#re the clout and Supreme Leader thing

[randomnameless]

Don't forget Marianne being worried about Edelgard's feelings in Azure Gleam as another prime example of Edelwanking; that's a strong contender for the top spot, given how it takes someone who's on the receiving end of an invasion and makes her uwu about whether the leader of said invasion is feeling okay, while giving no fucks about the danger said leader is putting herself and her allies through for the sake of a landgrab.

Hot take,

I was actually pretty milquetoast about Marianne during FE16, then the momo sobfest from FEH made me sigh, and her perf in Nopes, especially in Golden Shower "They see that magic as the goddess's protection? Their faith has blinded them!" and "People do horrible things when their faith becomes tainted with fear. We must stop them at once!" was just... ugh.

(Rhea's magic comes from Sothis you moron, as a Nabatean her powers come from Sothis herself! And yes, their faith has been tained by fear because you and your stupid general are assaulting them and they're making their last stand! no amounts of "i'm still not sure we're doing the right thing" can be used as a plaster to make up for those leaps in logic!).

The GD in general just became friends of Supreme Leader, and all this uwu about her, regardless of the thousand randoms (even from the Alliance and, hell, her own people!!!) dead/suffering is just icing on cake.

Just like Lys who wags her tail because Supreme Leader gave her some sweets, the GD peeps have no substance and are of no interest to me tbh.

The only ones who might get a pass are Ignatz - whose existence legits shits on "crestless people live trash lives and can't marry sad uwus" even if the games ignore his existence, and Leonie who is one of the fews in FE16 to hold Supreme Leader accountable for Jerry's death when Billy "if someone killed my father I would hate them" themselves has the "can't we uwu" or "must we kill her sad uwus" choice - Nopes demolished them but I grew fond of those randoms joes earlier than Nopes' release, and Ignatz has the Mona Rhea support to boast (pissing on Clout's "reasoning" btw!).

[xtruss]

Who’s Afraid of TikTok? The World’s Most Exciting App is Also Its Most Mistrusted

— Leaders | Social Media and Security | The Economist | July 07, 2022

With its wholesome dancing and lip-syncing videos, TikTok once billed itself as “the last sunny corner on the internet”. Since launching just five years ago the app has brought a warm glow to its 1bn-plus users, as well as an icy dash of competition to the social-media incumbents of Silicon Valley. With its rise, a part of the tech industry that had seemed closed to competition has been cracked wide open.

Yet even as TikTok delights consumers and advertisers, others believe the sunny app has a dark side. ByteDance, its owner, has its headquarters in China, whose government is addicted to surveillance and propaganda—making it a worrying place for a media app to be based. As TikTok’s clout grows and as elections loom in America, there is a brewing bipartisan storm in Congress over its supposed role as a “Trojan horse”.

The hype about TikTok is justified—and so are the concerns. The app has transformed competition in social media. Yet unchecked, it presents a security risk to the Chinese Communist Party’s enemies. Finding a way for TikTok to operate safely in the West is a test of whether global business and the global internet can remain intact as us-China relations deteriorate.

Beneath TikTok’s simple interface lies fearsomely advanced artificial intelligence (ai). Its knack for learning what people like helped TikTok sign up its first 1bn users in half the time it took Facebook. In America the average user spends 50% longer on the app each day than the typical user spends on Instagram. TikTok’s revenues are expected to reach $12bn this year and $23bn in 2024, drawing level with YouTube’s. Young creators are flocking to the app—along with some older ones. This week The Economist joined TikTok (no dancing, we promise).

The effect on competition has been dramatic. In 2020 American trustbusters sued Facebook, now known as Meta, for its alleged dominance of social media. Today such worries look eccentric; Meta has been particularly hard-hit as tech stocks have taken a beating, and the firm is re-engineering its products to mimic TikTok. America often accuses China of copycat capitalism. Now the boot is on the other foot.

Yet concerns about TikTok’s Chinese ownership have long simmered. Donald Trump tried and failed to force ByteDance to sell TikTok’s American business to a domestic owner towards the end of his presidency. Today, with TikTok approaching twice the size it was during the Trump era and with us-China relations at an even lower ebb, things are reaching a critical point.

The most frequently cited risk is privacy. China’s government gives itself the right to demand whatever data it likes from firms based in the country. Though most TikTokers are unbothered by the Communist Party analysing their dance moves, the app’s torrent of videos could be trawled for face and voice data to add to the digital panopticon that China is building at home. Yet this worry is probably exaggerated. Most such information could be scraped from TikTok’s front end or bought online—especially regarding Americans, who are poorly protected by data-privacy laws. The advantage of inside access would be marginal.

The bigger, underappreciated problem with TikTok is the chance it offers China to manipulate what the app’s vast foreign audience sees. TikTok has gone beyond sunny entertainment to become a major news platform. Open the app and among the songs and skits you may see Supreme Court protests or a flailing Boris Johnson. A quarter of American users say they consider TikTok to be a news source. In countries with weaker mainstream media the share is as high as 50%.

That makes TikTok’s Chinese ownership a serious worry. The Chinese government actively meddles in domestic media; four years ago it shut down another popular ByteDance app, unamused by the subversive jokes being shared on it. TikTok’s content moderators are outside China. But the app’s algorithm is nurtured in Beijing. A tweak here or there could give more traction to videos questioning covid-19’s Chinese origin, say, or blaming nato for the war in Ukraine. Because each user gets a personalised feed, tampering would be hard to spot.

TikTok insists no such meddling has taken place. But a company vulnerable to bullying by an authoritarian government obsessed with media manipulation is clearly a risk. Anyone who considers this paranoid should consider China’s record in Hong Kong. Without new safety mechanisms, Western countries might one day have to shut TikTok down.

The first step to avoiding that involves technical fixes. TikTok is working with American regulators on a framework in which American users’ data are held by Oracle, an American firm, with limited access for TikTok’s China-based staff. To tackle the manipulation question, TikTok has offered to let third parties inspect its algorithm. It is hard to understand the black box of an ai program—does a glut of pro-Trump videos indicate that someone in Beijing is pulling a lever, or simply that audiences enjoy polarising content? But showing the source code and allowing ongoing inspection of how the algorithm is updated would provide some reassurance.

Clouding Over

The harder step is to shore up TikTok’s independence. ByteDance’s efforts to separate TikTok’s management from the parent company must go further. TikTok should be ultimately responsible to an independent board of its own, with members from outside China (ideally including some who speak for wider interests than venture capital). Its ownership and voting rights should be more broadly distributed to give foreigners more say, for example by listing outside China. These would be ways of demonstrating that TikTok was genuinely autonomous.

China may bridle at all this. It recently classified content-recommendation algorithms as a key technology and may object to TikTok’s code being made available for dissection. It will be reluctant to cede any corporate control to foreigners. But it must recognise that if it wants its companies to operate globally in sensitive sectors, while the country remains an autocracy in which the state seeks to control business, adaptations will be necessary. If it refuses, the likely result is that TikTok—and more companies like it—will be locked out of the West altogether. ■

— This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline "Who’s afraid of TikTok?"

[opedguy]

Hezbollah Threatens War with Israel

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.dom), Sept. 4, 2019.--Calling Hezbollah’s militia in a “new phase” against Israel, 59-year-old Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened to escalate its border skirmish with Israel unless it stops flying drones over the Lebanon border.  Hardened by his involvement backing up Iran and Russia in the Syrian War, Nasrallah acts more brazen than ever, boasting about his new arsenal of precision-guided ballistic missiles aimed at practically every strategic target in Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, faced with a new election Sept. 17, has been uncharacteristically quiet responding to Nasrallah’s boasts.  Nasrallah fought Israel to loggerheads Aug. 14, 2006, causing significant damage to Lebanon’s infrastructure, something that Beirut officials want to avoid. Like Hamas in the Gaza Strip, periodic wars with Israel accomplish nothing other than winning sympathies—and more cash—in the Arab world.

 ��          Nasrallah warned Israel that his new generation of guided missiles could decimate every part of Israel, including its military. What Nasrallah forgets is that Israel’s Air Force holds a decisive military edge over any of its enemies. It wouldn’t take long for Israel to knock out Nasrallah’s guided missile sites and much of its armaments. Shooting missiles into Israel Sunday, Nasrallhah said it sends “a clear message that if you attack, then all your border, your forces and your settlements at the border and [deep inside] will be at risk.”  Nasrallah knows that if he pushes too hard, Netanyahu will command Israeli Defense Forces to strike deep inside Lebanaon.  Hezbollah and its allies control nearly 70 seats in Lebanon’s 128-seat parliament.  Whatever Nasrallah’s clout, the last thing Lebanon wants is a war with Israel, putting Hezbollah on notice to go too far.  War with Israel would hurt the Beirut government.

            Hezbollah’s currently spread too thin defending Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose grip on Syria has improved over the last year. Once a hotbed of terrorism and Saudi-backed rebel groups, Nasrallah has won high praise from Iran and Syria in its defense of al-Assad’s regime.  Much to the objection of the U.S. and European Union [EU], Hezbollah, with the help of Russia and Iran, has managed to keep al-Assad in power, despite concerted efforts by the Saudis, U.S. and Turkey to oust him from Damascus. Working closely with Russia, Iran has done everything it could to keep al-Assad in power, especially arming Nasrallah’s Hezbollah militia.  Nasrallah claims his guided missiles struck and Israeli armored vehicle, killing all inside, something the IDF has not confirmed.  Nasrallah promised to strike more Israeli drones should they stray into Lebanon’s sovereign territory.

            Nasrallah warned that “this is no longer a red line,” referring to the alleged missile strike on an Israeli armored-personnel carrier.  Israel has demanded that Iran stop supplying Hezbollah and Hamas with guided missiles.  Israel sees Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism in the Mideast in North Africa.  Iran has supplied Yemen’s Houthi rebels with the guided missiles needed to strike inside Saudi Arabia.  Netanyahu blames Beirut’s government for supplying Hezbollah with enough guided bombs to wreak havoc in Israel.  Israel blamed Iran for supplying Hezbollah with more lethal weapons to threaten Israel, essentially admitting a proxy war against Israel.  Trump’s decision to negate the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] directly relates to Iran’s proxy war against Saudi Arabia and Israel, something Trump wants stopped before discussing sanctions relief.

            Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei continues his predecessor’s, the late 1979 revolutionary Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei, anti-Semitic rhetoric, antagonizing Israel by hosting Holocaust deniers’ conferences.  While the EU, especially French President Emanuel Macron, hopes to salvage the Iranian Nuke Deal, they refuse to take a stand on Iran’s malign activity in the Mideast and North Africa.  Sponsoring a proxy war against Saudi Arabia by arming Houthi rebels is reason enough to re-impose sanctions on Iran.  “We will continue to do whatever is necessary to defend Israel at sea, on land and in the air.  We will continue to act against the threat of the precision-guided rockets,” Netanyahu said in a video message.  Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz told Germany’s Foreign Minister Heiko Maas that Hezbollah could get Beirut in a whole lot of trouble.

            Fighting a bloody war in 2006, losing nearly 1,200 Lebanese civilians, Nasrallah can only push things so far until Beirut takes the brunt to Hezbollah’s bravado.  “What constrains them is that neither side wants a war:  Each wants to use it as part of their own internal propaganda machine, but neither side genuinely wants war,” said Maha Yaha, director of Carnegie Middle East Centre in Beirut.  What Yaha doesn’t get is that Netanyahu isn’t concerned about war with Hezbollah as long as they continue to amass weapons of mass destruction against Israel. Beirut’s economy, already downgraded by Fitch to CCC, would be devastated in any altercation with Israel. “A full scale war is the last thing this region needs,” said an unnamed Iranian official.  Israel has no intention of full-scale war, only preemptively degrading Hezbollah war-making machine, especially its guided missile arsenal.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

[boombergnews]

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On the roster: Nuggets from the passing parade – Centrist Dem: Age of Home management an issue – Audible: want some ice for that burn? – The fox says: 5 stars 

NUGGETS FROM THE PASSING PARADE   We don’t wish to alarm you, however Labor Day is in 17 days. Now take a deep breath and go get some extra candy corn… As you look forward to the water to boil, how about some pre-weekend political nuggets for an appetizer?

– A lot of the overheated evaluation the trial of Paul Manafort on tax evasion and corruption prices has centered on what the potential verdict may imply for the bigger efforts of Particular Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into different Russia-linked skullduggery in American politics. If jurors had been to acquit President Trump’s former marketing campaign chairman on all 18 counts it could actually be a setback for Mueller and would give the president one other speaking level. However a few issues to recollect: The president can end up speaking factors like Dunkin’ does donuts so no matter occurs, he’ll name it a win. And second, Manafort is dealing with probably much more critical peril in his different federal felony trial set to start subsequent month within the District of Columbia. We are saying it so typically that we think about you’re properly and really bored with it, however right here we go once more: Speeding to judgements in issues just like the Mueller probe is strictly a nasty thought. Let the matter play out and do your finest to be fair-minded, skeptical and affected person within the meantime.

– We needed to chortle at phrase that jurors requested to be excused early on Friday from their deliberations as a result of one juror had a earlier engagement. We keep in mind overlaying trials with judges like Jim Stuckey and Irene Berger again in Kanawha County, W. Va. the place such a request in a high-profile trial would have assured the jury a one-way ticket to sequestration for the weekend consuming low cost pizza in a motel room. Sheesh.

– As he left for the weekend, the president appeared fairly happy with what he hath wrought along with his transfer to revoke the safety clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. And it undoubtedly hits numerous good notes for Trump, because it 1) stokes partisan enmity, 2) causes odd contortions in his detractors and three) offers him a symbolic method to swat on the investigation into his marketing campaign. The query now could be whether or not this shall be like different such Trump gambits, like his ill-fated fee to show proper his declare that he really received the favored vote. On these jobs, Trump does some observe up trolling however principally lets the matter drop. The blowback he’s gotten from critical folks within the intelligence neighborhood would stand as a powerful warning towards additional strikes. One would suppose that the present CIA director and others would reinforce the concept that additional political gamesmanship on nationwide safety is unwelcome.

– Talking of government inspirations that result in administrative hangovers, Trump’s a lot ballyhooed army parade in Washington goes to be postponed till a minimum of subsequent yr citing value overruns. If the Pentagon retains kicking the can on this, they may kick it too near 2020, by which level it could be a $90 million re-election marketing campaign kickoff. The entire enterprise is fairly cringey each time they may do it since there’s no ostensible excuse apart from giving the president the possibility to glory in martial would possibly. However doing so lower than a yr from re-election could be an enormous no-no. 

– A supply mentioned to be near Trump informed the popular vacation spot for White Home whispers, Axios, that Trump’s growing use of government authority isn’t alarming as a result of he’s not inclined “to do something that erodes separation of powers — a minimum of, nothing that exceeds the historic price at which government energy has expanded.” Speak about defining deviancy down for the imperial presidency! That may be like a fats man saying that he received’t eat something to trigger him to realize weight – a minimum of nothing to realize weight quicker than a busload of Weight Watchers refugees at a smorgasbord. If government energy continues to develop on the identical tempo it has for the reason that 1930s, the legislative department shall be a remark field on the finish of the White Home driveway earlier than too lengthy.     – Race watchers say a lot concerning the monitor data of endorsers. Rep. Suzy Creamcheese, D-Pa., misplaced her major in order that should imply that her backer, Sen. Joe Madadatz, exhibits much less clout for 2020 and so forth. And there’s worth in that, to make certain. Plus, candidates can reduce their very own capital by backing losers. Simply take a look at the place the present president has and hasn’t endorsed in latest months. However don’t overlook the true functions of endorsements for the endorsers. First, it may well have constructive clout connotations when proper. It additionally builds a community of allies throughout the nation. However possibly most of all, endorsements ship highly effective messages to activist voters. It could actually communicate far louder than phrases in telling potential supporters who you imply to be. To that finish, we offer you. Sen. Kamala Harris and her choose of Deidre DeJear for Iowa secretary of state. DeJear is African-American, like Harris, sure, however she’s additionally a younger businesswoman. It’s a choose that reinforces Harris’ model but in addition broadens it.  

– Do you keep in mind that time Trump nominated Choose Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court docket? Yeah, the Nats fan. Anywho…  When you’ve been watching all the n-word accusing, clearance stripping, parade cancelling, ostrich jacket photographing, American greatness denying falderal Kavanaugh’s in style help has improved markedly. The newest ballot from Quinnipiac College exhibits help for Kavanaugh’s nomination up 4 factors from final month. A few of that is to be anticipated as Republicans develop extra accustomed to the nominee’s identify, however it’s actually proof that the Democratic effort to color him as some excessive alternative hasn’t drawn a lot water thus far. We’ve mentioned earlier than and say once more: The foremost problem for Democrats shall be discovering a method to climb down from opposition that neither jeopardizes red-state senators nor the ambitions of 2020 aspirants sitting within the Senate now. In baseball, they name it an intentional stroll…

THE RULEBOOK: LOOK AT US NOW “A powerful sense of the worth and blessings of union induced the folks, at a really early interval, to institute a federal authorities to protect and perpetuate it.” – John Jay, Federalist No. 2

TIME OUT: IT’S A GAS Smithsonian: “Armed with the newest expertise of the day and observations made by different Western astrophysicists, [Pierre Jules César Janssen] was decided to pry open the secrets and techniques of the galaxy. On August 18, 1868, Janssen managed to just do that. He turned the primary particular person to watch helium, a component by no means earlier than seen on Earth, within the photo voltaic spectrum. On the time, although, Janssen didn’t know what he’d seen—simply that it was one thing new. The mid-1800s was an thrilling time to see on the heavens. A brand new instrument referred to as a spectroscope was upending the sphere of astronomy. Related in design to a telescope, the spectroscope labored like a super-powered prism, dispersing mild into measurable wavelengths. An early mannequin had allowed physicist Joseph Fraunhofer to watch the solar within the early 1800s, however he was puzzled by black traces interrupting the traditional colours. These black traces had been named for Fraunhofer, regardless that he didn’t perceive what they had been. That information would come a number of many years later, with German researchers Gustav Kirchhoff and Robert Bunsen.” Flag on the play? – E mail us at HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM along with your suggestions, feedback or questions.

SCOREBOARD Trump job efficiency  Common approval: 41.2 % Common disapproval: 52.eight % Internet Rating: -11.6 factors Change from one week in the past: up zero.2 factors [Common consists of: CNN: 44% approve – 53% disapprove; Quinnipiac College: 41% approve – 54% disapprove; Gallup: 39% approve – 56% disapprove; IBD: 41% approve – 50% disapprove; NPR/PBS/Marist: 41% approve – 51% disapprove.]

Management of Home Republican common: 41.four % Democratic common: 48.2 % Benefit: Democrats plus 6.eight factors Change from one week in the past: Democratic benefit up zero.2 factors [Common consists of: CNN: 52% Dems – 41% GOP; Quinnipiac College: 51% Dems – 42% GOP; Pew Analysis Heart: 46% Dems – 39% GOP; IBD: 45% Dems – 45% GOP; NPR/PBS/Marist: 47% Dems – 40% GOP.]

CENTRIST DEM: AGE OF HOUSE LEADERSHIP A PROBLEM Roll Name: “The chairman of the centrist New Democrat Coalition wouldn’t say Friday whether or not he would again Nancy Pelosi for Home Democratic chief however he did vocalize a difficulty with the present management crew. ‘The truth that our high three leaders are of their late 70s — I don’t care who these leaders are — that’s the truth is an issue,’ Connecticut Rep. Jim Himes informed CNN. Pelosi, 78, has mentioned she plans to run for speaker once more if Democrats win the bulk in November. Home Minority Whip Steny H. Hoyer, 79, and Assistant Democratic Chief James E. Clyburn, 78, are concerned about working for speaker ought to Pelosi fail to get the votes. Himes, 52, who chairs the 68-member New Democrat Coalition, declined to say whether or not he’d help Pelosi for speaker. … Nonetheless, Himes famous that Pelosi has a power that latest Republican audio system, together with Paul D. Ryan and John A. Boehner, haven’t demonstrated — a capability to maintain her caucus collectively and cross main laws such because the 2010 well being care regulation.”

Meet the ‘Trump Democrat’ who’s altering the sport – Fox Information: “A Democrat searching for a U.S. Home seat in deep-red West Virginia payments himself as a ‘Trump Democrat’ — regardless that he has claimed the president ‘hasn’t completed s—,’ backs a pathway to citizenship for unlawful immigrants and opposes a border wall. Richard Ojeda, an Military veteran and state senator who’s been branded as a ‘JFK with tattoos and a bench press,’ initially captured consideration after revealing that he voted for Trump within the 2016 presidential election. He’s now working towards Republican Carol Miller in West Virginia’s third Congressional District, which President Trump received by almost 50 factors within the 2016 presidential election. But a ballot from June signifies that Ojeda’s message of populism – together with help for the coal trade and hopes of seeing Trump succeed because the president – has resonated with potential voters, placing him in a 6-point lead towards Miller.”

Nevada Home race a sizzling one – Roll Name: “Republicans are largely on protection this cycle, however a brand new GOP ballot exhibits they’ve a possible pickup alternative in Nevada’s 4th District. Two former lawmakers are dealing with off for the open seat in suburban Las Vegas: Democrat Steven Horsford and Republican Cresent Hardy. The inner ballot for the Hardy marketing campaign and the Nationwide Republican Congressional Committee confirmed Horsford and Hardy in a lifeless warmth. Each candidates had been tied at 41 %, with 17 % of these surveyed undecided, in response to the polling memo supplied first to Roll Name. The ballot solely examined Hardy and Horsford, and never any of the 4 third- or no-party candidates who shall be on the November poll. Horsford received the newly created seat in 2012, however was unseated by Hardy two years later. Hardy, in flip, additionally solely served a time period earlier than dropping in 2016 to Democrat Ruben Kihuen, who’s retiring amid sexual harassment allegations.” Barr goes on assault as previously protected seat threatened – NYT: “[Andy Barr] finds himself in one of many nation’s best midterm races towards a first-time candidate, Amy McGrath, a Democrat and a former Marine fight aviator whose life story made an on the spot reference to voters. That has remodeled the race right into a tossup in a district that Mr. Barr received by 22 share factors solely two years in the past. The incumbent is, by many measures, a very good match for the state’s Sixth Congressional District, shifting seamlessly among the many nation membership and horse trade elite in Lexington and within the extra rural areas that attain Appalachia. ‘The hallmark of my illustration is accessibility,’ mentioned Mr. Barr, 45. However the darkish tones that promoting within the Lexington media market took on final week attest to a special sort of marketing campaign brewing. The adverts are just like ones Republicans have used round america, attempting to color Ms. McGrath, 43, as ‘too liberal’ for the district and a software of Consultant Nancy Pelosi of California, the Home Democratic chief. Mr. Barr’s advert additionally exhibits Ms. McGrath calling herself a ‘feminist’ and saying that she voted for President Barack Obama.”

PLAY-BY-PLAY California GOP gubernatorial nominee Cox clarifies: Ready in line on the DMV shouldn’t be worse than the Holocaust – KXJC

Michigan Home Democrat apologizes for racist slurs towards rival – Detroit Metro Instances

Je t’aime mon Quebecois! N.Y. GOP buys bus ticket to Montreal for Cuomo – CBS Information

Trump poised so as to add new restrictions on Medicaid – Politico

AUDIBLE: NEED SOME ICE FOR THAT BURN? “We’ve the identical variety of tremendous bowl championships as you.” – Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., responding to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. Klobuchar tried to mock South Dakota for not having an NFL crew. ANY GIVEN SUNDAY This weekend, Mr. Sunday will sit down with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., retired Admiral Mike Mullen and White Home Price range Director, Mick Mulvaney. Watch “Fox Information Sunday with Chris Wallace.” Test native listings for broadcast occasions in your space.     #mediabuzz – Host Howard Kurtz has the newest tackle the week’s media protection. Watch #mediabuzz Sundays at 11 a.m. ET.

FROM THE BLEACHERS “I simply don’t perceive how this works and the way you give you these numbers. I discover your outcomes very demoralizing. Why would you like President Trump to look unhealthy? Everybody I do know loves President Trump and likes what he’s doing.  He’s the very best president this nation has had in my lifetime. I’m 72 and have an excellent and lengthy reminiscence. Please clear this up for me. PS. I really like seeing what you must say when you find yourself on Fox.” – Esther Keleman Walsh, Saint Johns, Fla.

[Ed. observe: We actually don’t want to demoralize you or anybody else, Ms. Walsh! And residing in such a nice nook of Florida as you do, I’d think about demoralization could be onerous to come back by. However our job right here is to inform it like it’s, or a minimum of as we see it, with out worry or favor. That is going to be a tough yr for Republicans and it’ll take one thing on the order of a miracle for them to avoid wasting the Home. The Senate appears to be like extra promising in your crew, however total the GOP is in a good spot. Events which have unified management in Washington normally face headwinds, and this yr it’s shaping as much as be fairly a gale. The identical president who evokes such deep affection from you and your mates evokes equally deep antipathy from others. It’s a extremely flamable environment. However I promise that no matter occurs, we are going to try to be clear-eyed and neutral in our telling.]  

“I’m positive you’re conscious, however maybe not everyone seems to be, that John Jay was making reference to Brutus chatting with Cassius from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, Act four [Federalist 64 from Wednesday’s note]. The total quote is: ‘There’s a tide within the affairs of males. Which, taken on the flood, leads on to fortune; Omitted, all of the voyage of their life, Is sure in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat, And we should take the present when it serves, Or lose our ventures.’ Brutus is urging Cassius to assault Octavian now whereas their forces are robust, earlier than Octavian can construct up his forces. They waited and finally misplaced to Octavian. Each Brutus and Cassius later dedicated suicide. It’s all the time been one among my favourite Shakespeare quotes. I’m positive there’s a level to be taken right here – I’m simply unsure what it’s.” – Pat Conroy, West Lake Hills, Texas

[Ed. observe: Good present, Mr. Conroy! Perhaps it’s what Geoffrey Chaucer reminded us lengthy earlier than Shakespeare’s day: “Time and tide look forward to no man.”] Share your shade commentary: E mail us at  HALFTIMEREPORT@FOXNEWS.COM and please ensure to incorporate your identify and hometown. THE FOX SAYS: FIVE STARS  FOX59: “A ‘beloved’ taxidermy fox stolen from a well-liked restaurant in downtown Indianapolis has been returned. Thursday, St. Elmo Steak Home tweeted that Winston the fox arrived alone within the backseat of an Uber, ‘protected and sound!’ Earlier within the night time, the restaurant mentioned the fox was taken from its 1933 Lounge final Friday night time. The restaurant posted surveillance footage that exhibits the perpetrators nabbing the fox. The restaurant even provided a $250 reward card to anybody who supplied data that led to the protected return of the ‘beloved buddy.’ The restaurant mentioned if the perpetrators introduced him again unhurt, no onerous emotions, they’d have a good time his return with a spherical of drinks on the home. Together with surveillance video, St. Elmo additionally jokingly edited a photograph of Winston onto a bottle of its sauce, saying it was ‘actively evaluating all ways’ to help in his protected return.”

AND NOW, A WORD FROM CHARLES… “To be doing on daily basis what you get pleasure from doing is uncommon. Rarer nonetheless is to be doing what you had been meant to do, notably in case you received there by sheer serendipity. Till close to 30, I’d absolutely anticipated to spend my life as a health care provider. My current life was by no means deliberate and even imagined.” – Charles Krauthammer writing within the Nationwide Assessment, December 18, 2009.  

Chris Stirewalt is the politics editor for Fox Information. Brianna McClelland contributed to this report. Need FOX Information Halftime Report in your inbox on daily basis? Enroll right here.

Chris Stirewalt joined Fox Information Channel (FNC) in July of 2010 and serves as politics editor based mostly in Washington, D.C.

The post Nuggets from the passing parade appeared first on BoomBerg News.

[newssplashy]

World: Alabama's longtime hostility to gambling shows signs of fading

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Even more than its Bible Belt neighbors, Alabama has steadfastly resisted legalizing gambling for generations.

The clout of evangelical Christians helped make sure of it: Joe Godfrey, the top lobbyist for the state’s most powerful churches, once received an Inauguration Day promise from an influential politician that no proposal for gambling would make it through the State House while he was in office.

But the resistance is now openly fraying, suggesting that gambling is no longer a potent moral issue that animates voters and politicians the way it once did.

As the landscape shifts in Montgomery, the state capital, the consequences may reverberate across the South, where nearby states gladly rake in billions of dollars that Alabamians are not allowed to wager at home.

The Supreme Court opened a new front last month when it cleared the way for sports betting in any state that wanted it, a ruling that neighboring Mississippi swiftly moved to embrace. And on Tuesday, Alabama voters in both major parties nominated candidates for governor who favor a vote on creating a state lottery.

“I dread going back into session, if I’m re-elected, knowing that there’s probably going to be fantasy sports, there’s going to be the lottery, there’s going to be sports gambling, the Vegas-type gambling,” said state Rep. Rich Wingo, a Republican who opposes all those things. “I just feel like we’re going to be inundated with this gambling issue.”

Hardly anyone, Wingo included, believes that Alabama, which allows bingo, bets on horse and dog racing and a few tribal casinos with no table games, will quickly embrace other ways to wager. But the races this year for governor and for every seat in the Legislature are already accelerating debate about some of them, testing the political strength of the evangelical Christians who have blocked proposals in the past.

“I think there’s been a change in attitude, a slight change in attitude, maybe an unwitting change in attitude,” said Don Siegelman, a Democratic former governor who proposed a state lottery, only to have voters soundly reject it in 1999. “I don’t think the evangelicals would organize and execute a plan to defeat sports betting with the same passion and enthusiasm that they mustered in 1999.”

Republican Party consultants say their polling now shows overwhelming support for a vote on a lottery, even among self-identified churchgoers. In recent interviews, elected officials, pastors, political strategists and voters all said they sensed far less ferocity around an issue that once electrified Alabama politics.

In the years after Siegelman’s plan failed, there were crackdowns on the state’s electronic bingo halls; accusations of corruption, only a few of which were proven, including some against Siegelman; and an uproar when an influential Republican lawmaker floated the idea of legalizing some gambling instead of raising taxes.

Less than two years ago, a Republican governor who had been a Baptist deacon proposed a referendum on setting up a lottery, and even called a special session of the Legislature, but the effort stalled. Now, both the Republican governor, Kay Ivey, and her Democratic rival, Walt Maddox, say the state should hold a vote.

Still, there are limits: At least for now, the home of the storied Iron Bowl college football rivalry — the state all but freezes each year for the duel between Alabama and Auburn — seems far more likely to start a lottery than legalize sports betting.

No single theory has won out to explain why Alabama’s anti-gambling fervor may have ebbed.

Some see a creeping secularization in what has long been one of America’s most churchgoing states, or wonder whether voters and elected officials alike have simply grown exhausted by the issue. Others see rising voter frustration over how Alabamians wind up padding the budgets of other states when they cross borders to buy Powerball tickets or play blackjack.

And there is the reality that plenty of people who stay in Alabama are placing bets already. Illegal, untaxed gambling is thought to be widespread, and the state’s three tribal casinos, limited as they are in what they can offer, attract patrons from all over Alabama. A local minister was known to drive Harper Lee, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” to one of them before she died in 2016.

Godfrey, the church lobbyist and executive director of the interdenominational Alabama Citizens Action Program, said the coalition against legalized gambling had fractured.

“It used to be that we could count on the Republicans and the business community to fight, but we’ve lost the Republicans, we’ve lost the business community,” Godfrey said at the group’s offices in Birmingham. “The churches will be the last line of defense — that’s the only firewall left.”

He recalled how in 1999, after Georgia had started a lottery and casinos had opened in Mississippi, the Baptist church he pastored took $5,000 out of its missions budget to use in thwarting Siegelman’s lottery plan.

But opposition to gambling has dwindled as a priority for many Christian leaders across the country, and the confidence and vigor that Godfrey once saw has been replaced with worries about whether many Christians remain willing to fight the issue.

“The biggest priority right now for me is reminding evangelicals of why we are opposed to gambling, which means teaching a biblical view of economic stewardship and a biblical view of concern for the poor,” said Russell Moore, who leads the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm and is a native of the casino-dotted Mississippi coast. “I’m not concerned that evangelicals are changing their position on gambling, as much as I’m concerned that there’s often a kind of fatalism that assumes that gambling is going to be part of every economy.”

Even so, some Christians and their leaders said they were comfortable with de-emphasizing gambling as an issue. The Rev. Neil Reynolds, the senior minister at the University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, said gambling, like alcohol, was not “an evil that’s going to ruin our community.”

“We are too often known for the things that we’re against, instead of the things we’re for and who we are,” Reynolds said in his office near the stadium of a Crimson Tide football program that many an Alabamian would bet on legally if they could. (Even Wayne Flynt, a Baptist minister and a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University, said the one bet he had made in his life had been a friendly $1 wager on Alabama.)

With so much money potentially at stake both for Alabama and for its neighbors, there is plentiful speculation about how much resistance may remain to gambling in the state. Flynt said he thought there would still be plenty, simply because many people are used to thinking of gambling as something done in “godless Yankee places that vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Gambling proponents recognize the cultural headwinds and, like Maddox, are framing their plans as vital to the state’s economic future.

“I think that evangelical Christians of all denominations, many of whom used to be opposed to the lottery, see that if the money is spent on our children, for our children’s education or for some other important public purpose that it’s OK,” Siegelman said, reviving some of his 1999 pitch. “It’s like a donation to the church, or a donation to education, or a donation to veterans.”

Godfrey said that he and his allies sensed the danger and expected to face a well-financed and well-crafted strategy to promote what they saw as an unmitigated vice.

“Jesus never told us it would be easy,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

ALAN BLINDER © 2018 The New York Times

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/06/world-alabamas-longtime-hostility-to_11.html

[randomnameless]

Goddamn, i knew KT had taken heavy inspiration from 3H discourse when writing Nopes, but i never expected them to be so on-the-nose about it; that entire conversation is just Claude parroting every single “Church bad” argument the fandom has come up with word-for-word, even the ones that were debunked just by paying miniscule amounts of attention to Three Houses' worldbuilding, such as the Church forbidding regions to be in contact with each other despite Faerghus explicitly having a good trading relation with Albinea.

Well,

I wouldn't say KT took inspiration from redshit (who would?) and its takes, but those takes and KT's Zahrofl's convos, for Clout, both use material that is present in FE16,

Mainly, how FE16!Claude thinks the Church is the reason why Fodlan is "isolaionist", before remembering Cyril, Shamir, Dedue and Petra exist.

(I know, that's completely stupid, but that's how IS/KT decided to write him)

Discourse became, hm, heated, because unlike the characters in this game, some fans are able to dispute those takes with, as you said, minuscule details here'n'there demonstrating how Claude himself was wrong - and not only because he notices people exist, but because the world contradicts his facts.

(I remember during the lockdown I made a rather large and detailed post about the GM recipes, and then made another about the so-called isolationism being pegasi blessing, since a lot of recipes involve ingredients that don't grow in Fodlan, or are native to other countries, like tomatos, Albinea fruits/moose/herring, and what not. It's not a lot, per se, but it demonstrated that Fodlan did trade with the rest of the world!)

But given how KT wanted to get a possible "happy ending" with the three lords, things cannot be heated like fandom discourses, so Dimitri nods and agrees and is body snatched by Chilon.

However, as for who might have read a bit of discourse, I can't believe the FEH writers are completely immune to it.

I mean, Seteth saying in his FB that he doesn't hoard funds and all of his share should go to orphanages, or, out of the blue, saying the Church of Seiros doesn't discriminate against other faiths or against people who don't practice the Seiros Faith felt like... the writers wanted to make a point lol

(I still suspect the FEH writers, especially when it comes to Nabateans, try to give them more spotlight because their base/native game completely ignored them, so we end up with absurdities like FEH caring and loving them more than the KT team who later made Nopes - PTA mom!Rhea was released in 2021, before Nopes and its "did you know Rhea forces people to marry? And no, no one will ever say this take is baseless, because the lords have to be fwends!")

Of course Hresvelg Tea means some script is released, then revamped, then re-revamped (at this point I've lost count at how many times B!Supreme Leader's MYH was modified lol) and adding Pat on top means you have to use Google Translate to check lines... but yep, FEH seems to look at fan content more closely, even if that content is, well, discourse...

[newssplashy]

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Even more than its Bible Belt neighbors, Alabama has steadfastly resisted legalizing gambling for generations.

The clout of evangelical Christians helped make sure of it: Joe Godfrey, the top lobbyist for the state’s most powerful churches, once received an Inauguration Day promise from an influential politician that no proposal for gambling would make it through the State House while he was in office.

But the resistance is now openly fraying, suggesting that gambling is no longer a potent moral issue that animates voters and politicians the way it once did.

As the landscape shifts in Montgomery, the state capital, the consequences may reverberate across the South, where nearby states gladly rake in billions of dollars that Alabamians are not allowed to wager at home.

The Supreme Court opened a new front last month when it cleared the way for sports betting in any state that wanted it, a ruling that neighboring Mississippi swiftly moved to embrace. And on Tuesday, Alabama voters in both major parties nominated candidates for governor who favor a vote on creating a state lottery.

“I dread going back into session, if I’m re-elected, knowing that there’s probably going to be fantasy sports, there’s going to be the lottery, there’s going to be sports gambling, the Vegas-type gambling,” said state Rep. Rich Wingo, a Republican who opposes all those things. “I just feel like we’re going to be inundated with this gambling issue.”

Hardly anyone, Wingo included, believes that Alabama, which allows bingo, bets on horse and dog racing and a few tribal casinos with no table games, will quickly embrace other ways to wager. But the races this year for governor and for every seat in the Legislature are already accelerating debate about some of them, testing the political strength of the evangelical Christians who have blocked proposals in the past.

“I think there’s been a change in attitude, a slight change in attitude, maybe an unwitting change in attitude,” said Don Siegelman, a Democratic former governor who proposed a state lottery, only to have voters soundly reject it in 1999. “I don’t think the evangelicals would organize and execute a plan to defeat sports betting with the same passion and enthusiasm that they mustered in 1999.”

Republican Party consultants say their polling now shows overwhelming support for a vote on a lottery, even among self-identified churchgoers. In recent interviews, elected officials, pastors, political strategists and voters all said they sensed far less ferocity around an issue that once electrified Alabama politics.

In the years after Siegelman’s plan failed, there were crackdowns on the state’s electronic bingo halls; accusations of corruption, only a few of which were proven, including some against Siegelman; and an uproar when an influential Republican lawmaker floated the idea of legalizing some gambling instead of raising taxes.

Less than two years ago, a Republican governor who had been a Baptist deacon proposed a referendum on setting up a lottery, and even called a special session of the Legislature, but the effort stalled. Now, both the Republican governor, Kay Ivey, and her Democratic rival, Walt Maddox, say the state should hold a vote.

Still, there are limits: At least for now, the home of the storied Iron Bowl college football rivalry — the state all but freezes each year for the duel between Alabama and Auburn — seems far more likely to start a lottery than legalize sports betting.

No single theory has won out to explain why Alabama’s anti-gambling fervor may have ebbed.

Some see a creeping secularization in what has long been one of America’s most churchgoing states, or wonder whether voters and elected officials alike have simply grown exhausted by the issue. Others see rising voter frustration over how Alabamians wind up padding the budgets of other states when they cross borders to buy Powerball tickets or play blackjack.

And there is the reality that plenty of people who stay in Alabama are placing bets already. Illegal, untaxed gambling is thought to be widespread, and the state’s three tribal casinos, limited as they are in what they can offer, attract patrons from all over Alabama. A local minister was known to drive Harper Lee, the author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” to one of them before she died in 2016.

Godfrey, the church lobbyist and executive director of the interdenominational Alabama Citizens Action Program, said the coalition against legalized gambling had fractured.

“It used to be that we could count on the Republicans and the business community to fight, but we’ve lost the Republicans, we’ve lost the business community,” Godfrey said at the group’s offices in Birmingham. “The churches will be the last line of defense — that’s the only firewall left.”

He recalled how in 1999, after Georgia had started a lottery and casinos had opened in Mississippi, the Baptist church he pastored took $5,000 out of its missions budget to use in thwarting Siegelman’s lottery plan.

But opposition to gambling has dwindled as a priority for many Christian leaders across the country, and the confidence and vigor that Godfrey once saw has been replaced with worries about whether many Christians remain willing to fight the issue.

“The biggest priority right now for me is reminding evangelicals of why we are opposed to gambling, which means teaching a biblical view of economic stewardship and a biblical view of concern for the poor,” said Russell Moore, who leads the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm and is a native of the casino-dotted Mississippi coast. “I’m not concerned that evangelicals are changing their position on gambling, as much as I’m concerned that there’s often a kind of fatalism that assumes that gambling is going to be part of every economy.”

Even so, some Christians and their leaders said they were comfortable with de-emphasizing gambling as an issue. The Rev. Neil Reynolds, the senior minister at the University Church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, said gambling, like alcohol, was not “an evil that’s going to ruin our community.”

“We are too often known for the things that we’re against, instead of the things we’re for and who we are,” Reynolds said in his office near the stadium of a Crimson Tide football program that many an Alabamian would bet on legally if they could. (Even Wayne Flynt, a Baptist minister and a professor emeritus of history at Auburn University, said the one bet he had made in his life had been a friendly $1 wager on Alabama.)

With so much money potentially at stake both for Alabama and for its neighbors, there is plentiful speculation about how much resistance may remain to gambling in the state. Flynt said he thought there would still be plenty, simply because many people are used to thinking of gambling as something done in “godless Yankee places that vote for Hillary Clinton.”

Gambling proponents recognize the cultural headwinds and, like Maddox, are framing their plans as vital to the state’s economic future.

“I think that evangelical Christians of all denominations, many of whom used to be opposed to the lottery, see that if the money is spent on our children, for our children’s education or for some other important public purpose that it’s OK,” Siegelman said, reviving some of his 1999 pitch. “It’s like a donation to the church, or a donation to education, or a donation to veterans.”

Godfrey said that he and his allies sensed the danger and expected to face a well-financed and well-crafted strategy to promote what they saw as an unmitigated vice.

“Jesus never told us it would be easy,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

ALAN BLINDER © 2018 The New York Times

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