#he's like vacation Merkel

[the-firebird69]

Sales are massive and they're going up it is about a rebellion it's not about being a sibling thief like you assholes come across every time and they got killed a lot after saying that and they keep getting killed and they won't stop and their animals and I hear what you're saying the other manufacturers in a several

Megan Merkel

There's several of manufacturers other than her and it goes from that car would you find to be too small did you start getting heavy that makes a big difference and you put a few people in it and they're heavy let me find out you can't go to Miami you wouldn't make it and the first time you tried to stopping you almost couldn't in time and he had only three people total and Justin still tagging along. Meghan Markle is the first and it's a small speedy coach with some storage it's almost a direct analogy there's more storage in the wagon bed the other one's too small and not safe or not safe it's a smaller chassis the whole thing would be the second vehicle would be a little bigger and it moves from Meghan Markle over to Kate Middleton and she wants to say it

Thor Freya

And I do have a vehicle it's not that bad and it's not a sports car but it looks like one it is the regular car version of the sports car it's a little bit bigger people I'm saying our cars are Mexican with them in the United States. Then went after Dave's plan when they tried to use our coaches and he noticed it so they had him get a bigger one and they did the same thing and they said it worked I figured out that's what they're doing. It's pretty sharp he says and it is they're doing other stuff because they realize they'll figure it out or they might already and it is more about the symbolism so you say a bunch of stuff but the symbolism is what it is the car has special meaning as does the coach and the car came from the coach and we made the car as we made the mini. We can hear them talking and they said she's the same generation from the same parents almost but it's the same parents and they must have been doing something different so he suggested Prego and the white sauce so everyone's going to buy that and it does help actually. It's not a huge car but he wants to post it they have special meeting and symbolism what I did with that is he pushed him all the way to Boston which is odd it's motivational for us and that's why and Trump was helping and he's a weasel but he was doing it his way and the max now the pseudo empire were trying to buy the coach and take coaches like it and take his and that's what they're like like Timmy Doyle says ain't nobody taking my car I'm going to keep it so I die

Kate Middleton

That's quite a lady

Zues

And you sorry on video and it looks a little yellow so she has a problem and she is fixing it

Hera

A lot of it was the camera and I noticed it too and reflection but there's a little infection and happens with a lot of people so I'm going to try and heal I need to take a vacation and arrest and hyperoxygenate he says that makes sense

Kate Middleton

We don't really need that to happen but you know how to do it and stop complaining it happens to us all the time

Meghan Markle

These keys and I mean the above can free me from getting harmed and I do mean the stuff about the vehicles and knowing what it is and it's more or less forced but people have to see if it's absolute Force from the pseudo empire the two statements below will definitely save me

Zues

And we understand that the top one is kind of iffy but the bottom one it was needed

Hera

Olympus

[megadavestewart]

WFS 356 - Fishing Musky with Terry Kluke - Lake Wabigoon, Pike, Canada

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/356

Presented By: Bearvault, FishHound Expeditions, LakeLady Custom Rods, Reyr Gear

Sponsors: https://wetflyswing.com/sponsors

Terry Kluke takes us up into Ontario Canada to focus on his home water for musky, pike, bass, and a whole lot of other species.

We talk about what it's like vacationing at Merkel's Camp - located in the center of the Wabigoon/Dinorwic chain of lakes, the top fishing lakes in Ontario.

We also touch on some wilderness adventures hunting for bears, wolves, and whitetails. Plus, a handful of tips for fishing muskies.

Show Notes with Terry Kluke

03:50 - "All bears are excellent to eat" - Terry

04:20 - You can fish for pike and musky all summer long in the Mid West

06:00 - Musky 360 is hosted by Joe Bucher - he's a big musky guy

09:30 - It was 1963 when Terry's grandfather started the camping lodge

11:00 - Ice season ends in May and back again in mid-November

14:30 - They're going to the Fly Fishing Show in Atlanta on February 2023

17:20 - They also have smallmouth in the area. It's all lake fishing where they're located.

25:25 - Terry describes what the lodge looks like and the routine for the trip

26:45 - Terry describes where to find the muskies

29:00 - Tip: For muskies, don't strip too fast

29:45 - Terry casts about 80 feet from the boat

33:30 - We talk about casting a foot-long fly

35:40 - Colin Mckeown from The New Fly Fisher was on the podcast at WFS 084 - Bill Spicer was also here in episode 093

40:00 - Muskies hunt like a wolf pack - they work together

42:10 - You can only keep musky with at least 54 inches in length

43:50 - Terry also fishes for walleye - it's what they base their whole income on

52:55 - The best time to go musky fishing and bear hunting would be the end of August or September

53:54 - Deer hunting doesn't start until October

54:30 - Terry did a lot of elk hunting in Colorado

56:20 - We talk about wolf hunting which is also popular in mid-West

58:20 - There are 18 different species of fish in Wabigoon Lake

1:04:00 - Swick is the best lure for muskies

1:06:30 - Terry's grandfather bought the camp for $5000 in 1962

Show Notes: https://wetflyswing.com/356

Check out this episode!

[skarsgard-daydreams]

"Pfeffernüsse"

Note: This is for @scxrsgxrd :)

Warnings: sexual implications, 18+

You come home from work a few days before Christmas and find Merkel in the kitchen with an apron tied around his waist carefully taking a sheet of little rounded cookies out of the oven. The whole apartment is filled with aromatic spices and the scent of black peppercorns and molasses. You can't think of another cookie that smells so much like Merkel as Pfeffernüsse. He sets the tray on the stovetop and turns off the oven, retrieving a spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. You walk into the kitchen and rise up on your toes to kiss his cheek while you try to sneakily grab one of the cookies. "You never told me you could bake," you say. Merkel wraps his arm around your waist and chuckles softly, swatting your hand away from the cookies with his spatula. "This is the only thing I can bake," he says. "Well, this and Rumkugeln." You pepper his jaw with kisses and ask in a voice sweet like honey, "Can I have one, Mausebär?" He finishes transferring the cookies and looks at you as though he's giving it consideration. "Not yet," he says. "I still have to ice them."

You're tempted to pout, but he turns to you and frames your face with his large hands, tilting it up and leaning down to capture your mouth in a slow sensual kiss that makes you momentarily forget about the cookies. You grab onto his shirt to keep yourself steady as your knees weaken. Merkel gently pushes you back until your hips are flush with the counter and then lifts you up, setting you on top of it. His stubble tickles your throat as he trails kisses down to where his fingers are unbuttoning your shirt. You drape your legs around his hips and press your palms against the counter while he tugs your shirt open and kisses the curve of your breasts. "You're trying to distract me," you mumble, acutely aware of the cookies that are cooling right beside you. Merkel presses his hands down over yours before you can reach for one. He sucks lightly on one of your nipples, making a gasp escape your lips and a tremor run through your body down to your center. "Would you rather not be distracted?" he asks, continuing to kiss your chest as a warm feeling spreads across your flesh. "N-no," you stammer. Smirking, Merkel shifts to your other breast and sucks a little harder. This time, you whimper softly. "Are you going to behave?" he asks, his playful gaze flickering back up to your face. "Yes," you say breathlessly.

He lets go of your hands and reaches for one of the cookies, holding it up in front of your face. You can smell the spices wafting in the air as you give Merkel a questioning look. "Then I suppose you can have a taste," he says. There is something surprisingly indulgent in his expression. He raises the cookie to your lips and watches your face while you take a bite out of it. The cookie is sweet and warm and spicy, with a slight crunch to it. It tastes like Christmas, even before it's been glazed with melted chocolate or powdered sugar. You hum contentedly as he feeds you another bite. "I never knew you had such a sweet tooth," Merkel teases.

You trail your hands over his shoulders and coax him down so you can kiss him again. "Some spy you are," you murmur against his lips, knowing it will rile him. Merkel gives a small growl and nips at your lower lip with his teeth. A second later, you squeal as he throws you over his shoulder and hauls you out of the kitchen, still wearing an apron dusted in flour. "You're in trouble now," he says, whipping the back of your thighs with the spatula. You gasp and try to squirm out of his grip, but you also giggle. "Is that a promise?" you ask as he wraps his arm firmly around your thighs. “With you, Mausi, it’s an inevitability,” he says. “Mm, good thing you’re here to keep me in line,” you purr.

[docheros]

Egoshipmas day 18: family

Pairing: Jackie/Henrik (dochero)

"This was one of the best, if not the best, vacations of his life; [...] The only person left to make everything perfect was his boyfriend."

Word counting: 839

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— Henrik — Aunt Karina walked behind him, handing Helena a cup of hot chocolate — you urgently need to introduce us to the Hottie.

— Auntie, do you need to call Jackie that? — he laughed.

— Until I see him in person and convince myself he's not a paid actor, he'll be called Hottie!

— Exactly — Joanne, his aunt's 2nd wife, put down her newspaper — you know very well the story of your cousin Carla!

 — You speak as if you were there...

— Henrik — his aunt tugged at his ear, making him laugh louder — more respect for your aunt.

 — Just this way to make dad relax… — Helena elbowed her brother, who covered his mouth full of cookies to laugh.

— I can hear you — their father said without taking his eyes off the ceiling — you better know that I'm the most relaxed man in Germany!…

This was one of the best, if not the best, vacations of his life; the rest of his extended family could go to hell, his father had welcomed him with open arms and his aunts offered him a guest room for him and the children, his siblings? The worst of them wouldn't be for Christmas and the rest was just sme talk! The only person left to make everything perfect was his boyfriend.

Which, incidentally, his aunts kept asking about. Even though Henrik explained everything and the kids agreed, they still have their doubts, "You can't explain things, Henrik"? How? Absurd!

— Tell me, is he at least handsome? — Aunt Karina asked again.

— Yes — he smiled.

— And does he treat you well?

— A lot, sometimes I think he thinks I'm made of glass!

— And… — Before Joanne could ask her question, the doorbell rang — Henrik, be a sweet and go open the door, go. It must be my crochet friend...

— Ook.

Schneep got up from his comfortable armchair, headed for the door and unlocked it; he would usually ask who it was first, but his hometown was small enough for him to know everyone, possibly even Joanne's crochet friends. But, when he opened it, he expected anyone, even Angela Merkel, except Jackie.

In Germany.

With a bouquet.

— …what?

— Hi Henny! — he waved his free hand — did you miss me? I missed you! And the kids! Ah! Take it, take it — he handed him the bouquet of red roses — I bought it at the last minute, I don't know much about flowers, but I think these are good! So, where are your aunts?

— Wait, wait, rewind the tape — he held up his palm for Jackie to stop — are you speaking German? — he nodded — fluently? — he nodded again — and you're in Germany, in my hometown? How did you end up here?

— Surprise! — He smiled broadly — May I come in?

— Henrik — Karina spoke up, her glasses on the tip of her nose — who's the boy?

—Uh… — he closed the door — aunt, Joanne, this is Jackie, my boyfriend.

 — THE HOTTIE?

— …yeah, the hottie… — he replied embarrassed, hearing a weak laugh from his boyfriend.

— Ma'ams — he shook hands with both of them — It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Henrik talks a lot about you!

— Not to be annoying, but weren't you bad at German? —  Joanne asked.

— Apparently I'm not.

— Wait, wait a minute — the doctor left the bouquet on the entrance table, putting his hands on his hips — that's very poorly explained AND there's your finger — he pointed at his children — in the middle, you're too quiet.

They looked at him, blinking twice. They kept eye contact while eating their chocolate cookies, until a small grin appeared on both of their faces.

— Liked the surprise? — Helena giggled— I gave him the coordinates for getting here!

— And I came up with the idea! — Luis raised his arm.

— And I'm the one who went back to training German — Jackie hugged him from behind — which I happened to quit when I was twenty. Heh, sorry to hide this liiittle detail from my life.

— You know I'm not very fond of surprises — Henrik smiled, crossing his arms — so may I know the reason for this one?

— I just wanted to make you happy — the hero shrugged, kissing his ear — you always wanted to introduce me to your family but you never had the opportunity, so this trip was the perfect time! You and the kids traveling first was part of the plan…

— You guys are terrible — he stood on tiptoe, holding his boyfriend's face and kissing his cheek — I love you all.

— ...do you understand what they're talking? — Aunt Karina whispered to her wife.

— No idea.

— Oh. We switched to english.

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hdhsghag i love them

tagging: @the-pastel-kitsune @unpredictably-ghostly @glass-trash-bab @dapperstein @theprinceofflies

[chiseler]

Hammett Made It Easy

To put it bluntly, it is simply, humanly impossible to watch Roy Del Ruth’s original 1931 film version of The Maltese Falcon without drawing comparisons and parallels with John Huston’s much more popular (if not exactly “timeless”) version from a decade later. After all, in many fundamental ways the films are a nearly identical match, scene for scene and line for line. Almost, anyway. Enough so that you’d notice.

The fault for this lies squarely on the shoulders of author Dashiell Hammett. whose 1930 novel made straying from the original source material extremely difficult. The sharp dialogue, the snappy pacing, and the already cinematic scene structure are all so very good that there was little reason to go messing with it. In fact, as the story goes, when screenwriter John Huston made the decision to move into directing, Howard Hawks gave him a copy of the book as a potential first project shortly before Huston left on a vacation. Huston handed the book to his secretary and told her to type it up in script format. She did, and it was that initial version straight from the book that was green-lighted by the studio—even before Huston had had a chance to read it.

Huston later made a few minor changes and additions, but one has to wonder if ten years earlier screenwriters Maude Fulton and Brown Holmes didn’t work much the same way, given how much of the 1931 film’s dialogue reappears verbatim in Huston’s—with the notable exception of the Shakespeare quote that closes the latter (a line supposedly suggested by Humphrey Bogart).

Granted, Huston’s film runs twenty minutes longer than Del Ruth’s spiffy 80-minute number (for a number of reasons, including a much larger role for the hapless gunsel Wilmer and an extended final sequence), but nevertheless if you remove the script from the equation, comparing the two films becomes much easier. At that point the remaining important factors are the directors and their styles, and the casts and their performances.

By 1931, Del Ruth was already well underway in a directing career that would find him making comedies, musicals, dramas, Westerns, and even the occasional horror film. Although comedies were his real forte (he would soon direct Lee Tracy in Blessed Event), taking on something like the Hammett novel was not that unusual. He was not a particularly remarkable director, and stylistically his films resembled most other standard films of the day. The scenes were quick, the camera was static, he didn’t have much time for pizzazz. As was the case of so many of the films of the era, his pictures often resembled filmed stage plays. He was on a tight schedule, and as soon as he finished one he had to be on to the next in a couple days. In the end he crafted an entertaining, well-told story, and that’s all the studio and audiences were looking for.

Meanwhile, The Maltese Falcon was going to be Huston’s directorial debut after having solidly established himself as a respected screenwriter. Some of the suits at Warner Brothers were hesitant to let him make the leap, so he had to prove to them he could do it, and approached the film with the kind of energy and big ideas you find with so many first-time directors. Although the film wasn’t as flashy and inventive as Citizen Kane, Huston did pull out a few tricks, like the famed seven-minute take, and the camera work was fluid and energetic. Even if audiences didn’t notice a number of his little flourishes, it was still a very confident film. More importantly, it was an entertaining, well-told story—and that’s what the studio and audiences were really looking for.

(It’s worth noting, however, that Huston’s version was much tamer than Del Ruth’s—perhaps for obvious reasons. In Del Ruth’s version there’s no pussyfooting around the fact that Sam Spade really is having an affair with his partner’s wife. Nor is there any question what happens after Spade accuses Ruth Wonderly/ Brigid O'Shaughnessy of only using money to buy his allegiance.)

What Huston really had on his side was, if not star power exactly, then at least a handful of familiar faces. It might have been Sydney Greenstreet’s film debut, but audiences certainly recognized Mary Astor, Peter Lorre, Elisha Cook, and Bogart. Up until this point of course Bogart had only been a character player, but his star was definitely on the rise, and broke with this film.

Del Ruth, on the other hand, was working with an armload of good, available B actors. Most of them worked regularly, but they weren’t exactly Joan Blondell or Douglas Fairbanks.

It’s in looking at the performances of the two groups that the real differences between the films arises. Take the character of Sam Spade, for instance. Bogart’s performance as the womanizing, sharp tongued private dick always struck me as stiff and stagey—you can almost hear him thinking of each gesture before he makes it, and each line before he speaks it. There’s something tangibly artificial in his performance, the feeling that we really are watching an actor, and moreover one who’s not trying very hard.  Or maybe one who’s letting his stage training get the better of him, thinking the dialogue alone will carry the day. I of course love Bogart, just not here, particularly.

Ricardo Cortez (in reality the NYC-born son of Austrian immigrants) portrayed a much looser, more easy-going Spade, always ready with a quip and forever chasing skirts. He gives a much more relaxed performance that often borders on the straight comic. In spite of the fact that Cortez is much more comfortable in the role, it seems, his Spade is almost out of place here, smirking his way through a double murder investigation.

Seen today, Greenstreet’s   Gutman seems so unique a performance that it immediately became iconic, and a character and performing style he would go on to recreate for the rest of his career. It seems unique anyway, until you see Dudley Digges Gutman from a decade earlier. The similarities between the two performances are shocking. The intonation, vocal tones, the side mutterings, the laughter, the gestures, even the facial expressions are so nearly identical it’s almost as if Greenstreet studied  Digges’ performance closely and decided to recreate it for the remake. Strange thing is, for American character actor Digges, it was a unique role quite unlike anything else he’d played before or would play again. Unless you care to argue that the spirit of the true Kasper Gutman inhabited both actors (and then stayed in Greenstreet), it’s a mighty remarkable coincidence.

One of the more interesting distinctions can be seen in the character of Spade’s secretary, Effie Perine, and more specifically it boils down to a single line reading.

In one of the first and most famous lines of the film, Effie informs Spade that a new client is waiting to see him. In the Huston version, bubbly Lee Patrick says, “You’ll wan to see this one anyway—she’s a knockout!” She seems awfully enthusiastic about it, happy to encourage her boss’s assorted flings. It seems a little odd, but then she spends the rest of the film running errands for Spade and we never give her another thought.

In Del Ruth’s version,  Una Merkel’s Effie does not smile and does not chirp when she says dourly, “You’ll want to see this one anyway. She’s a knockout.”  There’s so much stifled bitterness, frustration, and jealousy in the line that we can read her entire character—almost her whole life—in those few words. And for the rest of the film, whenever Spade asks her to run another errand or do another favor, we know what she’s thinking when she agrees. Thanks to Merkel, Effie becomes the one honestly tragic figure in the entire story, with the possible exception of Wilmer.

As Gutman’s henchman and punk, far be it from me to compare anyone with the great Elisha Cook, Jr.—unless of course it’s the equally great Dwight Frye. Sadly Frye has been given very little to do here except look sullen and angry. In fact he’s only been given a single line of dialogue (“I’ll fog him”). Still, he’s always fun to watch—though admittedly not as much fun here as Cook, who gets to give Bogart a vicious kick in the head.

In the end and over time, the choice of which, if either, version is superior is a simple matter of taste. It does become easier to understand, though, why in the 1950s Del Ruth’s version was redubbed Dangerous Female in order to distinguish it from Huston’s.

by Jim Knipfel

[bopinion]

2021 / 29

Aperçu of the Week:

"You can tell a person's character by the jokes he laughs at."

Alfred Biolek

Biolek is a veteran of German television. In the 1970s, he produced the most successful TV show, "Am laufenden Band," and then he was in front of the camera himself: first talking and hosting, later also cooking, in each case as the first (!) in his field. Thanks to him, people in this country know Monty Python and The Police, for example. A great man, a star without airs and graces, an innovator and cultural leader, a man who was never prejudiced, never unfair, always in a good mood, always interested, never superficial, always friendly, who stood by his homosexuality - at a time when it was still considered disreputable, not only in his industry. I had the privilege of meeting him almost 30 years ago, as we both shared a valuable experience as exchange students with AFS. Dr. Alfred Franz Maria Biolek died yesterday in Cologne at the age of 87. Rest in peace!

Bad News of the Week:

The fourth wave is coming. It's already there in the UK and Spain. In France and Italy, the values are still (reasonably) low, but the growth is rapid. Thanks to the delta mutant, formerly known as the Indian. Here, everyone is watching spellbound for the infamous "7-day incidence," which so far has been slow to increase. That's about to change. Especially because the longed-for herd immunity will remain a utopia - because immunization above 85% is impossible if all children and adolescents are not considered for vaccination. And more and more so-called skeptics refuse - whereby an obligation to vaccinate would be an immense encroachment on fundamental rights, the justification of which is difficult. But is there a fundamental right to ignorance? I'm torn apart...

What is currently taking place in the UK is a large-scale medical experiment. Not under expert supervision in a laboratory, but completely detached in public. All Corona protections such as mask wearing or social distancing have been completely removed. At a time when the incidence is approaching 500 - the highest since the all-time high in January. In our country, it's under 15, and we're worrying about how to organize the start of school after the summer vacations. And Boris Johnson basically says to that, "Why not now? When then?". Well, for example, when the vaccination campaign is more advanced and the numbers are lower. But he'll know what he's doing - even if it's irresponsible. Let's see how British voters will remember this decision in his upcoming re-election.

But this is not the only area where the British government lacks logic in Corona measures. A work colleague of mine is Irish and was supposed to visit his mother next week. But she lives in Northern Ireland. Since he already has full vaccination protection, he didn't expect any problems - and now he would have to spend ten days in a quarantine hotel without being allowed to see his mother. That's over 70% of his total two-week stay. The reasoning is remarkable: according to British regulations, he is considered unvaccinated because a vaccination in an EU country is not recognized. Although it is the same vaccine in the same dose in the same schedule. But the stamp in his vaccination certificate is just the wrong one.

Good News of the Week:

"Pragmatism and melancholy" is the Tagesschau's headline about Angela Merkel's last federal press conference - a kind of forum for free questions from journalists - as chancellor in Berlin. After all, she will not be running again in the federal elections in just under two months. It was therefore not surprising that, in addition to current political issues, many media representatives primarily took stock of Merkel's 16-year term in office. The financial and the euro crisis, nuclear and coal phase-out, the EU and China, Corona and digitization, and so on. Life without crises is easier, but when they are there, they have to be dealt with, Merkel replied to the question of whether she felt flattered by the title "crisis chancellor." After all, last week U.S. President Joe Biden, another old hand in world politics, had remarked that she would be missed.

In an interview today, climate activist Luisa Neubauer, the German face of "Fridays for Future," accuses Merkel of not tackling the climate crisis in the proactive manner that is her style in other crises. Although this one is by far the biggest and most urgent. One might add, even though Merkel was once environment minister. And seems to overlook two things: first, nuclear and coal phase-out ultimately serve climate protection. And secondly, there is no patent remedy, no reference, no example, no role model. Perhaps that's the point: who should be able to tackle the issue in a decisive way if not someone who is internationally acknowledged, respected across party lines, unpretentious and without any self-interest, scientifically sound, moderating and balancing, pragmatic and energetic? So who, if not Merkel?

Dr. Angela Dorothea Merkel turned 67 two weeks ago. Unlike Helmut Kohl - the other chancellor who ruled for what felt like an eternity of 16 years and ended up looking powerless and burnt out - it's hard to imagine Merkel going from one day to another just reading books and trying out potato salad recipes. And we have learned from the U.S. that the political zenith is apparently not reached until the age of 70+. And from demography we have learned that women live longer and are more efficient in old age than men. So: starting this fall, there will be an "elder stateswoman" in waiting on the world stage, who I personally would like to see again in every conceivable position. EU Council president, UN secretary general, pope, conductor, chef - I don't care. But give her something to do. She won't screw it up. Thank you, Mrs. Merkel, for providing a solid counterbalance to all the testosterone and alpha dog behavior in our nation, in Europe and a little bit in the whole world all these years. Of course, not all that glitters is gold, and even you haven't done everything right. But your taking stock is positive, and that's what remains at the end of the day.

Personal happy moment of the week:

I have never owned a purse. Probably because I never had enough money ;-) So coins always end up in a big box that the kids carry to the bank by the kilo on World Savings Day. And for bills, I had a plain money clip by Danish designer Georg Jensen, whose functional-style silversmithing helped shape industrial design in Scandinavian countries. I had already lost it once and after much research was able to purchase one again. A good half year ago I scatterbrained lost it again. Fuck the 20, 30 euros - but my beautiful clip was gone. And this time it was impossible to find another one. Yesterday, I put on a suit that I obviously hadn't worn for a long time - because in my pants pocket I found my money clip. Empty, but valuable. I got it back. And my personal happy moment of the week.

I couldn't care less...

...for the Olympic Games. Because they are so far from the original ideal of the sporting high office of the amateurs, endlessly commercialized, run by a corrupt organization, without any grounding and leaving the same too often burnt. I can still remember the promises made before the Summer Games in Beijing in 20008: sport would be an ambassador of peace and democratization, the Olympics would have a lasting effect on politics and society. Really? Nothing at all has happened. Except that the 2022 Winter Games will once again be held in Beijing. Bravo!

As I write this...

...it's thundering and lightning in the mountains again. And everybody is afraid that there will be heavy rain, squalls and hail again. Because the soils, especially in the disaster areas of the last week, are still waterlogged and loose and many dams no longer exist. So it only takes a comparatively small amount of rain to have mudslides, rivers overflowing their banks, and flooded homes again. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for all of us.

[jawira707]

No, it’s not that easy

I know people will write whatever, but some really don’t seem to understand, that even with all the precautions taken Emmanuel Macron has now been tested positive. “Well, we are not allowed to fly to go on our vacation, so why is he allowed to!?!?” Well he was not going on vacation in Lebanon my friends. “We cannot meet with more than six persons, how could he have dinner with more people?” I’m sure when you invite friends over for dinner you all are 2m apart, talking to each over microphones? Over crucial aspect concerning the country? No? “Well, he hasn’t worn a mask then. If he had, he wouldn’t have it.” Yes, that’s also why so many doctors and nurses have gotten infected, because they were all wearing no masks - wait they did? A mask alone is not sufficient? No, there is still a risk when you’re in close contact with another infected person. Some people are lucky and can avoid this. The president cannot always. The microphones are being disinfected, his hands, everything. But to give you a possible idea: after talking for a long time, he asks for water. Someone hands him the glass - maybe another person, who was infected, but didn’t know, touched it before- he takes off his mask to drink. That’s enough, he already can be infected. Just because of one minor slip up. Angela Merkel had to self quarantine herself for 14 days earlier this year, because the doctor who was giving her a flu shot later was tested positive himself.

You can see how careful Emmanuel Macron was, because 1.) if he wouldn’t have been there is a very high risk he would have caught it earlier (yes, because not every head of state sits at home for four years, not working like Trump) 2.) this morning everyone talked about “a cluster! so many people he had contact with yesterday and the day before are probably infected!” and they are not. Not his prime minister, not president Sanchez, not even his wife - everyone who was tested today had a negative result. And you know why? Because Emmanuel Macron wore a f*cking mask like every responsible person should and kept his distance. So shut up, especially if you’re not working at least 18 hours a day and wear a mask nonstop while doing so.

[anastasiaskarsgard]

Have you seen the post where Emmy rose tells how each Bill character would act? I’d like your opinion on how each character would handle being a parent

@emmyrosee do you object to me doing this? I’ve seen yours, and I think they’re great but it’s kinda your thing so idk if I should answer this one

Ok so I got the go ahead so here we go.

ROMAN

Roman believes in hiring professionals. He is a busy man and a hot mess, so he makes sure that his children have a nanny, back up nanny, driver, security, chef, and various coaches for their extracurricular activities. He adores his children and loves to see them when he gets home from work. He expects them to be clean, fed and in good moods. If they cry or dirty a diaper, he promptly hands them off to someone to remedy that. His children have everything their heart desires and always look fashionable. They no better than to throw tantrums because Daddy leaves if they do, and their nannies are strict about how they present themselves. If they go on a family vacation, he brings the nannies. As they grow older, he is sure to look for signs of how he was as a teen since he absolutely won’t allow them to be little assholes like he was. He likes the help to take lots of pictures of the kids so he can see what they’re up to.

AXEL

Axel believes in quality time. Axel is a very hands on parent. He loves his children and takes them everywhere with him. His wife gets kind of upset because he’d bring the kids on dates with them if he could. He never wants to leave them with a sitter. He is a bit unconventional in the music and language he uses in front of the kids, and he doesn’t think it’s a big deal when his 5 year old, tells his big brother he’s an asshole. He likes the idea of a big family and is a affectionate loving husband and father.

MARK

Mark believes in structure. Mark shocks everyone when he becomes a parent by getting his shit together and putting his children’s needs above everything else. He’s very strict and careful about what his children are exposed to and who they are around. He puts them all in sports and dance and boy/ Girl Scouts and even coaches for their teams. He’s competitive with his kids and expects them to be the best and shine brightest amoung their peers. He mostly keeps his temper under control, but if he feels like he’s being disrespected or his kids embarrass him, he doesn’t care where he is, he will correct them. His son wants to be just like Dad, and his daughter is the ultimate daddy’s little princess. His kids are popular in school and kind of brats at times, but overall good kids. He is a picture taking fool.

HENRY PEARL

Henry believes in communication. He wants his kids to always feel like they can talk to him and that he is there for them. He’s all about honesty and hard work. He works to take care of his family and is a doting husband. He is very protective and intolerant of any type of bullying. He reads to his children every night and he loves to create art with his kids. He believes in his kids being kids and expressing themselves so if they want to draw on the walls in their room, it’s fine. They wanna dress in costumes for no reason? He’ll join them. He really has no shame when it comes to pleAsing his kids.

HENRY “THE KID”

Henry believes in protection. He cannot believe he’s finally free and has a family. He’s very thankful and grateful and extremely protective. He wouldn’t share his history with his wife or children and would take the settlement he received and start fresh someplace far away from Castle Rock. He would always keep a close watch on his children and he’d never raise his voice. He didn’t have to, since he’s great at intimidation with a single look. His kids aren’t scared of him, but they don’t wanna find out if they should be. He’s also the best lie detector, almost like he’s psychic.

MICKEY

Mickey believes in fun. He’s not the most stable parent but he’s tons of fun. They move a lot and dad always has some con going on. The kids totally think it’s normal to steal stuff and they know how to lie. He’s not the smartest guy but he loves their mother and he loves his kids. He’d literally do anything for them, and although he’s a bit morally corrupt, for the most part he tries not to take any risks that can wind him up in prison. Family vacations are always crazy adventures. His Instagram is full of videos of his little family and he makes new ones everyday.

MERKEL

Merkel believes in birth control. He doesn’t want any fucking children.

[go-redgirl]

Will Coronavirus End the New World Order, Put America First?

Dr. Brian Monahan, attending physician of Congress, told a closed meeting of Senate staffers this week that 70 million to 150 million Americans — a third of the nation — could contract the coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci testified that the mortality rate for COVID-19 will likely run near 1%. Translation: Between 750,000 and 1.1 million Americans may die of this disease before it runs its course. The latter figure is equal to all the U.S. dead in World War II and on both sides in the Civil War.

Chancellor Angela Merkel warns that 70% of Germany's population — 58 million people — could contract the coronavirus. If she is right, and Fauci's mortality rate holds for her country, that could mean more than half a million dead Germans.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis called Merkel's remark "unhelpful" and said it could cause panic. But Harvard epidemiologist Marc Lipsitch seemed to support Merkel, saying between 40% and 70% of the world's population could become infected.

Again, if Fauci's 1% mortality rate and Lipsitch's estimate prove on target, between 3 billion and 5 billion people on earth will be infected, and 30 million to 50 million will die, a death toll greater than that of the Spanish Flu of 1918.

There is, however, some contradictory news.

China, with 81,000 cases, has noted a deceleration in new cases and South Korea appears to be gradually containing the spread of the virus.

Yet, Italy, with its large elderly population, may be a harbinger of what is to come in the West.

As of Thursday, Italy had reported 12,000 cases and 827 deaths, a mortality rate of nearly 7%. This suggests that the unreported and undetected infections in shutdown Italy are far more numerous.

In the U.S., the death toll at this writing is 39, a tiny fraction of the annual toll of tens of thousands who die of the flu.

But the problem is this: COVID-19 has not nearly run its course in the USA, while the reaction in society and the economy approaches what we might expect from a boiling national disaster.

The stock market has plunged further and faster than it did in the Great Crash of 1929. Trillions of dollars in wealth have vanished. If Sen. Bernie Sanders does not like "millionaires and billionaires," he should be pleased. There are far fewer of them today than there were when he won the New Hampshire primary.

What does the future hold?

It may one day be said that the coronavirus delivered the deathblow to the New World Order, to a half-century of globalization, and to the era of interdependence of the world's great nations.

Tourism, air travel, vacation cruises, international gatherings and festivals are already shutting down. Travel bans between countries and continents are being imposed.

Conventions, concerts and sporting events are being canceled. Will the Tokyo Olympics go forward? If they do, will all the anticipated visitors from abroad come to Japan to enjoy the games?

Trump has issued a one-month travel ban on Europe.

As for the "open borders" crowd, do Democrats still believe that breaking into our country should no longer be a crime, and immigrants arriving illegally should be given free health care, a proposition to which all the Democratic debaters raised their hands?

The ideological roots of our free trade era can be traced to the mid-19th century when its great evangelist, Richard Cobden, rose at Free Trade Hall in Manchester on Jan. 15, 1846, and rhapsodized: "I see in the Free Trade principle that which shall act on the moral world as the principle of gravitation in the universe — drawing men together, thrusting aside the antagonism of race, and creed, and language, and uniting us in the bonds of eternal peace."

In the pre-Trump era, Republicans held hands with liberal Democrats in embracing NAFTA, GATT, the WTO and most-favored-nation trade privileges for China.

In retrospect, was it wise to have relied on China to produce essential parts for the supply chains of goods vital to our national security? Does it appear wise to have moved the production of pharmaceuticals and lifesaving drugs for heart disease, strokes and diabetes to China? Does it appear wise to have allowed China to develop a virtual monopoly on rare earth minerals crucial to the development of weapons for our defense?

In this coronavirus pandemic, people now seem to be looking for authoritative leaders and nations seem to be looking out for their own peoples first. Would Merkel, today, invite a million Syrian refugees into Germany no matter the conditions under which they were living in Syria and Turkey?

Is not the case now conclusive that we made a historic mistake when we outsourced our economic independence to rely for vital necessities upon nations that have never had America's best interests at heart?

Which rings truer today? We are all part of mankind, all citizens of the world. Or that it's time to put America and Americans first!

Patrick Buchanan has been an adviser to three presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and the nominee for the Reform Party in 2000. He was also a founding member of "The McLaughlin Group," 

[flairchild]

Vicbert recommendation: something romantic about centered around vacation.

Thanks for this prompt! I really enjoyed writing it and got a little carried away…I’ve never done a song fic before but it was very fun. Let me know what you think!!

SUMMER LOVING

Summer lovin’, had me a blast

Summer lovin’, happened so fast

Met a girl crazy for me

Met a boy cute as can be

Summer days drifting away

To, uh oh, those summer nights

Victoria lay on the white sand, book in hand and sunglasses tilted so she could see over the top. Her brown hair was coiled on top of her head. She lazily flicked the page to the next, enjoying the warm rays on her back. Her mother and Feodora had decided to go swimming, thank goodness, so she had some peace and quiet. She had not wanted to come on this holiday, citing her many summer assignments as an excuse. Admittedly, she had not wanted to spend time with her family. But now at this moment, she was so engrossed in her book that the irritating sounds of children frolicking in the sea faded into the background…

“Victoria!” a screeching voice pierced her eardrum. Speaking of her darling sister. Feodora ran up the beach, dripping wet with a big smile on her face. Victoria eyed her sister’s long legs with envy as she got closer. “Come join us in the water!”

Victoria very much did not want to join her family in the water. Firstly, she would get wet. Secondly, she felt very self-conscious in her demure pink one-piece bathing suit. Feodora flaunted a bright red bikini confidently. She did not have her sister’s body confidence at all.

“Sorry Feo, I’m really engrossed” she gestured to the cover of her Angela Merkel biography, giving her sister a faux disappointed look.

Feodora rolled her brown eyes. “Whatever Victoria. You need a bit of fun in your life.” She grabbed the book and tossed it aside, forcefully tugging her younger sister up. Victoria’s protests fell to mute ears as her sunglasses fell off and she was dragged into the water.

She swam by me, she got a cramp

He ran by me, got my suit damp

Saved her life, she nearly drowned

He showed off splashing around

Summer sun, something’s begun

But, uh oh, those summer nights

Victoria yelped as she touched the salt spray with her toes. She was not a natural in the water, that was for sure. Feo had dived back into the water to join their mother who was floating on a lilo further out. Victoria inched back towards the beach.

“Hey!” she cried out indignantly as a boy ran past her, spraying up water and leaving her soaking wet. He was soon followed by a taller boy who must have been his brother who sprayed her with more water. Only once he had passed he seemed to notice, his eyebrows furrowing. Mouthing sorry, the second boy proceeded to tackle his brother into deeper water.

Victoria watched appreciatively as he came up for air, water dripping off his lean but muscular body. She was too busy watching him to notice a big wave coming until she was under the water.

The wave tumbled her around, water pouring down her throat. She lashed out, desperately trying to reach the surface as oxygen bubbles floated helplessly around her. Her head got more lightheaded and she was about to pass out.

Then she felt arms around her and her head broke the surface. She sucked in air greedily, eyelashes blinking away salt. It took her a few minutes to focus, but when she did so she noticed she was being dragged to shore by that tall boy she had seen earlier. He was even more good looking close-up, with damp curls clinging to his neck, high cheekbones and lovely blue eyes. She felt flush at their proximity.

Suddenly they were back onshore, and he was lowering her down carefully onto a towel his brother had placed on the sand. The boy took another towel and wrapped it around her carefully as she hacked up seawater. When she was finished she met his gaze.

“How can I ever thank you…” Victoria started, pausing when she realised she didn’t know his name. The boy just blinked down at her, looking quite startled as if he couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Albert” his brother pitched in, grinning widely. “And you can thank my brother by going on a date with him. He desperately needs one, poor sod.”

“Ernest!” Albert exclaimed exasperatedly, looking at his brother.

“Oh, if you don’t want me to..?” Victoria asked, one eyebrow raised.

Albert’s cheeks were pink and it was very endearing. “No I would like that very much.” He blinked down his long eyelashes at her. “I don’t think I got your name, however.”

“Victoria” she supplied, almost swooning as he took her hand in his and kissed it softly.

“Victoria” Albert breathed. Ernest looked so delighted he might pass out. “Tomorrow at the dock at seven.” He let go of her hand and walked off with his brother.

Victoria still sat there in shock until her mother and sister finally found her five minutes later.

___

Took her bowling in the arcade

We went strolling; drank lemonade

We made out under the dock

We stayed out till ten o'clock

Summer fling don’t mean a thing

But, uh oh, those summer nights

Victoria smoothed down her white dress, trying to remain confident. She checked her phone which read 6.59pm. She really hoped Albert wouldn’t stand her up.

Just as she thought of him he appeared at the end of the dock, striding along towards her. Her stomach rolled with nerves. What was wrong with her?! She never got nervous around boys.

“Hello” Albert smiled that soft smile of his that made her heart flutter. “Victoria” he spoke her name as if it was a caress, so gentle and reverent.

“Albert.” She licked her lips. “So what are we doing tonight?”

Albert gestured behind her. “We are exploring the delights of the Brighton docks. Shall we?”

They wandered along slowly as the sun slunk below the horizon. Albert kept glancing over at her, and then looking away blushing. A smirk crept onto Victoria’s face. She closed the gap between them and brushed her hand against his, intertwining their fingers. He let out a small gasp and she laughed delightedly. Albert looked embarrassed but didn’t let go of her hand.

They got to the arcade at the end of the pier and went inside. There were rows of claw machines with giggling teenagers trying their hand. Albert bypassed those and pulled her along through the rows.

“Bowling?” Victoria asked. Albert led her to the counter. “Better watch out I’m going to whoop your skinny ass.”  The man behind the counter frowned at her language as he passed over their bowling shoes. Albert hid a snigger.

“Not if I whoop your ass first” he whispered in her ear as they walked to the lanes, hand on the small of her back. A shiver ran down her spine.

“Challenge accepted.”

Nine rounds later and Victoria really was whooping his ass. Albert had only bowled once before and was rubbish. She shook with laughter as his last ball knocked down one pin and he turned to face her, frown drooping on his face.

“Unlucky” she chuckled, leaning up to kiss his cheek as she passed with her bowling ball. She delighted at the way he flushed and his eyes dilated. Throwing him a wink over her shoulder, she spun the last ball down and it knocked over all ten. Hands in the air, Victoria did a celebratory dance. Albert laughed at her, his eyes alight. She grabbed his hands and pulled him up to standing.

“What do I get for winning?” she asked him, eyes twinkling.

“Maybe you’ll find out later” he answered. Victoria felt her face redden as she looked into his intense gaze. He ran a hand up her back slowly, leaning in to graze his lips against hers. Then his mouth twitched in a grin and he pulled away to go pay at the counter. Victoria felt flushed. Well played Albert, she thought, I am so taking you up on that later.

____

Sipping on lemonade ice blocks, Victoria and Albert meandered back down the pier. Victoria talked about her family, arms flying around expressively while Albert just watched and listened attentively. She hadn’t been given such attention by a boy before, but that’s not to say she didn’t like it.

They got to the end of the pier and turned to walk along the beach. Albert’s intense gaze was making her body feel hot. Suddenly, she couldn’t help it anymore. She grasped his hand firmly and marched under the docks. Light filtered through from the amusement park above, and the waves lapped at the sand gently. Victoria turned to face Albert. He was looking down at her, curls falling in front of his eyes.

She reached up to play with a curl, her hand lingering on his cheek. He drew in a sharp breath. Victoria smiled wickedly, before grasping him firmly by the shoulders and turning him around so he was pressed up against a pillar. Then she grabbed his head and pulled his mouth onto hers.

She felt intoxicated and giddy as his mouth moved against hers, his hands touching her hips and drawing her closer to him. Her arms wound up around his neck so she could get purchase. One of his hands moved up her back as she moaned against his mouth. His lips parted and she deepened the kiss.

Albert grabbed her by the thighs and pulled her up. She wrapped her legs around him easily. He spun them around so her back was to the pillar and moved his lips to her neck, making a steady trail of kisses down…

Both of them looked up startled as a shrill beeping noise broke them out of their haze. Victoria pulled her phone out of her dress pocket to find it flashing 10pm. With a sigh, she turned it off.

“That’s my curfew” she explained to Albert glumly. He grudgingly lowered her down and she smoothed down her dress self consciously. Suddenly it was tense with awkwardness between them. She cleared her throat. “I guess I will just go then.” He was staring at her intently again, but this time she just felt embarrassed.

Victoria started walking away up the beach when she felt a hand on hers, pulling her back. Albert turned her around and placed a hand on her waist, stopping her.

“Victoria” he breathed her name in that thick German accent of his, “can I see you again?”

She felt a slow smile creep on her face as she kissed the stubble on his cheek softly. “If you’re lucky.” Winking at him, she started backing away. “Same time tomorrow?”

The most brilliant smile broke out on his face, lighting up the night. He nodded and she couldn’t help but let out a small laugh as she started on her way back home, already knowing her dreams would be full of nothing but Albert.

___

He got friendly holding my hand

Well, she got friendly down in the sand

He was sweet, just turned eighteen

Well, she was good, you know what I mean

Summer heat, boy and girl meet

But, uh oh, those summer nights

The next night, and the next night and the night after that Victoria and Albert met at the pier at 7pm sharp. They spent most of the nights talking, whether walking or lying on the sand, and the rest of their time was spent caught up in each other. Every night Victoria’s watch would go off at 10, and every night they kissed goodbye happily with the promise of tomorrow. But, as Feodora liked to remind Victoria, it was a silly fantasy that couldn’t last forever. She soon found that out, eight days after they met.

It turned colder; that’s where it ends

So I told her we’d still be friends

Then we made our true love vow

Wonder what she’s doin’ now

Summer dreams ripped at the seams

But, oh, those summer nights

They were lying in the sand, holding hands, and Albert was even quieter than usual. He lay there sadly staring up at the stars. Soon the silence became too much and she turned to him.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, propping up on one elbow and looking at him with concern.

He drew in a deep sigh and let it out, his eyes finally meeting hers. “Victoria, I think I am in love with you..” her heart sang, and she thought it might fly out of her chest “…but I’m leaving tomorrow. To go study back in Germany.”

Immediately she felt dread settle all over her, flopping back onto the sand. “Oh,” she said quietly. Her brain was having a hard time comprehending the two things he had just said, one so wonderful and the other so terrible.

He sat up, hugging his knees to his chest. “I’m sorry I put that on you so suddenly. But this whole week was so wonderful and I didn’t want to ruin that. Or make you sad” he added, gently wiping a tear that was creeping down her face.

She sat up too and leaned into him. His arm wound around her automatically.

“Albert” she looked into his eyes “there is not doubt in my heart that I love you too.” She smiled up at him and he met her expression. “And because I love you I know that we can make this work. We have to make this work. Because now I know you I don’t want to know who I am without you.”

He kissed her head and murmured into her hair. “Alright, liebes, if you say so we will make it work.”

___

It was another 1 year 3 months and 16 days before Albert and Victoria saw each other after that wondrous summer night. But once they did as Victoria moved into his university flat with him, they were never parted again.

[orbemnews]

The Tailor, the Florist, the Violin Maker: Improvising to Survive Shops in Hamburg, Germany, have been pushed to the brink by lockdowns and curfews in the pandemic and the uncertainty of when a return to something like normal may happen. Photographs by Hayley Austin Reporting by Jack Ewing and Hayley Austin May 7, 2021 Germany is known for luxury cars, machine tools and other goods that have protected the overall economy from the worst effects of the pandemic. But Germany is also a nation of shopkeepers, small operations whose employees are often from the same family. These businesses have been pushed to the brink of existence by lockdowns, quarantines and other restrictions that often change from day to day. Vaccines are in short supply and intensive care units are filling up, prompting Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to impose a nationwide curfew last month in areas with high infection rates. In the port city of Hamburg, retailers are improvising to try to survive. Théodora Vezo, the owner of a boutique that bears her name, took customers by appointment and changed her window displays of clothing and accessories much more often. Yayi Chen, owner of a store that sells Manga comic books and graphic novels, set up a TikTok channel and ordered his employees to come up with content as a way of promoting online sales. Birgit Wyrowski, who has been building violins at her shop for 34 years, was able to partly compensate for a decline in sales by selling ukuleles, popular among neophyte musicians in lockdown because they are easy to play. But these improvisations often come with a downside. Ms. Wyrowski said she worried that young people who took up an instrument to combat lockdown boredom will lose interest without in-person lessons. “And playing together. That’s also missing, of course,” she said. For many businesses there has been no real option but to tough it out until lockdowns ease, which in Germany may not be until the fall. Edip Kücükoglu, a tailor, is still allowed to do alterations but customers are staying away. Why spend money looking better when you never leave home? “Customers aren’t coming in to have things altered or made. They’re waiting until times are better,” Mr. Kücükoglu said. “It’s a good thing that I own this shop. If I wasn’t an owner, I would have closed a long time ago.” Today in Business Updated  May 6, 2021, 11:23 a.m. ET Federal and state governments have provided aid to many businesses. But policies were sometimes inconsistent. Giulia Christen, a fashion designer and owner of Pyrate-Style, a shop that sells custom-made apparel, said the government response was excellent at first. “You put in a request, and two weeks later the money was in your account,” she said. But Ms. Christen was denied aid for November and December on the grounds that a shutdown didn’t take effect until Dec. 16. “That meant we lost all our Christmas business,” she said, “but we didn’t get any support.” A few businesses have benefited from the pandemic. Dennis Jakob’s butcher shop, which was founded by his grandfather in 1951 and where he has worked basically his whole life, has been busy supplying customers who were cooking more for themselves and shopping closer to home. “There are many new faces! Our customer base has grown,” Mr. Jakob said. Germans have a reputation for being organized, but the stereotype has not applied to the vaccine campaign. Less than a quarter of the population had received a first vaccine dose by late April, compared with more than 40 percent in the United States and more than 60 percent in Britain. Christian Möller, owner of Derpart Flug und Ferienreisen, a travel agency, said sales are down more than 90 percent so far this year. Only when people are vaccinated, he said, will they feel confident about vacationing abroad. “I hope that the vaccinations will go ahead as soon as possible,” Mr. Möller added. “That is the key to the whole thing.” Businesses that depend on weddings, funerals or other gatherings are in a similar situation. “None of that is taking place at all,” said Susanne Jürgens, a florist at Blumenstube Diana Hittig. “Celebrations, confirmations — we missed all that business in 2020.” Hair salons have been closed for much of the last year, but were allowed to reopen in early March, sooner than most other shops that involve personal contact. The rush of customers in between lockdowns helped compensate for the periods that Petra Hartje was forced to close her shop. There was even a positive aspect: People really appreciated their hairdressers. “We were suddenly relevant to the system,” Ms. Hartje said. But keeping the business open hasn’t been easy. “In December, a customer was here on a Saturday. The following Tuesday she emailed me that she was sick with Corona,” Ms. Hartje said. “I had to quarantine for 10 days.” While internet retailers have boomed, online sales are not a real option for shops that depend on personal contact, like Marie Josephine Bouquet’s hat shop. “I can’t make anything if I can’t do fittings, or measurements or touch the customer,” Ms. Bouquet said. “Hats are too individual and too special.” Apparel businesses are among the biggest economic victims of the pandemic. Nationwide, sales of items like clothing and shoes plunged by more than three-quarters in January from a year earlier, according to official figures. Nearly half of the retailers surveyed by the German Retail Association said they feared bankruptcy. More than two-thirds of Ms. Bouquet’s hat sales used to come from theater productions, which are at a standstill. “That was the last straw,” Ms. Bouquet said. Her revenue fell by about half last year. While she will continue to make hats to order for theater customers in her atelier, she said, she closed the storefront permanently in February. Paula Haase contributed reporting. Source link Orbem News #florist #Improvising #maker #Survive #Tailor #Violin

[newstfionline]

Trump Warns NATO Allies to Spend More on Defense, or Else

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, NY Times, July 2, 2018

WASHINGTON--President Trump has written sharply worded letters to the leaders of several NATO allies--including Germany, Belgium, Norway and Canada--taking them to task for spending too little on their own defense and warning that the United States is losing patience with what he said was their failure to meet security obligations shared by the alliance.

The letters, sent in June, are the latest sign of acrimony between Mr. Trump and American allies as he heads to a NATO summit meeting next week in Brussels that will be a closely watched test of the president’s commitment to the alliance. Mr. Trump has repeatedly questioned its value and has claimed that its members are taking advantage of the United States.

Mr. Trump’s criticism raised the prospect of another confrontation involving the president and American allies after a blowup by Mr. Trump at the Group of 7 gathering last month in Quebec, and increased concerns that far from projecting solidarity in the face of threats from Russia, the meeting will highlight divisions within the alliance. Such a result could play into the hands of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, who is to meet with Mr. Trump in Helsinki, Finland, after the NATO meeting.

In his letters, the president hinted that after more than a year of public and private complaints that allies have not done enough to share the burden of collective defense, he may be considering a response, including adjusting the United States’ military presence around the world.

“As we discussed during your visit in April, there is growing frustration in the United States that some allies have not stepped up as promised,” Mr. Trump wrote to Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in a particularly pointed letter, according to someone who saw it and shared excerpts with The New York Times. “The United States continues to devote more resources to the defense of Europe when the Continent’s economy, including Germany’s, are doing well and security challenges abound. This is no longer sustainable for us.”

The president’s complaint is that many NATO allies are not living up to the commitment they made at their Wales summit meeting in 2014 to spend 2 percent of their gross domestic product on national defense. American presidents have long complained about the lack of burden-sharing by NATO member countries, but Mr. Trump has taken that criticism much further, claiming that some of the United States’ closest allies are essentially deadbeats who have failed to pay debts to the organization, a fundamental misunderstanding of how it functions.

The Trump administration has already reportedly been analyzing a large-scale withdrawal of American forces from Germany, after Mr. Trump expressed surprise that 35,000 active-duty troops are stationed there and complained that NATO countries were not contributing enough to the alliance.

In the letter, Mr. Trump told Ms. Merkel that Germany also deserves blame for the failure of other NATO countries to spend enough: “Continued German underspending on defense undermines the security of the alliance and provides validation for other allies that also do not plan to meet their military spending commitments, because others see you as a role model.”

In language that is echoed in his letters to the leaders of other countries--including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Erna Solberg of Norway and Prime Minister Charles Michel of Belgium--Mr. Trump said he understands the “domestic political pressure” brought to bear by opponents of boosting military expenditures, noting that he has expended “considerable political capital to increase our own military spending.”

“It will, however, become increasingly difficult to justify to American citizens why some countries do not share NATO’s collective security burden while American soldiers continue to sacrifice their lives overseas or come home gravely wounded,” Mr. Trump wrote to Ms. Merkel.

Mr. Michel reacted tartly last week to the letter, telling reporters at a European Union summit meeting in Brussels that he was “not very impressed” by it, according to a report by Deutsche Welle.

“Trump still seems to think that NATO is like a club that you owe dues to, or some sort of protection racket where the U.S. is doing all the work protecting all these deadbeat Europeans while they’re sitting around on vacation, and now he is suggesting there are consequences,” said Derek Chollet, a former Defense Department official who is the executive vice president for security and defense policy at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

“Europeans have been watching Donald Trump begin to implement his rhetoric on trade in ways that are very combative,” he said, “and they’re starting to contemplate whether he would do this regarding security issues, as well.”

Mr. Trump’s disparagement of Europe and the alliance has become almost routine, leaving some veteran diplomats aghast. Last week, Jim Melville, the United States ambassador to Estonia, told friends and colleagues that he would resign at the end of this month after more than 30 years in the Foreign Service, in part because of the president’s language.

“For the President to say the E.U. was ‘set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank,’ or that ‘NATO is as bad as NAFTA’ is not only factually wrong, but proves to me that it’s time to go,” Mr. Melville wrote in a Facebook post. He was referring to remarks about Europe that the president made during a rally last week in Fargo, N.D., and comments about NATO that he is reported to have made privately during the Group of 7 gathering.

[technology-and-ethics]

Introduction: What am I interested in?

On this blog I want to share my thoughts about social media and politics. I especially want to see how social media might be able to change our political environment. 

In our seminar we often talked about the effect of technology in our lives. Humans use a lot of technology in almost every aspect of our lives. It is hard to imagine live without technology since we are so used to it. Nowadays, it is always necessary to use technology in some kind of way. It does not matter if it is for work, school or every day life. Of course, technology is just an umbrella term for many things. One of them is the internet, which is not really something that has been around for a long time. The official birth of the internet is “January 1, 1983” (”A Brief History of the Internet”). From 1983 to now a lot has changed on the internet. You can do almost everything on the internet now. Buy stuff, work, book a vacation, play games and more. There is  a specific invention that is only available because we have the internet. It has changed our lives more than anything else. This invention is Social Media. The very first social media site that was made was called Six Degrees and was created in 1997 (Hendricks). You could use it to update your profile and make friends (Hendricks).

Now social media is a huge part of life and has changed a lot over the years. You do not use it to just make friends or introduce yourself with your profile. Social media is not  used for only private matters anymore.

When the topic social media first came up in one of our class discussions I thought about what I see on social media when I use them. There is not just your friends, your family, your profile and things that you might like. There are news, advertisements, products, gossip and much more. Social media is now used by big companies, small business, entrepreneurs, famous people and more. We even have people, who work as social media influencers.

But it is not just economy that found its way into social media. There is a lot od politics on social media. That does not seem to be a strange development since politicians are suppose to be there for the people. There is no better way to connect to the people than social media.

It is also really convenient for me and I imagine a lot of other people because I am interested in politics and I use a lot of social media. I get all the information about different political topics from there since I do not read newspapers nor do I listen to the radio. I sometimes catch the news on TV but that is not very often. Most of my political input comes from Tumblr, Twitter and Instagram. The question now is: Is this something I or we should be doing?

At first, this may seem like a bad idea because social media has this issue of “fake news” but I do not have a lot of trouble with that. Over the years I have learned to always research if I read something important on social media. I do not think that “Fake News” are a phenomena that social media has caused since newspapers and other news providers often show their own bias or make make confusing statements. For example, in a lecture I attended one of our lecturers showed us that statistics are often purposely formatted as confusing as possible. It tricks people at the first glance because most people will not look closer. This phenomena is analyzed by a few professors every month in Germany with their “Unstatisk des Monats” format. Their website is in German (https://www.rwi-essen.de/unstatistik/) but I have found a translation of one of their recently analyzed statistics, (https://www.hardingcenter.de/en/unstatistik/unstatistik-march-2020-english-corona-pandemic-statistical-concepts-and-their-limits). I do not want to analyse this further, with this I only want to say that I think that with social media we have become more aware of this problem of manipulation and “Fake News” but that it is not something that social media has caused on its own.

Once I established this, I realized that there is something something concerning about my intake of political information. Even though I am interested in politics I am not really getting much about politics in Germany or German politicians, which is not really good since I live in that country. I know the basics and current affairs but no more. 

.In contrast, I know a lot more about American politics. Not just the current news I have more background information than I thought I had. I had not even realized that this is something I that I should be aware of. I thought further about it and came up with a few explanation on why this might be.

Not only is social media is very “Americanized” but the treatment of social media in political situations is very different. German politicians do have Instagram, Twitter and Facebook but they are not managed like the accounts of American politicians. Often they are not managed by the politicians themselves but by social media teams (it depends on how known someone is because smaller not so well known politicians do manage their own account). Of course, American politicians do use social media teams too but their engagement seems to be more natural. It actually looks like they were part of the decision on what to post and we know some of them do post their own content for example Trump, Obama, AOC.

If you look at Germany, chancellor Angela Merkel’s Instagram account feels impersonal. I do not believe that she even is aware of what is put on that account. Most of the German politicians have accounts that feel the same way to me. They are some pictures with children etc. especially if they are about to enter voting periods but otherwise they are really straight forward with only political statements. Now I need to ask myself, is this even a reason to complain? Because is that not what we want from them? To be professional? Politics should be about politics only. Does it matter if a politician is popular on social media or known? Manages their own social media?

On the opposite direction we have American politicians. Three examples from America would be Donald Trump, Barack Obama and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

First, we have Donald Trump. There is not much I can say about him that a look through is Twitter would have said if it had not been deleted for spreading too much misinformation, which does make “Fake News” dangerous again if it comes from someone who is suppose to be believable if it comes to politics. I will say though that I could not imagine a German politician doing what Trump did on Twitter during his presidential period. The constant fights and fake accusations against not only other countries but against people and politicians from other parties. Not behind closed doors but in front of everyone on social media. Of course, we can take Trump as an extreme. As a second example, we have the former president Barack Obama, who has an Instagram and Twitter where he for example posts about his yearly movie, book and music recommendations. At last, we have the United States Representative AOC, who makes a lot of “Instagram Live” videos to personally talk and answer questions the people have about politics. She even does twitch game streams with famous streamers. Even I follow her Instagram account and she is not even political responsible for me. I do not follow any German politicians.

Nevertheless, America is a deeply divided country when it comes to politics and I ask myself if social media has somehow affected this development? Think about the storming of the capital in January 2021 which was organized most likely on social media and was actively encouraged by some republicans on Twitter.

In conclusion, I am asking myself a few questions:

→ Should Germany become more like American in the regard of Social Media in politics?

→ Or should American politicians take a step back from Social Media?

→ Is Social Media affecting politics in a positive or negative way? Or is there no real black or white way of seeing this? Is social media a gray area?

I want to try to answer these questions in particular since I want to figure out if social media has hurt the development of politics or if it has helped people become closer to politics. Do we need to limit social media or should we encourage political discourse on social media? I think the effects of social media in politics have only been discussed superficial I want to bring my own view into this equation, too. I want to see the effect social media has on politics. I want to see if it has an effect on people if we get information on politics from social media or somewhere else.

“A Brief History of the Internet.”, University System of Georgia, https://www.usg.edu/galileo/skills/unit07/internet07_02.phtml#:~:text=January%201%2C%201983%20is%20considered,Protocol%20(TCP%2FIP). Accessed 05.03.2021.

Hendricks, Drew. “The Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now.” Small Business Trends, 8 May 2013, https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html. Accessed 05.03.2021.

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[baja-network]

Storms, earthquakes, floods, tsunamis - we humans experience natural disasters again and again. Hardly anyone denies the danger it poses. The corona pandemic is also such a natural disaster - and yet there are deniers, skeptics and refuser’s. Why is it so difficult for us to properly understand the phenomenon and act accordingly? We can't see the virus Seeing dominates all other sensory perceptions: With the eyes we very quickly learn a lot about our outside world. In the event of danger, we particularly rely on our eyes, because we can "see" them coming and react to them. At the same time, we tend to ignore things that we cannot see or, for example, cannot smell. We cannot perceive the coronavirus directly. That is why we are always inclined to forget it. Some even deny it.

In addition, most people first have to experience drastic consequences before they can properly assess something as a phenomenon: only comparatively few people see the sick in the clinic suffer. Only now, in the second wave, is the virus getting closer, and many know someone in their immediate environment who is sick with Covid-19. So the pandemic is slowly penetrating social consciousness as a real catastrophe.

Humans tend to make systematic misjudgments We like to meet new challenges with too much optimism in terms of duration and costs: the Sydney Opera House opened ten years late, and it cost more than 100 million Australian dollars - seven million were planned. This example was later followed in Germany by the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Berlin Airport.

In everyday life, too, we often underestimate objective risks: As is well known, the risk of death is much lower with a flight than with a car. However, we usually assess it the other way round because we are behind the wheel of the car ourselves - that is the positive illusion of personal control. Underestimating the risk of infection ("just a flu") leads to careless behavior and turns many into distributors of the virus, even without wanting to. Conversely, we systematically overestimate risks when we are very afraid: Many people no longer leave the house out of fear. We easily overlook the remaining design leeway. We now know that we can control the risk of infection with the coronavirus by wearing masks, keeping your distance, ventilating and ensuring good hygiene.

We have to learn to integrate these new measures into our everyday lives - at least temporarily. Of course, this also entails considerable restrictions; we forego concerts, theater, and restaurant visits with friends. Why do we find it so difficult?

Man is a social being We living beings are evolutionary and can only survive in a group: a newborn baby needs a caring group. People are also dependent on caregivers for a particularly long time. As social beings, (almost) all people, despite strong personality differences, are highly dependent on close social contacts, be it in the family, be it during sport or at work. Social encounter and recognition is what defines our life. That is why (almost) all people suffer from official contact restrictions. The social "loneliness" prescribed because of the virus hits our minds because it is directed against our "social nature".

What can we do in this situation? We need new ways of social interaction: Many people already communicate via Skype, Zoom, WebEx, Facetime or Teams, for example. The oldest generation is still often excluded from this, here it is important to train our entire society in all areas of life and not to wait for the end of the pandemic. We also need innovations for electronic communication. Of course, this does not replace personal encounters in the long run, but it is a new form of interaction with which we can expand the variety of our encounter opportunities. Why do many find it so difficult to accept new forms of social interaction as a substitute?

Humans are creatures of habits When a natural disaster hits us, such as the Oder flood in 1997, it usually only hits part of the country, in this case parts of the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. The people in the affected areas are usually ready to adapt their everyday lives at short notice. At that time there was even a considerable wave of aid from all over Germany to secure the dams. This is not unusual: it was a visible catastrophe with a clearly limited duration, clearly identifiable affected persons and easily perceivable, clear measures (reinforcement of almost flooded dams) to avert worse. We like to help because we can see the suffering and know that we only have to help for a few weeks.

However, the situation is different when measures are designed to last. Many people in western countries already find it a severe restriction on their freedom if they are to wear a mask for large parts of the day. In the face of the pandemic, why not just change our habits, wear a mask everywhere except at home, keep our distance, ventilate?

From the point of view of psychology, we act most of the time according to ingrained behavioral patterns: We have been brought up to observe rituals of greeting, courtesy and encounter. We have internalized that.

Our automatic everyday behavior is controlled by implicit memory, while explicit conscious thinking requires an interplay of working memory and declarative memory. However, the forms of memory are to a very large extent independent of one another, in particular the implicit memory is strongly independent of what we call explicit thinking in everyday life: That is why a heavy smoker does not become a non-smoker by realizing that smoking is very harmful. The realization that you urgently need to lose weight does not usually change anything in your eating behavior. Even a lecture on ethical principles does not make us good people.

Daniel Kahneman describes this as the difference between two processing systems: While system 1 is responsible for the fast, emotional and automatic processing of information and thus sets our habits in motion, only system 2 enables slow, rational and reflective processing of information, i.e. it enables explicit reflection. Now the result of explicit reflection must also find its way into our habits, but these are primarily controlled by system 1. If we want to change these, not only does system 2 have to accept new thoughts, but these have to change the imprinting of system 1.

And this is only possible through systematic, and ideally also emotionally anchored training: A heavy smoker often only manages to quit by adopting a pleasant alternative behavior, for example he eats something instead of smoking. It is usually difficult to find a pleasant substitute behavior that does not replace the one addiction with a new problem behavior. That is exactly the challenge: only through the interplay of insight and training in appropriate, new behaviors is it possible to break fatal habits.

That seems to work if you really want to. But here again the fact that we usually do not yet perceive the pandemic as a natural disaster has an impact. In Angela Merkel we have a Chancellor who, as a scientist, recognized the seriousness of the situation early on: As early as March she said: “Since German unification, no, since the Second World War, there has been no challenge to our country that has it as much as we act in solidarity together.”She was right.

People believe that they are entitled to existential security, prosperity and individual freedom With the help of science and industry, we have largely overcome hunger, made floods and storms predictable, and with the help of modern medicine we have greatly reduced most diseases or at least made them manageable. We are used to growing up without existential challenges, so one of the most common causes of death in people between 15 and 29 is suicide (besides traffic accidents).

Most of them live in such a »secure« everyday life that they can limit themselves to shaping their individual preferences in everyday life: Which job fulfills me? Which hobby suits me? Where should the next vacation go? Basically only laws and our financial resources limit us.

The basic idea is that the freedom of the individual ends where he or she violates the integrity, dignity or freedom of the other. And that we also have to work for the community. Only then can a democratic society last.

We take a safeguard against existential challenges and a democratic society of freedom for granted.

However, a natural disaster calls that into question. Now, in the pandemic, the virus is unpredictably putting everyone's health at risk. Because even if there are risk factors, it can affect everyone to a particular degree in individual cases. Even our modern health system cannot guarantee survival for severely ill people: one in four people who are invasively ventilated dies. In addition, there is the imminent danger that the many Covid sufferers overload the hospitals. In the worst case, they would then have to turn away other patients. We don't just rely on our habits, but on a claim to normality. To reiterate, it is that without any particular effort, we expect that we need not have any physical or financial existential fear. That we can enjoy extensive individual freedom. And that we also have a right to our well-deserved vacation away with social contacts.

In extreme cases, this claim is combined with a denial of the pandemic, as the "lateral thinkers" movement often does: It cannot be that which restricts my everyday life in such a way. These partly anti-democratic movements make it clear that our real civil liberties are not endangered when we wear a mask and keep our distance, but when populists do not want to see the facts of the present or consciously distort them.

The solution? Science and common sense Even the previous reference to statistics and objective risks is only possible thanks to science. Even if the scientific standard is constantly evolving, new knowledge is added and old assumptions sometimes have to be withdrawn, scientifically based assessments and recommendations remain the best that we - and this includes politics - can take as the basis for our actions. With that we flew to the moon.

People can master incredible challenges if they see them adequately, accept them and tackle them with collective energy. Complementary procedures are definitely part of it: Doctors have now worked out clear rules of conduct. Science and the pharmaceutical industry have developed various vaccines in record time. If enough people get vaccinated, we can use it to stop the corona pandemic - before it develops the same proportions as the Spanish flu. But even with a (sufficient) vaccine, it takes a good organization of the mass vaccination, time, discipline and perseverance until the time comes. Unfortunately, many believe that now that the vaccine is finally here, they can go back to normal. Many people in Germany live their everyday lives with the attitude "My friends are not infected (and if so, it's worth it)".

We still have to strictly adhere to the rules of conduct, wherever this is justifiable. So we can keep the disaster in check until the vaccine protects us as a community. To do this, however, we have to change our everyday life, for example wear a mask for all encounters outside our own household. Is this an encroachment on personal freedom rights? Only if you think you can claim every egoistic interest of a person as freedom, even if this behavior threatens the entire community as well as its existence and freedom rights: Anyone who consciously breaks the necessary rules of behavior without sufficient reason behaves like someone who discovered the fire in an apartment, but neither warned the residents of the house nor alerted the fire brigade.

Anyone who refuses to be vaccinated without a medical reason acts like someone who steps out from a fire chain with buckets of water and says: I won't take part.

Isn't that a bit one-sided? What about the collateral damage? And don't we have other problems? That is certainly correct. When making decisions, politicians have to take many things into account, especially in this context: a functioning economy, the right to education, the preservation of fundamental freedoms. But also, for example, the suffering that the restricted contact triggers in people with mental health problems.

There will therefore only ever be a pragmatic compromise. But we should use science and common sense to clearly oppose denial, looking the other way and ignoring as well as any kind of Chinese dictatorship.

In liberal societies we have to find our own way of dealing with the catastrophe: Only if we are ready to fundamentally change our behavior in everyday life will we be able to preserve our everyday life in a democracy with great freedoms. Here the pandemic is a preliminary exercise for further challenges that are not so easily visible. The climate catastrophe, for example. Are we up to these challenges? "We make it!" Can we find a solution? "Yes, we can." If and to the extent that we are guided by reason, vision and a sense of community.

Translated from German using DeepL

[diaspora9ja]

Trump’s Character Tragedy: Lessons For Nigeria

“By no means has man reached his vacation spot by persistence in deviation from the straight path.” – Mahatma Gandhi.

It was obvious to some from the outset when he declared his intention to run for the workplace of the President of the USA of America that Donald J. Trump lacked character. He lacked the ethical values of a city union chief, not to mention the ‘chief of the free world’, probably the most highly effective man on this planet. America Republican Get together, recognized for it’s conservative rules and household values, was conscious of the egregious tales round Trump’s private and enterprise endeavours. For a person who likes attaching his identify to his enterprise ventures, who had so many failed enterprise ventures, it’s stunning that he had sufficient ‘model fairness “to be a populist politician.

Earlier than they overwhelmingly voted for him as President on November 8, 2016, most American Christians have heard the ‘Entry Hollywood’ tape on which Donald Trump boasted of forcing himself on girls, about his behavior of sexually assaulting girls. The GOP was conscious of Trump’s racist credentials. They knew that he spearheaded the Birtherism Motion in opposition to Barack Obama. He expounded the insane conspiracy concept that he was not born in America.

Trump didn’t faux to have any modicum of decency or that he was a dedicated democrat. He levelled insults at his opponents through the Republican Presidential Primaries in 2016, he lied with out compunction, mocked a disabled reporter, and shattered all types of decorum . Throughout the presidential contest, he refused to commit himself to concede the election within the occasion of a loss. He insisted that he would solely settle for the outcomes of the election if he have been the winner.

It was all politics, and the USA Republican celebration was solely interested by capturing political energy. Trump exploited the anti-immigrant fears of the American dominant Caucasian inhabitants and fairly a proportion of Individuals have been uninterested in politicians and admired the anti-establishment candidate who promised to shatter the norms and ‘drain the swamp.’ Trump, the billionaire, positioned himself as a fighter for the oppressed Individuals; nonetheless, lots of his countrymen have been swindled regardless of the paradox.

As President, most of Trump’s insurance policies anchored on the themes’”America First”and “Make America Nice Once more”shattered norms. His immigration insurance policies have been blatantly racist as they focused poor and Muslim international locations. Trump positioned a ban on seven Islamic international locations from coming into the USA – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia was not on the record although many of the terrorist that blew up the World Commerce Centre within the notorious ‘9/11’ debacle have been Saudis. Not one of the residents from the counties positioned beneath Trump’s journey ban had ever dedicated an act of home terrorism in the USA.

Within the diplomatic area, Trump pulled the USA out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Paris Local weather Accord. He riled different North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) members and issued a journey ban on among the Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) judges. Trump cuddled as much as dictators and threw insults at fellow leaders. He famously known as Africa a ‘shithole’ and reportedly disparaged President Muhammadu Buhari earlier than his assistants through the latter’s diplomatic go to to the White Home.

Little surprise many individuals had trigger to look as much as German Chancellor, Angela Merkel as ‘the chief of the Free World’, a time period typically accorded each US President.

Nevertheless, Trump lacked the ethical character to be President of the USA of America. His traducers contemplate him as a humiliation to Western civilisation. This lack of character later turned his Achilles heels. When he misplaced the 2020 Presidential elections to Joe Biden by large margins – 7 million-plus fashionable votes and 74 Electoral Faculty votes, he would have gracefully conceded as each American President prior to now had executed.

On this approach, he would have left workplace proudly with some outstanding achievements and his supporters would all the time revere him, even many who by no means preferred his model. However, as a braggadocio demagogue, Trump continued to expound foolish conspiracy theories to clarify away his obvious electoral loss. He propagated lies, used insults and intimidation in opposition to American public servants overseeing the electoral course of for merely doing their jobs and refusing to bend to his doubtful will. Even when his authorized workforce misplaced over 63 courtroom circumstances, and judges he appointed faulted his absurd authorized filings, he continued to deceive his followers that one way or the other, he would proceed in workplace for 4 extra years. Trump didn’t care that his doubtful antics price his celebration management of the Senate, eradicating the final bastion of examine his celebration would have had on the incoming Biden administration. He was solely involved together with his grievances, his slippery, futile battle to cling on to the presidency. An influence-drunk Trump known as his followers to the US capital on January 6 to intimidate the legislators on the Capitol into upturning the American public’s will, one thing that might have ended the US as a constitutional democracy. He tried to intimidate his ever-loyal Vice President into exercising powers the latter didn’t have. He insulted Mike Pence, decried his deputy’s lack of braveness, and tried to show his deranged ‘MAGAites’ in opposition to the Senate’s ceremonial President. It shouldn’t be sudden that Trump’s lengthy indoctrinated followers felt they owed it an obligation to their supposed demigod to show the legislators who have been making an attempt to take energy away from their chief an enormous lesson. So, they stormed the legislative constructing, sacked the lawmakers, and desecrated some of the sacred edifices of democracy on earth. Now the ’emperor’ is bare, and the lengthy knives are fully out. There are mass resignations, all-round condemnation, talks about invoking the twenty fifth Modification (by means of which members of his cupboard can take away a president on the grounds of incapacitation), looming unprecedented 2nd impeachment, bipartisan requires his resignation and the sudden demise of ‘Trumpism’ as a severe political motion. The Trump presidency will perpetually be outlined not by the Christian-friendly posturing, anti-immigrant sentiments and insurance policies, the tax cuts, the three conservative Supreme Court docket judges, the huge rallies or the large lies, bombastic talks, inane exaggerations, or unbridled insults however by the horrible occasions of January 6, 2021. A date when he egged on his followers to embark on an rebellion in opposition to America’s elected representatives. His identify shall be mired in infamy perpetually. The occasions of the previous three months in America underscores the significance of two substances of democracy. One is the significance of sturdy establishments. The second is the significance of the character of a frontrunner. US establishments withstood the onslaught and barrage of assaults from Trump’s political equipment and his cronies. The judiciary threw out over 63 courtroom circumstances. All of the states licensed the election outcomes even when Trump known as on some Republican States to rescind. Even when Trump’s mob attacked the holy chambers, the legislature stood its floor to finish its conventional operate of accepting the electoral faculty outcomes. The Georgian governor, the Vice President, and plenty of republican officers stood their floor in opposition to Trump and his members of the family’ threats in the event that they fail to do their bidding stalling the democratic course of. Each establishments and actors within the political area allowed democratic rules to prevail in opposition to all odds. The lesson for Nigeria is that we should construct sturdy establishments that may survive any onslaught by a radical political juggernaut or demagogue. Robust establishments make sturdy democracies. Think about if one choose in a single federal excessive courtroom has issued a courtroom injunction in opposition to the election, the drama and lies and subterfuge would have continued within the US. We keep in mind that one of many causes given for the annulment of the ill-fated June 12, 1993, election was the courtroom injunction gotten by an obscure group stopping the votes’ counting. In instances of disaster, establishments needs to be guarded by nationwide curiosity and democratic rules. Now’s the time to strengthen these establishments to be in an excellent place to face up to pressures in future. Character is crucial in management. Trump’s lack of fine character has lastly undone him. His despicable place in notorious historical past is assured. Nevertheless, individuals learn about his character and didn’t suppose it issues earlier than voting for him. Character is all the pieces! Leaders with awful character will finally destroy the system or tarnish the picture of the nation. It doesn’t matter how skilful or educated they’re as leaders. By no means in Nigeria’s democratic future ought to we fail to look at the character of whoever needs to steer us, nor ignore the evil nature of would-be leaders and vote them in. It would come again to hang-out us. If there may be proof of corruption, laziness, routine mendacity, and tendency to be authoritarian for any would-be-leader, they have to not be allowed any management place. Ignoring these traits in a frontrunner will solely spell doom for the nation. The US just isn’t solely embarrassed by the occasions of the previous few months, however they’ve misplaced the ethical authority because the beacon of hope for democracy. How will the US have the audacity to query undemocratic actions and inactions in different international locations? How will it, in all honesty, preach democracy to the world? Little surprise some described the occasions of the previous few days because the demise of democracy as we all know it. We hope that Biden will restore model USA as now we have all the time recognized it and that The US will proceed to steer western civilisation to better heights. Occasions of the previous few days have proven that no democracy is ideal. It’s a work in progress. Native actors and native circumstances outline and reify the efficiency of the democratic system. Nevertheless, the tenets and rules of a democratic system needs to be upheld in any respect price irrespective of the political gamers or environment. This saved American democracy on the finish of the day. Women and men of goodwill in varied establishments and non-governmental constructions caught to defending democratic values irrespective of Trump’s pressures. Nigeria should drive democratic tenets and rules into the materials of our political tradition, and all stakeholders should dedicate to adhering to them and defending them when beneath assault.

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[talesfromtheartbog]

Day 6 - Address

My fellow Americans,

This is the 978th time I have broadcast live into your homes, workplaces and schools as your President. When I took office almost three months ago, it was the most turbulent time in American history. Her people were at their most divided since 1860. My predecessor had just been impeached. The Democratic party sent a record 17 candidates to the ballot, paving the path for my successful campaign to become our great Nation's first independent President.

But as you know, my presidency has not been without controversies. Through each of them, I feel I have learned a lot, taking at least six hours away from the public eye to really reflect and grow as a person.

Many of these controversies have actually been good for America, in the long term. My decision to move the office of the presidency to my manor in Los Angeles and convert the White House into an incubator for aspiring content creators and influencers has boosted Youtube Red content submissions over 300%, leading to a nearly half-percent increase in Youtube Red subscribers at an untold benefit to the American economy.

But those controversies have not been without detriment, to me. When I visited our troops in Tehran, I understand now that I have lost over 600,000 subscribers that it was wrong with me to pose, laughing, with the charred corpses of our civilian bombing targets. It is my hope and prayer that those 600,000 people understand that I have grown and changed and matured a lot as a person since that incident last week, and if they will subscribe to my content I think they will see that.

I am truly honored to have been elected to the highest office in our great nation, and ensure the American people that in everything I have done, I promise has been not only for my personal enrichment and entertainment, but the enrichment and entertainment of America herself. Which is why, ahead of multiple congressional and independent press investigations into my Administration, I think the time is right to come clean to you all about a number of things.

First, I confess that, despite my previous denials, I do indeed own the twitter handle @DeutscherMILFHunter69. I did indeed use this account to beg Angela Merkel for a follow, at which point I did in fact DM her a picture of my genitals. I assure you this was absolutely done for America and not myself. Angela Merkel is super ugly, and I have pulled much hotter trim than her just this morning. This was done in an attempt to secure a more favorable trade deal with the EU, bypassing several key tariffs on various cheese and beer by products used in the production of 1-Db Overdrive and 1-Db Goddess for the ladies, both absolutely amazing weight loss supplements that I have personally used to shed those unwanted pounds and get back in shape just in time for swimsuit season, available now at Supplement Superstores in Chocolate, Vanilla and my personal favorite, Cookies n Cream.

I must also confess that my Celebrity Boxing Match with French President Emmanuel Macron was a work. I admit this should seem obvious, as he is like 50 and I could very clearly beat his ass. However, this was done in exchange for nudes of Eva Green. I understand she has had her rockin' tits out in several films, but I was lead to believe the Dropbox file contained over 300 jpgs that included pussy pics. It was my intent to leak these rare box shots online, to the benefit of Americans both home and abroad. Unfortunately the Dropbox photos were very clearly publicity headshots of Eva Green photoshopped onto pornography. The French did not even use the same porn model across all photos, leading to noticeable variations in breast size, labia color, skin tone and even moles and birthmarks. This is the true reason for the expulsion of the French ambassador from Washington, and our withdrawal from the United Nations.

Lastly, I take full responsibility for the controversial decision to install "Whites Only" bathrooms in Big Sur National Park. To be clear, while Secretary of the Interior Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg initially pitched this as an easy attempt to cut back on wait times and bathroom lines, I decided to go through with it entirely as a prank. and my video "My Hispanic Maid Reacts To Whites Only Bathroom [Big Sur Vacation]" was the single most viewed video for Week 3 of February 2021, and my personal most successful prank video of all time. But I understand this is a violation of civil rights laws, and until Congress changes these antiquated policies, I must abide by them and apologize for my failures to do so.

I believe that I have done an outstanding job as President, but as the activities of my office have been limited by these controversies and my subscribers and sponsors have been dwindling, I believe it is in the best interest of myself, the office of President of the United States and the American people that I resign from office, effective noon tomorrow - streamed live on Youtube, Twitch and Periscope. Vice President Cena will be sworn into office at that time from the WWE Headquarters in Stamford, CT.

May God bless you, may God bless America, and don't forget to like and subscribe.