire, front-line health workers suspended their work, giving the virus time to spread. Some medical and aid groups have decided to pull some of their personnel from the very areas where Ebola has hit hardest.

So far nearly 1,150 people have died in the outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. But that is a significant undercount, aid groups said in interviews. Health workers have been turned away regularly from homes where someone has died, leaving them unable to test for Ebola.

Earlier in the outbreak, the police would remove these bodies from homes, at gunpoint if necessary, said Philemon Kalondero, 39, who is often the first member of his Ebola response team to arrive at a grief-stricken home.

“The new protocol is that we just abandon the body,” he said. “They will learn their lesson when they get sick.”

Initial Optimism

When the outbreak was discovered last summer, health workers had reason to worry. This part of eastern Congo has long been beset by dozens of armed groups fighting over land, natural resources, ethnicity and religion — including one outfit with ties to the Islamic State.

Yet optimism ran strong among the arriving wave of international health experts and humanitarian workers, many of whom had experience treating Ebola, an often fatal disease caused by a virus that is transmitted by body fluids.

They came with lessons learned from the outbreak that tore across West Africa starting in 2013, killing more than 11,000 people. And they were buoyed by a recent success: the speedy containment of an outbreak in western Congo.

They also brought medical advances: a strikingly effective vaccine, experimental treatments, and a transparent container known as the “cube” that Ebola patients live inside, reducing the transmission risk to doctors and visitors.

Some of the responders hoped that big outbreaks were already a thing of the past.

The stakes were high. The outbreak was in one of Congo’s most populous regions, and near the borders of three countries — Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan — raising fears that it would spread beyond Congo.

And while Congo has had nine earlier recorded Ebola outbreaks, the disease had never been detected in the region until it showed up last year in a town called Mangina, health workers said.

By late summer it had traveled down a dirt road to Beni, a city of about 350,000 that was reeling from a series of massacres by machete that killed an estimated 800 people in recent years. The assailants’ identity and motive were difficult to determine, but a research group concluded that in addition to rebels, the Congolese Army had a role — leaving many residents unsure whom to trust.

They saw Ebola as the latest in a spate of unexplained but connected disasters.

Some local politicians publicly suggested that the national government — or some other hidden hand — had imported the disease. Conspiracies took root. In this fiercely independent region, only 2 percent of those recently surveyed said they trusted the national government in Kinshasa, 1,000 miles away.

“Scientifically, I don’t believe that it’s possible to first have the killings of people in Beni, and now this disease without them being related,” said Crispin Mbindule Mitondo, a member of the national assembly, in remarks broadcast on local radio and circulated on WhatsApp.

The Politics of Ebola

Ebola landed right ahead of a tight national election that was shaping up to be the first transfer of power by ballot in Congo since independence in 1960. But Kinshasa suspended voting in Ebola-affected areas in December, citing the risk that polling places might spread the disease.

This area was also an opposition stronghold. So for many, the announcement confirmed their suspicions that Ebola was part of a plot, managed by Kinshasa, to deny them their vote.

A day after the announcement canceling the vote, protesters stormed an Ebola triage center in Beni and set it on fire.

“When they canceled the elections, it was a disaster for us,” said Emmanuel Massart, an emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, which has run several Ebola treatment centers in Congo.

Adding to the suspicion, vaccination teams and other responders often traveled under armed police or military escort. This made it appear that the Ebola response, which relied heavily on international medical organizations and the United Nations, was an extension of an unpopular national government.

Making matters worse, police officers and soldiers accompanying Ebola response teams have on occasion opened fire during confrontations with grieving family members and neighbors, according to interviews with health workers who described three such episodes — one that is being examined by the United Nations. The confrontations tend to occur when Ebola responders try to take bodies away from grieving family members and take charge of the burial.

As the disease spread to Butembo, a larger, more prosperous city of about one million, many patients who had Ebola resisted going to designated treatment centers, seeing them as a place to die rather than be cured.

Other patients who went to see their doctors with common symptoms, such as headaches and fevers, were often forced into Ebola quarantine centers for a few days pending tests.

Many of the symptoms of Ebola resemble those of more common maladies, such as malaria. At one quarantine facility in Beni, fewer than 2 percent of patients tested positive for Ebola, according to interviews with health officials and an epidemiological report provided by a medical organization.

Mistrust settled in, affecting even those who have seen Ebola up close.

“The way my wife died, it is not Ebola that killed her that day,” said Héritier Bedico Zawadi, an engineer, one sleepless month after the death of his wife, Suzanne Kahindo Kitseghe, a 29-year-old doctor.

She had been exposed to the disease when a patient at her hospital wouldn’t stop bleeding, a classic Ebola symptom, after an IV line had been inserted, according to Dr. Michel Kalongo, an official in the local doctors union who knew Dr. Kahindo.

Dr. Kahindo had not been vaccinated, probably because she was pregnant and pregnant women were initially discouraged from receiving the vaccine. When she began to feel ill, she believed she had malaria and continued to see patients, even helping deliver a patient’s baby.

An alarmingly high percentage of transmissions occur in hospitals and clinics — as high as 40 percent recently around Mandima, although in most places it is far lower, according to an analysis of cases that was shared among medical and aid groups.

Dr. Kahindo was barely conscious on April 10 when colleagues sent her to an Ebola treatment center, where she died the next day. Her husband said that when other doctors expressed condolences, they often said, “Your wife didn’t die of Ebola.”

Gazing up at the night sky, Mr. Zawadi said that even though his wife had tested positive for Ebola, he was having trouble making up his mind about what to believe. “Emotionally, I’m broken.”

In February, an Ebola treatment center — this time in Katwa, an outlying area of Butembo and run by Doctors Without Borders — was also set on fire. A printed warning was left at the site, according to Rachel Sweet, a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard who studies eastern Congo. It said, “After this, we will plan even bigger things in the near future.”

Many of the patients fled into the night. Some of those too sick to flee were transferred to a nearby treatment center — which was in turn attacked.

In the days that followed, the Ebola response ground to a standstill in the epicenter of the outbreak. Doctors Without Borders pulled out of the city. When work resumed, the numbers of those infected began to rise — a pattern that would repeat.

In April, a Cameroonian doctor working on the Ebola response with the World Health Organization was shot to death by intruders while leading a meeting at a university hospital in Butembo.

Who is behind these attacks? Many health workers and foreign medical organizations say they do not fully understand the forces aligned against them. But they are all aware that resentment has been stirred up by the sight of late-model S.U.V.s carrying foreigners and Kinshasa bureaucrats through town, offering high-paying jobs to some but not others.

“The Ebola response has a lot of money, and this amount of money is kind of shifting power around, challenging the equilibrium,” said Mr. Massart of Doctors Without Borders. “I think that is one motivation” for the hostility to Ebola responders.

The outbreak remains confined to a single region, largely thanks to an effective vaccine, doctors say. More than 110,000 people have been vaccinated, including front-line responders such as doctors and burial teams, which has slowed the spread.

The treatment centers have saved people, such as Daniella, a baby who arrived at a treatment center with Ebola when she was 12 days old. A month later, she was deemed cured, according to the Congolese health department.

“Can we stop the epidemic? Certainly we can,” said Mike Ryan, who runs the World Health Organization’s emergencies program. But to do so, he said, a political solution that reduced the violence was first needed.

For now, many of the front-line Ebola workers say they keep their work a secret from neighbors. Perhaps no job is riskier than that of the burial teams, who retrieve the bodies of people suspected of dying from Ebola from grieving families.

Mr. Muhindo, the burial team leader in Beni, recounted the funeral last month of the 3-year-old boy who had died of Ebola. The boy’s father, a soldier, stood in stunned grief. But other mourners crowded the coffin, demanding that the boy’s body be inspected for signs of organ theft. Mr. Muhindo, who has received the Ebola vaccine, said he unzipped the bag to the boy’s sternum.

“They said, ‘Open it up all the way so we can see the entire body,’” Mr. Muhindo recalled.

People shouted that he would be buried next. As he tried to slip away, someone — perhaps another soldier — brandished a grenade and threatened to blow up the team.

Mr. Muhindo said that he and his team fled. As he looked back, he could see the boy’s father rush over and take the grenade from the man.

Finbarr O’Reilly contributed reporting from Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo.

Sahred From Source link Science

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[artjackingjournal-blog]

Plain Advice On Recognising Issues Of Iso Xp Probiotic Protein

A Closer Look At Root Details For Whey Protein New Zealand Canada

Home » Protein beverage maker secures $8 million investment Protein beverage maker secures $8 million investment Iconic Protein ready-to-drink protein beverages are made using dairy protein from grass-fed cows in New Zealand. SANTA MONICA, CALIF. — Iconic Protein, maker of protein beverages made with grass-fed dairy, has raised $8 million in a funding round led by private equity firm KarpReilly. Bill Moses, co-founder and former chief executive officer of KeVita, also participated in the round and will join Iconic Protein as the company’s executive chairman. Launched in 2013, Iconic Protein offers a line of ready-to-drink protein beverages that are made using dairy protein from grass-fed cows in New Zealand and are free from hormones, antibiotics and preservatives. The drinks, available in Café Au Lait, Chocolate Truffle and Vanilla Bean flavors, contain 20 grams of protein and 130 calories each. “Iconic has distinguished itself as a leader in the fast-growing protein drink space with the use of clean animal protein, incredible velocity at shelf and an audience that reaches far beyond the typical protein beverage consumer,” said Allan Karp, co-founder of KarpReilly. “There is an enormous market opportunity for Iconic’s better-for-you, New Zealand grass-fed dairy protein offering, and we are excited to work with their team to take the brand to the next level.” Bill Moses, co-founder of KeVita, and Lance Collins, founder of Core Hydration, Bodyarmor and Fuze Beverage, participated in the funding round. Iconic plans to use the funding to build out its senior leadership team and invest in product innovation, the company said. Iconic’s retail partners include Sprouts, Wegmans, H-E-B and Rouses Markets. Additional investors in the funding round include Lance Collins, founder of Core Hydration, Bodyarmor and Fuze Beverage, along with Gunnar Lovelace and Nick Green, founders of Thrive Market. 

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.foodbusinessnews.net/articles/10592-protein-beverage-maker-secures-8-million-investment

Tips That Will Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals!

You do not have to fear the word fitness. You may have negative associations with the idea--perhaps you think getting fit is boring or tedious, or you were bullied in the past because of your inability to play sports. Let go of hurtful feelings and be proud of having a healthy body. The following advice will help you do so. When doing multiple reps of a given exercise, count backwards from your goal. This will allow you to keep track of the number that you are on and also provide more motivation. Exercise burns a lot of calories, but not as much as some dieters wish it would. It can be damaging to go to extremes when it comes to exercise, though. Doing this puts you at risk of muscle and joint damage, heart problems, dehydration, and other physical problems. Also, it can cause you to end up in an anaerobic state. In this state, you aren't burning fat. Get quicker results by completing your exercise regimen in 10% less time than you usually do. Your muscles, then, will need to work that much more to meet the demand you are placing on it. Plus, it will increase your overall endurance levels too. For example, if you can do a full body workout in 30 minutes one day, try to do it in 27 minutes the next time you workout. Do not stop your workout routines on the weekends! Many fall into the habit of kicking back every weekend as a way of putting workweek stress behind them. Staying fit is a job that lasts all week long. Do not waste the weekend only to have to catch up later. Wipe down the fitness equipment at the gym prior to use. People leave germs on the equipment so it's best to keep this in mind. A visit to the gym should leave you feeling fit, not sick! People often try to do abdominal exercises on a daily basis. It isn't recommended for that particular group of muscles. You need to rest your muscles every other day or every two days. Rest your ab muscles for a few days before working them out again. A good rule of thumb is to avoid exercising if you feel poorly. Your body needs the full use of all of its resources for the healing process when you're ill. It will be more difficult for your body to have endurance and to build muscle. This is why you should avoid exercising until you feel better. While you are waiting, you can eat, sleep, and build up your strength. A great fitness tip to help you build up your calf muscles, is to start doing donkey calf raises. These exercises are exceptionally effective for that muscle group. With a partner sitting on your back, simply raise your calves. If you exercised the previous day, work out the muscles you used. A simple way to do this is to slightly work out the tired muscles using a much smaller percentage of effort. Don't overwhelm yourself when you start an exercise routine. You need to start slow and work your way into strenuous exercise, especially if it's been a long time since you were on a regular fitness routine. If your body and muscles are not accustomed to this level of activity, you are more susceptible to injury. Yogurt is a great addition to a healthy diet plan. It has a wide range of benefits to your health, especially when it comes to digestion. Yogurt is a great source of calcium and protein. Your diet should include adequate dairy; people who eat get enough calcium through dairy are proactively improving their health. If you have taken the information in this article to heart, you will probably notice your feelings about exercise and nutrition beginning to change. By accomplishing this, you will increase your lifespan and enjoy a fuller, enriched life.

A Straightforward Breakdown Of Recognising Key Factors Of Canada

In 2013, Ford also faced allegations relating to drugs, with the Globe and Mail reporting that he sold hashish for several years in the 1980s. He has denied the claims. According to Michael McGregor at Toronto’s Ryerson University, what’s at play is not a populist upswell but rather a perfect storm. Ford won the Progressive Conservative leadership race on points, despite losing the popular vote. The race had been hastily called after the former leader, Patrick Brown, was accused of sexual misconduct . The conservatives have long dominated polls; approval ratings for Ontario’s premier, Kathleen Wynne, tumbled to the lowest in Canada as her party scrambled to address issues ranging from soaring electricity prices to a conviction related to destroying documents. Last week her government was called Whey Protein out by the province’s auditor general for dramatically understating this year’s budget deficit and future shortfalls. “So you have the unpopular premier, you’ve got this weird electoral system that propels Ford to victory. You’ve got Patrick Brown getting caught up in the #MeToo movement,” said McGregor. “This is not a groundswell, grassroots movement towards populism. I just think it’s a confluence of strange factors.” Connecting Ford to Trump is a “false comparison”, said Kathy Brock at Queen’s University. Instead she pointed to the digital revolution – and the jarring pace of change it has unleashed – to explain the changes shaking up Canada’s political landscape.

For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/30/doug-ford-ontario-conservative-trump-comparison-canada

When You Want To Be The Best, You Have To Learn More About Vitamins

Your health can truly benefit from proper minerals and nutrients. Multivitamins can do the trick by themselves. It is sometimes hard to find the supplement that is right for you. Your best bet is to read on and keep an open mind. If you want your workout to be as effective as possible, make sure to take your vitamins. The right nutrients will make it easier to burn fat and build muscle. Your body cannot always absorb nutrients as-is. Sometimes it need a little help from other nutrients. For instance, calcium makes iron absorption difficult. Try not to have two forms of nutrients that react poorly with one another. Calcium helps build and maintain strong bones. You must also have a good amount of vitamin D in order to absorb calcium. There are a lot of ways to get a lot of vitamin D like food, sunlight, or supplements. These all improve your body's ability to absorb calcium. Try scheduling supplements that have fat around mealtimes to take them with food. Vitamins E, K and A are examples of supplements that should only be taken with food because they are easier to absorb at that time. Try to take them food that contains fat. If you want to have strong and abundant red blood cells, you must get enough iron. These red blood cells deliver oxygen through your system. Women need more iron than men, and often vitamin supplements that are specifically for women will have extra iron. If you're tired and lethargic, you may lack iron. At a time when health care is expensive, promoting good health is important and adding daily vitamins is a good start. Getting the proper amount of vitamins and minerals can help stave off serious medical conditions as well as improve your quality of life in general. Asparagus, dairy products, and bananas are rich sources of riboflavin. If you don't get enough vitamin B2, you could experience scaly sin, dry lips and even lowered red blood cells. Taking riboflavin can prevent anemia, cataracts, carpal tunnel syndrome, and even cancer. It's not uncommon for most people want to eat foods that have the best nutrients in them, but many of those types of foods an be costly. Vitamins and minerals make our bodies healthier and don't cost much. There are many places to find Vitamin C, including tomatoes and citrus fruits. Supplements are a good choice if you don't get enough of this vitamin. This potent vitamin help prevent and treat colds, gum disease, acne, stomach ulcers, and skin infections. In addition, some studies have shown that vitamin C can aid those suffering from ADHD, Alzheimers disease, and dementia. If you want to use gummy vitamins meant for children as an adult, take several of them. This is because an adult would need more than the recommended child dose, so one will surely not be enough. Be careful since taking too many can be a bad thing as well. Fresh produce is usually full of healthy proteins that the body needs, but you must eat them fresh instead of canned. Though you want to eat a healthy diet, you should also consider taking a quality multivitamin and/or mineral supplements to enhance your diet. Are you getting enough manganese? Manganese makes wounds heal quicker and helps with bone formation. Manganese also improves your body's ability to metabolize cholesterol, protein, and carbohydrates. Manganese is not difficult to find as it is often found in the teas we drink as well as the grain foods we consume daily. You can also find supplements through the Internet or local vitamin shop. You should now have a more comprehensive understanding of various vitamins, minerals, and supplements. There are a lot of supplements out there and finding the appropriate ones can be difficult. Thankfully, you read this article and are ready to go!

[irregularwebcomic]

[Irregular Webcomic! #1609 Rerun](http://ift.tt/1nuXeiM)

Normally when I receive complimentary e-mails I dash off a quick reply and then delete the message. (My mind still exists in the "keep your mailbox tidy because it'll eat up all your disk space otherwise" days of the early 1990s.) But recently I received one that I've been unable to bring myself to delete. The reader writes, in part:

I don't usually write to any of the myriad of webcomic authors whose work I read; even if their work makes me laugh I'm just too lazy. But, I just had to tell you, your IWC is the BEST original work I have ever come across. [...] your dedication to casually spreading advanced scientific knowledge and post-religious morals is truly inspiring.

I came across your stuff last night around 11 pm and read the entire archive. So many wikipedia tangents, so many browser tabs. So many WTF it is the next morning now? When I read about the mercury poisoning in Japan I became so angry I yelled at my computer. Your explanations of complex physics and math have an elegance at least on par with that of any popular scientific writers. I could go on, but in short, you win. You have redeemed Teh Intarwebz.

Now obviously this is pretty high praise and the sort of thing that would swell anyone's head. But two bits really got me. The "mercury poisoning in Japan" sentence. I've already discussed this, and you can go back and read it again if you wish. I remembered the tears in my eyes as I wrote the annotation to that particular strip. So many people suffering, absolutely pointlessly, amidst corporate and government apathy. I remembered being horrified when I first learnt about that terrible episode of human history when I was in high school.

It brought back memories of other things too. Also in high school, my English class read The Diary of Anne Frank. I remembered groaning when I was given the copy of this book with some girl on the front cover and being told it was her diary, and we had to read it and write essays about it. As background work we were also given assignments to research and write about the Nazi-perpetrated Holocaust. I recall vividly the awful photographs I uncovered in the history books in the school library. The mind-numbing numbers of people killed, and the heartless ways in which it happened. It was gruesome, but fascinating.

In my recent trip to Germany, I made it a point to visit the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Because of Anne Frank and those assignments I was forced to do at school. We need to know what depths of depravity humanity is capable of descending to in order to understand what we can do to rise above it.

Which brings me to the real showstopper in that e-mail:

your dedication to casually spreading [...] post-religious morals is truly inspiring.

That has to be one of the most wonderful things anyone has ever said to me.

I wasn't even aware I was doing any such thing. I write these comics because it's a creative outlet for me. I'm not after fame or fortune (certainly not fortune!). I could probably grow my audience by a factor of two or three simply by submitting my site to a few webcomic indexing sites - but that's not what I'm about. I like to think I still have a small core group of people who come here every day to get a slice of something that will perhaps make them laugh, perhaps make them smirk, perhaps make them groan, perhaps make them think a little. I want to feel like there's something personal here.

So the comments I write here in these annotations are merely an extra way to get something from my mind across to you. Now: "post-religious morals"?

I like to think of myself as a moral person. I'm sure most of us do. And, while I don't think I've explicitly stated it at any point, watchful readers may have deduced that my religious beliefs fall into the realm of atheism. I'm willing to give some ground if God (or a god) manifests in front of me and does some miracle stuff, but failing that, my working assumption is that the Big Guy doesn't exist.

I've seen some very disturbing arguments made by some religious people (of more or less fundamentalist persuasions) to the effect of: If you don't believe in God, you can't be a moral person. I've never understood this, and it has always bothered me. How can people even make such statements? I don't believe in God, yet as far as I know I'm not a criminal, sociopath, drug dealer, axe murderer, or anything like that. I happen to think I live a pretty respectable life and have done vastly more good in the world than any of my few ill-considered rash actions that I promptly regretted soon after.

As far as I usually see it, the argument goes like this: God tells us how to behave morally. If you don't believe in God, you have no moral guidance, therfore you must be immoral.

A few weeks ago I saw a blog somewhere - I forget where. Anyway, there was a post and a series of comments about whether we possess free will or not (it was around the time I wrote this poll question). The discussion centred on the thought experiment of "would you shoot an innocent person, given no extenuating circumstances"? For the vast majority of us the answer is, instantly and incontrovertibly, no. The application to the free will question then is that if you are incapable of shooting this person, perhaps you don't actually possess the free will to actively decide to shoot them. Of course this invites the argument that, "Well, actually I could decide to shoot them, I just wouldn't." At which point the argument can go in circles for as long as the arguers enjoy it.

Someone raised the question, "Well if you have the free will to decide to shoot, but never actually do shoot, what's stopping you?"

Someone answered, "God."

"And what if God doesn't exist?"

"Well then I guess I'd shoot the person."

Wait a second. How does someone who believes in God and God's moral code and is a moral person, come to the conclusion that if God did not exist then God's rules would simply not apply and he would be able to bring himself to shoot a completely innocent person?

He's literally saying that he's only a moral person because God exists and lays down the law. He said, right there in black and white, that if God didn't exist, moral laws would cease to apply and he would go around casually killing people.

Now one conclusion you could come to is that this guy is a complete nutter and should be locked up in an institution somewhere. But I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, because clearly he is not actually going around murdering people, and (because of God) he actually thinks that killing people is a bad thing to do. But the really scary thing is that this is not the first time I've seen such an argument. Over the years, in various places, I've seen many religious people make the statement in more words or less that if God wasn't around, there'd be nothing to stop people doing any antisocial, violent, evil thing they feel like whenever the whim takes them.

I've never understood how religious people who are basically good can think like this. It seems clear to me that the vast majority of atheists (thus with no religious moral code) are basically moral people, extremely unlikely to swing at people with axes when the fancy takes them. If they weren't, the world would be a seriously dreadful place. How can the people who believe this sort of thing not see that?

So this has always puzzled and disturbed me. Until a few days ago when I raised the topic in conversation with a friend of mine. And he had an explanation.

Atheists, he said, need to find a moral direction from within. We need to examine our own values and beliefs in the context of human society, put some thought into them, and behave in ways that accord with what we decide is the moral way to act. There are various expressions of moral codes that work in this context. A simple one is "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You don't need to believe in God to think about that and decide that yes, if everyone lived by that simple maxim, the world would be a nicer place. You don't need God to be nice to people. You don't need God to have morals.

Strongly religious people, on the other hand, get moral direction from the authority of God. God tells them how to behave, and God is the most important thing in their lives, so there's their moral code right there. They never have to think about their morals, because they are decreed from on high. They never have to go through a logical argument with themselves to decide that they should be nice to other people - they're just nice to people because that's what God says to do. If they never have to internalise their values and derive their own moral code, then it's not even something that they realise can be done. When a person like this looks at an atheist, they don't realise that the atheist has probably spent time (more or less consciously) to produce a moral code that they endeavour to live up to. All they see is someone without the moral code of God. They don't realise that there are other ways in which one can be a moral person. So they conclude that the atheist has no morals.

This is why religious fundamentalists are so scared of atheists. Everyone who believes is okay, because God will keep them in line, but those atheists, they'll probably stick a knife in you as soon as look at you. This is the problem with religious fundamentalist morals.

(I should stress at this point that I'm talking about the more extreme sort of fundamentalist. As with any word there are different definitions, and I know some readers of this comic describe themselves as "fundamentalist". As long as you don't believe that I'm an immoral potential murderer, I'm not talking about you.)

Richard Dawkins recently released a book titled The God Delusion. I have not read this book (yet), though I am interested to pursue it relatively soon. As I understand it, the book is a scathing attack on religion and the belief in God. Dawkins is apparently on a mission to discredit religion of all stripes and promote atheism as the solution to the world's problems. Atheism does not need a champion like Dawkins. Sadly, I can see that all his book will accomplish is to inflame religious opposition.

What we need is an atheist spokesperson to sit down with religious people and discuss issues with them. To point out that atheists are not scary people with no morals. That we have moral codes and are good people, and to describe how we have become moral people through our own introspection and thought. To point out that deep down we're really the same - people on a small planet, mostly trying to live good lives and do our best to find our way in a world that has enough dangers without us making more of our own through misunderstandings.

How do we develop thoughtful morals in people, as opposed to God-given ones? We educate our children. We teach them the history of the world. The bad bits as well as the good bits. We show them what happens when people treat each other badly. We get them to think about what is right and what is wrong, rather than just telling them. If you tell people something as an edict from authority, sooner or later they're going to question why. It'd be nice to have answers that lead to essentially the same conclusions, rather than an emptiness that can lead people to think morals can only exist in a world with a God, or in people who believe in a God.

When I first received that e-mail, I was taken aback by those words: "post-religious morals". I had to think for some time about exactly what that meant, and in what possible way I could have come across in the previous 1600 comics as conveying anything of that ilk to my audience. And honestly, I can't recall any particular instance of me expressing a moral opinion, other than that mention of the Minamata Bay tragedy that had already been brought to my attention. I suppose there must have been others, if this reader had seen fit to comment on it.

I suppose if you try to live a moral life, it just rubs off on people somehow. That's a good feeling.

I've received an overwhelming amount of feedback to this annotation. I don't have the time to reply to it all, but most of it is welcome and I thank you for writing.

Almost all of the response has been positive, both from atheists and religious believers. The response from religious people has generally been along two lines: (1) Yes, I agree, it's a shame that some atheists and theists find it necessary to fight or simply misunderstand each other so badly. (2) Thank you, you've given me some food for thought.

I've received criticism too, from both directions. Some took me to task for attacking Richard Dawkins. I confess I based my conclusion that "Atheism does not need a champion like Dawkins" on a lack of research on my part. I reserve judgement until I become more familiar with Dawkins' work on promulgating atheism. And some believers asked me to consider some points that I hadn't mentioned.

One particularly interesting one is that what many theists find scary about atheists is not that they don't understand where an atheist gets his morals from, but that an atheist's morals, being based on introspection and thought, are liable to change under different circumstances, whereas God's morals are absolute and provide certainty of action. I can see that this line of thought would be potentially disturbing to a theist, and I thank those readers who pointed it out. (I would argue that theists who hold this belief are discounting the very real notion that someone following God's moral laws can also change their mind under different circumstances, and also that the same moral law clearly does not lead to the same moral choices by believers - just look at how many believers of any given religion disagree on various issues.)

I've also received some scathing attacks from religious believers, stating that my arguments are full of logical holes and that either, yes, by declaring myself an atheist I am indeed immoral, or that I may have morals, but they were given to me by God and I'm just too stupid to realise it.

Interestingly, I hadn't received any such strongly negative comments until five days after this strip appeared, when suddenly several landed in my mailbox. I suspect someone has linked to my strip from some religious forum somewhere and is stirring up people to send me hate mail.

My question is, how is writing to viciously attack me moral behaviour?

2017-08-26 Rerun commentary: The funny thing is that I do now have a link advertising the availability of the first Irregular Webcomic! book. Still no T-shirts, though. I don't have anything to add to the long annotation above, except to mention that this year I started volunteering to teach primary school children ethics (which is not exactly the same thing as morals, I know), as part of the Primary Ethics program here in New South Wales. I currently teach a Year 4 class[1] once a week. I would do more, but I need to take a 2-hour slot out of my working week every week during school term to do this (lesson time plus travel time), and make up the time with my employer by staying back later. This has reduced the time I have available to make comics and engage in other hobby and leisure pursuits, but I think it's worth it. [1] That's children about 10 years old. I currently have 19 kids in my class. They can be a bit of a handful at times. If you ever want to appreciate how hard teachers have to work and how underappreciated and underpaid they are, try actually teaching a classroom full of kids some time.

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Education, Late Deciders Drove Problems

By means of EMILY SWANSON, Related Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Electorate in key swing states who settled on a candidate simply earlier than Election Day, together with polls that surveyed too few Voters without a university diploma, have been a number of the culprits in the back of overconfidence that Hillary Clinton became sure to overcome Donald Trump in the race for the White Residence, a new file shows.

The analysis of 2016’s pre-election polls, released Thursday By the American Affiliation for Public Opinion Research, located proof that Trump Citizens were more likely than Clinton Voters to show their desire to pollsters most effective after the election. But it located little proof that it truly is due to the fact they were reluctant to reveal their choice to pollsters at all.

The record’s authors encompass extensively respected survey researchers from a diffusion of backgrounds.

They observe that nation polls overlooked Through a wider margin on average than that they had in the four previous presidential elections. Polls displaying Clinton beforehand in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin fueled perceptions that she had a “Blue Wall” in the Electoral university — a wall that collapsed on Election Day.

Despite the fact that the record faulted the accuracy of nation polling, it stated that country-wide poll averages in the very last two weeks of the campaign had been the various maximum accurate in the last eight many years at estimating the country wide popular vote.

At an event hosted Via the Association, the record’s authors stated that the various instructions of Trump’s marvel victory are the need for survey researchers to spotlight the uncertainty inherent in measuring public opinion.

Autism Education: Technology and Beyond

One of the most typical misconceptions in today’s society about children with autism spectrum disorder and developmental drawbacks is that they may be mentally poor.

This couldn’t be farther from the fact.

kids with autism spectrum ailment usually face a problem at the same time as demonstrating highbrow talents. But, with the introduction of autism educational apps like “Simply Fit” and “Math at the Farm” in education, unique wishes kids have observed a vent through which they could show their true capacity.

The iPad and smart telephones have virtually modified the world of autism education.

These gadgets are notably new however have come to be key lecture room tools to impart schooling to big wishes children. The clever electronic devices can run autism education apps and have helped in developing literacy, well-known studying, and verbal exchange amongst autistic youngsters.

Whilst the clever phones and iPads have ushered in exciting new autism apps like “Just Suit” and “Math on the Farm”, an era which is predicated most effective on interacting with a display, can limit the possibilities and the capacity to come to be independent in lifestyles. Developers everywhere in the international are for that reason racking their brains to take the autism education apps a step in advance.

Special desires youngsters, particularly the ones with autism spectrum disease

Face difficulties in referring to humans. Then tend to relate without difficulty to non-human gadgets. at the same time as the “Simply Match” and “Math at the Farm” autism apps on iPads and function an opportunity to look-to-peer interplay, robot technology has also made massive strides in latest years.

Autism training apps are especially dependable because they’re largely predictable of their motion. This is one issue which autistic youngsters can easily become aware of. The apps lend a feel of safety, and at the identical time, stimulate the senses of the kid.

Autism apps also help greatly in growing motor capabilities some of the unique desires kids. Many kids with autism locate it hard to transport their arms and toes and perform significant body language communique. they may be additionally regarded to lack in social and emotional reputation. They fail to apprehend social cues. Some of the superior autism apps are programmed for facial and social recognition. More studies are of course required on how autism schooling apps can help special wishes youngsters without making them beaten.

How to Get My Husband Back After I Drove Him Away

You must have a question for your mind now and that is how to get my husband returned after I drove him away. You need to understand that marriage is full of America and down, and the maximum of the issues are because of miscommunication inside the relationship. Whilst you ask yourself a million questions, in this text, I’ve some clues to where your husband gets the messages wrong. While this occurs makes him need to backpedal.

You need to understand that men in popular are hunters and they prefer to seek that’s along with your husband. So when you have been letting yourself attend to his every want, You have to forestall being the prey. Am now not saying that you must forestall to serve your husband but simply leave him a few room to seek. You have a good way to rise up for yourself. To make it simple think of that is in case you just commenced dating.

A way to get my husband again once I drove him away isn’t as difficult as you suppose.

You should by no means compare your husband to some other guy. That does power maximum guys away from their girls. women make the mistake of doing that and questioning that their companions will alternate or do what they want them to do. it really is a no go vicinity. This makes your husband sense that he isn’t always proper sufficient for you. you’re imagined to make your husband experience secure and proud which you are with him. Say and do the things which you know left him up.

Having your husband again means you must focus on his fantastic side and how he makes you sense. You have to expose him that you could still have a great time with him. He has to recognize which you have his support and simply displaying him the honor he merits. There’s a pronouncing that what you won’t do on your husband, he’ll locate a person else who will.

Any other thing in an effort to power your husband away is if you positioned strain on him.

By no means positioned him in conditions in which he has to prove his emotions for you, what this indicates to him is that you don’t trust me. men don’t like having their feelings challenged.

A way to get my husband back after I drove him away means which you should not try to exchange him. You knew the person you had been marrying and if your husband wants to exchange allow him to try this himself. permit your husband to be himself.

No person is ideal, and no marriage is ideal; but When you are attempting to determine out the way to get my husband again, these are steps to take to sure you do no longer drive him off. You have to allow your husband be himself and stop the pushing him about.

On occasion, it can pay to be a humble wife and meaning You need to be the woman he fell in love with at the beginning.

Dog Bladder Control Problems – 5 Possible Causes of Your Husky Dog’s Bladder Control Problems

While you obtain your Husky domestic dog, you probable by no means idea you will address dog bladder control troubles. Veterinarians renowned that this is turning into extra of a recurring hassle with dogs in widespread. But, Husky puppies are greater vulnerable to sure conditions that result in bladder manage troubles in dogs.

dog bladder manipulates issues also are referred to as bladder incontinence. They may be resulting from a selection of factors. Which will make certain that your Husky remains healthful and safe, you want to have her recognized and handled as speedy as viable. You could choose to give your canine a homeopathic remedy to aid the recovery process.

Right here are five conditions that may be the purpose of your Husky’s bladder manipulate problem.

1. Bladder manages for a canine may be very difficult in case your canine become born with a beginning disorder. Girl Husky puppies are in particular prone to being born with urinary tract defects. in case your canine has a delivery illness, her ureter can also connect her bladder to her vagina in preference to her urethra, causing her to continuously dribble urine.

In case you suspect that a delivery illness may be the cause of your Husky’s incontinence

Take her to the vet. Surgical treatment can be vital to correct the trouble.

2. canine bladder manipulate issues are regularly because of a loosened sphincter in vintage age. Older dogs can not preserve their urine in because of a weakened urethral sphincter. There are artificial medicinal drugs that may be given to your canine In an effort to deal with this hassle but they may be no longer without their facet effects. Do not forget the usage of a herbal homeopathic compound to assist reinforce her urinary tract machine.

three. Bladder manipulate for a canine can become tough in case your dog is laid low with a bacterial infection. Micro organism clings to the liner of your canine’s bladder and causes inflammation and irritation that makes it tough for your dog to maintain her urine in. She might also have the regular urge to urinate and urinate frequently. Homeopathic remedies help manipulate the pH stage in your Husky canine’s bladder. This discourages the increase of Micro organism in her urinary tract.