#it's also cool because a lot of the factual information does match up with what was written in the nott biography!!

[beachboysnatural]

I’ve spent so much time today poring over tiny print in digitized old magazines that my head is starting to hurt really badly but I don’t want to stop because it’s so fun

[allwormdiet]

Gestation 1.2

There's such a specific pain that comes from the person you trust the most stabbing you in the back, I don't know if it's the worst pain in the world but there's really nothing else with that... I dunno, that feeling that the ground's gone out from underneath you. And knowing about Annette's death, and that I think Emma becomes this way as a kind of idolization of Sophia... it's just a bad situation that gets worse with context and over time. Utterly miserable.

Two hundred pages of notes on your own powers and training as a superhero is like. So fucking much. I don't think I'd manage that one, I don't know how many people could match that one. Is this a side effect of Wild "7000 page novel" bow being the author here? Is this what he considers normal?

Bless Taylor for making even a token effort at trying to look at the bright side of a shitty situation, I don't know how long that's gonna last but even now she's still trying.

Also, okay, the dismissal of Taylor's power isn't just textual, it's coming from inside the house. Kid, your power is great, that's the self-loathing talking, you're gonna change the world with that shit.

Also lmao @ Taylor's lack of killer instinct, how long does that last I wonder.

Is a little interesting that Taylor doesn't even necessarily get the full factual information of a bug under her control, but I guess that's not really necessary for her power to do its thing.

Also interesting to note that Taylor still has nerves about her bugs, considering how much art I've seen of her absolutely crawling with the things. Guess that attitude doesn't last super long.

Okay so I think there's actually a lot to unpack in this section so I'm gonna get into it

There's an immediate and sharp divide between independent capes like Taylor and the big dogs who have people to take care of things like costumes for them, and that divide is only going to become more stark over time. I don't even know what the solution for such a thing would be, you can't exactly do small loans to anonymous capes for this kind of thing and any kind of neutral third party that could do this would be an immediate target for stealing customer information. It's a logistical concern, and a thorny one at that.

The cleverness with the spider silk and the subsequent roadblock of realizing that it's hard as fuck to make a costume out of spider silk are both great. Awesome idea that's immediately undercut by a complicated execution, I wonder if that's gonna come back up at any p

I'm a little curious about the exact decision making on Brockton Bay's location. Not to say that it's a bad call off the bat to put it where it is, more that Wildbow seems to have immediately made a call, realized it was going to complicate some things, and then made a workaround. I dunno how different the story would be if it took place further south, if at all, but it stands out to me at least.

(It is also a little funny to imagine that Brockton Bay is more popular with capes because it's easier to wear silly costumes in the local climate, I don't think it's true but not-trueities are fun)

Taylor's resourcefulness is an immediate standout trait in this chapter, I think this is the first time I learned that the armor plating was literally made from reinforced exoskeletons but wow what a cool and slightly gross detail.

I'm sure this will be the only time that Taylor feels a bridge has been burned beyond the point where it's worth mending and move to take decisive action in whatever direction doesn't involve that bridge, yessir. This will definitely not be a recurring behavior in this character.

Immediate Thoughts

More time spent getting to know Taylor. The plot isn't so much moving forward as getting into position at the starting line, which gives us time to get used to her perspective and her thought patterns. What I wanna know is how she thinks being an independent superhero is gonna, like, work? The likely answer is that she hasn't thought that far ahead and is just gonna like, wander around looking for random encounters. She's still too square (and broke) to get a police scanner or something like that, that's for sure. Wait to see what happens, I guess.

[thrown-away-opinions]

So I made the mistake of watching the hbomberguy plagiarism video. I don't know why, because I kinda hate him and his entire shtick and his entire sanpaku-eyed desperate style of presentation that screams "please think I'm smart and that I am a moral cool guy who does good things!"

Anyways, the dumb fuck kinda missed the mark by a mile and the urgency and drama he tries to invoke amounts to being very angry that some people have made careers out of regurgitating other people's work. There's a few reasons why, but let's set this right up front: Yes, plagiarism is bad. It's a terrible thing to steal someone else's work, pass it off as your own, and then try to weasel out of it when caught. It's also an extremely stupid thing to do, especially if your job is writing reviews or giving your own opinions on some piece of media and plagiarism leads to reciting factually incorrect information.

That said, there's a few assertions and implications in this retardedly long video that stuck out to me and I want to talk, at length, about them. That these people have made a lot of money and are therefore bad. That citations or crediting sources would have changed something. That people careers have been damaged or somehow denied big piles of money because they were plagiarized.

Making a lot of money seems more like a vague sort of "rich people bad" but it's such a hollow assertion to make. Youtube financially incentivizes content creation or a certain type, quantity, and regularity. The algorithm is a slot machine. Ad revenue is just money on the table, and if someone disables the ad revenue on their videos, youtube runs ads anyways and the channel just doesn't get any of the money generated. As for stuff like patreon and parasocial simp behavior, you can't really stop people from doing what they want with their money. Hasan Piker became a millionaire because retards like throw money at him to watch other people's youtube videos and occasionally say the dumbest shit imaginable. If we could stop people from watching, let alone financially supporting dipshits, we would, but we can't. Being mad that they're making money from is just petty, especially if the implication is that being rich makes someone evil and bad, but at the same time, wishing that other people whom Hbomberguy ideologically jive with should be the rich ones instead. It's moronic.

It sounds reductive to just say "don't hate the player, hate the game" because the sort of shameless scumbags who will eagerly plagiarize and openly steal other people's work are detestable. I don't want the takeaway here to be that I think they are harmless or absolved of guilt. The problem is simply something far larger than youtube or social media. It's something that is not caused by the temptation of getting easy money from stealing ideas, but something that is inherent in the sorts of opportunistic scumbags that have always existed all throughout human history. Trying to shame them or expose them can only accomplish so much when they are already shameless to begin with.

Moving on to the value of citations, aside from being a genuinely nice and professional thing to do, it would not meaningfully change the profitability of content mill channels who largely use other people's work to rapidly produce videos faster than a real writer/researcher could script them. At most, it would add a slight bit more runtime and put more text in the very easy to ignore "about" section of a video, which would never get seen by 99% of viewers. Trying to impose some sort of labor speedbump by demanding citations and credits won't meaningfully stop these people from profiting off other people's work at a speed honest creators couldn't match anyways because they've been burdened by a sense of self-respect and honesty.

Furthermore, properly cited credit will not divert viewers and fans towards monetarily supporting the sources, nor encourage the diehards on patreon to stop donating. Youtube will still give the payout for the views and clicks and engagement on a video that can be 100% regurgitated, copied content, cited or not, regardless.

Additionally, the reasons people watch certain youtubers and types of content is often totally divorced from any thoughts about academic ethics. Most of the time, the audience doesn't even care because that doesn't even factor into their enjoyment of some background noise video or hearing a youtuber they like talk about something they might be mildly interested in.

Not to mention that there are countless successful youtubers who making a living reading reddit posts, reciting lore from fan wikis, reading 4chan greentexts in funny voices, or just "reacting" to other people's videos, just literally reading things other people have written word for word. This is content that is both directly cited and stuff that has no author to credit or cite at all but is still stolen. Despite knowing the content is stolen, uncited, plagiarized, etc, people watch them anyways and ad revenue payout happens regardless. There's functionally no difference, credited or not, but one is seemingly permissible because it's open about using other people's writing or research or ideas.

Is it a huge fucking problem that is turning the internet into a terrible place? Absolutely, but it wouldn't make a fucking difference if they cited the content they were reposting, because the core problem is actually the way youtube and other social media sites tell people they'll pay them for generating that sludge content, even if it's stolen, reposted, or purposefully made in a way to abuse the algorithm.

The last point I feel like covering is the idea that the specific plagiarists are denying money and career advancement to others by stealing from them. The implication being that because someone thinks the guy who makes awful video essays about Disney and Queerness who lifts his scripts almost 100% from books he never credits, the writers of those authors are being denied money and their careers as "voices of the queer community" or whatever, have been kneecapped because one other guy took all the credit. Implying that they would be the recipients of all the success, money, and career growth that Queer Plagiarist man, and others, have gained if they hadn't be plagiarized from.

This is moronic for a number of reasons, most of which I've already discussed. The most obvious reason being that they are often competing in completely different areas. The audiences giving clicks and views to the plagiarist aren't making the choice between purchasing a book or watching a youtuber. Published books aren't listed in youtube searches or recommendations.

People can both read books and watch youtube videos, if they want, but clicking on a youtube video isn't at all the same as shopping around to decide which creator is the most ethical and deserving of any sort of financial compensation. Even if the books were cited and listed, at most it amounts to a few sales, if any. However, the supposed outrage is the lack of citation and credit, not that we should be demanding promotion and advertising from youtubers or that every quotation or idea lifted from someone else needs to come with a proportional amount of reimbursement

If it's an article instead, like the case with the 'Man in Cave' video, there's nothing being sold and and the youtuber's career maintains the same trajectory, even if clearly cited and credited, still gains the same audience, the same patreon donors etc. At best, the article might get a few more clicks, so the outrage there is that some clickbait factoid site like Mental Floss didn't collect more ad revenue of its own, which is especially interesting since most of what Mental Floss does is repost articles from other sites with a little link at the bottom that shows you they didn't write shit. Fancy that.

But there's also this direct assertion that other people making similar content about, for example, queerness in Disney media are being denied the fame and success they rightfully deserve because someone else got more popular by being a plagiarist. While there may be a finite amount of time in the world for people to watch youtube videos about stupid bullshit, it is not so finite that it is an all or not situation. People can subscribe to more than one person about a given subject. One person being successful through plagiarism does not exclude anyone else from also being successful on their own merits. If they aren't successful, you can blame the algorithm, lack of interest, or the quality of their actual work.

A similar implication is that if someone were properly recognized for their work through being credited on a video that gets millions of views, that more job offers or interviews or some kind of improvement to their general socioeconomic status would be dropped in their lap. That may be true in matters of outright content theft where a relatively unknown creator loses all views and clicks on something that got stolen by a bigger channel, but not when we're talking about someone who already had a book publishing deal or peer reviewed research.

This kind of echoes the first point about money, but with popularity instead. Impotently whining that someone else got famous when what he wants is for someone better, less objectionable, to get the popularity... and I think that's what's really at the core of hbomberguy's stupidly long video (and this stupidly long rant). He only wants people he likes to be successful and is upset that he can't take that away from them. Plagiarism is just a convenient moral cudgel to wield and a convenient way to whip up his simple minded fans into another witch hunt.

If you go and check Internet Historian's latest video, you can see a significant amount of dislikes, and the comments section is full of people screaming about plagiarism and Tommy Tallarico, who was another target of hbomberguy's obnoxiously elaborate bullshit previously. There's no chance in hell that these people are actually outraged that mentalfloss wasn't properly credited, but they love that sensational self-righteous high they get from joining the latest angry mob whipped up by famous internet smart guy and maker of pretentious videos, hbomberguy.

Now, where does that leave us after all of that shit I just wrote? Well, if there's anything to take away, it's to understand that there are shameless, opportunistic scumbags out there who are constantly looking for their chance to exploit a system for personal gain. Not just on youtube, but everywhere. Crypto. Life coach sigma male shit. Politics. Twitter engagement farming. etc etc. As long as their behavior can be rewarded, they will continue doing it. So get better about spotting it and learn to block, filter, and excise it from whatever feeds you use and expect the same of your friends.

When it comes to the creators you follow, hold certain standards, but know that there is a limit to the moral purity you can expect from them. For most of the big ones out there, the goal is to make money. You can demand proper citations and such from all of them, but then they'll go and take a sponsorship deal from Established titles or Better help or some NFT scam, and that's exponentially worse than presenting information in a way that may making the audience incorrectly assume they've done exhaustive research on a topic when they're just quoting someone else.

And lastly: stop watching Hbomberguy. He's a sanctimonious retard.

[unsafepin]

Optical Illusions: A Study of Aesthetics in Activism in Two Accounts

There’s been a particular thing bothering me about social media for a while. I should probably get a cool editing app, write it in a few bullet points and post it on Instagram. You know what I’m talking about, right? The goddamn infographics. If I have to sit through another slideshow explaining to me another military conflict, another societal issue, another existential unfairness on a baby pink background in a cheery font, I might combust. But the cognitive dissonance of aesthetics in activism has been a problem for a while, hasn’t it? So today, I want to examine the effect of focusing on aesthetics over content, or, on the flipside, not considering the optics of your activism enough, and what it does to the consumer of your content by picking apart two local activist-adjacent media projects, Tetraedras and Giljožinios.

Firstly, I want to make my own bias abundantly clear. I am personally acquainted with the teams of both projects, so obviously there will be innate personal bias involved. I highly encourage anyone reading to check both projects out themselves (@t3traedras and @giljozinios on Instagram, as well as Giljožinios’ YouTube channel) and make their own conclusions on the matter. I believe that while my familiarity breeds deeper knowledge of my subjects, it also makes me more vulnerable to assumptions about individuals involved. My insights come from the perspective of an observer, not an expert. Welcome to the circus.

The use of the word “optics” in a metaphorical political sense sprung up in the 1970s to describe the way major political decisions would not necessarily affect an average citizen, but how it would appear to them, e.g. 'U.S. President Barack Obama temporized for weeks, worrying about the optics of waging war in another Arab state after the Iraq fiasco' (Toronto Star, 19th March 2011). However, it’s become increasingly relevant in our age of social media, an age of perceptions over substance, of shortening attention spans and increased barrage of information one has to stomach daily. Social media is the great equalizer - a random person off the street can theoretically hold as much influence as a politician - thus it is becoming increasingly crucial for the average Joe posting on the countless apps owned by Facebook to be as familiar with PR terms as a firm with a six figure salary. Or at least that would be nice, seeing that more and more average Joes are becoming actively involved in politics and education, seeking to influence their newfound audience.

So, let’s see how successful average people with no media or politics degrees are at balancing their image. Both Tetraedras and Giljožinios lean into their 2010’s social media project optics: millennial pink themes, bold names, young teams. But that’s where the similarities end. Tetraedras’ brand is safety. The shades of color on the profile are calming, the illustrations are youthful and playful, their more serious posts are interspersed with more relaxing content (poetry, photoshoots, etc.). Giljožinios is confrontational. The colors electric, posts loud and to the point, they’re what it says on the box - a leftist project - and unapologetic about it. This might help to explain why audiences react as differently as they do to these two, on the surface, similar accounts. Because while you might’ve stumbled on Tetraedras organically while browsing, them having almost two thousand followers, Giljožinios crashed into the educational/political social media scene by being featured on the goddamn national news, that’s how controversial the project is. And obviously I am oversimplifying the issue, Tetraedras slowly built up to posting more opinionated content, while Giljožinios came in guns blazing accusing USA of imperialism, but you’ll have to let me explain. Tetraedras, in its essence, is a welcoming environment. They explain complicated problems in short bullet points with accompanying comforting visuals, their mascot is a inoffensive geometrical figure and their face is a beautiful girl, make-up matching the theme of the post. Giljožinios is named after a revolutionary device, their profile picture is a monarch being beheaded, their host quite infamously sat in front of Che Guevara memorabilia in their first and (as of writing) only video. It’s a lightning rod for angry comments by baby boomers, no matter what comes out of their mouth. In fact, I would argue that, if presented accordingly, the idea that the US is conducting a kind of modern imperialism is just a simple fact and personally can’t wait until Tetraedras posts that with a quirky illustration of Joe Biden to introduce the concept to the wider public.

This leads me to my next point, because despite what’s been previously suggested, I’m not here to solely sing Giljožinios’ praise. There is a cognitive dissonance in both of these flavors of social media activism, but while I can understand Tetraedras’ on a PR level, I’m kind of personally insulted by Giljožinios’. While purely personally I find aspects of Giljožinios’ radicalism distasteful, I appreciate the honesty in the youthful maximalism, of coming in strong and not backing down, but from the guys that made a communist Christmas tree once I almost expected something more stirring than “military industrial complex bad”. This leads me to ask: who is your content for? Your average breadtube-savvy twenty-something already heard this a thousand times, because they consume similar english-speaking content and I doubt any minds of the vatniks that came by to fume in the comment section are being changed. I’m obviously harking on a newborn project here, the team of which has already been bitten by authorities censoring their content, but so far there has been a lot of optical bark, but no substantial bite, especially considering the team seems to be in a safer place now. And the inverse is true for Tetraedras, while I can understand wanting to be visually interesting yet inoffensive, their visuals are sometimes laughably, morbidly light for the topics they discuss Sexily posing in Britney Spears-inspired outfits while discussing the horrors of her conservatorship springs to mind (funny how Britney’s conservatorship leads her to have next to none bodily autonomy, including her public costume choices). And, once again, your target audience is teenagers. They understand English, they’ve seen the news, they don’t need you to translate infographics filled with statistics and information that’s locally completely irrelevant. There needs to be some kind of middle ground between aesthetic cohesion and common sense, because this all signals to the viewer that the content is meant to be mindlessly consumed first and to educate second.

Which leads me to ponder what kind of consumption accounts like these encourage, which will surely lead me to an early grave as I drink away the existential dread of how social media rots all of our brains. Because yes, actually, producing funky visuals to convey an idea way too complicated for an Instagram post is fun. I myself got distracted multiple times during writing to make the first slide for my own post. Meta, I know. This is obviously more of a problem for Tetraedras, who seem to fervently resist injecting their content with a few more paragraphs and a tad more nuance, but even with Giljožinios choosing a more appropriate long-form format to educate, I still pray everyday they don’t get lost in the revolutionary reputation their group built up and forget to make a point, not just talking points.

Because what all this all inevitably leads to is misinforming the public. Again, this seems to be less of a problem for Giljožinios, as the amount of critical eyeballs they have on them leads to them being corrected on every incorrect numerical figure and grammatical mistake, I just hope all this harassment, once again, doesn’t get them all caught up in the optics of a revolution against all the Facebook boomers and forgetting to do their due diligence to the truth. As far as I know, the only factual mistake is miscalculating how much Lituania invests in NATO and there’s still a historical debate in their comment section about the existence of a CIA prison in Lithuania, if anyone’s concerned. Tetraedras, however, is safe. And safe content goes down just like a sugar-coated pill, you don’t even feel the need to fact-check it. And fact-checking is what it sorely requires, or else you’re left with implying that boxing causes men to become rapists and citing statistics of every country except the one in which, you know, me, the team and the absolute majority of their followers live in.

So what’s my goddamn point? Burn your phone and go live in the woods, always. But in the context of this essay, if you are a content creator that aims to educate, inform, incite, whatever, you need to put aesthetics on the backburner. And, more importantly, we as consumers need to stop tolerating content that puts being either pretty or inflammatory first instead of whatever message it’s trying to send, because the supply follows where the demand goes. Read books, watch long-form content made by experts, not teenagers on the internet chasing followers out of not even malicious intent, but almost a knee-jerk reaction. Because while the story of those two accounts cuts especially deep, expectations for local-, even friend-made content being much higher than that for some corporate accounts shooting their shot at activism, the problem is entrenched deep, thousands of accounts exhibiting the same problems racking up millions upon millions of followers. Having said that, my attention span is barely long enough to read the essays I write myself, so maybe do burn your phone and go live in the woods.

Also, pink is actually my brand so both of these accounts are being contacted by my lawyers and the rest of you don’t try any shit.

[tlbodine]

A Brief Guide to Finding Information on the Internet

Alternative Title: You are literally on the world’s largest repository of information so why are you messaging some rando/taking things at face value/spreading misinformation. 

The internet is larger than social media, I promise! You can use it to find the answers to all sorts of burning questions. Here are some tips and tricks from someone who makes a living by becoming a five-minute expert in a great number of random topics: 

When Googling something, you can specify what site or kind of site you’re looking for by typing site:(whatever) after the enquiry. For example, let’s say you found a screenshot of my dialogue-writing post on Pinterest and want to find the original. You can search “dialogue tlbodine site:tumblr.com” and, like magic, it’s the first result:

Or, let’s say you want to find out information from a reputable source, say for an academic paper. You can search “[your question here] site:.gov” or :site.edu” to search only websites on a government or university domain. 

You can also search by images. It’s not 100% perfect, but it’s pretty cool. Find a picture online without any credit and want to know who the artist is? 

Go to Google. Click “images.” Then click the little camera icon. There you can paste in the source URL of the photo, or even upload one to find a match. That’ll bring up all of the sites where Google can find that photo in use. This is really handy when you’re, say, trying to be sure that a piece of art hasn’t been stolen and reposted, or that the context of a photo is actually what it says it is in the random social media page you found it on. 

How to tell what sites are reputable? It’s tricky for sure, and “reputable” is a slippery slope in the modern era, but you can give yourself a fighting chance. Here’s some things to look for: 

Is the site hosted on a domain you’ve heard of before? I’m not saying the New York Times is 100% accurate, but it’s more likely to be closer to the truth than, say, “WePostUnverifiedStories.az” (not a real website, I hope). 

Is there an author listed? Or is it someone like “anonymous blog contributor” or no author at all? If there is an author, can you look them up to figure out if their credentials are legitimate? If someone claims to be a doctor, for example, you can find their board certification online. If you can’t find that, you can be suspicious of their claims. 

Are there sources listed? Do the sources seem legit, or are they shady? If a story’s only sources are, say, tweets or anonymous blog posts, you’ll probably want to take the info with a grain of salt. 

Can you find anyone else making the same claims? If you find some information online, go do a quick check to see if that information lives elsewhere. If you find conflicting accounts, you’ll probably have to dig deeper to figure out the truth. 

Can you think of a reason why a certain source may want to lie, omit facts, bend the truth, etc.? A company’s website isn’t likely to give the most unbiased opinions about its products; a partisan political site is going to give its news a different slant to appeal to its reader base. 

Websites aren’t a very good source of in-depth information. Sometimes your question can be answered in a quick google search (”How many chromosomes does a chicken have?”) but if you’re trying to really deeply understand a topic, you’ll want to dig deeper -- books, documentaries, scientific journal articles, etc. (and you’ll want to vet those sources, too).

Is the info peer-reviewed in any way? How many people had to look at this before it was published? A single-author blog is accountable to fewer people than a popular wiki. An academic publication should have more vigorous standards than a pop-sci magazine. Not that you can’t learn things from blog posts and magazines — but once you learn about it, you should dig to find reputable sources that confirm what you just learned.

Should I ask someone this question or look it up myself? 

Google: Great for getting factual information about a topic. 

Asking someone: Great for getting subjective first-hand experience. 

For example: “How do I publish my book?” is a huge and exhausting question to expect an author to answer. Before asking, maybe you should ask Google and get an idea of what kind of answers are already out there and what follow-up questions you can research.

On the other hand, “I see you’ve published with these two publishers. Would you recommend one over the other?” Could be a perfectly good question to ask someone (privately, and with understanding that they may be contract bound to answer a particular way). Why? Because you’re asking an expert for an opinion based on their experiences.

See the difference?

When approaching experts, here’s a few tips:

Check to see if the expert has already answered that question. They might have a blog, FAQ page, books on the topic etc with lots of good info. Use the google trick to search their blog for keywords!

Do some research first so you know what question you’re actually asking. The more clearly and succinctly you ask, the better your odds of getting a satisfying answer.

Be sure the expert can legally answer your question. Lawyers can’t give specific legal advice. Doctors can’t give specific health advice. Don’t ask them to put themselves in trouble.

On that note, just as a point of courtesy, if someone does something for a living, it’s really rude to ask them to do it for free. If it’ll take more than five minutes for them to do, it’s not really a “favor” anymore and they should be compensated somehow for their time.

Anyway! Researching stuff online can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be hard. Hope these tips can help get you started with finding answers to your burning questions.

[crampdown]

Cramp’s Comic Recommendations For Fans Of Classic Rock And Co.

Allright here we go. This is my current list of comics/manga/graphic novels you might enjoy if you’re into classic rock. Before we get started I’d just like to let you all know:

- This list is far from being complete. I’m sure there are many more groovy comics out there that I’m simply not aware of yet so if you have any suggestions feel free to add them :)

- I know I said “Classic Rock” but some of my choices may drift into other musical directions

- Needless to say I do not own any of the following images. They all belong to their rightfull owners and I’ll use them as visual reference material only.

- Sorry for eventual misspelling

Let’s go ^^

1. Bob Dylan Revisited 

Let’s start with an obvious choice. This is a collection of 13 well-known Dylan Songs, each of them graphically interpreted by a different artist. The most striking feature therefore is the high variety of different art styles. Some of them are cartoony, some are very abstract while others are almost photo realistic.

Dylan’s mesmerizing lyrics have always been inspirational and these beautiful depictions truly are a sight to see. 

Including works of Thierry Murat, Lorenzo Mattotti, Nicolas Nemiri, François Avril, Jean-Claude Götting, Christopher,  Bézian, Dave McKean, Alfred, Raphaëlle Le Rio, Maël Le Mae, and Henri Meunier, Gradimir Smudju, Benjamin Flao, Jean-Phillippe Bramanti and Zep.

Zep’s take on “Not Dark Yet”

Jean-Phillippe Bramanti’s interpretation of “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”

Definitely worth checking out not only for Bob Dylan Fans.

2. Baby’s In Black” by Arne Bellstorf

I’ve seen several people in the Beatles fandom complain about the lack of Stuart Sutcliffe material when it comes to early Beatles history. 

Well, here it is: a graphic novel that focuses on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe and fotographer Astrid Kirchherr who took the very first professional photos of the Beatles during their time in Hamburg (1960-61).

Told mostly from Astrid’s point of view this comic presents itself in a grey and melancholic tone that fits the rather sad story. Bellstorf’s drawings are simplified and charming (they remind me of early sixties children book illustrations which suits the setting’s time period)

If you’re interested in early Beatles history (especially their Hamburg days) you should give this one a try.

3. Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston Flores

I really wish I had known about this amazing comic series a few years earlier, not only because this is a slice of life/coming of age story with teenage characters who are actually likeable and relateable but also because “Blue Monday” is an overall highly entertaining depiction of early nineties teen culture/rebellion in an American suburb that comes with a lot of references to Britpop, mod culture, Buster Keaton movies and Adam Ant (to name only a few).

To quote the author herself: “It’s like Archie on crack, with cursing and smokes”.

The art style of Chynna Clugston Flores is very vivid and expressive and has a certain stylistic touch of anime/manga (like a lot of comics from the early 2000s). I also really enjoy all of the graphic fashion details in this one. Plus, this is the first comic with it’s own soundtrack and that’s always a nice bonus.

I’d recommend “Blue Monday” for fans of Britpop, Punk, New Wave and early 1990′s culture.

4. Punk Rock And Trailer Parks by Derf Backderf

Another story about growing up in American small town madness, this time set in 1980s gritty Punk subculture of the former rubber city of Akron, Ohio. Protagonist Otto who likes to refer to himself as “The Baron” becomes fascinated with Punk after attending a Ramones concert. He meets several Pubk icons (thus as The Clash, The Plasmatics, rock journalist Lester Bangs and many more) and becomes someting of a local punk star himself.

Derf Backderf (who is best known for his highly acclaimed graphic novel “My Friend Dahmer” and his Eisner award winning comic “Trashed”) created a comic that is as “raw and dirty as punk itself”. His art style is an unique combination of expressionism, underground cartoons and punk magazines.

“Punk Rock And Trailer Parks” is a must-have for punk fans (especially if you’re into The Ramones and The Clash. It made me a huge fan of both of them).

5. “CASH - I See A Darkness” and “Nick Cave - Mercy On Me” by Reinhard Kleist

Two biographical graphic novels by Reinhard Kleist, both of them tell the story of a fascinating personality in rock history and both of them are incredibly well drawn. Kleist’s art is full of life and movement and very atmospheric due to his impressive use of stark contrasts. 

I personally love his semirealistic way of drawing people and I’d highly suggest you to check out his other works too. He made a lot of biographical comics that really amazed me.

CASH

Cave

Definetly worth reading. Not only for Johnny Cash and Nick Cave fans.

6. Nowhere Men by Eric Stephenson, Nate Bellegarde, Jordie Bellaire and Fonografiks

I talked about this one a while ago but I’ll gladly do it again since it’s just too cool. “Nowhere Men” is set in an alternative past/present and future where scientists became as popular as pop stars (catchphrase “Science is the new Rock n` Roll”) but somewhere along the way something definetly went wrong. 

The hype of science shares obvious similarities with the beatlemania of the 60s and the founding of Apple back then. Furthermore, the characters are partly inspired by well-known personalities of Rock history. There are many more or less hidden nods and references to musical popculture wich is why I put it on this list.

Nowhere Men is a thrilling sci-fi dystopian that requires an observant reader because there is a lot of jumping back and forth i time and inbetween information. The art style is realistic and full of very vibrant colours.

I found myself reading this multiple times to get all of the details in the world building. A thoughtful and brilliant writing indeed. 

7. P.I.L. by Mari Yamazaki

Japan 1983: 17-year-old Nanami couldn’t be more frustrated. Her grandfather loves to spend all of their household money on useless luxury junk and her strict school criticizes her messy hairstyle. Caught between teenage rebellion and responsibility as she tries different side jobs to earn at least a little bit of money, Nanami also has a thing for punk music and overall everything originated from England.

P.I.L. tells the story of conflict between two generations who aren’t as different as they might seem. Sometimes funny and heartwarming, sometimes with a bit of drama this is a charming slice of life/ coming of age josei with a more simplistic but aesthetical pleasing art style.

as the title might suggest, Nanami is a big fan of P.I.L. and other bands of the punk, neo punk and new wave movement such as The Stranglers and The Killing Joke

8. Yellow Submarine by Bill Morrison

A comic adaptation of an animated film such as Yellow Submarine? Yeah, I was skeptical at first too but hear me out: This is really great. Morrison did an amazing job at capturing the trippy and psychedelic feeling of the legendary Beatles film. As the 1968 film used the medium of animation as an actual form of art to accomplish things only animation can do, Morrison did the same thing and used the advantages of the comic medium to accomplish things only comics can do. And it works. It really works.

Every single page of this colourful book has a different panel layout. Some of them are so beautiful and creative that I’d love to have a full-size poster version of them :’D

If you liked the film, if you love the psychedelic age, you’ll probably like the comic too. 

9. In The Pines by Erik Kriek

“In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines...”

5 Murder Ballads, some might call them dark Country Music, each of them beautifully illustrated by Erik Kriek. Atmospheric, dark and gritty and always on point to match the spine-chilling western-like storytelling of these ballads, great for fans of horror literature a la E.A.Poe.

10. Andy - A Factual Fairy Tale by Typex

Allright folks this is it:

Typex’s “Andy” is by far one of the best comics/graphic novels I’ve ever red. It defenitely is my personal favourite reading of 2019 (and tbh I kinda doubt anything will top this anytime soon)

This is more than just a biographical take on of the most enigmatic pop-art artists of 20th centuary’s America, this is a portrait of the 20th centuary itself. There are so many references to art, history, literature, music and more that I could fill a book counting them all. And of course this is a monument for the medium of comic itself. Typex really managed to show what comic’s are capable of (At this point I’m really sorry I can’t explain it better I’m not good in writing stuff like this yet...)

Visually one of the most appealing things are the different art styles Typex manages to pull off so well for every chapter in Warhol’s life because each of them are a mirror of their zeitgeist. The introduction of Warhol’s childhood during the 30s is drawn in a cartoony style of old news paper comic strips. The chapter of 1967 has a psychedelic edge. The chapter of the early 60s shows similarities with the works of Roy Liechtenstein

So many icons from the 1930s-1980s have a cameo in this graphic novel it’s just amazing. If you’re even remotely interested in anything of this time period you’d definitely should read this. (seriously, READ THIS). But at this point I’d also like to mention that this comic does not shy away from showing very explicit content and sensetive topics (please keep in mind this has a mature rating for a reason)

Yeah so I couldn’t give this piece of art enough praise. It is absolutely brilliant, a masterpiece in every sense and word.I wasn’t too aware of Typex before but appearentely he also did a graphic novel on Rembrandt. I’m gonna read this too.

Some honorable mentions:

California Dreamin` by Penelope Bagieu

I haven’t red this one yet so I can’t say anything more about it. But I wanted to let you know that a graphic novel about the life of Cass Elliot exists.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner

One of the prequels of the legendary “Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It’ “only” an honorable mention because you’ll have to be familiar with the Watchmen universe to fully get all of the story. This prequel focuses on Laurie Jupeczyk, the second Silk Spectre and her own adventures during 1967, the summer of love in San Francisco.

Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor

Another one I haven’t fully red yet, but so far I’m loving it. It basically tells the history of Rap and Hip Hop from the early 70s to the mid 80s. The art style is intentionally old-school wich really fits it’s tone and setting.

Fritz The Cat by Robert Crumb

I suppose I can’t make a list like this without at least mentioning an absolut icon of the underground comix movement. Crumb created the adventures of this nasty junky cat during the 60s. Fritz can be seen as a satirical mirror of counter-culture’s zeitgeist.

and speaking of Crumb, his “Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country” trading cards are neat too...

allright that’s it for now. like I said, if you have anymore suggestions, feel free to add ^^

[woozapooza]

Black Sails 1x01

Here we go!!! A new show!!! What a good pilot episode. So much happened, I can’t believe it’s only been one episode.

I was apprehensive about starting Black Sails because I’d been anticipating it for months and had built it up in my head. It’s the same apprehension I had starting Wynonna Earp. But once again, I have correctly judged from a tiny bit of information that a show is an excellent match for me. I’m not nearly as good as I’d like to be at following and remembering the events of shows, so after I finished the episode, I recounted as much of the plot as I could remember to myself. While doing that, I realized one thing that made it such a good way to start a show: it’s brimming with the theme of gambling, of making dangerous choices that may pay off hugely down the line or may end in disaster. Combine that with the numerous interesting characters, not to mention the fact that it’s a period drama about pirates I mean come on what’s better than that, and you’ve got the perfect recipe to make me keep watching. I hope everything in the following lil recap/review is factually correct but eh who knows.

Let’s start with Flint. The trope of angsty morally dubious loner captain dude, while cool in theory, does not always go over well for me (see Jack Harkness and Mal Reynolds, neither of whom is as questionable as Flint). But I think in Flint this trope (which probably has a name, or at least is an amalgam of a few tropes that have names) may finally work for me, and I’m not just saying that out of ginger solidarity, nor just because aesthetically Flint is #goals. Flint has been “gambling” for months before the show even starts: he’s been going after ships that don’t seem like good targets because he thinks they’ll lead him to the jackpot, the Urca de Lima. The result of him keeping his plan secret from the crew is low morale and the threat of mutiny. Flint has to walk the line between keeping the crew satisfied and pursuing a goal that will more than make up for the toll its pursuit takes. He fails to walk this line, but Singleton’s mutiny gives Flint the opportunity to change tactics while still very much gambling: by accusing Singleton of stealing the Urca’s schedule, he gets to fight and kill Singleton (he also had to bet on Singleton choosing a duel over a trial, but I’m assuming he knew Singleton well enough that it wasn’t a risky bet) and pretend to recover the schedule from Singleton’s corpse. Until he produced the blank sheet of paper, I really couldn’t guess whether he actually suspected Singleton or he was just looking for an excuse to put down the mutiny. I didn’t expect the trick with the blank paper. Flint may be the main character but you can’t always see into his head, so I expect he’ll be a lot of fun to watch. I enjoy his cleverness, his ruthlessness, and his moments of vulnerability. I’m still unsure whether he meant it at all when he apologized to the crew for keeping secrets from them. I’d like to think it wasn’t a complete lie, even though it was also a ploy to get them to like him again, but it’s not like he’s stopped lying to them. He has his crew’s loyalty back—fortunately he was right to gamble that Billy would play along and pretend Singleton really did have the schedule—but it will only last so long before they realize he doesn’t have it. He also has to hide the fact that Guthrie, who was key to getting the ship, is a) under arrest and b) so far, unwilling to help. Will Flint get the schedule for realsies before the crew figures out that he lied to them again?

Lying now and hoping he’ll have the means to make up for it later is not the worst thing Flint does in this episode. It’s the killing of Singleton that really shows that he’s not a straightforward hero. I wouldn’t say mutiny justifies murder, but then again I’m not a pirate. I also wouldn’t say theft merits the death penalty, but that’s how pirates do. What I’m getting at is, Flint may do questionable things (like, in addition to the very fact of piracy), but he’s not the only one. I guess pirates have their own morality and just because Flint does things I wouldn’t do doesn’t mean he doesn’t have some kind of code. He even acknowledges, speaking to Billy, that pirates have a way of life that makes sense to them but not to mainstream people (I know I’m making pirates sound like hipsters but it was the first phrasing that came to mind): “men who keep what is theirs and fear no one.” 

Speaking of Billy the boatswain, I really like him as well, and not just because he’s played by Tom Hopper. His type of gambling has to do with how much of his faith and loyalty he’s going to put into Flint. He pretends that Flint was correct to accuse Singleton of theft, but he’s by no means a sycophant. When Flint is brutally interrogating Richard Guthrie and tells Billy to point the gun at Guthrie, Billy has no problem pointing it at Flint instead. So if Billy is playing along with Flint’s scheme, he must have weighed the options and decided this was best. Billy, like Flint, thinks, speaks, and acts for himself. Also, he looks like Tom Hopper.

Silver is a bit of a weird character because he’s to some extent our point-of-view character, but he’s also absent for large parts of the episode. Regarding his role as the audience stand-in, it was cool to show him discovering all the information about the Urca de Lima at the same time that Flint’s voiceover was explaining the same information. Regarding Silver’s personality, I really enjoy his unapologetic selfishness and self-preservation. Everyone on the show has their ways of looking out for themselves, and for Silver, that happens to mean hiding below deck, killing the cook (in self-defense, to be fair), stealing the Urca’s schedule because he knows it’s valuable even though he doesn’t know why, and pretending he’s a cook so he gets to join the crew of the Walrus (I’m looking forward to find out whether he actually can cook). But when Flint kills Singleton, do I dare see in Silver’s face a hint of remorse that his actions might have gotten someone killed, or do I need to be more cynical? Anyway, his main gamble is to hold on to the schedule rather than hand it over to Flint. He also has to make the gamble to trust Max.

Max, who is pretty mysterious so far but very alluring, likewise has to gamble to trust Silver. I like their dynamic—good teamwork from two blatantly self-interested people. Her acquisition of the schedule parallels how Silver got it: he could tell the cook really wanted to hold onto it, she could tell he really wanted to hold onto it. Both of them are clearly good at identifying where profit lies and getting there. Silver says that when he sees an opportunity for gain, he can’t help but take it; when given the chance to back out of a partnership with him, Max isn’t tempted, which suggests that she is much the same. As for another of Max’s relationships, as I have said, one of the reasons I wanted to watch this show was that I knew it had quality gay/bi content and WOW it turns out they hit you with it right in the first episode! I ship her and Eleanor by default (and because of the line “Max is your harbor,” I’ve decided my ship tag will be “all I want is to be your harbor”) but their interaction was mostly sex, so I hope we get to see more depth to their relationship soon. However, one of the episode’s few tender moments was Max’s concern when she saw the bruise Vane left on Eleanor’s face, so that bodes well for her and for the two of them.

I think Eleanor might be my favorite character so far, largely because Hannah New is very attractive when she’s swearing. And in general. She gambles by funding Gates’ efforts at bribery (making their interaction also a gamble for Gates) and oops she almost won that gamble but not quite. She also has to choose between loyalty to Vane and loyalty to Flint. She chooses Flint. We’ll see how that turns out. She is undoubtedly and unapologetically self-interested, but without crossing the line into immorality. (I mean immorality relative to the show’s baseline morality.) Same goes for most of these characters, now that I think about it, including Max. In addition to their similarities, these ladies balance each other: Eleanor is gruffer but more emotional, while Max is more subtle and more sanguine. Ship ship ship.

While watching The 100 I often wondered if Roan was just a boring character or if there was an innate boringness to Zach McGowan. Now I can declare that Roan is just a boring character. Vane is not boring. He’s pretty frightening, really. Maybe ZM should just only ever play villains? I don’t know. Anyway, despite being set up as the antagonist, I’m not yet convinced that Vane is really much worse than Flint. We shall see. He’s got a plan of his own, though it doesn’t really fit the gambling theme: he tried to engineer the victory of Singleton’s mutiny so that, once the crew of the Walrus realized they no longer had a competent captain, they’d defect to Vane’s crew. That didn’t pan out since Flint took down Singleton and made up with his crew, but Vane didn’t really lose anything, at least not as far as we’ve seen. For that reason, he’s probably the character who came out of the pilot looking the least vulnerable.

Gates, like Flint, feels like a character type I have seen before: the practical, long-suffering but loyal second-in-command to the headstrong, risk-taking team leader. The only other example I can think of is Bennet Drake from Ripper Street, but I think I’ve seen it elsewhere as well. Gates is the one who puts into words the theme I’ve been talking about: he tells Eleanor that if she loans him money to ensure Flint retains the captaincy, it will be an “investment in the future.” I’m looking forward to seeing whose investments pay off and whose future wins out.

There’s a lot of conflict already, but there’s a lot of overlap of characters’ traits, I guess because they all know this piratey world quite well and what kind of person you have to be to survive and to thrive. Basically, the first episode sets up a rough world where everyone is looking out for themselves and making difficult choices that they think are for their own good but that might have explosive consequences down the line. We get a glimpse of what these characters want and what they’re willing to do to get it. Also there are pirates. What’s not to love?

WHO DOES RACKHAM REMIND ME OF? I looked up Toby Schmitz’s filmography and I don’t think I’ve see him in anything else but I swear he reminds me of someone!

Best dialogue of the episode:

Gates, to Billy: You’re a highly regarded member of this crew. The captain regards your input more than you know.

Gates, to Flint: Billy’s going with you.

Flint: Who’s Billy?

[ytsthepodcast]

Going Beyond Face Value (#26)

 In this episode, Larry and I go into the essential character of a relationship between facts, theories, and conspiracies. What differentiates our understanding of politics and why does it even matter. The truth is what I want to know and why aren't we hearing about it. That means looking at every avenue of ideas and considering all possibilities. Acknowledging that we are all raised within an identical society-under law, conditioned to follow in the suite to a higher power.

 Now here is where problems start to rise, when we're unable to grasp who's authentic, also misinterpretation about misrepresented information. Which leads to accepting the truth. Its a back-and-forth debate over how we should interpret what's being presented to us as factual when we have no clue if there's an agenda behind what's presented. Even if we compare the different contexts and how the different contexts influence our interpretations- always leads into ambiguity, biased because no matter how it's interpreted there will always be a flaw-In all cases, there's always agenda behind the presented argument.   

 Political thought contains interchangeable concepts, defining this universal reasoning that's plastic within our mechanical mechanism.

Enjoy!

  Give Your Transformation Station 15 minutes before you make your decision.

  Click to Subscribe, on your podcast player of choice. So you'll be first to know when new episodes arrive.

      Connect with Your Transformation Station:

Facebook |Instagram |Twitter |Website

    Consider leaving a brief review on Apple Podcast/iTunes if you have enjoyed this episode. Only a matter of seconds it will take and it helps bring together potential guests and listeners.

    Transcripts for this episode can be found at the bottom.

    Get an interesting take away from this episode? Let me know about it in the comments section.

    Did you listen to the episode Habitual Resentment Invariably Leads To Self-Pity (#14)? When our own resentment is reinforced, we begin to search and look for injustices. Emotional reinforcement of self-pity leads to your personal self-created resentment.

          LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE

  Larry Oliver

Greg Favazza

Used Cars (1980)-IMDb

JoeBiden

    Wanna get heard on Your Transformation Station? Leave us an audio review here.

      SHOW NOTES

The difference between motivation and manipulation (The intent)

Our value proposition and how our delivery matters.

Try to picture how the outcome of a conversation between a healer, surgeon, doctor, and chiropractor. I wonder how that would play out. 

What makes a leader?

And much more.

      Interested in getting on the show?

      Previous Episode

Defying Problems, How to Solve Through Refinment (#25)

  Sign up to Your Transformation Station email list, you'll be updated on our latest content.

  Sign up to our patron page, help support others in their transformation:

(SMART) - $2 PER MONTH - Help spread the message of Your Transformation Station. Make Guest Recommendations on our monthly "Guest Suggestions" post. Submit questions for upcoming guest interviews.

(BRAINY) - $5 PER MONTH - All Perks from the (SMART) bracket, plus. Our Bi-weekly "Blooper Reel" and video recordings of podcast episodes.

  Transcription

  You just never know how the day's going to turn out. Exactly. And that's why it's important to make sure you get that foundation because. I feel like once I have that in the morning, I can just face anything. Exactly, And without it the day, even if the day goes really well, it still seems a little out of order because for that morning ritual that morning habit, whatever we do, it's. [00:10:32] It's important. It is. And I'm trying to get the lady that I just started seeing the get on one of those. I think her life will be a lot less hectic. Absolutely. That's very true. I understand. And relate to that perfectly. Yes. What else has been going on this last week or so? Other than that. I [00:11:00] just, I had a lot of interviews actually. [00:11:03] I interviewed, somebody in Tokyo, Japan, I had one in Canada. However, she had to cancel and re Oh my God. I'm having a lot of these tongue twisters or these blank moments. Yeah. Reschedule. [00:11:25] And, so then there's that, then I have another one today, which of course with this guy, Jimmy Rex, you John entrepreneur guy. He also rescheduled on me and where's he out of? he is out of, I want to say, Los Angeles, huge. author slash entrepreneur and I just reached out to him, just winged it and he's sure, we can do that. [00:11:52] So rescheduling, have you ever, followed in your cat Lynn's stuff? [00:12:00] And Flint. Flint. Yeah. Pat Glenn. Yes. Yes. Smart, passive income. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting guys got a lot of, a lot of really good tips, hints, for entrepreneurs as well as people in general. Yeah. I followed him for quite a while when I don't like about his information. [00:12:28] It's. It's so damn good that it keeps you wanting more. And then that's where the free stuff is over with and you gotta start forking money out. Exactly. Exactly. He delivers a lot of. Real value-packed, free stuff, if you will, but it's, it's, like the heroin dealer on the corner. He gives you that first fix free. [00:12:54] Cause he knows you'll be back and then yeah. Gotcha. Yeah. That's exactly right in a [00:13:00] positive way. Not, but a lot of the really good, people that deliver information. Operate on, on that same, model, because one, it works too. It's, a great marketing tool, not only for them, but you can transfer that virtually to any type of business or service, provide value at no cost. [00:13:29] And then people will naturally come to you because they look at you as a resource. once you're a resource and that person feels. Hey, that guy understands me and I feel comfortable with him. You probably have a client or customer for life unless you screw it up like 18 PS and spectrums and the large communication companies in the world, the large [00:14:00] insurance companies of the world. [00:14:00] I think they play Libby take liberties with their longterm existence. Customers. And that's my opinion for today. One of them now that's, it's interesting. I don't understand it though. As far as marketing and how to real people in. Cause I feel like it's almost manipulative in a way, but I know it's, something I need to adjust because I put a fine line between my character as far as. [00:14:32] Doing the right things. It's I took it to heart as far as following orders in away. And now I'm starting to see the gray areas and where it's acceptable and where it's not acceptable. What do you think? what do you think the difference is between manipulation and motivation? Motivation will be to inspire and motivate somebody [00:15:00] because it's for their own good. [00:15:03] They're just, they don't see it because it's, bigger than them. And you can see it because you have more experience or more knowledge and manipulation. that's. I think a monster in itself, but that's just to take advantage of them for your own benefit. Interesting. in, I think whenever I hear the word manipulate, I think of some sort of negative connotation, but sometimes when you really look at, the difference between motivating and manipulate it's to a fine line. [00:15:44] It's a fine line. Some of the motivational techniques aren't far off of manipulative [00:15:56] ways. We try to persuade people. [00:16:00] I think, but you hit it the most important part. I think you hit on the head in that motivation is for the benefit of the other person. Whereas for, the best of the other person, whereas manipulation may or may not take into consideration that other person or the other party or the other entity more selfish. [00:16:26] I want to get this person to do that for me because of my interests. Wait, are you saying, wait, what if it's the exact same thing, but it's just a perspective and how you look at it. what we talked about last time. It just depends. people, tend to feel that, and this is a generalization, but I believe, people tend to feel old school salespeople. [00:16:58] Picture of the used [00:17:00] car salesman with the big plaid sport coat and a white patent leather belt and shoes to match, or the big cigar in his mouth and a gold chain around his neck and backslap, and then, Hey, come on, okay. People tend to when you get that negative connotation of a salesperson and you might think manipulation versus. [00:17:23] Really professional salesperson that kind of asked a lot of questions, does a whole bunch more asking than telling. And then once he really finds out what your pain is, where your needs are if he's got the product or service to solve them. He'll propose those to you. And if everything went really well, you as the customer or the potential client will ask him, Oh, that's really cool. [00:17:54] What's the next step? How do I get that? What do I do now versus the [00:18:00] old school manipulation techniques were, these people were trained and here are the five best closes, and they spend a little time getting to know the person but spend an immense amount of time trying to close it, the person versus. [00:18:17] My little triangle works like that. And here at the base, the great big, broad base is you ask a bunch of questions. You get to know that other person, what are they need and how, what I offer fits into what motivates them, what helps them attain their goal. And then, that pyramid gets really small. [00:18:39] So when you get to the top, instead of worrying about closing you as the offer of services, don't have to close because. The person says, yeah, what do we do now? And I want him, I want, that. That's what I want. How cool is that? But then if we will look into the type of mindset that a car [00:19:00] salesman would have, a lot of them are working off commission. [00:19:03] So I think that's our ideal goal is to close the deal. I can see that. I just, I can't really see and wanting to help anybody but themselves, but that's, coming from me. Cause I grew up with a father who was a car salesman for over 20 years. yeah. And what I'm saying is even when, and I use a car salesman because very, almost everybody can relate to that picture. [00:19:32] I'm an old, funny movie is used cars. And, it's all built around this, generalization, the guy described because so many people can relate to them, whether it's on the car lot, or whether it's a door to door, high pressure, one call salesperson, so on and so forth. But professional salespeople are in every industry, [00:20:00] everything from, and this may shock some people, doctors, lawyers, Accountants engineers, all these people have to sell to get business, ultimately your marketing. [00:20:15] And then when you meet them because of effective marketing, whatever that marketing maybe, even if it's only the best marketing, which is word of mouth. Yeah. Susie said you designed their addition on their house and they really want it to be okay. That's that marketing that positioned the architect. [00:20:35] To get this potential client in front of them. And then he asked him a bunch of questions. He got to know them, or she got to know them and then built his or her presentation around their needs. So it's still if somebody [00:21:00] tells you they don't sell their line, Everybody is selling every day. The guy at the bar with the clever pickup line to the attractive gal is selling her on come home with me tonight. [00:21:15] The doctor that says, Hey, the only way we can fix your back is, I got to fuse these two lower discs. Really cause the chiropractor would say, there's no surgery necessary. And he would sell you on coming into adjustments three times a week. And then the natural healer would tell you, need to come to my yoga studio. [00:21:39] And then I got these special herbs and teas everybody's and I'm not saying anybody is in it for themselves, but the surgeon has no other way to heal somebody than to slice them open and do whatever he's going to do. And in order for him to stay in business, as much as we might want to [00:22:00] think that he's not in it for the money. [00:22:03] if you look at his house and his country club dues and his Mercedes, in his $500 shoes. Yeah. He, money is part of the motivation for him. There's more hopefully esoteric stuff there, but I really believe, selling is just communicating. And in motivating and some of the higher pressure salespeople may manipulate. [00:22:30] If in fact, you want to look at manipulation in, a negative connotation. So it's just, it's interesting. I would love to see those three in a room. I think that'll be interesting to a healer, a doctor, and or surgeon. And a chiropractor. I think that'll be a really fun conversation and listened to, but also the surgeon, as far as wearing the $500 shoes, that could be his own definition of [00:23:00] success as far as his work ethic. [00:23:02] And then we backtrack on everybody that's selling themselves. I think we're talking about their value proposition as far as we may work for a company that may be our profession. But ideally, we tailored our being around this type of delivery where accountability is number one. So when we were to look at a playbook and we go down the stats and see, Oh, we know Greg is sometimes late to his interviews. [00:23:33] He's usually five minutes short, but however, he is a nerd, he is consistently refining. We can count on him for that. I think, and what I've found life happens. So it's okay to be late every now and then, Yes. life happens. So you can't ever be too hard on yourself. Oh yeah. [00:24:00] That's very. [00:24:01] Hard to even fathom right now. What is it about why we as people are our most severe critics? Because we overestimate what reality really is. We catastrophize in our head the worst possible outcome, and none of that happens in reality. It's so true. And then what we perceive our reality is our perceived reality. [00:24:36] I think everyone's reality is their perception of this moment, of this situation. and many times their preconceived perception or notion is what causes procrastination or causes, whatever. Is causing them to face whatever the situation is. [00:25:02] [00:25:00] knowing you're not a news junkie, there was an interesting piece of news yesterday that go on the, almost for sure. Democrat nominee for president of the United States, Joe Biden announced his vice-presidential running mate. and that is Kamala Harris. Are you familiar with her at all? Neither would let's first, before we go any further, what, how do we, how do you feel about Joe Biden one? [00:25:46] And is he somebody. That's inlined with the type of character we were looking at last year or not last year. Last episode with, [00:26:00] John Lewis. [00:26:03] Yeah. I would say he's much more in line with John Lewis, then 45 is. Biden. It has served the country for 50 years, 45, 50 years in one capacity or the other, he, my thought on Biden. [00:26:29] Okay. To be real, to be really open and honest during the primaries. Before it was pretty much him. His vice-presidential Harris was my pick for the presidential candidate, even though it would be a real long shot for her as presidential candidate to win the presidency with Biden. As what I believe will be the [00:27:00] nominee for the Democrats. [00:27:05] Biden before he named his running mate offers the country and the country. Cause that's all it gets to vote on him. a very, direct change from what we have now. From chaos and narcism and no values and I'm in it for my own. Good. My own benefit in screwed the rest of you to somebody that has some humility, admits mistakes, is a leader, has leadership qualities. [00:27:55] has, has ethics [00:28:00] puts a few things before him or at least even with him, and, he knows his way around the international political realm also. so I'm happy with his knee as a person. I'm happy with his choice Harris. Harris has an incredible history. In the time she served the government. [00:28:31] She's an Indian black Senator of California. Prior to that, she was the first-ever female and black attorney general of the state of California, which. the trivia fact is that's the largest department of justice. She ran outside of the federal [00:29:00] department of justice. that's such a huge department of justice. [00:29:08] The only thing that tops it is the federal department of justice. No other state comes close to what she was in charge of. Oh, and she's very astute. If you watch, I know you probably didn't, but any of the hearings that she's participated in as a Senator, there's only, a couple of female senators, a few female senators, and she's, there's only, I think been one other black woman, female Senator in the country's history. [00:29:42] So there's, a lot of history being made right now, B because of his choice. And I think together, they offer a really strong team. And if Biden wins the election, if, [00:30:00] because of his age, that when the second term rolls around, Depending on his physical situation. If he were to step down, it would be easy for him to step down and hand the key to Harris. [00:30:16] And depending on what happened during those four years, she could very easily then become the first female. Okay. To be president of this country. What, for whatever. I think that's cool. is it important? I suppose from the standpoint that yeah, even you, the young lady can be president of the United States, even though some people now don't aspire to that because of what's happened in the last four years, opine, it's interesting that see, there's, a lot of things that are running through my head [00:31:00] is we have. [00:31:02] An upcoming election with a new individual and as any person would look in, say a dating world, you pattern recognize from previous experience experiences not to run into our date. Somebody that was a huge pain in the ass in your past. Now we have so much trauma in our heads that we have to. Really just dig into this individual who might seem like they have a hundred percent positive intentions. [00:31:41] And I think that's, I don't know. I don't, know what's going to happen with the outcome of that. And it does make sense as far as with he's choosing. I don't remember her name [00:32:00] to be his running mate. That is, that looks good. I said, but it just, seems to, it just seems like it's too good in a way, as far as what we have to that it's's like the ideal image of what America would want. [00:32:25] I agree with you. and I think there's a lot of people that are ready for that. When you look at the way the world looks now versus the way it did three and a half years ago, it looks a lot different in, many respects. One of the things here in our country that we've seen. w without trying to put a judgment on it and trying to stay as objective as I can, we've seen a lot of chaos, more chaos than ever. [00:32:58] And if you ask the [00:33:00] Democrats, they'll tell you it's the cause of the Republicans and Trump. And if you ask Trump in his. Followers, he, and they will tell you it's all because of the Democrats. and, that's part of the chaos is this crazy divided nation that we're in. And I don't really believe we've been this divided since the civil war, the division is deep. [00:33:28] It's hate kind of division. It's not. where two people can sit down and talk about their different opinions and why they support this person versus that person. It used to be, you could have those kinds of discussions. Nowadays, people lose friends and stop talking and seeing relatives because of, where they are on this, fulcrum, cause it's the crazy Seesaw thing. [00:34:01] [00:34:00] It just seems like it would be really nice to have some integrity and honesty and leadership, as honest as politicians can be, recognizing that there's a whole bunch of lying going on in politics. I get that, but not everything that comes out of your mouth is a lie. not everything that goes wrong is. [00:34:29] Because of the other team, not everything that goes right is because of me, my administration, I did this, this is the greatest economy in the world, no one would have foreseen it and just makeup stuff. 45 said I think it was last week. It might've been the week before. So if I've repeated this, it's just because it's so awesome. [00:34:57] Not in a good way, but [00:35:00] he was on the tarmac of the Cleveland or Cincinnati airport and was talking about Biden and how he's going to hurt this country. If Biden's elected, he will hurt the country. He will hurt the Bible and he will hurt God. he said those three things, the president of the United States. [00:35:23] Said that a potential candidate, because technically Biden's not even the candidate, but a potential candidate for the United States presidency will hurt God. Yeah. Whether you believe in God or not historically God's omnipotent. you'll talk to some people who will tell you, there's nobody more powerful than God yet Biden can hurt God. [00:35:51] Wow. I gotta tell ya if he's that powerful. Maybe we need him to calm everything down, and then [00:36:00] we'll deal with God later. I don't know. That's interesting. Are we looking at a shift in the type of presidential character? Like I believe with Obama, he is a peacekeeper. And then when we've had that, now we need somebody who's. [00:36:19] More towards war than now. Are we rolling? Rotating back down to peace. And then we look at the division between the Democrats and the Republicans and how much there's so much hate pointing at one another, but nobody's willing to take ownership and their own faults. To me, it just, I'm just, looking at this from a third person, as far as they're projecting their own past. [00:36:48] Failure's on to them as they are the reason, but it's just like history repeats itself. fuck. Yeah. cause we're we have this old school mindset. this is the industrial [00:37:00] mindset that we still have yet to adopt. And now we have AI happening. We have so much going on just a mass amount of knowledge yet. [00:37:10] Why are we still doing these primitive little. Just Pat. It just, makes me angry. It's just what are we doing? It's a waste of time. And not only is it a waste of time, especially when you take into consideration AI artificial intelligence is, really making so many decisions for politicians. the way they run their campaign is based so much. [00:37:40] If you run a good campaign, you're going to have a lot of data that you mind by way of algorithms. it's AI making all these huge decisions that people go around like this like it's not, but AI is getting more and more, [00:38:00] Into a situation where the amount of control it has is phenomenal. [00:38:08] And, I'm not, there's no judgment there, to a large extent based on the algorithms, of course, but AI doesn't lie. AI doesn't have, have to deal with scandals. and so there's a whole bunch of advantages to AI. but I think used in con right now where we are technologically AI combined with the human mind in human emotions can be pretty powerful. [00:38:42] Use powerfully use power. It's powerful, both, for the good of people or anything. That's powerful. It can be used. in a negative connotation for control and anarchy and so on [00:39:00] and so forth or for the good of people, the good common cause, which I think we need. I think the world's continuing to miss a lot, that it's a little esoteric, but I'm a leftover hippie. [00:39:15] And I firmly believe that what the on Warwick saying about. 40 50 years ago, what the world needs now is love. Sweet love. yeah, but with the AI, as far as that being good or bad, I want to know is who's actually programming it. What type of character an individual is. Yeah. What did they build into these algorithms from which AI will continue to get smarter and smarter No, that's interesting. even with the [00:40:00] scientific method on just proposing a hypothesis, it's still not even free of that bias. [00:40:07] Not even free of. Just leaning on what the individual's testing towards their favor, rather than against their favor. There's always something that's going to impact the end result. And I still feel like it's going to be the same thing every time unless there is a drastic change in something huge. and see that's where this old guy sees a huge benefit. [00:40:38] To AI in that, regardless of the bias, that was part of any, and all of the algorithms that were built for the AI as AI continues to advance and it's consuming all the data that's available because [00:41:00] AI, at some point will be able to consume. Every bit of data, it won't need new algorithms because the algorithms that it was given as part of this AI works like our mind, except on a scale that we can't begin to understand how, it can gather all this information and make unemotional decisions, make decisions based on the math, the zeros and ones. [00:41:33] No. so, I think from that standpoint, it won't take stuff into consideration that human emotion takes into consideration. if I make the decision to do this, how will I look in the eyes of those people? AI, I don't think AI can, maybe, I don't think he considers that. It says, based on this information, it's [00:42:00] B. [00:42:01] You know next. so it's interesting. It's we live in a world that's, it's extremely interesting. And I, think to a large extent, we're at a very interesting point, for, certainly for the country and for the world, what's going to happen in this election, for the country and the world is pretty damn important regardless of the outcome. [00:42:31] Oh, it's frightening. How much towing is going on relative to the election and the procedures and the election and the setups coming into the election. As far as methodology, mailing ballots, no mail-in ballots, one side says, Hey, The [00:43:00] election's rigged. It's terrible. It's just going to be rigged. [00:43:03] the Democrats are doing all are going to have all this fraud and Malin. Do you think that's gonna impact the people actually wanting to vote versus not? not necessarily the impact comes from when the results are presented to the. To the world, depending on who wins. the 45 is apt to say if he's not victorious, I told you it was rigged. [00:43:40] And so we're going to redo the election. That's what we're going to do. We're it. I have the power to shy. Am I the most powerful guy here, regardless of what the constitution says, regardless of this coat, these three code branches, I think we need to have another election because this is all fucked up. [00:43:59] We can't [00:44:00] even try to recount, we don't know what's fraud and what's not, and I'm not leaving office. What are you going to do about it? the Supreme court comes and says, you have to leave office. Or, and he's got a couple of high level military people that choose to side with him and, they secure the white house. [00:44:25] And yeah, he's our president. Who's, hadn't been a new election and he said that this selection wasn't valid, he's our leader. So I'm going to follow, there, comes into that play that, something we talked about from the beginning, and that's, ethical in value standards that military, I gotta report to the commander, gotta follow his wishes. [00:44:49] What point do you say, dude? Mutiny on this ship. You don't have a clue as to how to get, us out of this hurricane, the ship's going down, [00:45:00] we're taken over theoretically, That would see that play out. Cause I have a weird outlook on life. I always, I want to say catastrophize, but just analyze possibilities of what-if scenarios and. [00:45:20] Just the paint, the picture you painted for me, that is a possibility because from how my understanding on how he made office, it's like he had friends over in Russia or he, I feel like there was something with the relationship with that country that helped impact. His success as far as he was saying, Oh, I'm for them, I'm against them. [00:45:50] I'm not talking to them. I don't know if you're familiar with that. If you can shed some light on that. Are you talking about all the Russia, Russian interference, and his [00:46:00] relationship with Putin and yes. Yeah. first of all, to, just do a little positioning, recognize that before he was president before he was elected president, I think, before he ever publicly decided he was going to seek that office, Putin spent a lot of time together because the two of them together wanted to put a Trump Tower in Moscow. [00:46:34] Interesting. Yeah. And that's pretty well established. In a fact, they had conversations about a Trump tower, a luxurious Trump tower in Moscow. That's one of the reasons I believe, and this is opined. okay. I believe that, The United States. [00:47:00] Congress is so curious to get a full financial trail of Trump and all his organizations to see if there are any financial ties to Russia and, or the powerful Russian people leaders. To what degree does this influence decisions that. 45 has made and will continue to make, because all of the, excuse me, the 17, intelligence agencies here in the United States, way back when all agreed. [00:47:37] There was no question in their mind. That there was interference from, Russia. To what degree you can say this vote was because of their interference. Nobody can prove that, but when all 17 of our intelligence agencies agree on one fact to say that they're all corrupt, there might be a [00:48:00] handful of corrupt ones. [00:48:01] there's corruption all over at the highest levels of our government. We've seen corruption as we've never seen before. From a guy that was going to clean the swamp out. Yeah. What is your definition of corruption? it could come back to manipulation almost really when you stop and think about what's cropped. [00:48:27] corrupt is when. You are a leader of a country and you're supposed to be making decisions one within the constraints of the law, the constitution, and you go outside the constitution, because, your daughter is trying to get patents with China. that's corrupt. I think when you have other heads of state from other foreign countries, stay at your hotel. [00:49:00] [00:49:00] In Washington, DC when they visit, I think that's pretty fucking corrupt. I think when you go and play golf at one of yours. Country clubs and it costs, I don't know how many tens of millions of dollars to take your entourage. Cause you got to have your security detail. You gotta have your fucking, motor escort. [00:49:23] You can't rent from, enterprise and get a Cadillac. You need that great, big, heavy Bulletproof piece of shit, and all that, any need 83 security service guys serve secret service guys, and. When he became president, I think it's corrupt that the dues to your country, to the country club, that he hangs out, that he owns the dues, doubled the day after he was president. [00:49:51] Cause you want to hang with me, you gotta pay dude, and his, big deal, the way he's handled [00:50:00] COVID there's is there any fact to this? I don't know. Probably not, but I can draw. Lines and inferences. He doesn't like the economy shut down. Not because of what's happening to the working guy, the common guy, because nobody's traveling is fucking Trump towers, his moral Lago, his all his shit. [00:50:23] Nobody's going to cause nobody to travel. You want people that are traveling are politicians and people that absolutely fucking have to get on a commercial airline, Some of that is real corruption. it's when you're doing something for, to, advance your personal goals at the expense of others and, or it's absolutely unlawful. [00:50:53] you can find a law that says, no, you can't do this. And. [00:51:00] Be in this position, whether it's a business guy taking payola under the table, or it's the president of the United States taking income from his properties because his position in the office gives him the ability to have foreign dignitaries. [00:51:20] Yeah. You just stay around the corner here at my hotel. We'll take care of you there. No. that's pretty fucking corrupt, I think, but I'm just before he was running for president at like even announced, I think I have seen this, I was like on the Simpsons as far as they just show like him running. I don't know what year this was but just projected him going. [00:51:51] Up as president. And that was like maybe 10, 15, 20 years ago. It's been a while since I've seen the symptoms and it's like, where do they [00:52:00] get that information from? is that just a coincidence? Because at the time he was just a bizarre character. So they like who is the most outrageous individual we can play as running for president on this episode. [00:52:14] And they choose him well, way, back with him and. 15 years, 10, 15 years, certainly more than 10 years. he had interviews with many talk show hosts and radio show hosts, and, they would, and I don't know why they would ask a business guy in a pretty non-successful business guy. [00:52:41] when you figure he's taken six of his companies, all of which are basically one main corporation, bankrupt, I, I don't know how successful it is. but, and he'll tell you, he has nothing to do with success. He was playing the system. The laws are set up for [00:53:00] me to fuck people, and it's not the big wealthy banks that he fucks when he goes bankrupt. [00:53:06] But it's a little contractor that, painted the inside of the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City that presented him with the invoice. When he said, no, I'm not going to pay you. I don't have any money. And then that puts a lane on his, his, what did he be? His LLC or, just him in general. And over time, if it doesn't get paid off, they don't really get their money. [00:53:31] They never do because again, the LLCs or corporations or trust, whoever ultimately is, the entity that has it. There are no assets, there's no money. and another judgment, he doesn't give a shit. He's probably the most, this guy is probably leading a gate litigated more stuff than, anybody ever. [00:53:55] he still has hundreds, if not thousands of [00:54:00] currently filed lawsuits against him for the fraud, he committed relative to his university. Those are still pending and he can play with those people forever. Cause he keeps paying as attorneys. just keep it in court a little bit longer, it doesn't go away because they don't have the financial resources that he has. [00:54:21] And that's the other thing. Valarie says he's done a successful businessman and I know intuitively that he doesn't have near the wealth. He tries telling you he has, if he did, he'd show you his fucking tax return. There's no reason for them not to show his tax return unless he's fucking hiding something. [00:54:42] He tells you he's one of the richest guys in the world. Okay. Show me all the rich guys, show me where I can go find their shit. the only thing that makes you rich is you had this big foundation that you stole money out of. And the state of New York made you shut down your [00:55:00] charitable foundation because your family was living out of it. [00:55:05] God it's like, where does it stop now? Is all this true? supporters will tell you no, it's just shit made up from the other side. No, it isn't, I don't know, show us your fucking tax return and prove it, innocent people will prove their innocence after some period of time. [00:55:29] Yes. And it's a really easy way for him. The easiest thing in the world for him right now, if all this bullshit that the Democrats and the liberals are making up about him and how he corrupts the country and all these business interests that could be convoluted. Show us your fucking taxes. There's not a president in our history in contemporary history. [00:55:52] It has not shown us our taxes. You promise Mr. President, God, that sounds terrible. I didn't him. [00:56:00] 45. You promised you were going to show your taxes after you were elected. Oh, but you're being audited. IRS doesn't care who you show your taxes to, whether you're being audited or not. You can show your taxes anytime you want. [00:56:15] Show them. Prove it let these fucking accountants go through. Probably his return probably is this thick, he's got I dunno, 63 different entities, and all this shit, but let these accounts plow through all that shit. And then tell the American public, know this guy's clean as a whistle, his fear. [00:56:39] And I agree with this. If you put some investigators on mulling over paperwork, they're going to find shit wrong. we all have done stuff wrong, so he's, I'm afraid they're going to, find something wrong. Of course, they're going to find in with him, they're going to find a lot of shit wrong. [00:56:59] Cause [00:57:00] he did it on purpose. it wasn't an additional, a mathematical error, But I think having a complete financial picture of the guy could show the country, show the world financially, why he does some of what he does. Decision-making as a leader of the free world. And it'll be interesting. [00:57:27] Then to caveat when you were saying, we could also see where the corruption is actually taking place. As far as it he's done certain things that certain departments should have covered. That is where we can start backtracking and start eliminating the corruption from the ass, end out the mouth. Exactly. [00:57:52] And that picture I just described. And in that picture that you just described, that the scary thing is [00:58:00] where does the corruption end and how do you end corruption? Because a lot of the people that would otherwise have responsibility for ending corruption and going after the corrupt, they are indeed part of the corruption. [00:58:17] And so it's that, it's a circle and it's a tough circle. If anybody heard the interview between 11 on, Fox Life, Liberty and Levin when he interviewed attorney general William Barr earlier this week, most frightening interview I've ever heard. William Barr truly, I believe, truly believes that he is 40 fives, personal attorney. [00:58:53] And his job is not to head up the department of justice of the United States of America. His [00:59:00] job is to make sure that 45 is reelected and that he can offer him as much protection as possible. And if you listen to this interview, if you never heard any news ever about Trump and bar and the Mueller report and Russia, and. [00:59:20] What's going on with Senate hearings, congressional hearings, and just listened to this one interview. And it was Fox interviewing him. this guy is scary. He and Trump together. If they have one corrupt high level, military guy can take over, this is conspiratorial. I know that, but it's, that frightening. [00:59:47] W when you see those levels of, governmental officials, all line for each other. at some point in time, Nixon's closest [01:00:00] advisors said, dude, we got you, they got you, your cookie hands in the jar, your hands in the cookie jar. You got to come clean and Nixon looked at everything and said, yeah, you're fucking right. [01:00:17] My best stance is to resign. And hopefully, forward my vice president who will now be president will pardon me, which he did. And he deserved it. the man was he, was punished enough. I really believe, that term you use conspiracy Tutorial. Do you feel like that term has, is a bad taste in people's mouths when we're really trying to analyze different avenues of how this could play out? [01:00:55] When we start, I just feel like when that term gets thrown out there, people. [01:01:00] Just dismiss it automatically because it's associated with things that happen in the past or are projected into the future that is least likely to happen. But I don't understand why nobody wants to even consider that as a possibility. [01:01:19] Yeah. And that's, I will tell you, Not terribly long ago. in the last five or six years ago, I looked at conspiracy ideas and theories and thought, Oh, those guys are off their fucking rocker. And then I realized, fuck, we all have conspiracy theories because all of our theories, if they don't go with the mainstream, Are conspiratorial, aren't they? [01:01:51] if you walk down this way, but everybody else is going this way and I tell why you shouldn't be going that way, because based on my thoughts, [01:02:00] it's a conspiracy. when you look at our country today, it's so divided that almost everyone is conspiratorial. To one extent or the other, you got the people on the right side of the aisle. [01:02:17] just making up bullshit. And the people on the left side of the aisle are making her bullshit every now and then each side grabs a fact and distorts it hardly any, but most of the time, all the facts are distorted quite a bit. Cause they want to be manipulative or motivate us to get out and vote. [01:02:39] They come back to the beginning of our conversation and it's really key. that's why I asked that question. When you mentioned those two words, manipulation in motivation, manipulate, motivate. We see so much of both of those going on, [01:03:00] regardless of how you perceive it. And it comes back to, I believe in my conspiratorial theory, another yet another one media, because most of the information we consume is presented to us by media, by social media, by the major. [01:03:25] News outlets by all the talk shows all of this media. And we have so much of the media to consume. It's not like when I was growing up. we had three television shows, no rotary dial telephone. Okay. She knows where the no, in, a radio for one time, just with am stations and FM stations, but. Hey, now it's so easy to come up with a conspiratorial idea and then build a whole story around it. [01:04:00] [01:04:00] Show a video, that you've Photoshop pictures or Photoshop and who the fuck knows what's real today. Yes. it's fine. Me. I got a friend that continually sends me messages and half of them. And I don't tell them, this is, all made up. you can even see the phone, the bad Photoshop job in it. [01:04:26] And here's the fact, and I, and who am I to say that just the fact just based on where I found that is that factual info. I don't know. Where do you find the facts? That's frightened. So what are the real facts, pictures that are being displayed to you and they are somehow made up and not an authentic one? [01:04:53] I don't understand why people are going to that trouble to try to relay the information, to get the point across. [01:05:00] it should either make sense or not make sense. And then when, if we were to zoom back out and look at. With the crowd of people you're referring to going one way and another guy to go in this way. [01:05:13] I think those people that are going their own way have a higher level of thinking rather than following suit into the direction that they were told to go to based on what is being portrayed by the media. Because I am aware of the term portering as far as with framing. A certain message to get across, to make things look catastrophic, or to make things look consistent in society. [01:05:43] As far as there's so much, there's so much Trump, there's so much trauma happening on a daily basis. Come on, tune into channel 11, Fox two. They would just want to get viewers and that's disgusting. Cause if we really zoom out even higher and look at the person who's in charge [01:06:00] of. The actual, what is it? [01:06:02] NBC like the place that's in charge of all the fucking radio, the social media in general, it's comes down to one person when there's two different sides of, the government Republic news and, democratic news. It's being ran by one person with a sign. Is he on that's? What? Just blows my mind. It's. It's frightening. [01:06:28] And when you look at the power of social media, [01:06:37] the power of social media has, and the ease with which it is with which one or an entity can post anything on social media recently that, some of the social media platforms have been taking down purely. Unfactual, posts [01:07:00] could have an adverse effect on, people that would believe that shit. [01:07:06] But to answer your question, why do they even do that? Do people post these pictures that are incorrect? I think part of it gets back to something we said earlier today in this division, everything's. Black or white. All of a sudden there's no grayer. Everything's binary. you're with me. You're with, you're not with me. [01:07:29] If you're not with me, you're against me. it, this is good or this is bad. There's that? it is good for them, but it might hurt this group, but this big group it'll, it's good for it's no, it's. I have to show you how wrong you are to think the way you are. Look at this picture. [01:07:49] Did I Photoshop look at this picture, it says right here, or look at here, I can pull it. these statistics as you well know [01:08:00] numbers, statistics reports for everyone that says blue, you can find one that says red. Yes, you can blame the doctor that says, yeah, there's hydrate high hydroxy chlorine coup the drug that, Trump is pushing. [01:08:20] I can't even pronounce it well for a while as a cure in a therapy for COVID. you got a whole bunch of doctors that say, no, it's, not, there's only five, placebo research papers that are written and said, there's no effect. And then there's 2,500 doctors will say, yeah, it works. but no, we haven't done it with a randomized placebo test, based on what we've seen with these two patients at work. [01:08:49] So we're just in this world of. How do you even find a fact? and I think each of us [01:09:00] has our sources for what we believe to be factual and near as unbiased as one can be today. there's biased everywhere. Whether it's NBC or Fox, whether it's OAN or CNN, whether it's MSNBC or, Foxy or newsy, there's bias in everything that we all do in everything we do every, day that we're alive. [01:09:35] There's we make decisions and do things based on our biases. And. The real trick is to, regardless of your, for example, political or religious bias, the real trick is to whatever your job is to go out and do your job with trying to keep your bias under control. [01:10:00] yeah, I'm an atheist, so I don't like people that are religious. [01:10:07] But as a cop, I can't go shoot people as they come out of church, just cause I don't like those people. I have to, the judges making these decisions in court, they have a bias. Of course they have a bias. but they have to make their decisions without bias, 12 jurors on a jury. Each one of them has a bias, but their instruction is you go in there. [01:10:34] You disregard everything you think, feel or believe don't pay attention to anything you hear or read about this case? Just the facts that are presented here in court, and you make your decision. Is this person guilty or innocent? That's fucking impossible. So that was back to [01:11:00] trust and trust value, honor ethics like a boy scout oath, all those things help the old lady across the street. [01:11:08] And that's what I think is really missing in society in general today, but certainly very high governmental levels throughout the government, both on the blue side and the red side, the Democrats and Republicans, you listen to both of them and you're pissed off at both of them. You are there, they're both acting, both sides are acting like a bunch of little fucking babies. [01:11:34] Yeah. they just all are like in grade school, kids don't act as poorly as, badly as irresponsibly as our politicians do. And I'd like to believe that Biden and Harris. might from a leadership standpoint, whether they win [01:12:00] or lose grab hold of the politicians on both sides and say, this is how you run a campaign. [01:12:08] This is how you lead a country, especially a country in the world it's in crisis. we've got a public health crisis of some sort going on, regardless of who you want to believe. There's some shit going on. We have an economic crisis going on, regardless of why it's going on, it's going on. And we have people in the United States of America that should not be starving, that should not be living on the streets. [01:12:35] We've got enough, wealth in this country between a handful of people, literally, but as a country, we have enough, wealth to fix it. So that. that doesn't happen. That the poverty we have here, not only just, not only an urban yeah. Plight, in the Appalachian area there's [01:13:00] poverty like you. [01:13:01] And I probably can't even imagine Jen, in our wildest dreams that today in the United States, people are living in Michigan. Yeah, Michigan. That's exactly where I was going with Flint for seven years. I think it's been about seven years since it was discovered in the media about the water supply up there. [01:13:22] People are still dependent on bottled water today that lives in Flint. Nobody's done anything about that river that you know, has got all that contamination in it as well, depending on bottled water. Yeah. And most of these people probably don't have jobs cause they're factory worker kind of people. I don't know. [01:13:47] It's interesting. I think with Louisiana, there's something in their water as well. What if I'm not mistaken, can't get up their nose. I believe there's like a parasite or something that can attack the rain or something. But if we [01:14:00] rewind, let's look at the social media as far as if it doesn't portray the political agenda. [01:14:08] Shit gets pulled down. Is that some sort of a control, I would say, as far as being like, if you don't post what's relevant on what we're talking about, we're going to take your outside information and pull it down because we don't want to confuse people on what is actually being presented. [01:14:30] Certainly has the opportunity. To happen that way. A good example though, where, I think you see this censorship taking place because it is a form of censorship. Yes. But I think media in general has a duty to call your attention to, misleading statements. A good example was semi-recently, [01:15:00] were, 45. [01:15:02] Has said repeatedly, but this was after his first white house briefing. Recently, I want to say in the last 10 days where he said that children are virtually immune from COVID factually, that's just incorrect science based on the science it's incorrect. And so Facebook or Twitter, it was Twitter took that. [01:15:30] Tweet down and, they'd give you the reason, bait in a point you somewhere, where you can find a fact. And again, who's got the facts, as I asked earlier, who do you look to as factual? I don't know. I don't know. But what I will tell you is for however long, the CDC, for example, has been around. [01:15:51] It was the authority here in the United States relative to contagious and infectious diseases. For, I don't know, [01:16:00] 40 years, 50 years, 80 years, I don't know, long it's been around. I don't know it's been around for a while. And there were some prestigious doctors that, have led that organization to keep widespread epidemics and pandemics from help from occurring and helping the world deal with epidemics that might happen in their country. [01:16:21] So when. That group of scientists, doctors who specialize in that shit say, no, that's not right. I'm going to accept them over fucking an orange fucking leader that told us to go drink Lysol and sit under ultraviolet lights as a way to not get COVID. given that choice, that ABB I'll take B, I go with the science. [01:16:49] I'm curious though, as far as, who owns Twitter? That's one quick. That's my first question. And why was it taken down when [01:17:00] 45 says this? Yes, it seems pretty bizarre, but the fact of somebody in such high power says this bizarre thing and it's automatically taken down. Now, my question is, there a connection between somebody who owns. [01:17:17] That platform two 45. Yeah. that's if you listen to the politicians on both sides. Yes. I believe Twitter is part of a publicly-traded company. So there are many, stockholders that ultimately the board of directors gets to pick and choose the CEO it, and one might say, Just like Bezos is against Trump. [01:17:48] So anything that comes from Amazon or the Washington Post or any of the shit he owns is tainted. As far as Trump supporters go, that's just not. So [01:18:00] bayzos has at the end of the day if you collapse his empire, He's not going to lose his $65 billion. And if he loses $64.9 billion, he's still a billionaire. [01:18:17] Yes. financially he has nothing really to gain. He's attained that level in Maslow's hierarchy that he's into self-actualization that's all. And like he and bill Gates. they're trying to improve the world. Now with this wealth, they built with these platforms they've built. Now they can use this AI to deliver clean water, too, third, world countries. [01:18:45] And they do they're there. They're trying to do good. Do good. Or it's how they're not out trying to build Amazon bigger. for the sake of building Amazon bigger. You can, I think it's actually number three in [01:19:00] the fortune 500, I believe three or four. I can't remember the number. And then with bill Gates, I do remember reading about that with him, helping out their world countries, as far as getting that first, self-sufficient a wa like huge ass system, whatever it just cycles. [01:19:22] The rainwater, and just literally cycled shit and piss fresh water. Let's just be black. Yeah. That's exactly what it does. So that's, really good stuff. And I just don't understand why we can't have that in the political area. It is. I think part of its leadership, during Bush, during Reagan during Bush, during Clinton Carter, the there was not this kind of, there was hanky [01:20:00] panky politics is hanky panky at the end of the day, but it wasn't everything being done for one guy. [01:20:09] And I really believe, and I know I harp on this, but [01:20:16] all. 45 is concerned about is his himself, his entities and how the world perceives him in, the world. Laughs at him, I truly see him as an embarrassment. God bless Joe Biden, but Biden makes plenty of fo pause in his speech. who's smarter. I don't know. I guess Biden. I guess a lot of five years old, five-year-olds are more responsible and smarter than 45. [01:20:52] They don't say shit as stupid as he does. he comes out and just says, bizarre shit, whatever I think is [01:21:00] rolling off. End of his tongue. He just says, even though he's got a script, even though advisors tell him, no, don't talk about, the Lysol anymore. It's really not instant fix anything I need to fuck you. [01:21:12] I'm going to say what I want. and he goes up and sights people, to, have these attitudes, that COVID is not real. I don't know if it's real or not, but there's a lot of fucking sick people that have something that the world is trying to deal with. I would love to go into that, but also let's, look at that. [01:21:35] if we were to put those two individuals Biden and 45 against fifth graders, I believe there's a show called, are you smarter than a fifth grader? Do you think the political figures would actually win? And also the other one is I understand what the, with an individual, it's not about what they [01:22:00] say. [01:22:00] It's about how they act under pressure is the real character. So when you tell me that. 45 wants to say this and just disregard the paperwork that's been given that shows who he really is. Cause everything that's coming out is just shit that people made for him to say, but he really does not have the ability to control themselves. [01:22:25] So I can see with what you said earlier, as far as about being a narcissist. And I don't like that term that because it always gets thrown around in. And then just in the society in general, loosely. if we were to look at it in the DSM, five, it gets very specific and I'm not looking at it right now, but judging how just looking at, or remembering the definition, it shows a relation. [01:22:56] But since I'm not looking at this very moment, I don't want to say that, [01:23:00] but I just think it's really interesting on how things are playing out. Yeah, it is. And none of us really, even psychologists, people that, scientifically know this stuff know what's in that manual, all the symptoms of it. [01:23:19] because they're not treating him, they're not consulting with them. No one really has a, right. and, not so much a right, but no one has the facts to make that judgment. On him or anybody, but again, intuitively when you see someone act like this time and time again, if it looks like a duck and smells like a duck and walks like a duck, it's a fucking doc. [01:23:51] even though it doesn't walk around with a label, crack black, I'm a doc. but in whether he [01:24:00] is. A narcissist. He certainly has some narcissistic tendencies and behaves as if he is a narcissist, behaves as if he is a racist behaves as if he wants to divide this country further. For three and a half years, he's never really spoken to America every time he speaks. [01:24:29] Every time he holds one of his political rallies, he speaks to the 30% of the people that will always support him. And don't worry about getting enough people over to elect, him. can you imagine a president, a living president. Having his people contact a governor of a state, South Dakota to be specific and said, what will it take to get my head carved into Mount [01:25:00] Rushmore now? [01:25:03] And this is a fact nobody's disputed it. the white house has walked back. they didn't quite say that. And she did give them a little model of four foot model with his head on it. With, Lincoln and all the rest of the guys. but here's just shows you the stupidity. and this is just pure stupidity, factual stupidity. [01:25:24] I can point to that. Mount Rushmore is a national monument. It's a federal monument, the state it's not in their jurisdiction to make that call. It's the federal government. I don't know if it's Bureau land management or who takes care of that particular national founder. But, and again, if you're president, you're going to have one of your people, Hey, call up, call the governor. [01:25:48] She likes me. She gave me this model. Maybe we can get my head on it and maybe we can do it. they can do it with buzz saws and get it done before the election. That be cool. A picture of me in front of the mountain. [01:26:00] With my head carved on there and maybe the backside. you can see my ass too, I don't want to see my Dick cause it's real little, if you look at the size of my hands compared to these big jackets in this long time, and I know that's just his character, but yeah. [01:26:17] that's, pretty, compelling evidence that you got a narcissist there, while I'm alive and for him to say, it's no different really than president Obama accepting the Nobel peace prize. except that he didn't. Obama didn't give himself the prize. Trump wants himself carved into that monument. [01:26:46] There were a whole bunch, whatever the process is of how the foundation gives out those, the Nobel peace prize. That's how it happened, whether it was corrupt or not. I don't know, but it's something [01:27:00] Obama didn't have any choice in. He could have not accepted it. Yes. He just said, no, I don't want that. I'm just doing my job. [01:27:07] Yeah. and this was really in his first year as president. this was based on shit he did before being a president, I don't, understand all that, but what I do know, at least, from the late. Mid 1950s through present day, there's never been a sitting president or a living president did to ask to be on a piece of our money or carved into a monument, or, that's just bizarre shit who would do that? [01:27:44] I can see how they can say no. I need to carve my head on the front of, on Mount Rushmore. In fact, they could move out Roosevelt, just Ricardo his face into my face, and then I'll start from [01:28:00] scratch. He didn't see why he would ask as far as, Squigy real squeaky. Wheel gets the grease. [01:28:09] And I guess like you, you don't know unless you ask, all right. That's like logically in my head, trying to get something that you don't think you'll be able to get, but I'm just going to do it anyways. That would make sense. But what doesn't make sense is the fact that he's saying of what you're telling me is he's saying, I actually did look at the shit and. [01:28:30] Online, as far as sources go, and he did say this, but with the Lysol and the ultraviolet light, he doesn't take it seriously. So my question is, this actually a real thing that's happening? And I'm saying, what? Or what's the real thing is COVID this sickness, this thing that's going around killing 150. [01:28:57] 668,000. Thank [01:29:00] you. Yes. Is that real? Yeah, I, Okay. I'm thinking there's some reality to it. I really believe that. But here's where you, the dichotomies of leadership, when you joke about something that allegedly has killed a whole bunch of people. Yes. When you joke about that, then you get at least 30% of this country. That again, he can shoot, as he said, he could stand on fifth Avenue in New York city and shoot somebody and nobody will do anything about it. [01:29:42] So those 30% of the people that are behind him like that. When they hear him say, yeah, first of all, there's a threat because Lysol is a corporation. Their headquarters was just overloaded by phone calls coming in that day, [01:30:00] Okay. So life's all cure me. That's because these fucking idiots believe shit that comes out of his mouth he's leader of the free world for Christ sakes. [01:30:08] Why would he say that if it's not true? Why would he joke about it? As some number of things? People are actually dying from some. Some bug that call it, COVID call it the common flu, call it a cold, this is where the leader of the United States. If he, wasn't joking about it, I saw the, I saw him. [01:30:30] Why do that press briefing? He got pissed at the scientists. he got pissed at Burke's because dr. Burks wouldn't address it. And he went to the guy that he had in his pocket and the guy just said, Oh my God. he shrugged, what did you do with this guy? he wasn't kidding. [01:30:54] He wasn't sarcastic about it. I think I, after 69 years, I can judge a lot of people when they're being [01:31:00] sarcastic and I've seen enough of his shit and heard enough of his bullshit in Conway's bullshit to try to cover up his miss speakings. He doesn't misspeak, he's not an intelligent guy, but he's, a savvy streetwise guy. [01:31:18] Every time he says something he knows the reaction will get. And one thing he knows is that when he does this bizarre shit, he's always on television. He has all this fucking press. right now, people don't even know probably what Biden looks like. he hadn't been out and about since Kobe, that's an exact operation. [01:31:38] I know, he doesn't get all this free television. that's one of the reasons I believe. 45 started doing these COVID briefings again, and no doctor, none of the CDC people are in there. It's just him doing a little rally, a mini rally from the white house, brief press room for, [01:32:00] some crazy shit happening. [01:32:02] I have a one o'clock meeting with my copywriter. I'm redoing my website. Oh, shit. Is it already one 58? I just know. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. yeah, we can we'll end it right here. This is great. W a great episode. I think we talked about some interesting stuff builds you up or not. I don't know. It could be junk food, but it's food. [01:32:36] I'll get in touch with you later. Cause I wanted to see if you wanted to help, out with the social media. Cause I was going to start adding you on everything. Yeah, let's talk about okay. We can do, Hey, it was good seeing you and have a good rest of the week. I've got a few days left. Beat your [01:33:00] drum. [01:33:00] I will. You do the same. Thank you. Bye bye. Bye.

    Consider leaving a brief review on Apple Podcast/Itunes if you have enjoyed this episode. Only a matter of seconds it will take and it helps bring together potential guests and listeners.

  Connect with Your Transformation Station:

Facebook |Instagram |Twitter |Website

    This is Your Transformation Station, signing off.

  Check out this episode!