#finally a poll ray might win

[radioactive-earthshine]

[razieltwelve]

Final Earth Exports (Final Earth)

Final Earth is an AU in which Vanille accidentally opens a portal to an Earth very similar to ours by accident. The main differences is that nothing associated with the Final Rose universe (e.g., RWBY, Final Fantasy, etc.) exists there and they don’t have the same political leaders we do.

For the Children of Remnant, Earth is a veritable gold mine. There are huge quantities of resources (e.g., raw materials, food, etc.) and comparatively little danger. Obviously, Earth isn’t perfect, but we’re also not locked in existential battle against a bunch of monsters that spend all of their free time wondering how they can kill us all more efficiently. To get at those resources, what could Remnant export to Earth?

Let’s have a look at some possibilities.

Energy Simply put, Remnant is centuries ahead of Earth in power production. Final Earth is set when Fraise is in her twenties, so Remnant already has access to not only hyper-efficient fission reactors but also fusion reactors of all kinds. As in, they literally have portable fusion reactors and fusion reactors that can be scaled from small enough to fit into a closet to large enough to power entire continents. They’ve also got a functional orbital solar collection system/death ray.

Imagine you’re Australia (the portal opens up to the middle of the Australian desert). Now, one of the things people complain about the most is cost of living, and a big part of that is electricity. If Remnant were to build a power plant for Australia, they could massively reduce the cost of electricity. This would benefit not only regular people but also industry and commerce. Moreover, Australia’s political leaders would love it.

Want to get re-elected? Tell everybody the cost of electricity is going down by at least 75% and watch the votes just roll in, not to mention the reduction in the cost of goods and services. With drones to aid construction techniques, they could have a hyper-efficient fission reactor or a fusion reactor built in months, maybe less.

Medical Care One of the few upsides of waging existential war for centuries is advancements in medical technology. As long as you’re not dead, there’s very little that Remnant can’t fix. Earth humans are actually easier to fix since they don’t have complex Aura circulatory systems or anything like that.

Setting aside medical science, there are also a whole heap of Semblances like Fraise that would, by Earth standards, be considered miracles. 

Not only would exporting medical care be extremely profitable it would also be another fantastic means of securing political support. Again, any leader would leap at the chance to be able to tell their constituents that all those medical problems they have can now be dealt with. This might sound awful, but can you imagine what it would do for a leader’s polling numbers if they could point at Remnant and say to people: don’t worry, that terminal illness you’ve got, that paralysis you’ve got? No problems. They can fix it. Just vote for me, and I’ll get the deal done.

Reproductive Science The cost of fertility treatment is enormous and results are not guaranteed. That’s not an issue for Remnant. Give them two people, and they’ll have a baby ready to go before you know it. Like the other exports, this is another automatic win in the public relations department (you just know Jihl and Jahne are going to push this angle hard).

Transport Remnant has way more advanced transport like actual flying warships, transports, etc. I can think of plenty of world leaders who might want a stealth capable aircraft that can manoeuvre like a more agile helicopter but packs the speed of a fighter jet and the range of a commercial jetliner. 

Tourism Let’s be blunt. People like cute and awesome stuff. Remnant has plenty of both. I’m sure people would pay handsomely to get to ride a chocobo or to see some of the wildlife in Remnant. It’s like Jurassic park except instead of just giant reptiles, you can get giant tigers, giant rats, giant birds, giant... everything, basically.

Culture Earth loves heroes. We make sportspeople, celebrities, and so on into heroes and put them up on pedestals. How might Earth people react when they have a chance to see actual superheroes with actual superpowers in action? I have a sneaking suspicion that hunters will become super popular on Earth, and that tournament and hunting footage will make piles of money. And that’s not counting other aspects of Remnant’s culture and civilisation that might be popular. Yes, you know what I’m talking about. Remnant has actual cat girls. The internet would explode.

Weapons Yeah, Remnant kind of has the whole weapons thing down. Even if they don’t give out their most up to date weaponry, they’re still decades, maybe even further ahead of Earth. After all, this is a civilisation that has functional laser weapons, mechs, aerial warships, rail guns, plasma weapons, orbital death rays, etc.

Mercenaries There are plenty of battles being fought on Earth. Can you imagine what even a lower-level hunter would be able to do on the battlefield? Heck, imagine what the average student at Beacon would do to human opponents who don’t have Aura. It’d be like sending superheroes out to fight civilians.

Of course, you could also go a step further. Imagine someone like Snow being deployed onto a battlefield. That blue giant of his is capable of standing up to nukes and has attacks that are considered weapons of mass destruction. Imagine Lumina taking the field. Imagine Elsa.

Other Services This is a category that kind of lumps together all of the other stuff Remnant can do that Earth can’t. Take someone like Elsa. Do you have a weather problem? Is your country suffering from draught or about to be hit by blizzards/hurricanes? No problem. Pay the fee, get it fixed. Quick and easy. Guaranteed. Have a science issue? Vanille and her lab can get it handled. Want someone to interrogate your suspects? Pay the right price, and Jihl has you sorted.

Gary No world is safe.

X     X     X

Author’s Notes

Earth meeting Remnant would be fascinating. Of all the nations on Remnant, I think Atlas would be the most interested since they have the most difficult position in terms of territory and resources. It’s a good thing they’ve got Jihl to go snooping around for deals. It’s not like she won’t take shameless advantage of the situation...

If you’re interested in my thoughts on writing and other topics, you can find those here.

I also write original fiction, which you can find on Amazon here or on Audible here.

[thegiftedoneishere]

Major League Baseball is scheduled to hold its 91st All-Star Game at Truist Park in Atlanta on July 13—the first time in 21 years the league’s annual showcase is to be played in that city. But pro baseball should extend Atlanta’s All-Star drought, and other sports should avoid scheduling their own signature events in Georgia, to show Republican state lawmakers that their latest efforts at voter suppression are unacceptable.

In the past, major sports organizations have forced other states to reconsider infringements on their citizens’ rights, and that kind of pressure is sorely needed in Georgia now. Last week, Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, signed an elections bill that President Joe Biden has described as “Jim Crow in the 21st century.” The law imposes new voter-identification requirements for absentee ballots, limits the use of ballot drop boxes, and hands state officials more power over local elections. Even before the legislation passed, many voters of color in Georgia faced hours-long queues at the polls. Making those waits even more arduous, the new law bans giving food and water to people in line to vote.

It’s bad enough that the new law furthers the “big lie”—the baseless election-fraud claims that former President Donald Trump and his associates made before, during, and after the 2020 presidential election. The Georgia law also is an obvious attempt to intimidate and discourage voters of color, who helped clinch Biden’s narrow victory in November, elected two Democratic U.S. senators in January, and gave the Democratic Party full control of Congress.

In the days after the election bill passed, the Major League Baseball Players Association’s executive director, Tony Clark, indicated that players might support moving the yearly summer classic in response. “Players are very much aware” of the new law, Clark told The Boston Globe. “As it relates to the All-Star Game, we have not had a conversation with the league on that issue. If there is an opportunity to, we would look forward to having that conversation.” Meanwhile, Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, who is Black and Asian American, already has said that he would consider passing on the opportunity to manage the National League team in the All-Star Game because of what’s happening in Georgia.

Civil-rights activists have discouraged a comprehensive boycott of Georgia, because such an action could harm vulnerable families and undermine the Black economic base in the state—most notably in Atlanta, a city that has been ripe with opportunity for people of color. Bernice King, the daughter of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., tweeted: “Please stop the #BoycottGeorgia talk. That would hurt middle class workers and people grappling with poverty. And it would increase the harm of both racism and classism.”

But more targeted actions could help, and this is where athletes and sports leagues could be particularly influential. When major sports organizations have taken a stand for civil rights, they have been able to achieve substantive results. The NFL moved the 1993 Super Bowl out of Arizona because the state refused to enact a paid holiday honoring King. The NBA moved its 2017 All-Star Game out of North Carolina because of a state law demanding that transgender people use public bathrooms and locker rooms matching the sex on their birth certificate. For almost 15 years, the NCAA banned South Carolina from hosting championships because the Confederate flag flew on statehouse grounds.

In each case, those states backed down. Major sporting events are powerful motivators because they provide a significant economic boost and a badge of prestige for host cities. Conservative politicians who willingly ignore civil rights and other social-justice issues may listen when their stubbornness jeopardizes their standing in a sports-obsessed culture. Some fans might support Georgia’s new law now, but that support could be severely tested if the law winds up costing the state the All-Star game or other big events.

Could officials in Georgia be persuaded by such arguments? Keep in mind that Atlanta has become an extremely attractive destination for major sporting events because it has favorable weather, excellent transportation links to the rest of the country, and the headquarters of many potential corporate sponsors. If not for the global pandemic, the 2020 Final Four would have been played in Georgia’s capital city. The Super Bowl was held there in 2019, as was the College Football Playoff semifinal. The PGA Tour’s Masters Tournament is in Augusta every year.

By moving the All-Star Game to another city, Major League Baseball could show an overdue commitment to social progress. Despite how much pro baseball celebrates Jackie Robinson for breaking the sport’s color barrier in 1947, MLB doesn’t exactly have a reputation for taking a strong stance on racial issues. Last year, MLB was the last among the major professional sports leagues to speak out after George Floyd died under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. When another wave of protests hit the sports world following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, several MLB teams postponed games to acknowledge the racial reckoning sweeping the country. But the league brass had difficulty coming up with a unified response involving every team.

Overall, pro baseball has struggled to attract Black players and fans and address a long history of entrenched, systemic racism in the sport. Today, just 8 percent of MLB players are Black, down from 18 percent in 1986. At the start of last season, three teams—the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Kansas City Royals—didn’t have any Black players. Pro baseball has only two Black managers, one of whom is Roberts, who is just the second Black manager in MLB history to win a World Series.

Although baseball’s past record on race can’t be excused, becoming the first pro sport to cancel a major event in Georgia would give some meaning to MLB’s otherwise empty statement last June pledging to “be better” on racial issues. Baseball can be the first to lead the way with a targeted boycott, but every league should now consider Georgia off-limits for major sporting events. Those who undermine democracy shouldn’t be rewarded for their pernicious efforts to disenfranchise people of color.

[junker-town]

THE BEEF BRACKET FINALE - WE NEED YOUR VOTE

Which beef is best?

And then there were two.

32 episodes of Beef History entered, only one will leave as the inaugural champion, and we finally know who the beef combatants will be. Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer are officially throwing down with the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche. It’s a matchup we could all see coming for a while now, but at first it was hard to imagine it working out for both these beeves.

Let’s be honest, if you want to attract the biggest sports crowd on the internet, you’re not going to lure them in with hockey. Yes, you will draw some people in and they will often be the most attractive and smartest folks out there, but they will come in limited numbers nonetheless. And when you’re needing to rock a vote, it doesn’t care how hot or brilliant the fans are as long as they come in droves. So, hockey can be hit or miss. But, when those gorgeous geniuses catch wind that their collective efforts are needed, some cool things can happen. Will the Beef Bracket be the next John Scott situation?

The fact is the Wings and Aves have already waltzed through some impressive competition. Round one saw them cruise by Jose Bautista and Rougned Odor - one of the most recent baseball beefs in terms of video and events. From there they beat just the greatest tennis player of all time and some woman named Maria, then battled the cycling bros Lance Armstrong and Greg LeMond - names you might also not think as big but they had just taken down Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez themselves. Oh and then they beat the best beef that the NFL region had to offer in Richard Sherman and Michael Crabtree, no big deal.

And then there’s their opponent. Let’s start with them being NBA players, the sport that makes the best bait for attracting an internet crowd. Throw in the fact that it’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game, plus one of the most notorious tough guys the league has ever seen, and it shouldn’t be a shock they reached the final. The shock could come purely from who they went up against.

Round one? Kobe Bryant and Ray Allen. It wasn’t even close! In fact, none of their matchups were. They were a meat grinder that Shaq and Dwight Howard got thrown into one round later. Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo gave them no test either - and no beef has been seen more times than theirs, the g.d. number one overall seed went down like a bag of bones. At that point, Vince Carter and Toronto just didn’t have a chance. Kudos to you, you tall beefy men. You’re in the final.

I won’t be doing my usual prediction and breakdown and all that. I think these both deserve to be celebrated and they’ve already made it further than so much of their beefy brethren. Whoever wins will deserve it, and whoever loses will make a delicious runner up. Now, you know what to do. Voting closes at midnight ET on April 13th, so vote quick.

If you can’t see the poll, click here.

[funnynewsheadlines]

94 Funny Signs People Made To Share Their Quarantine Experiences

Trying to stop the spread of the coronavirus, many governments across the globe are imposing strict quarantine regulations. However, sitting within your four walls 24/7 can take a toll on any of us.

So, to let everyone know we're in this together and relieve the tension during these difficult times, some people have been making funny signs to describe their everyday reality of living in isolation. From birthday announcements to shopping requests, Bored Panda has collected some of the most amusing quarantine signs, showing that the pandemic hasn't destroyed our spirits yet.

#1 Strict Dad

Image credits: Joy-Chris Martin

#2 She Held Up A Sign In Her Window Saying She Needs More Beer, And Before Long She Was Suprised With 150 Cans Of Her Favorite Ale

Image credits: darrenrovell

#3 The Sign At The Pizza Place I Go To

Image credits: matt_CHRIST3NS3N

#4 Spotted This In My City

Image credits: DiscordDonut

#5 The Joys Of Working From Home

Image credits: 4musing_User_Name

#6 My Sister Sent Me A Picture Of My Newborn Niece For My Birthday, Since I Haven't Been Able To Meet Her Yet

Image credits: mags387

#7 Columbus, Oh

Image credits: dangwha

#8 My Parents Wouldn't Let Me In... Something About "Not Being On This List"

Image credits: AZGraybill12

#9 My Local Shop Putting Up Signs Of 2011 Memes Due To The Lack Of Toiletpaper

Image credits: BrohemianWrapsody

#10 If You Have To Work, You Might As Well Enjoy It

Image credits: captaincaaveman

#11 Advice From God

Image credits: Dreamba

#12 My Neighbors Front Lawn Dad Joke

Image credits: MistressDrey

#13 Quarantine Is Going Well In My Neighborhood

Image credits: furrygreencurry

#14 Poor Kid...

Image credits: yourpantsaretoobig

#15 Was Driving Around With The Wife And Kid When We Saw This

Image credits: sublimeaces

#16 Possibly The Best Sign Ever Posted In My Neighborhood

Image credits: drbaseband

#17 Gentlemen’s Club In My Hometown For The Covid Sign Win

Image credits: jugbandfrog

#18 He’s Got A Point

Image credits: MilkyChast

#19 My Neighbors Front Lawn Dad Joke

Image credits: JulesGirth

#20 Days Since Pants

Image credits: hoosiernamechecksout

#21 Truth!

Image credits: tinrinca

#22 My Township Has Some Funny Business Owners

Image credits: jgibs2850

#23 In The Spirit Of The Quarantine Season, I Decided To Have A Little Fun With My Pressure Washer

Image credits: redwolf1017

#24 Message From God

Image credits: tglnyc

#25 Sun Ray Keeping It Real

Image credits: cheesemoose

#26 Free Cure

Image credits: Rksta8

#27 While Updating A Bathroom, I Left A Surprise Under The Floor For The Next Remodeler

Image credits: aarontminded

#28 We Are Living In An Unforeseen Circumstance

Image credits: BlueWoof

#29 Local Strip Club Is Finally Clothed

Image credits: DLove19

#30 Just Stop

Image credits: dudewithsign

#31 She Has Proper Social Distancing

Image credits: AngryCrow91

#32 My Town’s Example Distances For Social Distancing

Image credits: blinker1eighty2

#33 This Is A Place Called Chipmunks On Diversey And Pine Grove (Near Sheridan)

Image credits: CraycraftBrett

#34 I Fixed My Welcome Sign

Image credits: kacydev

#35 My Local Independent Theatre Has A Good Sense Of Humor

Image credits: jackedandtan16

#36 Saw This Today. "This Is Fine"

Image credits: disposableduetoshame

#37 Stayin' Alive

Image credits: KarenKnoeb

#38 I Deliver Packages For Amazon. This Is By Far The Best Door/Delivery Poll I Have Seen. Btw, Keep The Polls Coming, They Are Great! I Voted Creed FWIW, Because If I Can't Scuba, Then What's This Been About?

Image credits: drummachine621

#39 The Church In My Town Makes Me Laugh On A Weekly Basis

Image credits: kjpoyner

#40 Love The Sense Of Humor Of This Sign Owner

Image credits: djak

#41 Saw This On My Walk Today

Image credits: countryroots

#42 When Canada Meets Coronavirus

Image credits: penapox

#43 I Saw This At My Local CVS

Image credits: BaconPancake62

#44 Brother-In-Law's Neighbor

Image credits: nvflip

#45 My Family Had Some Fun With Post-It Notes To Entertain People Who Pass By

Image credits: opie81280

#46 Anyone, No?

Image credits: chaosphile

#47 “Essential”

Image credits: marvelousmondays

#48 Not Bad, Not Bad

Image credits: winklereli

#49 State Sign On 309 North Just North Of Tamaqua PA

Image credits: chaosphile

#50 Social Distancing Drinking Games In The Wild

Image credits: Alaskan_Lost

#51 Lebanon Maine, Yessah

Image credits: jimmyb207

#52 How I Beat The Quarantine Birthday Blues Today

Image credits: veraliis

#53 Sign In New York. Can't Wait To Go Back One Day. Telling People Like It Is

Image credits: PolisSquad01

#54 Social Gathering At St. Kilda Beach Today

Image credits: leighhenningham

#55 How Am I Driving?

Image credits: dogismywitness

#56 Welcome To Canada

Image credits: tractornucleareactor

#57 Couldn’t Have Seen That Coming

Image credits: mike5322

#58 My Neighbors Front Lawn Dad Joke

Image credits: JulesGirth

#59 Local Vet Keeping It Fresh

Image credits: Dmed24

#60 Day 7

Image credits: posterstock

#61 Saw This At The Dog Veterinarian Today

Image credits: steenlys

#62 Liquor Store In Arkansas Has Jokes

Image credits: mikefromtheclub

#63 Travel Plans

Image credits: VeryVino20

#64 The Casino In My Area Recently Closed For COVID-19. This Is Their Sign

Image credits: Fr3shBread

#65 Good To See The Sign Person Still Has A Job

Image credits: Donnydean

#66 Chicago Is Done With This. Started A Countdown To 2021

Image credits: Trimtramtron

#67 Keep Your Distance

Image credits: Dutchie_86

#68 Pizza Place In My Town Is Known For Being Stoners, This Was Their Sign Today

Image credits: ComplexToxin

#69 Saw This At A High School Near Me

Image credits: Musichead2468

#70 Covid-19 Cautions

Image credits: freakfree

#71 My Local Theater Has A Sense Of Humor

Image credits: AngelBear2010

#72 A Breath Of Fresh Air In These Crazy Times. See At The McDonald’s Drive Thru This Morning

Image credits: JonathanSafa

#73 My Neighbors Front Lawn Dad Joke

Image credits: JulesGirth

#74 My Hometown Knows How To Quarantine

Image credits: mumblewrapper

#75 This Sign On A Furniture Store Window

Image credits: puppyluvr321

#76 Friend Who's A Nurse Got His Shoes Stolen Off His Porch. Bad Pair To Take

Image credits: FieldMarshal_VonDerp

#77 I Spotted This Sign Today

Image credits: the_conradical

#78 Keep Yours At Home

Image credits: seeyabeU

#79 Rolls Since Quarantine

Image credits: BoomFoxxy

#80 My Pandemic Daily Planner

Image credits: JoeBeanLP

#81 Sign Outside A Baseball Training Center That's Still Offering Virtual Lessons During The Covid-19 Shutdown

Image credits: M116rs

#82 This Store’s Hiring Sign Has Never Been More Relevant

Image credits: itzxswbod

#83 Even The Mailbox Should Be Social Distancing

Image credits: link229

#84 No Breathing

Image credits: Sailorman53

#85 It's Official, Kangaroos Are A Metric

Image credits: critrolefan

#86 A House In My Hometown Is Making Good Use Of Their Quarantine Time

Image credits: CoffeeBlack19

#87 This Sign Outside Of A Walmart Telling You What Is In Stock

Image credits: HelpMeGameYT

#88 Company Health And Safety Not Holding Back

Image credits: 50ShadesOfPalmBay

#89 No Gloves

Image credits: geniusgza1

#90 McDonald’s Is Expanding The Menu In These Tough Times

Image credits: HaystaxCallhoun

#91 Exception

Image credits: sarahbim8

#92 A Thrift Store In My Town

Image credits: dunicha

#93 Local Cleaning Service Always Has Fun Signs For Us To Read

Image credits: BELO-

#94 On My Way To Work

Image credits: w00tersauce

from Funny – Bored Panda https://ift.tt/2xBA091 via IFTTT from Blogger https://ift.tt/3crRPGp

[weekendwarriorblog]

Weekend Warrior Home Edition – April 3, 2020 – Slay the Dragon, Tape and More

Well, things sure have gone to hell since I last wrote this weekly column that I’ve now been doing in some form or another at one place or other for over nineteen years! For the first time in those 19 years and probably a good 80 or 90 years before that, there were no movies in theaters. In fact, there were no movie theaters. Because of this, the last two weekends have been the first in history with ZERO BOX OFFICE. It’s kind of tough to write a column about the box office and theatrical releases when there are none, n’est ce pas?

So I’m going to try to evolve for the time being, and we’ll see how that goes. I’m not too thrilled about having to watch movies as screeners, let alone writing about movies that will probably never get a theatrical release, but I’ll try to make the best of it. (Oh, and Disney’s Onward, which opened in theaters less than a month ago will be available ON DISNEY+* tomorrow.) (*corrected)

This week’s “Featured Movie” that you absolutely must see, especially if you’re reading this from one of the “red states” and feel like government just isn’t doing things the way you’d like them to do, is Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance’s political documentary SLAY THE DRAGON (Magnolia).  It covers how gerrymandering is being used in census years (like this one) to maintain a Republican majority in local and state government.  Goodman’s doc begins in Michael Moore territory of Flint, Michigan and shows how gerrymandering was used to create a Republican majority that led to the town getting water from the nearby Flint River which contaminated the pipes and leaked lead into the system.

The film does a good job explaining gerrymandering in an easy to understand way by following a few specific cases of people fighting against the policies.  Counties and voting districts in different states aren’t just a straight grid on a map. Instead, the districts are drawn up to cause an unfair advantage to a party. This was especially true of the REDMAP program instituted in 2008 by the GOP after Barack Obama was elected President to make sure Republicans could dominate Congress as well as politics on a state level.  

Much of the film deals with Katie Fahey’s group Citizens United that has decided to take on the politicians with its grassroots campaign to allow the people’s voices and votes to start counting. (One of the programs that grew out of REDMAPping was that thousands of voters were not able to vote since a few states passed a law that ID was required to vote, thereby keeping black and brown voters from the polls.)

Yes, it’s a rather complicated situation but it’s one that people in the primarily liberal states like New York, California and others really need to know about, since it’s why we have a reality TV host as our President right now as well as why we have a Republican Senate that just prevented him from being impeached. All of the bigger politics goes back to the individual state politics and how gerrymandering and REDMAP unfairly sways the vote against those who win on the state level in census years (essentially every ten years including 2020). Originally, this was going to get a theatrical release in March but now it will only be available on digital and On Demand, so you can find out how to see it on the official site.

I also want to give a little extra attention to Deborah Kampmeier’s TAPE (Full Moon Films), which skipped its theatrical release instead to do an interesting “virtual theatrical run,” playing every night On Demand via CrowdCast. It’s available every night at 7pm eastern followed by discussions with the filmmakers and then will be on Digital and VOD on April 10. Again, these are changing times, but this is a haunting and powerful thriller based on true events, starring Anarosa Mudd as a woman trying to catch a sleezy casting agent (Tarek Bishara) who is preying on actresses and one in particular, played by Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan). Both of their performances are pretty amazing, Mudd playing a shaven-head whistleblower and Fuhrman playing an ambitious young actress who think she’s finally gotten her much-needed break, but finding out there’s a lot darker side to the business than she expected. While a lot of people have raved about The Assistant as a response to #MeToo, this is a much starker and direct look at the abuse of power to take advantage of young women. The movie is not going to be for everybody, because it takes some time before you realize what Mudd’s character (who could just as easily be Rose MacGowan) is up to, but the way how things play out in the film makes it unforgettable. It’s a fantastic new movie from Kampmeier, who famously had an underage Dakota Fanning have a rape scene in her earlier movie, Hounddog.

A movie that was released last week that I didn’t get to write about (but it’s still available On Demand and Digitally, as many movies currently are) is Lorcan Finnegan’s VIVARIUM (Saban Films), starring Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots. It’s a virtual two-hander in which they play a couple who look at a house in a suburban housing complex where every house looks the same. They soon learn that they can’t escape and things get weirder and weirder from there. I can’t say I loved the movie, because it just got weirder and weirder, almost to a fault at times.

Polish filmmaker Malgorzata Szumowska’s THE OTHER LAMB (IFC Midnight) is another movie about a religious cult, this one a group of women that live in a remote forest commune led by a man they call “Shepherd” (played by Michiel Huisman from Game of Thrones and The Haunting of Hill House). It follows a teenager named Selah (Raffey Cassidy) who begins to question her existence when she starts having nightmarish visions. This was okay, but I really have hit my limit in terms of movies about religious cults. They’ve just been overdone.

Mike Doyle’s rom-com ALMOST LOVE (Vertical) is about a group of middle-aged friends trying to navigate love and relationships with a cast that includes Scott Evans, Kate Walsh, Patricia Clarkson, Augustus Prew and more. Some of the characters are having marital issues, others are dating or getting into early feelings of possible love. It’s a nice distraction from all the serious stuff going on in the world today.

A great music doc now On Demand, digital and other formats (Blu-ray/DVD) is Brent Wilson’s STREETLIGHT HARMONIES (Gravitas), which takes a look at the early doo-wop vocal groups of the ‘50s and ‘60s that predated and formed the basis for Rock & Roll, Rhythm & Blues and other music genres as we know them today. It deals with acts like The Drifters, Little Antony and the Imperials, The Platters, and Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers. It includes interviews with some of the more recent acts influenced by it including En Vogue and N’Sync as well as Brians Wilson and McKnight. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this despite doo-wop not being my preferred music style. (For the sake of transparency, I helped out with a little bit of publicity on this film.)

Also, Olivier Meyrou’s fly-on-the-wall doc Celebration (1091) is a movie that was commissioned by Yves Saint Laurent’s former lover and business partner, Pierre Bergé, more than ten years ago but was shelved for being too revealing. It was filmed over the course of three years where Laurent was at his most frail and mostly separated from the world as we get a look inside one of the last great haute couture houses. It’s now available On Demand and digitally.

Jon Abrahams directs and co-stars in Clover (Freestyle Digital Media) opposite the great Mark Webber, playing bumbling Irish twins trying to pay off their father’s debt to local mob boss Tony Davolo, played by Chazz Palminteri. Things get more complicated when a teen girl named Clover (Nicole Elizabeth Berger) shows up and the brothers need to protect her from Tony’s “hit-women.” Looks like a fun dark comedy.

Unfortunately, Saban Films didn’t offer advance review screeners of the action sequel, Rogue Warrior: The Hunt (Saban Films), directed by Mike Gunther, but it stars Will Yun Lee.  I’m not sure if this is a sequel to 2017’s Rogue Warrior: The Hunt, but I haven’t seen that either. It involves the leader of an elite team of soldiers being captured by terrorists, so his team needs rescue him. Oh, and Stephen Lang (Avatar, Don’t Breathe) is in it, too.

STREAMING AND CABLE

This week’s Netflix offerings include the streaming network’s latest true-crime documentary series, HOW TO FIX A DRUG SCANDAL, directed by Erin Lee Carr (Dirty Money), which covers the 2013 case of Sonja Farak, a crime drug lab specialist who was arrested for tampering with evidence but also accused of using the drugs she was supposed to be testing.  (It’s on the service as of this writing.)

Stuber and Good director Michael Dowse helms the action-comedy COFFEE & KAREEM, starring Ed Helms as police officer James Coffee, who begins dating Taraji P. Henson’s Vanessa Manning while her 12-year-old son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) plots their break-up. Kareem hires criminal fugitives to kill Coffee but instead ends up getting his whole family targeted, so the two must team up. Also starring Betty Gilpin, RonReaco Lee, Andrew Bachelor and David Alan Grier.

Also on Friday, Disney Plus will stream two Disneynature docs, Dolphin Reef and Elephant, in honor of Earth Day taking place later this month. Previously, one or both of these movies might have been released theatrically but hey, earth is going to hell right now.

Now playing on Hulu is the latest installment of Blumhouse’s “Into the Dark,” Alejandro Brugué’s Pooka Lives, which ties in with “Pooka Day” (no idea what that is) but apparently, Pooka is a fictional creature like “Slender Man” that was created on Creepypasta  by a group of friends that goes viral but then manifests into creatures that become real. It stars fan faves Felicia Day, Will Wheaton, Rachel Bloom and more.

Next week, more movies not in theaters!

By the way, if you read this week’s column and have read this far down, feel free to drop me some thoughts at Edward dot Douglas at Gmail dot Com or send me a note on Twitter. I love hearing from readers!

[radioactive-earthshine]

Finally, a poll Ray might win.

[labourpress]

Emily Thornberry speech to Labour Party Conference

Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Foreign Secretary, speaking at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton today, said:

  ***CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY***

    Chair, Conference - It’s a pleasure to be back here in Brighton and Hove.

  A city which we can say - once again - has no Tory MPs. And it’s a pleasure to be taking part in a debate where our delegates have such a strong voice,

  And we should all thank Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith who have allowed me to speak on their behalf today so our delegates could have more time. And let me say as well - it’s an honour to be on this stage with our leader, my friend, this country’s next Prime Minister - Jeremy Corbyn.

  You know, some people might remember a certain viral video from election night of a bit of high-fiving gone wrong. But that’s not how I’ll remember that evening. I’ll just remember seeing a friend of mine who had defied all the pundits, all the doubters

and all the expectations. Someone who had proved during the election, who has proved throughout his leadership, who has proved all his life, that nothing is stronger, nothing on earth than a person of principle.

  And it is that strength and those principles, those unshakeable values that are going to take Jeremy into Downing Street and put Labour back into power. After all, it was on this very stage two years ago that Jeremy declared his mission:

  “To put Labour values -- the people’s values -- back - into - politics.”

  And he has achieved that. But thanks to Jeremy’s inspirational leadership, thanks to the brilliant efforts of everyone in this room, we can now set our sights even higher.

It is time to put Labour values, the people’s values back into Government.

Because if June’s election taught us one thing, it’s that if we stand behind Jeremy’s principled leadership, if we stand united as a Party, and if we stand on a radical manifesto, there is absolutely no seat that we can’t win.  And no Tory that we can’t bin.

  So next time, we've got to take the fight into their backyard. Let's go round the coast to Hastings. And end the ambitions of Amber Rudd. Let's go to Chingford. And send Iain Duncan Smith to the Job Centre. Then let's go to Uxbridge. And make sure Boris Johnson never, ever gets into No.10.

  But Conference, please let’s just take a second to sympathise with poor old Boris. Oh come on, just a second. He’s not been happy lately. Apparently he's sick of being blamed for the way Brexit is going and all the broken promises of the Leave campaign.

  I'm sorry, Conference? I'm sorry? Who does he think made all those promises? Who does he think was in charge  of the Leave Campaign?

  I know Boris doesn’t like paternity tests, but we might need one for Brexit. We need to get him in a studio with Jeremy Kyle.

  “Yes, I'm sorry, Mr Johnson…

“We've got the results back…

“It looks like this one is yours…

“It must have been that wild night out you had with Michael Gove.

“I've calculated your maintenance payments…

“That’ll be 350 million a week.”

  But Conference, what a contrast. Here on this stage, you’ve got Labour’s Brexit team - myself, Keir and Barry working every day in harness with Jeremy, John and Diane. All pulling in the same direction.  All focused on the same three priorities. The three priorities we’ve had since Day One after the Referendum - Jobs, Jobs and Jobs.

  While next week in Manchester, we’re going to see six Tory rats, fighting in a sack, not worried about protecting the jobs of the British people. Just every one of them looking out for their own.

  Last Friday, Theresa May said we need to be “creative and imaginative” to get a good outcome from Brexit. Well I’ve got a creative idea for her step aside, end your shambles of a Government, and let the grown-ups on this stage take charge.

  And talking of grown-ups I’m proud to be here representing our great Shadow Foreign Office team: Liz McInnes; Fabian Hamilton; Khalid Mahmood; Helen Goodman and Ray Collins. And I’m proud as well to be speaking on behalf of my friends, Kate Osamor and Nia Griffith. Kate, our Shadow Secretary of State For International Development, facing a world in now constant humanitarian crisis,

not least as a result of climate change.

  As Kate would say, in that world, we’ve got a decision to make. Either tackle head on the root causes of these crises or spend more and more every year dealing with the consequences.  And, under a Labour government. That is a decision we will not duck.

  And Nia, our Shadow Defence Secretary, who has shown that Britain under Labour

will be a strong leader within NATO, committed to spend 2 per cent of our national income on defence. And committed to ensure that those who put their lives on the line for this country the real-terms pay rises and the decent living conditions that their service and their sacrifice deserves.

  In dark, dangerous times for our world Britain must be equally strong and equally committed to defence, development and diplomacy. That is what we offer on this stage. And that is what Labour in government will guarantee. 

  But Conference, make no mistake. These are indeed dark and dangerous times for the world. And too many times, the problems we face come down to people abusing their power and ignoring the rules and values that should govern our world.

  From Venezuela to The Philippines we see the rule of law ignored and originally democratic governments turning into increasingly autocratic regimes. From Myanmar to Yemen we see human rights ignored and flagrant attacks against ordinary civilians qll too often using British-made weapons.

  From Kashmir to Israel and Palestine we see efforts at diplomacy ignored and actions taken on both sides which will make peace harder to achieve.

  From Syria to Sudan, we see the Geneva Conventions ignored and despots committing war crimes with total freedom and impunity. 

  All across Europe we see the basic rules of humanity and the basic lessons of history ignored as cowardly terrorists stalk our city streets and vicious extremist parties rise in the polls.

  And of course, in North Korea  we see the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty ignored with all the terrifying consequences the world is now facing today.

  Taken altogether what we are seeing today is the biggest challenge to the world order since the 1930s and the collapse of the League of Nations.  And if you believe as I do in what Jeremy has called…“A world based on rules and laws” then this is the time, more than ever, when we need our leaders to stand up for that world order. To stand up for human rights and international treaties. And to insist on working through the United Nations for peace.

  But instead, Conference we now have a President of the United States who believes that none of these rules and laws apply to him.

  - Imposing a travel ban on Muslims;

  - Equivocating over illegal settlements;

  - Reneging on the Paris climate treaty;

  - Imperilling the nuclear deal with Iran;

  - And threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea. A country of 20 million men and women. And 5 million children.

This is not what we need from the leader of the free world.

  To be honest, Conference it’s more like what we would expect from a rogue dictator. And what makes it even worse is to see this Tory government and this Tory Prime Minister pathetically going along with it all walking hand-in-hand with Trump at the White House, supine, sycophantic and spineless.

  And why? All in the vain hope that Trump will ride to the rescue after Brexit with some fantasy free trade deal. Because, for this Tory government that’s what their foreign policy has come down to no values or ethics, no rules or principles just a simple case of what works best for the bottom line. How else do they explain why - last week - Theresa May was in New York, finally announcing the suspension of cooperation with the military in Myanmar because of their actions in Rakhine.

  While on the very same day, Michael Fallon was in Jeddah, signing a deal to increase our cooperation with the military in Saudi Arabia wantonly ignoring their actions in Yemen. It is rank hypocrisy. But it also illustrates a basic fact that the world we want to see – a world governed by ethics and values, a world based on rules and laws will never truly exist as long as governments and world leaders get to decide for themselves when it suits them to play by the rules and when the rules can be safely ignored.

  The world we want will never exist when governments like Theresa May’s think it’s perfectly OK to loudly condemn those they regard as enemies but then fall utterly silent when it is their friends in Bahrain rounding up, torturing and executing civilian protestors or their friends in Saudi Arabia dropping cluster bombs on innocent children in Yemen.

  In fact, if they were just silent that would be an improvement. Instead, we have to listen to Michael Fallon saying that the thousands of children killed and injured by air strikes in Yemen are just a consequence of Saudi Arabia “defending itself”…

…“Defending itself”.

  But Conference, it does not have to be this way. Labour can and will do things differently when we are back in power.

And there is one concrete step we can commit to today.

For too long successive governments in this country have taken decisions on granting arms export licences behind closed doors and shrouded in secrecy.

  Just two months ago we had the ludicrous situation where the campaigners trying to stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen had their Judicial Review rejected on the basis of government evidence presented in closed court a secret court so they were not even allowed to hear the evidence let alone challenge it.

  The fact is that arms export decisions made by Tory Ministers are entirely subjective assessments taken without proper Parliamentary scrutiny without listening to independent, expert advice, but listening far too much to lobbyists for the arms trade and repressive foreign regimes.  A process that leads to nonsensical double-standards, where the Government can decide too late that selling arms to Myanmar is wrong but immediately increase its sales to Saudi. It is an arms control regime that was already outdated. but which the Tories have systematically abused, undermined and left fatally discredited.

  And as the four shadow ministers responsible, Barry, Nia, Kate and I have agreed that it must change. So just as the new Labour Governments elected in 1997 and 2001 Immediately reformed the way decisions were made on monetary policy and competition policy, the next Labour Government will immediately reform the way decisions are made on the export of arms.

  A wholesale reform of the legal and regulatory framework fully implementing the International Arms Trade Treaty with clear rules, tests and criteria for decision-making, based on independent, expert advice and the objective assessment of evidence. A new system, that will prevent the misuse or abuse of licences and adhere to the principles of transparency, true Parliamentary accountability and freedom from undue influence.

  Because Conference, it is not enough for us just to be better than the Tories, we must set an entirely new standard for Britain and a shining example to the world.

And if that sounds like setting our ambitions high, well you’re damn right it is and we should not apologise for that.

  You know, I heard Chuka say yesterday:

“Overpromising and under-delivering…

“…Is one of the reasons…

“…there was such fury with the Blair government.”

  And when it comes to foreign policy, I totally agree with that statement. But the way we avoid that mistake next time round isn’t to water down the promises we make, it’s to keep the promises we make and make sure we deliver them.

We will be a Government that will never put the interest of the rich and powerful above human Rights, The Rule of Law, and the lives of innocent children in Yemen…

A Government that will never put our principles up for auction.

And if we are going to be the kind of government we could be, we do not just need what Robin Cook called for, twenty years ago, when he set out his Mission Statement for the Foreign Office.

  We do not just need an “ethical dimension” to our foreign policy, we need to go much further than that.

  We need what Martin Luther King called for 50 years ago, when he set out his case against the Vietnam War.

  - We need “a revolution of values”.

  - “A genuine revolution of values”.

  - “A radical revolution of values”.

  Because if our mission back when Jeremy was elected, was to put Labour values back into politics and our mission today is to put those values back into Government, then our mission for the years to come must be equally ambitious and equally radical. It must be to put Labour values at the heart of the world order, to be a beacon in every corner of the globe for the values we believe in here at home.

  We have the leader in Jeremy to do it. We have the team on this stage to do it. We have the members in this hall, and all across the country, who will hold us to it.

  So let us make that our mission. And this time -- this time -- let us make it our record.

[junker-town]

BEEF VOTE: Larry Bird vs. Bill Laimbeer OR Vince Carter vs. Toronto

Which beef is best?

(7) Larry Bird vs. Bill Laimbeer

Elite Eight Analysis: I admit that I was not a believer in the potential this beef had. Three of the episodes that reached the Final Four faced little resistance, but none quite like Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer. They delivered an absolute smackdown to the top overall seed, Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo, gobbling up 78 percent of the votes. That came after they decimated the star power of Shaq and Dwight Howard, plus Kobe and Ray Allen before that. They’re our highest vote-getters of the tournament. Did they get some extra motivation when I seeded them in the seven spot? Maybe. Does that mean I deserve some of the credit for their performance? Oh well geez, I couldn’t! But if I must, I’ll accept it.

Beef Breakdown: Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer stood in the middle of an intense Celtics-Pistons rivalry spanning the late 1980s and early 1990s. But the individual feud between those two wasn’t just a battle within that war. It was personal. This beef might never end, so in this episode, we learn about what built it.

Best Known For: These guys started a full-on brawl during the playoffs in 1987, which included Bird throwing the basketball at Laimbeer’s head.

Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer have genuinely hated each other for over 30 years

(2) Vince Carter vs. Toronto

Elite Eight Analysis: After a slightly lackluster showing in the Sweet Sixteen, Carter heads/Torontonians showed out. It wasn’t an easy test - LeBron vs. Paul Pierce as one of our newer episodes is much fresher in people’s minds, and it’s human nature to gravitate towards the fresher beef. But even with Paul Pierce attempting a viral marketing campaign to get voters flocking to his name, VC vs. TOR snagged a very healthy 63 percent of the votes. Feels a little like their foot is off the gas though, bad timing with their toughest test waiting for them in the Final Four.

Beef Breakdown: Over the course of two decades, Vince Carter has gone from maybe the most beloved athlete in Toronto to maybe the most despised athlete in Toronto to ... somewhere in between, but definitely closer to the first thing. Pouting, bad management, injuries, scandalous stories, and more injuries. After all that came a dismal trade, and years of the fans who once embraced Carter booing him every time he visited.

Best Known For: Not necessarily one moment, but the general shift from the face of a franchise to the enemy of all things Toronto.

Vince Carter’s 10-year beef with Toronto included Nelly, a possible body slam, and so many injuries

Matchup Prediction: This matchup deserves to be decided by a single vote. Both episodes are so incredible and have legacies that few beeves can manage to achieve. That said, the world isn’t fair. I think it’ll be closer than previous rounds for Larry Bird and Bill Laimbeer, but they’re still the favorite at this point. They’re the hottest team in the tournament (in every sense of the word) and have been the favorite to win it all for a bit. I’ll never count out Vince Carter, but gotta put your money on the safer bet.

Relive each episode and let us know below which beef is best. Voting is open through April 11, then the Championship will begin on April 12.

If you can’t see the poll below, click here.

Click here to return to the bracket.

[allofbeercom]

The day I went hunting for the Ku Klux Klan | Dave Eggers

Following Trumps win, one KKK chapter announced plans for a victory parade in North Carolina. But where was it going to be, and who might turn up? Dave Eggers joined the protestors playing cat-and-mouse with white supremacists

No one knew much, but the crowd was growing. We were at the rest stop off Highway 29 between Eden and Pelham, where North Carolina meets Virginia, and everyone was looking for the Ku Klux Klan. It was 8.40am.

The day after the election of Donald Trump, the Loyal White Knights of Pelham, a chapter of the KKK with a suitably unhinged website, had announced that they would be holding a victory parade on 3 December. In the weeks since, there had been no word on the Knights website or anywhere else about when or where the parade would be.

But the initial declaration was perhaps the most dramatic manifestation of what we might call the New Emboldening a coast-to-coast rise in everyday American racism and bigotry spurred by the rhetoric and election of a billionaire who had taken swipes at certain Mexican-Americans and all Mexicans, certain women and all women, certain Muslim-Americans and all Muslims, all African Americans and all immigrants.

In the month after the election, the Southern Poverty Law Center had tracked more than 900 incidents targeting non-whites. A Muslim college student in Ann Arbor had been told, by a young white man, to remove her hijab or he would light her on fire. At a Utah high school, two Mexican-American sisters were told by their white classmates, You get a free trip back to Mexico. You should be happy.

The idea of a Klan rally in this kind of atmosphere was potentially explosive. The KKK had demonstrated a year earlier, in Columbia, South Carolina, and the results had been ugly. Three hundred Klan members had been there. The New Black Panthers had countered with 400 of their own members. In all, there were 2,000 protesters. There were cops in body armour. Ripped Confederate flags. A grandmother with a bloody nose. A Klan member, trying to flee in his vehicle, ran into a lamppost.

This 3 December parade, then, coming after Trumps election and during this New Emboldening, had the potential to be far worse. The promise that the parade was coming was a blight on the soul of the nation; the vast majority of the country, whether they supported Trump or not, dreaded it. There is no more wretched and horrifying segment of the American people or history than the Klan, who in their darkest years had lynched black men and women and had terrorised anyone who wasnt white or Christian. At their height, in 1924, the Klans membership was 4 million. In 2016, estimates put their strength at no more than 8,000.

Two masked Ku Klux Klansmen giving an interview on a rural backroad near Pelham, North Carolina on the night of 2 December. Photograph: Jay Reeves/AP

But Trump, like a snake charmer, had coaxed the rise of the alt-right, who embodied the spirit of the Klan, but in different robes and with better social media. And because the depth of Trumps support so much of it invisible to polls and data had shocked much of the nation, there existed the possibility that the Klan, too, would emerge with far greater numbers than anyone thought possible.

But for a month, no one knew where the rally would take place. Activists marked it on their calendars but had no clue where to go, other than Pelham, North Carolina a tiny town of 3,592 souls, with no central business district through which to parade. The night before, Id driven around Pelham and found nowhere a potential parade might happen. Guessing the Klan might be gathering at the home of Amanda and Christopher Barker, the only Knights listed on their website, I drove past the home listed as their address. It was a humble clapboard house in nearby Eden. There were no cars parked outside, no sign of an assembling of regional racists.

Then, late on the night of 2 December, an article appeared on the website of the Times-News of Burlington, North Carolina. A reporter there, Natalie Janicello, spoke with a Loyal White Knights representative who called himself the chapters exalted cyclops. He confirmed that the Klan would indeed parade. Probably at 9am, he said, and in the vicinity of Pelham.

So here we were, at the rest stop, waiting for word. The sky was grey and the temperature hovered at 40F. Cars continued to arrive, and their passengers disembarked to use the facilities. Most were young and dressed in black boots, pants, hoodies and sunglasses. A few were wearing bandanas to cover their faces. These were black-bloc activists some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical in general more willing to engage in confrontation and property damage (thus the efforts to anonymise themselves). There were six of them. Then 10. Then 20. Thirty. They made up the largest group of the assembling activists, but there were also members of the International Workers of the World (IWW), a few people with Black Lives Matter signs, and a smattering of unaffiliateds men and women, most of them under 30, standing in the cold, waiting for word of when and where. But 9am was fast approaching and there was no update.

I befriended a trio of activists who seemed to have the most up-to-date information. Megan Squire, a red-haired professor of computing sciences at nearby Elon University, was earnest and funny and determined to confront the Klan. She was with her husband, Tony Crider, a professor of physics, who, in Ray-Bans and a leather jacket, was a bit more detached and sceptical (for reasons that would become clear later). With them was Sugelema Lynch, a bright-eyed second-grade teacher from nearby Alamance County.

Im more of a tag-along, she said. She was wearing a lime-green scarf and teal-coloured sneakers, and had an enormous camera around her neck. I just want to get a couple cool photos and tell my kids, Look what I did this weekend! She had moved from California five years earlier, when shed married a man who grew up nearby. She was still getting used to this once-Confederate state, whose Latino population had grown from 76,000 in 1990 to 800,000 in 2016.

When I first moved here, she said, living in the Burlington area, you just felt the tension. As a Hispanic woman, just walking around felt awkward. She is one of two Latino teachers at her elementary school, where most of the students are the children of Latino immigrants. Its not really a surprise to hear about the Klan here. Things dont ever just go away. But Im not offended just looking at the Confederate flag. I grew up watching The Dukes of Hazzard, too.

Megan was periodically checking in with the IWW and black-bloc groups, and returned with news. OK, she said. The rumour now is that the Klan is organising itself, planning to go to Danville via Highway 29. Everyones trying to find someone who might have a car shitty enough to block the highway.

Black bloc protesters some anarchist, some communist, some apolitical who formed a large part of the turnout against the KKK march. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Danville was a city of 43,000, just over the Virginia border. It had been on the list of possible sites for the Klan march.As we waited, Tony told a story of a recent Trump-fuelled incident on the Elon campus. The day after the election, he had arrived at his classroom to find the words Bye bye Latinos. Hasta la Vista written in large letters on his whiteboard. There had been recent activity in the area by another neo-white supremacist group called Actbac (Alamance County Taking Back Alamance County), and Tony thought this might have something to do with them. Deciding to make it a teachable moment, he took a picture of the board and posted it on his Facebook account.

When his first class arrived that morning, he left the words up. He asked the students to write down their thoughts on the election and drop them in a bin, so each students opinion would remain anonymous. (He planned to read them aloud a week later, when they had some distance.) He taught the class as planned, then went back to his office, closed the door, and cried.

Meanwhile, his photo had been shared with a student reporter at Elon, who tweeted it. That tweet was retweeted 2,000 times, and by the next day, it had been reported in the Daily Mail and the Associated Press. It was referenced all over the world.

Then we found out it was a hoax, Tony said. It turned out that a Latino student at Elon had written it. The student considered it satire.

Now the assembled protesters gathered around Greg Williams, an organiser from the IWW. With long dark hair and a beard, he was calm and in control. He introduced the protesters to four men and women wearing bright green baseball caps. They were from the National Lawyers Guild, he said if anyone got arrested, they would be available. He provided one of their phone numbers. It had a San Francisco area code. The activists passed around a black marker and wrote it on their arms.

Anyone with a smartphone that can be opened with your fingerprints should disable that function, Megan said. If youre arrested, she explained, police cant make you give up your password, but they can compel you to use your fingerprint. The heads of the assembled protesters bent downward as they busily made adjustments to their phones.

Finally, Williams instructed the protesters to think about your positionality. White protesters should, he said, try to keep at least two of them (white protesters) between the Klan and any protesters of colour. Speak for yourself, a black protester said, and there were laughs. The bottom line, Williams said, is look after each other.

A parking attendant had been making her way through, marking tires. The police would soon have reason to move the group, so everyone got in their cars and caravanned to the Pelham Community Center just across the highway. A sign out front promised a visit from Santa Claus later that week.

Behind the community centre was a dirt road with a narrow stretch of grass running alongside it. The area was flanked by a high wire fence on one side and a dense forest on another. Everyone parked their cars, got out and waited. The protesters milled and talked and looked at each others placards. RAPIST PRESIDENT read one. NO HATE IN OUR STATE read another. A white man in shorts held a sign declaring that The Worst Thing to Ever Come Out of a Vagina Was a WHITE MAN. Another white man demonstrating every protests struggle to keep focus had a sign pushing for a $15 minimum wage.

Word was that the parade would happen at 11am. Now the black bloc got serious. Baseball bats were removed from car trunks. Masks were adjusted. One man wore a leather jacket covered with silver studs. Another put on a motorcycle helmet. The scene began to have the look of troops assembling before battle.

More members of the media appeared. There were about a dozen small video crews and an equal number of journalists walking around with notebooks and tape recorders. They roamed among the assembled and waiting protesters, and, with nothing else to do, pretty much every journalist and photographer interviewed and photographed pretty much every protester. A trio of young activists with hand-drawn signs were photographed at least 10 times in precisely the same pose. Sugelema took a picture, too. What the hell, she said.

An SUV with tinted windows arrived. Two men emerged wearing identical outfits fleece jackets, khaki pants, sunglasses and hats. Security contractors with a group called ESG, they were there to protect a TV newscaster, an older gentleman, well-tanned, who emerged from the SUV with a cameraman in tow. His security detail followed.

Two young men removed two crates from their car trunk, one full of bottled water, the other Red Bull, and distributed them. The mood was upbeat. The current joke, Megan said, is that were just a bunch of goth kids playing Pokmon Go.

With an hour to kill before the Klan parade, there was general anxiety that some faction of the protesters would start a drum circle. The anarchists dont like drum circles, Megan noted. Sugelema pointed to a man with a red drum at his feet. Two other men were carrying cymbals. Another man with an elaborate moustache appeared with a saxophone. A few days before, at the Standing Rock protests, Sioux tribal leaders had asked the white people, arriving in great numbers and in festive spirit, not to treat the protests like Burning Man.

Megan checked in with Natalie Janicello, the reporter who had the trust of the Loyal White Knights. Janicello happened to have been a student of Megans at Elon University. She conveyed the latest: the Loyal White Knights had pushed their parade back to 3pm. The theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off by the size of the counter-protest, and had postponed their rally to gather a comparable volume of paraders of their own. One woman with hair dyed blue carried around a sign, newly made, that said Big Bad KKK: 2 Scared 2 March.

Protesters in Danville after the theory circulated that the Klan had been scared off and had postponed their rally. Photograph: Carol Guzy/Photoshot/Avalon

Sugelema and I went to get snacks. At the local mini-mart, where the staff and customers were all black, there was no awareness at all of the parade and counter-rally happening down the road. Next door, three young African American men were offering car washes. It was business as usual. We drove through Danville, quiet as a tomb.

They used to make socks here, Sugelema noted. A wide river, the Dan, cut through the town, and there were abandoned factories decomposing alongside its grey water. Around this part of North Carolina, there had been textile factories specialising in hosiery. In 1951, two local manufacturers, the Riverside Cotton Mill and Schoolfield, merged and became the largest single-unit textile mill in the world. But the plant closed in 2006. Now the city looked like the kind of place that might see its red-brick warehouses turned into lofts, and its riverside factories transformed by non-profits. But this kind of revival had yet to arrive in Danville.

Sugelemas parents were migrant farmworkers from Mexico. We moved every couple months, she said, following harvests up and down the Pacific coast. They picked apples in Washington and Oregon, melon and strawberries in Californias central valley. Thats where she was born, between harvests, and was given an unprecedented name.

Its Estonian. In the hospital, my mom didnt know what to name me, so the nurse suggested Sugelema, making her name at birth Sugelema Guadalupe Gonzalez probably the only person with that name the world has ever known. As an adult, Sugelema had looked up the meaning of her first name. According to the internet, in Estonian her name means itchy.

Of the 17 students in her classroom this year, 14 are from immigrant families, most of them from Mexico. Since Trumps election, some of the families were worried, fearing that he would follow through on promises to deport millions of people, but Sugelema had not rushed to judgment. Growing up, her parents had admired another Republican, Ronald Reagan. With the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, Reagan had granted amnesty to millions of undocumented immigrants, including many seasonal agricultural workers like her parents. It was Reagan who allowed us stay in the US, she said.

Her parents found a small town in Oregon and settled down. Sugelema and her older brother were sent to a public school where most of the kids were white. Later, her brother joined the marines and became a successful IT specialist, with most of his contracts coming from the US military. He now lives in San Diego, where Sugelemas mother is comfortably retired. Sugelema went to college and is the mother of five. Her oldest son is on the local football team.

The American dream is not perfect, but it is real. Sugelemas parents arrived in the 1970s from Mexico with nothing. They worked the fields, and now their daughter is a teacher and an indie-rock singer-songwriter. This I learned on the drive. Later, Sugelema showed me one of the music videos she had made with her husband. The song was called All Things Considered, and the video has the manic energy and lurid colours of 1980s MTV. In it, Sugelema wears Tweety Bird pyjamas as a cast of costumed partygoers dances around her. Megan is dressed in lederhosen; Tony wears the mask of a devil. In the centre of the frame, Sugelema sings, not quite awake and not quite asleep.

We returned from the convenience store to find that the protesters had decided to have an impromptu march down the dirt road. The Caswell County sheriff had blocked off one entrance, so we went around to the other, parked, and arrived in time to see the march in full swing. The photographers dutifully took pictures and the videographers filmed. In every way it had the look of a real protest, and any close-cropped photo would imply a rousing demonstration in favour of equality and diversity.

But there was no Klan and there were no spectators. It was about 60 activists marching for about 100ft on a road in the woods. After a few minutes, the group stopped marching and went back to waiting. It was not quite noon.

Soon there was news. Apparently there was a group of white supremacists demonstrating in nearby Danville. Sugelema and I had just come back from there, and had seen nothing of the kind. I think we should head out there! Williams roared, and the crowd cheered. Someone started drumming. The saxophonist played a ditty as everyone ran to their cars. Saxman, youre my hero, someone yelled.

We followed the 30 cars back on to Highway 29. There was one catch: no one had an address. There had been some mention of the centre of town. Someone else had heard the word Sutherlin. Megan sleuthed that this might be the Sutherlin home in downtown Danville. During the waning days of the civil war, when Union troops had overrun and burned Richmond to the ground, the home of Major WT Sutherin in Danville had become the last capital of the Confederacy. For a week at least 3-10 April 1865. It was now a museum.

There was no Klan and there were no spectators anti-KKK protesters march outside Danville, Virginia. Photograph: MWAA/ZDS/WENN.com

We raced into Danville and were the first to find the building. It was a grand, red-stone home in the Italian villa style, on a hilltop, with a wide lawn and a stone obelisk on which were engraved the words Guarding Our Future by Preserving Our Past. The property occupied an entire city block, and would have been a fitting site for any demonstration. But there was no one there. No white supremacists. No one at all.

We drove through Danville and soon found the ESG Security SUV in a parking lot on the edge of Danvilles downtown. Theyd found something. The white-haired newscaster stood outside, flanked by his private security guards, talking to a tall man with a wild grey beard. He wore a black leather cowboy hat and a denim jacket bearing at least 10 Confederate flag patches. There were two trucks nearby. One bore the Virginia license plate CNFEDRT.

The bearded mans was named George Randall. He and the two women with him were bewildered, like Custer caught in an ambush. Were not part of the Klan, Randall said. They were part of a group called the Virginia Flaggers, whose motto was Heritage, not hate. Periodically they held rallies to preserve Southern heritage and fly the Southern flag. He said he hadnt heard anything about a Klan rally, and hated getting confused with the Klan. This kind of mix-up, he said, was the fault of the media. And the young people. And the liberals. He monologued for a time, at one point complaining about a woman hed seen on the internet defecating on a picture of Trump. While he was speaking two more cars, carrying activists and journalists, pulled into the parking lot. Randall looked alarmed.

We better get out of here, said one of the women in the CNFEDRT truck. Randall jumped in and they took off.

Back at the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History, a handful of black-bloc activists stood on the corner. Passing motorists, most of them African American, gawked and pointed. Thought experiment: what would the reaction have been in a reciprocal situation? If 30 or so young black people, most of them men, showed up in a small predominantly white town, wearing masks and carrying baseball bats, what might happen?

Megans phone dinged. The activists were headed back to the rest stop where we had started the day almost five hours earlier. Sugelema and I left Danville and got on the highway. When we got to the rest stop, the 30 cars were leaving. They were going back to the Danville Museum. Theyd heard that a different Confederate group was about to demonstrate. We tried to convince them that we had just come from Danville and that nothing was happening there, but it was too late. They were gone. We followed. It was a lot like high school, where dozens of cars roamed the same few suburban miles, looking for a party, stopping at the mini-mart, getting a Slurpee, exchanging specious information and driving off only to repeat the whole process half an hour later.

We arrived at the museum to find a few disappointed black-bloc members. No Klan, no Confederates, no neo-Confederates. Megan and Tony arrived with news. Tony had seen some police cars a few blocks away, parked near a playground. He thought it might be the protest, or at least a protest. We raced to the park, but there were no Klansmen there, no black bloc. Instead, about 25 Danville residents, most of them African American, had assembled before a video camera, in rows, as if posing for a school picture. Put down the guns! they all said in unison. The gathering had nothing to do with white supremacists or Trump. It was about ending a recent cycle of violence in Danville.

David L Wilson, who split his time between selling life insurance and working at a tyre-manufacturing plant, explained. Weve had a lot of shootings in our city. Weve had 14 murders recently. Even last night, a young lady here had a gunshots outside of her house. He took the arm of an older man next to him; he had tired eyes. This was the idea of this man, Gerald Holmes, Wilson said. Holmes had organised a movement called 434 Lives Matter, named for the local area code.

We have to change the mindset of the people, Wilson said. We cant do it from a top-down position. We cant do it just with the police. If we dont change the mindset of the people in the community, and change the way theyre dealing with each other in terms of conflict resolution, were going to continue to see this robbing and shooting and killing.

The members of 434 Lives Matter planned to go canvassing that day, door to door, in the neighbourhoods affected by the violence. For a moment, what the rest of us had been doing all day seemed hopelessly irrelevant. A mass of interlopers, many of whom were in costume, were chasing the Klan like it was some urban scavenger hunt. Meanwhile, the actual residents of the town were trying to figure out why their young men were shooting each other.

Sometimes they do things out of their character, Wilson said. But theyre doing what they think they have to do in order to survive. Theyre trying to do what they can to make ends meet, to take care of their families. Our main thing is listening now. We have to listen to what peoples hurts are.

We left the park. Megans phone went off again. The protesters were marching in downtown Danville. Apparently they were tired of waiting for the Klan. We raced to Main Street and found them. It was happening. And their numbers had grown there were now about 100 people marching. There were more locals. There were parents with their children. It was loud and it was real. No hate! No Fear! The KKKs not welcome here! they chanted. Leading the march were the black bloc, their baseball bats dragging on the pavement. Minutes before, I had felt like whatever the anti-KKK activists were doing had no tangible meaning, but now, seeing it happen, it seemed vital and necessary. The last vestiges of the Ku Klux Klan must be met with this kind of demonstration of resistance.

Trailing the marchers were three Danville police cars, their lights spinning brightly. They had sanctioned the march and were ensuring that it had the run of the road. All of which was remarkable. The police had allowed the protest on incredibly short notice, and were OK with dozens of black-clad protesters marching down their street with bats. It was a model of accommodation and restraint.

But because it was a Saturday, and because the stretch of road they marched was not a busy pedestrian thoroughfare, and because the march had been organized in the last half-hour, there were only a few people to watch it. A beautician peeked out the window of her shop, but otherwise the witnesses to the march were entirely members of the media.

After a few blocks, the protesters gathered in a parking lot. Williams spoke first. We shut shit down! he said, and the crowd repeated it: We shut shit down! they roared. The mood was ebullient. We shut shit down, they roared again and again, their baseball bats hammering the pavement. Then, in the call-and-response style he had used earlier, Williams added a coda.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said.

One more good piece of news before you go, the crowd repeated.

We just heard from folks, he said.

We just heard from folks, the crowd repeated.

Who are watching the Twitter account, he said.

Who are watching the Twitter account, the crowd repeated.

Of the official spokesperson, he said.

Of the official spokesperson, the crowd repeated.

Of the Loyal White Knights, he said.

Of the Loyal White Knights, the crowd repeated.

Who says they fucking cancelled their march.

One more good piece of news before you go, he said. We just heard from folks who are watching the Twitter account of the official spokesperson of the Loyal White Knights who says they fucking cancelled their march.

The crowd erupted. Megan was ecstatic. The Klan, she and the activists had deduced, had been scared off by the strength of the counter-protests. Maybe the Loyal White Knights were really only two people Amanda and Chris Barker. And maybe they had been trying to gather enough people all day to make their parade worthwhile, and had failed. It seemed like a suitably pathetic end to a hateful but powerless cabal. There was still the alt-right, and David Duke was running for office again, but at least the KKK, or this head of the serpent, was dead.

Since the Loyal White Knights announcement of the rally, there had been much debate about what to do. There was a school of thought that said paying the Klan any attention at all was only encouraging them. There were those elsewhere in North Carolina, from Greensboro to Raleigh to Charlotte who preferred to hold counter-rallies, focusing on inclusion and featuring speakers and songs, far away from any confrontation. But the people in Danville believed it would be a terrible thing, in 2016, if a Klan rally happened, and happened uncontested. Slightly better would be a Klan rally that was vociferously confronted. Best of all, though, would be a Klan rally cancelled in the face of opposition. And this is what had just happened. And even though this was a modest counter-protest in a modest city, it mattered just as Birmingham had mattered in 1963, and Ferguson had mattered in 2014. Maybe it mattered more because it was Danville, the last home of the Confederacy.

Terrell Simmons was feeling good. A tall African American man wearing combat boots and a red bandana, he had led some of the post-march chants. The Klan dont have the people, so they dont have the power! he had yelled. The establishment dont have the people, so they dont have the power! He was a high school test-prep teacher from Mobile, Alabama, and had driven 12 hours to confront the Klan. Now he was basking in the victory and planning what would come next. Were going to have a lot of cohesion between the groups that have been divided, he said. Were going to see that we cant build this country without one another. A lot of the things that have held us up in the past are going to go away. Reality is going to set in that without actually meeting the needs of the poor people, the sick people, this nation is doomed to fail.

He walked away smiling, joining the black bloc, whose members were taking off their masks and disbanding. Soon there were only a few people left on Main Street. Tony and Sugelema were looking for a place to get a beer. Shit, Megan said. In the parking lot, now nearly empty, she was reading her phone. Natalie Janicello had just posted a tweet. ITS HAPPENING, she wrote. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags and shouting WHITE POWER.

Natalie A. Janicello (@natalie_allison)

IT’S HAPPENING. KKK just came through Roxboro. Battle flags & shouting “WHITE POWER!” pic.twitter.com/rcjHbmUUiR

December 3, 2016

While the anti-Klan protesters marched through Danville, the Klan had paraded through a different town, 45 minutes away. Janicello had embedded film of it into her Twitter feed.

In the video, about 20 vehicles speed through an intersection. Some of the cars have Confederate flags flapping from their windows. Some cars are unadorned just gray sedans driving down the street. No spectators are visible. None of the drivers are visible. A woman in one of the cars yells White power from a window. Then its over.

Megan was despondent. Not just because the Klan had trolled the protesters and had pulled off their parade. But there was the matter of her former student, Natalie Janicello, who must have known about the location of the parade, and had opted not to tell any of the protesters or members of the media. She was the only media member, and maybe the only person, who saw it.

The next day brought one last twist. A Klan member named Richard Dillon, who had made the trip from Indiana, was in the hospital with multiple stab wounds to the chest. Two other Klansmen, Chris Barker and William Ernest Hagen of California, were charged with the crime. Apparently, in the early morning before the planned parade, the Klan had assembled at the Barkers house. Drinks were drunk. Dillon had hassled Hagen about a Klan rally Hagen had put on in Orange County, where the Klansmen had been beaten up by counter-protesters. Hagen didnt much appreciate that, so he stabbed Dillon repeatedly, while Barker blocked the door. Bleeding profusely, Dillon managed to escape, drove to Danville, went to the hospital and told the doctors on duty what had happened.

Police arrested Barker and Hagen that morning. So they didnt get to see the parade, either.

from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/the-day-i-went-hunting-for-the-ku-klux-klan-dave-eggers/

[savetopnow]

2018-03-10 22 MOVIE now

MOVIE

Birth. Movies. Death.

SXSW 2018 Review: TAKE YOUR PILLS Shines A Light On An Alarming Problem

Is Denis Villeneuve Still Making a DUNE Movie? Nope! Now He’s Making TWO Of Them

FIRST MATCH Trailer Takes A Girl’s Troubles To The Mat

Wes Anderson And Bill Murray: A Cinematic Rapport

Book Review: S. Craig Zahler’s HUG CHICKENPENNY Is A Touching Gothic Parable

CineVue

Film Review: A Prominent Patient

Film Review: Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story

DVD Review: La Prisonnière

Oscars 2018: The Shape of Water wins Best Picture, Best Director

Film Review: Annihilation

Cinema Blend

To 3D Or Not To 3D: Buy The Right A Wrinkle In Time Ticket

Super Seducer Game Won't Be Sold On PlayStation 4

Fortnite Update Adds New Game Mode

How Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Just Confirmed A Huge Fan Theory In The 100th Episode

Sea Of Thieves Final Beta Is Now Playable

Cinema Scope

Madame Hyde (Serge Bozon, France/Belgium)

The Green Fog (Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, US/Canada)

Cocote (Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Germany)

The Uses of Disenchantment: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water

3/4 (Ilian Metev, Bulgaria/Germany)

Comicboook.com

Star Wars: John Boyega Wants to See Finn in a Relationship With Rey in 'Episode IX'

Star Wars: Daisy Ridley Doesn't Believe Rey Has Any Weaknesses

Avengers: Infinity War - Gregg And Loeb Tease Coulson Return To Marvel Cinematic Universe

Samuel L. Jackson's 'Captain Marvel' Behind-The-Scenes Photo Has Fans Speculating He's A Skrull

'X-Men: Dark Phoenix' Set Photo Reveals New Costumes

Film Comment Magazine

TCM Diary: Secret Ceremony (1968) + The Legend of Lylah Clare (1968)

Deep Focus: A Wrinkle in Time

Film of the Week: Montparnasse Bienvenüe

Readers’ Poll 2017: Your Comments

Interview: Ashley McKenzie

Film Inquiry

DEATH WISH: A Poorly Timed, Generic Remake

Away From The Hype: GHOSTBUSTERS (2016)

“It Takes Me Right Back To Those Early Days; I’m Living It Again.” Chimps, Oscar Snubs & Favorite Films With Dr. Jane Goodall

Art Vs. Artist: What Do We Do When Our Heroes Fail Us?

Anarchic Cinema: The Anti-Film & Why I Hate Andy Warhol

Film School Rejects

Gorgeous New ‘Suspiria’ Restoration Comes Home to Blu-ray from Synapse Films

Here’s Your Chance to Experience Westworld at SXSW

The Spirit of ‘Black Dynamite’ Lives On in ‘The Outlaw Johnny Black’

The Academy Needs to Wrap its Head Around Mo-Cap Performance

Netflix Goes Extreme for Rob Liefeld

Reddit Movies

‘A Quiet Place’ Getting Positive Reactions Following SXSW Screening

Emily Blunt, John Krasinski Scare SXSW With ‘A Quiet Place’

Todd McFarlane's 'Spawn' Film To Start Filming In May

Tommy Wiseau's Next Film, 'Scary Love', is “a science fiction tale told in the style of classic B-movies and outfitted with practical special effects, laser beams and lunatic idea"

73-year-old Jack Palance celebrates his first Oscar win (1992, City Slickers) by doing one-handed pushups and a speech cracking jokes about masculinity, crap, and prostitution.

Roger Ebert

A Wrinkle in Time

The Strangers: Prey at Night

The Death of Stalin

The Hurricane Heist

Thoroughbreds

Screen Rant

15 Marvel Memes That Will Ruin MCU Movies

Dungeons & Dragons Movie Reboot Might Be Headed to the UK

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds 2018 Plans Revealed As Fortnite Overtakes

Star Wars: Who Mark Hamill Would Cast As Young Luke Skywalker

Agents of SHIELD’s 100th Episode Finishes What The Avengers Started

Slash Film

/Filmcast Ep. 457 – Red Sparrow

Daily Podcast: Visiting Westworld, Contemplating The Art of Magic, Bloodshot, Call Me By Your Name 2, Marvel, Black Panther, Infinity War, His Dark Materials, VHS Rental, Dune, Spider-Man

Superhero Bits: Spider-Woman Rumors, Metallo Concept Art, Batman: The Animated Series Art Show & More

‘The Director and the Jedi’ Documentary Will Show Us the Making of ‘The Last Jedi’

Superman is Immortal in DC Comics Now

[frontproofmedia]

Pacquiao vs. Thurman Predictions: Current & Past Champions & Top Contenders

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

PRESS RELEASE

Follow @Frontproofmedia!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id))(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

Published: July 16, 2019

LAS VEGAS - The predictions are in from around the boxing world and the expert group that was polled is nearly split 50-50, but overall gives eight-division champion Senator Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao a slight edge over WBA Welterweight World Champion Keith "One Time" Thurman ahead of their Premier Boxing Champions on FOX Sports Pay-Per-View main event this Saturday from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. The tally was 24-to-19 for Pacquiao over Thurman, with three picking a draw. Pacquiao even has a chance to stop Thurman based on the picks of at least three former champions who participated in the poll, while two picked Thurman to end the night early. In addition, eight respondents believe the fight is so evenly-matched that it will end in a split-decision. Here are the predictions from a mix of boxing legends, current and former champions and contenders, plus some of the most renowned trainers in the sport: Thomas Hearns, former five-division champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Manny Pacquiao has the better skills and the experience overall in comparison to Keith Thurman, and I see Manny winning a decision by just out-boxing him. Deontay Wilder, WBC Heavyweight Champion Pick: Thurman SD 12. I like both fighters and what they've been able to achieve. Manny Pacquiao's a legend who still is among the world's best fighters despite his age and having to overcome so many ups and downs. But I'm going with Keith Thurman on a split-decision in this one based on his youth and mentality. People are talking about Keith's last fight against Josesito Lopez, but he feels like he's the best, and that he's not going to let anyone take that away from him. Roy Jones Jr., Former Three-Division World Champion Pick: Pacquiao W12: I'm going to go with Pacquiao because he's the older and therefore more experienced fighter. Errol Spence Jr., IBF Welterweight Champion Pick: Thurman SD 12. It just depends on which Pacquiao shows up and which Keith shows up. I think Keith will be a lot sharper than he was in his last fight. You know he had a long layoff and is just coming back. Keith is a lot tougher than people think he is. He took a lot of punches in that last fight. He took a lot of punches in the Shawn Porter fight, too. He might be a boxer, but he's tough and he's gritty, so I think he's going to win a split-decision or he's going to blow him out. It just depends on which Pacquiao comes out. If he can turn the tables a little bit and become the Pacquiao of back then, I think he can win. But if it's the Pacquiao that fought Broner, then I think Keith will edge him out and outpoint him. Keith can get on his bicycle and move around and just pot shot him. I think Keith will edge it out. Sugar Ray Leonard, former five-division world champion Pick: Thurman W 12. Keith Thurman has a ton of talent, power and speed. I like him to win. Gerry Cooney, former heavyweight title contender Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Manny Pacquiao's been a phenom, but age has been creeping up on him. Thurman's gonna try to box and use his power, and Manny's been knocked out before. It's a 50-50 fight, but I'm going with Pacquiao, who is really awkward and fast, to win a decision. Shane Mosley, former three-division world champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I think that Pacquiao is going to win because of the experience, the speed and his power. Shawn Porter, WBC Welterweight Champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I'm going with Manny Pacquiao, who still has the hunger, several levels of competitive spirit and quickness out of that southpaw stance that's hard to game plan for. Keith Thurman's young but coming off of a very long layoff and a level of relaxation and comfort that makes it difficult for me to see him being ready for this fight. I don't think Keith's body will be able to withstand what's going to come during those championship rounds. Pacquiao weathers the early storm and wins a decision. Andy Ruiz Jr., Unified Heavyweight World Champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I'm going with Pacquiao because of his speed and aggressiveness. Mikey Garcia, four-division world champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Ultimately Manny's footwork, hand-speed, combinations and volume punching will carry him throughout the rounds. Keith Thurman has the power to win it, and he's very dangerous for that power, but he's not a better fighter, overall, than Manny. I think Manny takes it. Julian Williams, WBA & IBF 154-pound World Champion Pick: Thurman SD 12. Manny's always super-competitive and I believe we'll see a hungrier and more determined Manny Pacquiao than the one who beat Adrien Broner. Manny may even be able to hurt Keith Thurman as he does everybody, but I believe Keith Thurman will have too much youth for him. Keith may not look great, but I'm going with Keith to win a close decision. Derrick James, trainer of welterweight champion Errol Spence Jr. and former champion Jermell Charlo Pick: Thurman W 12. I think Keith Thurman's gonna beat Manny Pacquiao by a decision as long as he can do what he did for the first seven rounds against Josesito Lopez for 12 rounds against Pacquiao. Keith's consistency will win the fight. Leo Santa Cruz, WBA Featherweight World Champion Pick: Thurman W 12: I feel that Keith Thurman is going to win because he's younger. Roberto Duran, former four-division world champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12: Manny Pacquiao is very tough and for me, he is going to win this fight. Robert Garcia, trainer of former four-division champion Mikey Garcia, contender Josesito Lopez Pick: Thurman W 12. Keith Thurman is strong, solid and smart in the ring, and he has youth on his side, so I see him winning a unanimous decision. I would no doubt pick Manny Pacquiao if this was four or five years ago the way he was dominating, but with him being at the age of 40, that's hard for me to do. Paulie Malignaggi, former two-division champion Pick: Thurman TKO 11. I saw Pacquiao in January beating Adrien Broner who was willing to enter the pocket but not let his hands go. Pacquiao is not a defensive genius, and I'm not saying that he's super hittable. But I do see Keith catching up to him and winning by a late-round TKO. Tony Harrison, WBC Super Welterweight Champion Pick: Draw. I have so much love and respect for Manny Pacquiao and Keith Thurman and I've seen fire in each of their eyes. I am envisioning an action-packed, seesaw battle that enhances the legacies of both fighters with the fans getting their money's worth. Manny's been re-awakened into the beast he's been in the past, and when the final bell rings, I believe this fight will end in a draw. Jarrett Hurd, former unified 154-pound champion Pick: Thurman W 12. I believe the youth of Keith Thurman will play a big factor. Yes, Thurman had a long layoff but I think he broke the ring rust after the Josesito Lopez fight. Josesito Lopez, Former title challenger Pick: Pacquiao SD 12. In our fight, Keith Thurman took a really hard punch from me that would have taken out almost anyone. That proves a lot about his championship ability to come back to win a fight. Thurman has great power and boxing skills and movement, but I still see Pacquiao pulling out a close decision victory. Gary Russell Jr., WBC Featherweight Champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Keith Thurman is probably the bigger, stronger fighter, which will give him the puncher's chance, but I think Manny Pacquiao's work ethic and his punch output will dictate the fight. I really like Keith Thurman, but I don't know which Keith will show up. He has the ability to get Pacquiao outta there, but I see Pacquiao being more consistent. So, I think Manny's gonna outwork him and take it. Ronnie Shields, trainer of 160-pound champion Jermall Charlo, former 154-pound champion Erislandy Lara Pick: Thurman W 12. Keith is fast on his feet and has enough boxing ability to keep Manny at bay. I don't believe a KO will occur. I really believe they both will try for one, but in order for Manny to win, he has to hurt Keith early and often. I don't see it any other way. Jessie Vargas, former two-division champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I'm going with Manny Pacquiao because of his experience and explosiveness and the fact that I believe that's something Keith Thurman's never seen before. A knockout for Pacquiao is 85% possible. Each is a great fighter who doesn't back down. Stephen Edwards, trainer of unified 154-pound champion Julian Williams Pick: Draw. I can't call this fight. I was picking Keith Thurman due to youth and not being the better fighter. I thought he would control Manny Pacquiao with a check hook. But Thurman has not looked right to me in the training footage. Maybe that's a ploy. Who knows? One fighter is 40 and the other looks rusty. I expect a close and controversial draw. Sergio Mora, former 154-pound champion Pick: Thurman KO 9. Manny Pacquiao's speed and footwork has diminished with age but he is still dangerous. Both will be aiming for the body and both will have their moments. Ultimately, I see Pac getting over aggressive and caught attempting to be great once again. Size and youth prevails in an exciting and competitive fight. Andre Berto, former two-time 147-pound champion Pick: Thurman W 12. I'm picking Keith Thurman to win a decision because he is younger, faster and stronger than Manny Pacquiao. Omar Figueroa, former world champion Pick: Pacquiao by KO 8. Keith Thurman is a really smart fighter, but he leaves himself open with some of his punches. I think Manny Pacquiao catches him with those short lefts and right hooks inside and possibly stops the fight in eight. Robert Guerrero, former two-division champion Pick: Pacquiao by late round KO. Manny's experience, combined with this speed and power, hitting off angles, is going to be too much for Keith Thurman. Jay Deas, trainer of WBC Heavyweight Champion Deontay Wilder Pick: Thurman W 12. Can Manny Pacquiao spell bound Keith Thurman, building a lead and holding off a late-round Thurman rally to take a decision? I don't think so with only one knockout since 2010. Thurman's left hand will be a key if he can jab the southpaw Pacquiao effectively. If Thurman is intelligently aggressive, uses his left and starts and finishes the exchanges, I believe he will win a decision in an exciting fight. Joel Diaz, renowned trainer Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Keith Thurman didn't look good against Josesito Lopez, who is a warrior but not on the level of a Manny Pacquiao. Pacquiao's a lefty with great speed and footwork to create problems for Thurman. Thurman's bigger, younger and stronger, but Pacquiao has the power to hurt Thurman with either hand. I see Pacquiao increasing the pace over the later rounds and winning a decision. Abner Mares, former three-division champion Pick: Thurman W 12. Everyone is going off Manny Pacquiao's last performance, where he looked phenomenal against an Adrien Broner who didn't throw a lot of punches and was on the ropes a lot. Pacquiao's not fighting Broner but a Thurman who knows how to work every round. He got hurt against Josesito Lopez, but that was after a long layoff. Erislandy Lara, former 154-pound champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. This is a true 50-50 fight and a great one for the boxing fans. Going off their last few performances, I'm leaning towards Manny "Pac-Man" Pacquiao to win a decision. But I wouldn't be shocked to see Keith Thurman return to form. Sergey Lipinets, former 140-pound champion Pick: Draw. The fight looks like a 50-50 proposition. Manny Pacquiao is a way more diverse fighter then Keith Thurman. The big question would still be if Pacquiao has got any of that left or enough to maintain that through 12 rounds. I think we'll see them fight to a draw. Gary Russell Sr., father and trainer of 126-pound champion Gary Russell Jr. Pick: Thurman W 12. Manny Pacquiao has a herky-jerky style that can cause problems for Keith Thurman, who I don't think can out-box Pacquiao. Keith's gonna have to be the more physical fighter, coming out as the stalker and going to the body. I think that ultimately that's what he's gonna do to win a decision. David Benavidez, former 168-pound champion Pick: Pacquiao by KO 9. I feel like Manny is going to have a hard time with Keith Thurman running around in the first few rounds. Then I expect "PacMan" to start hurting Thurman by Round five or six and then I see him stopping "One Time" around the ninth. It's gonna be a great fight though. Marcus Browne, interim WBA 175-pound champion Pick: Thurman W 12. This is a great fight that's tough to call, so to pick a draw wouldn't be far-fetched. I'm a big Manny Pacquiao fan and he looked great in his last fight beating Adrien Broner. But Keith ain't Adrien Broner, and I think he'll overcome the ring absence since he appears to be in a zone. I'm going to choose Keith to win a close decision. Ruben Guerrero, father and trainer of former two-division champion Robert Guerrero Pick: Pacquiao SD 12. It's going to be one hell of a fight, but Manny Pacquiao will win the later rounds to win a close one. Luis Ortiz, heavyweight title contender Pick: Pacquiao SD 12. Manny Pacquiao will win via decision. He has too much experience and has been active. Keith Thurman has been too inactive. I think it will probably be a split decision for Pacquiao. Erickson Lubin, 154-pound title contender Pick: Pacquiao SD 12. Manny Pacquiao's southpaw style will confuse Keith Thurman. "Pacman" wins by split-decision with his power, speed and combination punching. Austin Trout, former 154-pound champion Pick: Thurman SD 12. I'm going to rock with my man Keith Thurman. People who are judging off his last fight don't understand how much inactivity can play a role. Now that the rust is off, I expect Keith to pull it off. Keith is going to go above and beyond in what will be a 12-round fight that he's gonna win by a split-decision. Kevin Cunningham, trainer of Erickson Lubin Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I'm gonna have to go with Manny Pacquiao on this one because he still has good speed, explosiveness, footwork and punches well in combinations. Keith Thurman may be looking to land something big, and he may be able to hurt Manny in some way, but I'm picking Manny by decision. Jamal James,147-pound contender Pick: Pacquiao W 12. Keith Thurman comes in with great skills, but I don't see him beating Manny Pacquiao, who is a really crafty southpaw, is still quick on his feet, and throws fast, sharp combinations. I don't think Keith can match Pacquiao's hand-speed and footwork. I can't rule out a knockout, but I think Pacquiao wins a decision. Caleb Truax, former 168-pound champion Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I think the smart pick is Keith Thurman, but I can't bet against Manny Pacquiao. I have "PacMan" by close decision in a back and forth fight. Calvin Ford, trainer of WBA 130-pound champion Gervonta Davis Pick: Thurman W 12. Keith Thurman's motivated to get his name back into the spotlight, but Manny Pacquiao looks as if he's up to the challenge after beating Adrien Broner. Pacquiao throws a lot of punches, but I'm going with the younger guy on this one and Thurman winning a great fight by decision. Andre Rozier, trainer of former 160-pound champion Daniel Jacobs Pick: Thurman W 12. I have a tale of two fights for you. If we see the "One Time" Thurman of old, it will be a long night for the "PacMan." If we see the tentative, super cautious Thurman that we have been seeing lately, the "PacMan" will have a chance. Stephen Fulton, Unbeaten 122-pound contender Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I see Manny Pacquiao winning a unanimous decision based on his activity and that fact that Keith Thurman has been inactive for a while. Pacquiao lets his hands go more than Thurman, and I believe that, as well as Pacquiao's heart and being smarter in the ring, wins the fight. Mario Barrios, undefeated 140-pound contender Pick: Pacquiao W 12. I believe Manny's going to be too crafty for Keith Thurman and Thurman won't be able to land those big shots on him. Total: Pacquiao - 24 Thurman - 19 Draw - 3

(Featured Photo: Andres Kudacki/AP Photo)

[mikemortgage]

Mark Milke: Notley’s NDP never believed Albertans wanted — or ever deserved — low taxes

Ralph Klein and Rachel Notley both inherited a fiscal mess when they became premiers of Alberta 23 years apart. In his new book, Ralph vs. Rachel: A Tale of Two Alberta Premiers, author Mark Milke looks at how both used the crisis to wrench Alberta in a new direction — Klein by slashing spending and taxes; Notley by imposing higher taxes, strict climate rules and activist government — and the stark difference in the outcomes.

This second and final excerpt reveals how the NDP never let the unpopularity of its high-tax platform shake its determination to undo the unique tax advantage Klein gave Alberta, right up to when it finally got its big break.

In the chronicling of famous battles, military historians will point to a number of examples of campaign failures, where, with some foresight, commanders might not have lost entire armies. One example: Napoleon’s invasion of Russia, which required the 650,000-strong French army to not only find and defeat Tsar Alexander I’s army — a chronic problem as they kept escaping — but to win Moscow and survive the Russian winter, which they did not. Another comes from Agincourt, where Henry V’s much smaller English force defeated the French army under Charles d’Albret in 1415. Problems for the French included too-heavy armour on a crowded muddy battlefield, a disorganized commander, and French forces that mistakenly thought they were superior to the English. After the English initiated the battle, superior longbow arrows, better organization, professional and well-financed soldiers, and a charismatic king who led the charge, resulted in a French defeat. The men were cut down and into pieces by the advancing English.

If a common link exists in both military failures, it is the obsession by those in command to stick to some existing notion at all costs. Napoleon wanted Tsar Alexander I to sign a peace treaty that would have eliminated English trade with Russia; Charles d’Albret allowed himself to be drawn into battle when he should have backed away and allowed the English to advance to the coast and Calais. Which is where we might consider another not-so- magnificent obsession, and a hill New Democrats apparently wish to defend: their decades-long belief that Albertans are dramatically undertaxed.

Mark Milke: Rachel Notley dumped Alberta’s beer freedom and gave taxpayers a hangover

Ted Morton: Another Canadian oil company flees Trudeau and Notley for the U.S.

Gwyn Morgan: Here’s a far better, easier, more effective idea than carbon taxes

The examples of this obsession are plentiful. In 1993, the NDP platform demanded new taxes on anyone earning over $80,000 plus higher business taxes. “We can no longer afford to be a tax haven for the rich,” said Alberta NDP Leader Ray Martin, just as the election campaign started. Except the NDP leader skipped a relevant, recent fact: Don Getty’s Progressive Conservative government had already increased personal and business taxes substantially, in 1987. Also, in the 1992 budget, the provincial government doubled the corporate tax rate from six per cent to 12 per cent, an increase that Getty’s successor, Ralph Klein never reversed. By 1993, spending cuts were the only option left for an Alberta government after years of tax increases and red-ink budgets. The class warfare call to the battlefield fell flat, and in the election that year, the NDP vote dropped to 108,883 votes, half that of the 217,972 ballots cast for it in 1989. The party lost every one of its 16 seats held in the legislature before dissolution.

In 1997, the newest NDP leader (after Ross Harvey who served from 1994 to 1996), Pam Barrett, avoided another rush into the muddy field of tax hikes but did campaign on a platform titled “We’re fighting back!” New Democrats railed against Klein’s reductions in provincial spending — the ones the public endorsed in 1993. In 1997, the NDP again dropped in popularity at election-time, to 83,292 votes. Similarly, in 2001, just as the Progressive Conservative government cut taxes and moved to a single 10-per-cent income-tax rate, NDP Leader Raj Pannu thought he spotted a winning strategy on the political battlefield: Divide and tax by class. Pannu observed that 80 per cent of Albertans made under $60,000, “so why not tax the rest?” The 2001 platform proposed $1 billion in new and higher taxes and $2.3 billion in new spending. The platform awkwardly called for a “more fair” income tax system with five tax brackets. Votes cast for the NDP dropped to 81,339 in the 2001 election.

In 2004, the NDP platform under leader Brian Mason avoided targeting individuals for tax hikes, though he demanded an end to planned business tax relief. In 2008 the party was back with calls for higher resource royalties. “Albertans deserve better than bargain-basement royalty rates,” proclaimed Mason in his newest election launch, musing that “If Alberta adopted Alaska royalty rates, it would generate over $4 billion in extra revenue.” The NDP promised to spend half that every year, $20 billion over 10 years to subsidize green energy. The results for New Democrats in 2004 and 2008 were 90,829 and 80,578 votes, respectively.

In 2012, personal tax hikes were again back on the NDP front-burner and in the party platform. Under Mason again, higher-tax hopes sprang eternal and the party tacked back to the fairness schtick: “It’s time for everyone to share fairly in our province’s prosperity,” stated the NDP platform. The NDP saw more government, higher taxes, and a just society as inextricably linked. It lectured that it was “time that businesses and individuals with the greatest wealth pay more to support the services we all need.” In 2012 the NDP price tag to fix the problem of undertaxed Albertans: $3 billion in new taxes. In the 2012 election, New Democrats managed to attract about 18,000 more ballots than they did in 1993, in a province where the population soared by 1.2 million in the intervening 19 years.

Over the years, NDP allies repeated the same message, that Albertans were dramatically undertaxed. In 2010, Gil McGowan, president of the Alberta Federation of Labour, wrote how “Making Alberta’s overall tax system comparable with other provinces could bring in an extra $10 billion to $18 billion per year.” In 2013, the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute argued that Albertans could tax themselves by $11 billion more and “remain the country’s lowest-tax jurisdiction.” The NDP itself followed the rationale in both 2012 under Mason and again in 2015 under its newest leader, Rachel Notley. They skipped the scary 11-figure estimates of what it would take to tax Alberta just like any other province; but Notley promised to right the supposed Klein-era tax wrongs. “The PCs failed to earn Albertans’ full and fair value” on royalty rates, proclaimed the platform authored in Notley’s name. The NDP promised to fix that, and for the wealthy and business to “contribute a little bit more.”

The various appeals to tax Albertans ever higher repeatedly failed to inspire a rush to the polls, including, arguably, in 2015. Between 1997 and 2008, the NDP vote never recovered to even the devastating 1993 wipe-out levels.

After the May 2015 election win, the NDP was in a two-decade hurry to right Alberta’s historic tax wrongs and it took all of 44 days between the party’s win, and the legislation to actualize their long-held hope: That Albertans would finally face fair taxation. While the first official NDP budget was still months away, the government quickly corrected moderate-tax Alberta with its second bill in the legislature, An Act to Restore Fairness to Public Revenues. In introducing the new and higher taxes, Finance Minister Joe Ceci used the fairness argument beloved by politicians who eagerly look at the wallets of others. “We are asking high-income earners and profitable corporations to contribute fairly to rebuilding our province,” said Ceci, in announcing four new personal income tax brackets and a 20-per-cent hike in corporate taxes. “This measure will create a fairer tax system and help bring fiscal stability to our province so we are not so prone to boom-bust cycles.”

It was unclear how higher taxes would smooth out the yo-yo economics of Alberta’s resource-based economy; higher taxes in a recession were more, not less likely to dampen economic growth. Nevertheless, the October 2015 NDP budget hoped for $550 million from higher income taxes and $1 billion more from increased business taxes when fully implemented. Ceci, as with the Progressive Conservative finance minister before him, believed the province could tax its way to economic equilibrium and balance the books. It was an interesting theory and a dubious proposition. Also, the NDP’s fervent belief in higher taxes ignored the other side of the balance sheet, but they were not alone. Attention to the dry, boring-but-necessary details of government spending, from corporate welfare to public sector compensation, was critical though most often ignored by the chattering classes. That budget side skipped, the higher taxes became effective on July 1, Canada Day, 2015.

The NDP tax hit made it clear that the 14-year “experiment” in Alberta’s popular flat tax now was definitively over. As if to make the point in dramatic fashion, all the NDP tax increases were worth almost $2.4 billion annually when fully implemented. But that was only the start. More would come to match the NDP’s belief that Albertans were severely undertaxed. Helpfully, the newest tax to hit Albertans in a generation, since the introduction of the federal Goods and Services Tax in 1991, could be justified as part of a strategy to reduce carbon emissions.

Excerpted from Ralph vs. Rachel, a Tale of Two Alberta Premiers. Copyright Mark Milke 2018. Reprinted with permission of Thomas and Black.

from Financial Post https://ift.tt/2Qlt6w4 via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

[junker-town]

The 25 biggest game-day bangers of the decade, ranked

We asked 27 arena and stadium DJs around the country which songs defined the decade.

When you reflect on your favorite sports moments of the decade, your first thought probably isn’t about what song was playing when they happened. After all, “jock jams” (which are a specific ESPN-branded thing, and thus not a wholly effective universal term) are corny and dated, right?

Obviously the answer to that question is subjective, but there are plenty of DJs working overtime to try to get you pumped AND jacked — whether you’re a fan or an athlete yourself. SB Nation polled 27 of them from universities and clubs around the country to try to get a sense of which tracks released from 2010-19 were making the biggest impact in arenas and stadiums. Not the best songs, mind you, but the ones they played the most often.

Some of them were unimpressed by the options. “We have played all these songs a lot of times in the past, but we rarely play any of these in ATL now (they’re all old),” wrote legendary Hawks organist and DJ Sir Foster. “Now we play ‘Hot’ by Young Thug.” It’s tricky for anyone trying to chronicle the genre to pin down one set of criteria for a jock jam: some are upbeat and danceable, or well suited for kids of all ages (think “Jump Around”), and then some that are aggressive and intense and make you want to run headfirst into a brick wall. Plus, there’s just about everything in between — as hip-hop has gotten more laidback, so have the songs deemed pump-up worthy by players and fans. How can you separate the trends from the songs that will still be played in 20 years?

The DJs gave their takes, and with some editorializing (the list does not exactly reflect the poll results, but overall it tracks and aberrations are noted) SB Nation has narrowed down the field to 25 essentials.

25. “Timber” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha (2013)

Pitbull singing about do-si-dos is an admittedly odd formula for a pop song, but it worked — and teams latched on to the upbeat pace and promises that lay in “It’s going down” (“it” being, probably, a victory).

24. “Big Rings” by Drake and Future (2015)

What A Time To Be Alive, the messy, bombastic joint mixtape that Drake and Future released in 2015, was essentially designed as a sports soundtrack. It’s not making a dent on any critics’ end-of-decade lists, but the message — “I got a really big team, they need some really big rings” — endures, as does the hard-edged, shimmering beat, perfectly suited for highlight reels of more literal ring-chasers.

23. “Hard In Da Paint” by Waka Flocka Flame (2010)

It might seem overly literal, but just listen to the first 30 seconds of “Hard In Da Paint” and try to do anything but go ... well, hard in the paint. Lex Luger has a doctorate in turning orchestral might into unfriendly, relentless and yet entirely undeniable beats; Flocka balances the impulse to yell over the beat’s perfect chaos with swaggy nonchalance. Who would ever want to hear anything else as they walk on the court?

22. “Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)” by Silentó (2015)

The viral dance craze was an integral part of arena and stadium soundtracks in the 2010s, and Silentó created something of the viral dance crazy with “Watch Me” — simultaneously, he created fodder for in-game fan participation for years to come. (I am intentionally ignoring Katy Perry’s “Swish Swish” in hopes that it goes away.)

21. “Work (Remix)” by A$AP Ferg (2013)

This is the rare tune that is as serviceable as a turn-up anthem as it is a pregame pump-up jam (or fodder for postgame celebration). Its central theme — the titular “work” — is obviously relevant to sports, especially when delivered in Ferg’s trademark growl. But it’s more about getting hyped up in the grand scheme than keeping one’s nose to the grindstone, the perfect reminder to athletes that this is supposed to be fun. Plus they’re playing basketball in the video ...

20. “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake (2016)/”Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (2014)

Both of these songs exist in the jock jams twilight zone: they’re upbeat and inoffensive enough to get regular spins inside arenas and stadiums, but don’t exactly convey beatdown-level intensity or walking-out-to-the-hardwood swagger. Also, they are functionally the same (and not particularly memorable as a result).

19. “We Dem Boyz” by Wiz Khalifa (2014)

“I like ‘We Dem Boyz’ as the first single because of the energy,” Khalifa told Billboard in 2014. “It reaches so many audiences other than just a rap audience. It’s kind of like how ‘Black and Yellow’ was — a big sports song to get everybody riled. It’s more of an anthem.” “Black and Yellow,” of course, is the Pittsburgh native’s Steelers-themed hit; with “Dem Boyz,” Khalifa found a team-agnostic expression of the same sentiment. “Hold up, we dem boyz/hold up, we makin’ noise” — if you read “boyz” as not being gender-specific (it is 2019 after all), it’s about as universal a sports fan sentiment as exists.

18. “Jumpman” by Drake and Future (2015)

Essentially a lesser “March Madness” knock-off, the undeniably sporty WATTBA track nevertheless endures in arenas and basketball mixtapes everywhere.

17. “March Madness” by Future (2015)

Built atop one of the single best beats of the decade, “March Madness” doesn’t really feel like a typical jock jam — but that’s what makes it so special. The practically baroque combination of strings and keyboards is propulsive and fresh, and Future drops the requisite sports references to pay off the title (“We’re ballin’ like March Madness”/“Livin’ lavish, like I’m playing for the Mavericks”). “On behalf of the Dallas Mavericks, I would just like to thank Future so much for the mention in ‘March Madness,’” says the Mavericks’ DJ Poison Ivy. “I know not too many things rhyme with Mavericks!”

16. “Let’s Go” by Calvin Harris featuring Ne-Yo (2012)

“Let’s go, make no excuses now” — OK, we get it, this song was built to be played on the treadmill. Amongst the pinnacles of the EDM-fueled pregame pump-up genre, “Let’s Go” is aggressively generic in ways that are pitch-perfect for the purposes of sports and exercising. As such, it still gets played a lot — after all, who among us can resist a good drop?

15. “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton (2011)

Do I want this to be on the list? Not particularly. But the DJs have spoken (12 of them) and so I begrudgingly acknowledge Macklemore’s early-decade pop-rap dominance. People still play this song frequently, and though I understand why in theory, I still can’t in good conscience support it. Are we sure we can’t listen to Waka Flocka instead?

14. “Going Bad” by Meek Mill featuring Drake (2018)

I mean, the album is called Championships — though in Meek’s case, it was more about his long-overdue release from prison than a title (even though the Eagles had chosen his music as their official soundtrack en route to winning the Super Bowl). There’s a bit of recency bias with this one, but the irresistible beat and (again) requisite sports references (shout out to Seattle’s own Jason Terry) make it seem like it will last in arenas even once the sheen wears off. “There was a Lakers game the day or two after Meek Mill released the Championships album, and it was such a moment that I played at least three songs from the album during warmups,” says the Lakers’ DJ Roueche. “‘Going Bad’ is still, and probably always will be, in heavy rotation in my DJ sets.”

13. “Party Rock Anthem” by LMFAO featuring Lauren Bennett and GoonRock (2011)

Any song that features someone named GoonRock demands a certain degree of respect, just for its sheer audacity. In this case, Mr. Rock helped produce one of the most enduring artifacts of the EDM era — a song that only those with truly blackened hearts would profess not to find at least a little tiny bit festive. It’s a “Sandstorm” for the next generation, absurd and corny and yet extremely hard to ignore.

12. “Mo Bamba” by Sheck Wes (2017)

A song about a top-tier — but not ubiquitous — NBA Draft pick that is more than a little rough around the edges might not be the most obvious choice for one of the decade’s top jock jams. But the doomy track has become a cathartic favorite in locker rooms and on fields alike — its mosh-pit vibes make it good for celebratory thrashing. “I’ll never forget the first time I played ‘Mo Bamba’ at a Steelers game,” says DJ Digital Dave, who DJs for the Steelers as well as Pitt football and basketball games. “I approached my producer the week before the 2018 Patriots game and said ‘I know this song will probably sound awful to you but it’s huge right now.’ He gave me the green light, and we played it as our defense walked onto the field to shut down Tom Brady’s final drive of the game. The stadium just erupted.”

11. “HUMBLE.” by Kendrick Lamar (2017)

Being humble is a classic sports cliche — demanding the same of your opponents, not so much. But that’s one of the reasons this variation on a classic theme works, as is its 2K-ready beat. Kendrick doesn’t really do arena-sized as a rule, so it seems like sports DJs tend to grade his music on a curve as far as its in-game usefulness given his massive popularity.

10. “Levels” by Avicii (2011)

When you have one song to get an entire stadium on its feet, it’s hard to to imagine a better pick than “Levels.” Arguably the biggest hits of the EDM era, it’s straightforward and to the point: move your person. Handclaps, synths, an Etta James sample and (obviously) a litany of drops make it perfect for pushing people to the next level (get it!?) of playing or cheering or celebrating or whatever it is they’re doing. “The EDM bubble of the early to mid 2010’s was the closest thing to commercial Jocks Jams in the past 20 years,” says Andrew Rivas, DJ for the San Jose Sharks. “‘Levels’ is this decade’s ‘Get Ready For This.’” RIP Tim Bergling.

9. “All The Way Up” by Fat Joe and Remy Ma featuring French Montana and InfaRed (2016)

The Remy Ma freedom tour was a great moment for popular rap, mostly thanks to this track — the ultimate soundtrack to any dunk. New York is back baby! (Kidding, kidding ...) Centering a slick sax hook and an easily sung hook, the song was more or less money in the bank.

8. “Win” by Jay Rock (2018)

This is the rare jock jam that should get played more than it is: aesthetically, the prepares-you-to-run-through-a-wall quotient is through the roof (pun intended), and thematically it’s centered on winning which is ... fairly central to sports. Whether you’re struggling to get off your couch or getting ready for the game of your life, this song feels pitch-perfect.

7. “Boneless” by Steve Aoki, Chris Lake and Tujamo (2013)

Not the kind of song you’ve probably sought out for casual listening, but perhaps one that makes it onto your gym playlist if you’re very hardcore. It has become an in-game go-to, though, with its pump-it-up ready synth riff and background “hey-hey-heys” well-suited to getting the people going, to paraphrase Blades Of Glory. (Oh, hey, sports again!) It’s also relatively big in gymnastics, apparently:

6. “SICKO MODE” by Travis Scott featuring Drake (2018)

Here is where the “rap that people like” and “jock jam” categories truly get blurred: “SICKO MODE” was mostly just a massive song, without many specific characteristics that make it uniquely suited to soundtracking sporting events. BUT it was one of the most popular tracks among our DJs, and is more or less inescapable among athletes — so who’s to say taking half the recommended dose of a prescription medication isn’t motivational? Also there’s the pick and roll line, and the Liz Cambage reference (!)...

5. “Dreams & Nightmares (Intro)” by Meek Mill (2012)

Calling an audible on this one: it was not among the top picks by our DJs (a paltry six votes), but there is no way to listen to this song without feeling ready to hit something or run really fast or just yell. Not since the “Rocky” theme has Philly spawned such a transcendent us-against-the-world anthem — and better yet, the song itself is an underdog. It wasn’t a single, and it doesn’t sound like one. But the number of people — Meek Mill fans and otherwise — who know every word to the emotional, vivid, often tragic song speaks to its impact. “I had to grind like that to shine like this” is the ethos of just about every athlete from high school to the pros (much like “It was time to marry the game and I said, “Yeah, I do”). Then, the beat drops — it’s Meek in all his yelling glory, personally goading you to get on his level.

It’s no wonder that the Eagles adopted it as their own during their Super Bowl run, as have athletes of all stripes. “Meek Mill’s ‘Dreams & Nightmares’ will always remind me of the Mystics’ championship run,” says DJ Heat, who spins for the Mystics and the Wizards. “Natasha Cloud wanted to hear it every game. There were times where she sent one of the ball girls up to me to let me know to play it while the team was warming up — and of course I played it while the team was celebrating their championship win on the court.”

4. “POWER” by Kanye West (2012)

It’s become increasingly easy to forget that there was a point at which Kanye had hits — but he did, obviously, and “POWER” is is one product of what might in retrospect be seen as his zenith (though I’m a Yeezus girl myself — “Black Skinhead,” or at least the beat, is also still in heavy rotation). There’s something about leaving a little space at the beginning of a song that just builds anticipation — who has ever heard more than the first 30 seconds of “Crazy Train” at a sporting event? — and the intro to “POWER” follows this rule to a T. After the first 30 seconds it loses much of its heft, but does that even matter when you start that strong?

3. “24K Magic” by Bruno Mars (2016)

This falls into the “family-friendly dance music” category of in-game songs. Is it getting anyone particularly pumped? Probably not, but it’s also not not getting them pumped. If anything, the endurance of this particular track on in-game playlists (it got the highest number of votes) speaks to its overall impact — you’re as likely to hear it at a wedding, which can’t necessarily be said for most of the songs on this list. Also trophies and rings are often gold, so that is something!

2. “All I Do Is Win” - DJ Khaled featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross (2010)

Did you just win? Better yet, is your team undefeated? More trivially, did your team just win a challenge? Boom, DJ Khaled has a song for you. What for some of us might be indelibly linked to tragic college parties has become a stadium staple for obvious reasons: who among us does not want to exclusively win? It’s a holdover from the gaudy, gloriously Autotuned rap of the late aughts and early 2010s, built for sports primarily by T-Pain and his remarkable gift for hooks. There’s prompts for audience participation, Snoop repping the U — basically if Shakira and J.Lo don’t bring the whole crew out for halftime, it will be a serious lost opportunity to rep Florida.

1. “Turn Down For What” by DJ Snake and Lil Jon (2013)

It’s the pinnacle of pump-up music in the 2010s: EDM and party rap, combined. You just cannot listen to this song without losing your mind — it’s science. The build, the Lil Jon, the drops. So many drops. Mechanized handclaps, distorted hooks, the “ays,” and still more drops. Under “getting hype” in the dictionary (work with me here), there’s a copy of this song. I’m sure that the New York Seahawks bar is one of about five zillion places that played this song after every touchdown, and somehow the impact of all those drops never dulled. Look at how excited these figure skating fans are. “‘Turn Down For What’ is so perfect for arena use that it’s almost too easy,” says Grubes, DJ for the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. “When deployed at the proper moment (typically after a scoring run that puts the game away), it has never failed to get everyone going nuts!”

Editor’s pick:

“Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)” by Rich Homie Quan

Flexing is a thing athletes do, this song is great, and as a bonus I heard it once at Seahawks training camp right before I interviewed Christine Michael — it was a very special moment.

Many thanks to all the DJs who participated:

Andrew Rivas (@andrewrivasdj): San Jose Sharks, US Open, Santa Cruz Warriors, San Jose Barracuda

Ben Bruud (@benbruud): Auburn University football and basketball

DJ Cmix (@DJCmix_): LSU

DJ Digital Dave (@djdigitaldave1): Pittsburgh Steelers, Pitt Panthers football and basketball

DJ Dior (@_djdior): George Washington University basketball (men’s and women’s)

DJ EJ (@itsDJEJ): Dallas Cowboys, among others

DJ Flipside (djflipside33): Chicago Bulls

DJ Heat (@djheatdc): Washington Mystics and Washington Wizards

DJ Hek Yeh (@DJHekYeh): Wake Forest University football and basketball

DJ Kay Cali (@DJKayCali): Austin Spurs

DJ Mad Mardigan (@DJMadMardigan): Timberwolves, Lynx, Vikings, United, Gophers

DJ Mel (@djmel): University of Texas football and men’s basketball

DJ Poizon Ivy (@poizonivythedj): Dallas Mavericks

DJ Premonition (Djpremonition): Washington Redskins

DJ Questionmark (Djquestionmark1): University of North Texas Athletics

DJ Roueche (DJRoueche): Los Angeles Lakers and AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour

DJ SupaSam (@djsupasam): Seattle Seahawks, UW Huskies football

DJ Triple T (@theDJtripleT): Denver Broncos and Colorado Avalanche

DJ Yoshi (djyoshi): B1G Ten Football

DJ Zimbo (@zimbothedj): Colorado State University, Air Force Academy, University of Wyoming athletics

DJay Jung (@_djayjung_): Brooklyn Nets

DJSC (@DJSCMUSIC): Dallas Cowboys and Pro Football Hall of Fame

DJ Dudley D (@nomusicnoparty): Minnesota Timberwolves, Lynx, Gophers men’s basketball, and United FC

GLOtron (@theglotron): Mississippi State men’s and women’s basketball

Grubes (@tweetgrubes): Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers

PJ Krolak (DJPJ) (@pjkrolak5): Toledo Mud Hens, Toledo Walleye, University of Toledo

Sir Foster (@sirfoster): Atlanta Hawks and Georgia Bulldogs