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eclairslein · 4 years

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Why Technoblade is an unreliable narrator

I’ve seen a lot of viewers idolizing c!Technoblade and saying it didn’t make sense that Tommy left him in the end. I watch Technoblade’s streams, but also everyone else’s. I think there’s a lot of overlap in viewers who idolize him and those who don’t have any context other than what comes from his character’s POV. As someone who has watched all POV’s here is why I disagree that “Technoblade has done no wrong” “Techno helps everyone and just gets betrayed” and “Tommy backstabbed Techno!”

I disagree with all of these statements and I don’t think c!Technoblade is a victim despite his personal monologue insinuating that. Let’s start at the beginning.

Technoblade joined to help Wilbur and Tommy with the intention of taking down Shlatt. He preached for anarchy and chaos. Although he was clear about the from the beginning, the people he was allied with didn’t agree with that. Wilbur was driven to that point AFTER Technoblade had already been allied with them. Tommy NEVER wanted to “destroy all government” his goal was always just to take down Shlatt and return to his home. Technoblade ignored the wishes of his only two allies and continued to entertain the idea in his own head of completely destroying L’Manberg. That was never an agreement, he made that decision on his own AGAINST the will of his only friends, Tommy and Wilbur.

Technoblade, on the other hand, was keeping secrets from them. He had withers prepared before they even put Tubbo in charge. Behind all of their backs he conspired with Wilbur and DREAM to destroy L’Manberg just as soon as they’d won it back. That is betrayal. No one betrayed Technoblade because they never promised him anarchy in the first place.

This is where his narration becomes unreliable. In his speech he brings up making all the gear for his new allies and then them betraying him when they used that gear to take back L’Manberg. He called that a betrayal even though it was CLEAR FROM THE BEGINNING WHAT THEIR INTENTIONS WERE ( the beginning being when Quackity and the others joined Pogtopia to help Tommy and the intentions being stopping L’Manberg’s destruction by Wilbur and ending Schlatt’s administration ). Technoblade calling this a betrayal is delusional.

The second thing his character is unreliable about is his “retirement.” When Technoblade set withers upon L’Manberg he caused pain and destruction, but also ultimately committed crimes against L’Manberg. He also vowed to them before disappearing into the wilderness that he would continue to destroy the government. When the Butcher Army arrived at his doorstep asking to answer for his crimes he claimed to be in retirement. Fleeing from a crime scene and then not committing crimes for awhile doesn’t excuse you from the original crime. Butcher Army coming for Technoblade was not entirely unreasonable the way c!Technoblade paints it to be. Technoblade was a war criminal and a threat and it made perfect sense for them to pursue him. Putting Phil under house arrest crossed a line, but going after Technoblade was not unreasonable for L’Manberg to do.

As for Technoblade’s relationship with Tommy in particular this is something that c!Technoblade is completely deluded about. Pogtopia days, Tommy did consider Technoblade a friend. The one thing that changed that was when Technoblade worked with Wilbur and Dream to BLOW UP LMANBERG. The ONE THING Tommy fought for, at least at the time. Technoblade dropped Tommy as soon as he realized that working with Wilbur and Dream (behind the backs of Tommy and everyone else) would get him his personal goal of anarchy. He betrayed Tommy first when he made that decision.

When Tommy holed up in Technoblade’s basement, Tommy stayed because Techno told him that he’d help him get the discs back. But Tommy was clear with Techno the whole time that he didn’t want to do anything to hurt Tubbo. Tommy always said no to plans that would hurt Tubbo, Technoblade would brush him off constantly and say things along the lines of “we’ll work out the details later.” Tommy never budged on not wanting to hurt Tubbo, despite Technoblade’s constantly insisting that Tubbo is bad and didn’t care about Tommy.

Technoblade was breeding anger and feelings of betrayal in Tommy in trying to convince him his best friend didn’t care about him, the same thing Dream was doing the weeks before while Tommy was in Logstedshire. Convincing Tommy that he didn’t really belong in L’Manberg was the only way to make him pliable and useful to both Technoblade and Dream. By pushing on Tommy that he should leave his friends (L’Manberg) behind, they were turning him into a bad guy. A person only motivated my personal gain (the discs) and that cares for no one.

After threatening Fundy, Technoblade told Tommy that he finally had respect for him. Finally believing that Tommy didn’t care about his old friends in L’Manberg anymore and was solely motivated by the discs, he revealed his plans to destroy L’Manberg. Tommy never agreed to this and was frankly horrified that what happened between him and Wilbur was happening again. He had no where to go and stayed with Technoblade but expressed clear discomfort in Techno’s plans to destroy L’Manberg.

Now for what Techno calls “Tommy’s final betrayal.” When Tommy stands by Tubbo at the community house and leaves Technoblade. To show why this was completely justified on Tommy’s part I’m going to draw comparisons to one of my favorite works of fiction: Avatar The Last Airbender. At the end of Book 2: Earth Zuko betrays Iroh and returns with Azula to the Fire Nation. Zuko’s time there makes him realize that he cares more about doing the right thing and being the PERSON HE WANTS TO BE than staying with his family and hurting people. Tommy leaves Technoblade for the same reason Zuko leaves Azula. Tommy does not want to be the type of person that would stay with Techno.

Tommy and Tubbo were in a screaming match. After Tommy regurgitated line after line that Dream and Techno had been feeding him. “You left me to die!” and all that jazz about choosing L’Manberg over him. The thing that stopped it was Tommy saying “ Those discs were worth more than you ever were!” Everyone went silent. Tommy stopped everything and realized that he had become a deplorable person and he was saying things he didn’t really mean. Caring more about discs than his friendship w Tubbo was Dreams plan all along and exactly what Technoblade had been feeding him. Tommy dropped everything to stand by Tubbo because he was mature enough to realize that he was the farthest he had ever been from the person the wanted to be, and the closest to being the villains he had been fighting his whole life. Whether it was intentional or not, Technoblade was the person who drove him to become that person. Dream started it, but Technoblade finished the job.

Technoblade felt betrayed, Tommy left him. But it was the only thing Tommy could do and still hold on to the person he wanted to be. Tommy cares about his friends, Tommy has been with L’Manberg since the beginning and has always done what he could to save those he cared about even if it meant personal sacrifice. That’s who Tommy is. The Tommy that Technoblade wanted to be allies with was a person who would help hurt and destroy L’Manberg. Someone who cared more about discs than his lifelong friends. That Tommy never really existed, he was always uncomfortable with Technoblade’s revenge plans. If Technoblade really listened to Tommy, and cared about what he thought, he would know that Tommy could never be the cold heartless person that Technoblade could use to achieve his personal revenge on L’Manberg.

Ultimately, the Tommy that Technoblade needed to help him and/ or stand by and watch him destroy L’Manberg doesn’t exist. It goes against everything that has been established about who Tommy is and what motivates him. To stay true to himself, Tommy could not possible stay with Technoblade and become a stubborn, cold hearted, vengeful person.

That “betrayal” was the most mature decision Tommy has ever made in canon and I WONT STAND BY AND LET YALL SAY IT WAS UNJUSTIFIED JUST BECAUSE IT WASNT WAHT TECHNOBLADE WANTED.

Technoblade is a villain, just because he has a reason for wanting to blow up and destroy everything doesn’t make him a better person for it. He is not moral and never has been. His goal from the beginning has been taking something so many people cared about, L’Manberg, and destroying it because he, personally, is an anarchist. That is an ideology, but it is not the only one. Technoblade wanting to destroy L’Manberg is pushing his values onto others through force and makes him more of a tyrant than every leader of L’Manberg combined. He is flawed just like every other character. The difference that I see is that his character never reflects and admits any wrongdoing on his own part, only blaming others for not agreeing with him and ultimately leaving him.

#dream smp #tommyinnit #Technoblade #dsmp spoilers #dsmp tommy #dsmp #mcyt #techno apologist

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pendragyn · 5 years

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Stacking The Deck

Yet Another Good Omens Fanfic from the Ineffable Bastards Universe (Also available on AO3)

Harriet wanted to be asleep. She’d just had a baby a few hours earlier, and all she really wanted was sleep. They had given her something for the pain, but it didn’t stop her having to use the restroom, which was NOT FUN right now, and it took a while for things to settle back down and she just. wanted. sleep.

What she got, was voices.

A few she recognized, distant and muzzy, as the nuns who’d helped deliver the baby. There was also the one not-nun who’d shuffled in during the chaos, wrinkly as an old apple with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, who had actually delivered the baby before quickly shuffling back out again. The nuns had treated her with deep respect, whispering to each other about ‘a touch of the Old Adam’ she carried about her.

There was now a lot more raucous laughter coming from down the hallway, and some singing of what were definitely not religious hymns. Mingled in were the voices of men, which some deep part of her brain realized were from her supposed security detail, who’d abandoned her the minute the live feed with her husband had ended.

But under those voices was another voice, one that she’d learned to listen to when it whispered a little too loudly to ignore. And it was telling her to check on the baby, to check on Warlock. Right Now.

With a muffled groan Harriet slid her legs over the side of the bed and eased herself to her feet. With the dimmed lights and muddled by whatever they had given her, it took her a moment to realize that the bassinet wasn’t there. No Warlock. And no guards. And no nuns.

The coolness of the linoleum felt good against the bottoms of her feet and she shuffled dreamily out of the room into the empty hallway, too well medicated to feel panic, but the little voice was getting louder. And it was talking with an odd accent, which was weird. And it was calling her by her full name now, which was even more unusual. Find your baby, Harriet Sibyl Dowling. Find him now or lose him forever.

She swayed uncertainly at a crossroads, the darkness and everything conspiring to make the two hallways seem interminably long and full of oddly moving shadows. What finally moved her was the out of tune singing that seemed to be going on about ‘hedgehogs can never be something at all’. Harriet liked hedgehogs, and on unsteady legs she moved towards the voices.

“Let me just pop out and get another bottle!” A splash of light and noise flooded the end of the hallway and Harriet turned away in self defense, pushing through a swinging door and finding herself in the tiny nursery. There were three babies in bassinets, lined up in a row, clearly having just been tended to and awaiting return to their mothers.

On the little weighing table next to the door, three tiny bracelets drew Harriet’s attention ,and the part of her that had been raised to be helpful picked them up and moved towards the trio of babies. She’d always been good at kenning, as her grandmother had called it. Said it was a special gift that only a few people were born with, and she had warned her solemnly to keep it secret. She’d never even told Thaddeus, not that he would have believed her. It had led her to him, had told her just where she needed to be to be noticed by him.

She’d been making quite a bit of money, going down to the boardwalk and the street fairs and watching with wide-eyed innocence as some fast talker shuffled cards or shifted cups while asking people to make bets. She’d pretend shyness and let them flirt with her, and feign delighted shock when she’d lose and lose and lose only to win in the very end, much to everyone’s amazement, especially the ones doing the shuffling. But that day she’d gone and watched other people play and lose, and when the man from her dreams walked up, dressed fancy and looking to impress his friends, she’d let her grandmother’s sun hat float away on the breeze and land at his feet. The rest had fallen into place, as they say, like magic.

The thought of magic had her turning to look at the little sleeping babies snuggled in their blankets. Harriet knew right away which one was hers, all hers, little Warlock in the cream blanket. She tied the little bracelet back on his wrist, stroking her finger over the curve of his cheek. “Hello baby Warlock. My little miracle baby.” She thought of all the effort they’d gone through, her and Thaddeus, to get to this point, and here he was, small and wrinkly and perfect.

The little baby on the left shifted and sneezed and Harriet stifled a giggle, looking down at the other two bracelets, squinting at the bad handwriting, not that it mattered, because she knew the right tag went to the left baby, bundled snuggly in a red blanket. She squinted at the name. “Hello little Adam. Do you have a touch of the Old Adam in you too, I wonder? You look like a little angel to me,” she cooed, tying his little bracelet on.

All that left was the right baby, sleeping soundly in blue, looking supremely satisfied. “And here’s another little angel, waiting to fly off to his mommy and daddy. They’re going to love you very much, yes they are, yes they are,” she cooed, feeling supremely satisfied herself with a job well done. She’d had a baby and had averted disaster and all would be well with the world when she could finally get some sleep.

Sister Theresa Garrulous was laughing at a joke the midwife was telling when she pulled up short in the doorway to the nursery, the much shorter woman walked into her back with a muffled yelp. “Mrs. Dowling!”

Harriet smiled dreamily and shushed the nun and the little grinning woman behind her. “Shhhh! You’ll wake them.”

“You shouldn’t be out of bed, dear,” said the shorter woman, gently taking Harriet’s hand and trying to lead her back to her room.

“I needed to check on the baby,” Harriet told her. She twisted around to look at him again, clearly not wanting to let him out of her sight.

Sister Theresa anxiously looked over the babies, checking their tags and sighing in relief that this time Sister Barbara Jane Obstreperous hadn’t foolishly taken off their tags during their baths, as the old hag was usually wont to do, no matter how much Mother Superior scolded her. “Why don’t we bring him back with you,” said Sister Theresa soothingly, unlocking the wheels of the center bassinet. “He’s all tidied up for now and it will be a bit before he needs another feeding. Maybe you’ll be more rested by then.”

“I hope so,” said Harriet, smiling down at the wrinkly old woman who wasn’t actually as old as Harriet had assumed. “The little voice was getting quite loud,” she confided.

“Oh, they do that sometimes,” the midwife agreed, patting Harriet’s hand and helping her back into her bed. “Stay in bed now, there’s a dear, you’ve had a rough time of it and no mistake.”

Harriet nodded, feeling sudden tears pooling in her eyes. “It’s a miracle we had a baby at all,” she said, smiling over to where the nun had settled Warlock’s bassinet. “He’ll probably be the only one I have, but I’ll love him no matter what. My little miracle baby.”

And Sister Theresa shared a smirk with the midwife before happily bustling herself back to the party, assuming the midwife was following along behind. Much like winking, smirking was an ancient and versatile communication device. For example, Sister Theresa Garrulous’ smirk said: A dark and sinister miracle seen to by Hell’s Chosen Envoy, Master Crowley, to deliver unto her the Adversary, Destroyer of Kings, Angel of the Bottomless Pit, Prince of This World and Lord of Darkness. We shall be greatly rewarded for our work here this terrible night, basking in eternity under Our Lord Satan’s great and sullied wings!

And she had assumed the midwife’s smirk had meant: Indeed, Sister Theresa, foul and dark deeds were done this night and you and the others of your order will reap the many rewards promised to you, I assure you of this as a Chosen Emissary of Hell, Satan’s Own Midwife.

Whereas the midwife, knowing full well what Sister Theresa’s smirk meant, had smirked back while thinking to herself: Get gone you daft bloody besom, before I send you to your reward myself. How absolutely binkers do you have to be to want to destroy the very planet you live on? With tenderness she patted Harriet’s hand, tucking her back under the covers. “I have no doubt you will love him with all your heart, dear. What did you name him?”

“We were going to name him Thaddeus, but one of the nuns suggested Warlock and I knew it was just right.” They both looked to the small form sleeping in the bassinet and the midwife canted her head and cracked into a wide smile and followed Sister Theresa out of the room. She turned left instead of right though, heading for the main doors, her work for the night done, and done well if she said so herself.

When a shadow passed in the hall Sister Mary Loquacious popped out of her little room near the entrance, where she’d been tasked to keep an eye on the door in case they had any other visitors during the evening hours. “Oh, leaving so soon?” she said with a slight sigh of disappointment. She really had hoped to geta chance to join in on the sinister celebrations going on in the refectory.

“‘Fraid so, love, got other patients to see to back in Lancretown. Don’t look so glum dear, I see good days ahead for you. Just steer clear of Master Crowley and that lot, yeah?”

Sister Mary frowned in confusion at having a Chosen Emissary of Hell telling a Satanic nun to avoid dealing with demons, but she liked Nanny Ogg far too much to contradict her. “I’ll, er, keep it in mind Nanny.”

“You do that my dear, and you’ll be golden,” Nanny grinned, giving Sister Mary a wink and slipping out the door.

Back in her room Harriet shifted a little, just beginning to finally drift off to sleep, smiling as a cool hand brushed against her brow, tucking her mussed hair away from her cheek. That’s my girl, the not-so-little voice whispered, a faint image of a handsome middle-aged woman in old timey clothes shimmering in the air beside her bed. I’m mighty proud of ye, Harriet Sibyl Nutter Dowling. Everything’s right where it needs to be.

#My Writing #Good Omens #Fanfic #Harriet Dowling #Warlock Dowling #Agnes Nutter Continues To Meddle

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figuringitout2021 · 4 years

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Loneliness?

Today I started a great book, “Together” by Vivek Murthy. I heard him on the Arm Chair expert and was immediately moved to buy his book. Much to my pleasure he got right into describing something that I had struggled with for years but didn’t really know how to understand. I was no doubt lonely when I started Medical School. It wasnt the schoolwork that bothered me (well, at least once I got my feet under me a few weeks in), but it was living in a new place with new expectations. The newest expectation was the one that I put on myself: This is your adventure, you’re where you worked to be and in a cool new place so you can’t be sad. I’m not sure but I think that mentality came from a sense of insecurity, essentially saying “if you don’t allow yourself to think a certain way then you wont feel a certain way”. The insecurity was driven from my most critical pro and con: The need to belong to a community. I felt like I had left the community I cared about and was insecure, but uncomfortable with that insecurity. So rather than accept it, address it, move on and invest in my new life, I simply denied it’s existence and went about my life like it were a checklist of how to live a good life. Make a group of friends, yup. Exceed in school, check. Be in great shape, gotcha. Go on some dates, sure thing. But none of it had any authenticity to it because I was in denial of my insecurity. My friends were great but I was often superficial with them, because I was scared to be vulnerable and really invest. I couldn’t connect with my dates because I was too consumed with their perception, if it was going well, if we were gonna have sex, etc. My grades were good but I wasn’t enjoying learning as much as I should have because I was constantly concerned this would be the time I would fail. All the while I continued to neurotically check the Buffalo News and the Facebook of some old friends, and drive up to Heidi's place (first year). I even looked up apartments and houses in Buffalo, imagined what life would be like if I still lived there. I pretended like they were bored habits but they were clearly exercises where I could ignore my insecurity and connect with my old life.

ALL OF THIS JUST BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T HONEST ACCEPT BEING INSECURE AND THEN GROW AND MOVE ON!!!! My shame and vulnerability held me back from experiencing 100% joy in my new life. The truth is that I was lonely but my shame made me adverse to what I needed to cure this loneliness: honest and vulnerable relationships that required me to go out on a limb.

Vivek made a great point: “When we already feel lonely and then see others having fun together, enjoying the company of those around them, there is a natural tendency to withdraw instead of approaching the group. We fear being labeled and judged as social outcasts. So we hide our feelings even from those who may try to connect with us. Shame and fear thus conspire to turn loneliness into a self perpetuating condition, triggering self doubt, which in turns lowers self esteem and discourages us from reaching out for help. Over time this vicious cycle may convince us we don’t matter to anyone and that we’re unworthy of love., driving us ever inward and away from the very relationships we need the most. Page 10-11.

Now is when I break the cycle. It’s time for me to really invest in the moment. Sure its late in the game but every day is an opportunity to have an incredible experience. I need to put down my phone, stop doing Buffalo shit, look people in the eye, and live in this moment. Invest in the people around me. Stop thinking about money and do what makes you happy: connecting with people and doing something purposeful.

#figuringitout2021

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day0one · 4 years

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Republicans call for unity but won’t acknowledge Biden won fairly.

The call for unity came from one of President Trump’s most loyal supporters in Congress, nearly a week after a pro-Trump mob rampaged the U.S. Capitol in a riot that left five people dead.

“What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was as wrong as wrong can be,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told colleagues during a virtual committee meeting about Democrats’ demands that Trump be removed from office. Now was the time for “healing,” and in Jordan’s opinion, that meant allowing the president to finish out his term.

The committee chairman, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), pressed him on one point. Hadn’t Jordan and more than 140 other Republicans given oxygen to the false conspiracy theory pushed by Trump that motivated the Capitol rioters — that the election had somehow been stolen — when they had voted to object to certifying the electoral college results?

“We all want healing. But in order to get to healing, we need truth, and we need accountability,” McGovern said, adding: “So my question for you is: Will you admit that Joe Biden won fair and square, and the election was not rigged or stolen?”

McGovern’s question was met with 17 seconds of silence before Jordan said Biden would indeed be inaugurated president — a clear dodge of the question about the nature of Biden’s victory.

Election results under attack: Here are the facts As Biden prepares to be sworn into office surrounded by more than 20,000 National Guard troops protecting the inauguration from one of the gravest domestic terrorism threats in U.S. history, Democrats and other Trump critics are pushing Republicans to renounce the party’s embrace of the falsehood that inspired the Capitol attack and is motivating many of the Trump supporters vowing to take up arms again.

So far, the efforts have been largely fruitless. Even as much of corporate America threatens to withhold donations from lawmakers who objected to the election results, and social media companies cancel accounts — including Trump’s — spreading the false conspiracy theories, the bulk of elected Republicans continue to follow Trump’s lead in refusing to acknowledge that Biden’s win was legitimate and fair.

“Donald Trump incited the violent part of his base to harm people because he made them believe the Big Lie, that he won by a landslide,” Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), a House impeachment manager, tweeted Saturday. “All Trump has to do to prevent further political violence is say one sentence: ‘the election was not stolen.’ ”

But so far, Trump and his allies have refused to do that. In their comments about the election, congressional Republicans have hedged, equivocated and accused Democrats of being divisive — even as they continue to promote a falsehood linked to ongoing violence.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), one of the most outspoken supporters of Trump’s fraud claims, issued a joint statement with a half-dozen other GOP senators on Jan. 2 alleging “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud, violations and lax enforcement of election law, and other voting irregularities.” On Jan. 6, hours after an insurrection forced lawmakers to flee, Cruz voted against certifying the results — then argued it was time for unity the following day.

“We must stand side-by-side as Americans,” Cruz said, even as he continued to defend his objection as “the right thing to do” and called for an electoral commission, implying there was wrongdoing in the 2020 election.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), another Trump ally, acknowledged Biden’s victory but also couched his statement with a proposal for a commission, lending credence to the false notion that there was election fraud that needs to be investigated.

“I really do believe that you pushing [impeachment] is going to further divide our country, further the unrest and possibly incite more violence,” Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.), who voted against certifying the election results, said on Tuesday. “Please, let’s just move on and heal the country.”

The allegation of widespread election fraud has been debunked over and over again. Trump’s lawyers have lost or had tossed out dozens of court cases challenging the results of the election. Dozens of state and local election officials from both parties have affirmed the integrity of their voting processes.

Attorney General William P. Barr said there was no evidence of widespread fraud. (He has since stepped down.) And on Friday, the Justice Department ended its investigation of the Pennsylvania election — more specifically, into nine ballots found thrown away in the state — saying there was “insufficient evidence to prove criminal intent on the part of the person who discarded the ballots.”

‘Trump said to do so’: Accounts of rioters who say the president spurred them to rush the Capitol could be pivotal testimony Still, some Trump allies have shifted their message on voter fraud after pressure from outside forces. Dominion Voting Systems, whose voting machines have been at the center of some of the wildest election-related conspiracy theories, has filed several lawsuits against Trump’s lawyers and right-wing media outlets.

When threatened with legal action, a number of Trump’s media allies have apologized for perpetuating the president’s false claims of voter fraud. The conservative magazine American Thinker issued an unprecedented statement of contrition on Friday retracting several pieces that had falsely accused the company of conspiring to steal the election from Trump. Thomas Lifson, the magazine’s editor and publisher, acknowledged those pieces had relied on “discredited sources who have peddled debunked theories” that had “no basis in fact.”

“Industry experts and public officials alike have confirmed that Dominion conducted itself appropriately and that there is simply no evidence to support these claims,” Lifson said in the statement. “It was wrong for us to publish these false statements. We apologize to Dominion for all of the harm this caused them and their employees. We also apologize to our readers for abandoning 9 journalistic principles and misrepresenting Dominion’s track record and its limited role in tabulating votes for the November 2020 election. We regret this grave error.”

Right-leaning news channels Fox News and Newsmax have also aired similar segments walking back prior suggestions of wrongdoing by voting machines manufacturers when faced with possible legal action.

a group of people riding skis on a snowy road: About 300 protesters gather outside the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on Jan. 9. Speakers called for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to resign following the riots in the U.S. Capitol three days earlier. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP)About 300 protesters gather outside the Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis on Jan. 9. Speakers called for Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) to resign following the riots in the U.S. Capitol three days earlier. (Christian Gooden/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/AP) While Republican lawmakers have not faced the same legal liabilities, those who have doubled down on their support for Trump’s claims of election fraud have faced fallout in other ways. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) led efforts to object to Biden’s win and still voted against certifying the electoral college votes even after the Capitol siege. He has since lost a book deal and was condemned by some of his longtime GOP allies and constituents.

On Saturday, Axios reported the communications director for Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) had quit after the congresswoman’s unapologetic support for QAnon and Trump’s conspiracy theories. Cruz’s communications director left her job this week for similar reasons. Elected officials from Mississippi, Kansas and Missouri who voted against certification have faced growing pressure to state that the election was not stolen or resign.

“Mississippi and the nation must hold U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Reps. Trent Kelly, Steven Palazzo and Michael Guest accountable for their complicity in the lies that Donald Trump has used to foment fear, doubt and, ultimately, insurrection,” stated a Jackson Free-Press editorial this week.

Ten House Republicans ultimately voted with Democrats to impeach Trump on an article of “incitement of insurrection,” and a handful of GOP senators have voiced support for or left open the possibility of voting to convict him.

One of them, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.), has not held back in excoriating Trump for pushing lies and conspiracy theories about the election, and has said the Republican Party is at a crossroads moving forward.

“The violence that Americans witnessed — and that might recur in the coming days — is not a protest gone awry or the work of ‘a few bad apples.’ It is the blossoming of a rotten seed that took root in the Republican Party some time ago and has been nourished by treachery, poor political judgment, and cowardice,” Sasse wrote in a fiery essay published by the Atlantic on Saturday. “ … Until last week, many party leaders and consultants thought they could preach the Constitution while winking at QAnon. They can’t. The GOP must reject conspiracy theories or be consumed by them. Now is the time to decide what this party is about.”

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evanvanness · 4 years

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Annotated edition of May 3 Week in Ethereum News

As it is wont to do, the newsletter buried the lede: ProgPoW is indefinitely shelved.

I think it’s been relatively clear since last time that ProgPoW wasn’t going to happen. The leads of the two largest clients are against it personally, plus it’s quite clear that there isn’t anything close to community consensus. If anything, at the moment the majority of the community opposes it. Greg Colvin bringing it up again last week unfortunately made it harder to do in the case where we do actually need it, ie an ASIC manufacturer has a 10x breakthrough but is only selling the machines privately to control 50%+ of the network.

I’d say it’s unclear whether ACD continues to be a thing. To me it feels like an experiment which was worth trying but has become calcified, which needs a complete refresh in terms of both process and non-technical people involved. But inertia is also a very strong force. To overcome that, Ethereum should have a strong culture of continuously sunsetting things if they are not working.

One amusing thing to me has been the idea that ProgPoW is an AMD/Nvidia conspiracy. Given that ETH price declining in 2018 absolutely destroyed their earnings and share price, those two should have been conspiring! Yet if they were, then they did an exceptionally bad job at it. Instead everyone I know got the impression that the GPU manufacturers were indifferent. There are some competing interests for them of course - the anger of their traditional gaming market, plus AI/neural net researchers - but it still surprises me how they did not get involved at all.

Despite the noise, Ethereum governance works! I remember polling everyone I talked to at EthDenver2019 about whether they supported ProgPoW and (at the time I was pro-ProgPoW; I’d say my position is much more complicated now) being disappointed at how everyone I talked to was against it.

I’m very glad we don’t have on-chain governance where a few exchanges/whales could collude to push things through. Because of that, I’d say on-chain governance will drastically limit the market cap of any basechain’s native token.

Eth1

Latest core devs call. Tim Beiko’s notes. Updates on EIPs for eth2 curve, EVM subroutines. ProgPoW shelved due to clear lack of consensus. Discussion of migrating to binary trie

Analysis of EIP-2315 simple EVM subroutines

DHT+SkipGraph for chain and state data retrieval

Notes from the fee market change call

Vitalik’s EIP1559 fee market change FAQ

There’s a risk of being repetitive, but much of the eth1 work does not lend itself to high-level summaries. Folks are discussing the technical details of EVM improvements (eg, subroutines), as well as getting clients to be stateless (eg the DHT and Skipgraph link). And we’re also talking through EIP1559 in light of Dan Finlay’s escalator algo alternative proposal.

One development not mentioned is that Martin Swende has come around to Alexey’s gas/oil proposal instead of his previous approach of penalties for trie misses.

Eth2

Latest what’s new in Eth2

Schlesi multi-client testnet launched with Lighthouse and (slightly updated) Prysmatic clients. Then Nimbus joined Schlesi a few days later.

Bitfly has a Schlesi explorer

Nimbus client update – up to date, joining Schlesi testnet, RFP for security audits, and benchmarking Nimbus on a 2018 midrange phone

Update from ConsenSys’s TXRX team: prkl network monitoring tool, verifiable precompiles, cross-shard tx simulator, fork choice testing, discv5 sim, and work on turning off proof of work.

A step-by-step guide on joining Prysmatic’s Topaz testnet for Windows10 and MacOS

ConsenSys’s high-level eth2 FAQ

I don’t really do corrections in the newsletter, because once you send an email, you can’t easily clarify your language without sending another email.

But, if you click the “Nimbus joined Schlesi,” then it appears to me that Nimbus is receiving the blocks and following the chain, but not proposing/attesting/etc. I probably should have been more clear when I said “joined.”

Layer2

Channels funding channels: how state channels reduce latency and onchain transactions

This series feels to me like a “yes, state channels are almost here now, let’s get ready to reconsider how to use them.” Productionizing any new technology isn’t easy, and finding the uses that best fit the tradeoffs is not trivial. Seems like this is that series.

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Stuff for developers

buidler v1.3 – test time-based cases in Buidler EVM, works with TheGraph

Waffle’s plan for making testing better with v3

Testing with Python and Brownie

Typechain v2 – Typescript bindings. truffle v5 support, natspec

Solidity docgen v0.5 – documentation generation for Solidity project

Running async/await scripts in Remix IDE

Austin Griffith’s scaffold-eth, a toolkit to prototype and win hackathons

A linked hashmap in Solidity

How to add proxy Ethereum addresses to BigQuery

Authereum’s batched transactions API for interest rate arbs

discv5 feasibility study for Status

Tutorial to testing on mainnet fork with Ganache, Jest and Uniswap

Etheroll security issue: hacker monitoring for onchain forks and then uses that info to frontrun transactions. Novel (to me!) hack

Dragonfly releases an oracles tracker

Synthetix CTO Justin Moses on 10 things they did to improve their Ethereum development experience. tldr: Buidler, Slither, TheGraph, and Tenderly.

It feels like a very undercommented trend how most devs now tell me that their stack is Buidler + Waffle + ethers, and increasingly Typescript as well. Of course, dev tool stacks are perpetually in flux, but this seems to be the stack du jour.

This isn’t new either. After writing the paragraph above, I remembered that Connext’s Rahul had written something about a similar stack 3 months ago. I go back and check Rahul’s recommendation: Buidler + Waffle + Ethers + typescript. If this was a chatbox, I would put a rofl emoji, but in prose this seems less appropriate.

Ecosystem

Contribute to the TornadoCash trusted setup ceremony. It takes about 5 secs of clicking and requires you to leave the browser tab open a few minutes.

Multisigs controlling multisigs: Avsa’s vision for a usable web3

Renew your ENS names or you will lose them. Names start to expire May 4th

Forgive me the clickbait - you actually have 90 days grace period if your domain expired, but I don’t want anyone to miss this if their domain has expired.

If you haven’t contributed to Tornado’s trusted setup ceremony, I recommend that you do. Assuming that the software works correctly, you can ensure that Tornado becomes trustless for you by participating! It literally takes just a few seconds to start, and then you leave your browser tab open for about 3 minutes. You can even contribute multiple times.

Enterprise

Hyperledger Besu v1.4.4, added priv_getLogs, added Splunk integration

Governance, DAOs, and standards

Governance processes for Maker and Compound add WBTC to Maker and USDT to Compound. TBTC also proposed for Maker

Maker’s MIPs ratification vote is live

MetaClan: DAOs for in-game coordination

ERC2611: Geotimeline Contact Tracing Data Standard

Last call: ERC1363 Payable Token

Last call: EIP1193 Eth provider Javascript API

ERC 2612: permit, 712-signed approvals

EIP2357: Total difficulty in block header

Lots of blowback to Maker adding WBTC. I very much understand the criticism, but to me it looks like Maker is taking reasonable measures, given the current situation where DAI is trading a little rich on the peg. It’s true that permissioned assets have some risk, but this is literally why MKR is supposed to have value: because those MKR holders make good decisions.

Now perhaps you don’t like that model, and that also makes sense, designing for stablecoins is a large solution space. But this has always been the Maker vision. And I say this as someone who does not hold any MKR, and never has (though you’re welcome to give me some!).

Application layer

DeFiZap and DeFiSnap merged to be ZapperFi: now track and trade your DeFi together

Gnosis Safe apps: interact with apps straight from the Gnosis Safe interface

dforce/lendfme plan post-hack: user airdrop, dSAFU insurance fund, large bug bounty

OpenBazaar now supports Eth

A rough proposal for a GasToken forward

Everest: a project registry from TheGraph and MetaCartel

I know I have said this before, but the ebb and flow between sections is fascinating to me. The stuff for devs section was full this week, but the app layer was a little light. Maybe I just missed stuff.

Arbitrary “how much of this section is DeFi” count: 3/6

Tokens/Business/Regulation

UMA did an Initial Uniswap Offering, and there was a 5-10x spike

It appears Telegram will have to return $1.2 billion to investors

Ideo’s Simple Agreement for Future Governance for DeFi

Auditing the 10k top Eth addresses: ETH is better distributed than BTC and a bunch of other interesting claims

I again note that US federal regulators continue to bailout Silicon Valley investors from the worst deals that Silicon Valley did in late 2017/early 2018.

I’d say it’s inevitable that we’re going to see some folks copy UMA. Watch for it.

Adam Cochran’s onchain activity of top 10k addresses is very interesting. Definitely some undersupported claims in there, but certainly worth a read. This is the second time he wrote a 100+ tweetstorm and then compiled it to a blog post. Personally I prefer viewing it as a blog post.

General

EtherScan Connect: an alpha for mapping addresses with a leaderboard

a16z raises $515m crypto fund

Vitalik’s review of Gitcoin grants round 5

SuperMarlin: no trusted setup with DARK polynomial commitment

“alpha for mapping addresses with a leaderboard“ is another thing I could have said more eloquently. It’s an interesting attempt by Etherscan to give something to their community, though of course it comes with risks.

There’s something amusing about a16z announcing a new fund, mentioning Bitcoin, and then mostly talking about the stuff that’s being built on Ethereum, without actually mentioning Ethereum. People like to talk about being contrarian investors. Wanna know how buying ETH is somehow still a contrarian play in crypto right now? It’s right there.

zk continues to just explode. It almost seems like plug and play, where people are pulling out the parts of different schemes that they like and putting in others, depending on the tradeoffs you want around trusted setups, verifier time, prover cost, etc.

Housekeeping

First issue post-ConsenSys. As a reminder, this newsletter is and has always been 100% owned by me.

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Permalink: https://weekinethereumnews.com/week-in-ethereum-news-may-3-2020/

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note (new/changes in bold):

May 6-20 – Gitcoin’s virtual hackthon

May 8-9 – Ethereal Summit (NYC)

May 22-31 – Ethereum Madrid public health virtual hackathon

May 29-June 16 – SOSHackathon

June 17 – EthBarcelona R&D workshop

0 notes

lillgreendeathling · 5 years

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Oof y'all. It's been a minute since I did something like this. But ya know, sometimes you just gotta do a thing. I won't lie this was very long winded and i ki days got board of going back and rereading and fixing shit so. If I'm gonna be frank there is really only 1 member of our audience that is is meant for, but I figured I'd save the trouble of screen shots. There were other parties involved that probably wont see this but worry not, they will get theirs. That being said if you read this and your a bit confused, then it wasn't meant for you but stick around till the end and leave a com.ent if you'd like. Might as well make it public since I really dont give a shit anymore. So without further ado...

I moved out of my house back in Royersford almost a year and a half ago. It's been a journey since then, but I WOULD'VE said it's been much nicer being out of that situation then the one I find myself in today. At the time I couldn't stand it there. There was 8 of us living in that 3.5 bedroom house with 2 dogs, 4 cats, 3 mice, 2-3 birds(they got replaced when they died) and an Anol. I had to share a room with my brother Gavan which I would say was like hell but that's putting it mildly. Not only did we not see eye to eye on anything, including the things we shared interest in, but for some reason he had my grandmothers favor. I was not that bad a kid and although I did my fare share of bad/illegal things, I never took it to far or really got myself into any trouble. And yet for some reason Satan himself was never the one getting yelled at or the one to get in trouble when we started throwing fists. It got worse after I graduated and started working because now I had money (and usually weed since that's when I first started smoking) and Gavan needed to have his hands on it. And it wasn't just my money either, my aunt and cousins started noticing money going missing. Then it was the money from birthday cards before they had been given to the recipiant, then one day one of my friends had money go missing. And instead of something being done about it, I was made to be the bad guy and was told I was the one with a problem not Gavan.

I started talking to my Aunt Sam after I realized I couldn't even trust my own parental figure and to an extent my aunt couldn't either. My Aunt and I conspiring with each other about my brother and grand mother went on for about a year and a half. I thought I could go to her about anything including when Gavan stole my weed stuff, you know she was the cool aunt. And ik she felt she could trust me too. But even that bridge was burned. I still remember going to her that day, and the way she turned and looked at me and said "Is everything ok? You've been acting different. Are things ok at work? Are things ok with your friends?" then proceeded to bitch about Gavan herself. The hypocrisy that she spewed that day was so dense it could have been physically cut with a knife.

I knew before that moment that I wanted to get out of that situation but nothing lit a fire under my ass like realizing I had no one left to trust. The only people I felt I had were the people I had come to call my family. My real family. A group of people that I could just be myself around. A group of people who would let me just do me. A group that would have my back. Help me back up when I fall.

I could sit here guessing at what changed, and believe me I have a few. Some of them aren't even guesses(fun fact they arnt even about what changed in me) cause I'm not blind. I told you I was actually pretty fucking observant. But at the same time I just dont care. Cause I dont have the TIME or the ENERGY to look, to strech or reach, for something that isn't there. I'm sometimes too tolerant of people, so much so that I have a major communication that I am well aware of. But I'm tired of feeling like there is something wrong with me. Especially when I know damn well what is wrong with me and what I need to work on. I may not know how to fix those things but when I think I might be on to something, the last thing I need is that "family" of mine holding me back. I'd rather you be there to pick me up off of my face when I fall then prevent me from getting the scars. I didn't ask you to be my moral compass. And instead of taking my word you kept reaching for and issue that wasn't even there. Gee thanks for the self doubt.

I appreciate the concern others had for me when I started drinking more frequently. I really do so dont get that shit twisted. I couldn't tell you why but one day alcohol didn't flip my stomach everytime I drank it. I could not have alcohol at all without my stomach flipping the fuck out until about 3 months ago. Before that I never really had any desire to drink, but after my jaw stopped locking up the second I smelled alcohol I decided to give drinking a try. Never really done it before so I will admit that my initial intake was a but excessive. Yes going through an entire bottle of tequila in 3 days may have been a bit excessive I can't deny that. And I'm not entirely fond of excuses so I won't try and blame it on having never really drank before. However, personally have felt no physical changes in my body since Halloween when I started drinking that I can say without a doubt didn't happen from me just working in retail. And as far as my personality goes the only major change Ive noticed is that I speak my mind a little bit more. Like I said before I appreciated the concern that I had a problem at first, but when I sincerely tell you that there is really nothing wrong and that I am genuinely ok they only thing you have now done is cause me to doubt myself. And ik if I had more followers or if I had a Twitter I would get people saying that "addiction is a real problem", "you aren't taking this seriously", "what if you actually have a problem". To those people, well I guess you just dont know me do you?

I said what I did at the beginning about my blood family because my true family just put themselves into their rolls. No one person did exactly as the first one did, but not a single feeling was missed.

Thinking I had someone to talk to.

Thinking I had people I could trust.

Thinking people had faith in me and could take me for my word.

Thinking i didn't have to keep my stuff hidden and locked away anymore. But alas. I was wrong. So now that you all have made me feel like I'm living back in royersford, I think it's time that I reevaluate my current bonds and see if they are thing that help push me forward or if they are things that are only gonna hold me back. And if you find yourself stuck on the second half of that statement well. I guess it's been fun¯\_(ツ)_/¯

0 notes

motivatedmommyolivia91-blog · 6 years

Text

My personality is under misconception, you all think you know, but you only have a fabrication of other people's illusions.

Real friends know the real me, they dont have discussions of secrecy, more illusions that conspire into reality.

This vicious circle keeps happening. It doesnt bother me because ive got real people behind me. When i start to fall they hold me, when i start to lose sight of what is reality and fantasy, real people wont beat around; real people come forth, communicate, back into Sen i go.

This road is long and dangerous, but dont worry about me because I'm fearless, with real people behind me theres no stopping this tsunami. The soul of a wolf, the mind of a believer and the heart of a survivor im only this because of the real people behind me.

Inspirational is all around me. I dont need gods and people with money, to inspire me, inspiration is right in front me. Shown in ways that no one believes, mystery, life is your perception.

Inspiration is in any form, a cat meowing in a tree, to finding a smile in a child.

Though its simplicity, the inspiration that comes from it is limitless.

Technology is a useful tool but let's be honest the most inspiring things come from simplest of situations.

That cannot be perceived, unpredictable are these but last with us for ever more. Friend or foe, new or old, their legancy lives on inside of us.

Gone but never forgotten is a motto we say, the meaning simplicity forgotten it is.

0 notes

viralhottopics · 8 years

Text

Obamas begin a new chapter in their lives with books poised for success

News of hefty book deals for former first couple no surprise to ally: The Obamas are a couple of the most beloved national figures right now

Welcome home, says the blue sign on the front door, with an o that represents a sun rising above the horizon. Down the street, a police car stands sentinel and five concrete barricades block the way. Here, in an affluent suburb of Washington, is where Barack Obama is beginning the rest of his life.

It was revealed this week that, after a bidding war, the 44th president and his wife, Michelle, have signed book deals with Penguin Random House that is thought to be worth $60m. It is a record for presidential memoirs but it could prove a snip: analysts believe the books will be a hit among supporters already yearning for the Obama era and craving an antidote to Donald Trump.

Not only have they left an indelible mark on American life, but the Obamas are a couple of the most beloved national figures right now, said Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy for America who was an Obama campaign staffer in 2007-2008.

In many ways, the Trump presidency has only made their appeal larger than it was before. Im not surprised the Obamas got so much money for these books because millions of people are going to feel a sense of nostalgia for a president they respected and seemed to respect the office in turn.

The book will also give Obama a chance to deliver one more State of the Union address in print and, if he chooses, make some pointed comments about his successor. This might offer a clue to the wider question of what role the 55-year-old now intends to play in American politics, with options ranging from the decorous silence of past presidents to marching on the streets with the anti-Trump resistance.

The Obamas disappeared from view on 20 January, borne away by a helicopter on the day of Trumps inauguration. They holidayed in Palm Springs, California, and the liberated ex-president was seen learning how to kitesurf while on holiday on the British Virgin Islands as a guest of the entrepreneur Richard Branson. On his return to the US, he drew cheers from crowds in New York and caught a show, Arthur Millers The Price, on Broadway.

Most former presidents quit Washington immediately but the Obamas are opting to stay as their daughter Sasha, 15, finishes at Sidwell Friends School. They are renting a nine-bedroom 8,200-square-foot brick Tudor home built in 1928 in upmarket Kalorama, where neighbours include Trumps daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, and various diplomats.

Ivanka and her husband live just a few minutes walk from the Obamas. Their police barriers are more flimsy. On a recent weekday morning, one was blown into the middle of the street and had to be recovered by a Secret Service agent. Another agent, with laptop and earphones, sat in a grey Toyota Sienna vehicle with a Florida licence plate, warning passersby not to get too close. A woman in a green hijab and black robe wandered up and down, muttering to herself. A leftover poster from the recent womens march was taped to a lamppost.

Anyone hoping to see Obama stroll by is likely to be disappointed, as he knuckles down to work. Not that the blank page holds terrors for him. His widely admired first book, Dreams from My Father, was published in 1995 and reissued in 2004. The Audacity of Hope followed in 2006 and was on the New York Times bestseller list for 30 weeks. In 2010, he published a childrens book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.

His next volume is likely to be a recounting of his presidency. Michelle will reportedly write about her life story as a source of inspiration for young people.

The timing is clever

Bill Clinton earned a $15m advance for his memoir, while George W Bush netted $7m. The Obamas reported $60m is therefore a gamble for Penguin Random House, but it is likely to reap huge returns through worldwide rights.

The literary agent Jonny Geller, chief executive of Curtis Brown, said: I can understand the calculation, which I think is not only two icons but also one of them has a proven record in commercial publishing.

Donald Trump blames Barack Obama for leaks and protests

Hes written two massive bestsellers and also the political timing the need for another voice in America. So I think that all conspires very well.

The ascent of Trump makes the book all the more urgent and necessary, Geller said. The timing is clever because I think had he waited a few years and done a presidential memoir, or something, that still would have been huge, but the fact that now were searching for a voice to counter or understand whats happened and what will go on, I think makes this a very important book.

It is also likely to be a well-written one. Obama has a pedigree and will be aiming for a classic in the field of presidential memoirs, to rival that of Ulysses S Grant.

Joshua Kendall, author of First Dads: Parenting and Politics from George Washington to Barack Obama, said: Not a lot of presidents are good writers. Bill Clintons came in very long [more than 1,000 pages]. But Obamas book was one of the things that got him into the White House. Trump used his celebrity through The Apprentice, Obama used words. Thats why appetite is off the charts.

The groundswell of affection for Obama is evident in t-shirts bearing his face that continue to pop up at anti-Trump demonstrations. In France, tens of thousands of people have signed online petition urging him to stand in that countrys election. His political afterlife has been given an extraordinary edge by the election of his polar opposite and populist nationalist trends sweeping the globe.

It was different when he moved into the White House in 2009 and Bush stepped out of the public spotlight, declaring that his successor deserves my silence and turning to painting. Obama has suggested that if certain core values are in danger from systematic discrimination, voter suppression, curbs on press freedom he may speak out. There was an early sign when his office let it be known he was heartened by the widespread protests against Trumps travel ban.

Kendall said: Its tricky because hes got to find the right avenues. There is an expectation that you wont really mess with the details of politics and policy too closely.

Hes talked about mentoring the next generation of Democrats. If he stays on that higher road, where he keeps one or two degrees separation from the daily grind of politics, hes likely to be highly influential.

Along with the book, Obama will devote time to his adopted hometown of Chicago, where he is designing his presidential library and building a centre that will promote leadership.

His friend Eric Holder, the former attorney general, said this week he had been talking to the former president about helping the new National Democratic Redistricting Committee, which will aim to combat Republican gerrymandering in the drawing of electoral maps.

Its coming. Hes coming, Holder told reporters. And hes ready to roll.

How active can he be? Sroka would like to see Obama marching and speaking at rallies. He can be a forceful moral arbiter of good citizenship, he said.

One can imagine how powerful it would be to see a future president out on the streets with the people when this administration inevitably goes too far, tries to move people out of the way and tramples all over democratic rights.

It would be unprecedented historically and an incredibly powerful moment for this burgeoning protest movement.