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ausetkmt · 1 year

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In addition to AI, the 10 Million Names Project is employing oral histories and archived documents to help identify 10 million enslaved people in pre- and post-colonial America.

When journalist Dorothy Tucker first learned about the 10 Million Names genealogical project, it helped amplify memories of long car journeys from Chicago to “Down South” in the 1960’s, where her mother’s family owned land.

The Mississippi property purchased by her great-grandfather George Trice in 1881 was special for several reasons. First, nobody’s really sure how a formerly enslaved man was able to purchase 160 acres, but Trice came up with the $800. And every time Tucker and her family drove down to Shannon, Mississippi each summer to visit relatives, it was more than just a vacation.

“I'd wake up in the morning and have breakfast at my aunt's house. I'd go a few feet down the road and have lunch at my great-aunt's house. And then I'd play outside at my cousin's house,” says Tucker, an award-winning investigative journalist with CBS2 WBBM-TV in Chicago. “It was that way all day long. Every house was owned by a relative. I thought everybody lived like this. I thought everybody had land and stuff that was theirs.”

Tucker finally got specific details about how and why that land was purchased during the final months of her term as president of the National Association of Black Journalists. In early 2023, NABJ Board Member Paula Madison, a retired NBC Universal executive, informed the group about an offshoot of the Georgetown Memory Project, the initiative that unearthed information about the 1838 sale of enslaved Africans to fund Georgetown University. The 10 Million Names Project was created to recover the names of an estimated 10 million men, women and children of African descent who were enslaved in pre- and post-colonial America between the 1500’s and 1865. By engaging with expert genealogists, cultural organizations, and family historians both Black and white, the initiative hopes to provide more African Americans with information that only formally began to be captured for their ancestors in the 1870 United States Census.

Up until that year, enslaved Africans and their descendants were only acknowledged as the property of their owners. If their existence was noted, it was in the form of sales documents or as catalogued property in civil records. Also, the relatives of enslavers often maintain troves of information about those purchased and sold off that would otherwise be completely lost.

(This database is helping to uncover the lost ancestry of enslaved African Americans.)

Much of the work will be dependent on oral histories passed down thru generations of families, and researchers of the 10 Million Names Project also hope that more white families will aid in the search by making familial records, like letters and pages from family bibles, available to them.

Tucker, who ended her term as NABJ president during that organization’s annual conference in August, revealed at the awards banquet in Birmingham, Alabama that she’d been able to learn more about her great grandfather’s real-estate ventures, through a collaboration between NABJ and the New England Historical Genealogical Society’s American Ancestors initiative.

The 10 Million Names Project was formally launched at the convention. Tucker considers it an especially timely parting gift to her journalistic colleagues. As societal divisions along racial lines widen, hate crimes continue, and attempts to ban books and curtail African American studies programs in schools and universities increase, strengthening historical knowledge is urgently important for Black Americans, Tucker says.

“I think that the ability to tell these stories and to know them is so critically important,” she says. “When you know your personal story, then as a journalist, it gives you the perspective to dig deeper when you're doing the next story, whether it’s about the school board or about Ukraine or the next elections. You know, these stories are all tools that are really good for all of us.”

How the initiative evolved

The man who is the catalyst for the Georgetown Memory Project and 10 Million Names says he’s never really been interested in investigating his own family tree.

“To me, genealogy was sort of like butterfly collecting,” says Richard Cellini, a faculty fellow at Harvard University and founding director of the Harvard Legacy of Slavery Remembrance Program. “It’s impressive because of the amount of effort invested into it. But I never quite understood the point.”

Cellini was born in 1963 in Central Pennsylvania to a Penn State University professor and homemaker mother. His Catholic upbringing steered him to Georgetown University and an eventual decade-long law career before pivoting toward the software and technology realm. In 2015, Cellini learned that his alma mater had formed a working group to explore the sale of 272 men, woman, and children in 1838 to rescue the university from bankruptcy. As a white American of European descent, he says he did not live with or know many Black people growing up, going to school or during his legal and technology careers, so the initiative opened a window in his mind.

When Georgetown President John DeGioia invited alumni to weigh in, Cellini wrote an email asking one simple question that had nothing to do with the university. He wanted to know, “What happened to the people?”

Cellini says a senior member of the working group wrote back to say that research had concluded that all of the enslaved men, women, and children had died fairly quickly after arriving in the swamps of Louisiana where they had been transported.

“And I remember just staring at that email, even though I didn't really know much about the history of slavery or African American history, and just thinking that just doesn't make any sense,” Cellini says. Curiosity drove him to form an independent research group, funded initially through his own credit card and then from other Georgetown alumni who eagerly offered financial backing. To date, the Georgetown Memory Project has fully identified 236 of the 272 enslaved people sold by the university's leaders. Of those identified through archival records, the project has verified more than 10,000 of their direct descendants.

“The 1838 slave sale at Georgetown brought home to me, again, they were real people with real families and real names,” Cellini says. “More than 50 percent of them were children. William was the youngest, and he was six months old. And Daniel was the oldest at 80. Len was sickly, and Stephen was lame. I mean, this is all from the original documentation. From that moment on, I just couldn't get it out of my head.”

The gathering of history

The genealogists and historians connected with the project suggest that the richest vein of information may well be in the oral histories they’ve already begun gathering through hundreds of interviews. They contain fascinating stories like the ones that Kendra Field’s grandmother Odevia Brown used to tell about her African American and Native American forebears in Oklahoma. When Field was in high school, she never really liked history classes, but she always loved her grandmother’s stories.

“It wasn't until I got to college that I realized, thanks to a wonderful professor, that my grandmother's stories were history,” Field says. After the death of her father, Field began to travel back to those historically Black Oklahoma towns to explore her African American and Creek Indian heritage. Now in her career as a historian, author and professor at Tufts University, Field also has taken on the role of chief historian for 10 Million Names.

Technology, including the use of artificial intelligence programs, is allowing project investigators to do quicker, more efficient searches for information. Field says that can happen by identifying the location of plantation ledgers, advertisements, and receipts from auctions. “Particularly, there's been a lot of advancements made in optical character recognition, which allows researchers to identify names and handwritten records,” Field says.

Prior to this, a researcher had to find the document, transcribe the information, and then pivot to another database to go deeper. But with the development of other genealogical data sets such as Enslaved.org, locating individuals and making connections becomes much easier. “So that means we can move closer to that 10 million much more quickly than we would have been able to even a decade ago,” Field says. Also, the collection at the Library of Congress, “Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938” has yielded important clues from the estimated 2,300 people interviewed during that project.

(The search for lost slave ships led this diver on an extraordinary journey.)

Though identifying 10 million people who were never meant to be known as human beings may sound like a staggering task, the people behind the initiative believe it’s a totally attainable goal—even amidst all the current cultural and ideological turmoil in American society. That’s because, Cellini says, there are certain inalienable truths in this world.

“John Adams said that facts are stubborn things. You know, our Black brothers and sisters have always known their history and white people have always tried to prevent Black people from learning that history. What's new here is that white people are now trying to prevent other white people from learning this history.”

Cellini believes that Black Americans aren’t the only ones who want or need to know the full story. “It's white people who hunger for knowledge of that history, as well. It’s our duty to engage in determined resistance, to strike repeated blows for the truth. And nothing is more stubborn than facts.”

And like journalist Tucker, Cellini believes the search is infinitely for the benefit of the whole of society.

“The hard part isn't the finding,” Cellini says of the effort. “The hard part is the looking. But when we look, we find. And when we find, the whole world changes.”

#Africans #Black Lives Matter #Black Lineage #american freedmen #Black Freedmen #Black Americans #10 million enslaved Americans' names are missing from history. AI is helping identify them #10 million names project

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justarandombrit · 7 months

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Well. Here you go, I guess. (To avoid the massive amount of preamble skip to "The return of lines from Spies Are Forever...")

Spies Are Forever is a 2016 spy-parody musical set in 1960s America. It's by the Tin Can Bros and is all professionally recorded on YouTube for free, so I recommend watching it before reading this, as I will be talking about the penultimate in-character song from this musical, which, despite being a parody, is very much also a serious spy story, with a lot of twists and turns.

It is probably my favourite musical of all time, so I'll give you an hour or so to watch it.

…

Back? Has your brain chemistry been fundamentally changed? Yeah, that happens.

Anyway, just in case you decided that you didn't care about spoilers, I'll give you a quick overview of the plot you need for this essay.

Agent Curt Mega has been retired from spying for four years, since his partner (Owen Carvour)’s death due to a mistake Curt made. He decides to get back into the field to fight the enigmatic Deadliest Man Alive and ridiculous Baron Von Nazi, and stop the construction of the “Nazi Super Castle”. Along the way, he works with Cynthia Houston, head of the American Secret Service, Barb Larvernor, scientist, Tatiana Slohzo, Russian spy and the Informant, informant.

Despite being a comedy first and foremost, a lot of the musical hinges on the villain’s plot, and that is important in this overview.

We are led to believe that Von Nazi is the “brains” behind the operation, so to speak (despite him having none himself), up until a confrontation where, after killing the prince of The New Democratic Republics of Old Socialist Prussian Sloviskia and convincing the country's government to sign off on the plans for the Super Castle, the DMA literally and figuratively stabs Von Nazi in the back.

This, like many of the DMA's actions throughout the show, seems completely unmotivated. The main characters question this, and, in a suspenseful, absolutely devastating moment that I cannot do justice through the medium of writing, the DMA is revealed to be Owen.

I could write pages and pages about this moment, about the foreshadowing leading up to it, about Curt's reaction, Tatiana's reaction, Joe Walker and (actor) Curt Mega’s acting, how it's Joey Richter (Owen’s actor) who says the line “Personal history does have its benefits, Mega”, that line itself! This scene keeps me up at night, but this essay isn't about that.

This essay is about the song directly following this scene.

As Owen predicts in his speech, Curt goes after him instead of the information warehouses created by Owen’s agency, Chimera. This song serves as a villain song for Owen, no longer disguised as the Deadliest Man Alive, and also a duet for Owen and Curt.

Although up until now I have been explaining the plot in order, a good chunk of this analysis requires the context of retrospect. So, again I implore you to watch it. It's only 8 minutes long and would really make my job easier. Act Two, Part Six.

https://youtu.be/yMBi9hp2QVQ?si=IUz42a_1DTMi4eNS

So. Curt and Owen were lovers. Even though that moment (along with Curt shooting Owen) had been spoiled for me before watching, I still gasped at that scene. Anyway, with the added context of what sort of “partners” they were, we can now move into the analysis.

I'm no music theorist, as evidenced by most of this essay being about the depth of the lyrics, not the music, but, as YouTube user ConsiderableColors pointed out in their video-essay “Motifs Of Remembrance In Spies Are Forever”, One Step Ahead does not have a single use of the common leitmotifs throughout the rest of the show, symbolising how Curt has moved on from mourning and feeling guilt over Owen, and accepted what he has to do.

(Sidenote; that video is incredibly good, and I'll be linking it at the end along with another SAF video-essay I love)

The return of lines from Spies Are Forever (song), specifically, “Who do you trust, who do you betray?”, really highlights TalkFine’s amazing lyric writing, recontextualising lines from the opening song, which clearly parodies the famously nonsensical Bond songs, because, as we all know:

Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot point is mentioned earlier in the story to return later in a more significant way...

I hope somebody got that reference.

Anyway, one important aspect in the structure of One Step Ahead is, for the most part, Owen always sings his lines before Curt, reflecting how he is, a, literally ahead of Curt, as he is being chased throughout most of the song, and, b, was figuratively ahead of Curt for most of the show, knowing and predicting his every move.

Owen sings “One step ahead, that's how it's always been”, to make out that Curt is incompetent, as we see him do multiple times in the previous scene. Of course, at this point, the audience should realise that this is untrue, but it makes complete sense why Owen, the man who almost died because of a mistake Curt made, should think this.

In the next verse, Owen continues with the much softer, although arguably more hurtful to Curt, “One step ahead, I'm sorry my old friend / But I'm still here / After all those years when you thought I was dead / I was one step ahead”

When listening to the song for the first time, “old friend” may sound like a bittersweet term of endearment, but with the context of the true nature of Owen and Curt’s relationship, this can be read more as an insult, as Owen disregarding their relationship, and pretending nothing ever happened between them.

Curt, still reprising lines from Spies Are Forever, next sings “It's time to save the world again”, making no mention of beating Owen or “overthrow(ing) (...) an evil power” like the ensemble sings at the start of the song, because at this point, Curt still has hope for Owen. He still believes he can get Owen to leave Chimera and he can get the Owen he knew in the opening song back.

Owen quickly shoots down this idea with “Typical Curt / And pretend to be a hero again”, which both takes a shot at Curt’s saviour complex, but also all of the duo’s previous beliefs, which we know Owen now believes were not really the right thing to do. Thus, this line could also be read as Owen showing his disdain for both A.S.S and MI6, and, by proxy, who he used to be, and who Curt still is.

Curt retaliates, now giving up on reprising SAF and instead following the tune Owen sang, with “Typical jerk!”, showing that he's now somewhat accepted that he won't be able to easily get Owen back, and has fully joined in on the fight. (Also I don't know how to include this but, after this line in the live version of the song Joey (Owen) says “Ooh, sick burn” in the most sarcastic way you've ever heard and it's amazing)

He then asks “What happened to the man I knew?”, implying that he's realised that Owen is no longer “The man [he] knew”

Owen gives a snarky response in, “It's a little late for an interview”, further showing his hatred of the man he used to be, and refusing to defend himself and his beliefs, despite going on to do exactly that after this song.

“Feelin’ a lot of déjà vu again” This line is sung one inch away from each other’s faces… I'm just saying, they knew what they were doing.

We can see that all of the quipping in the previous lines got to Curt, as he sounds much angrier than at the start when he sings “It's time for you to feel the heat”

Of course, Owen retorts with the much calmer “Revenge is going to taste so sweet”, once again reminding Curt, and us, the viewers, of his motivation throughout this song. In this song, Owen doesn't attempt to hide or downplay how much his trauma from Curt leaving him to die, or his desire to get revenge influenced his actions, unlike later, in The Staircase Scene, where he seems to genuinely believe he is acting for the good of spies, and humanity as a whole.

In fact, pretty much the only time revenge seems to play a factor in his choices when he's monologuing in The Staircase Scene, is when he says “I'm going to single-handedly dismantle everything you've ever believed in”. This, along with how his voice breaks when he says that line, tells us that he may be being more honest about his true motivation during this song, and lying, to an extent, about it afterwards.

They both proceed to call each other platonic, and slightly condescending nicknames (e.g. pal, buddy), both to try and undermine each other, and also possibly because they're still rightfully cautious to admit that they were anything more than that, in a society that demonised and criminalised homosexuality, especially for government workers, like secret agents.

Afterwards, Curt tries to retroactively justify Owen’s betrayal to himself, as we see in “You played me from the start”. He tries to convince himself that the betrayal was inevitable, and that Owen had been lying since they met, unable to accept that Owen really had changed because of Curt’s own actions.

“Well look at you / Without a clue” Owen quickly refutes this, unwilling to let Curt believe he is completely innocent, by reinforcing that he really did love Curt once.

Instead of doubling down, Curt goes with what Owen said, attempting to appeal to his emotion with “You know you broke my heart”.

“Don't deny I was the better spy” This line breaks me. Genuinely, I've spent hours thinking about this line. Think about the implications. PROMISE ME YOU'LL THINK ABOUT THE IMPLICATIONS.

See, the reason I love this line so much is that Owen is right. Objectively speaking, Owen is the better spy. And not in the way that Cynthia thinks, and not in the way he implies throughout the show. Curt is not incompetent by any means, but he is reckless. Owen is not.

The only reason Owen even survived at the start of the musical was because he took the proper safety precautions to limit the blast of the (completely unneeded) bomb Curt set the timer purposefully too short for. It makes complete sense why Owen would think he's better at spying, however I don't believe that he does. Maybe to an extent. But not fully.

“Don't deny” shows he really wants validation via this statement. He wants Curt to admit that he's better. That what happened was Curt’s fault. Maybe Owen does believe he's the better spy, maybe he doesn't, it doesn't matter. All that matters is that Curt believes he is.

(I had a lot more to say about that line than I thought…)

Instead of succumbing to Owen’s demand, Curt retorts, “I liked you better when you were dead”, which seems harsh, but utterly understandable. Owen’s betrayal hurt Curt so deeply, so intensely, that he preferred the years spent in mourning for his lover, quitting his job and drinking so much he hallucinated Owen’s ghost, because at least that Owen was the one he knew. The Owen that died a hero, rather than the one who lived long enough to become the monster.

Please forgive that cliché, but it seemed applicable.

After this, Owen reiterates “One step ahead / It's how it's always been”, but this time, Curt responds directly to Owen, with, “Can't let you win”. He's now outright saying that he and Owen are on opposite sides, rather than speaking vaguely about “saving the world”.

Owen, while still angry, again seems to be more interested in reminding Curt of his mistake and making him suffer emotionally. The “I'm still here” has an unspoken “Even though you weren't”.

Then, after Curt’s line, he goes back to the superiority idea, “And I'm better than you again”.

Interestingly, Curt doesn't attempt to appeal to Owen’s emotions again, or even insult him, instead just responding, “This is the end”. Either, at this point he has fully given up on reasoning with Owen, or, the earlier “You know you broke my heart” was a mistake, an accidental show of vulnerability Curt didn't mean.

My personal interpretation was that the line was a last-ditch effort from Curt, a sort of hail Mary to try and get Owen to see sense by alluding to their relationship. We see him do this later on in The Staircase Scene, by outright stating it, and it almost works. Almost.

Owen's line, “No one's innocent” shows a lot about his character. Even though he's trying to shift blame onto Curt, he still acknowledges wrong-doing. After all, he can't pin the over 1,000 people he killed as the Deadliest Man Alive on Curt, that was all him.

“My friend, you lost your mind” Here, Curt does the exact opposite of what he was doing before. Instead of making it out that Owen never loved him in the first place, e.g. “You played me from the start”, he disregards the reasons Owen joined Chimera, blaming it on Owen “going insane” or “losing his mind”.

As we've now come to expect, Owen immediately shuts this down, determined to make Curt feel the full gravity of what Owen sees as his original betrayal. When he says, “And you've been blind”, Owen is talking about how, in his opinion, Curt is blind to all the pain he caused, which we know is actually untrue, and we also know that Owen knows this, see “I spent as much time hating you as you did”. This, like so much in this song, is a way to guilt trip Curt, despite being an obvious lie.

This line could also be interpreted as Curt being blind to Chimera, and being so enamoured by spying and taking down governments that he is forgetting to notice (what Owen thinks is) the bigger picture.

“Now we're at the end” is pretty self-explanatory. This is the climax of the show, the point all of this has been leading up to.

The line “This is what you made me do” is sung by both Curt and Owen and has different connotations for each. Owen is once again referring to Curt abandoning him in the warehouse, causing him to join Chimera. Curt is talking about the fight itself, as he's tried to reason with Owen, but, after all of this, he's now at the end of his tether.

In the lines

“We're done”

“We're through!”

Owen sings first, symbolising how he moved on faster (well, visually, but I stick by the “Owen still had feelings for Curt until his real death” headcanon - I mean, he could've shot Curt at basically any point throughout The Staircase Scene, he chose not to). But Curt shouts louder, showing his anger about how Owen has acted after “coming back from the dead”. Also, this is their official breakup. Just think about that for a second.

These lines could also link back to the fact that this is the climax of the show, the writers are sort of telling you “This is it guys, we’re almost finished”.

The finality of the moment is emphasised by “I've nothing left to say to you”. They've both made their cases, neither was convinced, but they've said all that was needed.

After this, there's a direct homage to The Sound of Music,

“So long

Farewell

Auf Wiedersehen

Adieu

Goodbye”

…only in a minor key, taking the music from a romance and altering it slightly, depicting Curt and Owen’s own relationship. Furthermore, this is the goodbye hinted to in both Spies Are Forever and The Coldest Goodbye. This is the coldest goodbye. Why did I reread that in Eleanor Shellstrop’s voice

In conclusion, One Step Ahead is a song about truth, betrayal, tragedy and love. Curtwen is one of my top ten ships (and just character dynamics in general) of all time, and I hope this essay did them justice. Hopefully I didn't repeat myself too much? I love this song, show and characters so much that I got incredibly overexcited for massive parts of this.

I hope you at least got something out of reading this, and so one last toast. To honour-

Links:

ConsiderableColors’ essay: https://youtu.be/cS05pAQAFaY?si=16BHM3eU-gEUkxXE

Spies Are Forever: Decoded:

https://youtu.be/OYAbmbKoaqc?si=9EpZ1wYr_SMBPCP0

Ooh! New one!

How Spies Are Forever Defies Cliché With Parody

https://youtu.be/QhIwDhZKPvM?si=h6IFpKoFCHR0T-iK

(I can't believe this is also about Argylle lmaoooo)

#well enjoy this #this is the biggest analysis ive ever done... if it does well i might continue my grace chasity analysis...#or the one about starship's soundtrack #let me know if anybody would actually be interested in those #spies are forever #saf #tin can bros #tin can brothers #tcb #one step ahead #agent curt mega #owen carvour #tcb spies are forever #curtwen #tcb analysis

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hit-song-showdown · 1 year

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Year-End Poll #38: 1987

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: The Bangles, Heart, Gregory Abbott, Whitney Houston, Starship, Robbie Nevil, Whitesnake, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, Bob Seger, Bon Jovi. End description]

More information about this blog here

Lots of things happening this year. What I want to draw attention to first is the influx of glam metal (or hair metal). Heavy metal as a genre had existed for a few decades by this point, mostly branching off of the blues and psychedelic rock of the late 1960's. To avoid going on an overly-long tangent about metal, I'll leave it at that for now. Glam metal has its roots in the heavy metal sound while also (as the name would suggest) taking additional influences from the glam rock of the 1970's. MTV was very kind to this style of music, and glam metal reached a level of fame where you didn't have to be deep in the metal scene to be exposed to. Other subgenres like thrash and death metal would also grow in popularity around this time, but only to those who were aware of what was going on. Metallica would have to wait to breach the underground and MTV would probably have a hard time getting middle America on board with Necrophagia. So while there was a lot going on in metal throughout the 80s, there's a reason why when most people think of "80s metal", there's a very specific image that comes with that.

But that isn't to suggest that rock music in the mainstream was able to escape controversy by featuring more hairspray and less corpse paint, because there's another moment in music history that will culminate this year. In 1985, the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) put together a list called the "Filthy Fifteen", which listed fifteen songs thought to be inappropriate and damaging towards traditional family values. Songs on the list include Prince's Darling Nikki (which seemed to have raised the most ire out of the PMRC's co-founder, Tipper Gore), Mötley Crüe's Bastard, Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It, and Cyndi Lauper's She Bop. A senate hearing over the matter of explicit lyrics was held in 1985, with musicians Frank Zappa, John Denver, and Twisted Sister's Dee Snider speaking out in opposition to censorship. There is a lot behind this conflict, both inside the courtroom and outside, so I'm aware that I'm giving a very fly-over view of the events for the sake of this poll. I'll just mention that these hearings were sometimes dubbed "The Porn-Rock Hearings", the outcry from these concerned parents groups fit really well in Reagan's America, and Zappa gave this absolute bomb of a quote that has been sitting with me a lot as of late:

"Bad facts make bad law, and people who write bad laws are, in my opinion, more dangerous than songwriters who celebrate sexuality. Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religious Thought, and the Right to Due Process for composers, performers and retailers are imperiled if the PMRC and the major labels consummate this nasty bargain."

There are so many good quotes, so I linked to the Full Video and Transcript

To make a long story unfortunately short, something of a compromise was reached by requiring musicians and labels to put "parental advisory" stickers on their albums, alerting potential consumers of the "objectionable" material within. Some musicians found the label as a loss for free speech and another example of the U.S. government deciding whose voices get to be considered moral or not. Other musicians predicted that the parental advisory sticker would only make their music more appealing to young people. You probably didn't need me to tell you this, but Tipper Gore and the PMRC did not stop the "moral downfall of America", if such a thing could even be quantified.

So now we all have little black and white stickers on our albums, yay. But this is far from the last time we'll see a major court case over music and obscenity. But we'll go over that next decade.

#billboard poll #billboard music #tumblr poll #1980s #1980s music #1987 #the bangles #heart #gregory abott #whitney houston #starship #robbie nevil #whitesnake #bruce hornsby #bob seger #bon jovi

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michaelmcknightsblogart150 · 2 months

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TUMBLR Blog #3 Social Media Platform

Amerinda is an organization based in New York that works to promote Native American art and also to preserve and educate about native culture. One section of the website that stood out to me was the ‘Recovering Memories’ which was about a photography showcase in 2018. The Wilmer Jennings Gallery hosted the organization and they presented photos of Native American life in New York in the 1960’s. ‘Atlantic Avenue Pontiac’ was a photo that stood out to me because I interpreted it as a clash between traditional versus modern culture. In our first discussion we learned about the Mirzoeff ‘s “shadow archive” and how photography can be interpreted in many ways based on a person’s preconceived notions. Photography is a powerful art form because it is able to capture a singular moment yet these moments have multiple meanings that are imbued by the viewer.

‘THE TROJAN WOMEN’ a Native American adaptation directed & adapted by Sarah B. Denisoz is one of the many theater productions that has been set up by Amerinda. This play is classic Greek theater and has been adapted from the perspective of Native Americans. The production represents intersectionality of both gender and ethnicity. Additionally these theater productions utilize a cast that has been selected from the community of Native Americans living in New York. It is a way to engage the larger New York community while also promoting Native American actors. In Takaki’s chapter about Native Americans one of the key issues they face in America is resisting the assimilation into white America. ‘THE TROJAN WOMEN’ and other productions are a way for New York Native Americans to feel connected to their culture and preserve it in the modern day.

To conclude, Amerinda provides a host of ways for artists in the Native American community to have their voice heard. They focus on helping spread information about these artists as well as helping them acquire grants to help continue their creative journey. Amerinda generates conversation through these productions as well as providing information on their website so you can dive deeper on these artists if you would like to learn more.

Works Cited:

Visual arts. Amerinda Inc. (n.d.). https://amerinda.org/main/

Atlantic Avenue Pontiac c. 1960. Harry Pappas, photographer

Takaki, Ronald T., and Clint Smith. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Back Bay Books / Little, Brown, and Company, 2023.

Fusco, Coco, and Brian Wallis. Only Skin Deep: Changing Visions of the American Self. International Center of Photography in Association with Harry N. Abrams, Inc., Publishers, 2003.

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eaukraine-eu · 9 months

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A spacecraft was successfully launched from the American spaceport at Cape Canaveral (Florida), the main task of which is to send a large batch of scientific equipment, as well as cargo of symbolic significance to the Americans, to the Natural Satellite of the Earth (NSE). In the USA, this launch has already been given the status of a national event. Why? The answer to this question was given by the employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Firstly, the Vulcan Centaurus rocket with the Sapsan-1 module is the first commercial object in history to reach the surface of the Moon. And secondly, this mission will be the first in the last 50 years in the so-called “Lunar Program” of the United States. Among other things, Sapsan-1 will “bring” to the celestial body the ashes of the creator of the cult 1960s series “Star Trek” Gene Roddenberry, as well as strands of hair from US Presidents George Washington, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy. And a few other things, including a copy of Wikipedia, a Bitcoin coin and a small stone from Mount Everest. The overall excitement is clearly heightened by the fact that the Vulcan on which Sapsan 1 is based has never flown before, although its manufacturer, United Launch Alliance, has achieved 100 percent mission success with previous rockets. There is another interesting fact: Sapsan-1 is the first module in a new scheme under which NASA pays private companies to deliver scientific cargo to the Moon. “This whole task is extremely challenging,” said Space Center scientist Christopher Culbert. “We understand that success cannot be guaranteed.” And he added that the loss of contact with the aircraft would set American science back “at least ten years.” According to official information, the module is heading towards an ancient lava flow called Sinus Viscositatis, or Sticky Bay, so named because its formations suggest a possible liquid consistency of the geological formation. If it lands successfully, Sapsan-1's instruments will measure radiation levels, magnetic fields, and emissions of an extremely thin gas called the exosphere. These measurements are expected to help minimize risks and exploit the Moon's natural resources when humans return to its surface. However, the American average person cares little about these details. “The very fact that Washington’s hair and Roddenberry’s ashes went to the moon indicates the intention of official Washington to “register” Americans in the NSE,” New York political commentator William Connolly said in a special commentary for EURO-ATLANTIC UKRAINE. “What is important for our people is the very feeling that after so many years have passed since the first flight to the Moon by a US citizen, America remembers the natural satellite, and in this context is optimistic about the future.” According to the analyst, if the Sapsan-1 mission is successful, this optimism will turn into a firm belief that sooner or later “the United States will return to the Moon.”

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vyh23 · 11 months

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The Civil Rights Movement

One of the most memorable and significant speeches in American history is the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered on August 28, 1963, while addressing the March on Washington12. “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech is a powerful call for equality rights, and freedom in America. Themes, speaker tone, and actions are among the strategies he employs to communicate a compelling message of hope.

The “I Have a Dream” speech was surrounded by a tumultuous yet pivotal rhetorical situation. During this period, Stephen Tuck argues, there were cases of extreme ethnic discrimination, division, and institutional injustices. This presented the right setting for Dr. King’s speech, which was a call to action against a tense background of racial segregation. The event itself was carefully planned to focus the attention of the nation on the need for civil rights legislation. Thousands of people constituted the audience, which included both black Americans and white supporters, politicians, and pressmen. The people needed a strong leader, who had to be Dr. King, whose influence and credibility were critical in this scenario.

The rhetorical situation surrounding the “I Have a Dream” speech was both significant and eventful. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as depicted in “Civil Rights Movement – New Georgia Encyclopedia” was a period marked with racial discrimination, segregation, and systemic unfairness among other social challenges. Delivered against the backdrop of tension surrounding race relations, this stage presented the ideal setting for a call to arms. The march on Washington was a very calculated effort meant to highlight the necessity of the civil rights amendment. These were thousands of people, including non-African American sympathizers, politicians, and members of the media. In this case, the credibility and influence of Dr. King were significant components, as the masses were seeking for an individual who would direct them on a quest for justice.

On the other hand, ethos is one of the three rhetorical appeals that form an integral part of King’s speech. He asserts his authority by being at the forefront of the civil rights movement and being an educated man. This is a kind of moral authority invoked by the references to the Emancipation Proclamation, Declaration of Independence, and Biblical verses. Thus, by saying “I have a dream that one day this nation will live up to its credo that all men are created equal,” makes the American society rethink itself if it is honoring its creed, which it was founded with. The eloquence of his delivery coupled with his sacrifice for the civil rights movement supports the ethos upon which he builds his persuasive argument.

The emotional appeal, which is one of the most important elements of Dr. King’s rhetoric, is called pathos. He does this by employing a clear depiction, which gives an impression of hope and dream. The emotional impact of the “I have a dream” phrase is great as it presents a view of a more fair and consistent world. He appeals to the audience for justice by describing the injustices suffered by African Americans as well as the harsh realities of segregation. His emotional appeal transcends racial barriers for the audience to find out that the battle for civil rights is one of the fundamental human issues. In the case of the Selma film, viewers are not merely witnesses but part-takers in the occasion, underscoring the intensity of Dr. King’s statements.

Thirdly, in Dr. King’s rhetoric, logos, or appealing to logic and reason, adds more weight to his persuasive powers. His point about the need for reform of civil rights is clearly articulated and well formulated. He explains that no equality among African Americans is treated with hostility and discrimination and uses information and history as support. Dr. King appeals to the reason and righteousness of the audience in the campaign for civil rights. The audience is reminded of the undoubting need for change by his words in the Selma motion pictures that refer to the authentic history of the civil rights reform movement.

Maiese further argues that addressing injustice is usually achieved through a compelling story that motivates people to act. Dr. King’s narrative is one of the most successful speeches that captures the immediacy of the American civil rights struggle. The quest is presented as the fight for a shared vision of a bright future in which each person is judged based on the contents of their personality rather than skin color.

In summary, the Selma film portrays how rhetoric was used to promote social change in the “I Have a Dream” speech by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. In a nutshell, the success of the speech is based on its effective utilization of the rhetorical situation, ethos, pathos, and logos. In the 1960s and even today, Dr. King’s credibility, emotional appeal, and logical arguments struck a chord with audiences of all races. This is a timeless example of how language can be used to influence a person toward working for a fairer and more equal.

#VyH

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xtruss · 1 year

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This historical photograph shows an enslaved African American family or families posing in front of a wooden house on a plantation in Hanover County, Virginia. Photograph By G.H. Houghton, Library of Congress

10 million Enslaved Americans' Names Are Missing From History. AI Is Helping Identify Them.

In addition to AI, the 10 Million Names Project is employing oral histories and archived documents to help identify 10 million enslaved people in pre- and post-colonial America.

— By Rachel Jones | August 31, 2023

How the Initiative Evolved

The man who is the catalyst for the Georgetown Memory Project and 10 Million Names says he’s never really been interested in investigating his own family tree.

The Gathering of History

And like journalist Tucker, Cellini believes the search is infinitely for the benefit of the whole of society.

“The hard part isn't the finding,” Cellini says of the effort. “The hard part is the looking. But when we look, we find. And when we find, the whole world changes.”

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shyearthquakedaze · 1 year

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May 18, 1986: Interview with Larry Warren, Former USAF Airman, RAF Bentwaters, 1980 .

Part 9: Hall of Mirrors with A Quicksand Floor

“The Grey-type ETs were described as joined mind-to-mind in instant telepathy as bees in a hive; thus, a “hive mind.” Betrayal by an alien hive mind that could not be understood is the quicksand. The illusions planted in human minds by the Greys is the hall of mirrors.”

– Linda Moulton Howe, Fall 1989, confidential interview notes

“Bustinza said our military bases are a decoy – like a big stage play — like maybe under them underground all over are the alien homes here on Earth?”

– Larry Warren, former USAF Airman, RAF Bentwaters, England

Return to Part 1.

Reposted January 13, 2023 – April 6, 2014 Albuquerque, New Mexico – In 1983, the ET history that was outlined for me by the alleged presidential briefing paper as well as from government sources said that the grey aliens are responsible for our biological evolution through manipulation of DNA in already-evolving primates on this planet. Various time intervals of the DNA manipulation were specified for 25,000, 15,000, 5,000 and 2,500 years ago. Further, the story outlined for me in the briefing document and subsequent discussions about it was that the ETs that set up this Earth “experiment” with evolving primates meant no harm to current resulting humans. Once humanity got use to looking at their reptilian/insect forms, we would love them.

Along with that portrait of the grey Ebens, another group was also described in the briefing paper as the “Talls.” These are also referred to as “Nordics” or “Swedes” because they are pale blond-haired, blue-eyed with very white skin. Confusing me at the time, I was told these Talls were considered to be “troublemakers” by the U. S. government insiders and were said to have fought a major “300-year-long-war,” which the grey Ebens had won. But now the two groups “tolerated” each other. I asked what the conflict was about. No one had an answer.

From the 1940s on, according to the 1983 government scenario, an agreement was made between the grey aliens and MJ-12, the secret group of scientists, military and business minds appointed by President Harry Truman. MJ-12 thought information about the universe and advanced alien technologies from the grey Ebens (extraterrestrial biological entities) would be privileged for America and would exclude the Soviets and other American enemies. In exchange for exclusive help, the United States would allow the grey Ebens to have underground bases in the U. S. where our own government scientists could work with them and learn.

Linda Moulton Howe private file notes, Fall 1989: “The story now is one of great deception at several levels. The Greys allegedly used a Trojan horse-style entry. In the beginning, the aliens convinced the government that they were benevolent and were in fact the creators of much Earth life on this planet, including standing up primates up to Cro-magnon Homo sapiens sapiens.

At some time in the 1960s, the MJ-12 group allied the U. S. with the Greys in a secret treaty. That treaty allegedly gave the aliens land at Nellis AFB near Las Vegas, Nevada, for a base of operations. The U. S. also agreed that the Greys could abduct humans and kill animals for medical research purposes in exchange for American scientists gaining knowledge about the extraterrestrial advanced, superior technology.

In addition to the base of operations at Nellis AFB, the Greys had one other major request: U. S. government help to keep the Grey presence secret while the Greys conducted their ongoing eons of research here. Major question: If that alien demand for secrecy had been rejected, how would the history of the entire world in the last half of the 20th Century have been different? Would it have been more peaceful? Are geopolitical conflicts of humans on Earth over the past 5,000 years at least somehow related to the Grey and Talls presence? If those two groups are in conflict, could they be using humans like pawns on a chess board for their different warring goals?

It’s clear that the U. S. government since World War II has been obsessed with maintaining the social, economic and religious status quo and “avoiding public panic at all costs,” as leaked documents state.

To insure that secrecy was maintained, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) hired psychiatrists and psychologists to plot sophisticated misinformation campaigns designed to persuade the public that UFOs did not exist. Fear and ridicule were, and still are, the major weapons used in that ongoing misinformation strategy. Thus, there have always been these levels of deceptions and lies occurring simultaneously:

— the U. S. government’s misinformation of the UFO subject in order to perpetuate and protect the agreement with the grey Ebens free of public scrutiny;

— the lies of the aliens to abductees in the form of contradictory messages, which create great confusion about the origins and motives of the ETs, whether tall, grey, blond, reptilian or other.

— the Greys — and others? — abducting humans and bloodlessly killing and excising tissues, blood, enzymes and fluids from a wide variety of animals all over this planet perhaps for their own survival;

— a biological deception of Blonds seen with Greys, which are allegedly Greys in camouflage to interface with humans more easily. Thus, there are short and tall Blonds with blue or gold eyes and pale, blond hair that look the same to humans, but in fact can be representatives of two different sides of a long war now being played out through unsuspecting human pawns on the alien War Chessboard.

In a discussion about these deceptions, lies and camouflage with a military source, I was told that by 1972, MJ-12 types and their secret government agents realized they were “walking on quicksand in a hall of mirrors,” a rephrasing of my own thoughts and title used in article for George Andrew’s taxonomy book. That’s when the government types realized that aliens they were trying to trust in a treaty were mutilations animals in increasing numbers and leaving the carcasses to be found by shocked ranchers and law enforcement, perversely violating their own demand for secrecy. Human abduction reports were increasing and the government also realized that the grey Ebens were not confining their “medical research” to a select list of people shared with MJ-12.

I asked one military source, “Are you serious that MJ-12 thinks extraterrestrials are checking in with them on every human being that’s taken?” Then I was told a truth. My investigations of animal mutilations and human abductions were being monitored for names and places so that the MJ-12 group could do a reality check on whether the grey Ebens were complying with the terms of the 1960s treaty? The Eben list, I was told, was far short of the actual human abductions taking place around the world.

The Grey-type ETs were described as joined mind-to-mind in instant telepathy as bees in a hive; thus, a “hive mind.” Betrayal by an alien hive mind that could not be understood is the quicksand. The illusions planted in human minds by the Greys is the hall of mirrors.

In addition to those multiple layers of deceit, there is increasing information about at least one tall, perhaps blond, group not manufactured by the Greys, which would like to help humans, but cannot yet aggressively act for some unknown reason that might relate to the alleged 300-year-war that the Grey types won.

Several sources describe intense conflict within the MJ-12 ranks about letting the public know the truth. Currently this Fall 1989, it would appear the power lies with those who say, “No, keep on suppressing, confusing and misinforming.”

Perhaps MJ-12 itself still does not understand the Grey alien creatures it has been trying to deal and collaborate with. Perhaps some other event occurred in the early 1980s that shook their confidence even further and they have been trying to concoct yet another cover story to hide their mistakes?

Perhaps MJ-12 has come to believe the Earth is at the end of a cycle that is engineered by another intelligence and will be replaced by something entirely new? If so, perhaps some in MJ-12 say, “What’s the use of telling people when the end is near anyway?”

One former White Sands Missile Range meteorologist told me he met a physicist who told him, “Humans are like grasshoppers before the winter,” when it comes to the fate of humanity and some event coming to Earth.

But that would not explain the energy and obsession, which continues in the development of the Star Wars SDI program, in spite of prominent physicists who say the SDI goals are impossible to achieve.

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia – The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles from places like . The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative. ]

Back in 1983, after President Reagan’s SDI announcement, I was told by a military source that SDI had nothing to do with the Soviets. “SDI is to defend this planet from an outside attack from Something Else in the cosmos that the Ebens have warned us about.” Later, the Army source said that SDI was a Grey-motivated effort because THOSE ALIENS are afraid of Something coming this way from out there!

If any of this is true, which ETs with which intentions are headed this way? If we know the Greys are betrayers, why would we attack another group, which the Greys are afraid of and which might be coming to help us? Or are the Greys trying to provoke our government to attack forces that might interfere with an insidious Greys invasion of this planet at the hybrid-creation level?

The “facts” keep shifting and that means we are all still wading in quicksand. All the scenarios could be part of the CIA’s engineered misinformation strategy to control and deflect public awareness, keeping the stories so wild and changing that no one can believe anything. Something like blowing radar chaff into the public mind.

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia – Chaff, originally called Window by the British, and Düppel by the Second World War era German Luftwaffe (from the Berlin suburb where it was first developed), is a radar countermeasure in which aircraft or other targets spread a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminium, metallized glass fibre or plastic, which either appears as a cluster of primary targets on radar screens or swamps the screen with multiple returns.

Modern armed forces use chaff (in naval applications, for instance, using short-range SRBOC rockets) to distract radar-guided missiles from their targets. Most military aircraft and warships have chaff dispensing systems for self-defence. An intercontinental ballistic missile may release in its midcourse phase several independent warheads, a large number of decoys, and chaff. ]

Since the 1960s, John Keel and Jacques Vallee have both written about the “control system” aspect of the UFO phenomenon and/or humans in league with the phenomenon. People are definitely subjected to controlled ignorance — keep everyone dumb and blind.

However, there is one fact I can state with certainty. Since March 10, 1989, eight cattle and one horse have been reported dead and mutilated to sheriff’s offices in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Strange lights and craft have also been reported in those stats. I have collected tissue samples from animals in all three areas and can assert with medical proof from pathologist and hematologist John Altshuler, M. D., Denver, that the cuts were made rapidly with high heat and were “pinpoint” thin. One cow belly had a bloodless 18-inch by 22-inch neat excision. I asked a large laser manufacturer how long it would take to make such a cut in cow hide and the answer was “at least an hour” with state of the art 1989 laser surgery equipment.

From the general civilian human point of view, it’s a one-way trade route. What is taken is not by permission nor paid for. And what is left behind is fear, anger, dead animals and traumatized people.

Perhaps MJ-12 feels pushed into a corner of stunned futility and inability to act because the Greys have demonstrated so far their superior ability to do anything they want to, including instant destruction of men and machines when they so choose? Perhaps, as the worst case scenarios describe, the Greys are actually controlling Earth events and human governments are helpless?

This was suggested in my interview with Larry Warren (RAF Bentwaters mystery) on May 18, 1986. New York math professor Benton Jamison joined me in the interview. Larry Warren was one of the U. S. Air Force security guards at RAF Bentwaters, England, when strange aerial lights and beams were seen and investigated in Rendlesham Forest near Woodbridge, the three nights of December 26-28, 1980. One of the airmen housed where Larry Warren’s quarters were at Bentwaters was Adrian Bustinza. Some time after the December 1980 phenomena, Warren told me he came upon Bustinza sobbing on his bed. When Warren asked him what was wrong, Bustinza told him about an underground briefing by a high ranking officer and some kind of small, thin, large-headed creature behind a screen on a theater stage where a briefing was held soon after the December 1980 events, apparently for some of the men who had been involved in the ET events in Rendlesham Forest.]

May 18, 1986: Interview with Larry Warren, Former USAF Airman, RAF Bentwaters, 1980

Larry Warren: Adrian said a little alien was there (in the forest) with a bubble on its head and got scared and took off.

Linda Moulton Howe: Do you know if anyone said anything at all about aliens present in debriefings?

Warren: No, never once. Never ever. Never said alien. Never used the word UFO. It was all military regulations. Who to speak to, what not to do, don’t discuss anything. They went around it so smoothly. The debriefers never said anything, but we obviously knew what we were there for.

Howe: Could you go back over again sitting with Bustinza and what he said?

Warren: We went over the incident at Bentwaters. He mentioned about something with a cape — and how he fit that in I don’t recall. Something about someone tall with a cape. He told me about the underground facility and it was about Men in Black.

Howe: Could you go into detail about what Bustinza said?

Warren: He was told to meet a car at a certain time just outside the dorm where he lived. A big car with New York State licence plates pulled up and parked there. Adrian got in the back of the car and was driven.

Howe: By whom? Who talked to him?

Warren: I don’t know. I don’t remember. Someone called Adrian on the phone and said to meet such and such. I don’t know who. Adrian was taken by two men — this blew my mind …and they drove to — Adrian said he could not open his eyes, and I remember he could not move for some reason as soon as he got into the car, but he could hear. He could hear that they were near the flight line because he could hear the jets land. And Adrian said he remembered the feeling of descent going down (stairs). And the next thing he knew, he was eating in a room like a small cafeteria. He remembered in pieces. He remembered being in a room full of a lot of high-tech equipment … engineers or whatever around … being taken to this cavernous place and was on a catwalk and could see a tunnel. Bustinza said he looked down and it was dark, but there were some people — humans — walking around. And there was this object — a space ship down there.

Businza went into another room and it was not an auditorium— it was like a classroom. And they were put in chairs and he said all of a sudden he could not turn his head from side to side at all to see the person sitting next to him. (In front) was like a screen that a light shone from behind, so you couldn’t really see what was behind the screen. Bustinza and others in the room were briefed by a general or a commander or whoever. I don’t remember who. And then something came up behind the screen. Bustinza said he could see the silhouette and it talked to him through its mind. Told them a lot of things about religion, how the government, our government, and Russia aren’t what they seem — that the bases can be made invisible if it had to be, or destroyed at a flick, if they had to be.

Everything up above (on Earth’s civilian surface) is a mask — is all false, is covering the truth about what is going on. Adrian said government is not real. … Religion and about Christ. He was religious. The ETs knew his birth, things about his life that no one knew, but this voice was in his head and he/it could communicate that way (telepathically).

They said religion is not as it seems. It’s a control over people. But there is a greater Force in the universe, much above whoever the aliens are and everything. And something about the Pope, but I don’t recall what it was. The Pope got shot at soon after this (4.5 months later on May 13, 1981). The religious thing was very interesting to Bustinza, but much different than we imagine it to be.

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia – The first attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II took place on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, in St. Peter’s Square at Vatican City. The Pope was shot and wounded by Mehmet Ali Agca while he was entering the square. The Pope was struck four times, and suffered severe blood loss. Agca was apprehended immediately, and later sentenced to life in prison by an Italian court. The Pope later forgave Agca for the assassination attempt. He was pardoned by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi at the Pope’s request and was deported to Turkey in June 2000. ]

And the military structure and the U. S. and Soviet Union — it’s corporations that handle all the – they make wars and they make like gas prices and economic stuff.

Howe: Can you remember in detail what Adrian Bustinza said the alien communicated about that?

Warren: Oh, my God, the most important thing and I almost forgot it! This is what Bustinza told me. They (aliens) are coming here, they are among us, you might know them. There are people on the Bentwaters AFB, who either work with them or ARE them (aliens).

And I said to Adrian, ‘How do they look like them? How do they look like human beings?’

Adrian said, ‘They do. They can. And they are in government’. This is the thing, this is what got me, really blew my mind — they are in government in levels even beyond the Presidency. The U. S. President is nothing. The alien said the President is an ornament, every world leader is an ornament. There are so many things. When I got upgraded in security, there were three levels that were available to my people — like General Gordon Williams would have a TOP SECRET clearance. I had a Secret. I was told getting my clearance that there were 38 levels above TOP SECRET in our government!

Now, Bustinza told me the President means nothing. A lot of out government is them (alien). He said they are having to come here because of something dying. And they have been doing it since the 1940s, coming here, getting into society here some how.

There are underground bases — Plattsburg was named. If you’re going to put anything, put it up in the Adirondacks. Bustinza said under a lot of military bases, there are these underground facilities — they are massive apparently. Under Florida is one of the biggest installations. In South America, they have a massive installation — that Shirley MacLaine was right in the area where these things are, Peru. He said the aliens have one of the most massive installations they have down there. The Peruvian government is fully aware that it’s there and they stay away. They don’t mess with it.

[ Editor’s Note: Wikipedia – During the Cold War, military functions took a prominent role in Plattsburgh, New York, which was home to Plattsburgh Air Force Base (PAFB) and was the location of the Strategic Air Command’s primary wing on the East Coast due to its geographic desirability. The base’s location in the Champlain Valley (protected by the rain shadow of the Adirondack Mountains) ensured consistent, year-round weather that was safe for take-offs and landings. The 380th Bombardment, Aerospace, and Refueling Wings, all stationed at PAFB, included B-52 Bombers, air-refueling tankers and FB-111s. The base had a great deal of land surface and was one of only four military bases in the United States with a landing strip large enough for a Space Shuttle landing.

On September 1, 1961, the 556 Strategic Missile Squadron was activated at Plattsburgh AFB. The Squadron consisted of 12 Atlas “F” Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles stored in underground silos at 12 sites surrounding the city of Plattsburgh. Ten of the silos were in New York, two across Lake Champlain in Vermont. The squadron played an active role in the 1962 Cuban Missile crisis. PAFB was closed on September 29, 1995, in a round of national base closures. The base property is now managed by the Plattsburgh Airbase Redevelopment Corporation (PARC) and is used by a number of industrial manufacturers and commercial airlines. ]

Howe: Larry, how did you come to talk with Bustinza about all this?

Warren: He was crying! This guy was crying, a grown man crying. And I think he was my age, too. Telling me these things.

Howe: He starts crying like he’s been holding something in?

Warren: Yeah! And it’s so frustrating to him, he says, ‘I want to get out of here!’ He said, ‘I’m either going to kill someone or they’re going to kill me before it’s over.’ Apparently Adrian pulled a knife on this lieutenant, a black lieutenant, who was pressuring him about something. He flipped and pulled a knife on her.

Howe: The woman, the lieutenant, was pressuring him to keep quiet?

Warren: Something, I don’t recall. There was so much to that conversation — it was emotionally charged. And Bustinza had me on the border of tears because after having the experience about what happened out there with us (UFO landing Warren said he was near), this guy Bustinza is laying on me that I’m sitting above an alien base here on Earth (Bentwaters AFB). I had no reason to disbelieve. I have seen that They (aliens) are here (in one of the three UFO nights at RAF Bentwaters December 26

28, 1980).

I told Bustinza that for me to tell it right (Warren says he agreed to tell Bustinza’s story when he got out of the Air Force as though it was Warren’s experience to cover Bustinza. That cover story came unraveled some time before this interview I did with Warren in 1986. That’s why we were going over as honestly and openly as possible all the details Warren could remember what Bustinza had told him).

Adrian hit on religion and something about them (aliens) coming into society. Somehow they look like us and they’re doing something — I don’t know if they are taking over — I don’t think they are taking over, but they have identities taken care of by the governments of the world. And something about Third World countries are almost insignificant.

Howe: So what is the game that is being played between the Soviet Union and the United States with the aliens?

Warren: The Soviet Union has had major catastrophes apparently with these alien things — some of them (different aliens?) dislike the Soviet Union a great deal. Some don’t Some like them. Some deal with them. And they are like the maggots of the space race — you know, the bad guys! And Adrian told me that he found out that there were hundreds upon thousands of races that have come here through the centuries and millions of years and they have always been here — longer than we have. And that we are the descent of them! Of Someone!

Howe: What did Bustinza say about the Pope?

Warren: I don’t know. But he said something about the Pope and that they have something at the Vatican. They know exactly what it is and they can’t say, or else it would destroy religion. Adrian said there were predictions made and they’ve all come true — that the last prediction will not be shown. Of course, we all know that Pope Pius saw it in the 1960s and said, ‘Oh, lock that stuff up!’ All the Popes see it, but will not release it. It destroys religion as they want you to have it.

Howe: Did he talk anything about the aliens and Christ?

Warren: He said Christ had dealings with the aliens, that he was a man, but there was a definite connection.

Howe: What was the alien-government connection?

Warren: Bustinza said the U. S. government isn’t as it is, as we see it. The President isn’t real. The aliens control everything. And these people answer to whoever. And there are people way up — the President just does his job like a janitor.

Howe: Did Bustinza ever say why the aliens are doing all this?

Warren: I don’t remember if he said it was for good? Or for bad? I was kind of scared, I remember after the conversation. I knew one thing. I wanted to get the hell off of that base (RAF Bentwaters). You could feel something in that area though all the time. There was something wrong.

Howe: Did you ask Bustinza what the alien was talking through the screen to everyone for?

Warren: He never said it was an alien, but it was the impression that it was. The (alien) thing was talking apparently to everyone in the room at the same time, and yet individually in each person’s mind. Explain that – mentally! Adrian could not turn his head side to side.

Howe: What about evolution? What is human relationship to the aliens? They made us?

Warren: It was down to that, basically that we were from them. That’s what he said.

Howe: And that underneath all these bases, the aliens and human relationship is really happening there and not on the surface of Earth?

Warren: Well, our military bases are a decoy – like a big stage play. I don’t know why or how. But Adrian said that the base, that if it was found out or something happened, the bases can be gone like that (snaps fingers). What he meant, I don’t know. You wouldn’t see them. Maybe England’s a big UFO itself!

It was just mind-blowing stuff. If I had never had a UFO experience and someone told me that stuff, I’d say, ‘Go away!’ The military bases – like maybe under them underground all over are the alien homes

here on Earth?

Howe: But if the aliens are controlling everything that happens on this planet, to what end? If they are walking among us and looking like us …?

Warren: What the outcome is, I don’t know. Adrian said what it is all about, but I don’t remember if it’s good or bad. I can’t remember. But I remember leaving that conversation with Adrian feeling angry and frightened. So I’m sure maybe it wasn’t good. But it seemed like games — the human beings in the government’ as we call them — play games. And people die in the meantime!”

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lythrontiro-argestes · 7 months

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As they had been subverting governments and winning wars for so long, President Kennedy believed them. Had he looked at their records more closely he might not have. The CIA did indeed help overthrow the governments of Iran, Guatemala, and Laos. But they had also tried and failed in Costa Rica, Burma, and Indonesia. The Joint Chiefs, Kennedy would discover, automatically favored every hostile act. Their consent meant less than nothing.

William L. O'Neill, Coming Apart

#coming apart #an informal history of america in the 1960's #william l. o'neill

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back-and-totheleft · 1 year

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While in New York City promoting the release of Nuclear Now, Oliver Stone and screenwriter Joshua S. Goldstein (who is a PhD professor) sat down with Screen Rant to discuss their film, its themes, and the virtues of nuclear energy. They spoke about how companies like Shell and Exxon knew about climate change back in the 1960s but did nothing to stop it, placing their profits before the future of the planet. They also discussed overblown fears regarding nuclear power plants and their supposed environmental dangers.

Screen Rant: I'm thinking back to try and remember when I first heard of nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Warren Smith had a song called "Uranium Rock," which is about mining for Uranium like the next gold rush. There was this brief window where nuclear power was absolutely going to be the future.

Oliver Stone: I love that. We should have kept going on that path, and we'd be out of the woods now.

Screen Rant: Had things turned out differently, what would carbon emissions be today?

Joshua S. Goldstein: Pretty close to zero. The heart of the problem is the fossil fuel economy, globally. And the emissions from that. We wouldn't have that problem. The United States was planning to have no carbon for electricity by the turn of the century, and we think the rest of the world would have followed suit.

Oliver Stone: Historically, this was a big deal. The fact that America detoured away from it is shocking. I think, to historians of the future, I don't think it's going to be overlooked.

Screen Rant: I think we'll look at this fossil fuel era as the dark ages.

Oliver Stone: [Laughs] If we get out of it.

Screen Rant: There was a perfect storm of circumstances that conspired to take down nuclear energy. I don't like to use the word "conspired," but it just crushed nuclear power.

Oliver Stone: It seemed like God's destiny or something. But you're right. In the beginning, in the 40s, it was horribly conflated with nuclear war. Nuclear power is not like nuclear war at all. Different origins. Different. At the beginning, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that was a shame and a real disgrace, that we dropped those bombs, may Harry Truman be damned…

Screen Rant: As documented in your show, The Untold History of the United States.

Oliver Stone: Oh, you saw that? Bravo! I wasn't knowledgeable on that growing up. I should have been. It was my generation that screwed it up. It was guys like me and women like Jane Fonda who came along and we were mis-educated.

Joshua S. Goldstein: And there were all the films in the 50s…

Oliver Stone: That was a little before me. I'm not responsible for that! The radioactive monsters… So many of them. Great films, too! All those creatures, what the fuck were they? It was all scary shit, right? Then the United States embraced war, in Vietnam. In response, that generation brought into the idea of peace at any price. But they didn't get their information correct, and I don't know why that is. I don't know why there was no Einstein to emerge and go, "Hey guys, wake up!" I'd love to research that more. Why wasn't there somebody to question all this, when The China Syndrome came out.

Screen Rant: Your film doesn't lean into the idea of the fossil fuel and oil industries doing what we expect them to do.

Oliver Stone: We take the point of view of Rod Adams, who said it wasn't conspiracy. It was simply business. Have you read the recent reports about Shell Oil? They knew all about this back in the 70s and buried it. There's a whole court case coming up. It's a big one. They're suing the sh** out of them. They are responsible. They knew climate change was coming, but they wanted to make money. Now, can oil help us? Yeah! I think they still can help us. They make all kinds of products. Like sweaters, clothing, plastics, and they can be cooperative in this. They won't go out of business. They'll find a new way of doing it!

Joshua S. Goldstein: The next thing for oil companies to do is deep geothermal wells. They're good at digging underground for geothermal power. But there's a whole attitude about finding what's underground, and part of it is storing carbon down there and part of it is finding heat for geothermal, and part of it fossil fuel. I heard another thing where they take nuclear power to process kelp. Lots of kelp. Seaweed, into something that looks like crude oil to a refinery. And you feed that into the refinery.

After that, all the products you produce are carbon neutral because you used seaweed! And oil companies can still refine and sell that, instead of trying to switch it all over, it's just making gas differently, making diesel differently. There's a number of technologies… You use nuclear energy for a big shot at the start of the process, but you end up something that looks like diesel that you put in your pick up truck, or aviation fuel for planes. We don't know which of these may pan out in the future.

Screen Rant: The industry was stunted before it could be applied to fueling alternatives, even alternatives to itself. I think we talk about wind and solar being the future, but nuclear was the future 70 years ago. Can you talk about whether wind or solar have the capacity to sustain us?

Joshua S. Goldstein: You can't run a grid them alone. People say, "Well, batteries are getting cheaper," and that's true, but the scale doesn't add up for trying to run the world on batteries charged by wind and solar. They're great as part of the grid, and you can fill in around them when they're not producing. But if you've got a grid powered by wind and solar and it's not sunny and windy that day, you have nothing, and sometimes that can last for weeks. How are you going to run the entire grid for weeks? Batteries are orders of magnitude off from what we can build and afford now, since mining is very intensive for batteries.

Hydro-electric is great from a climate point of view, but it does flood valleys and destroy ecosystems. Then there's natural gas hovering in the background. The oil companies are like, "Yeah, it's a renewable future" and they have wind and solar all over the front of their websites, but then behind it, when they're not producing, they'll burn natural gas. "Clean" natural gas. It's not clean. It's producing carbon and methane. It's a very powerful greenhouse gas, but not as long-lived as carbon dioxide. I see so much natural gas advertising, how it's part of a "clean" solution, but it isn't. If you're sitting in Pennsylvania, on top of all the frakking fields, then natural gas is pretty cheap. But in South Korea or Japan, they have to import the LNG (liquefied natural gas), and that's pretty expensive.

Oliver Stone: Who's making the most money in America from shipping the LNG? Do you know?

Joshua S. Goldstein: I'm not sure. But the big oil companies. That industry is fragmented with companies you've never heard of that are making piles of money. There's independent producers, then there's the big ones. There's a big company that runs an LNG import terminal in Massachusetts, where we've phased out nuclear power. It's where I live. So, I look up, who owns this big solar array near where I live. It's the biggest one in Massachusetts. Who owns this? It's a big LNG import company. Why would they be building a solar field?

Screen Rant: The front door says "solar," but they're letting all the natural gas in through a side door when no one's looking.

Joshua S. Goldstein: When solar isn't producing, which is most of the time… Actually, in Massachusetts, our capacity factor, the percent of the theoretical capacity that's produced on average is 13%. So most of the time, it's not producing. And when it's not producing, that's when natural gas comes in. It makes sense for them. Put solar out there, and it's cheap when it produces, but most of the time it doesn't. So now we're 3/4 methane. A few decades ago, Massachusetts was 1/4 coal, 1/4 nuclear, 1/4 natural gas, and then 1/4 everything else. They phased out coal and nuclear entirely, the dirtiest thing and the cleanest thing. Now it's just 3/4 natural gas. We haven't de-carbonized at all.

Screen Rant: Right now there's a whole thing about the waste water at Indian Point, where the local protests stopped them from dumping water into the Hudson. Is that water dangerous?

Joshua S. Goldstein: I would drink that water. It's the most ridiculously tiny amount of radioactivity. People think radioactivity is a 'yes or no' thing. Like, one bite from a radioactive spider will turn you into Spider-Man. But it doesn't work that way. We're bathed in radiation all the time. This room is full of it. Nuclear power doesn't add much. Background radiation varies a lot from one place to another. In Denver, Colorado, it's twice what it is here at sea level in New York. And yet there's no health effects from that variation.

This tritium that they want to dump, they want to dump water that has tiny amounts of tritium, is a tiny fraction of that difference between Denver and New York. We know that it's not an amount that can have any effect. Tritium is in EXIT signs, like that one over there. The total amount they want to dump from Indian Point is greatly diluted and gets safer every day from radioactive decay. The total amount is about equal to one of those EXIT signs, roughly. We're around tritium all the time. It's something that can be written as, "Radioactive water dumped into our natural sources!"

Oliver Stone: These websites turn out these articles, like CounterPunch, they turn out everything anti-nuclear. They believe this sh** because they give you so many numbers they can convince you.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Tritium is so weakly radioactive. It produces low-energy electrons. Yes, it's radioactive, it throws off electrons, but the electrons won't go through a couple inches of air. It won't penetrate skin. It's just like a version of hydrogen. It passes through the body like any water does. It doesn't accumulate in the body. If they put it in the Hudson River, it will be so diluted, it will have no effect.

Screen Rant: So, it's not a case where as soon as they dump it, the fish will all rise to the surface with Xs over their eyes.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Right. It's just fear. We have fears of radioactivity from movies in the 50s, and then from Silkwood and those kinds of films. If they can ping those fears, they can raise money on it, politicians can get votes off it, but I'd drink it.

Screen Rant: What about stuff like spent fuel and more immediate byproducts? They bury that, right?

Joshua S. Goldstein: Well, they were going to bury it in Yucca Mountain. Finland is actually building a repository similar to Yucca Mountain to bury it. We put it in "dry casks." Concrete casks, 18 feet high. Concrete. It stops the radiation. I've stood right next to them with no protective gear at all. They don't leak. They're safe for 100 years in that form. While we go about solving Climate Change…

Oliver Stone: [Laughs] Then we can worry about it.

Joshua S. Goldstein: After we solve Climate Change, either bury them like Finland is doing, or turn them into fuel for new reactors.

Screen Rant: They can be recycled?

Joshua S. Goldstein: Yeah.

Oliver Stone: Waste is very carefully managed because there's a small amount of it. It's watched. There's not one piece of waste that's out there. Whereas oil and coal, there's a lot of waste. A lot of waste. And solar batteries.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Cadmium, mercury. Solar Panels have all these minerals that are mined. It's very difficult to mine. And they're turned into solar panels in China, in Xinjiang, where the genocide is going on.

Oliver Stone: What genocide? Oh, you're going with that? Okay. But listen, you understand, as a filmmaker, how can you resist this story? It's important! With this turnaround that's happened. If there was no turnaround, if we just became nuclear-powered, we would be rather passive about all of it. It would become uneventful. In France, when I was shooting there, there's lots of people who don't even know there's a nuclear plant there, but they're happy it works. But it doesn't cross their consciousness.

Screen Rant: A great scene in your film is the Three Mile Island incident. There was a meltdown tragedy averted because it was evidence that the safety precautions worked.

Oliver Stone: Key is the guy who says, "They never tell us the truth, it's worse than they're telling you."

Screen Rant: We look at coal and natural gas as the devil we know, even though it's so much more destructive than nuclear. Young people don't have a whole lot to look forward to in this world, but we won't have a planet at that point if we don't change things now.

Oliver Stone: We'll have a planet, but it will be ruined. Or close to ruined. I wonder where we'll go. Maybe the South Seas. I'm not sure. I don't know where to go.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Oliver, maybe you can go to South Pacific ahead of time and check and see if it's safe for the rest of us.

Oliver Stone: The scientist in the film says, "It's a shame Nuclear didn't come along until later, in the 80s, because it wouldn't have been so resisted. It's important to have more accidents, actually. (Laughs) We'd understand that it's like a plane crash. Planes have to develop into better planes. There's a need for accidents, for any industry to grow.

Screen Rant: I wrote that in my notes before it came up in the film. We hear about every plane crash, but flying is still the safest way to travel. Yes, Chernobyl was a terribly mismanaged incident, and that mismanagement was what led to the massive loss of life. The thing I'm worried about with regard to nuclear power is Material Unaccounted For.

Oliver Stone: Yeah, that senator, what was his name… From Georgia… Sam Nunn. When the Soviet Union went down, they had to account for all the nuclear material. There was a rush. For example, Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union and had a load of material, so George Bush or whoever ran over there and said, "Hey, give it to us!" Ya know

Joshua S. Goldstein: When the Soviet Union fell apart, there were weapons all over the place.

Oliver Stone: Ukraine gave theirs back to the Soviet Union. They had a good leader at that time, Kuchma.

Joshua S. Goldstein: There was a rush to scoop up all the nuclear material and the weapons and bring them back.

Oliver Stone: What about the missing stuff that he's scared of? The stuff that's gonna fall into Iranian hands or something?

Joshua S. Goldstein: They collected all this stuff and it culminates when they take megatons of Soviet weapons, downblend the fuel, and run American reactors on them for about 15 years. Half of all the nuclear power in the USA was running off these Soviet warheads.

Oliver Stone: What do they do to the fuel?

Joshua S. Goldstein: They downblend it, so instead of "highly enriched" uranium, it goes all the way down to 5%. You take something and turn it from one into twenty. It's downgraded that way. We ran our reactors for 15 years on it. Nobody really knew about it. It's called 'megatons to megawatts.' The downside of it was, it discouraged the US fro making more of our own nuclear fuel. After that, we just kept on buying nuclear fuel from the Russians. Sam Nunn was all involved with that. As for the Materials Unaccounted For, the idea that this low-enriched Uranium would get out and someone could make it into a bomb, it hasn't been an issue. If you want to make a bomb, you have to enrich Uranium.

Screen Rant: Which not a lot of people have the capacity to do.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Right. Iran is a major country with a big program, all those centrifuges enriching uranium. You can do it. You can get there. Pakistan and India have civilian nuclear power, and it's separate from their military program for weapons. A civilian nuclear power plant is not useful for making weapons.

Oliver Stone: It's never happened. You can't say that it's ever happened.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Then Israel and North Korea, big proliferators, creating nuclear weapons…

Oliver Stone: I'm curious, why did Israel develop nuclear weapons but not nuclear power plants?

Joshua S. Goldstein: I think they wanted to keep their nuclear technology for their weapons program, which they were keeping secret, so they didn't want a public facing…

Oliver Stone: But it would be two different departments.

Joshua S. Goldstein: That's how it is in India and Pakistan. I can't answer you on Israeli policy. South Korea was going to build nuclear weapons, but they chose civilian nuclear power because they couldn't do both over the international framework. Israel dropped out of the framework and made weapons, but South Korea… Sweden, too, they were pursuing nuclear weapons, but decided, they're not really much use, let's build power plants instead.

Screen Rant: Regarding how you can't weaponize a nuclear plant, we saw Russia occupy Chernobyl. What, if anything, could they have done? It felt, at the time, like nuclear blackmail.

Joshua S. Goldstein: Chernobyl is on the road straight into Kyiv, so that's why they went through there. There were all these stories about Russian soldiers digging through the Chernobyl dirt and how it's going to irradiate them and all this terrible stuff, but nothing ever materialized. It was just a lot of fear. Anytime Chernobyl's back in the picture. And the same thing is with the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine, which Russia is currently occupying. But they had shut the plant down

Oliver Stone: And it's encased in concrete, right?

Joshua S. Goldstein: Yes. The safest place to be in a warzone is in a nuclear plant!

You can conjure up scenarios where a bunker-buster bomb could breach containment and you'd end up with some low-level radioactivity spreading around. It's easy to map because you can measure very small measures of radioactivity, but that doesn't mean it's having any harmful effects.

Oliver Stone: Is that the one-in-a-million shot?

Joshua S. Goldstein: Yes. My parents were biological scientists, and they used radioactive tracers to follow molecules around the body and see where they end up. Just low-level radiation.

Screen Rant: I can't tell if you're just exploring the science or if you have a storytelling idea.

Joshua S. Goldstein: This is beyond the movie, but I've been thinking about the topic we broach in the movie briefly about what happened in the 1940s and 50s when there was this scientific fraud to make people afraid of radiation. That's a story about finding the lie. The Rockefeller Foundation was the main funder of science, not the government. They put all their money into creating the idea that low-level radiation is dangerous.

Oliver Stone: As Rod Adams says, he doesn't think it was conspiracy, he thinks it was business. The interesting thing, now, is that we discovered the Shell oil papers from those days. They knew in the 1960s that Climate Change was here, but they kept doing what they were doing, which makes them possibly liable in this new mentality we have of courtroom legal warfare. Lawfare. Maybe they can go after Shell or Exxon, because they knew. They explored the future.

-Zak Wojnar, ScreenRant, May 3 2023 [x]

#oliver stone #nuclear now #joshua goldstein #screenrant

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art-of-manliness · 2 years

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Odds & Ends: March 17, 2023

The Internet’s Richest Fitness Resource Is a Site from 1999. A deep dive into the history of Exrx.net. I remember visiting the site way back in high school in 2000 to use their one rep max calculator. What’s great about Exrx.net is that it hasn’t changed at all in nearly 25 years. Same great, extensive fitness information; same straight up basic HTML layout and design they’ve had since the turn of the century. It’s kinda comforting to know it’s still there and still carries on. Eureka Springs, AR. This week our family drove to the small town of Eureka Springs, AR for a short spring break trip. It was our first time visiting, and Eureka Springs is one of the most intriguing places I’ve been in a while. It was a resort town in the 19th century, so it’s historic and many old Victorian buildings remain, but it’s also this artsy bohemian place at the same time. It was built on a mountain, so it has all these winding roads and alleyway staircases to get from one level of the town to the next. We checked out the shops, read the plaques that tell the history of the town, and hiked the nice trails in Lake Leatherwood Park. We’d like to go back and stay at the Crescent Hotel, supposedly America’s most haunted hotel. The town’s this truly weird place worth checking out. Harry’s Taming Cream. Since I’ve been sporting the longer hair, I’ve been on the lookout for a hair product to tame my wild, sometimes frizzy mane. So I went to my nearby drugstore several months ago and saw that Harry’s has a hair cream that has “taming” right in the name. It’s great. It provides a lightweight hold and gives your hair a natural look. It provides just enough moisture that my thick coarse hair doesn’t poof out. Highly recommended if you’re in a similar hair situation. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. This is a book that I think about a lot and comes up often in our podcasts about socializing and loneliness. In it, political scientist Robert Putnam argues that there’s been a sharp decline in “social capital” in the United States since the 1960s. He points to the decreasing numbers of Americans participating in civic and social organizations, such as bowling leagues, religious groups, and community organizations and argues that this decline has had negative impacts on American society, like loneliness and sharp partisan divides. The book was published in 2000 so some of it is dated, but I think Putnam’s main thesis is still worth contemplating. Quote of the Week If we search for the fundamentals which actually motivate us we will find that they come under four headings: love, money, adventure, and religion. It is to some of them that we always owe that big urge which pushes us onward. Men who crush these impulses and settle down to everyday routine are bound to sink into mediocrity. No man is a complete unit of himself; he needs the contact, the stimulus, and the driving power which is generated by his contact with other men, their ideas, and constantly changing scenes. —Edward S. Jordan The post Odds & Ends: March 17, 2023 appeared first on The Art of Manliness. http://dlvr.it/Sl3hcH

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bitcofun · 2 years

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This is a viewpoint editorial by Yasin Chowdhury, host of the Miami Bitcoin Meetup and innovation specialist. The following is for informative and home entertainment functions just. This is not medical guidance, nor does the author or publishing entity excuse using drugs. Traveling down the Bitcoin bunny hole can be a treacherous monetary and mental journey. Economically, it is simple to get totally trashed-- whether by participating in the countless various cryptocurrency rip-offs, keeping bitcoin on numerous loaning platforms that guarantee a yield or just mishandling your secrets. From a mental viewpoint, remaining calm through the extreme volatility can be hard, not to discuss the large cognitive harshness one might experience decreasing the bunny hole. Thankfully there is a structure that can reduce the dangers for those who want to roam down the perpetual Bitcoin bunny hole. This structure is asserted on the psychedelic motion originated by Dr. Timothy Leary. The resemblances in between Bitcoin and psychedelics are spooky. It appears that both change human awareness-- psychedelics trigger brain modification neurochemically, whereas Bitcoin causes brain modification through guerilla ontology 1-- at another level, both brain modification mediums share a comparable aura of debate too. Psychedelics went into the front and center of American awareness in the 1960 s. Some appealing research studies were led by Dr. Leary and his accomplice at Harvard University. Leary was far ahead of his time and a little too flamboyant; President Richard Nixon identified Leary the most hazardous guy in America. 2 The United States Federal federal government took things even more and prohibited psychedelic research study in 1970. 3 In 2022 it is safe to state that psychedelics are once again going into the American awareness. Netflix simply launched its groundbreaking docu-series " How To Change Your Mind" based upon Michael Pollan's seriously well-known book. John Hopkins University, University of California Berkeley and New York University excitedly perform psychedelic research study. 4 Most significantly, psychedelic-assisted psychiatric therapy is beginning to get in a number of states across the country. 5 Even though these compounds can assist deal with PTSD, anxiety, stress and anxiety, compound dependency and lots of other psychological conditions, it took almost 60 years for them to be rather accepted by society. Bitcoin shares a comparable history of contention; Over the last 13 years, federal governments and traditional media have actually assaulted Bitcoin mercilessly. The famous financier Charlie Munger reached to call it rat poisoned squared, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon promoted "Blockchain, not Bitcoin" and China and various other nations have actually prohibited it sometimes. Because very same period of time, regardless of the ruthless slander from Bitcoin cynics, numerous big corporations have actually embraced Bitcoin as a part of their treasury technique- Microstrategy, SpaceX, Tesla and Square, among others. Remarkably, 2 nation-states-- El Salvador and the Central African Republic-- have actually made bitcoin legal tender. It is safe to presume that more corporations, nation-states and people will begin relocating to a Bitcoin requirement throughout this period of extreme geopolitical dispute. To assist guarantee a safe shift to the Bitcoin requirement, we can comply with a structure set out by the psychedelic leaders. The structure includes the list below aspects: Set And Setting The separated Harvard Professor Timothy Leary created the term set and setting, right out of the horse's mouth--" Of course, the drug dosage does not produce the transcendent experience. It simply functions as a chemical secret-- it opens the mind, releases the nerve system of its regular patterns and structures. The nature of the experience depends practically totally on set and setting. Set signifies the preparation of the person, including his character structure and his state of mind at the time.

Setting is physical-- the weather condition, the space's environment; social-- sensations of individuals present towards one another; and cultural-- fundamental deem to what is genuine. It is for this factor that handbooks or guide-books are required. Their function is to allow an individual to comprehend the brand-new truths of the broadened awareness, to act as plan for brand-new interior areas which contemporary science has actually made available." 6 To even more elaborate, the set likewise includes the person's expectations of the psychedelic experience. Having a clear intent prior to taking a psychedelic is a must. Whether that intent is to recover from injury, broaden imagination or discover significance is exclusively up to the person. From the Bitcoin lens, set and setting is of vital value. If you do not have the right set of expectations, then you are registering for an undesirable experience. Are you buying Bitcoin to be an over night millionaire? Will you be uncomfortably selling and out of the possession for a fast dollar? If these are your expectations, then get ready for dissatisfaction. Bitcoin is tailored more towards people with a low time choice; it ought to preferably be utilized as a conserving lorry, not as a betting instrument. Having a company and clear intent to save the fruits of your labor well into the future will help the bitcoinaut 7 throughout their journey. As for the setting, it is a good idea to assess where one stands economically-- levels of financial obligation, capital, solvency, and so on,-- it might likewise be sensible to surround oneself with individuals who have a good understanding of specific elements of the procedure. What is sound cash? Why exist 21 million coins? What is proof-of-work, the trouble modification and the halving? Keeping peers acquainted with the above will enable smooth cruising through the Bitcoin bunny hole. Such peers can typically be discovered at Bitcoin conferences, Bitcoin meetups, and on Bitcoin Twitter. Trip Guide When it concerns mind-altering compounds, a strong journey guide is well versed with the compound being utilized. This individual will share any needed forewarnings-- for example, any private with a household history of schizophrenia need to not touch a psychedelic with a 10- foot pole. A perfect journey guide will likewise understand how to browse the waters of the feared bad journey, frequently set off by idea patterns surrounding injury. The guide will have a tool package of numerous mindfulness and breathing workouts to bring the voyager back to a serene mindset; thankfulness is likewise a powerful tool in the psychonaut's toolbox. As a navigator, one ought to motivate fellow explorers to avoid blending psychedelics with other compounds. Preventing raves and celebrations for a first-timer ought to likewise be motivated; pick a more intimate and safe setting like a rich, lovely garden. Nature is your buddy. The journey guide will just acquire the compounds from trustworthy sources. In the Bitcoin sphere, a good journey guide will guide the voyagers clear of 10s of countless various shit coins, NFT mania and yield looking for. A great guide will likewise extremely prevent using utilize when buying bitcoin. The understanding of self-custody is a must. A perfect chaperone will have a good understanding of Bitcoin's technical, financial and energy elements. With this breadth of understanding, the guide can efficiently kill any worry, unpredictability and doubt that might emerge from the depths of the brand-new Bitcoiner's mind. Correct rules for buying sats would be to utilize Bitcoin-only platforms such as Cash App, Swan, River and Strike. Dosage The last active ingredient to performing a safe psychedelic experience is the proper dose. Take excessive of the compound, and you might have an extreme ego dissolution-this can result in an aggravating journey. Take insufficient of the entheogen, and you might hardly feel anything. Regarding Bitcoin,

acquiring the appropriate quantity come down to the person's monetary circumstance and tolerance for volatility. Purchase insufficient, and you might stress on the cost run-up; purchase excessive, and you might seem like a worried trainwreck en route down. A great guideline is to merely just dollar expense average in-- purchasing a bit whenever you earn money. When you deeply comprehend Bitcoin from a number of various lenses, continue to stack more difficult. The Shattering Of Illusions One last remarkable parallel in between Bitcoin and psychedelics, a minimum of one that must be covered more extensive, is how these both change awareness. Dr. Leary emphatically taught that psychedelic compounds open the human mind to inscribing-- an important knowing duration. Oh, bad medical professional, he was apprehended for his dazzling concepts in the 1970 s, just later on to be pardoned by California's guv at the time-- Jerry Brown 8 Leary's concept of neurological inscribing appears to resonate with the CEO of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). In her own words, Amy Emerson postulates" What I state is, psychedelics resume vital durations, they make an old brain young once again, they enable you to return to that state where you're responsive to the world like a kid." 9 During this inscribing stage, one can discover to break old practices, recover injury and modification believed patterns that are hidden in the mind. In this crucial duration of receptivity to brand-new details, one can dramatically alter their particular worldview. As discussed previously, Bitcoin modifies awareness itself through guerilla ontology. As one passes through the Bitcoin bunny hole, one is entrusted a spooky yet unshakeable feeling of cognitive harshness. The veneer of the clown world begins to fracture, and the Bitcoinaut begins to translucent the fiat lies. It ends up being clear that our daily lives are asserted on a destructive fiat system that continuously misshapes truth and provides the advantage to cantillionaires, even more worsening among society's most popular problems-- wealth inequality. Unquestioningly, we engage with fiat impressions from the minute we are born. Fiat-based medication and medical facilities, fiat education, fiat media, fiat consumerism, fiat politics-- the list is limitless, however all of it is based upon a deceiving financial system. Bitcoin is a system of guidelines without rulers. In an effort to comprehend this phenomenon, Bitcoiners are exposed to Austrian economics, physics, video game theory, cryptography, computer technology and a heaping dosage of viewpoint. One ultimately pertains to recognize that Bitcoin is the reverse of the fiat system; the latter is parasitic, whereas the previous allows the additional thriving of mankind. One can now conserve the fruits of their labor in a system that can not be debased. Be self-sovereign and stack some sats, or as our precious pal Dr. Timothy Leary would state, "Tune in, switch on, and take charge!"10 Sources 1. Created by Robert Anton Wilson, "The objective of guerrilla ontology is to expose a specific or people to significantly distinct concepts, ideas, and words, in order to conjure up cognitive harshness, which can trigger a degree of pain in some people as they discover their belief systems challenged by brand-new ideas. The supreme objective of guerrilla ontology is to promote favorable brain modification and brand-new methods of experiencing and adjusting to truth." 2. Mansnerus, Laura. "Timothy Leary, pied piper of psychedelics 60's passes away at 75" New York Times, 01 June 1996, https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/01/ us/timothy-leary-pied- piper-of-psychedelic-60- s-dies-at-75 html 3. Scientific American. "End the Ban on Psychoactive Drug Research" 01 Feburary 2014 https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/end-the-ban-on-psychoactive-drug-research/ 4. John Hopkins. For Psychedelic and Consciousness Research https://hopkinspsychedelic.

org/index/#research New York University. For Psychedelic Medicine https://med.nyu.edu/departments-institutes/psychiatry/research/center-psychedelic-medicine University of California Berkeley. Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics https://psychedelics.berkeley.edu/ 5. Elbeshbishi, Sarah. "Psilocybin treatment triggers states to reassess laws about 'magic mushrooms'" USA Today, 11 August 2022 https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2022/08/06/ psilocybin-therapy-states-legalize-magic-mushrooms/10188105002/? gnt-cfr=1 6. Leary, Timothy. Metzner, Ralph. Richard Alpert. The Psychedelic Experience. Kensington, 1964. 7. New word to explain Bitcoiners, motivated by Psychonaut "a individual who checks out modified states of awareness for spiritual functions or the expedition of the human condition, consisting of shamanism, sensory deprivation, and using psychedelic compounds" https://www.macmillandictionary.com/us/dictionary/american/psychonaut#:~:text=DEFINITIONS1,Canada on23% 2F05% 2F2017 8. Leary, Timothy. Flashbacks. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1983. 9. Emerson, Amy. We are the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), a non-profit company studying restorative applications for psychedelics and cannabis. Ask us anything! Reddit. 17 August2022 https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/nh3c97/ we_are_the_multidisciplinary_association_for/ gyubv8p/10 Leary, Timothy. Flashbacks. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1983 This is a visitor post by Yasin Chowdhury. Viewpoints revealed are totally their own and do not always show those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine. Read More

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abcnewspr · 2 years

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ABC NEWS STUDIOS AND ROCK’N ROBIN PRODUCTIONS PARTNER TO EXPLORE THE ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF A POP CULTURE SUPERHERO TO GLOBAL PHENOMENON IN ‘20/20 PRESENTS BLACK PANTHER: IN SEARCH OF WAKANDA’ ON FRIDAY, NOV. 4

The Special Features Exclusive Interview With Chadwick Boseman’s Widow, Simone Ledward Boseman

Program Also Includes Interviews With Cast and Award-Winning Filmmakers Plus, an Exclusive Sneak Peak of ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’

ABC News Studios partners with Rock’n Robin Productions for “20/20 Presents Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda,” the one-hour program hosted by “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts exploring the evolution of Black Panther from the comic emerging in the 1960s to the film the world fell in love with in 2018. Roberts sits down with director Ryan Coogler to discuss the highly anticipated sequel to the Marvel Studios’ phenomenon, “Black Panther,” and how the film honors the legacy of Chadwick Boseman. EGOT winner and moderator of “The View,” Whoopi Goldberg, exclusively interviews Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward Boseman. In homage to King T'Challa and one week in advance of the film’s premiere, the program features an exclusive sneak peek of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” “20/20 Presents Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda” airs FRIDAY, NOV. 4 (8:00-9:00 p.m. EDT), on ABC and stream the next day on Hulu.

With “Black Panther”’s release in 2018, Afrofuturism – the incorporation of black history and culture in science fiction film – was ushered into the cultural spotlight across the world. “Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda” will travel to Africa to see first-hand many of the influences that inspired the filmmakers when building the world of Wakanda. The hour also takes a look at the expanding world in the new film with the addition of other cultures.

In the special, Oscar® winner Ruth Carter discusses her process of research, inspiration and execution of her award-winning costume designs, composer Ludwig Göransson talks about the authenticity that inspired his Academy and GRAMMY® Award-winning “Black Panther” score and the cultural impact of the music, and Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler opens up about creating the world of Wakanda. The special also includes interviews with the film’s stars including Angela Bassett, Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright, Danai Gurira and Wakanda newcomers Mabel Cadena and Tenoch Huerta Meja.

“20/20 Presents Black Panther: In Search of Wakanda” is a co-production of ABC News Studios and Rock’n Robin Productions. Janice Johnston and Catherine McKenzie serve as executive producers.

About ABC News Studios

ABC News Studios, inspired by ABC News’ trusted reporting, is a premium, narrative non-fiction original production house and commissioning partner of series and specials. ABC News Studios champions untold and authentic stories driving the cultural zeitgeist spanning true-crime, investigations, pop culture, and news-adjacent stories. Its subsidiary, ABC News Films, acquires and produces feature documentary films.

About Rock’n Robin Productions

Headed by Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, Rock'n Robin Productions is a full service, Emmy Award-winning broadcast and digital production company based in New York City creating new and exciting programming for network, cable, streamers, and online audiences. Projects range from documentaries and talk shows, to news driven specials, scripted dramas, sports programming and short form digital series. Regular clients of RRP include ABC, ESPN, Lifetime, Disney+ & espnW. For more information, go to www.rocknrobin.tv.

*COPYRIGHT ©2022 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All photography is copyrighted material and is for editorial use only. Images are not to be archived, altered, duplicated, resold, retransmitted or used for any other purposes without written permission of ABC. Images are distributed to the press in order to publicize current programming. Any other usage must be licensed. Photos posted for Web use must be at the low resolution of 72dpi, no larger than 2x3 in size.

For more information, follow ABC News PR on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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separatist-apologist · 2 years

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I occasionally stir from fantasy and romance to read a dystopia because I feel like they’re more “normal” recs to give people 😂

I wouldn't even then. I DO read quite a bit of non-fiction (if we're friends on goodreads I think it can be jarring to see me switch from like, a very serious novel on the history sexual assault to MAIDEN RUINED BY ORC GIANT WEINER 8000 part 4). When people ask me for a recommendation, I pull from that list.

So, I offered (and I offer these to anyone interested in American History and social justice as well):

The Broken Heart of America: St. Louis and the Violent History of the United States by Walter Johnson (incredibly good read, you should see my tabs)

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz (I will be reading this July & August)

Rape: Sex, Violence, and History by Joanna Bourke (If you read Brownmiller's text from the '70's, consider this an update. Bourke is not as good of a writer as Brownmiller which makes it feel dry, but the updated history is good. It is STILL dated though, as it was written in 2007. I think both of those books are critical reading for anyone doing work with SA survivors and recommend reading them with a critical lens)

America On Fire: The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton (Really informative reading by a good story-teller, I suggest this to everyone)

and lastly Border & Rule: Global Migration, Capitalism, and the Rise of Racist Nationalism by Harsha Walia. I haven't begun this one, I hope to start in late August, early September.

I LOVE non-fiction. I have four massive shelves of it at home but it leaves me uninspired sometimes. It's good to be able to professionally be able to suggest a book to people who I care if they think I'm smart

VERSUS YOU ALL WHO KNOW WHAT AN ABSOLUTE DEGENERATE I AM. I'm not gonna tell HIM I had to DNF the snake man romance I was reading (because it was SO DRY despite the SNAKE SMUT) but then stayed up until 2:30 am reading The Lady and the Orc with open-mouthed fascination (No one likes drinking that much come, I'm sorry but WHOSE FANTASY IS THAT? Raise your hand so I can narrow my eyes and stare with disapproval).

Cursed book club is for the real me who had to delete all messages about monster ding-dongs from their askbox last night and if you're wondering, how many could that have been, it was A LOT.

(Also I bought Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman based on a tiktok recommendation and I'm hoping its a cute read to cleanse my brain with)

#like A LOT #DO NOT REBLOG THIS CURSED READING LIST #just take a polite screenshot

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ficswithluv · 4 years

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ChangesWithLuv - Official Post

In light of recent events that have occurred throughout the U.S., us admins at ficswithluv who created this blog to spread love between content creators wanted to use that same power and spread our love by supporting Black Lives Matter Movement. We stand in solidarity with all of those affected by police brutality and ingrained racism not just in America but worldwide.

ChangesWithLuv is a project where content creators have teamed up and offered their services in writing fics, designing banners, drawing fanart, and many other types of art. Similar to commissions, we ask that you donate to one of the charities or NGOs we support and apply here. The list of products and prices are under the read more, as well as the links to donate.

Once you send in your request, we’ll put it on a server of all the content creators taking part, so that it can be picked up and made by one of them. Their work will be tagged with #changeswithluv, so keep an eye out!

We understand that not everybody is in a financial position to donate, which is why the FWL admins collectively have donated $100 ourselves. The admins of Suga Network have also donated $60 to support the cause. On a first come, first served basis, you can submit a request for up to $5 of content (again, list below) using the admin relief fund. This is only for people who really can not afford to donate themselves, please be kind and. honest. It will support 20 people each commissioning something worth $5.

Additionally, we ask that if you’re unable to donate, that you take advantage of some of the resources we have below that you can use for free that support the movement.

We will be doing this for the month of June at least, and we ask for your support in this together with us.

If you are a creator wanting to offer your services, please fill out this form. We highly encourage anyone who wishes to support to check out the list of things we offer and, if you can make any of these, to sign up and help out.

Below the read more is the list of products and prices, links to donate, and other resources that anyone can use to make a change:

Rules for Submission:

You must be over 18 to commission anything NSFW. Likewise, only 18+ creators will produce any NSFW material

There is a place for providing screenshot evidence of your donation in the form. You may blur out or cover your personal information, but ensure that the amount donated and the name of the organisation is visible.

Please provide as much detail as you wish with your request, but we cannot guarantee that all of it will be incorporated

Products and Prices:

Writing:

1-4$ - 100 Word or less Scenario

1K Drabble - at least $5

2k Drabble - at least $10

3k Drabble - at least $15

GIFs:

Single GIF - at least $5

2 GIF Set - at least $10

4 GIF Set - at least $15

Resources for blogs:

1 Icon - at least $3

2 Icon Pack - at least $5

3 Icon Pack - at least $7

Tumblr Mobile Header: Static - at least $10

Tumblr Mobile Header: Animated - at least $15

Resources for fics:

Fic Banner: Static - at least $10

Fic Banner: Animated - at least $15

3x3 Moodboard: Static - at least $5

3x3 Moodboard: Animated - at least $10

Fanart:

1-4$ - A fun doodle with member of choice from an FWL Admin (bearing in mind these are FUN and will be pretty shitty)

Portrait Fanart: Simple 1 Member Line Art - at least $5

Portrait Fanart: Simple 1 Member Sketch + Background - at least $15

Portrait Fanart: Simple 1 Member Full Colour - at least $25

Packages:

Static Icon + Header - at least $15

Animated Icon + Header - at least $20

8 Fic Masterlist Banners (7 Members + Masterlist) - at least $35

10 Fic Masterlist Banners (7 Members + Masterlist + Series + Drabbles) - at least $45

Astrology

Sun, Moon & Rising Analysis - at least $5

Tarot

Tarot readings are for entertainment purposes only, we are not responsible for the choices you make and the outcomes.

3 card soulmate personality reading and first initial prediction - $5-10

Places to Donate:

37 Different Bail Funds To Donate To

Black Lives Matter

Black Visions Collective Donations ← Minnesota Freedom Funds asks that you redirect your donations to this organization in specific!

Brooklyn Bail Fund

COVID Bail Out - NYC ← will help post bail for medically vulnerable people held in New York City jails and provide comprehensive post-release support, such as shelter and food, for these individuals.

NAACP Legal Defense Fund

Official George Floyd Memorial Fund

Reclaim The Block ← aims to redistribute police funding to help the minneapolis community

Twin Cities DSA ← provides fresh groceries and hot meals to people in minneapolis

If you have another place in particular that you would like to send your donations to please send the network a message off anon to confirm with an admin!

Other useful Resources:

A list of petitions to sign and advice on how to sign them.

More places to donate if you have the means, and advice on how to donate.

Helpful information for protestors

An excellent resource on systemic racism, anti-blackness and white privilege

A YouTube video which shows black creators and plays music from black artists. This video is filled with ads, all the revenue of which will be donated in support of BLM. If you can’t afford to donate yourself, use this as a way of donating. Don’t skip ads and stream like you would a MV (advice in the comments on how to effectively stream it)

An article on things you can do to help enact racial justice.

A twitter thread on misinformation currently being spread so you can make sure you aren’t believing any factually incorrect news/advice.

A google drive with resources from Black History Month

As said above, the admins donated $100 to fund 20 commissions. The screenshots are below. We chose to donate to Miss Majors’ medical care and retirement fund. In case you don’t know, here is some information:

As a Black, formerly incarcerated transgender elder, mother, and grandmother, Miss Major has paved the way for us to be who and where we are today. She is a veteran of the historic Stonewall Rebellion and a survivor of Attica State Prison, a former sex worker, a human rights activist, and simply “Mama” to many in her community. At the center of her activism from the 1960’s to today is her fierce advocacy for her girls, trans women of color who have survived police brutality and incarceration.

#changeswithluv

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